Leaving your wallet at home and going shopping with nothing more than your mobile phone is still a science-fiction vision of the future.

But it's getting much closer to reality, thanks to a UK-based company called Corethree. They're currently working with a number of public transport operators and have brought mobile tickets to a wide range of smartphones.

This week's podcast begins with the latest news from Phones 4u, where hundreds of jobs have been saved but there are a large number of redundancies as well.

Iain, James and Mark then talk about new products from Amazon, BlackBerry and Panasonic, mobile payment innovation from Indonesia and the UK, the acquisition of IoT specialist Neul and Apple's updated privacy policy.

Mobile ticketing business Corethree has arranged a partnership with carrier billing specialist Boku.

It means consumers will be able to charge bus tickets to their mobile phone account when they buy them via a Corethree application.

Mobile ticketing specialist Corethree has introduced an m-ticketing solution for Edinburgh’s new trams.

Passengers can use their smartphones to choose, buy and download tickets before catching a tram.

Customers on Brighton & Hove buses can now use a mobile phone app instead of cash when they want to buy a ticket, although the option is currently only available on a few services and with certain ticket types.

Watford-based Corethree has provided the mobile ticketing platform.

Mark Bridge writes:

A couple of weeks ago I was wandering through London, wondering whether mobile streaming could erode personal privacy… and whether anyone cared.

But there’s a positive site to the immediacy of streaming, as Bambuser reminded me today.

Mark Bridge writes:

James's recent trip down memory lane reminded me of a moment in 1998 when a major mobile phone manufacturer promised phones that 'gave you wings'. No, not Red Bull. No, not Red Bull Racing partner LG. It was Motorola.

James Rosewell writes:

Whilst flicking through my drawer full of old handsets I thought back to a time when Apple produced a new MP3 player, newspaper editors didn't know what a smart phone was, and Android was only a press release. A quick flick through YouTube threw up the following interview with Microsoft's Steve Balmer offering his thoughts.

Mark Bridge writes:

This sequence of recent events involving SAP, HP and Oracle – although unconnected – seemed deserving of a simple diagram.

Mark Bridge writes:

The Google Nexus S. Search for it online and you’ll find over a million web pages talking about it.

But I don’t care about the Google Nexus S. Or the Nexus Two or the Samsung i9020 or whatever else you call it. Quite frankly, it’s not any use to me. My current rapidly-aging HTC TyTn II has more features than the Nexus S.

Iain Graham, James Rosewell and Mark Bridge return to review their mobile industry predictions from last year. Which mergers, partnerships and developments did they forecast correctly... and which didn’t work out as planned?

Later in the programme, the team anticipates some of the topics that will be hitting the headlines during 2016.

Mark Bridge learns about the mobile technology trends at Mobile World Congress 2015 by chatting to James Rosewell of 51Degrees, Dr Kevin Curran from the IEEE and Chris Millington of Doro.

They talk about wearable devices, wireless charging, mobile operating systems and much more... including some of their favourite products from the exhibition.

We're taking a look back at the biggest mobile industry news stories from February 2015, including allegations that the UK's security service tried to breach SIM card security by hacking into one of the world's biggest SIM producers.

We also talk about the planned BT and EE merger, the creation of two new UK virtual networks, some acquisitions in the mobile payment arena and a new Ubuntu smartphone.

In today's programme Mark Bridge talks to Chris Millington, who's Managing Director for Doro UK and Ireland.

They discuss the state of mobile retailing in the UK, the future of wearable devices and - as you might expect - smartphones for seniors.

We're back with a month of mobile industry news, including takeover talks and takeover rumours. O2 and Three are said to be discussing a merger... but is there any truth in the suggestions that BlackBerry could be up for grabs?

We also discuss Apple's record-breaking quarterly figures, the highlights of CES and the launch of Microsoft Windows 10, as well as saying farewell to the current version of Google Glass.