COMPANIES

Search engine giant and Android maker Google is joining the crowd of online music stores soon.

Westpac, one of Australia’s four major banks, has invested in a new banking centre in Rocklea.

Australia’s tourism and accommodation industry has voiced worries on the threats it faces as a result of the continuing action by airline unions against Qantas.

Australian customers lined up around Apple stores and other retailers Friday to get the new Apple iPhone 4S, but for budget-conscious consumers, the new smartphone could be too much for their wallets to handle.

Apple has described Siri as an "intelligent assistant" but developers should have added another feature to Siri: budding comedian.

Research in Motion co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie held a phone press conference Thursday to announce that BlackBerry services have been restored globally after several days of network failure.

iPad 2-manufacturer Apple only won half of the battle with Samsung Electronics when it was granted by Federal Court Justice Annabelle Bennett on Thursday a temporary injunction that stops the South Korean firm from launching the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia.

Higher iron ore and coal production led to a strong third quarter performance for Rio Tinto. As a result, the Australian mining firm is expected to break its record $14.43 billion profit in 2010.

Qantas is expecting another day of turbulence as it canceled 18 flights and delayed 32 more due to a schedule engineers strike.

Apple Stores, resellers, and carriers in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom are opening their doors today, Oct. 14, to people eager to be the first to get their hands on iPhone 4S.

Qantas long-haul pilots launched a new website on Thursday to help concerned Qantas shareholders stand up to current Qantas management and their plans to offshore the iconic airline.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has granted the alliance between Virgin Australia group of airlines (ASX: VBA) and Singapore Airlines draft approval.

Qantas licensed aircraft maintenance engineers are among the highest paid in the world and the current demands from the union are unreasonable, Qantas Group Executive Government and Corporate Affairs Olivia Wirth said on Thursday.

Apple released the iOS 5 today and its perhaps the biggest update to the software. The iOS 5 comes with over 200 new features and it has been released for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

In support of the booming mining sector, Virgin Australia announced today it will provide more than 1,000 additional seats each week from Perth to Port Hedland and Karratha in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. The increase in services will commence on November 21 and end in March next year.

As more consumers shift to upgrades of modern electronic devices such as tablet computers and smartphones from laptops and 3G phones, more companies are launching their own versions of the devices in a bid to get a slice of the growing market - notwithstanding risking a lawsuit from Apple.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 continues to be banned from Australian consumers as Apple won its bid to block the tablet on Thursday.

Macquarie Telecom, Fujitsu, Infoplex and VMware have formed the OzHub, a national cloud council which aims to promote cloud computing to enterprises, small businesses, consumers and governments in Australia.

Qantas canceled 14 domestic flights and delayed another 30 trips on Thursday morning as the baggage handlers and ground crew walked off their jobs for two hours at 7 a.m.

Attempts to gain unauthorized access to 93,000 accounts on the Sony PlayStation Network, Sony Entertainment Network and Sony Online Entertainment prompted the online gaming network to lock the accounts on Tuesday.

American and Canadian users of BlackBerry smartphones are now experiencing delays in sending and receiving e-mails as the service disruption entered its third day.

iOS 5, Apple Inc.'s latest operating system for iPhone, the iPad and the iPod Touch, called iOS 5, is ready for download today, Oct. 12.

Apple has $76 billion and shareholders are already knocking on the company to conduct some profit sharing.

After Steve Jobs died, the world has been pondering if it would be the end of innovation. President Barack Obama lauded Steve Jobs as "among the greatest of American innovators" and many have compared him to great inventors Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. Jobs, a visionary and a creative genius, helped redefine mobile devices, the music industry, the cinema, and the Internet.

Is Facebook Too Big to Fail? Or Will It Soon Burst?

The 99 Cents Only stores in the U.S., which became a phenomenon in the retail industry, have been acquired reportedly for approximately $1.6 billion by a private equity company from Los Angeles.

High-tech devices outnumber people in the United States, the industry group CTIA reported Tuesday. Wireless subscriber connections reached 327.6 million, surpassing for the first time the U.S. population of 315.5 million.

Motorola is expected to announce its next generation Xoom 2 and new smart phone Spyder next week so naturally leaked pictures are already going tech sites and blogs. This set of leaked pictures has the Motorola Spyder, also known as Droid Razr and the Xoom 2 with the carrier logos on the device, this time Verizon.

Cementing its commitment in developing an open pit mine in South Australia, BHP Billiton has announced on Wednesday that the company's board has earmarked US$1.2 billion in pre-commitment capital for the first phase