Apple’s contracts with iPhone developers have been brought to light by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, in a move that provided experts with a chance to scrutinize the contracts.

The terms of the contracts have been described as ‘troubling’ by the EFF as the App store developers even require written permission to talk about the contracts. The EFF also described Apple as "a jealous and arbitrary feudal lord".

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AT&T has released the Motorola Backflip, in a move that added the Google Android platform to its portfolio of mobile phones.

The Motorola Backflip comes with a unique back-flipping QWERTY keypad and back-of-display touchpad.

The device allows its users to navigate its screen by touching a panel equipped behind it, therefore no need to keep fingers on the screen.

Mobile TV, music, video, GPS, 3G/WiFi are some of the services that come with the handset, which has a 3.1-inch touchscreen.

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Bank of New York Mellon Corp., the world's largest custodian of financial assets, announced that its plans to take over Germany's BHF Asset Servicing GmbH under a deal worth about $343 million.

Michelle Grundmann, Managing Director and Frankfurt branch head at BNY Mellon, in an interview today posted that the bank is looking to scrutinize takeover opportunities that emerge in Europe, even as the focus remains on organic growth.

The deal which is slated to conclude in the third quarter will immediately boost to its GAAP earnings per share.

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Engineering firm, GT is set to create 200 new jobs after it is assured of sales orders worth £200 million. The company will safeguard additional 200 jobs.

GT group from County Durham has announced that its order book is good for the next five years. The company is involved in making engine emissions control systems. The systems designed by the company works on a technology which improve the cleanliness of engines and it is to be fitted to trucks, tractors, marine and construction equipment.

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Apple advertised its much-anticipated iPad tablet for the first time during last night's 2010 Academy Awards telecast.

The company aired the iPad commercial after last week's announcement the iPad would go on sale on in the US on April 3. In the rest of the world, the device is expected to be released in late April.

In the US, the iPad will be available with a price tag of $499. Only WiFi model of the iPad will be made available from April 3. WiFi and 3G model will hit the stores later in april.

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LucasArts is reportedly busy in making a sequel of Monkey Island 2, after enjoying the success of the special edition of The Secret of Monkey Island.

The sequel Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge is expected to come with improved voice acting and graphics.

Monkey Island 2, which was released in 1991, was a great success. It was a story of Guybrush Threepwood's attempt to find the treasure of Big Whoop and win back the affections of Elaine Marley.

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Waitrose boss Mark Price is determined to double sales and marketing share over the next decade as the supermarket chain is planning to open a number of new stores.

Waitrose's MD Mark Price aims to push sales up from £5 billion now to £10 billion and market share from 4.3 per cent to around 8 per cent by 2020.

The Group has plans to open new stores, build partnerships and introduce new products. Mark Price said that there is great potential for 23 stores in the United Arab Emirates.

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The world's biggest commodities trader, Glencore has planned to exercise an option and decided to buy back Colombian coal miner Prodeco from Xstrata.

Glencore had sold the company to Xstrata last year and has now agreed to pay around $2.5bn for Prodeco. It has not made its future plans for miner clear but some believe that it is already in talks with some parties including Brazilian mining giant Vale for a possible sale.

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British Airways should complete the talks to avert a strike by its cabin crew by the end of Tuesday, according to TUC.

The meeting between the two parties is being chaired by TUC which has set the deadline of 9 March for "close of play". The cabin crew is angry about pay and working conditions and has voted yes to go in for a strike in a February vote.

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The head of WPP group, Sir Martin Sorrell has said that he expects a flat growth for the group in 2010.

Sir Martin said that he does not see recessionary trends in big markets, and he forecasts a growth in emerging markets. Sir Martin sees a tough time for company operations in Western Europe in the year.

The group recorded a 21 per cent drop in pre-tax profit to £663m from £747. The revenue was up 5 per cent to £8.7bn. Earning per share for the company fell from 37.6p to 35.3p.

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A new High Street bank, Metro Bank has said that it has secured a banking license from the authorities and is now ready to launch operations in London.

The bank received the license from the Financial Services Authority. The bank plans to enter with extended and approachable working hours of 8am to 8pm on weekdays and 10am to 4pm during weekends, in order to attract greater number of customers.

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THQ Inc, the interactive entertainment software firm, has unveiled a trailer for Metro 2033 entitled Ghost of the Metro and announced that it will be available in retail from March 16th in the United States and Germany and March 18th in Australia.

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Britain's leading infrastructure contractor Balfour Beatty has reported better-than-expected growth of 7 per cent in underlying pretax profit to 267 million pounds for 2009.

Revenue jumped 9 per cent to settle at 10.3 billion pounds.

The company said that it bagged strong contract in the development of public buildings, new roads and railways that helped it in posting strong results.

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The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee has voted to leave key interest rates at their all-time low of 0.5 per cent and not to expand its asset purchase programme.

Last month, Bank’s Governor Mervyn King had said that the Bank was ready, if required, to extend its so-called quantitative easing programme.

There had been speculation that fragility of the economic recovery could compel the Bank to extend its quantitative easing programme on which it has already spent £200 billion.

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Network Rail's decision to slash as many as 1,500 maintenance jobs has prompted unions to ballot to decide over a potential strike action against the plans.

Network Rail has plans to reorganize its network's maintenance, starting next month, which could throw a number of workers out of jobs.

Speaking on the issue, Bob Crow from the RMT union said, "This justifies the decision to ballot members for strike action to defend rail safety and their jobs."

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Network provider O2 has rolled out new tariffs for iPhone in order to prevent its existing iPhone customer from joining rival networks.

O2 has launched SIM-only plans for its iPhone users. Existing iPhone users can choose from a range of SIM-only tariffs.

New plans start at just £15-a-month which offers 300 minutes, unlimited UK texts, data & Wi-Fi on a 12-month SIM-only contract, while a 30-day rolling contract now costs only £20.

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Troubled US insurer American International Group, which agreed to sell its Asian life insurance unit AIA to Prudential for $35.5 billion, benefited a lot for showing patience.

Earlier in 2008 also, AIG had put AIA for auction, but it rolled back its plans and decided to wait because it failed to find any suitable buyer as markets were down due to economic slump.

At that time AIG was getting nearly half of what Prudential is paying now for its Asian business.

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The Department for Transport has been criticized over its over collapsed Tube maintenance company Metronet, which left the taxpayer with a £410 million bill.

A report prepared by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee stated that the department unacceptably ignored a warning from the National Audit Office regarding overseeing upgrade work.

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Shareholders in VT Group including, BlackRock, Artemis and Scottish Widows are reportedly asking the firm to open its books to Babcock International, while firm’s biggest shareholder, Invesco, is still adamant on a 750p offer.

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There has been much talk about the new DRM measures that Ubisoft is currently busy testing and plans to implement for most of its upcoming titles. The always on Internet connection and the saved games that end up getting put in the cloud have managed to turn off quite a lot of PC gamer, and these are who the new measures aim to please.

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