Vittorio Hernandez

Gartner's third quarter report for 2012 released on Thursday showed that South Korean tech firm LG remained in fifth place in overall global mobile phone sales by vendors.

To ensure growth and carving for Australia a bigger niche in the multibillion-dollar global industry, Australian Arts Minister Simon Crean announced on Thursday the creation of the Australian Interactive Games Fund.

Australia's woes with its farm animals raised for their meat appears to be unending. After 21,000 Australian sheep were culled in October in Pakistan over suspicions of bacterial contamination, another 50,000 chickens in New South Wales were quarantined this week by state authorities.

South Australia failed on Wednesday to decriminalise prostitution due to the lack of one vote. The state Parliament's lower house vote 20-19 in favour of retaining the present law on sex trade.

The Australian sharemarket lost ground for the third time in four days, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) falling by 0.9 per cent or 40.1 pts to 4370.6. So far, this has been the worst performance by the local market in half a year while shares are also trading at around two-month lows.

Local stocks have hit a seven week low in the early session, dragged down by more falls on US and European markets overnight. Key banking, energy and mining stocks are all in the red, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) down 45.5pts or 1pct to 4365.2.

Anyone who has a mobile phone probably owned at least one Motorola unit in his lifetime. Motorola used to be the global leader in mobile phone sales in the 1990s until Nokia, Apple and Samsung stepped up their game and caused Motorola sales to plummet. Based in Schaumburg, Illinois, Motorola lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, which caused the company to be divided into two independent units, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions.

The Android dominates the global smartphone market. A recently released Gartner report found that for the third quarter of 2012, Android comprised 72.4 per cent of mobile sales worldwide.

The popular British TV programme, Embarrassing Bodies, is rating high in Australia. Experts explain the rise in popularity of the medical show to Australian audiences to various reasons, ranging from the need to know more about ailments to voyeurism.

With the Christmas shopping season about the begin, Australians would have an alternative way to purchase goods without bringing cash or credit cards. All they need is their photo ID under a new in-store payment system announced by PayPal on Wednesday.

As Australia and the United States refocus their priorities toward Asia, Washington will move a powerful radar to Australia from Antigua and a space telescope under a bilateral space deal between the two nations.

The selling of recent sessions subsided for regional stocks today, although investors remain vigilante. The price action on global markets in the last day has been less than encouraging. Political developments on either side of the Atlantic will continue to be the main influence of sentiment in the near term.

The Australian sharemarket started the day in mixed fashion; however is currently improving thanks in part to some solid economic numbers. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is up 0.1 per cent or 5.1 pts to 4409.3. The energy, mining and industrial sectors are trading in the red while other sectors are higher. This is the first time in five sessions the local market is improving.

For the Friday, Nov 16, release of the HTC One X+, AT&T started to take pre-orders for what is considered now the captain of the HTC football team. HTC is counting on the expansion of its HTC One series through the extra affordable unit, to boost its position in the global marketplace for smartphone.

Sony, once one of the leading electronic brands in the world, has slipped in comparison to other telecom companies such as Apple and Samsung in terms of sales and popularity of products. However, the Japan-based company could still count on the strong features of its products in a bid to reassert its place in the marketplace. For 2013, Sony targets to ship 50 million Xperia smartphones, relying mainly on Xperia T and TL, which were featured in Skyfall, the latest James Bond movie.

The ICT skills shortage in Australia is expected to worsen as fewer students enroll in computer technology courses and just barely half complete their ICT courses.

The South Australian (SA) government provided on Tuesday some relief to mining giant BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP) by granting it a four-year extension to decide on the multibillion dollar Olympic Dam expansion project.

In view of the continuous decline in Coalition leader Tony Abbott's approval rating from Australian voters, the Liberals have urged him to change tactics. They believe he should focus on promoting his vision for the country rather than merely criticising the federal government led by Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

The Australian sharemarket had its biggest fall since 23 July, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) slumping by 1.5 per cent or 65.7 pts to 4404.2. Shares ended in the red for the fourth straight session; making it the longest losing streak for our market in four months. Relatively disappointing economic news out this morning also did the market no favours.

Local stocks are trading in the red again today, following a lacklustre offshore lead and a new report showing business conditions are at their lowest levels since May 2009.

With the speculated roll out of HTC Droid DNA, 5-inch devices such as Samsung's Galaxy Note II face a challenge in the marketplace. All eyes are in New York City if HTC and Verizon will confirm leaks of the Droid DNA, reportedly bearing some similarity to the HTC J Butterfly model announced in Japan several weeks ago.

After topping smartphone sales the past three quarters in effect taking away the smartphone crown from Apple, South Korean tech firm Samsung is now threatening to also dislodge the California-based company from its top spot in the tablet market.

Australian officials were recently crowing about becoming the global leader in solar power generation with the announced roll out of the $1.2-billion Western Downs facility.

The silver bullet that could probably end Coalition leader Tony Abbott's ambition to be Australian's next prime minister was likely fired several weeks ago when different powerful females accused him of misogyny. The impact of that silver bullet is now being felt as the latest Newspoll result said that Mr Abbott's voter support has plummeted at its lowest level in three years. The survey said 63 per cent of respondents are not satisfied with Mr Abbott's performance while only 27 per ...

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said on Monday that she will recommend to the governor-general the formation of a royal commission that would investigate child sex abuse by Catholic clergy and other religious groups, especially those committed in child institutions.

One of the features of the last trading week was the weakness of the US market in the aftermath of the US Presidential election. The main thrust of the selloff was driven by the uncertainty created by the US fiscal position, a situation increasingly referred to as the US 'Fiscal Cliff'.This combination of expiring tax cuts and cuts to government spending will result in a fiscal contraction of around $600mln which could take up to 4% off US growth in 2013 if unresolved by year end.

The Australian sharemarket kicked off the new trading week in the red, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) down by as much as 0.3 per cent within the first half an hour of trade. From 11.30am (AEDT) onwards however; the XAO has managed to stage a recovery and is now largely flat. The local market has lost ground for three straight weeks.

Despite cooling demand from China for steelmaking ingredients, Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) forecasts Chinese steel output would still hit 1 billion tonnes in the next 20 years.

Speed enthusiasts would be happy to know that top chipmaker Intel just launched a new processor called Itanium 9500 series which belongs to 64-bit family. According to Intel, the new processor offers up to 2.4 times performance scaling and 33 per cent faster Input and output speed versus its previous generation.