BUSINESS

Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook wasn't lying about the "no Facebook phone" and instead released the first Facebook Home Launcher which is a software for Android, putting social networking on front and at the centre. What is Facebook Home and how does it work?

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has started working on a vaccine for the avian influenza A (H7N9) now gripping China, which has so far claimed five lives on Thursday. The number of people infected have likewise risen to 14 cases.

The Click Frenzy online sale in Australia is making a comeback. Organisers assured Aussie consumers that the crash would not happen again.

The Mazda 3 has taken top honours in the March new car sales figures, marking the end of the first quarter of 2013.

Facebook did not roll out a new smartphone on Thursday. Instead, the company unveiled the Facebook Home, a launcher for Android phones. The smartphone that has the launcher is HTC First, which will be sold by AT&T for $99.99 on a new two-year contact. Shipment on this AT&T exclusive begins April 12, but the U.S. carrier started taking pre-order on April 4, Thursday.

Central bank round-upBy Kathleen Brooks, Research Director UK EMEA FOREX.comCentral banks came to the fore today ? the BOJ stunned the market with its aggressive easing, the ECB's hands remain tied, the BOE stayed on hold and some Fed speakers reinforced the importance of today's NFP repor...

As techies await the shipment and availability of Samsung's Galaxy S4 in retail outlets, the South Korean tech giant is ensuring that more consumers could lay their hands on the device. To match Apple stores, Samsung will open retail boutiques in 1,400 Best Buy locations.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed up 55 points, or 0.4%, while the S&P gained 0.4% to 1559 and the Nasdaq added 0.

In the wake of the recent announcement by Whole Foods Market that the retailer will require the labeling of all foods containing genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) in its stores by 2018, many in the natural health community are now wondering, why the long wait?

Zynga Inc. had been looking to solve its problem and it seems that it finally found a way. The famous online game publisher finally informed that it would ingress the real-money gambling sector in the UK. Is this the end of Zynga's problems?

Local stocks followed Wall Street and European markets into the red today, as political jitters over North Korea and weak global economic data weighed on sentiment. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) closed near its lows of the day, down almost 1%.

And here we go again. The rivalry between Coca-Cola and PepsiCo seems to be endless and India is a new battlefield of the two soft-drink giants as PepsiCo Inc. will sponsor the Indian Premier League which is due to start on the 3rd of April.

As expected, the Australian market is losing ground following weakness from global equities overnight. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is down 0.6 per cent to 4937.4 at lunch. With only a day of trade remaining this shortened trading week, local share have slipped by around 0.9 per cent over the past four sessions.

For price sensitive techies, now is a good time to consider buying a new tablet or computer with technology firms and sellers offering bargain deals.

The avian influenza virus H7N9 has claimed another life in China as well as increased the number of infected people. Statistics as of Wednesday now put the number of dead people at 3, and 9 the number of infected.

The three technology giants in Japan have teamed up to develop a 5.2-inch OLED smartphone screen with a 1,080p resolution and ultra-sharp 423 pixels per inch. The joint venture, called Japan Display, is made up of Sony, Toshiba and Hitachi.

ADP and ISM data misses deal mild blow to USDBy Kathleen Brooks, Research Director UK EMEA FOREX.comThe problem with this US recovery and stock market rally is that no sooner are you lulled into a false sense of security that the economic recovery will continue then a data point reminds you that the...

The Parramatta government is planning to build the tallest building in Australia - a 90-storey skyscraper in New South Wales to be called Aspire. When built, it would stand at 336 metres.

Skype just reached a milestone by hitting 2 billion minutes of connections handled daily. To mark the important event, Skype released an infographic that shows the equivalent of 2 billion minutes in more practical terms.

Finnish game app developer Rovio said on Wednesday that it would launch mobile versions of the Angry Birds Friends on iOS and Android. It is the social version of the game that Rovio created for Facebook and has 60 million installs and 15 million monthly active users on FB.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 111 points, or 0.8%, while the S&P dropped 1.1% to 1553 and the Nasdaq fell 1.

Despite a positive start on the back of gains on European and US markets overnight, the local bourse was sold off today following chatter from two US Federal Reserve Presidents that the stimulus which has been supporting the US economy since the GFC could be wound back this year.

A study by Bitdefender released on Tuesday indicated more threats to Internet user privacy amid large jumps in adware, malware and Trojans that target Android devices.

Texting apps are taking away revenue from U.S. carriers, estimated by market research firm Ovum to have reached $23 billion by the end of 2012.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged the global populace to refrain from panicking over the new bird flu pandemonium in China even as the number of infected has added four new cases on Tuesday, taking the total of reported cases now to seven.

The Changing Definition of Safe Investments

Let's begin this week's reckoning with some lip service for the performance of the S&P 500. America's big blue chip index was up 10% in the first quarter. It made a new all-time high late last week when it closed at 1569. It took six long years from the 2007 high until now. But we made it!

Despite a slightly stronger start to the session for the 2nd day running (something which hasn't happened in 4 weeks), the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is 0.2 per cent or 8.6 pts lower to 4986.9. Shares slumped by 2.7 per cent in March, making it the worst month of trade since May 2012.

Amid speculations that Nokia will roll out the Lumia 928 in April on Verizon Wireless, Techno Buffalo cited on Wednesday an WPCentral report that the successor to the Lumia 928 and 920, the Lumia 950, is coming out soon.