COMPANIES

Zune is dead, Microsoft declared on Monday, and in its stead, the software giant will offer the Xbox Music, which owners of the hardcore gaming console will start enjoying Tuesday this week.

HTC will be coming up with the latest smartphone called as HTC Desire SV aka Magni, which supports dual-SIM function. This device is a mid-range device and has the model detail as T326e.

The HTC Sensation XL is a larger version of the HTC Sensation XE, which by itself is an upgrade to the original HTC Sensation. HTC Sensation XL is branded as one of the costliest Android smartphones in the world. On the other hand, the LG Optimus EX is one of the powerful devices from LG which packs a dual core processor in it as well.

Some of Australian retailers will reduce their online prices for 24 hours on Nov 20 in a sales promotion called Click Frenzy. The promo is patterned after the U.S.'s Cyber Monday shopping holiday.

ANZ Bank joined the rest of the big four on Friday by announcing a 20 basis points rate cut for its standard variable rates. With the decision, ANZ pockets 5 basis points out of the 25 basis points cut made by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) last week.

Google's partnership with Samsung for a tablet computer is expected to yield some cutting-edge component tech, one of which is the pixel-packing display.

Mobile phone users thinking of getting the newly announced Galaxy S III mini because it has 8GBs of RAM may need to look again. The official specifications on the Samsung Web site lists the model as having 8Gb of RAM, which could misleading because that actually stands for gigabits, and not gigabytes. Eight gigabits is equivalent to 1 gigabyte, or 1GB.

Apple has become so arrogant that it deliberately ignores glaring consumer preferences, according to the tech giant’s co-founder Steve Wozniak.

The Australia Post reported on Thursday that it registered an overall yearly net profit of A$281 million or a 17 per cent rise compared to a year ago. The significant increase in its income, while its counterparts in the U.S., UK and Canada are suffering due to technology, is mainly due to Australians' growing love for online shopping.

First Australia then the United States, now China’s Huawei Technologies must contend anew with fresh regulatory hurdle that likely would come from another key market – Canada.

In less than four weeks, Microsoft is set to launch Window 8, which would likely result in the web being flooded with prices of new PCs suited to the latest OS.

As Microsoft moves from Windows 7 to 8, the tech giant is faced with the huge task of teaching people how to use the new operating system, CNET reports. Leaked training videos give a peek of how Microsoft intends to accomplish that huge task.

The new iPhone 5 will be so hot of a gadget that Apple is destined to rack up total sales of 135 million units by the end of 2012 and one analyst credits the smartphone’s incredible engineering for the feat.

Global consumers appear to continue their migration from conventional personal computers as new data from research firms showed PC sales shrunk anew in the September quarter of the current year.

Toyota Australia has recalled almost 300,000 vehicles to correct a defect with the cars' power windows in one of the largest recalls in automotive history.

A Frenchwoman got the shock of her life when her service provider billed her €11.721 quadrillion. Solenne San Jose of Bordeaux, upon receipt of the bill - which is almost 6,000 times France's yearly gross domestic product - immediately called Bouygues Telecom to verify the amount being collected.

Australia is clearly on the road to one million homes having solar photovoltaic panels installed, the chief adviser to the Sustainable Energy Association (SEA) said on Wednesday. To help reach that goal is the opening of the 10-megawatt Greenough River Solar Farm in Western Australia.

Microsoft's notorious Patch Tuesday has been replaced by Update Tuesday, at least for Wednesday, Oct 10, as the company makes sweeping alterations to Windows 8 and its core apps.

A new topnotch car model is slated to join Opel Australia’s present domestic product lines, the European carmaker said in a press release issued on Wednesday.

Facebook are currently added two more buttons, especially made for business people who wants to start or currently has an online store.

There's a trend at work in Lenovo's new convertible family of Windows 8 computing products: the names all suggest what they do, and the theme of flexibility.

Even Microsoft has conceded that Apple’s business model, carefully crafted by its late CEO Steve Jobs, is a rousing success and based on the latest notes from chief executive Steve Ballmer, the software giant is adopting the same approach, much of it at least.

Mary Retallack, a wine grape scientist from Adelaide Hills, was declared on Tuesday the top winner of the 2012 Australian Rural Women's Award. She was recognised for her efforts to help improve the potential of women in the wine industry and rural sector.

Key Microsoft executives took pay cuts in the last financial year for missing corporate goals, according to the latest regulatory filing by the software giant.

We can call the dogfight between Motorola Droid RAZR HD and HTC One X+ as the race of marginal Android players for obvious reasons: the Android business sphere, despite its smartphone dominance, has so far spawned very few profitable actors.

The sales of the Toyota Motor Corp. in the country of China have been down by nearly 40 percent in the month of September as compared to the previous year. The sales of some of its rival companies like BMW and Hyundai however soared high in China. This fact of Toyota's China sales fall reveals how badly the two countries have been struck by their ongoing territorial row.

Nokia is struggling to regain its old footing and is placing most of its future bets with Microsoft but few analysts believe that the Finnish phone maker will rediscover the narrow road to recovery.

The next Nexus phone will appear this month, produced by LG, CNET reports. This will be the first time Google has teamed up with LG and it should help the latter break into the U.S. market. The phone is expected to be heavily influenced by the LG Optimus G.

Much like the battle in the mobile phone space that resulted in three companies - Nokia (NOK), Motorola (GOOG) and one time mobile phone vendor Ericsson (ERIC) - controlling the industry, the smartphone market is now consolidating around its top players. That means market share loss and margin pressure for others.