COMPANIES

The latest report by Telstra, Mobile Innovation – The Next Frontier for Growth and Productivity for Insurers, launched in conjunction with the Financial Services Council, has identified new opportunities for the insurance industry to better use mobile phone technology in delivering services.

MIDDAY REPORT (12.15pm AEST)Local stocks are under heavy selling pressure in early trade, following another slump in US equities overnight and falls on the commodities markets. Wall Street recorded its biggest one day fall in nearly two months as the stalemate over raising the US debt ceiling continues. At lunchtime in the East, the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is down 50.6pts or 1.1pct to 4562.

Tiger Airways will not be flying anytime soon, belying previous reports that the Singapore budget carrier will resume its Australian operations next week.

Investment bank Macquarie Group is sticking to its earnings forecasts despite the negative impact of subdued financial market activity.

World-leading solar researchers and industry members in Australia are collaborating to develop new ways of generating zero-emissions electricity using a printing machine to produce solar cells.

Australian retail-to-coal conglomerate Wesfarmers today posted $11.7 billion sales across its retail chains, a 5.8 percent increase in the fourth quarter from a year earlier.

Owners and managers in Australia are warned of cyber security risks and are advised to take the necessary measure to protect their businesses from hacking.

Aussie Home Loans has called on the Reserve Bank to show restraint next Tuesday, August 2, when the RBA board meets again to decide on the course of interest rates.

More than 300 jobs are expected to be lost under plans by Telstra to relocate some services to India as well as other offshore locations.

With the resources sector poaching limited labour from other states with the promise of huge wages, business heavyweights are warning that the rest of the Australian economy is not prepared and cannot compete.

Companies often claim that people are their best asset. For that to be true, it is important to invest in employees through training and other learning opportunities.

Anticipation in the consumer electronics world is soaring for the launch of Apple's iPhone 5, which is rumored to be hitting store shelves this fall. About 35 percent of consumers plan to purchase the latest iPhone upon its release, according to a survey by PriceGrabber, a part of online shopping site Experian.

Mozilla announced on July 25 that it is planning to launch its own mobile operating system. Tentatively called "Boot to Gecko" or B2G, the OS is based from Mozilla's open-source "Gecko" layout engine that is already in use with other Mozilla apps like Firefox.

Microsoft announced Tuesday the next version of the Windows Phone operating system, code-named Mango, has been delivered to manufacturers and carriers.

While at the start it was Google Plus that was highlighting Facebook's shortcomings, Facebook is now turning the tables around by providing a one-stop-shop (it's free) that would aid businesses take advantage of Facebook's mass user base.

AFTERNOON REPORT (4.30pm AEST)Higher than expected inflation data, coupled with the ongoing stalemate over the US debt crisis, saw local stocks lose ground today. White House officials are still confident a deal to raise the US government´s borrowing power will be agreed upon before the August 2nd deadline, however the worry now is that the US could still have its AAA credit rating downgraded.

Industry groups in Australia have expressed concern as the value of the local currency surges pass the usual parity against the U.S. dollar. Is the rising Australian dollar a blessing or a curse to the domestic economy?

Zynga Inc., the largest developer of games on Facebook, will offer a version of "CityVille" in China, the world's biggest Internet market.The free online game, named "Zynga City", will be offered through an alliance with Chinese internet service provider Tencent Holdings Ltd. The game will be launched in open beta on Tencent's Pengyou network in the next few days. The game will be later accessible on QZone, China's main social games platform. Tencent had about 101 mil...

Almost always, Apple never fails to please its loyal followers and tech watchers, the same way that it did last week when the Cupertino, California-based tech giant unveiled the upgraded MacBook Air that is juiced up by Intel’s Core i5 and i7 processors.

The iPhone 5 will be out this fall, that is, if it will be launched simultaneously with the iOS 5.

Research In Motion Ltd., the maker of the BlackBerry smartphones, said it will terminate 2,000 jobs, or almost 11% of its workforce, amid losing market share to Apple Inc.'s iPhone and smartphones running on Google's Android operating system.

SanDisk Corp. has introduced SanDisk Ultra, a new line of solid-state drives for old laptops and desktop computers. SanDisk is marketing the new SSD's -- which it says is more cost effective than purchasing a new computer -- directly to retail consumers instead of PC makers.

Should Australia have tighter privacy laws to avoid a similar phone hacking scandal involving the media? Treading on press freedom and creating policies to protect individual privacy are delicate issues that government authorities and law makers are assessing amidst the phone hacking issue in the United Kingdom involving News Corp owned by Rupert Murdoch, serving as a test case for media organizations in the country.

Banks in Australia will be put to a test by the contagion of a looming global financial crises spiraling from Europe to the United States now facing a politically charged debt crisis.

Major Australian bank Westpac (ASX: WBC) says it is progressively restoring payments following a disruption to normal payment operations overnight.

Group buying in Australia is relatively new, being only introduced in 2010 but, it has become the fastest growing sector in the online retail market. In its initial year group buying websites in Australia have already generated 63 million dollars in sales, according to a study in telsyte.com.

Chris Paine just called with good news. His film "Revenge of the Electric Car" - the successor to the big hit, "Who Killed the Electric Car?" - is slated to open widely (or certainly wider than it has so far) on Oct. 22. If you haven't seen the original, you need to remedy the situation.

AFTERNOON REPORT (12pm AEST)The local share market is trading higher at lunchtime in the East, despite a negative offshore lead on continued worries over the US debt crisis. US President Barack Obama has addressed his nation within the last hour, telling Americans Democrats and Republicans have still not agreed on a solution to stop the government from defaulting on its debt repayments ahead of the August 2nd deadline. However, local stocks, which were heavily oversold yesterday, are today ...

An innovative, Australian-first electronic logbook system that is set to modernize and transform company tax reporting is about to launch into the Australian market.