Mark Bridge writes:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. So said Sir Arthur C Clarke.

Last week’s magic was supplied by imaging company Scalado, which announced a new product called ‘Remove’. The clue’s in the name: it can automatically remove unwanted people from photos taken on a mobile phone. Expect to see it on a handset near you before too long.

Apple has won a patent-related court case against Motorola Mobility in Germany.

The ruling, which could be enforced as an injunction if Apple pays a bond to the court, stated that a number of Motorola Mobility smartphones infringed the ‘slide-to-unlock’ touchscreen patent owned by Apple.

This week’s podcast from The Fonecast includes European & US approval for Google’s acquisition of Motorola, job cuts as Nokia restructures its manufacturing, a new type of upgrade scheme from Phones 4u and security problems for satellite phones.

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

This week's headlines include Google and Motorola getting the go-ahead for their acquisition deal, 4000 Nokia staff losing their jobs, satellite phones being hacked, a new upgrade scheme from Phones 4u... and much more.

The European Commission has cleared the proposed acquisition of Motorola Mobility by Google. It had investigated the plans under EU Merger Regulation rules and says it approved the transaction mainly because it would not significantly modify the market situation in respect of operating systems and patents for these devices.

In the USA, the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division has closed its investigations into the Google/Motorola deal and a number of other patent acquisitions.