In addition to Wale's first town-wide free wifi, the town project will use special barcodes, called QR codes, mounted on the sides of buildings, to allow visitors with smartphones to scan them and instantly access up-to-date Wikipedia entries about all aspects of Monmouth life. According to the head of Wikimedia UK Roger Bamkin, "the town is likely the only place where a visitor can tour in Hungarian, Hindi, Indonesian, Welsh, or numerous other Wikipedia languages using QR codes".

Virgin Media has announced the launch of its '100 Day Game Project' in association with Eurogamer and The University of Abertay Dundee. The company is calling for the best emerging young games developers in the UK to create a groundbreaking new mobile game in just 100 days. The game will be unveiled at the Eurogamer Expo 2012 where over 50,000 gamers are set to attend the four day event.

he U.K. competition regulator is expected to give British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC (BSY.LN) a reprieve in the local film market, as rivals such as Lovefilm and Netflix Inc. (NFLX) are undermining the pay-television operator's dominance and reducing the need to impose restrictions, according to the Mail on Sunday newspaper, without saying where it got its information.

Long-staid print and TV political coverage is suddenly taking a more American-style approach to leaders' personal lives. European newspapers are managing to treat new French President Franois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, two of the most unglamorous figures ever to hold power, more like reality television stars.

In the United States, promising Internet start-ups can expect venture capitalists to come calling at an early stage. Fat checks often follow quickly. In Europe, many entrepreneurs have to wait longer; to get their businesses up and running, they sometimes have to rely on unorthodox sources of funding, including France's generous welfare benefits.

Rugby League's governing body the RFL has accused the BBC of ignoring the views of sports fans over its plans to impose extensive cuts to local radio services across the country. The RFL had led a campaign against the cuts and its petition appeared to reach a breakthrough when BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten instructed the corporation to reconsider its proposals.

Several Canadian fund managers are queuing up for a slice of Facebook Inc.'s initial public offering, ignoring critics who suggest the stock could be an expensive bust.

Vodafone India, which is fighting the government on the issue of tax on its acquisition of Hutchison's stake in Hutchison-Essar in 2007, today said preparations are on a for initial public offer but shareholders will take a final call on the public float. The British telecom giant Vodafone had acquired Hutchison stake in Hutchison Essar in 2007. It got mired in a controversy over withholding tax issue . The matter went to court and the Supreme Court had ruled in its favour. The government now is amending the IT Act to bring into tax net Vodafone-like deals with underlying assets …

The increasing impact of smartphones on how consumers interact with companies looking to market their products and services is revealed today by a report showing that over one third (36%) of UK consumers now read marketing emails on their mobile devices. This rises significantly to over half (55%) of 18-34 year olds.

Fotolia received a $150 million growth equity investment from leveraged buyout firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co. The company claims to be the leading stock photography site in Europe.