BUSINESS

China has tapped software company Canonical to come up with an open-source operating system for local use that will use the Ubuntu operating system. The OS, called Kylin, is slated for release in April.

The Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology and the University of Tokyo reported over the weekend the discovery of a large deposit of rare earths at the Minami Tori Shima Island on the easternmost part of the country. The deposit is reportedly 20 to 30 times more concentrated than rare earths deposits in China, which has the potential of breaking Beijing's monopoly of those types of resources.

Divorce is a tragedy which leads to the independence of two people. No doubt that Rita Mae Brown was right -a divorce usually revolves around cash.

Tech Web site Uswitch.com released on Sunday leaked photos of the iPhone 5s casing, which it said was initially uploaded at iPhone5Parts.

FNArena is surveying investor sentiment in Australia in an effort to generate, over time, a guage similar to the AAII Investor Sentiment Survey in the US.

Samsung is sticking to its plan – fill the world with brimming choices of mobile phones, and it appears the rumoured Galaxy S4 Mini is part of the Galaxy menu that is set to be served this coming April.

More exciting offers are coming from Samsung this year, aside from the flagship handsets, the Galaxy S4 and the Galaxy Note 3, that the tech giant is set to unleash successively.

Want some fame and fortune? Here's a shortcut to that route - make a high-tech condom for Bill Gates's Microsoft Foundation.

The Australian sharemarket managed to improve modestly for the first time this week, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) rising by just 0.1 per cent. Despite the gains, local shares slumped by 2.9 per cent over the past five sessions. Weakness from the miners continues to be a drag on trade, with iron ore prices slumping by around 15 per cent in just a month. The moves by BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Fortescue are quite closely correlated to iron ore price moves in general.

As the world shifts more toward a global economy, information technology plays a bigger role in making things easier for people, from communicating with people on the other continents to more complex tasks such as preparing reports.

Swedish fashion retailer H&M is set to expand in Australia, with its first store probably located in Melbourne, sometime in 2014.

Apple is proud of the mix of sturdy glass and solid aluminium shell that houses the iPhone, but the tech giant is also aware that a nasty fall can instantly wreck the popular smartphone.

McDonald's China has launched for its Chinese patrons the Sausage Double Beef Burger. Innovative? Perhaps. But is it healthy? Health experts surely think otherwise.

The second coming of Google’s Nexus 7 remains an Asus manufacturing duties and the two firms apparently on a May 2013 debut in which consumers will get LTE capability as among the major upgrades to come with the 7-inch slate.

Massive population numbers could perhaps come quite handy at times as the world's most poplous country, China, overtook Japan in 2012 to get ranked as the world's second-largest movie market, next to the United States.

Apple is all set for a Q3 2013 release of the iPhone 5S and its budget version, with the latter likely to carry a price tag of around $US329, new reports said.

Is it possible that Samsung’s inventory of the Galaxy Note 2 is running short of supply due to brisk sales movement, at least in select U.S. markets?

The Australian share market is trading higher at lunchtime, despite a negative start impacted by more falls on European and US share markets overnight.

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.

Apple’s iPhone 6 will get a better camera, a redesigned home button and a solid shell that protects the large-screen smartphone both from liquid intrusion and high falls, accidental or intentional, according to a newly published concept.

Americans today live like there's no tomorrow. You can see this in the data regarding retirement. People behave like they will never retire, and the prophecy is self-fulfilling. Under these conditions, they won't.

This latest move by Stayz has that same destructive grab and run feel about it. Sort of reminiscent of RealEstate.com.au all over again.

Newest preliminary data showed that China's manufacturing rebounded moderately in March after the world's second economy saw its factory activity slump in February due to the timing of the Lunar New Year holiday. The findings were welcomed with a relief as an increase in a key gauge might mean that the China's economy is after all on the road of recovery. Certainly, all this will help new Premier Li Keqiang to make the China's economy stand on its feet.

Property prices are rising quite strongly in Santiago, Chile's capital. The average "real" price of a new house in Greater Santiago rose by around 9% y-o-y to January 2013, according to the Chilean Chamber of Construction (CChC).

-The US to drive the global recovery- Europe to improve- China to firm- Italy not that big a riskBy Andrew NelsonThe global economy is finally on the road to full recovery, with positive conditions only accelerating over the years ahead.

By Greg PeelThe Dow fell 90 points, or 0.6%, while the S&P lost 0.8% to 1545 and the Nasdaq dropped 1.

Despite creeping into positive territory at times, the Australian market fell once again, with the All Ordinaries Index slipping 0.1 per cent to 4976.8. So far, this has been the biggest weekly pullback for the local market in 10 months, when the All Ords lost 5.62 per cent in just five days.

When Samsung unleashed the Galaxy S4 in New York last week, the company also provided a peek on what to expect for its future handsets. Automatically, Android watchers look to Galaxy Note 3, said to represent Episode 2 of the tech giant’s major gadget unpacking this year.

Despite a positive start on the back of gains on Wall Street and Europe overnight, the Australian share market is flat at lunchtime in the East.