COMPANIES

Outages are occurring too often. Up to 365 million users of Microsoft Corp.'s e-mail and cloud services worldwide were scratching their heads at the end of the week: Hotmail, Skydrive, Office 365, and others Windows Live service were inaccessible. Though service was restored in a couple of hours for most, the downtime was the second in 30 days.

Nexteer Australia has received government funding of $63 million to help develop and manufacture its innovative lightweight technology and create more than 250 jobs in Australia.

Ferrier Hodgson, an accounting firm specializing in insolvency, has been appointed as receiver of Solar Shop Australia Pty Ltd., Australia's largest provider of solar PV systems, a move that has shaken and disappointed the solar industry.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) appealed the Federal Court’sruling dismissing its application to prevent Metcash from acquiring the Franklins supermarket business, saying that the acquisition will erode competition .

With an iPhone 5 release date expected in October, all talk has been about Apple's yet to be unveiled smartphone.

Apple's popular iPad is a hot commodity with consumers but can they be used to make your business better?Here are 6 ways other companies have tailored the iPad to make a better customer experience and enhance their overall service.

Amidst the soaring threats of striking another global recession and skyrocketing prices in fuel, consumers in Indonesia manage to cultivate a growing penchant for cars, commodity gladly perceived prolific by Asia's largest car manufacturer, Toyota Motor Corporations.

In a move that has come to define the dog-eat-dog business world, Yahoo chief executive Carol Bartz was fired this week. Bartz has come back at this perceived betrayal with some expressive comments directed at the board of directors of the internet company.

AFTERNOON REPORT (4.30pm AEST)The local share market has finished the trading week on a positive note, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) adding 7.6pts or 0.2pct to 4277.4 and the S&P/ASX 200 Index (XJO) firmer by 6.7pts or 0.2pct to 4194.7.

Recently, SmartCompany released its list of the 10 most influential people in Australian IT. The annual list judged the people in Australia's tech industry based on their involvement in the industry and their capacity to influence the sector beyond their own companies or organizations.Here are the 10 most influential IT people, according to SmartCompany.

Australian mining giant Rio Tinto got a new water deal in Pilbara. The company, which announced the deal Friday, secured the agreement in exchange for surrendering its entitlement from the Millstone aquifer.

Oxfam Australia is calling on the Just Group to ban sandblasting on its jeans manufacturing process due to serious health concerns it poses on workers.

The fight is not yet over for recently fired Yahoo Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz. Ms Bartz said she wants to keep her board seat on the tech firm, but a Yahoo statement said she could not keep the seat.

The mining industry received more government assistance than manufacturing over the past 12 months, despite record mining profit levels, the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union complained today.

Energy company Jatenergy Limited (ASX:JAT) is supplying high quality crude jatropha oil to Lufthansa for use in the world’s first, long-term trial of renewable jet fuel on the German airline’s regular scheduled flights between Hamburg and Frankfurt.

The US Renewables Group (USRG) will provide $344 million financing for the solar project led by Solar City for that will double the current number of residential rooftop solar system in the US.

Developers try to keep up with the demand for smartphones and apps based on Google Android operating system, by hiring new programmers and releasing updated versions of the software.

But according to a report, Samsung Electronics may unveil a tablet powered by Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 8, marking the South Korean company's first collaboration with the software giant.

I was never the lazy student that gave "the dog ate my assignment" alibis. I wrote an article stating 1,000 reasons why Motorola's Droid Bionic would beat the iPhone 4. But that was in January, when Motorola touted a new device with amazing specs at a time when Nokia Oyj was still busy experimenting with the Meego, Samsung had yet to become a major player in mobile devices, and Apple's fifth generation iPhone was still months away.

The local share market closed marginally higher today, although off earlier gains due to a disappointing jobs report. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) gained 6.9pts or 0.2pct to close at 4269.8 after reaching a high of 4297.9 in early trade.

Supermarket giant Woolworths is recalling packets of Macro Gluten Free Choc Brownie Mix 400g from Woolworths and Safeway supermarkets, and Thomas Dux stores across Australia due to the possible presence of milk - an undeclared allergen.

With still no reprise from a harm's way, Japan's newly elected Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda set foot on the devastated Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to personally see the extent of the damage and massive efforts in decontaminating the areas plagued with high radiation.

Swedish Automobile N.V. (Swan) has announced that Saab Automobile AB and its subsidiaries Saab Automobile Powertrain AB and Saab Automobile Tools AB (collectively Saab Automobile) filed for voluntary reorganization with the District Court in Vänersborg, Sweden.

The Swedish retail chain Ikea used political prisoners in East Germany as ''slave labour'' to make furniture, reports said.

She may own the biggest purse in Australia but mining billionaire seemed unable to quell the restiveness within the family as Gina Rinehart found out on Thursday that her daughter, Hope Rinehart Welker had filed a lawsuit against her.

Samsung Electronics and Microsoft have teamed up to manufacture a new tablet computer with Microsoft's latest operating system, according to a report from the Korea Economic Daily.

Amidst the public apology issued on Wednesday by U.S. energy giant ConocoPhillips, over oil spills in Bohai Bay, Beijing has ordered a thorough investigation of the affected area to know the exact damage to the environment, reports said.

Google has confirmed that China has renewed its ICP license to operate for another year in spite the tension between the two for more than a year.

Rio Tinto criticized on Thursday the Australian government for its failure to deliver on carbon tax promises, which the Labour government agreed on with industry leaders.