It's relatively unusual for companies to campaign for more regulation… but that's what Sony Ericsson is doing. The mobile manufacturer has formed an alliance with Acer, Dell and Hewlett-Packard – along with ChemSec, Clean Production Action and the European Environmental Bureau – calling on EU legislators to ban the use of all brominated flame retardants (BFR) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in electronics put on the market from end of 2015 onwards.

A recent survey by LG – published as part of the launch campaign for the LG Optimus - says people using the Android operating system are particularly keen on applications that save them money. 25% of people surveyed said they most wanted a money-saving app (e.g. one that offers discount codes), followed by apps that saved time (9%) and apps to help them stay fit (9%). In fourth place were 'apps that help you shop for dinner' (8%) followed by apps for gaming (6%).

Texas-based DeviceFidelity has created a protective case that adds the capability for NFC payments to the Apple iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G. It's based on DeviceFidelity’s In2Pay microSD card, which slots into the case. This, in turn, fits on the iPhone and can communicate with a payment application. The In2Pay card uses Visa’s contactless payment technology, Visa payWave; trials are scheduled to start during the second quarter of 2010.

Mark Bridge writes:

Welcome to the Carnival of the Mobilists #224. If you’re a regular visitor to The Fonecast and have no idea what the Carnival is, this is a summary of the week’s best blogging about all things mobile. It travels the internet, alighting at a different mobile-related website every week.