In one of the sillier European privacy cases involving Street View, the company has also agreed to notify towns' citizens through local papers and radio of the cars' impending arrival. Google has paid a EUR1 million ($1.4 million) fine to Italy's privacy regulator over its Street View program, though not for the usual reasons.

According to new research, spending on ads catered for internet-connected devices will reach USD 137.53bn this year. The research, from eMarketer, refers to devices such as desktop and laptop computers, mobile phones and tablets. Digital spend will increase 14.8% over figures reached last year and will make up for one-quarter of total global media ad spending.

HTL is the latest addition to the Institution of Engineering and Technology's (IET) Letters series, joining Electronics Letters and Micro & Nano Letters. Healthcare technology is a rapidly advancing, inherently interdisciplinary field and this new e-first journal has been designed to meet the needs of researchers working in this context, says the IET.

Reports are circulating that the broadcaster may be gearing up to extend the BBC licence fee ,too. The BBC Trust has approved the change for iPlayer, due to begin in the summer, which effectively quadruples the amount of content on offer online. The service recorded a record three billion requests for TV and radio programmes last year.

The Guardian reported in January that the Independent's "founder, and current chairman of its publishing company, Andreas Whittam Smith, has been authorised to seek out a buyer". Asked by ITV News if anyone had come forward, owner Evgeny Lebedev said: "Nothing that's been of any follow-up or anything that is to go any further. We've had some approaches. Those approaches happen every so often."

The Daily Mail is merging its foreign desk with Mail Online and looking to integrate sport across the Daily Mail, Mail On Sunday and online. So far the Mail titles have retained distinct daily, Sunday and online operations. On the foreign desk, two casual staff and an administrator have been let go and foreign editor Anthony Harwood now works with the Mail Online team.

It was a closely-fought contest, but Europe's crucial telecoms package has passed through its first European Parliament vote, as have amendments that remove loopholes that would have clashed with the open internet. The European parliament has passed a major package of telecoms law reform, complete with amendments that properly define and protect net neutrality.

Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts, the Hong Kong-based luxury hotel group, partners with PressReader, a digital newspaper and magazine service, to offer its guests an eco-friendly way to get their daily news fix using their smartphone, tablet or eReader. Guests can get unlimited, complimentary access to more than 2,500 local, regional and international publications from 100 countries in 60 languages.

Turkey's telecoms authority lifted a two-week-old ban on Twitter on Thursday, after the constitutional court ruled on Wednesday that the block breached freedom of expression, a spokesman from the office of the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoan, said. YouTube however remains offline in Turkey. The TIB blocked it one week after blocking Twitter. Legal challenges are pending.

Vince Gilligan, who will appear as part of a video link-up, will be interviewed by C Squared editor and chair and chairman, Charlie Crowe to discuss the show and its global fanbase. Also speaking: Peter Espersen, Mondelez International's VP of global media & consumer engagement, Bonin Bough, and Jay Altschulter, director of global media for Unilever, among others.