COMPANIES

The four-cylinder EcoBoost engine set to power the Ford Falcon in 2012 has been named among this year’s Ward’s 10 Best Engines.

From Morrison Securities Pty Ltd. A negative reaction to last week's European sovereign-debt summit by credit-ratings firms sent U.S. stocks sharply lower Monday, erasing all of the stock-market gains that followed the summit Friday.

The scandal regarding Carrier IQ continues to grow as more and more smartphone companies and carriers are sued over this privacy scandal.

US soft drinks giant of a company Coca-Cola is for the first time placing the clandestine formula for its major beverage on exhibit.

Minmetals Resources Limited (HKSE 1208) (ASX:MMR) has announced on Monday that its zinc ore reserves climbed up 103.9% due to the inclusion of the Dugald River ore exploration in estimates.

Bluescope Steel (ASX: BSL) will apply for a $100 million assistance from the Australian government's Steel Transformation Plan (STP) which accepted on Monday applications from eligible companies for competitiveness assistance advances.

Despite the recovery of its domestic operations, Qantas is still pushing through with talks for the opening of a new Asia-based premium carrier.

Productivity in Australia declined for the fifth straight quarter in two years, going down to 0.2 per cent in the September quarter.

The $2.25 billion buyout by Whitehaven Coal (ASX: WHC) of Aston Resources (ASX: AZT) will create the largest independent publicly traded coal company in Australia. Besides Aston, which is owned by Nathan Tinkler, Whitehaven also agreed to buy Boardwalk Resources for $499.8 million.

One other piece of information that was released was Microsoft's ability to throw a "kill switch" to disable or even remove an app from users' Windows 8 device

Barnes & Noble Inc's second quarter earnings dipped slightly from $1.9 billion to $1. 89 billion compared to last year even as its Nook line of products posted an increase in sales to $220 million.

Telecommunications firm Telstra shut down its online billing and BigPond e-mail service for more than 24 hours starting Friday night after its bundle plan customer database became accessible to the public exposing user names and passwords of some 60,000 customers.

Australian share markets are seen opening positively this week following the strong signals from the European stock markets. Analysts from CMC Markets, Commonwealth Securities, IG Markets, and OptionsXpress share their views as to what direction the local equity markets will go on this first trading day.

U.S. stocks wrapped up a second straight week of gains as the euro zone's latest plan to fix its debt crisis overshadowed some disappointing forecasts from big U.S. companies. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 187 points, or 1.6%, to 12184.26, undoing most of the previous day's sharp losses.

The Productivity Commission's finding that NBN Co's business model is potentially in breach of the federal government's own competition policy underlines the need for a cost-benefit analysis of the National Broadband Network, Business Council of Australia Chief Executive Jennifer Westacott said.

A report by the IT Industry Innovation Council released on Friday said that Australia has the potential to become a global cloud computing hub.

Google is fast catching up with Apple as the tech giant marked this week the 10 billionth download form its Android Market, signalling the dwindling gap between the current dominant App Store and its closest rival.

A federal judge imposed on Friday a $1.25 million fine on Australian online retailer Harvey Norman (ASX: HVN) for its misleading advertisement. The fine was initiated by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

Woodside Petroleum (ASX: WPL) announced on Friday that it got on Thursday the go signal from its joint venture partner to proceed with the $2.5-billion natural gas fields project.

But with the BlackBerry 10 not even being released until 2012 can RIM still generate enough consumer interest or should it jump sides?

Google's Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest generation of Android software will debut with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus but other smartphone owners are clamoring for their upgrade to Android 4.0.

RIM's woes continue as it loses a trademark case that resulted in a name change for its BBX operating system to BlackBerry 10.

Microsoft Corp. released an update on Tuesday for its Xbox 360 console that will allow users to interact with their televisions in a completely new way. Now users with Kinect can tell their televisions to play movies or switch channels with a simple voice command.

A letter that arrived at the Deutsche Bank headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany Wednesday was found to contain an explosive device after it passed through a mail room security X-ray.

From Morrison Securities: U.S. stocks fell in afternoon trading as investor focus shifted from disappointment over the European Central Bank to the closely watched summit on Europe's sovereign-debt crisis. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 171 points, or 1.4%, to 12026 in recent action. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index shed 23 points, or 1.8%, to 1238 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 42 points, or 1.6%, to 2607.

The Android Market has reached 10 billion downloads and still counting as of this past weekend. To celebrate and reward Android customers, Google selected paid apps to be available for only 10 cents each and new set of apps for promotion each day for the next 10 days. Here are some of the applications and a mini review if these apps are at least your effort and time.

If Aussie children would have their way, most of the gifts they want to receive this Christmas would be techie gadgets and toys from popular cartoon or movie characters.

Mining firm Atlantic (ASX: ATI), based in Perth, has admitted on Thursday there are delays in reviving its Windimurra vanadium mine in Western Australia. To address the delay, the firm will resume trading after a self-imposed trading halt.

The Maria's Farm Vegetables in New South Wales will use coal seam gas (CSG) to power a $65-million glasshouse it would build near Fullerton Cover.