COMPANIES

Apple recently added three attractive colours to the latest iPod Touch edition, giving consumers more funky options to best represent their unique taste and apparently making it easier for them to buy the upgraded gadget.

Apple has officially unleashed the iPad Mini with company executives insisting that global consumers will not be getting a watered-down version of its bigger sibling – what will be rolled out come Nov 2 is an entirely new gadget, said the tech titan.

While Australian consumers are reeling from spiraling electricity bills by up to 60 per cent, power utilities are raking it in by overcharging households and businesses by up to $3 billion.

When Windows 7 was rolled out by Microsoft three years ago this very day, it was considered a time for celebration. Microsoft was emerging from a very dark time with its troubled Windows Vista operating system, which was long delayed and generally disliked by many users. Windows 7 fixed Vista, and in the process, it also fixed Microsoft.

Within three days, Windows 8 will make its official debut to the tech world- an event which is awaited by the global IT community. On the same day, several computer manufacturers are also releasing their new gadgets capable of running on the new OS.

Nokia’s floundering fortune is the handiwork of company chief executive Stephen Elop, his predecessor said in a recent blog, which also pinned the blame on the embattled CEO for betting too much on Microsoft’s mobile platform.

Windows 8 will set the stage for greater things to unfold at Microsoft, company co-founder Bill Gates said on Monday, stressing too that the new multi-platform operating system represents “the big time for us.”

All of Australia's big four bank registered increases in their satisfaction level for September. However, the biggest gain was logged by the National Australia Bank (NAB) which enjoyed an 80.3 per cent satisfaction rating.

Australian supermarket giant Coles announced on Monday that it is phasing out its factory farming practices a year ahead of its promise. Keeping the pledge means Coles will free 34,000 mother pigs from cramped stalls and 350,000 hens from cages.

Hewlett-Packard has come up with slick design that could give the iPad a jolt.

LG will produce a smartphone, while Samsung will make a high-end tablet. Also to debut will be an upgraded version of the Nexus 7, indicating the rash of tech firms to roll out new devices.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

So the media invites are out, which confirmed earlier reports that Apple will host an event set for Oct 23, most likely to enthrall the world again of new products to be pushed in time for the 2012 holiday rush.

It took Chinese PC manufacturer Lenovo almost six months to transform the IdeaTab S2110 to go from CES reveal to retail outlets. During that time, ASUS managed to announce and ship a new hybrid tablet of its own, the Transformer Pad TF300 , which is a keyboard optional rival offering the same 10-inch, Android 4.0 experience with quad-core Tegra 3.

To take full advantage of Microsoft's new Windows 8 operating system which integrates touchscreen functionality, some PC manufacturers are offering new touch-enabled devices that are designed to run it.

Japanese carmaker Nissan is gunning to roll out safer cars and its basic concept: less human intervention as possible, more safety vehicle functions and features.

Samsung had introduced the phablet concept, having a smartphone and a tablet in one gadget, but Asus thought splitting the two but allowing them to dock and work in unison is a lot better. Thus, the birth of Asus PadFone 2.

Global quality furniture retailer IKEA said on Tuesday that it will expand its store in Australia to 11 with the addition of two locations in Melbourne and Sydney. At the same time, the premier retailer announced deep discounts of up to 50 per cent covering 900 items to remain competitive.

To indicate their dislike of telemarketers, 5.4 million Australian households have since signed up with the national Do Not Call Register. The list just breached the 5 million mark since the registry was started in 2007.

Security experts have always warned that risks constantly hound an online lifestyle and mobile computing is not spared from the ever-present threats that come with the expanding ecosystems.

A bit of data from Google Picasa Album revealed the latest LG Nexus 4 device coded as E960 by the company. This is the remodelled version of the LG Optimus G device.