The Guardian newspaper has reported that America’s National Security Agency collects the numbers and times of telephone calls made by customers of mobile network Verizon within the US and between the US and other countries.

This activity apparently began after a previously secret court order was granted on 25th April and will run until 19th July 2013. It’s unclear whether this is a one-off order or part of an ongoing series.

Samsung Electronics has announced two new Galaxy ‘Tab 3’ Android tablets. There’ll be one with an 8-inch screen and another with a 10.1-inch screen.

Both are launching worldwide this month and will be available alongside the previously announced 7-inch version.

EE says it’s connected more than 500,000 customers to its UK 4G network since launch, which it describes as the fastest 4G customer take-up in Europe.

The company is currently planning to add ‘pay as you go’ and shared price plans to its product portfolio within the next few weeks.

We're celebrating the seventh anniversary of The Fonecast this month with a handful of our favourite interviews from the early years.

You'll hear Ben Whitaker from Masabi, Truphone co-founder James Tagg, former Olympic athlete Steve Backley OBE and online banking pioneer Steve Townend.

Mark Bridge writes:

Where did it all go wrong?  When did the mainstream mobile industry start to slide away from innovation and into repetitive nonsense?  For a while I suspected the downloadable ringtone was to blame. Just days after hearing 'Barbie Girl' on the mobile phone of a man from Vodafone Value Added Services in the late 1990s, I'd downloaded a poptastic tune to my own Nokia 2110. Soon, the entire mobile world was focussed on 30-second instrumentals instead of technical innovation. It was the beginning of the end.