UK telephone and broadband company TalkTalk has launched a new mobile phone service for its customers. These offers, which build on the company’s existing virtual network agreement with Vodafone UK, are only open to consumers who’ve chosen one of the company’s fixed-line services.

TalkTalk Mobile promises handsets that are completely free and tariffs that start from £5 a month.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1, which went on sale in the USA earlier this week, is now officially on its way to the UK.

Samsung’s new pen-equipped tablet was first revealed at Mobile World Congress in February. It’s equipped with a 10.1-inch large display, much larger than the original 5.3-inch ‘phablet’, and runs Android on a 1.4GHz quad-core processor.

A number of major consumer electronics companies are leading the way in rejecting the use of ‘conflict minerals’ that are mined illegally and traded illicitly, according to a new report.

The Enough Project, a US-based group working to end genocide and crimes against humanity, has published a report that assesses consumer electronics companies on their progress toward responsible and conflict-free supply chains. It comes two years after a law in the USA required companies to ensure any raw materials they used weren’t linked to the Congo conflict.

The Transport for South Hampshire council partnership says local bus passengers will soon be able to enjoy free WiFi on their smartphones, tablets and laptops. The service will be rolled out from this month following a £4.5 million bid to the Department for Transport’s Better Bus Area Fund and additional investment from bus operators.

As well as providing free WiFi, the funding will be used to improve & refurbish buses, for driver training and to offer up-to-date bus timetable information via smartphones.

ABI Research has forecast that Bluetooth Smart - the new low-power Bluetooth v4.0 specification - will drive cumulative Bluetooth-enabled device shipments to 20 billion units by 2017.

The first ten years of Bluetooth availability saw cumulative shipments of Bluetooth-enabled devices reach 5 billion, largely resulting from its use in mobile phones.