BUSINESS

Santori, the largest livestock importer in Indonesia is moving its operations to China. The move was prompted by Jakarta's restriction on live cattle importation following Canberra's own live export ban in 2011.

Users of iOS devices such as iPad and Mac are mostly joyful once they get their hands on these Apple-made gadgets. Most of the users who have switched from Windows or Android to iOS come to that realisation with a pleasant surprise from the new experience.

New Year 2013 will begin with a bang for all users of Android and iOS as they all wait for the upcoming new releases in May and March, respectively. Android will likely release the new version of its open-source OS platform called Key Lime Pie and iOS is rumored to have a new iPad device.

There are hundreds of thousands of apps available for the iPhone that are considered secure and very useful. Although awesome to download, some of these apps are for purchase with corresponding price tags.

Obviously, the world didn't end on Dec 21, 2012. After recovering from all the media frenzy the non-event generated, the question in many people's mind is what's next until the next cuckoo predicts another Doomsday and candles, shelters and miniature Noah's ark become bestsellers again?

As expected, Australian shoppers filled up shopping malls on Wednesday, Boxing Day, for reduced prices of items which saved buyers an estimated $600 million across the country.

The Australian sharemarket continued on its strong run to improve for the 10th time in 12 sessions and is still trading around 18-month highs. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) edged higher by 0.2 per cent or 10.4 pts to 4645.6. All sectors managed to rise modestly, with the utilities the biggest improvers in percentage terms. The local market will be closed on both Tuesday and Wednesday.

The state of Queensland's Barrier Aviation airline has been grounded by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) after the airliner has been found to contain "serious and known defects." Effectively immediately, the suspension will last for five working days.

Android lovers would agree: Firmware updates from handset manufacturers remain its weakest link but the best in this woeful lot, that is to provide the most current Android patch cycle, is HTC.

Google is reportedly ramping up its hardware business by coming up with another signature smartphone on 2013, which reports said is tentatively dubbed ‘X Phone’ and now under development by Motorola.

The Australian share market is tracking higher in the early session, on a shortened day's trade ahead of the Christmas break. The ASX will close at 2.10pm AEDT this afternoon and will remain closed until Thursday, 27th December.

The Mayan Calendar may have renewed a cycle but its predicted date of doomsday has faded away. However, the future of Android lies ahead and the predictions about it apparently happening every day in this age of technology.

In 2011, Ice Cream Sandwich was on high demand by various users with flagship smartphones because of its cool features and performance improvements. Brand manufacturers are coping with demands for requests of updates up to the version 4.0.3.

Samsung is reportedly issuing replacements for faulty units of the bestselling Galaxy S3 following numerous complaints that the bestselling smartphone was experiencing ‘dying out’ episodes some months after owners’ initial use.

Android is never going to stop on its onset revolution in the mobile OS platform battle. For 2012, Google released Android 4.1 and 4.2 Jellybean as their latest firmware version and next year, Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie will set foot before Jellybean could ever complete one cycle.

With the four overnight cash rate cuts made by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) in 2012, Australian borrowers saved more than $21 billion in extra interest payments, data from Treasury said.

With the end-of-the-world scenario now over, Australians would likely be able to concentrate on the Christmas and New Year celebrations, which would mean a lot of food preparations. It also means a lot of wasted food. Throughout the year, Aussies waste $8 billion worth of food, said a study by Do Something!, released on Sunday. Based on an estimated volume of four million tonnes of food thrown away yearly, Do Something! founder John Dee reckoned the value of per capita wastage at $1,036.

For more than a year now, Cyprus has been shut out of international capital markets after its banks suffered huge losses from their exposure to Greece

Europe's largest bank by market value will pay $1.9 billion in fines to settle money laundering allegations by US regulators, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Last week saw big moves in the Aussie as we reached highs above 1.0570 earlier in the week on hopes a deal would be done early to solve the fiscal cliff, as the week wore on and hopes dropped so too did the risk correlated AUD.

Mobile costumers of Telstra who were ripped off with excessive global roaming charges are set to receive refunds from the telecoms carrier.

Nokia, the world's leader in mobile phones for over 10 years, has been beaten by Korea's Samsung to become the preferred mobile phone for 2012.

Fiscal cliff negotiations dominated investor sentiment today, sending local stocks off recent 18 month highs and into the red.

Facebook, after losing millions in its failed IPO, has started to implement in the United States the $1 trial run of its paid messaging system scheme, where non-friends who want to contact you must pay in order for their messages land in your Inbox folder rather than in the Other folder.

Google set the stage via the Nexus 7, prompting Acer to jump into the cheap tablet segment with the new Iconia B1 slate, which reports said will carry a sticker price of around $US100 and will hit store shelves within Q1 2013.

Google and Asus are reportedly collaborating anew to deliver another version of the hit quad-core tablet Nexus 7, this time to be priced at a starting point of $US99 and set for unveiling in the initial months of 2013.

The Australian sharemarket continues its formidable run, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) up by 0.4 per cent or 19.2 pts to 4665.8. This makes it the Aussie market's fourth consecutive session of gains. Volume has been heavy over the past few days due to equity and index options expiry yesterday. Today marks the end of the final full week of trade for 2012. The market will be closing early on Monday and will not trade next Tuesday or Wednesday.

Risk assets reversed losses once again driven by headlines regarding the fiscal cliff negotiations. House Speaker John Boehner's pledge to work with President Obama was enough to help improve sentiment. There were also plenty of positive economic releases in the US including a better-than-expected GDP print and existing home sales data.

The overnight market focus was all on the US, and its unresolved talks to avert the so-called fiscal cliff which is doing a good job influencing the market at the moment. This has kept risk appetite low and seen to a slight weakening in the AUD.