BUSINESS

Will HTC really unbox the M7 anytime soon? Another image leak, purportedly “an accurate depiction of the HTC M7,” just came out, again driving up speculations that the One X/Droid DNA replacement is set for a Q1 2013 market debut.

Flurry of leaks is driving deserved attention to the upcoming BlackBerry 10 handsets, the initial pack of which Research in Motion (RIM) intends to unveil on January 30.

Obama's New Economy: Hundreds of Thousands of PhDs, Masters Graduates now on Food Stamps, Some Work as Janitors

According to a Deloitte's study issued on the 18th of January, over 90 percent of the North Sea developments in 2012 were granted tax relief. Tax breaks, which have been recently introduced, are expected to encourage investors to engage more in the North Sea, the British oil province.

Java fault-finder Adam Gowdiak found a vulnerability to the Java 7 update 11 and claims that Oracle should "bring security research to the new level." The Oracle's most recent patch shows vulnerability to hackers which may affect users without their knowledge that their computers or mobile devices are being hacked or penetrated by another individual.

Newest data showed that China's economic growth in the fourth quarter sped up for the first time in two years, but 2012 growth was the weakest in 13 years. It seems that the uncertain economic outlook might force the government to support further growth.

Samsung has nudged most of its tablet stable into the JellyBean 4.1 fold, announcing last week that the Galaxy Note 10.1 and the all the Galaxy Tab 2 variants will be updated to the not-so-latest Android flavour.

Facebook recently got an update and it features Voice Messaging in its app for Android. The users can expect full support for voice messages and faster image rendering. Facebook users can also share their friends' stories directly on their own timelines which before was exclusive to the desktop version.

According to a regulatory filing released on the 18th of January, Robert Iger, chief executive officer at Walt Disney Co., collected about $40,2 million compensation for 2012, a 20 percent increase from a year earlier as the entertainment giant reported high revenue, net come as well as earnings per share in the period.

Although the firing of Tom Albanese on Thursday night caught Australia's mining industry by surprise, many industry observers agree his exit is good for Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO), the country's second-largest miner.

Due to reports that traces of horse meat were found in hamburgers sold in some of UK and Ireland supermarkets, McDonald's Australia launched a new app that would allow diners to track where the ingredients came from, including if horse meat was used.

-Production solid in Dec quarter-Questions remain over Copler plans-Divestment still probableBy Eva BrocklehurstMid tier gold producer Alacer Gold ((AQG)) delivered a firm finish to a challenging year.

-Lack of clarity until tax resolved-Traffic growth solid-Stock still attractiveBy Eva BrocklehurstSydney Airport ((SYD)) is unlikely to find clear air until its tax issues are resolved.

To mark the first year anniversary of police storming into the Auckland mansion and arrest of former Megaupload owner Kim Dotcom over online piracy, Mr Dotcom launched on Sunday a new portal - mega.co.nz.

Toyota Australia on Friday announced it is ready to ship this year its four-cylinder automobile engines to Thailand and Malaysia.

One of the main points to emerge this week has been the almost surprisingly constructive tone of the market. In recent days the index has been moving higher whilst volumes have been increasing, indicating a higher level of investor participation. At face value it appears as though investors are prepared to accept the higher prices on offer. One of the questions to keep front of mind in coming weeks will be whether or not this price acceptance remains in place in the event of any weakness.

Nokia is opening up new market fronts for the Lumia 620, hoping to stumble on fresh revenue sources by bringing the Lumia-flavoured Windows Phone 8 handsets to wider audience reach.

The fourth Galaxy Note is on the way. It will be known as Galaxy Note 8.0 and Samsung intends to debut the new small tablet via the Mobile World Congress scheduled for Barcelona staging in late February.

The Australian sharemarket is improving for the fourth time this week, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) up 0.3 per cent or 12.8 pts to 4792.5. Over the past five sessions, the market has improved by around 1.5 per cent. Almost all sectors are high, with the exception of the utilities and the consumer staples. At first glance, the quarterly economic growth reading out of China came in a little better than expected, with the Chinese economy growing by 7.9 per cent over the past year.

When most, if not all, parents thought that sibling rivalry occurs only at stages when their children, most specially twins, get to understand the concept, a video research conducted by London doctors on twins showed the fight for supremacy starts early from inside the womb.

Apple’s iPhone 5S, according to KGI Securities, will come out by Q3 2013 sporting the A7 28 nanometre chip architecture. While the forecast is not pointing to a sure-fire iPhone release, it should be interesting to pit the likely specs of the refreshed iPhone against Google’s flagship smartphone, the Nexus 4.

The International Monetary Fund informed that it approved the next loan tranche of approximately €839 million for Portugal under the country's €78 billion international bailout.

On the 17th of January, Rio Tinto Plc, the world's second largest mining company, informed that its chief executive officer Tom Albanese would resign because of a $14 billion write-down on the value of assets which he supervised. The impairment charge is mainly associated with the $38 billion takeover of Alcan Inc. and the $4 billion coal purchase in Mozambique.

China's foreign direct investment decreased roughly 3.7 percent in 2012 from 2011. It is a first fall in China's annual FDI since 2009, according to the official figures. China saw its 2012 FDI drop as investors either had not been so keen on investing in emerging markets due to current economic conditions or had been choosing to transfer their businesses to markets with cheaper workforce.

Manchester United Plc inked two sponsorship deals with China's businesses, namely, China Construction Bank Corp. and Wahaha Group Co. As it has been underlined, both sponsorship deals are "territory specific" as 19-time English soccer champion Manchester United wants to benefit from its status in Asia.

TUI Travel informed that it started merger negotiations with its German parent TUI AG. The merger is aimed at cutting costs and focusing mainly on tourism.

After three years of house price falls, Dubai's housing market is now recovering fast, while its neighboring Abu Dhabi, UAE's capital, is still struggling.

South Korea’s LG appears all prepped for a major 2013 push as rumours intensified that the Nexus 4 manufacturers is gearing up for a salvo of Nexus gadget releases, which could include a 5-inch serving of the Google smartphone plus a Nexus 7.7 tablet.

Facebook dashed this week rumours that it will roll out a smartphone which will possibly challenge the iPhone. Instead, the most popular social networking site rolled out the graph search. Despite the denial of a Facebook smartphone, speculations would likely go on and these features are what many FB fans would want to see in such a device.