COMPANIES

The latest Australian Industry Group/Deloitte CEO survey released on Tuesday, "Business Regulation," points to the high and rising cost of complying with regulation for Australian businesses.

Federal Court Justice Annabelle Bennett hinted Monday that she may grant a brief injunction on sales of Samsung tablet while studying arguments from Samsung and rival Apple, a development that would likely delay the Australian debut of Samsung's 10.1 Galaxy Tab.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Standard & Poor on suspicion of issuing a complex mortgage security identified as Delphinus in 2007, at a time when the housing market already was crumbling.

Fashion magazines are now selling the goods they cover in e-commerce sites and could potentially become competitors to retail stores like Neiman Marcus and Barneys New York.

MIDDAY REPORT (12pm AEST)As expected, the Australian share market is wiping out yesterday's falls with the All Ordinaries index (XAO) up 2.9 pct or 114.9 pts to 4042.5. Keep in mind that despite the improvement, the market locally has still lost ground for five of the past seven sessions.

Air New Zealand hiked its stake in Virgin Australia by 5 per cent to 19.99 per cent. With the increase, the flag carrier became the second largest shareholder next to parent firm Virgin Group.

Vodafone Australia has put a teaser site that allows users to register to get information on "this year's biggest smartphone release," which the ad hints is "coming soon to Vodafone."

Touted as the fastest broadband access available, Telstra announced on Monday the availability of its 4G long-term evolution (LTE) mobile network that the company said will be deployed to eight central business districts (CBDs) and 30 regional metropolitan centres nationwide.

After the Mongolian government stated it wants to acquire a bigger equity in the Oyu Tolgoi copper and gold mine at a much earlier pace, Rio Tinto has cemented its shareholdings on the company, Ivanhoe Mines, which directly manages the said mining project in Mongolia. Rio Tinto now owns 49 percent of Ivanhoe Mines.

The developers of Minecraft are burning the midnight oil to meet the goal of unveiling a full version of Minecraft on 11/11/11. Just two weeks after releasing Minecraft 1.8, another adventure update to the sandbox building indie video game written in Java by Swedish creator Markus "Notch" Persson, has been leaked. Persson has also tweeted that Minecraft 1.10 is in the works.

Thousands of farmland owners staged a massive riot against the authorities in Guangdong province last week in protest for forcibly selling the farmers' lands for a commercial complex, New York Times reported.

Game developer Mojang has announced that Minecraft will be available on touch-screen phones running on Google Inc.'s Android platform on Sept. 29.

Oktoberfest is just around the corner. Equipped yourself with different drinking apps to monitor your drinking.

Frequent travelers can count on their iPhone as a great travel buddy. And why not? Your iPhone can be downloaded with great travel applications that can rival an experienced travel guide.

Amazon.com Prime members will now be able to stream FOX movies and TV series. The announcement came two days before Amazon is expected to launch one of two Kindle tablets to rival Apple's iPad.

If Facebook starts charging users $1 for a life-time membership, Mark Zuckerberg and company would gross $800 million. If the social-networking charges $1 per month, it would receive a whopping $9.6 billion a year assuming all users are willing to pay up.

Apple is currently in a legal battle with Samsung to ban the device from Australia due to patent infringements. Samsung had agreed not to sell in Australia until the hearing in Sydney is concluded. Apple had asked Kogan to withdraw the product and threatened to sue the retailer along with Samsung if it didn't comply.

Several have tried to unseat Apple as King of the Tablets but they've all fallen by the wayside. Samsung, Motorola, Acer and Research in Motion have all fielded their tablets only to be beaten by the Apple giant. Hewlett Packard tried with the TouchPad this summer and is now scrambling to recuperate its losses.

Qantas Airways on monday claimed the Transport Workers Union (TWU) has instructed 3,800 baggage handlers, ground staff, and other Qantas employees to go on strike for one hour on Friday, 30 September to target Qantas passengers on one of the busiest weekends of the year.

Budget airline Jetstar has launched a $7 fare sale to promote interest to its latest flight destination from Wellington to Queenstown in New Zealand.

It's all systems go as Chevron Corp. formally approved today the $29 billion Wheatstone liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in Western Australia's Pilbara region.

A reported memo from Jerry Yang, co-founder and former CEO, confirms that the board is looking at various offers to buy the company while assuring employees that Yahoo will survive.

Rio Tinto reportedly plans to restructure its Australian operations and foremost to the new strategy is the divestiture of the global miner’s aluminum assets.

Samsung plans to launch its 10.1 Galaxy Tab in Australia on Friday, an Apple lawyer told Australian Federal Court Judge Annabelle Bennett.

Queensland's banana industry is recovering after the Australian state was flooded in summer. Queensland Premier Anna Bligh forecast lower banana prices in the coming weeks from the peak of $15 a kilogramme due to expected bumper harvest from North Queensland.

The Mongolian government is seeking to increase its stake allocation in the Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold project from 34% to 50%, leaving its developers rethinking if it was a good deal at all to have initiated the project.

Payment networks Visa and MasterCard will impose the highest fees for even the smallest debit transaction for cards issued by JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup as allowed by a U.S. law that put caps on such fees.

While the iPhone 5 will be the center of everyone's attention, note that according to Antoine Saint Exupery, what's essential is invisible to the eye. Aside from betting that the iPhone 5 won't have radical changes, you should think outside the box when comprehending what happens on Oct. 4 and thereafter.

UK online brand ASOS had launched its first site ASOS exclusively for the electronic shopping savvy Australians beginning on Sept. 15.