BUSINESS

Samsung is set to introduce new update regimen with the Galaxy S4, giving the company more control in the normally complicated Android upgrade cycle, a new report said.

The 7-inch tablet class proves very alluring and Asus thought it wise to join the fray and compete on its own terms. The company recently confirmed the upcoming release of the Asus MeMO Pad.

By Andrew NelsonJanuary was an interesting if not riveting month for uranium market watchers. Volatility was the name of the game, but the good news for investors and producers is that while it may have been volatile, January was still a positive month in terms of spot price movements.

Nexus 4 resumed deliveries last week and buyers actually got what they asked for, in some cases after only three days of waiting. It appeared the shipping fiasco, as pledged by LG and Google, that marred the smartphone’s launch late last year has been resolved.

Two sneaky Android apps have been detected by Kaspersky, a well-known anti-virus and malware security developer. The apps cloaks as cache cleaners but instead snoop around once connected to PC. Superclean and DroidCleaner are the two applications uncovered by Kaspersky Labs. Both feature clean-up of Android phone or tablet cache files.

The month-long smog hanging over China had been blown over to Japan's skies, putting another strain to the relations of the two countries riled by a diplomatic rift over coveted Senkaku Islands.

Too many mobile devices have saturated the market and all of these came from different brands. Anyone can purchase a new mobile device from a network carrier using a plan or from a retail store to get an open-line. But with the increasing need for internet usage, primarily 3G, network carriers make good deals with the latest smartphones in the package, such as the seven offers from two major telecom service providers.

Gripped by a toxic smog pollution which doesn't seem to abate, Beijing will be barring fireworks on heavily polluted days in the lead up to the Spring Festival holiday on Sunday as part of a package of measures aimed at dealing with air pollution in the capital.

The Taiwanese firm HTC is still under warning of continues sales drop. The intense friction between Apple and Samsung in terms of marketing has stumbled HTC while the new players, Huawei and ZTE, compete inside China, which kicked the Taiwanese firm out of the top five in the last quarter of 2012.

British Airways has informed Australian flag carrier, Qantas, that it would not reinstate its code-share agreement for connecting flights between Asia and London when their decades-long partnership officially ends on March 31, reports said.

Not only is the Australian currency rising, even prices of goods and services in major cities in the land down under are also going up at a faster pace. Thus, two Australian cities are in the Economist Intelligence Unit's 10 most expensive cities in the world.

By Greg PeelThe Dow fell 129 points, or 0.9%, while the S&P lost 1.2% to 1495 and the Nasdaq dropped 1.

The troubled UK construction sector contracted again in January, according to the newest figures. However, construction companies showed a little bit more confidence as they employed new workers for the first time in four months.

Anglo American Platinum Ltd., the world biggest producer of the metal controlled by Anglo American PLC, informed that it saw an operating loss of approximately $715 million in 2012 as its production was affected by violent labor strikes in South Africa.

According to official data, China's services PMI in January jumped to 56.2. Certainly, the improvement was driven by retailing and construction segments which bolstered and boosted government's efforts to get the China's economy back on track. The services PMI for January is another sign that the China's economy is indeed recovering from a slowdown.

A flurry of buying for local stocks at the beginning of the session failed to translate to anything more substantial on Monday. By the close of trade the market was close to the lows of the session. The main factor at play was the lack of a catalyst as the market traverses the region around the 5000 market. The ASX200 opened at 4927.2, traded at a high of 4951.3, made a low of 4907.5 which was where the index closed.

More clues came out that there is a Motorola X-Phone project, its existence allegedly confirmed by a LinkedIn job posting searching for a project director, according to tech experts.

The HTC M7 is definitely hitting store shelves by Q1 2013 with no less than HTC chief executive Peter Chou reportedly brandishing the quad-core 1080p smartphone in a recent company gathering.

New Samsung tablets are set to be unveiled at the 2013 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and among them is the entry-level Galaxy Tab 3 7.0, said to carry a starting price of $US149.

U.S. oil giant Chevron's expenses to build the Gorgon natural gas project in Australia has gone up by $15 billion. The company blamed the rise to $52 billion from $37 billion to the high Australian currency and extra logistics.

The upcoming Galaxy S4 is rumoured to sport wireless charging capability but those who can hardly wait for the next Samsung flagship smartphone launch and happen to own the million-selling Galaxy S3 can actually enjoy this feature in advance.

The Australian sharemarket has kicked off the week a touch higher, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) up just 0.1 per cent or 3.1 pts to 4945. Global markets rose impressively on Friday, partly thanks to a healthy jobs report out of North America. There were 157,000 jobs created in January, while previous monthly reports were upgraded which was also seen as a positive.

The United States Embassy in Manila said the U.S. government has vowed to extend the 'appropriate compensation' to the Tubbataha Reef that was damaged when its mine countermeasure ship USS Guardian ran aground on the precious World Heritage site on January 17.

Nokia Lumia 710 users in the United States will not be getting further support from carrier T-Mobile, specifically in accessing the Windows Phone 7.8 update, a new report said.

Shibani Bhujle, a New York marketing manager, complained of an incident unexpected by other iPhone users. She said that her one-year-old iPhone 4s spontaneously combusted which burnt her fingers and then oozes a liquid out of the device.

Experts forecast over the weekend that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will retain the record-low 3 per cent overnight cash rate when it meets on Tuesday for its monetary policy decision.

Even if mining magnate Gina Rinehart lost $965 million in 2012 and is no longer the world's richest woman, with $17 billion in her treasure chest, she is still Australia's richest person.

After optimistic results noted in 2012, the beginning of 2013 is also comforting for automakers as new car sales in the US increased sharply in January.

After all, there are happy endings... Chinese car manufacturer Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. informed that it acquired legendary cab maker Manganese Bronze for approximately £11 million. The producer of London's black taxis run into financial difficulties and entered administration in 2012. It seems that Manganese Bronze's legend will be restored at last.