BUSINESS

By Rudi Filapek-Vandyck, Editor FNArenaI joined Twitter. Not because I am curious what this celebrity has to say about her kids, or to read that another one is waiting for a connecting flight, impatiently.

To avoid paying a hefty $17.3 billion fine, South Korean tech giant Samsung offered to the European Union (EU) not to engage in a legal patent war with its rivals for five years.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 2 points while the S&P gained 0.7% to 1733 and the Nasdaq added 0.6%.No one was entirely sure just how Wall Street would react last night to the reopening of the US government on a can-kick basis.

According to reports, Samsung Galaxy Note 12.1 will be the biggest of its kind. Others go as far as saying it will be the monster tablet. What does Samsung have up its sleeves?

At long last, the news we have all been waiting for. The United States House of Representatives has passed a bill that will see the re-opening of government and raise the US debt ceiling. The House voted 285-144 in favour of the legislation after the Senate earlier passed the bill 81-18. The agreement will see the US Federal Government reopen after being shut for the past 17 days and will remove the debt issuance restrictions. As government departments reopen tomorrow, we will get a clearer idea...

The World Bank has cut its forecast for India's economic growth from 6.1 percent to 4.7 percent in this fiscal year, citing a sharp slowdown in manufacturing and high interest rates as the key factors driving down investment.

Struggling Taiwanese phone manufacturer HTC has taken the phablet market by storm. The smartphone maker is entering the phablet market by launching its latest plus sized version of its award-winning HTC One handset. Looks like gigantic displays are something buyers recognize as worth of having.

The time has come when Smartwatches will take over. They are surely the much talked about gadget at the moment. And with Sony and Samsung already in the combat can we expect Google to stay away?

Seems like no one wants an Apple iPhone cheap or at least it looks like, even a cheap Apple iPhone is way too expensive. Experts had feared that iPhone 5c would eat into the market share of the premium model iPhone 5s. For all its promise to offer customers, unable to afford the premium variety, the iPhone experience, the iPhone 5c has failed to impress

The Australian sharemarket is higher for the third day, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) 0.2 per cent stronger. This as the US Senate has voted to not only reopen the government after 16 days of closure, but also to temporarily raise the debt ceiling. The House of Reps is expected to vote next.

People who want to buy tech products as Christmas gifts during the yearend holidays but have limited funds could still make their friends and relatives happy when they unwrap their gifts.

Samsung group had set its Galaxy S5 release date amidst losing cases against Apple Inc.

Higher demand from China boosted the iron ore production of mining giant Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) in the third quarter. The company produced 53.4 million metric tonnes of iron ore compared to 52.6 million metric tonnes for the same quarter in 2012.

More than half of employees working at the largest fast-food chains in the U.S. are earning so little in wages that they must rely on some sort of public assistance to get by, according to a new study co-published by the University of California-Berkeley and the University of Illinois on Tuesday.

What he's referring to is that the supply of Australian housing should rise as prices do. He's worried about affordability for developers, not buyers. That's fair enough...if you want to ignore the other half of the supply and demand equation.

Infographic: 21 Shocking Facts About Food Waste In The US

Tokyo, Toyota comes out with news on their next generation cars. Among them is a car with an auto pilot system they say.

Effective summer of 2014, American Airlines will be flying direct to China from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

Steve Jobs’ first girlfriend, Chrisann Brennan, pens her memoir - The Bite in the Apple: A Memoir of my Life with Steve Jobs

A relatively new Chinese phone firm, Xiaomi, appears to have broken global record in smartphone sales after it sold the first batch of 100,000 MiPhone 3 smartphones and 3,000 MiTV sets on Wednesday noon at its Web site. The phones were snapped in just 83 seconds, while the TVs in 118 seconds.

Rather than assure phone owners that the company won't fold up, BlackBerry's Tuesday advertisement in 30 newspapers did the opposite, based on reactions posted in social media sites.

By Greg PeelThe Dow rose 205 points or 1.4% while the S&P gained 1.4% to 1721 and the Nasdaq added 1.1%.

One of the noteworthy developments of the last day has been the announcement by the Fitch ratings agency that it was placing the US's AAA sovereign rating on ´´rating watch negative´´, This suggests a greater chance a credit rating downgrade, in fact a 1 in 2 chance , compared to 1 in 3 chance implied by a "negative outlook".

Apple Inc, named most valuable brand and most innovative company in 2013, is predicted to drop to third place in market share for smart phones in 2015. This is according to a fearless forecast by Seeking Alpha's Adrian McCarroll who based his statements on current smart phone trends.

Utilite, a mini computer, is going to be available for as low as $99.

Despite being too big to be smartphones and too small to be tablets, phablets continue to gain in popularity among consumers who may appreciate the screen larger than a regular mobile phone or whose pocketbook is not large enough to purchase a tablet or a laptop.

The local markets has done it all in the first half of the session, with stocks down by as much as 0.5 per cent early on, trading flat more recently and currently up by just a few points at lunch. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is up by around 0.2 per cent.

By Peter Switzer, Switzer Super ReportThe path for term deposits will be a good indicator for when it will be time to cut your exposure to the stock market and I suspect that we're now at the bottom of the interest rate cycle.

Apple sends out press invites for Oct 22 iPad, Mc Pro and Mavericks Event