Now that drama of the sticky Mars mud incident is firmly behind it (results are expected on Friday), the Phoenix Mars Lander is on the lookout for fresh Martian discoveries, and they seem to be in no short supply. Using its robotic arm, Phoenix has been scraping away at the rocky surface and uncovered some mysterious white patches that scientists say are most probably ice.

Now I know that none of you were even remotely interested in what has been happening in the world of mobile telephony, so I bring you another report from the icy depths of space. Scientists are jubilant this morning because it seems yesterday’s desperate battle against Mars’ fiendishly ‘clumpy’ soil has been won and samples are now being delivered to the lander’s Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer (TEGA).

Thanks to announcement of some important kind of shiny phone handset, it seems that there’s little earth-bound technology news left to report. We expect a good three days before we can stop ourselves from spontaneously typing ‘IPHONE!’, ‘3G!’ or wasting the whole opening paragraphs of our posts providing a connection between utterly unrelated news and said handset announcement. We appreciate your patience.