Rupert Howell, group transformation director at Trinity Mirror, was speaking at the Audit Bureau for Circulation (ABC) Interaction conference in London this week. Howell, who joined Trinity Mirror from ITV seven months ago, added that a focus on mobile and investment in online video would be key for the news group this year. "Every single site we build is mobile-first, and over 50 per cent of traffic on Mirror.co.uk now comes from mobile," he said.

This year's Festival, taking place 6-8 April in Rome, will focus on the technology, innovations, and strategies that make the media industry more connected than ever, as well as highlighting future forecasts and the power of disruption. Providing their insight on these global challenges will be directors and executives of some of the world's most powerful brands.

Former tabloid reporter Dan Evans was "a rather risky hacker" who "wanted to get caught" when he was writing about the break-up of actors Sienna Miller and Jude Law, a court heard. Timothy Langdale QC, defence lawyer for former News of the World editor Andy Coulson said: "You seem to be a rather risky hacker at this time." Evans replied: "You might even say in a weird way that I wanted to get caught."

Berlin's tech startup scene isn't all about e-commerce and apps - there are a few hardware startups in there too, and one, Pockethernet, has just launched a $50,000Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign for its rather handy piece of kit. Aimed at network admins and other technicians, Pockethernet is a small Ethernet cable tester and network analyzer that hooks up to your smartphone via Bluetooth.

Last.fm remains the biggest digital music company to emerge from the UK, if judged by the $280m that US media giant CBS paid for it in 2007. Since then, though, the company's profile has slipped as newer services like Spotify have come to prominence. This week, the company announced a partnership with Spotify that will bring back on-demand music to Last.fm, via play buttons for Spotify's 20m-strong catalogue of songs.

Swing a cat on the App Store - boots optional - and you'll hit hundreds of rubbish fairytale apps for kids. More grim than Grimm. One of the publishers to have bucked that trend is Nosy Crow, the British children's publisher that has built its business on a blend of traditional (print) book publishing and a series of critically-acclaimed book-apps.

A Dutch court of appeal has notified the local internet service providers (ISPs) to restore access to torrent site The Pirate Bay, saying that the move of blocking the sites is 'ineffective' in controlling piracy. The Hague Appeals Court in Netherlands ordered two ISPs XS4All and Ziggo to enable users access to the site, who earlier argued that the move blocked their subscribers' free access to information. In 2011, the ISPs were ordered to block internet addresses related to the file-sharing site.

Online technology publication The Kernel has been sold to Texas-based Daily Dot Media, publisher of The Daily Dot. The Kernel will be "rolled gradually into The Daily Dot's core product," a statement from Milo Yiannopoulos said, also revealing that he will step down as editor-in-chief when the acquisition is complete.

Trinity Mirror has promoted Malcolm Coles to the new job of general manager Mirror Online and recruited Martin Belam to the job of editor, new formats. Both Coles (picture above from his Twitter profile) and Belam worked on the launches last year of humour website UsVsTh3m and data website Ampp3d for Trinity Mirror. UsVsTh3m is said to attract some 7m unique browsers a month. Belam has previously worked in digital roles for the BBC and The Guardian.

Dan Evans, the former News of the World hacker, has admitted lying about trying to access interior designer Kelly Hoppen's phone messages but said it was because he was part of an "enormous conspiracy" at News International, the Old Bailey has heard. When it was put to him that he had lied, Evans said: "I was toeing the line, the party line, the company line." Evans said he was very frightened when he was caught.