BUSINESS

We’ve heard of the possibility that Apple will bend a bit to market dictates as part of its 2013 roadmap and send out to store shelves two smartphones by second half of the year – the iPhone 5S for its traditional market base and the iPhone Mini for mass market release.

Toward the end of 2012, at the peak of speculations if there would be an apocalypse because of the Mayan Calendar prediction, there was global attention on volcanic eruptions. However, instead of fearing these end-of-the-world portents, amid more reports of increased volcanic activities in different parts of the world, crafty tour operators are benefiting from these potential volcanic blasts by promoting volcano tourism.

The South Korean company, LG, confirmed that their flagship smartphone Optimus G will be sold in Australia exclusively by Telstra. But the device is not yet available until March, and its launch has been delayed due to required network testing.

-Solid quarterly production-Well managed-High quality mines-Nickel price the stumbling blockBy Eva BrocklehurstNickel miner Western Areas ((WSA)) hit all the right notes with the broking community after its solid December quarter production results and evidence of being well managed.

Temple Run's success led to the release of its sequel, Temple Run 2, in the Apple App Store. The game has been downloaded more than 20 million times since its initial release. It became the number 1 Free App within six hours and third-highest grossing app.

By Greg PeelThe Dow rose 62 points or 0.5% while the S&P gained 0.4% to 1492 and the Nasdaq added 0.3%.

Mozilla Foundation has taken the fight to the next level as it previewed two smartphones operating Firefox OS. The company has invited developers for its new open-source mobile operating system that will challenge both Android and iOS.

Nokia is gradually delivering the so-called Portico updates for international owners of the surprise-hit Lumia 920 some weeks after the same patch were made accessible to U.S.-based users of the Windows Phone 8 handset.

Some countries where the iPhone 5 is being released are coming up with likely contenders to challenge Apple’s smartphone supremacy. In India, the Micromax Canvas HD is set for market launch on February and is touted as the first quad-core handset from the leading Indian phone maker.

The market inertia that dominated the start of the week continued for regional markets on Tuesday. The close of trade for the ASX 200 saw only modest gains on similarly modest volume. The atmosphere of inertia in itself is a test for the overall market. Since November last year, the index has rallied in the order of 10%. The end of 2012 has seen investors become less risk averse with hurdles being navigated successfully. It will be worth examining the behaviour of markets in general in the event...

Samsung has confirmed that it will unleash a new challenger to test the mettle of the popular tablets out there. It will be called the Galaxy Note 8.0, which easily can be lumped with the mini tablet class.

Samsung has once again spiced up its Galaxy S3 Mini serving, this time including near-field capability (NFC) to the small Galaxy S3 sibling, the tech giant said in a press release issued this week.

The Australian sharemarket continues to improve and is up for the fifth consecutive session. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is up 0.2 per cent or 11.7 pts to 4813.9. Shares have improved by around 3 per cent so far in 2013, which is not quite as strong as this time last year. Over the first 3 weeks of 2012, the local market had gained 4.5 per cent.

Among the Nexus line of gadgets that Google unveiled last year, it is the Nexus 10, made by Samsung, that gets the least attention. The tech giant aims to change that by boosting the large tablet’s specs for its second coming later this year, a new report said.

Lifestyle, which varies from person to person, was introduced as a term in the 1950s which defines the way a person lives. A specific lifestyle reflects an individual's attitudes, values, or world view and it means the forging of a sense of self and creation of personal identity.

A report from the Centre for Internet Safety of the University of Canberra said that Australians are among the world's heaviest Internet users, which makes them the most vulnerable to virtual stalkers.

China will spend nearly $250 billion a year on educating tens of millions of youth moving from rural to urban areas.

The Russian government will debate this week on whether to allow private energy companies to begin exploring for oil and gas in its Arctic Shelf,.

Samsung seems to be full of surprises packed with many new devices this 2013. Before, the question was "Is it a phone, a tablet?" but this time it is "What is it that is sort of a phone and sort of a tablet?" Well, the answer would be Fonblet.

Australia's mining sector appears to have rejoiced too soon in the partial recovery of iron ore price in the global market. With the commodity reaching $138.50 at the start of 2013 from a low of $89 a tonne in 2012, miners such as Rio Tinto had planned production boosts.

By Andrew NelsonLast week Paladin ((PDN)) reported its quarterly results and while they were broadly well received, with production and sales levels strong, brokers remain universally concerned about the direction of the underlying uranium price, which has become the main driver to which broker reco...

By Greg PeelGreetings and Happy New Year. Great summer, huh? Forty degrees one day, twenty the next and not much in between.

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.

With no near term catalysts emerging from the northern hemisphere since weeks end, Consolidation was the main theme for local stocks as the new trading week got underway.

Google's main bottomline is to make passwords a thing of the past.

Following a strong week for the local market, local shares were off to a positive start this morning. At lunch however, the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is largely flat, down just 0.05 per cent or 2.2 pts to 4792.5. The XAO is one of the most popular ways for investors to measure Australian sharemarket performance. The local market rose by 1.3 per cent last week and rose on four occasions.

Will HTC really unbox the M7 anytime soon? Another image leak, purportedly “an accurate depiction of the HTC M7,” just came out, again driving up speculations that the One X/Droid DNA replacement is set for a Q1 2013 market debut.

Flurry of leaks is driving deserved attention to the upcoming BlackBerry 10 handsets, the initial pack of which Research in Motion (RIM) intends to unveil on January 30.

Obama's New Economy: Hundreds of Thousands of PhDs, Masters Graduates now on Food Stamps, Some Work as Janitors