The HTC Desire L snuck out of the Taiwanese manufacturer over the weekend as the firm looks to bolster its mid-range offerings.

Packing a 4.3-inch display, 5MP camera, 1GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, microSD slot and 1,800mAh battery it looks set to go head-to-head with the Windows Phone 8 toting Nokia Lumia 720.

The Desire L comes running Android Jelly Bean (version 4.1.2), weighs in at a comfortable 118g and measures 128 x 66.9 x 8.9 mm.

Tickled pink

In terms of design, the Desire L follows in the footsteps of the Taiwanese firm's latest smartphones with a smooth, unfussy finish.

You'll be able to pick up a HTC Desire L in black, white or an interesting faded-pink hue - if you're lucky enough to be in Taiwan that is, with a global release date currently unknown.

It's not clear if the Desire L will make it to the likes of the UK, US and Australia after a company spokesperson told TechRadar "HTC doesn't comment on future roadmaps for devices".

Like previous Fitbugs, the Fitbug Air is a small device that acts as a pedometer that records every step you take. By noting each step it can extrapolate the distance you've travelled and the calories you've burned off.

What's rather new and exciting about the Fitbug Air is that it comes with Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, enabling you to hook it up to your iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, the latest generation of iPad or the newest iPod touch.

Support for Android apps is apparently coming, though Bluetooth 4.0 adoption hasn't quite taken off with Google's mobile OS.

The Fitbug Air uses the data it collects about your day-to-day activities, and sends it to your device where it will upload the data to an online account. You're able to see the calories you burn, as well as take part in challenges and games designed to keep you fit.

The online part of the Fitbug experience is well designed and comes with extensive coaching plans that can help you get the most out of your exercise. It's not free, though. You can buy the Fitbug Air Premium package for £49.99 /US$59.99, which comes with 12 months membership of fitbug.com, or you can buy the Flexi package for £24.99/US$29.99, which comes with one month's membership.

After the prepaid time is over in both packages you then pay £2.99/US$3.99 a month. It's more expensive than the Nike+ service, where you only need to pay for the app or device once, though it's still cheaper than a gym membership.

Verdict

We found the Fitbug Air to be accurate and responsive when running, and connecting it up to our iPhone 4S was a breeze. You can have more than one person share the Fitbug, which is a nice plus, but having to pay monthly for membership of the website won't be to everyone's tastes.

Batten down the hatches, folks, because if this isn't a sign of the impending apocalypse, we don't know what is.

A four year old English girl is being treated for iPad addiction, with psychiatrists saying she needs to play games on the tablet frequently or else she suffers withdrawls.

Dr Richard Graham, whose clinic charges an exorbitant £16,000 a month for a "digital detox programme", says that if it had been left longer, she might have required in-patient care.

"They can't cope [with using iPads] and become addicted," he told the Daily Mail, saying that addicting children "react with tantrums and uncontrollable behaviour when [the tablets] are taken away." You know, like the way they behave when you tell them to eat their vegetables or to stop riding the dog like a pony.

Seriously, if you have £16,000 to blow on your kids, why not pay for a push-bike rather than a pyschiatrist, and start putting the iPad up on the top shelf.

More blips!

Other bite-sized things have happened in tech and we've gathered them up for your perusing pleasure.

• Razer does a gaming good deed in honoring bogus coupon code
• Do Amazon's work for it by greenlighting your favourite comedy
• Google Earth murder not a murder, just a dog

After the giant hoopla over Facebook Home in the last couple of weeks, the company could be forgiven for thinking more than half 500,000 users would have downloaded it to see what all the fuss was about.

Well apparently, folks aren't exactly rushing to the Google Play store to download the social network's overbearing custom UI for Android, with only half a million downloads since the April 12 launch.

The company reached the landmark on Sunday, according to the Google Play listing, which TechCrunch points out pales into comparison to the 5 million downloads, Instagram gained on Android in its first 6 days.

However, there are extenuating circumstances for Facebook Home. So far it is only available on select Android devices, such as the Samsung Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note 2, HTC One X and HTC One X+.

Staggered launches

Also international launches have been staggered, with the UK launch coming on April 16.

However, there's no getting away from the fact that just 500,000 in 9 days is a poor return considering the hype that surrounded the launch.

We figured that folks would at least be downloading it to give it a whirl, even if they deactivated it straight after.

Perhaps things will pick up when the suite becomes more widely available on other Android devices?

A new breed malware has been discovered within at least 32 Android apps, which may have been downloaded up to nine million times.

The so-called 'BadNews' malware was outed by security firm Lookout Mobile Security in a blog post on Friday.

All of the apps found to contain the malicious code had been approved by Google, but it appears that the harmful elements had been added after the fact, disguised as updates.

Apps containing the BadNews code have been reporting back to a server and revealing sensitive information like the phone number and handset serial number.

'Bad guys are smart'

The affected apps include English and Russian-language games, dictionaries, wallpapers and were able to make it past the Google Bouncer software that scans the Play store for harmful apps.

Marc Rogers, principal security researcher for Lookout, told Ars Technica: "You can't even say Google was at fault in this because Google very clearly scrutinized all these apps when they want in.

"But these guys were cunning enough to sit there for a couple of months doing absolutely nothing and then they pushed out the malware.

"This is a wakeup call for us in the industry to say: 'Bad guys are smart as well and they'll take a look at the security models we put in place and they'll find weaknesses in them. That's exactly what they've done here."