LinkedIn reached a global milestone today with 150 million users worldwide now signed up and using the online professional network, including more than two million in Australia – about 10 percent of the population – LinkedIn devotees.

New Zealand IT decision-makers are optimistic, but cautious, about their investment plans this year, and an analyst report just published suggests that businesses will just get on with business as usual and still spend on IT despite the prevailing caution.

One of the founders of MYOB has boosted his stake in cloud accounting provider Xero.

Asia Pacific buyers of IT services and products seem to be hesitating on new purchasing commitments as the region appears to have been negatively impacted by the current global economic conditions, according to a new report just published.

The technology sector is still the most trusted industry sector in Australia, as revealed in a global survey which found that last year people in countries around the world blamed their governments, more than any other institution, for the financial and political crisis they endured, including in Australia where only one-third of the general population trust the institution of government to do what is right.

A burgeoning market for healthcare peripherals and increasing smartphone processing power will result in the number of patients monitored by mobile networks to rise to three million by 2016, according to a UK market report.

Online group buying has taken off in a big way in the Australian market, with the market now worth nearly nearly half a billion dollars and significant growth predicted over the next 12 months and beyond.

Aussie-owned and operated group buying company, Scoopon, has for the second year running outperformed multinational players LivingSocial and Groupon, to retain overall leadership in the Australian group buying market.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports a new Aussie startup incubator will be starting in March.

There is huge untapped potential for Facebook to get a new source of revenue from social advertising, according to research by a marketing expert from the prestigious MIT Sloan School of Management.

Analysts say it is reassuring that Facebook has been able to convert its 845 million active users into revenue and profits, with both the company’s operating income and revenue growing strongly over the past two years.

National ISP, Internode, says its acquisition by iiNet is already paying dividends for its customers, with its most popular broadband services now available through 450 telephone exchanges nationally.

The boom in Internet-enabled mobile devices (IEMDs) is reshaping the European printing industry, offering new challenges and opportunities for hardcopy vendors, with analysts predicting a slow decline in future demand in print volumes for the traditional hardcopy vendors.

Australian broadband company and technology convergence product distributor, PCRange has launched a new VOIP phone service that offers untimed calls to more than 50 international call destinations under a pay-as-you-go $5 monthly plan.

Facebook’s goal is to redefine the social media experience by creating an immersive platform that will be the centre of people’s digital lives, making it the dominant platform for rich communications, commercial content and advertising. That’s the view of one global analyst firm that believes that if the social media giant can achieve its vision then the predictions of an IPO valuation of $100 billion might well be justified.

While mobile devices like smartphones are invariably the primary mode of personal and business communications in major, developed markets around the world, the next one billion of the world’s new mobile connections is likely to mainly come from remote rural areas in emerging markets, according to a newly published report.

Optus today has announced its new Managing Director of Optus Business, John Paitaridis. He will be leading the Optus enterprise, corporate and government business and is responsible for all aspects of the division’s sales, marketing, products, operations and service delivery including the wholly-owned subsidiary Alphawest and its Uecomm business.

Telstra has today been announced as the winner of a contract by the Western Australian Government to increase mobile coverage in rural Western Australia by 22 per cent over 3 years.

Zendesk, the US-based Internet help desk software provider that helps small and medium-size companies create on-demand help desks and cloud-based call centres has been able to measure customer happiness across 65 million consumers in 137 countries.

Singtel-owned Australian telco Optus will today celebrate its 20th birthday, after beginning local corporate operations on January 31, 1992.