BUSINESS

With Steve Jobs's death sparking more interest in Apple products and services, there is a growing interest among techies and companies in Apple's looming iCloud service.

Harcourts Queenstown has been instructed to sell seven of the nine titles at the world renowned Walter Peak Estate by Mortgagee Deadline sale.

BP, the largest supplier of fuel to Australia’s industrial sector, has commenced construction of a new Truckstop at Dandenong.

Abbott Laboratories plans to separate into two publicly traded companies, one in diversified medical products and the other in research-based pharmaceuticals.

Notwithstanding the mining boom trumpeted by the federal government, Australia’s business environment flashed plummeting figures in the September quarter, basing on the latest survey released on Thursday by the National Australia Bank (NAB).

Gold, either for short-term or long-term investing, is still be the best commodity an existing or future investor can always look into. But for those who are more into long-term investing, it makes sense to invest not only in gold but in a number of broad-basket commodity as well.

A female employee of tech giant IBM has filed a $1.1 million sexual harassment lawsuit against her former supervisor and IBM. Among the forms of harassment which Susan Spiten experienced from her ex-manager include being told to expose more of her breast to boost sales.

United Dairy Power (UDP), one of Australia's largest privately owned independent dairy companies, has successfully acquired Lion’s Murray Bridge and Jervois factories in South Australia.

Leighton Holdings on Thursday disputed Standard & Poor’s Rating Service’s (S&P) decision to downgrade its credit rating from ‘BBB/A-2’ to ‘BBB-/A/3’, claiming it was not a true reflection of the company’s credit quality.

The State of Australian Cities 2011 sets the stage for the implementation of much-need planning reform coupled with a major boost to infrastructure spending, said the Property Council of Australia and the Residential Development Council (RDC) on Thursday.

Computer giant International Business Machine (IBM) is facing a $1.1 million sexual harassment suit filed before the Australian Federal Court by a former female employee, who claimed that she was humiliated, bullied and harassed by a male superior for two years.

Leighton Holdings had successfully closed a US$600 million syndicated Master Lease Facility, which provides the company’s two operating subsidiaries in Indonesia with additional capacity to fund their expanding mining activities in the country.

As European banks struggle to commit as to how much their book values should be stated against the backdrop of deep sovereign bonds restructuring, Australian banks have remained strong and viable, according to a top officer of the Reserve Bank.

The Transport Workers Union (TWU) rejected a new agreement proposed by Qantas for the air carrier's 3,800 baggage handlers, caterers and ground staff.

Rio Tinto Ltd. had agreed to pay C$578 million ($567 million) to acquire Canadian uranium company Hathor Exploration Ltd., dislodging an earlier higher bid by rival Cameco Corp. of Canada.

Victoria train riders may soon be able to send emails or surf the Web while on their way to work or home. The state government is considering installing wi-fi transmitters and improving communications on regional trains, according to Public Transport Minister Terry Mulder.

Research in Motion (RIM) has unveiled a new mobile operating system that hopes to bring app developers to the fold of BlackBerry smartphones and tablets.

The battle for smartphone supremacy has gotten increasingly tough of late with such giants like Apple and Samsung competing to get the most of the mobile phone market. Apple's iPhone 4s, released last week and already setting sales records, has overtaken its Android competitors and is now the reigning champion. But that doesn't mean that Apple can rest easy as a new batch of Android smartphones is coming to the market.

Contract prices of steelmaking ingredient coking coal will slide below $240 per metric ton between now through the fourth quarter of 2012 as nations continue to ride to a continuing global economic slowdown that will in turn ease demand for the metallurgical raw commodity, energy forecaster Wood Mackenzie said in a report Wednesday

The latest addition to the directory of Ikea's stores will also be the biggest in the southern hemisphere. The megamart is twice the size of the Sydney Cricket Ground, according to reports. On top of its 9000-product offering, shoppers will enjoy a 760-seat restaurant and 1680 dedicated car spaces.

The Gingerbread-powered Droid Razr is the iPhone 4S's newest challenger and Motorola says Apple and non-Apple fans should take notice of its latest innovation as it may be the smartphone they are looking for.

Microchip analyst Chipworks has confirmed that the A5 processor of the iPhone 4S is made by Samsung, Apple Inc.'s supplier-turned-legal adversary.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 72 points or 0.6% while the S&P fell 1.3% to 1209 and the Nasdaq was Apple sauce, down 2.

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/320193/000119312511273826/d244527dex991.htmhttp://online.wsj.com/article/AP26ba15082dab4ca48a7a71030b115715.htmlhttp://www.beatweek.com/news/9664-losing-touch-ios-5-on-iphone-ipad-signifies-death-of-ipod-branding/http://online.wsj.com/article/AP26ba15082dab4ca48a7a71030b115715.htmlhttp://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/12/us-apple-poll-idUSTRE79B6CI20111012

- Mixed quarterly production report for Oz Minerals- Copper solid, gold output lower- Earnings forecasts cut on lower gold guidance- Two brokers downgrade to Neutral ratingsBy Chris ShawSeptember quarter production from Oz Minerals ((OZL)) was mixed, with copper output largely as expected but gold p...

Sony finally confirmed that its next generation handheld the PlayStation Vita will be coming to gamers in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Australia on February 22, 2012.

Hewlett Packard has released an update to its HP TouchPad tablet proving that there's some life left in the now outmoded tablet line.

Dell Inc. will be a company to provide services and solutions to businesses.

The volatility continued for investors today, with the local stock market attempting to recover some of yesterday's losses. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) rose 25.3pts or 0.6pct to 4274.8, notching up its second win of the week. Sentiment was boosted by a newspaper report from the UK's The Guardian which suggested France and Germany have agreed to increase the size of the European stability fund to two trillion Euros.