BUSINESS

Facebook Inc.'s shares rose to new heights in more than a year as news of its astounding revenues in mobile ads is regarded as the turning point for comeback of the social networking giant in the stock market.

Smartphone price begins to decline regardless with the innovation in technology and strategic plans of manufacturers. Budget phones started to take over as the hottest niche in mobile industry and new vendors grow rapidly in their local territories. What would you do to get back the cash you've spent for your phone?

Qualcomm seems to be a runaway winner as it managed to tie the knot with Google’s Nexus 7.2 and Motorola’s upcoming X8. However, this does not mean the company has stopped working on increasing their market share in an industry dominated by Intel.

Google’s latest Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update started rolling out to devices like Nexus 10 beginning Wednesday. Following the announcement of the Jelly Bean update, Google also unwrapped the second generation Nexus 7. While Android 4.3 and new Nexus 7 continue to make headlines and garner positive feedback, the tech giant already mentioned plans of releasing Nexus 10 and Key Lime Pie.

China, the world's chief emitter of carbon dioxide greenhouse gases, is poised to invest 1.7 trillion yuan (AU$298 billion) to remedy the growing air smog pollution problem lording over its horizons which has killed thousands and sickened hundreds over the years. Specifically, the amount will be used to institute programmes and measures to combat the smog situation in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province.

BlackBerry just laid off 250 workers assigned at the company's product testing facility in Waterloo, Ontario. The cost-cutting measure is in response to BlackBerry's attempt to improve profits amid weak sales of its Z10 and Q10 smartphones.

The Australian share market is flat at lunchtime in the East, but remains on track for a weekly win of 1.3 per cent.

With the release of the new Google Asus Nexus 7.2, tablet competition became stiffer. Following months of hype and speculations, Google finally released their Google Nexus 7.2 last July 24. The device features improved specs including enhanced display and more high performing processor.

Sony’s Xperia i1 Honami smartphone started making headlines months ago when the company announced its 20MP camera and slim design. This time, reports point to a leak featuring the actual design of the smartphone including how the 20MP will look like.

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.

Samsung will not launch the Galaxy S5 until next year but concept photos and information leaks about the device started surfacing. For fans and interested users, a sneak peak of what the new Samsung S5 will look life featuring full aluminum has been sighted.

A male flight attendant who was sacked by Virgin Australia has won the second time around against the company. The air carrier lost an appeal to stop David Taleski from getting his job back after it fired him in October 2011 for growing his hair longer than permitted.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed up 13 points, or 0.1%, while the S&P gained 0.3% to 1690 and the Nasdaq jumped 0.

Apple continues to shock iPhone users, not with news of the company's lower-than-expected earnings, but a literal electric jolt. On Wednesday, a third victim of iPhone electrocution was rushed to the hospital when she was zapped while holding her smartphone made by the Cupertino-based tech giant. Reports said that the 28-year-old victim was holding the iPhone while at her Chatswood home when the electrocution happened at about 8 pm.

The school principal of the Indian school who served free lunch to its students, yet some unfortunately died due to pesticide poisoning, has been arrested on Wednesday.

Intel Corp announced last July 23 that it will be releasing a lineup of ultra-low-power chips. The new lineup will be based on the previous high performing Haswell micro-architecture. Offering power consumption as low as 4.5 W, the new processor from Intel will be supporting a number of 2-in-1 devices and hybrids.

Verizon Wireless and Motorola teamed up to release a brand new line of DROID Android smartphones. While the release is set for the United States as of the moment, it is only a matter of time before the DROID phones hit other markets just like how Samsung, HTC, and Apple have been doing. There are several reasons why people should check the latest Android mobile offerings.

A 28-year-old woman from Sydney was taken to the hospital after iPhone electric shock

Now that the newly-born son of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge has been named as His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge, designs of commemorative chinaware bearing his actual name have been released online and made available for pre-order for royal watchers and souvenir collectors.

Samsung and Google remain two of the biggest manufacturers offering Android-based products. Recently, both companies have been trying out the tablet market. Along with smartphones, tablets account for majority of the market share in tech these days. For this Android face off, we take a look at the Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 and the Google Nexus Asus 7C. Which is the better Android tablet?

People can now view photos taken from drones in new social networking platform, the Dronestagram

House prices in Australia rose to a three-year high in the June quarter, climbing by 2.8 per cent. Compared with 2012's data for the month of June, current house prices rose 5.4 per cent in one year. According to the quarterly report of the Australian Property Monitors (APM), this level of growth has not been seen since March 2010.

David Cameron issued a warning to Google, Yahoo and Bing if they do not start prohibiting internet queries for illegal images. Cameron said the law would rule over three companies by force if they refuse to ban the queries voluntarily.

Google invites for the July 24 even in San Francisco started circulating already. Sundar Pichai, the company’s head for Android and Chrome, will be hosting an early get-together on the same day. As Pichai will be leading the event, spectators can only guess that Google’s event will be revolving around Android and Chrome.

By Peter Switzer, Switzer Super ReportThere's a guy who comes on a TV show ? not mine! ? a few times a year and he always tells the viewers that all this debt that's driving stocks will end in tears.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 25 points, or 0.2%, while the S&P lost 0.4% to 1685 and the Nasdaq was flat.

The U.S. International Trade Commission barely makes headlines not until Samsung and Apple went all out filing lawsuits and patent cases all over. While American consumers do not often talk about the commission, that may soon change as the decision passed under it affects one of the most valued and popular consumer electronics company to date.

Haswell chips made waves when their supported devices offered longer battery life than any other devices. That is just the tip of the iceberg. Intel is now preparing for a new set of Haswell chips that can extend battery life longer that what their predecessors promised.

The Australian share market made it three wins in a row today, although it did shed earlier gains on the back of Chinese manufacturing data. At one point the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) was up by as much as 0.7 per cent after a quarterly earnings report from Apple in the US beat estimates. This week the All Ords is up 1.3 per cent.