COMPANIES

Foxconn - the manufacturer of Apple's iPhone and iPad range - has been accused of hiding underage workers from inspectors.

Apple is believed to be opening a new shop at London department store Harrods in mid-March, which would coincide with the rumoured release date of the iPad 3.

After Apple, it is Microsoft which has accused Google of patent misuse. Microsoft has charged the search engine giant with misusing standard essential patents to gain supremacy in the mobile phone market. Microsoft has sought the aid of European regulators to investigate the alleged unfair use of patents.

That's right. The Padfone is neither a tablet nor a smartphone entirely in itself. In fact, it is a hybrid that attempts at merging a smartphone with a tablet computer.

British smartphone users could get their hands on ultra-fast 4G browsing speeds before the end of the year, as the country's biggest network announces major steps forward.

British telecommunications firm, Everything Everywhere (EE) has reportedly planned to roll out the Fourth-Generation high speed mobile Internet service (4G) by the end of this year.

Samsung's Galaxy series of smartphones received a major boost to its already incredible range with the announcement of the Galaxy S Blaze 4G, on T-Mobile's networks. The Blaze 4G will look to fill the void between Samsung's mid and high-end Galaxy phones, flaunting a sleek form-factor, good looks and powerful features, including, of course, 4G capability.

Hammerson, the real estate investment trust is scheduled to release its full year 2011 results next week amid reports that Jefferies has assigned 'Buy' rating on the stock with a target price of 447 pence per share.

Losses double year-on-year for Royal Bank of Scotland after hits over pension mis-selling and Greek debt write-offs.

Police are investigating the unsuccessful trade, which was stopped by Threadneedle's internal systems in August.

The advent of Sony's PlayStation Vita is expected to change the face of the portable game console world. The much-awaited console is launching on Wednesday and will retail at £230. One interesting titbit... the launch product will be accompanied with 15 game titles!

Pirate Bay, the world's most resilient torrent tracking and file-sharing Web site could soon be forced to bid farewell to Britain after a court ruling upheld an Internet Service Provider's (ISP) decision to ban the Web site in the near future.

Sony, the Tokyo-based electronics giant, will be excited by the hype that has surrounded the launch of the eagerly anticipated PlayStation Vita. The handheld gaming console was launched on Feb. 22, in Europe, Africa, the U.S., Australasia and the Middle East.

Google seems to be rather in haste to upgrade their Android operating system, presumably in a bid to outsmart Microsoft's attempts at capturing the tablet market with its revamped Windows 8 software. The launch for the latter is believed to be just around the corner.

Display maker Proview stated it is prepared to begin negotiations with Apple, after the Chinese company threatened to sue over the use of the iPad trademark.

The iPad 3 will be slightly thicker than the current model, have an improved, larger camera and feature a more tapered design.

Amazon will launch a Kindle ebook reader with a full colour screen later this year, having placed an order with screen manufacturer E Ink for 6-inch colour touchscreens.

Olympus accounting scandal unrelated to apparent suicide of senior director in India, say police.

Work will no longer get done, revision will be skipped and procrastination will reach an all-time high - a new Angry Birds game is coming on 22 March.

Apple threatens legal action against Chinese firm over claims of unlawful iPad trademark use.

Sky Go available on Android devices, letting subscribers watch a range of live television channels and on-demand content at no extra cost.

Chinese handset manufacturer ZTE will launch two new Long Term Evolution (LTE) handsets, both of which are expected to run on Android's latest operating system, Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

Just a few months since Apple released OS X Lion for Mac, big cat is being replaced by Mountain Lion.

Apple's App Store has made rapid strides over the last seven months, with an astonishing 10 billion downloads... eclipsing the mark made until July last year.

In its latest statement, Foxconn (the Apple-contracted Chinese company under review for labour practices) has promised to hike wages by 16 to 25 per cent.

Rumours rife over iPad 3.

Apple Inc's booming China market share has plunged for the second consecutive quarter in October-December, losing out to cheaper deals from local brands like Huawei and ZTE, according to Reuters. The local brands have been promoting their products aggressively through the channel service partners for quite some time now.

South Korean electronics giant Samsung, in a statement on Monday, said it would spin-off its unprofitable Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) business into a separate company.

Latest reports from Arbor Networks - a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) mitigation vendor, claims that iPv6 could be the next target of cyber criminals worldwide. Many network services are contemplating the idea of transition from iPv4 to iPv6 owing to lack of feature parity between the two network protocols.