Tru (formerly Truphone), the UK-based 'global mobile network', has appointed Steven Robertson as the company's new Chief Executive Officer. He replaces Geraldine Wilson, who stepped down last week.

Mr Robertson was CEO of Openreach until April this year and had previously been Managing Director of BT Wholesale Operations.

Sony Ericsson has announced a new Android smartphone called 'Live with Walkman'.

The Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman features a dedicated Walkman button that provides instant access to the music player. There's also Facebook integration that allows consumers to 'like' and share tunes, plus there's Sony's Qriocity service offering access to millions of songs and thousands of movies.

Vodafone says it's the first mobile provider in Europe to offer 'direct operator billing' for the Android Market.

This means customers will be able to buy apps and charge them to their Vodafone mobile account rather than using Google's own payment service, which requires credit or debit card details.

Skype has agreed to buy GroupMe, a New York-based company that provides group messaging services on mobile phones.

GroupMe, which was only founded a year ago, lets a user set up text message groups and conference calls from their mobile phone. The news follows Skype's acquisition of mobile video provider Qik - and Microsoft's planned acquisition of Skype itself.

Mark Bridge writes:

This weekend, you could have picked up a HP TouchPad webOS tablet for $99. Both the HP USA online store and Best Buy in Canada were selling the obsolescent devices at a substantial discount.

Yet over here in the UK, we've seen nothing except a prize draw from The Carphone Warehouse and a less-than-£90 discount from Amazon. And I don't expect anything much better in the short-term.