Vittorio Hernandez

Just when the resources industry in Australia was anticipating a further improvement in iron ore prices, reports said that the price of the key steelmaking ingredient plummeted to a 14-month biggest daily drop to $145.40 a tonne.

The Australian sharemarket managed to improve for the second time this week today, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) up 0.5 per cent or 22 pts to 4765.0. Today was the busiest day on the market in terms of volume so far this year; with $4.12 billion worth of shares exchanging hands.

While NASA had been on a long vacation from moon journeys and a Dutch company aims to send the first inhabitants from earth to the planet Mars by 2023, Russia is playing catch up as global interest in the space grows.

The company Doist developed a productivity app called Todoist which is available on a mobile device, desktop, browser, Gmail, and many more. Now used by over 450,000 people, the app was named top mobile application by The Guardian and cited by The Next Web as among the 35 best productivity apps for 2013.

A 12-metre, 45-tonne dead male sperm whale washed up on the Paraparaumu Beach in Kapiti Coast, New Zealand on Wednesday. A whale expert said the mammal probably died after suffocation.

Apple, the tech giant, is cutting orders of screens and other components used to manufacture iPhone devices due to weak sales of the iPhone 5. Its rival, Samsung marches on as the company reached the 100 million mark of Galaxy S sales in the mobile market.

The Australian share market lifted slightly in morning trade, with gains in banking and health care stocks covering the losses for our big name miners and energy players.

It is a search function in a beta mode that would allow members to search information posted by their friends, not a smartphone. Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg's announcement on Tuesday at the company's headquarters dashed weeks of rumours that the most popular social media company would soon roll out a mobile device.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard will retain religious rights law which legally allows gay discrimination in Australia. Reports said that she has assured religious groups that a new rights bill will keep current law that permits faith-based organisations to refuse employment to people they view as sinners, including gays and lesbians.

All eyes are on the Thursday, Jan 17 airing of Oprah Winfrey's show featuring the admission of cyclist Lance Armstrong that he used performance-enhancing drugs.

The McCusker Alzheimer's Research Foundation in Perth is seeking 400 males aged 60 and above who will participate in a 14-month trial using a combination of testosterone and fish oil believed to prevent or postpone Alzheimer's.

Despite the shift by Chinese steelmakers to use more local iron ore, mining giant Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) is not fazed and hopes to cash in on anticipated renewed Chinese demand amid rising prices of the commodity.

Local stocks ended slightly lower on Tuesday. Market news was a less a factor behind the weaker tone, rather it was a couple of unsuccessful attempts to make new session highs in the morning that provided sellers with some encouragement and over the course of the afternoon the index lost ground.

The Australian sharemarket is off to a positive start for the second consecutive session, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) up 0.2 per cent or 8.1 pts to 4753.8. Global markets overnight ended mostly higher, with the Dow up 0.14 per cent, while shares in Germany and France also improved modestly.

There are hundreds of thousands of application that can be downloaded from Google Play and iTunes for their respective devices. Before, most of these applications are exclusive to either Android or iOS, but now, developers have optimised their applications to make them usable to both OS platforms, increasing their target market users.

The GooPhone is the Chinese nemesis of Apple because their products resemble iOS devices. If the Apple has iPhone 5, they have GooPhone i5.

iPhone's steady hold on the smartphone market is growing weaker as months go by in the never-ending battle against Android mobile devices. The signs of weakness begin to show as Apple cut the orders of screens and other components by 50 per cent.

Based on his interests, eight-division title holder and Filipino boxing champion has seven likely career options once he retires from the ring. These are as politician, soldier, singer, emcee, actor, pastor and commercial endorser.

A hair removal method that allows people to wear the tiniest bikini bottoms sans peeking pubic hair or unsightly leg hair is to be blamed for public lice becoming endangered species.

While Australian miners are happy with the strengthening of iron ore prices in the global market, their glee may be short lived. Reports said that in response to iron ore price rising to $158.50 a tonne from a low of $86 in 2012 has prompted Chinese steelmakers to prefer domestic supplies.

Local stocks edged higher in a session that delivered few insights, although the overarching tone for markets appears reasonably constructive. At face value it appears as though the main risk would be skewed towards investors being underweight (local) stocks as prices grind higher. This view will be put to the test later in the week with several key data releases locally and elsewhere, in addition to the 2nd week of the US reporting season and a Bernanke speech, all of which could have a durable...

The strengthening price of iron ore in the global market which resulted in share prices of three major mining companies go up has led to speculations that Australia's mining boom may be making a comeback.

The Australian sharemarket has kicked off the week in positive territory, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) up 0.2 per cent or 10.6 pts to 4744.4 at lunch. Japanese markets are closed today for Coming of Age Day; a day which celebrates those in Japan turning 20. Mixed performances from global markets last week, with shares in the U.S (Dow) up 0.4 per cent, Australia's ASX200 slipped by 0.38 per cent while French and German shares slipped by 0.5 per cent.

Dropbox for Android released an update to make sharing of photo or collection of photos easier. The feature allows the user to create new album from any image within the Dropbox and share it throughout the Android intents system. Dropbox can now share folders or individual pictures inside to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Gmail, and more.

ZTE Nubia Z7 and Huawei Ascend Mate which will have 6.3-inch and 6.1-inch of screen displays, respectively, will soon be released. Apparently, it is now the trend for larger, bigger, and "HD-er" screens to show which smartphones offer powerful and dominant features among the different models available in the market.

For all users of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 in both 10.1 and 7.0 variants, the much-awaited Android 4.1 Jellybean update has been released for both devices.

Shape developed an All-in-One Instant Messaging app which supports several chat servers in one location. The app is called IM+ which is available to Android, Blackberry, and iOS platforms in both trial and paid versions.

While most reality TV contestants like those in Big Brother get booted out one by one until the last few finalists battle it out for the top prize, winners in a reality TV with a trip to Mars as the prize will get booted out of Earth permanently.

There is now more pressure for Australian banks to pass in full to borrowers any overnight cash rate cuts that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) would make in 2013.