Yahoo! has agreed a deal to acquire blogging and media sharing platform Tumblr for approximately $1.1 billion (£724 million).

Tumblr will continue to operate as a separate business with David Karp as CEO.

Hazel Allsopp of Purple WiFi writes:

Retail and hospitality businesses have long been aware of the need to offer free WiFi access to their customers. The use of smart phones is becoming increasingly widespread, and people expect to get online wherever they are, whatever they’re doing.

The latest large brand to recognise this is Intercontinental Hotels Group, who announced last month that they would be offering free access to 71 million loyalty scheme members’ worldwide. The decision was made in response to a survey in which 43% of guests said they wouldn’t stay in a hotel if it didn’t offer free WiFi.

Today Facebook has announced ‘Home’, a new Android-based application that offers a Facebook-centred experience on compatible mobile phones.

The first handset that’ll be preloaded with Facebook Home is the HTC First. It’ll be available on AT&T in the United States from Friday 12th April and will then have an exclusive UK launch on EE in the summer.

Facebook is reportedly adding VoIP calling to its iOS Messenger app for UK customers, following the introduction of free voice calls for users in Canada and the USA earlier this year.

Customers with the Facebook Messenger iOS app will be able to use the app for voice calls as well as text-based messaging.

Most smartphone data sessions are started without the user noticing, according to a new report from mobile network analytics and optimisation specialists Actix.

It’s studied information from eight network operators across four continents and has found that only 30% of data sessions are user initiated.