Mobile content and commerce group MEF has published its third annual mobile consumer survey, which involved 10,000 respondents from 13 countries.

It notes that the number of purchases via mobile devices has fallen for the first time, from 54% of mobile media users last year to 42% in 2013, but the value of individual purchases is going up.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group has announced a number of updates that form part of the new Bluetooth version 4.1.

This new version will offer a reduced risk of interference with 4G LTE transmissions, more control over automatic reconnections, bulk data transfer, more flexibility when defining devices as ‘hub’ or ‘peripheral’ and more potential for use with the ‘Internet of Things’.

Shazam, which enables users to identify or ‘tag’ music tracks and learn more about TV shows via a smartphone app, has predicted the music artists that it expects will ‘break’ during 2014.

Overall, more than 400 million people use Shazam worldwide, with more than 15 million Shazam searches taking place every day.

The UK government says it’s worked with telecoms companies to reduce the risk of consumers receiving unexpectedly high bills if their phone is stolen.

Culture Secretary Maria Miller has announced a new agreement with EE, Three, Virgin Media and Vodafone to cap bills on a mobile phone that has been reported lost or stolen.

Three UK has extended its ‘Feel At Home’ discounted roaming service to cover the USA, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Macau, enabling its customers to use their UK tariff allowances when making calls, sending text messages and connecting to the internet abroad.

It follows the launch of ‘Feel At Home’ in Australia, Austria, Denmark, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy and Sweden three months ago.