COMPANIES

Australian DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian's controversial radio show, Hot 30, got bumped off the air by a new interactive radio show aptly titled The Boot. Their call to the King Edward VII hospital in London to inquire about the state of Duchess Catherine's pregnancy led to the suicide of nurse Jacinta Saldanha who passed on the call to another nurse, who in turn, divulged the medical information, thinking it was the Queen herself who was on the line.

Thirteen McDonald's outlets the past two weeks across Australia had been using the fastfood chain's Aussie nickname, Macca's, to celebrate Australia Day. They will temporarily use that name until Feb 3.

Michael Garcia, a Laurenzo’s restaurant waiter from Texas, received internet recognition for defending a 5-year-old boy with Down syndrome against another customer’s offensive remarks. The waiter refused to serve the customer after hearing the remarks “special needs children need to be somewhere else.”

Nokia is reportedly planning two flagship smartphone debuts for 2013. The first one was codenamed Catwalk, as reported earlier, while second thrust will be known as Nokia Laser, set to be exclusively distributed by Verizon later this year.

Ahead of its scheduled previewing at the 2013 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, pictures of the supposed Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 were leaked out.

The “Django Unchained” film’s slave toy collectibles were supposed to bring more success to the Weinstein Company. Criticism from the African-American groups caused the company to discontinue selling the Django toys particularly on the virtual marketplace eBay.

Samsung recently disclosed that the Galaxy S series handsets clocked more than 100 million in total unit sales, with the Galaxy S2 and the Galaxy S3 each registering over 40 million of shifted units.

Samsung introduced in 2012 the feature called Smart Stay technology. The feature keeps the screen on by detecting via front-facing camera to determine if the user is looking at the screen. This feature is included to the Galaxy S3 devices, and it is not based on whether the user's eyes are closed or not.

Google Now is software that acts as an intelligent personal assistant and is the counterpart of the iOS' Siri. It is capable of various tasks such as answering questions, making recommendations, performing actions for web services, and displaying cards in Gmail with information about flight, package tracking, and hotel and restaurant reservations.

A study by tanning brand St Tropez linked women's countenance with the activity of the day.

LG has confirmed the upcoming release of the 5-inch Optimus G Pro, which reports said is geared for an initial distribution to Japan shortly after it’s unveiling at the 2013 Mobile World Congress in February.

Samsung’s Galaxy S4 appears headed for a mid-April 2013 debut but before the smartphone makes its way to public view it manufacturer would want to whip out a few more garnishing – pack the gadget with as much screen pixels as possible.

Seemingly unmindful of chronic stock outs since its debut last year, Google’s Nexus 4 is hitting two major retailers in Australia and Canada next week, the development likely in line with LG’s earlier pronouncement that global shipment of the smartphone will normalise beginning in February.

The Android OS has become the world's most popular mobile system platform that it is available to almost any devices and to almost every brand in the market. There are expensive phones which costs a lot offering state-of-the-art technology while other phones are just a quarter of the cost of the expensive unit while providing the Android experience.

The most popular mobile OS platform in the world has too many good reasons why it is better than iOS.

Another device is rumored to be on the works and believed to be the next generation of its kind. Google Nexus 10 was released in November 2012 and the next gen is believed to be under development.

The full glory of Windows 8 on tablet is on course for a forceful entry as Microsoft indicated that the Surface Pro is all ready for global rollout, initially to be unleashed in North America on Feb. 9 en route to its landing on other key markets.

The popular CyanogenMod 10.1 gained a step higher and is said to be more stable and more reliable than the previous versions. Officially, the ROM is now called CyanogenMod 10.1 Milestone 1 and is ready for flashing on selected Samsung and Nexus devices.

It promises to be a busy 2013 for Samsung as the company reportedly lined up strings of gadget releases in the year’s first half alone, apparently to build up more attention on the Galaxy brand before the rumoured Galaxy S4 crashes into the scene.

Samsung is said to be planning a Q2 2013 release of its latest high-end smartphone, which blog reports suggest will largely assume most of its rumoured specs save for the brand name Galaxy S4.

We’ve heard of the possibility that Apple will bend a bit to market dictates as part of its 2013 roadmap and send out to store shelves two smartphones by second half of the year – the iPhone 5S for its traditional market base and the iPhone Mini for mass market release.

The South Korean company, LG, confirmed that their flagship smartphone Optimus G will be sold in Australia exclusively by Telstra. But the device is not yet available until March, and its launch has been delayed due to required network testing.

Temple Run's success led to the release of its sequel, Temple Run 2, in the Apple App Store. The game has been downloaded more than 20 million times since its initial release. It became the number 1 Free App within six hours and third-highest grossing app.

Mozilla Foundation has taken the fight to the next level as it previewed two smartphones operating Firefox OS. The company has invited developers for its new open-source mobile operating system that will challenge both Android and iOS.

Nokia is gradually delivering the so-called Portico updates for international owners of the surprise-hit Lumia 920 some weeks after the same patch were made accessible to U.S.-based users of the Windows Phone 8 handset.

Some countries where the iPhone 5 is being released are coming up with likely contenders to challenge Apple’s smartphone supremacy. In India, the Micromax Canvas HD is set for market launch on February and is touted as the first quad-core handset from the leading Indian phone maker.

Samsung has confirmed that it will unleash a new challenger to test the mettle of the popular tablets out there. It will be called the Galaxy Note 8.0, which easily can be lumped with the mini tablet class.

Samsung has once again spiced up its Galaxy S3 Mini serving, this time including near-field capability (NFC) to the small Galaxy S3 sibling, the tech giant said in a press release issued this week.

Among the Nexus line of gadgets that Google unveiled last year, it is the Nexus 10, made by Samsung, that gets the least attention. The tech giant aims to change that by boosting the large tablet’s specs for its second coming later this year, a new report said.