Vittorio Hernandez

Pope Benedict XVI hit hundreds of thousands of followers on Wednesday, Dec 12, on Twitter. The 85-year old Catholic leader sent a tweet which read, "Dear friends, I am pleased to get in touch with you through Twitter. Thank you for your generous response. I bless all of you from my heart."

It's not only Manny Pacquiao memes that are spreading over social networking sites in different parts of the world. Even before the Pac Man's humiliating defeat to Mexican boxer Juan Manuel Marquez on Saturday, another Pacquiao had her own share of memes in the Philippines.

The Dec 21, 2012 doomsday prediction based on the Mayan calendar has split the world with believers on one side and non-believers on the other side. Their course of action as the so-called apocalypse date fast approaches indicates how people view the prediction - either with disdain or belief.

Calls for a ban on the live cattle export of Australian animals raised for meat were made again following the showing of a video that proved brutal and inhumane way that Aussie cattle were culled. The video, secretly made by a journalist, showed the slaughterhouse workers used electric prods on the cows' eyes, genitals and anus.

Federal Court Justice Steven Rares threw out on Wednesday the sexual harassment case filed against disgraced House Speaker Peter Slipper by his former staff James Ashby in April.

Federal Court Justice Steven Rares threw out on Wednesday the sexual harassment case filed against disgraced House Speaker Peter Slipper by his former staff James Ashby in April.

'Gains by stealth' is one way of describing the local markets performance in recent days. Modest moves higher on successive days underpinned by similar volumes. The Australian share market traded at its highest level in close to 17 months amidst news flow that could be seen as positive if only for the fact that it didn't upset the applecart. An improved read on Germany's influential survey of business conditions was better than expected. In its commentary the author of the report, Th...

The Australian sharemarket is improving for the fourth day running, making it the longest winning streak in over a month. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is up 0.4 per cent or 17.6 pts to 4598.9.

The new Blackberry 10 which is scheduled to be released in Q1 of 2013 will include features of a platform-wide flow interface, new intelligent keyboard and camera application.

Instagram is getting better with its new update for both iOS and Android. The popular photo sharing app has been known for its many filters and functionalities with photo editing.

One of the Samsung flagship mobile devices which started the phablet line up devices just got an update of its Android version. Galaxy Note 2 was released only in October 2012.

For the many years that Filipino boxing champion Manny Pacquiao reigned in eight weight divisions, each fight was followed by a hero's welcome upon his arrival in Manila and General Santos City. The parade often included a courtesy call on then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. However, with his stunning and humiliating defeat on Saturday in the hands of Mexican boxer Juan Manuel Marquez, what will greet the Filipino Pac Man when he returns to the Philippines are countless memes and jokes ab...

After Indonesia, Bahrain and Pakistan, Israel is the new headache for Australia's live cattle export industry. ABC aired on Tuesday footage taken by Israeli journalist Ronen Bar, which were proof of the brutal and inhume way that Australian cows were slaughtered at the abattoir.

Westpac is embracing technology further by doing away with printed brochures and replacing them with iPads as part of the bank's major makeover. While the announcement spells bad news for the bank's printers, it represents a business opportunity for Apple since Westpac plans to have at least three iPads for customer use in each of 680 branches.

While many people believe the apocalypse prediction of the Mayan calendar would take place on Dec 21, majority of people see humour in the end-of-the-world prediction, while businesses hear the ka-ching of the cash register.

Local stocks continued to move in a positive direction today, boosted by positive offshore moves and firmer commodity prices. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) gained 18.9pts or 0.4pct by close to finish at 4581.3pts, its best finish since mid-October. The ASX 200 closed at 4576pts, its highest close for 2012.

The Australian sharemarket at lunch is improving for the third day running and for the ninth time in 12 sessions. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is up 0.5 per cent or 21.2 pts to 4583.6. The defensive healthcare and telco sectors are slipping modestly but all other industries are improving, with the miners the standouts.

The tech world is definitely excited for the Consumer Electronic Show 2013 scheduled on Jan 7-13 in Las Vegas. The show is expected to be different from previous editions as Microsoft steps away from its long-running keynote, and Samsung and QuallComm step in to fill the gap.

Google announced an update to the Google Maps API which will make it easier to insert vector-base maps into applications. This will provide developers better and more comprehensive set of tools to integrate maps into Android Apps.

The coming year, 2013, promises to be exciting times for the smartphone marker as innovations of hardware components and advance software features for smartphones are rolled out. Flexi phones, rolling screen, wireless control over drones, cars, and security cameras are what consumers should expect for the next 12 months in the mobile industry.

The joke over the royal prank call is not just on the British monarchs and the hospital where Kate Middleton is confined but has hit Southern Cross Austereo, the Australian company that runs 2Day FM. Reports said that as a result of the apparent suicide of Jacinta Saldanha, the nurse who answered the prank call from DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian and gave medical details, shares of the Southern Cross plummeted up to 8.1 per cent on Monday while the radio station is losing $100,000 a day in ...

With the December showing of the Peter Jackson-movie The Hobbits: An Unexpected Journey, interest in hobbits is on the rise again. On the same week that the movie starts to show in different global cities, an Australian anthropologist made public her use of forensic facial reconstruction methods to come up with a 2D image of the Flores hobbit.

In the run-up to the Dec 21, 2012 doomsday scenario caused by global concern over an end-of-the-world possibility based on Mayan calendar predictions, French authorities have prevented access to the Bugarach Mountain.

Australian miners are now resorting to tapping ants and termites - considered as pests by many households - to lead them to undiscovered gold deposits. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) research scientist Aaron Stewart explained that these small insects stockpile traces of heavy metal, including gold, on ant mounds, particularly located in deep underground nests in the Australian Outback.

Whilst several regional indices ended the session in the red, the general market atmosphere at the start of the week was constructive. The Dow and S&P 500 concluded last week on positive note following an upbeat government jobs report. US Non-farm payrolls gained by 146k in November (60K better than expected), although October job gains were revised lower.The unemployment rate dropped from 7.9% to 7.7%, the lowest since December 2008.

The Australian sharemarket is improving for the fourth time in six sessions, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) up 0.4 per cent or 17.6 pts to 4573.5. The defensive healthcare sector is the lone loser at lunch, with all other regions of the market edging higher. Better than expected job numbers in the U.S on Friday and strong economic news out of China yesterday is helping keep our market positive. There were around 50,000 more jobs created in November than expected in North America, while reta...

Droid RAZR M and Sony Xperia 10 users may now use an unofficial CM 10 custom rom.

Despite the emergence of several JailBreaking methods, there is no perfect one they will surely last forever without the iPhone suffering from lagging or bugs. Phone owners who are experiencing such technical glitches could try reversing the process.

The update is out for several Android mobile devices such as the ASUS Padfone 2, many Motorola units, and finally the LG Optimus 2x. The long wait among these devices is over and the standardisation of Android OS version is finally scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2013.