BUSINESS

In what seemed to be a subtle way of overturning Google's dominance in the search engine arena on the World Wide Web, Facebook launched on Tuesday its New Graph Search that enables its more than 1 billion users discover people, photos, places and interests. Well, at least for now.

The Australian share market lifted slightly in morning trade, with gains in banking and health care stocks covering the losses for our big name miners and energy players.

There are no supply issues hampering the production of Nexus 4, a South Korean official of LG told a Chinese publication this week, dismissing reports that the Google smartphone stock outs were mostly caused by a supply chain that is erratic and scarce.

It is a search function in a beta mode that would allow members to search information posted by their friends, not a smartphone. Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg's announcement on Tuesday at the company's headquarters dashed weeks of rumours that the most popular social media company would soon roll out a mobile device.

Rio Tinto PLC, the world's second largest mining company, informed that it would expand iron ore production by approximately 15 percent as it saw its 2012 output grow to about 253 million tons, topping its earlier forecast. The strong results were pushed mainly by the revival in China's demand for iron ore.

Despite the shift by Chinese steelmakers to use more local iron ore, mining giant Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) is not fazed and hopes to cash in on anticipated renewed Chinese demand amid rising prices of the commodity.

By Rudi Filapek-Vandyck, Editor FNArenaA late rally pushed the S&P500 1.66 point into the positive to close at 1472.

Local stocks ended slightly lower on Tuesday. Market news was a less a factor behind the weaker tone, rather it was a couple of unsuccessful attempts to make new session highs in the morning that provided sellers with some encouragement and over the course of the afternoon the index lost ground.

Ben Bernanke gives a speech on Monday in the US. He may try to 'walk-back' the minutes of the December Federal Open Market Committee meeting. Those minutes suggested that at least one FOMC member wants to end the Fed's bond buying program this year. If he's feeling bold, Bernanke will fly the inflationist flag.

Nokia and its partners have been delivering impressive after-sales services for the Lumia 920, dispatching timely patches and offering great accessories to further increase the attention it managed to capture starting late 2012

The good thing about digging holes is that you can fill them back up again. You get two bursts of economic activity from the one project. Heck, you could employ two people to do the job instead of just one. A hole digger and a hole filler.

Well here we go. Let the countdown begin. China's fourth quarter GDP numbers come out on Friday. We reckon most of the run up in the All Ords to 4751 has been in anticipation of good news. If form holds, stocks will trade down once the news is in.

Jaguar Land Rover to Add 800 Jobs in Solihull Due to 2012 High Car Sales

Samsung’s Galaxy S4 is likely to come out within the first quarter of 2013, a new blog report said, which based the claim on the hints ‘leaked’ by Samsung during a side gathering in the recently-concluded Las Vegas CES.

Sony’s Xperia Z seems worth comparing with the Nexus 4 from Google-LG. The two gadgets draw energy from one power source – the 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 Pro that works sweetly with a 2GB RAM for a trouble-free handset behaviour.

The Australian sharemarket is off to a positive start for the second consecutive session, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) up 0.2 per cent or 8.1 pts to 4753.8. Global markets overnight ended mostly higher, with the Dow up 0.14 per cent, while shares in Germany and France also improved modestly.

The new Sony Xperia Z packs all the right elements to deliver joy for the Japanese firm, long searching for a hero phone that will measure up with the mighty iPhone and Galaxy smartphones from Apple and Samsung, respectively.

There are hundreds of thousands of application that can be downloaded from Google Play and iTunes for their respective devices. Before, most of these applications are exclusive to either Android or iOS, but now, developers have optimised their applications to make them usable to both OS platforms, increasing their target market users.

The GooPhone is the Chinese nemesis of Apple because their products resemble iOS devices. If the Apple has iPhone 5, they have GooPhone i5.

Technology giant Samsung is slapped with legal charges from another big company, LG Display. According to Dow Jones Newswires, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10.1 OLED screen display violated LG patents which resulted to the conflict between the two Korean companies.

By Andrew NelsonAs the old curse goes; may you live in interesting times. And for the uranium market, last year contained surely some interesting times.

By Alexander Green, Investment U Chief Investment StrategistFriday, January 11, 2013: Issue #1946A powerful new bull market in stocks is just beginning to take off.

Someday, someone will fund an academic study identifying the crevice in the human brain that craves year-end predictions for the coming 12 months. Wherever it resides, it is undeniably strong and far more prevalent among the populace than the craving for news about, say, the 'fiscal cliff' or the New York Jets' quarterback saga.

iPhone's steady hold on the smartphone market is growing weaker as months go by in the never-ending battle against Android mobile devices. The signs of weakness begin to show as Apple cut the orders of screens and other components by 50 per cent.

Jacob Lew has been nominated to be the next Treasury Secretary of the United States. Mr Lew is an Obama Administration loyalist and insider, and is committed to the President's strategy of taxing his way out of America's $16.4 trillion deficit.

Based on his interests, eight-division title holder and Filipino boxing champion has seven likely career options once he retires from the ring. These are as politician, soldier, singer, emcee, actor, pastor and commercial endorser.

A $116 billion stimulus package has been approved as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is trying to get the Japan's economy back on track after the dark times. The steps introduced by the Japanese government are aimed at forcing economic growth.

Ford to Add 2.200 Salaried Jobs in US as Demand for New Cars Increases

A hair removal method that allows people to wear the tiniest bikini bottoms sans peeking pubic hair or unsightly leg hair is to be blamed for public lice becoming endangered species.