COMPANIES

Ford reveals the new, more fuel-efficient 2013 Ford Escape at the L.A. Auto Show.

The 21-day period for Qantas management and unions to agree on new contracts lapsed on Monday with no negotiation extension made by the parties, so the dispute will now have to be settled by the Fair Works Australia (FWA).

Activision has promised gamers who signed up for Call of Duty Elite that the social network will be up and running by December 1.

Christmas is fast approaching and Kids as well as Kids at heart is making their list on what to expect during the Holidays.

MMG opened on Monday its new copper open pit mine at its Golden Grove operations. The $22-million project is expected to produce 235,000 tonnes of copper concentrate containing 59,600 tonnes of copper metal in concentrate at 25 per cent copper from 2012 to 2014.

With the forwarded drawdown from $300 million worth of funds to prop up its operations, Australia's OneSteel Ltd scrambles to turn around its operations within 12 months, according to reports.

Rydges Hotels and the Denwol group will build a $68-million four-star hotel just outside the International Terminal of Sydney Airport. Construction is expected to begin soon and is scheduled to be substantially complete by late 2012.

Tech gadgets would likely be on top of the Christmas shopping list of Australians as tech companies take advantage of the changing consumer preference for Yuletide gifts.

Jeep used to be the No.1 SUV brand in the world, but that was way back in 1999 when sales topped 554,446 vehicles in the United States alone. Then came the GFC and Chrysler’s free fall into bankruptcy in 2009, and many were convinced that the automotive group was terminal.

More than 2.1 million Australians are intending to buy a new car in the next four years, according to new research by analyst Roy Morgan.

As the 21-day conciliation process for Qantas and the unions ends on Monday midnight, another strike looms for the troubled Australian air carrier. The Transport Workers Union (TWU) threatened to pursue another round of industrial action unless the company improves its offer.

Parliament is set to vote on the $11-billion mining tax measure this week. House leader Anthony Albanese said the vote could be as early as Wednesday as soon as the federal government secured the support of the crossbenchers.

Remember that coffee-table-sized tablet computer that Microsoft debuted in 2007 at the Consumer Electronic Show? Now those table sized computers are finally available for pre-orders from Samsung resellers in 23 countries, including the United States and Australia.

Sony Australia has announced the pre-order details for its next generation portable console, the PlayStation Vita for eager gamers.

Samsung's Galaxy Tab 8.9 at only 8.9 inches is smaller than Samsung's more popular Galaxy Tab 10.1 but this sleek, well-designed tablet proves that size doesn't matter.

Samsung Electronics Co, the Korea based smartphone maker, is expected to overtake Apple in the fourth quarter of the year, according to market report.

Kindle Fire was on the top spot among the leading android tablets when a survey was conducted to 2, 160 developers around the world.

Cloud computing is said to be the newest trend in information technology that most companies such as Apple, Amazon and Google had been incorporating into their services.

Google announced Wednesday Nov. 16, 2011 its newest service, the Google Music, a cloud based service that enables you to store and stream music.

Multi commodity explorer and miner Alkane Resources is edging closer toward development approval for its Tomingley Gold Project.

Samsung is now the No. 1 smartphone manufacturer worldwide, based on research by Gartner. The report also said the growth of mobile devices worldwide totaled 440.5 million units sold during the third quarter.

Details of the 2012 Mercedes-Benz SL-Cass have been revealed in Germany, including some interesting images of the new aluminium body and chassis.

The Australia Statistics Bureau showed that during the period 2000 to 2011, renting outpaced home ownership in the country.

Fresh from its record earnings for the first half of 2011, global mining firm BHP Billiton stepped on the gas for the realisation its expansion projects in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, signalling the construction start of a power plant and an additional iron ore mining site.

Santos Mine informed a Parliamentary inquiry that it will back out of a planned coal seam gas (CSG) pipeline pipeline project in New South Wales's (NSW) central west.

Samsung Electronics has adopted design tweaks on its flagship tablet computer, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, in hopes of circumventing a court-induced ban for the product to be marketed in Germany, reports said.

Anittel Limited (ASX: AYG), a Sydney-based IT and telecom solutions and service provider, topped the Deloitte 2011 Technology Fast 50 Australian list released on Friday.

The backlash over excessive executive compensation continues in Australia when a seventh company had its remuneration report rejected by shareholders.

Cloud computing has ceased being an upcoming trend that techies talked about to becoming a reality that everyone uses in some capacity. Major tech companies like Microsoft, Google and Apple offer cloud computing services for users. The cloud is becoming the new front in the ongoing battle among these tech giants. So what is cloud computing? How do the cloud computing services of Google, Microsoft and Apple differ from one another?