Vittorio Hernandez

Every day counts a lot for both borrowers and Australian banks for each day that the latter fails to pass, whether in full or partially, the 25-basis points overnight cash rate reduction made by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) on Tuesday, Dec. 4.

Western Australia Treasurer Troy Buswell is again in hot water due to his alleged lewd behaviour towards Perth businessman Nicholas Kailis. The joke-gone-wrong on Mr Kailis, managing director of Kailis Brother, actually happened at a private function a year ago.

Local stocks enjoyed a solid end to the trading week, following positive offshore moves and strong gains from blue chip stocks. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) finished the session firmer by 40.2pts or 0.9pct to 4555.9, its highest close since the 19th October.

The Australian sharemarket is improving for the third time this week, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) gaining by 0.8 per cent or 36.5 pts to 4552.2. All sectors bar the utilities are higher, with the miners and financials leading the rise.

In November, an agreement between Apple and HTC about patent forbade the Taiwanese company to make and sell mobile devices that copies what is described as Distinctive Apple User Experience. With the deal, the two tech companies settled their most outstanding patent disputes in a settlement that includes a 10-year agreement with current and future licenses and patents between each other.

It doesn't take a techie Nostradamus to predict that the evolution of the mobile industry will be unstoppable with streaming technological innovations and influence of the growing consumers adapting to the tech age.

Google's Nexus 4 is now sold out at the Google Play Store. U.S. buyers who want to purchase the device could instead order the item from T-Mobile online stores which sells the 16GB model of Nexus 4 with a two-year service contract for $399.

PacX Wave Glider, the self-controlled swimming robot, reached Australia on Thursday, Dec 6, after a 9,000-nautical mile journey from San Francisco over one year.

A study by the Institute de Veille Sanitaire in France, released on Thursday, found that for the years 1989 through 2005, the sperm count in one millilitre of an average 35-year-old Frenchman dropped to 50 million from 74 million.

After creating controversy a few weeks ago for suggesting that Australians should stay away from pubs so they would be financially better off, Gina Rinehart's latest advice to young Aussies will likely be a trending topic again in news programmes and social media.

The same theme that has marked the last fortnight continued to hold sway over sentiment in global markets in the last day. The impact of economic reports has been fleeting, as investors continue to school themselves in the nuances of US politics as a way gauging chances of success in resolving the fiscal cliff. Reasonable economic news from the US was balanced by some more aggressive posturing on resolve budgetary issues.

Despite positive moves from blue chip stocks on Wall Street overnight, the Australian share market is trading in the red at lunchtime in the East. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is down 3.2pts or 0.1pct to 4524pts.

At the yearly HITB Security Conference in Malaysia in October, familiar and new faces participated in the iOs jailbreak discussion. The appearance of known experts such as iPhone Dev-Team members @MuscleNerd and @planetbeing and Chronic Dev-Team member @pod 2g as well as unknowns such as Azimuth founder Mark Dows aka @mdowd, are indicators of how popular jailbreaking has become.

Besides bringing back the Sony Xperia S to the store shelves, the Japanese technology giant is also providing a JellyBean update for the model. Sony Mobile UK said an update for Android 4.1 will be open in mid-December. The news was actually announced in October. With the confirmation, Sony Xperia S may be the first to receive a golden update of Android 4.1 and owners of Sony Xperias T, TX, and V could expect updates soon. For overall Sony Xperia devices, a possible development for updates will ...

Does your husband or boyfriend have the classic masculine features such as a wide, angular jaw, a square chin and prominent brow? According to Australian researchers, males with these features are likely cheaters on their marriages or relationships.

Both Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and major Australian banks' moves have been easy to predict in terms of overnight cash rate reductions and the response of the local lenders.

Readers of The Australian Traveller named on Tuesday night Sydney as the best Australian city in terms of travel experience, best restaurant, best bar and best guided tour.

A group of developers have been very resourceful and found ways how to unlock root access for almost every Ice Cream Sandwich-operated smartphones, which they made available in a forum in XDA Developers.

Another indicator of how technology has changed the habits of people, loo habits included, is that instead of reading newspapers or magazines while seated on the toilet bowl, young Americans are tweeting.

Political machinations and the associated rhetorical bluster continued on either side of the Atlantic in the preceding 24 hours. Outcomes in the related markets were favourable, to wit there was a sizeable drop in long term Greek interest rates along with more modest decline in Spanish and Italian rates. Strong gains for US house prices were registered in October, providing more evidence of the nascent recovery in US Housing.

Yahoo Chief Executive Officer Marissa Meyer hinted on Tuesday of the company's next plans about the booming mobile industry in relation to the Internet, which the company used to dominate several years ago.

In the pre-technology age, televiewers use the long stretch of time when commercials are shown for bathroom breaks or get some food or drinks from the refrigerator or pantry. Newspaper readers, in turn, simply turn the page or just ignore the print ads.

Popular blogging site Tumblr was hit on Monday by a malware attack which resulted in the posting of self-propagating and offensive measures on streams of users.

The Australian sharemarket is improving for the second time this week, however has trimmed gains following some worse than expected growth numbers. The Australian economy grew by 0.5 per cent in the September quarter (July to September), taking annual growth to 3.1 per cent. The market was hoping for 0.6 per cent to 0.7 per cent growth over the quarter. This adds to the barrage of negative economic readings over the past fortnight. The number of jobs advertised by Aussie businesses has fallen fo...

Two separate studies released this week present findings that would perplex nutrition advocates but make children happy. The reasons are that a new research from the Federico 2 University of Naples in Italy insists that French fries are healthy, while a review article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal said a chemical in grapefruit could be fatal to some people on certain medication.

Australian air passengers may soon find themselves on the same flight as mining billionaire Nathan Tinkler. The reason is that Mr Tinkler, who owns several companies, lost his $15-million private plane and corporate helicopter because of the collapse of a company he owns due to unpaid debts.

While embattled MP Craig Thomson has consistently denied that he misused Health Services Union (HSU) funds to pay for the services of prostitutes and the personal travel of his wife, it won't be his denial that could allow him to avoid prosecution.

The ASX200 attempted a rally in the first half hour of trade although the move faded quickly and the index lost ground over the remainder of the session. The weaker economic pulse from the US in addition to the war of words between politicians in relation to the fiscal cliff allowed sellers to get traction over regional indices, the majority of which ended in negative territory at the conclusion of the regional session.

The Australian sharemarket is a touch lower ahead of the Reserve Bank's interest rate decision this afternoon. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is down 0.2 per cent or 10.0 pts to 4530. Most of the market is now trading in the red, with the energy and mining sectors the biggest drags on trade.