BUSINESS

Smart devices will be the norm of the future with three dominant platforms – Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows – all competing to meet the mobile computing demands of general and business consumers, a new report said.

We don't know. But if it's anything like the last four it will be full of meaningless sound bites, lies, trillion dollar deficits, and probably more bank bailouts. There was something genuinely depressing about the whole US election thing.

Samsung leads the pack this time as reports emerged that rivals of the Asian tech giant have decided to counter the success of its Galaxy Note phablet, already on a second iteration that further stretched the device’s screen size, with of courses more potent specs.

Microsoft’s Surface RT has commenced hitting the road and results returned so far on numerous test drives strongly suggest that the gadget is not as confusing as thought earlier by Apple CEO Tim Cook, without of course the benefit of hand-on experience.

Did you see former Treasurer Peter Costello's article in yesterday's Age? He gets stuck into fund managers and all the other travellers on the superannuation gravy train. The 'super system' holds around $1.3 trillion in assets, so it's no surprise it's attracting plenty of hangers on.

Local stocks are trading in the red today, with most of the damage being done by Westpac (WBC and the National Australia Bank (NAB), which are trading without rights to their dividends. Overnight, US markets rose at the open then traded lower, as investors focused on the so-called "fiscal cliff" with tax increases and spending cuts to occur from the 1st January.

Effective January 2013, the Queensland State Government will implement a "left turn red" traffic system at several selected intersections on the Gold Coast in a bid to reduce and improve the state's vehicular traffic flow.

To indicate the growing use of Instagram among social networking sites, in the Tuesday election in the U.S., over 100,000 photos taken with the photo application was tagged with #iVoted and 150,000 with #election2012.

Since the launch of Apple's iPad Mini in 34 countries, combined sales of the device and the iPad fourth generation averaged 1 million units daily in the past three days.

While the role of Facebook and Twitter in helping elect and celebrate the Wednesday poll victory of U.S. President Barack Obama has once more been emphasised, the newbie social networking site Google+ appears quiet and out of the political equation.

The advantage enjoyed by online retailers based overseas over bricks and mortar stores insofar as Australian consumers are concerned may soon be removed. A plan by the federal government to collect the general sales tax (GST) for purchases abroad may just level the playing field for both kinds of retailers.

A stress test conducted by the Australia Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) showed that all major banks in the country passed it. APRA Chairman John Laker, in a Thursday speech in Brisbane, declared that another global economic meltdown would not result in significant losses for Aussie lenders.

- Macquarie visits six Chinese cities- Finds a lack of stress- Canton Trade Fair figures down- Analysts see only modest 2013 export growthBy Greg PeelThe Chinese economy appears to have stabilised from its more rapid than expected slowdown over 2012, if iron ore prices and recent PMI data are anythi...

By Greg PeelThe Dow fell 121 points, or 0.9%, while the S&P lost 1.2% to 1377 and the Nasdaq dropped 1.

The Australian sharemarket fell for the first time in five sessions, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) slipping by 0.7 per cent or 32 pts to 4502.2. No sectors were spared from the selling; however local shares are coming off an impressive winning streak, with equities (shares) ending in the red for just two of the past nine sessions.

Abu Dhabi's flagship carrier Etihad Airways, which own 10 per cent of Virgin Australia, has entered into a codesharing agreement with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines to offer Australians greater accessibility and flexibility as they visit and tour Europe and its scenic spots.

These days, Chinese brand Lenovo is touted as the next big thing in the personal computer business, threatening the hold to precarious lead of familiar names like Hewlett-Packard (HP), Dell and Acer.

Now that focus will gear more towards the fast-approaching Christmas season, the Australian Taxi Industry Association (ATIA) has warned commuters and consumers to refrain from using taxis or private cars for hire that used rogue smartphone apps to promote their services.

This is the end of Suzuki's American dream. American Suzuki Motor Corp. informed that it would file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Apple’s Chinese partner in production Foxxcon said that it is facing difficulties in keeping up with demand for iPhone 5.

Another legal setback for Apple as the tech giant was ordered Wednesday by a U.S. federal court in Texas to shell out more than $US368 million for patent infringement, stemming from the technology behind FaceTime, the video call feature that is a mainstay on Mac computers, iPhone and iPad.

It's a big week. The race that stops the nation will stop us from coming into our St Kilda headquarters tomorrow. We used to try working on Melbourne Cup day. But we gave up when we realised most people really do take the day off. But don't worry. We've queued up a special US election preview presentation for your enjoyment. Watch out for it.

The Lumia 920, according to Nokia, represents improvements from all the shortfalls found on previous Nokia handsets, potentially making the new Windows smartphone an inviting prospect for consumers planning to indulge on new tech toys come the holiday season.

You may of already had your fill of electoral madness so how about some central banking madness?

Larry Summers, bless his heart, is back on the Financial Times editorial page. He's arguing for more stimulus...more spending...more Barack Obama. We should send him a 'thank you'. He's been great for business.

Richard Koo knows what's going on. At least, to a point. He's a fool, but not an idiot. In Bastiat's terms, he sees the effects of a debt deflation. As for the unseen consequences of the government's efforts to fix it, he doesn't even bother to look.

Today, we Americans will enter voting booths all across the nation to pull the levers that will shape our destiny. Either we embrace the big, expensive promises of the Left or we embrace the big, expensive promises of the Right.

More than 500 personnel from the engineering department of Qantas Airways have been sacked as part of the company's restructuring operations.

Local stocks have followed global markets into the red, as investors bailed out of equities overnight. The Dow Jones Index recorded its worst trading session for 2012, with investors concerned about how the US government would tackle the so-called "fiscal cliff" and help avoid America heading back into recession. Uncertainty over the Greek parliament vote on austerity measures also contributed to a sell-down. Early this morning, the Greek government secured enough votes in parliament to ap...