COMPANIES

With Apple's iOS 5 operating system's release just hours away, news has broken that the company's highly anticipated iPhone 4S has broken the three million pre-order sales mark in its opening week.

BP has drawn up a contingency plan to tackle an oil spill off the coast Shetland Islands, which has the potential to be bigger than its Deepwater Horizon disaster.

Sony has recalled 1.6 million Bravia TVs sold worldwide in 2007 and 2008, after discovering that a faulty component may cause the sets to melt or catch fire.

With Apple's iOS 5 mobile operating system finally launching in the UK, analysts and fans alike have begun to once again question when the OS' chief competitor, Google Android Ice Cream Sandwich, will finally be unveiled.

Along with iOS 5 due out later today, Apple has put the finishing touches to iCloud and is expected to release Mac OS X 10.7.2 soon, after making iTunes 10.5 available on Tuesday.

BlackBerry has finally released a statement explaining the data outages of the last two days which saw millions of users left in the dark; a 'core switch failure' is to blame.

With the positive critical reaction Apple's highly anticipated iOS 5 is getting on its Wednesday release, analysts have once again questioned whether Google's Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS will be able to compete.

Shares in British banks were mixed on the FTSE 100 in morning trading after a surprise no vote from the Slovak parliament upset European Union plans to increase the size and power of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).

Adding to the company's list of hacking woes, Sony has confirmed that an as-yet unknown third-part attempted to illegally access nearly 93,000 Sony Entertainment Network, PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment accounts.

The Great BlackBerry BlackOut of 2011 couldn't have come at a worse time for Research in Motion, manufacturer of the affected phones, with its market share tumbling and competitors excelling.

The newest operating system update to the iPhone, the iPad and the iPod touch, called iOS 5, is available to download from today.iOS 5 brings an entirely new notifications system, a BlackBerry Messenger-rivaling free messaging app, system-wide Twitter integration and increased performance, giving users the feeling of a brand new phone.

Shares in Burberry were down on the FTSE 100 in morning trading after the luxury fashion retailer reported a rise in revenue in the first half ended 30 September 2011.

Sony has answered the hopes and prayers of many Gran Turismo 5 fans, by bringing the infamous Spa Francorchamps circuit, as well as an in-door karting arena to the game.

Shares in Burberry were up on the FTSE 100 in afternoon trading ahead of the group's first half trading update, expected tomorrow.

Following the arrest of as many as 100 participants in the Occupy Boston protest, the Anonymous collective has issued a slew of statements and images accusing the police of attacking and arresting a number of war veterans participating in the campaign.

BlackBerry users endured a second day of network problems today, with BBM and email failing to work just hours after a statement was released to say yesterday's 20-hour network outage had been fixed.

BlackBerry has demonstrated its new Tag system, which uses near-field technology (NFC) to let users share their contact details by tapping two BlackBerrys together.

Sir David Attenborough was honoured by the gadget world last night, when he was awarded for his outstanding contribution to technology at the annual T3 awards in London.

With Samsung's Galaxy S2 having beaten Apple's iPhone 4 for the crown of best smartphone at this year's T3 awards, speculation has now turned to the next clash of the smartphone titans, with critics questioning whether the iPhone 4S will fair better against Samsung's Nexus Prime.

Shares in British banks were broadly down on the FTSE 100 in morning trading as investors, unusually perhaps, awaited news from Slovakia.

Samsung claimed a surprise victory over Apple Monday night when the Galaxy S2 was voted smartphone of 2011 at the T3 awards, beating out the iPhone 4.

BlackBerry and phone networks worldwide were forced to apologies to tens of millions of customers yesterday, as a server crash in Slough caused the loss of internet data, email and BlackBerry Messenger.

Hugh Jackman's latest film, Real Steel, includes an easter-egg scene containing a teaser advertisement for Microsoft's rumoured, next-generation Xbox 720 games console.

Blackberry users are suffering loss of internet, email and Blackberry Messenger as a server crash at a data centre in Slough causes a data blackout across the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa.

EA Sports and Adidas Originals have created a partnership around the newest 'Need for Speed' racing game, The Run, offering special trainers and apparel.

Apple has issued a statement confirming, despite an initially tepid consumer response, its recently unveiled iPhone 4S has officially broken the opening day pre-order record set by its predecessor, the iPhone 4.

Just days after a number of sites "leaked" images of Google's Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS, a new anonymous source has released a video allegedly showing Ice Cream Sandwich running on the fabled Google Nexus Prime smartphone.

Sony is set to acquire the rights to a movie about the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who died last week.

Dell is rumoured to have dropped the upcoming Wrigley handset, which was set to run on the newly released Windows Phone 7.5 Mango operating system.