The mobile hotspot router - produced by a number of manufacturers, including the Novatel and Huawei MiFi brands - is expected to sell 7.1 million units worldwide this year, according to ABI Research.

These devices, which can connect several WiFi-enabled devices to a single mobile broadband subscription, will be worth an estimated $1 billion in the shops.

Research In Motion has more BlackBerry PlayBook devices on its shelves than it wants.

The company has issued a statement saying it will “record a pre-tax provision in the third quarter of fiscal 2012 of approximately $485 million, $360 million after tax, related to its inventory valuation of BlackBerry PlayBook tablets”.

Vodafone UK has launched a free Android app called Vodafone Guardian that’s designed to help parents and carers protect young people from inappropriate use of the internet and unwanted calls and texts.

Children and parents can arrange for certain calls or text messages to be blocked - and internet access can be restricted at certain times of the day.

The last couple of weeks have seen mobile software and analytics company Carrier IQ generating some unwelcome headlines. It took legal action against security researcher Trevor Eckhart, who revealed how the software was embedded in many mobile devices, before withdrawing its action and apologising.

It’s now published an updated statement to clarify its position.

MasterCard and US-based mobile banking company mFoundry have announced an international partnership that’ll that let more banks give their customers the option to pay for items with their mobile phones.

mFoundry has also received a strategic investment to from MasterCard.