COMPANIES

Westpac shareholders approved on Thursday a $9.6 million compensation package for the bank's chief executive, Gail Kelly. Over 88 per cent of stockholders gave the green light for the pay packet.

By its price alone, at $US199, the HTC Droid DNA is an open invite for Christmas shoppers but with the handset’s circulation marked by mostly positive feedbacks, this 1080p smartphone is set to draw more attention as the shopping season heats up.

Deeper probes of the Nexus 4 revealed that in specific cases and locations the Google smartphone is able to access LTE networks in the United States and Canada, numerous blog reports said.

Following global IT trends, smartphones that run on Google's Android OS has toppled Apple's iOS for the first time in Australia. Citing data from analyst firm Telsyte, The Sydney Morning Herald reported that 44 per cent of over 10 million smartphone users in Australia now use handheld units running on Android versus 43 per cent of iOS.

It is a very, merry Christmas indeed in China this December and Nokia and HTC have decided to crash the party. The two phone makers are releasing their latest handsets to the Chinese market, touted by experts to outpace the United States soon as the most lucrative place to sell gadgets.

It may not be as hot as it was but the Angry Birds fever that started three years ago remains in the right trajectory, hitting the intended marks and breaking new grounds, including a full-length movie set for theatrical showing on 2016.

Apple still impresses when it comes to gadget craftsmanship, according to Time Magazine, and for the near-to-end 2012 the highly-respected weekly publication bestowed its highest honour to the tech giant’s popular smartphone – the iPhone 5.

Great news for international owners of the Galaxy Note 2. The JellyBean 4.1.2 has started rolling out and reports from Sam Mobile indicated that the patch has already reached Polish fans of the bestselling phablet.

Fancy for a dual-boot or even multi-boot Nexus 7? Folks at XDA Developers claim it is now possible for the Google tablet to carry two or more mobile OS, thanks to the newly-created MultiROM.

Samsung’s upcoming flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S4, will miss out the CES 2013 is Las Vegas next month despite recent hints from the South Korean tech giant that it is working on ‘Something New’ that will be unveiled in the early months of Q1 2013, reports said.

The new Blackberry 10 which is scheduled to be released in Q1 of 2013 will include features of a platform-wide flow interface, new intelligent keyboard and camera application.

Instagram is getting better with its new update for both iOS and Android. The popular photo sharing app has been known for its many filters and functionalities with photo editing.

One of the Samsung flagship mobile devices which started the phablet line up devices just got an update of its Android version. Galaxy Note 2 was released only in October 2012.

The Nexus 4 is a definite magnet especially for Android power users but since this signature Google smartphone will not resume shipment until January 2013, looking out for the alternative this Christmas is the best way to taste its flavour.

LG is in celebration mode following the South Korean firm’s announcement at the start of the week that over 10 million units of the Optimus L smartphone lines have reached global consumers since the device was launched this year.

Google has good things going for its Nexus gadget lines, which mostly led to stock outs since their debut, but glitches in the Android system appears to be hampering the products’ total commercial breakout.

Nokia’s Lumia 920 will soon deploy on more carriers and retailers in the United Kingdom beginning January 2013, the Finnish mobile phone maker said this week, adding that the supply problems bogging down the handset’s global distribution will be resolved at around the same time.

The tech world is definitely excited for the Consumer Electronic Show 2013 scheduled on Jan 7-13 in Las Vegas. The show is expected to be different from previous editions as Microsoft steps away from its long-running keynote, and Samsung and QuallComm step in to fill the gap.

Google announced an update to the Google Maps API which will make it easier to insert vector-base maps into applications. This will provide developers better and more comprehensive set of tools to integrate maps into Android Apps.

The coming year, 2013, promises to be exciting times for the smartphone marker as innovations of hardware components and advance software features for smartphones are rolled out. Flexi phones, rolling screen, wireless control over drones, cars, and security cameras are what consumers should expect for the next 12 months in the mobile industry.

The joke over the royal prank call is not just on the British monarchs and the hospital where Kate Middleton is confined but has hit Southern Cross Austereo, the Australian company that runs 2Day FM. Reports said that as a result of the apparent suicide of Jacinta Saldanha, the nurse who answered the prank call from DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian and gave medical details, shares of the Southern Cross plummeted up to 8.1 per cent on Monday while the radio station is losing $100,000 a day in ...

Much have been said about the next Galaxy S smartphone from Samsung, which according to blog sites will be deployed with a more powerful quad-core processor, higher image density of 441 ppi and will take the name Galaxy S4.

What actually are you getting by snapping up Google’s Nexus 7, which recently has been named by UK-based tech site T3 as 2012’s ‘Gadget of the Year’?

HTC would like to call this a different smartphone from the Droid DNA and J-Butterfly but the Butterfly looks and acts like its siblings, though this is another flagship phone from the Taiwan-based firm that is geared for the international market.

Christine Duran, Christina Huerta and Isabel Robles revealed to ABC News that they could not believe the insult they received after dining at the Chilly D Restaurant in California which is part of the Cameo Club Casino restaurant in Stockton.

Google’s JellyBean has commenced its deployment for the Asus PadFone 2, initially hitting Taiwanese owners of the two-in-one gadget, with other regions likely to follow shortly.

Smartphones are getting more attractive for the holidays and HTC has pushed out another unit to get you thinking for a serious buy. The HTC One VX is not exactly a fresh issue, its market debut only fraught by delays but on Dec 7 AT&T started offering the handset for only $US49.99.

Droid RAZR M and Sony Xperia 10 users may now use an unofficial CM 10 custom rom.

Despite the emergence of several JailBreaking methods, there is no perfect one they will surely last forever without the iPhone suffering from lagging or bugs. Phone owners who are experiencing such technical glitches could try reversing the process.