BUSINESS

Google just announced the release of the Samsung Chromebook along with new ambitions to spread its browser-based, cloud-focused Chrome OS laptop. Google envisions it to be as an extra machine in the house or as a laptop for students.

China is slowing down but that may not necessarily be a bad thing. China's economic transformation could probably mean better quality growth, according to Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill.

The federal government of Australia has granted a total of $652 million in National Health and Medical Research Council grants to boost and help build a progressive and healthier Australia.

Sony just added another phone to its collecti0oon of the Xperia family that is within the low to middle range insofar as price tag is concerned. In a world full of phones people wish they could afford, the Sony Xperia Miro is one that they don't have to wish too hard for.

European leaders are scheduled to meet in Brussels today for a two-day summit, but early reports have revealed deep and uncomfortable divisions over a proposed banking union that is intended to underpin the eurozone.

The Australian share market is modestly lower at lunchtime in the East, following Wall Street's lead. The US Dow Jones Index closed down 0.1pct while technology shares saw the NASDAQ fall by 1pct. At lunchtime in the East, the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is down 7.8pts or 0.2pct to 4573.1.

An antiquated gaming console in Xbox 360 and diminishing consumer interest on its slew of Windows-related products appeared to have conspired in Microsoft’s shrinking financial hauls as shown by the software giant’s latest quarterly report.

Samsung’s tablet lines were not as cool as the iPad, made by Apple, a UK appellate court said on Thursday, in the process affirming that the South Korean consumer electronic giant did not violate its U.S. rival’s intellectual property.

Speculations are rising in the market that Nokia will report yet another quarterly loss and diminishing cash reserves prior to Nokia's upcoming smartphone launches next month. Nokia is struggling hard to regain grounds that it has lost to its arch rivals in the smartphone sector Samsung Electronics Co. and Apple Inc.

Agora's own globetrotting value investor, Chris Mayer, recently returned from a fact-finding expedition to the mysterious land of Myanmar, cut off to western investors for the past half century.

Just as there is capitulation selling to the downside, there is capitulation buying to the upside. That is, people just give in to their emotions and sell or buy, depending on the prevailing mood. There's no real rational analysis involved, just a tremendous urge to join the herd. Humans have an innate desire to 'herd'.

Just kidding. The world's financial system is still on track for a reckoning. We just don't know if it will be another 10 years of Japan-like zombie land...or something more sinister and sudden.

Investors are betting on the Fed... they're betting on the 'central bank put', the idea that central banks have their backs, and will make sure the downside is protected. How? With as much cash as it takes.

It just goes to show how confused things are on the ground when property developers and recent homebuyers are struggling while the economic talking heads babble about a renewed Australian property boom. Welcome to a world full of monetary distortions.

Seafish Tasmania, the operator of 142-foot long supertrawler Abel Tasman, offered on Thursday to reduce its freezing capacity in a bid lift the ban on the fishing vessel imposed by the federal government.

Traders suspect manipulation when the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) started trading on Thursday morning. The suspicion was triggered by a surge in share prices of a number of major ASX200 stocks, including that of ANZ Bank which logged a 6.5 per cent one-day rise.

By Peter Switzer, Switzer Super ReportThere are two big issues super trustees should be tossing over. The first is whether interest rates come down again, which will be of particular interest to those who are playing it safe.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 8 points, while the S&P fell 0.2% and the Nasdaq plunged 1.0%.Google, like Apple, is one of the America's largest stocks by market cap and should thus be in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, but isn't given a per share face value that exceeds Dow criteria.

Local stocks closed at their highest levels since July 2011 today, with investor sentiment boosted by the fact today's Chinese economic data contained no nasty surprises. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) added 30pts by close or 0.7pct to 4580.9, after hitting an intra-day high of 4602.5.

Residential property prices in New Zealand have continued to rise in the third quarter of 2012. The national housing median price rose by 6% to NZ$371,000 (US$304,168) during the year to September 2012, according to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ).

HTC recently announced the upcoming release of the HTC J Butterfly, with the first stop in Japan and then to the entire global market. Sony will also release a version of another Xperia in Japan and then to rest of the world. While both are still coming soon to retail outlets, these upcoming devices are already set to face off each other.

ASUS surprised techies by launching the successor of the Padfone, only this time much bigger and better in many ways. And this bigger and better unit has powerful technologies inside it, from the processor and memory to camera and resolution shots. The new challenger in the Android smartphone war meets up with another powerful device, the LG Optimus G.

The world is over the billion mark, that is the number of smartphones in circulation as of the September 2012 quarter, creating an impression that we are more digitally connected than in the previous decades, a new report said.

What we’ll have is a ‘shooting war’ between Asus and Sony if we are to compare head-on the upcoming PadFone 2 and the Xperia Acro S.

Overnight the US market closed slightly higher and the European markets were also stronger. Better than expected home start numbers, for the month of September, out of the states helped reduce the pain from weaker than expected results from key technology forms IBM and Intel.

The Coca-Cola Co. and Sanofi SA decided to start a venture to launch a line of 'beauty drinks' in France. The 50-50 partnership aims at diversification of products and entering a new market for both the Coca-Cola Co. and Sanofi.

By Richard (Rick) MillsAhead of the HerdAs a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best informationFact - China is the world's largest user of copper.

So much nonsense in the news this morning, we hardly know what to laugh at first.

Nigel Farage never elicits a neutral reaction...ever. His brutally honest remarks inspire either love or hate - kind of like country music, calvados or the Kardashians.