US-based mobile payment service Square, which enables payments to be taken via a plug-in card reader for mobile phones, says over two million individuals and businesses are now able to accept credit cards and debit cards using its app. A million people started using Square within a year of launch, with another million joining during the following six months.

The company currently processes over $6 billion in payments per year.

Apple has used its Worldwide Developers Conference as an opportunity to preview the forthcoming version of its iPhone and iPad operating system.

iOS 6, which is now available as a beta version for iOS Developer Program members, will be launched officially this autumn. It contains more than 200 new features from iOS5, including a new Apple-designed map application, enhanced Siri voice recognition options and greater Facebook integration. In addition, a new built-in app called Passbook is designed to store electronic passes and tickets.

ABI Research has analysed tablet sales for the first quarter of 2012, calculating that 18.2 million devices were shipped worldwide. That’s an 185% gain year-on-year, although the total figure was down 33% on the previous quarter.

According to the Q1 2012 calculations, Apple saw 11.8 million iPad shipments - keeping it well ahead of the competition - while Samsung’s 1.1 million shipments returned it to second place, replacing the Amazon Kindle Fire.

Yahoo! Livestand, the personalised iPad ‘newsstand’ that was announced just over a year ago and launched in November, is being closed down.

The company says it’s moving to a mobile-first development model and is applying its insights from Livestand to the development of future products.

This week’s podcast from The Fonecast takes a look at the European Commission’s new roaming charges before talking about the rest of the week’s big stories, from Facebook to free messaging.

You can listen to the programme on our website audio player, via iTunes, by using our RSS feed or by downloading the MP3.