COMPANIES

China has expressed concern on the planned carbon tax by the Australia government, which the Chinese government said might be a step back for the country's mining boom.

Home owners are still refinancing their mortgages, even as the property market remains flat, the latest Bankwest/MFAA* Home Finance Index has shown. The Home Finance Index, which surveyed more than 1,139 respondents, revealed that one in four (24.7%) had refinanced their loan in the past two years and 14.2 per cent had refinanced in the previous year, an increase on the previous HFI.

National jobs figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics today revealed a significant rebound in the employment market, confirming the underlying strength of the Australian economy.

The Australian sharemarket is improving after a slow start to trade, following a solid employment report this morning. The All Ordinaries index (XAO) is currently flat. Almost all sectors are trading slightly lower at lunch however.

The Australian government has mellowed down its carbon tax policy that would not be too much of a burden to small and medium enterprises. Industries affected by the carbon price had been reduced to 500 from the previous 1000, the government said.

Consumers may finally get their hands on a new iPhone soon as Apple is reportedly working for fourth quarter release of the hit smartphone, according to a Wednesday report by The Wall Street Journal.

Virgin Australia has extended its offer to disrupted Tiger Airways customers with a limited range of discounted fares on selected Australian domestic city pair destinations.

Former CNN chair and Time managing editor Walter Isaacson has been successful in profiling the lives of heavyweight figures such as Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin and Henry Kissinger that he realized he could not risk bungling his new project, the authorized biography of Apple head Steve Jobs.

Queenslanders are spending $6.9m globally to push their state to the forefront in the competitive worldwide incentive travel arena.

Nestlé has confirmed it is in talks about a possible takeover of Chinese confectionery company Hsu Fu Chi.

The national construction industry contracted further in June with solid falls in new orders and activity across the sector. The Australian Industry Group Australian Performance of Construction Index (Australian PCI®) in conjunction with the Housing Industry Association, fell 3.8 points to 35.8 (a reading below 50 indicates a contraction in activity).

Australia has announced it would lift a ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia and resume trade with additional safeguards in place to address animal cruelty concerns.

Reports indicate Apple Inc. will be releasing a new MacBook Air model in the next few weeks and the new model will be significantly faster than the $999 currently available in the market.

Google Inc. is facing more patent litigation as it has increased its dominance in the industry, and could spend billions to buy patents or defend itself against litigation. The Palo Alto, California-based company owner of the world's most popular search engine, the most used operating system platform (Android) for smartphones, and potentially a social network (Google+) that could rival Facebook.

Now that Apple has released the gold master for the Mac Lion OS to developers, it is likely that the final product will soon be available for the general public. The Gold Master version is the final build of the OS before the official product release -- which in the case of the Lion will be available exclusively on the Mac App Store, the first OS to do so.

The campaign for carbon pricing have gathered new supporters as the push for the government policy has turned to popularity and gathering of numbers.

Amid the cash rate calm and the now little cost difference between the average fixed term home loan interest rate and the average variable interest rate, deciding which type of loan to choose is even more difficult.

Virgin Australia (ASX: VBA) is collaborating with Renewable Oil Corporation (ROC), Dynamotive Energy Systems Corporation (DYMTF) and Future Farm Industries Co-operative Research Centre (FFI CRC) to develop a sustainable aviation biofuel that also has benefits for the Australian farming community and the environment.

As the national broadband network overhauls Australia’s telecommunication industry, so is the largest telco in the country, Telstra Corporation, which announced on Wednesday consolidation on its services and reorganization on the firm’s leadership functions.

Spot gold edged down on Tuesday, under the weight of a stronger dollar as a short squeeze boosted the greenback, and a weak technical picture cast a shadow on gold's short-term outlook.

Hackers hit FoxNews.com's Twitter account to send fake messages that U.S. President Barack Obama had been shot dead at a restaurant in Iowa. Nokia Oyj has cut its smartphone prices in Europe by as much as 15 percent to boost sales. Zynga, maker of "FarmVille," "CityVille" and other games played on Facebook, is aiming to raise $1 billion in an initial public offering.

The Social Network, a film about Mark Zuckerberg's founding of Facebook and the resulting lawsuits, was a worldwide box-office hit last year. With Facebook's 700 million active users and other and the coming of its most serious rival yet, Google+, social networking sites are generating massive traffic. Another movie about a social network would certainly generate interest from audiences around the globe.

The Australian Government plans to announce a price on pollution this weekend as the central element of a comprehensive policy to tackle climate change, cut pollution and drive the transformation of the Australian economy to a clean energy future.

Australia's mining boom strengthened the country's trade surplus that has hit a seven-month high to A$2.33 billion ($2.5 billion), from a revised A$1.62 billion surplus in April, the Bureau of Statistics said in a report in Sydney on Tuesday.

Australia's Lynas Corp. took in a new shareholder as Japanese bank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group has taken close to a 10 percent stake in the mining firm worth $324 million.

A spur of new orders for goods gave a glimmer of hope to Australia's services sector industry in June and possibly in the coming months.

Google's popular e-mail service is getting an upgrade. According to the official Gmail blog Google is now going to make Gmail as "beautiful as it is powerful". This is part of Google's effort to bring users a more focused and effortless experience on its products.

Apple's dominance in the smartphone and tablet markets has led to many competitors singling out the tech giant as their public enemy number one. Microsoft has been locked in battle with Apple for software and computer needs while Google's Android smartphones is going head to head with the iPhone for control of the smartphone markets. The iPad has run away from other tablets. How exactly can Apple's rivals compete with Apple?

Franchising is set to overtake manufacturing in terms of employment numbers within 10 years, according to Brian Keen founder and director of How To Franchise Simply.