Erik Pineda

Rowing against the tide, Nintendo launched the Wii U Nov. 18, hopeful that gamers the world over will plunk down some cash for an upgrade of the experience that conquered the world six years ago.

Activision executives were in euphoric mood as of Friday last week, overwhelmed by the incessant cash register rings generated by the latest Call of Duty virtual mayhem. The new game title clocked $US500 million sales after its full-day of commercial debut, reports said.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has maintained her popularity over her Coalition foe, Tony Abbott, by clocking 51 per cent as the nation’s preferred prime minister, the latest Fairfax Media-Newspoll survey showed on Monday.

The revolving door spins anew as Japan will once again search for a new prime minister following the dissolution of the Diet’s (the Japanese parliament) lower house on Friday.

Graphic images carry more punch in convincing smokers to kick the habit, a new U.S. study said, which also showed that mere text warnings were no match to powerful representations of the numerous ill-effects of cigarette smoking.

Microsoft is poised to pull off more surprises over the next few years but its chief executive, Steve Ballmer, is keeping all the details close to his chest for now, refusing to confirm talks of upcoming hardwares from the software giant.

Like Apple, Samsung thought it wise to have its own Mini but not a smaller tablet. Instead, the South Korean decided to serve a downsized version of its bestselling handset so far, the Galaxy S3, which recently outpaced the iPhone as the most sought-after smartphone brand in the world.

As if the federal government’s anti-smoking policies were insufficient, an Australian professor floated the idea that cigarette smokers need to secure a license to get on with their habits, considered a serious health hazard by medical doctors.

Nokia badly needs a lifeline, research firm Gartner said on its latest report, which showed that the Lumia 920 maker crashed out from the coveted list of the top five biggest smartphone makers in the world.

BlackBerry maker, Research in Motion (RIM), is frantic but confident in conquering the world consumer market as the struggling company readies its new handsets topbilled as the new Blackberry 10.

Small footprint and easy on the hand (but not necessarily on the pocket) easily land the iPad Mini on everyone’s shopping list, plus of course the excitement that gradually built up on the gadget prior to its unveiling last month by Apple.

Much of the world barely noticed but yes Apple actually released the iPad 4 alongside with the iPad Mini a few weeks ago and it has generated enough buzz, at least for those paying keen attention.

The U.S. appears supportive of the security policies outlined by the Australian government, including its recent decision to slash billions in defence budget spending, which is part of the Gillard government’s ongoing efforts to realise a surplus in early 2013.

Three million units sold so far and counting – that’s the measure of success attached with the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, which later on this month will be challenged by HTC’s Droid DNA and other phablets in the months and quarters ahead.

Australian retailers better be prepared with the influx of shoppers in the lead-up to the holiday season and its best that they configure their online stores to accommodate the expected traffic surge in Q4 2012, a new report said.

Expectations run high for the latest Call of Duty game franchise, the Black Ops 2, according to analysts, because previous releases of the Activision pedigree had delivered hundreds of millions in revenues within 24 hours of reaching global store shelves.

The Big Apple hosted the recent U.S. launch of the latest smartphone flavour from Taiwan-based HTC, the Droid DNA, which Verizon has picked up to become its latest Android mobile device.

What is there to gripe about the Google Nexus 4? It is powerful thanks to the quad-core Snapdragon processor that clocks at a peak speed of 1.4GHz and brandishes the native version of Android Jellybean.

Julia Gillard is surging and Tony Abbott is dipping. This, essentially, is the picture painted by the latest Newspoll survey, the results of which were published on Tuesday by The Australian.

Activision’s ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops 2’ will hit global store shelves on Nov 13 and this early the highly-anticipated game title is projected to quickly breach the $1 billion mark, easily breaking the record sales set in 2011 by its immediate CoD predecessor.

The Surface tablet has been moving modestly so far, Microsoft said on Monday, hastening to add that the overall push for the Windows RT version of the gadget has encountered minimal glitches.

After more than two years of reign, a rival tablet appears to be gathering enough steam that tech experts seem convinced an iPad killer is now on the horizon.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard is embracing the digital age, declaring on Monday that her government will ramp up efforts to increase telecommuting in Australia, which is in line with the $37 billion national broadband network (NBN) rollout.

U.S President Barack Obama is headhunting following clear indications that prominent members of his cabinet would opt out for a second run at the White House in the wake of their boss’ rousing victory last week.

China is unfairly portrayed as the epicentre of global piracy, a top Chinese official said on Sunday, insisting that there was a misconception and Western media firms are to blame.

Google’s design for the Nexus 10 is for the tablet to serve as a seminal device for Android developers, spurring them to author more apps that are specifically optimised for tablet owners.

Windows 8-powered devices are hip and cool, Microsoft would want us to believe, and to help the tech giant get this message across, to be absorbed and embraced by global consumers, it decides to employ the services of A-list celebrities.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remains keen on stepping down from her post despite efforts by re-elected President Barack Obama to keep the high-profile cabinet official as a member of his second-term team.

Smart devices will be the norm of the future with three dominant platforms – Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows – all competing to meet the mobile computing demands of general and business consumers, a new report said.