Instagram, the free iPhone photo-editing application launched last October, has announced that more than 150 million photos have now been shared via the service.

It means the company's 7 million users are sharing photos at a rate of 15 photos per second.

The latest Mobile Threat Report from mobile security company Lookout estimates that between 500,000 and 1 million people were affected by Android malware in the first half of this year.

The report, which includes data gathered from more than 700,000 apps and 10 million devices worldwide, also notes that the number of infected Android applications rose from a total of 80 apps in January 2011 to over 400 apps in June.

New research from Ofcom shows that 27% of adults (and 47% of teenagers) now own a smartphone. Most of these people have acquired their device in the last 12 months.

Ofcom's Communications Market Report also reveals that smartphone users make more calls and send more texts than regular mobile users, with 81% of smartphone users making calls every day compared with 53% of 'regular phone' users.

Mark Bridge writes:

Last month, News Corporation's Rupert Murdoch said the News of the World had accounted for just 1% of his global business. It's a figure that put the overall size of News Corp into perspective.

This week, some analysis of Microsoft's financial results seems to suggest Windows Phone is only generating a similarly small percentage for its parent.

Mark Bridge writes:

David Drummond, Google's Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer, has just written a blog post that describes an 'anti-competitive strategy' against Android by companies including Apple, Microsoft and Oracle. Entitled "When patents attack Android", it points out that more than 550,000 Android devices are now activated every day... and says this has resulted in "a hostile, organized campaign against Android".