COMPANIES

Australian banks are on a cost-cutting mode in a bid to pare expenditures that soared during the credit and housing boom.

If reports are to be believed Amazon's new Kindle Fire is just flying off the shelves. Amazon is reportedly taking in 50,000 pre-orders of the tablet every day. Analysts estimate that Amazon is on track to sell 2.5 million Kindle Fire units by November. It seems that the Kindle Fire is living up to expectations as Apple's biggest competitor in the tablet market.

BHP Billiton’s multi-billion dollar Olympic Dam Expansion Project has gotten approval from the Minister for Mineral Resources Development Tom Koutsantonis, but still subject to certain conditions.

Sinopec of China acquires Daylight Energy of Canada for C$2.2 billion.

Some of Walmart stores in Chongqing were ordered shutdown due to alleged mislabeling of its pork products and some Walmart officials were detained pending the result of the investigations.

BlackBerry users in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India could not email, send instant message and surf the web on Monday.

Emirates Airlines will sponsor London’s new cable car river crossing, to be known as the Emirates Air Line, in a ten year deal worth £36 million, according to London Mayor Boris Johnson.

Pre-orders for the iPhone 4S reached one million on Friday breaking the record first-day sale set by the iPhone 4 last year.

Samsung Electronics Co., the biggest rival to Apple Inc. in the mobile devices and which is involved in a number of expensive courtroom battles with the Steve Jobs-founded company, scheduled an Oct. 11 launch for the Samsung Nexus Prime, the first smartphone powered by the Android Ice Cream Sandwich.

Apple concept store will open at the heart of Wellington.

AFTERNOON REPORT (4.30pm AEDT)The local share market posted its fourth win in a row today, kick-starting the trading week on a positive note. Investor sentiment remained buoyant after German and French leaders agreed to do all that is necessary to secure the recapitalisation of European banks. Share markets around the Asian region were generally positive, despite ratings agency Fitch cutting the credit ratings of Italy and Spain. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) gained 37.3pts or 0.9pct to 42...

New revelations published about the astronomical salaries paid to Qantas executives, including CEO Alan Joyce, have fueled further anger among Qantas pilots.

Max Payne has undergone a makeover in the years since Max Payne 2. He's shaved his head, ditched his trademark trench coat in favor of a wife beater and he's changed locations to Brazil. But underneath the cosmetic changes, Payne is still the same tortured noir hero gamers have played in two previous iterations and new developer Rockstar Games has kept the same fluid bullet-time combat that made the series a landmark in gaming.

Woolworths-owned BIG W discount department stores are recalling the Abode multi-functional blender purchased at stores nationwide due to a potential safety hazard.

Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA) Australia has invested $35 million in a new bottle production facility in Adelaide on Monday.

Employees at Toyota Australia’s Altona plant have rejected a new workplace agreement from the car manufacturer in a secret ballot.

Gold Coast start-up IT firm Cake Media launched on Monday an Australian social networking site named Family HQ. The portal, which used Microsoft's Azure software platform, promises more user privacy compared to current top social networking site Facebook.

Fast-changing consumption habits and a host of other factors could further push up food prices, according to a global food firm, which added that rising costs could spawn uprisings in many countries around the world.

The economic insecurities affecting most countries around the world had caused majority of Australian businesses to become more wary to the point of being pessimistic.

The Australian sharemarket is surprisingly holding up very well despite a fall in U.S shares on Friday. The All Ordinaries index (XAO) is up 1.1 pct or 46.4 pts to 4271.4, adding to the 3.8 pct gains recorded last week.

Amcor, BlueScope Steel, Boral and other major Australian manufacturers recently formed a new industry manufacturing group to oppose the proposed carbon tax.

While battling strikes from ground crew, baggage handlers, engineers and pilots, Qantas also signed on a contract on Thursday for the largest single commercial jet order in Australian aviation history worth $9.5 billion.

Engineers and maintenance workers of Qantas based in Sydney are set to walk out of their jobs starting at 3pm as part of a growing labor disagreement with management.

Until Steve Jobs came along, apple was the name of a popular fruit often portrayed as the fruit that Biblical character Eve offered to Adam, which resulted in the two being banished by God from the Garden of Eden.

For those frustrated with failure's to announce the iPhone 5 last at the "Let's Talk iPhone" event week, the 15-month wait for the fifth generation iPhone will get longer, by four to twelve months.

Apple’s upcoming products will bear Steve Jobs’ vision.

Private funeral for Steve Jobs held today. No public services planned.

The main man behind Apple secures the company and employees with four years worth of plans for new products.

The share market rally continued today, with local stocks gaining for the third session in a row. Investor optimism was boosted by strong gains in the US and Europe overnight after the European Central Bank announced new measures to provide cash strapped banks with liquidity.