COMPANIES

Cloud computing is said to be the newest trend in information technology that most companies such as Apple, Amazon and Google had been incorporating into their services.

Google announced Wednesday Nov. 16, 2011 its newest service, the Google Music, a cloud based service that enables you to store and stream music.

Multi commodity explorer and miner Alkane Resources is edging closer toward development approval for its Tomingley Gold Project.

Samsung is now the No. 1 smartphone manufacturer worldwide, based on research by Gartner. The report also said the growth of mobile devices worldwide totaled 440.5 million units sold during the third quarter.

Details of the 2012 Mercedes-Benz SL-Cass have been revealed in Germany, including some interesting images of the new aluminium body and chassis.

The Australia Statistics Bureau showed that during the period 2000 to 2011, renting outpaced home ownership in the country.

Fresh from its record earnings for the first half of 2011, global mining firm BHP Billiton stepped on the gas for the realisation its expansion projects in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, signalling the construction start of a power plant and an additional iron ore mining site.

Santos Mine informed a Parliamentary inquiry that it will back out of a planned coal seam gas (CSG) pipeline pipeline project in New South Wales's (NSW) central west.

Samsung Electronics has adopted design tweaks on its flagship tablet computer, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, in hopes of circumventing a court-induced ban for the product to be marketed in Germany, reports said.

Anittel Limited (ASX: AYG), a Sydney-based IT and telecom solutions and service provider, topped the Deloitte 2011 Technology Fast 50 Australian list released on Friday.

The backlash over excessive executive compensation continues in Australia when a seventh company had its remuneration report rejected by shareholders.

Cloud computing has ceased being an upcoming trend that techies talked about to becoming a reality that everyone uses in some capacity. Major tech companies like Microsoft, Google and Apple offer cloud computing services for users. The cloud is becoming the new front in the ongoing battle among these tech giants. So what is cloud computing? How do the cloud computing services of Google, Microsoft and Apple differ from one another?

. Both tablets are due to be released before the holidays with Amazon selling the Kindle Fire on November 15 and Barnes and Noble set to put its Nook Tablet on sale on November 17. So now consumers will have to make a difficult decision of what tablet to buy. Here are some of the strengths and weaknesses of each tablet that could make your decision easier.

Passengers of an Austrian airline were forced to pay $30,000 for the refueling of their flight in Vienna to get to their final destination in the U.K.

Buoyed by the success of its Kindle and Kindle Fire, giant online retailer Amazon may dip its finger further to the lucrative smartphone market as report emerges that another Kindle handset will be introduced to consumers as early as next year.

Maintenance workers have found a live carpet shark inside the seawater intake tank of the Southern Seawater Desalination Plant in Binningup, according to Water Corporation, operator of the plant.

As a cost-cutting measure, New York-based Citigroup Inc. recently revealed plans to lay off some 3000 or more employees from their global workforce.

Rio Tinto Alcan intends to close the Lynemouth aluminium smelter, subject to the completion of a 90-day consultation process with employee and union representatives. The company is also in exclusive discussions regarding the potential sale of the power station at the site.

Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson will unveil the full version of the sandbox construction game originally written in Java, at the MineCon convention in Las Vegas over the weekend.

Apple Inc. is the world's most valuable tech company, it's the world's second largest company by market capitalization, it reported record revenue of $108.2 billion in fiscal year ended Sept. 24, and it had record net profit of $25.9 billion in fiscal 2011.

With the release of the iTunes 10.5.1, comes the debut of iTunes Match. It is the newest feature of iTunes that is a cloud-based music matching service that makes your music available on all your authorized devices with the use of an active internet connection.

Commodity explorer and miner, Alkane Resources (ASX: ALK), has upgraded its resource of zirconia and rare earths at Dubbo in the central west of NSW.

BHP Billiton will stay the course despite prevailing challenges in the short term and will even ramp up its expansion path, which runs in counter with shareholders’ rumbling of a lull in acquisition moves.

Sony Ericsson has decided to issue its latest batch of smartphones that run on Android, minus the support of major American telcos and allowing U.S. consumers to enjoy a quick taste of the new Google-powered handsets.

Following the unveiling of its Lumia smartphone series last month, giant mobile phone maker Nokia has indicated that it will release tablet computers by the second half of 2012, which of course will be powered by Microsoft’ upcoming Windows 8.

The Downing Centre Local Court has ordered the GMI Food Wholesalers and its directors to pay a fine of $236,000 for supplying Virgin Blue with inflight chicken meals tainted with the listeria bacteria that infected several passengers of the airline in 2009.

Optus sought on Thursday for Telstra to be transparent on its use of the $11 billion National Broadband Network (NBN) windfall to ensure it would not use the money to stifle competition.

Australia’s manufacturing sector continues to witness retreating indicators well into the third quarter the current year, according to the National Australia Bank’s (NAB) latest Manufacturing Activity Index.

Qantas unions found an ally in transport workers overseas when the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) warned the Australian flag carrier that it would get involved if there are future industrial rows between Qantas and its unions.