The future of mobile TV is in turmoil, disposable phones coming to Europe, and iPhone down to £169

It hasn't been a week of big stories. But in the absence of any major news our beloved sister site Pocket Picks has had the opportunity to cover some of the smaller – though still very interesting – news slices that on a busier week might have slipped through the net.

Perhaps sensing the news drought, the week began with some big companies taking the opportunity to muse on various topics, first with Nokia claiming that the future of mobile TV is in turmoil. Shortly after, Panasonic threw its two cents in claiming that camera phones are not a threat to the digital camera market. Later in the week, professional opinion slinger, Juniper Research, released a report confirming many mobile users' worst fears – like it or not, mobile advertising is set to get much bigger.

Moving on to some cold hard facts and there was a bit of a green theme this week, though not all of it positive. A US handset firm called Hop-on announced that it has inked a deal to bring disposable mobile phones to Europe. Potentially quite handy although we're not sure how biodegradable these handsets are.

Indeed, the post-use lifecycle of handsets is something that has been praying on Nokia's conscience, too, with the company claiming that though recycled handsets are still a way off, they are very much the future of the industry and could even stand to save manufacturers quite a pretty penny. Last of the eco news, meanwhile, came from the Samsung camp in the form of a water-powered phone that could be on retailer shelves as early as 2010.

In keeping with the rest of the week, handset news was pretty offbeat, with the first offering being the developer-focused OpenMoko FreeRunner, which is an open source Linux affair. Then there was the gold plated Buddha phone (doesn't sound very aesthetic to us) and a Windows Mobile watchphone complete with alligator skin strap.

Even the more conventional handset manufacturers were mixing things up, with Nokia announcing the 6212 classic, a phone that makes pretty extensive use of Near Field Communication (NFC) tech so that it can do all sorts of fancy pants Bluetooth tricks.

Slightly less 'out there' were MWg's two new Europe bound handsets, though speculation that they may sport induction charging could well set them apart when they arrive. Last of the handset news was a reassuringly straightforward, though impressive sounding, spec leak for a new Windows Mobile based Samsung effort called the SGH-900i.

Perhaps the 'biggest' news story that broke last week was that O2 is cutting the price of the iPhone to a mere £169 from now until June. Cue speculation about stock clearing in anticipation of a 3G iPhone.

In other iPhone-related events, mobile VoIP wizards, fring, decided to pay the device a visit releasing a beta build of its handy application for the iPhone community to chew over. Elsewhere, KDDI announced an iPhone version of its impressive visual search software.

Other relatively big revelations included Nokia and friends deciding it was time that the battle for 4G supremacy got ugly and set about readying the company's LTE standard as a direct challenger to the Intel-backed Wimax alternative. Back here in current day technology, however, O2 finally got its act together and launched a mobile broadband service with a pleasingly compelling array of options.

And lastly, a Chinese man claimed to have created the world's largest mobile phone, Madonna proved that she is thoroughly 'down' with the mobile loving kids, while Smirnoff has decided that mobiles are definitely the best tool to use to sell vodka.

That's it for this week. We're expecting a few big headlines in over the next seven days so click 'Track it!' to be sure to catch next week's Pocket Picks round-up.