Fashions to fit, in reassuringly familiar UK sizes, are just a click away. Britain’s best-loved home shopping brand, Littlewoods, has now launched in Spain, Germany, France and Portugal.

Aimed at expats and anglophiles, it offers delivery to homes in mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands for just EUR 5 per order. It puts all the hard-to-find items, like stylish trousers in a choice of up to three leg lengths, within easy reach, no matter how remote the location. So there’s no need to give up an afternoon in the sun for a fruitless trudge round the shops.

All unregistered pre-paid mobile phone lines in Spain will be permanently disconnected at midnight Sunday night

The Spanish government has ignored representations made to it for an extension by the phone companies and insists that all pre-paid mobile phones numbers which have not been registered by midnight on Sunday night will disappear forever.

Mr Dunstone estimates that around 100,000 lower income households will be forced to give up their own internet connections in able to cover the 50p per month tax that will be added to all domestic phone bills to fund the roll-out of next-generation broadband networks.

Any not registered before 9th November will automatically be deactivated

There are just two weeks to go before lines for pay-as-you-go mobile phones will be automatically deactivated if their owners have previously failed to register their details with their operators.

The move comes under a new law which came into effect in November 2007 as a consequence of the Madrid train bomb attacks on 11th March 2004, when the bombs were set off by pre-paid mobile phones. Registration has been obligatory since the law came into force, but 20 million such phones bought before that date are estimated to still be in use.

It’s the bane of online shoppers’ lives — searches dangling coveted brand-name gadgets, gear or gifts cheaper on websites from another country but not being able to buy them.

Help may, however, be at hand, if European Commission proposals to boost “borderless” online shopping across its 27 member states are not watered down by governments jealously guarding individual tax takes.

In two stages, October 31 and December 31, televisions in Almeria Province not able to receive a digital signal (whether inbuilt, through a decoder or via a satellite subscription) will no longer receive a traditional analogue TV signal. One thing that many expatriates are unaware of is that many channels on TDT have the facility for viewers to watch the English language programmes, series, and films in English.

The European Union announced last week an EUR 18 million investment in an “ultra high-speed” internet system to underpin the next generation of mobile services.

“Europe’s research know-how will continue to set the tone for the development of mobile services and devices around the globe, just as we did in the past decades with the GSM standard,” promised EU Telecoms Commissioner Viviane Reding.

Spain’s government Thursday agreed to allow television channels to charge viewers for digital terrestrial programming, a move it said would “establish a level playing field” in the industry.

“DTT (Digital Terrestrial Television) will open up new avenues of funding for television and also new possibilities and options for viewers,” Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said following a cabinet meeting.

A Canadian firm has announced imminent flight tests of aviation data-streaming technology which would transmit information normally recorded in an aircraft’s “black box” accident recorders “in real time”. In cases such as that of the recent disappearance of Air France flight 447 above the Atlantic, there would be no need to recover the black boxes in order to find out what happened.

Some 6,000 Internet enthusiasts are expected to attend the week-long Campus Party, one of the world’s biggest online entertainment events, which got underway Monday in Spain, organisers said.

The event, which unites participants from all over the world to share ideas, experiences and activities related to computers, communications and new technology, is being held in the Mediterranean port of Valencia.

The company is unifying the two tariffs, meaning more expensive local calls but cheaper provincial ones

Telefónica has announced a simplification of its billing process with the unification of local or metropolitan and provincial calls on its land lines.

The company is using the process to increase the call connection charge, which will increase from 7.2 and 9.2 cents to 10 cents. However the change means a reduction in the price of provincial calls – those made outside your local area, but inside the same province.

The cost of sending text messages from your mobile phone when you are overseas in the European Union has come down.

The maximum charge for sending a text is now 11 euro cents ($0.15; 9.4p) plus sales tax.

It is the first time that text charges have been capped. The previous EU average was 28 cents.

The Bic Phone is marketed under the name of the French company which invented the first disposable pen

Bic became famous for inventing the world’s first throwaway pen, then came the lighters, and now the French company has lent its name to the first disposable mobile. Launched in France last year, the Bic Phone has now arrived in Spain, and will be available from July in tobacconists, newsagents, petrol stations and other points of sale for the price of 29 €.

The new iPhone 3GS goes on sale in Spain on Friday, and once again Telefónica has an exclusivity on the device

Now offering an internal compass and video recorder for the first time, Telefónica has said it can be used as a 3G moden in the country without limitation, provided their new 39 € tariff is chosen. It allows speeds of upto 3GB.

With a 48-hour strike starting at 7pm on Tuesday, there has been a community-based rash of online advice on how best to travel

With two days notice of the London Underground stike, there has been time for the micro-blogging community and official transport bodies to react.

(Trouble started early, with the DLR breaking down before 6pm – see photo at Canary Wharf from @hey_dahl)

Called WorldTracer, it is capable of reading baggage tags within seconds and capturing all the information an airline needs to reunite the passenger with their suitcases.

The technology, which will be launched commercially later this year, is likely to appeal to airlines with a poor reputation for losing luggage.

In recent years British Airways has been one of the worst – if not the worst – culprit, although in recent months its performance is understood to have improved dramatically, with only 12 bags per 1,000 passengers going missing in December.

Looking for something to do this weekend? You could try visiting Twitter for travel inspiration. Many of the UK’s local and regional boards are using the micro-blogging site to update visitors with news of local events and provide links to photos, videos and booking sites.

Some tourist boards are doing a great job of using Twitter to provide fun updates and useful information – but others aren’t. In fact, some could be accused of wasting public money.

Sources close to the negotiations say that Mark Thompson, the BBC director general, is leading talks with Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive and chairman about rolling out an international version of the BBC iPlayer, supported in some way by Google-owned video sharing site YouTube.

However the process has been mired by the need for international rights clearance for the BBC programmes currently shown on the iPlayer in the UK. The BBC iPlayer allows viewers to watch popular BBC programmes for up to seven days after they were first broadcast.

It is as big an issue as stressed-out workers who cannot take time off without continually checking their office emails or texting colleagues to be kept up to date, it revealed.

But it does mean an increasing number of Brits do not know how to turn off and enjoy themselves when they get the chance, according to the research by leading travel and leisure retailer lastminute.com.

The cap for a “roaming” text will fall to 11 euro cents (10p; 14 US cents), from about 29 cents on average today.

The EU-wide caps, excluding VAT, will take effect in July. They cover text messages and data roaming services, such as checking e-mails while abroad.

The current price cap of 46 euro cents per minute for an outgoing voice call will also fall to 43 cents in July.