Gabe Joselow of voanews.com writes:

Mobile phone subscribers in Kenya may wake up Monday morning to find their phones no longer work, as the nation's telecom companies enact a nation-wide switch-off of all counterfeit devices. Retailers and customers have mixed reactions to the plan, which could affect up to three million mobile phones.

A new service from California-based chip designer AMD will enable customers to download and use popular Android mobile apps on PCs running Windows 7 and the forthcoming Windows 8 operating system. It’s available on AMD-based computers and uses the AMD AppZone Player, a program powered by technology from BlueStacks.

BlueStacks, which is backed by AMD’s investment arm, already offers its own stand-alone Android ‘player’ for other PCs and Macs.

Mark Bridge writes:

Apple started last week in the glow of a CoolBrands survey that had named it the UK's coolest brand – but it ended the week with its head bowed in embarrassment. Not only did Tim Cook apologise for the quality of the company’s iOS 6 Maps application, he recommended that customers use competing services until it gets better.

Telefónica UK and Vodafone UK have been given approval by the Office of Fair Trading and Ofcom to strengthen their existing network collaboration.

The two companies, which already work together on a UK mast-sharing project known as Cornerstone, now plan to combine the basic parts of their network infrastructure in a new company called CTI Ltd. This will own and manage the basic UK network infrastructure for both operators, although Vodafone and Telefónica (O2) will each continue to run their own independent networks.

Apple CEO Tim Cook has published an open letter apologising for the frustration that’s followed the recent launch of Apple Maps.

The company’s new Maps application, which forms part of the iOS 6 operating system used by the new iPhone 5, has been criticised for a lack of detail and poor accuracy in some cases.