BUSINESS

Speculations are all fired up that apart from the quad-core Galaxy Note 8.0, Samsung will spring a giant surprise via the 2013 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and unleash the behemoth of a smartphone called the Galaxy Note 3.

The Australian sharemarket kicked off the session and the week largely flat, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) down just a few points. At lunch however, the XAO is managing to edge higher by 0.10 per cent or 6.9 pts to 4996.3. It will be interesting to see if the ASX 200 Index (XJO) and the XAO can crack through the 5000.0 mark and remain above that level for the first time in years.

Australians who have travel plans to China are advised to take precautionary measures as the country's health ministry announced two people have been inflicted with the H5N1 bird flu virus.

-Royal Wolf attracts Buy rating-Strength in spread of exposure-Leveraged to construction recovery-Resource sector demand still growsBy Eva BrocklehurstRoyal Wolf ((RWH)), a provider of portable containers with a curious name, has received a Buy recommendation with the initiation of coverage by Deuts...

To date, Apple has kept under wraps its plans for the next iPhone iteration but the tech giant’s numerous suppliers seem unable to contain their excitement over the upcoming Apple handsets – the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 6.

Over two months into global circulation, Nexus 4 has already passed the one million mark in overall shipments, based on the estimates provided by one forum member at XDA Developers.

Apple is planning to welcome the Facial Recognition tool as part of iOS device unlocking system. Currently, iPhones use passcodes to protect unwanted individuals to access the device. But Apple is concerned that thieves have easy ways to get around these codes.

by Alexander Green, Investment U Chief Investment StrategistWell, it had to happen eventually. The average punter is finally returning to the stock market.

With Valentine's Day just four days away, couples from different parts of the world are surely preparing ways how to spend love day in a romantic way.

Diamonds Are Forever….Extremely Expensive

European Union leaders are on the edge of agreeing to the terms of cutting costs after David Cameron proposed cuts by approximately €30 billion in the seven-year budget package. The European cuts will be briefed and decided over all-night talks in Brussels.

With the economic recovery of China on the horizon, analysts are forecasting higher earnings for Australian miners if iron ore's current price of $150 per tonne would be sustained for the next few months.

Local stocks ended the week on a sound footing as investors continued to push the index towards the 5000 mark. The re-emergence of European political risk has been one of the main themes for investors globally this week. The local experience suggested that investors were willing to support the market in the face of the modest amount of weakness that was on offer in recent days.Some of the main points of the day included, The stock market hitting a 22-month high, miner Newcrest reporting half yea...

Swiss bank Credit Suisse informed that it would further cut costs as it saw its fourth quarter profits be lower than initially expected. As it was highlighted, the fourth quarter profits slumped as the investing business of the bank proved to be frail.

Perth Property Scammers: Could It Happen Again?

All this week we've been on a mission for you, dear reader. We've been looking for the one sector or industry that's going to drive the Australian share market higher with breakthrough earnings and profits. But maybe we've been looking in the wrong place. Maybe it's a simple as Japan.

Side by side, the Nexus 4 and the Optimus G, both manufactured by LG, are one and the same. But many experts insist the latter easily beats the former in the display rendering contest due to the disparate tweaks used by Google on its signature smartphone.

In the business world, social media is emerging as the great equalizer, especially for small businesses who are flocking to it like . . . well . . . social butterflies.

On the 7th of February, the government of India informed that economic growth would slow down to 5 percent in the fiscal year ending March.

While the big four in Australia in 2012 defied the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) policy decision on overnight cash rate by pocketing some of the rate cuts instead of passing it fully to borrows, the banks appear to have a different approach for 2013.

The Australian sharemarket is improving for the third consecutive session, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) up 0.2 per cent or 11.6 pts to 4967.4, despite a slow start to this morning. Over the past five trading sessions, the XAO has edged higher by almost 0.5 per cent. If the market can maintain its gains for the duration of the session and economic news out of China doesn't disappoint this afternoon, this will make it four consecutive weeks of improvement.

New image renders of the fifth generation iPad suggest Apple is trimming down on the overall size and heft of the upcoming slate without touching its original screen size of 9.7 inches.

Imagine navigating through your smartphone without even touching it? Samsung would love to see such feature via the upcoming Galaxy S4 and the South Korean company is not thinking about a Siri-like addition to its next flagship mobile device.

LG’s Optimus G will soon hit Australian shores but the South Korean is prepping another gorgeous handset that for sure Aussies wouldn’t mind tinkering with – the 5.5-inch LG Optimus G Pro.

Samsung is already used to rumours spreading about every single device it makes, and it cannot be helped if fans, critics, and loyalist keep on looking on every move from the South Korean tech giant.

Motorola is really pushing hard for the updates of its devices that run on Android OS. Since the start of 2013, Motorola has been rolling out updates for Droid RAZR and RAZR Maxx, but still a lot more needs to be done to finish updates for all devices that belong to the RAZR family.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini has easily gained its Jellybean 4.1.2 update, unlike with other devices that were released before it. It is now added to those smartphones list which has received a new update with new features added. Samsung is keeping its word that updates are running on all their devices.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 42 points, or 0.3%, while the S&P lost 0.2% to 1509 and the Nasdaq eased back 0.

The local share market consolidated against a mixed picture for International and regional indices on Thursday. Local employment data generated conversation about the RBA's next move on rates whilst corporate news was on tap from a host of corporates including National Australia Bank and Telstra.