Clothing and homewear retailer Next has started selling its own-brand tablet device. The Next 10-inch Tablet runs the Android operating system with an ARM11 processor, has 2GB of expandable memory and offers WiFi (but not mobile) connectivity. Pricing is £180.00 plus delivery.

UK-based MePlease has officially launched a unique mobile social platform that makes it easy for businesses to connect with their customers – and easy for customers to choose which restaurants and shops can send treats and special offers to their mobiles. The platform is capable of supporting mobile voting, competitions, customer feedback, location check-ins and promotional offers.

Andy Lees, senior vice president of Microsoft's Mobile Communications business, has been promoted to president by company CEO Steve Ballmer. He'd been running the department since earlier this year after Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment and Devices Division, announced his retirement plans.

Léo Apotheker has been named by HP's board of directors as the company's new Chief Executive Officer and President from 1st November 2010. Ray Lane, Managing Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (and former Oracle COO), was chosen as non-executive Chairman.

Yesterday Microsoft filed a patent infringement action against Motorola that relates to Android-based devices, with the Motorola Droid 2 named as an example in most of the nine claims.

Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel of Microsoft's Intellectual Property and Licensing team, said "The patents at issue relate to a range of functionality embodied in Motorola’s Android smartphone devices that are essential to the smartphone user experience, including synchronizing email, calendars and contacts, scheduling meetings, and notifying applications of changes in signal strength and battery power".