Vittorio Hernandez

There are reports that Facebook, the most popular social networking site, is in talks to acquire WhatsApp. The hit mobile messaging WhatsApp denied the report as a rumour.

With the recent release of Windows 8, all-in-one PCs with bend, twist, turn, and touch features are all over the market. These hardware capabilities are all state-of-the-art and considered breakthroughs in computer technology.

Analysts agree that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) would cut on its Tuesday, Dec 4, policy board meeting the overnight cash rate by 25 basis points to 3 per cent. The move would bring down the key lending rate to a three-and-a-half-year low or the same level in April 2009, the height of the global financial crisis.

Possibly to counter the growing global trend for young women to dress and look like the iconic Barbie doll, a UK toy company released in Australia Lottie, a doll whose physical proportion resembles that of girls who play with these dolls

Thousands of Russian truck drivers probably made the thumbs down sign and said "Nyet" (No in Russian) after they were stuck in a 200-kilometre gridlock over the weekend. The traffic jam along the M-10 motorway lasted for 44 hours and trapped more than 4,000 trucks. The gridlock was caused by heavy snow.

Woodside Petroleum announced on Monday that it is committed to buy a 30 per cent stake in the Leviathan offshore gas field for $1.3 billion. It would be Australia's largest foreign direct investment into Israel.

Not for the first time, Monday bore witness to one of those perverse circumstances where stocks rise in response to weaker economic news. The last week in the US was defined by a lack of progress in relation to the fiscal cliff, although Republicans and Democrats expressed confidence that the matter would be resolved in a timely fashion. Weekend developments in Washington saw an opening gambit being made by the Democrats, which was summarily dismissed by the Republicans. 'The game' has beg...

The Australian sharemarket is kicking off the new trading week in positive fashion, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) up 0.5 per cent or 22.3 pts to 4540.3. This adds to last week's 2 per cent rise; the local market's second straight week of gains.

A report by Malaysian daily The Star on Sunday said that the country logged 24 cases of electronic hacking involving RM3.3 million in losses. The hacking of smartphones took place between January and September 2012. The reports highlights the vulnerability of smartphones to cyber hacking and other malicious threats through the mobile phones' short messaging service (SMS) which is celebrating 20 years of use on Dec 3, Monday.

Several smartphone units are now capable of controlling other devices such as TVs, cable boxes and Blu Ray disc players. Usually, smartphones have built-in applications to perform such a task, but in some cases, applications can fill in and only require wireless connection to execute the task.

South Korean technology giant Samsung will release the world's first flexible smartphones in 2013, BBC reports. However, Samsung has yet to officially confirm if the new technology would be on the next Galaxy S or Galaxy Note smartphone or if it will roll out a new line of Galaxy Flexible smartphones.

Australian Resource Minister Martin Ferguson and Queensland Premier Campbell Newman are in India to sign a $10-billion agreement with the Indian company, The Adani Group, to develop a coal mining project in the Galilee basin.

Twenty years ago, 22-year-old British engineer Neil Papworth sent the message "Merry Christmas" to an Orbitel 901 mobile phone from his office computer. It was the world's first text message and since then the number of people who use the short messaging service on their cell phones had grown to 4 billion.

Sixteen Chinese miners were trapped on Saturday after a coal mine in Qitaihe City, Heilongjiang Province in northeast China was flooded. The 16 are among 22 miners deployed by the Furuixiang Coal Company.

Thanks to a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label whisky, 65-year-old Denis Duthie, a New Zealander, got his eyesight back after he became blind due to several drinks of vodka.

As the trading week wound down, regional markets were generally set to finish in positive territory. Notwithstanding various economic data points being released over the last 5 days, the overwhelming influence on market sentiment came from headlines related to political developments on the US fiscal Cliff. On that score the last 24 hours has yielded more optimism that US politicians will be resolve this critical matter in a timely fashion. They have 32 day left in which to deliver.

The Australian sharemarket is improving for the fourth time this week, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) up 0.5 per cent or 20.7 pts to 4510.8. Global market rose overnight thanks to mostly positive economic news. A report showed that the U.S economy continues to grow; the number of Americans filing to receiving jobless benefits fell and there were additional positive signs for the U.S housing market.

Before the computer age, viral was a term used to describe an infection caused by a virus. It was considered a scientific and medical term. Using the same principle of quick and widespread reach, people now refer to videos that are rapidly disseminated and spread via electronic communications as viral.

Sony announced on Thursday the return to store shelves of its Xperia Tablet S after it temporarily pulled out the units due to a technical glitch. With its return, the device's phablet war with a similar device, the Microsoft Windows Surface, is expected to be revived.

By the end of 2016, at least 17 million mobile phones will be using 4G services in Australia with the spontaneous growth of smartphones and other mobile devices using this kind of network. That means within four years, almost half of all mobile connections in the country will be on 4G LTE.

Competition between Australia's two major stock exchanges is becoming tougher as the Chi-X and ASX disclosed separately measures designed to snare a larger slice of the stock market amid a background of weak trading and poor investment sentiment.

A 43-year-old Melbourne woman resumed her natural ovulation after she underwent an ovarian tissue transplant. She is now six weeks pregnant and the 20th woman in the world and the first in Australia to become pregnant using the ground-breaking technique.

Australia's Asian Century white paper released on October 2012 appears to be a misnomer because the bulk of its focus is on one country in the continent - China.

The dust from Qantas's fallout with Tourism Australia over the alleged meddling of a private consortium at the air carrier's policies and decision has barely settled, yet new groups are in for the prowl ready to get a piece of the $40-million marketing deal with the airline.

After a brief pullback yesterday, the Australian sharemarket benefited from a late surge in American equities overnight. This was following positive comments relating to the U.S fiscal cliff in late trade. The market has been extremely sensitive to comments concerning these budget deficit problems, which U.S parliament has a little over a month to resolve.

Local stocks are recording positive gains at lunchtime in the East, despite a fairly flat start to the trading session. Overnight, Wall Street staged a remarkable comeback on hopes an agreement on the Fiscal Cliff could be reached before Christmas.

The latest smartphone sales data from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech released on Wednesday said that Apple regained the lead of smartphone sales in the U.S. market by garnering 48.1 per cent of total sales due to the release of iPhone 5.

Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Balmer disclosed at the company's shareholder's meeting that sales of Windows Phone 8 were off to a great start. He attributes it to the combination of new software and more powerful hardware which resulted in four times as many sales compared to the same period in 2011.

With the recent release of Windows 8 and record-breaking sales, upgraders should be aware of at least five issues they may encounter as they move from Windows 7 to Windows 8.