THE NEWS WRAP: Australia’s internet speeds… loading… loading…

Australia’s internet speeds are lagging behind other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, despite the rollout of the NBN.

Fairfax reports Australia has slipped to 44^th in the world based on average connection speeds, which fell 1.8% in the third quarter of 2014.

An average connection speed of 6.9 Mbps places Australia behind Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore and New Zealand.

Spotify to focus on portable devices due to user metrics

More than half of Spotify users stream music on their phones and tablets, meaning the company will focus on portable devices in order to lock-in user engagement.

According to statistics presented to advertisers, 42% of Spotify users listen to the service on their smartphones and 10% on tablets.

TechCrunch reports Spotify will continue to add features to its mobile and tablet apps in preparation for stiff competition with Apple’s music streaming service, expected to launch this year.

Spotify has around 50 million active users, with around 12 million paying subscribers.

Google to take on Skype’s instant translation service

Google will soon announce updates to its translation app for smartphones, according to The New York Times.

The update will see the app automatically turn popular spoken languages into written text. Skype rolled out real-time translation software for people speaking English and Spanish last month.

Google Translate currently offers translation services for 90 languages.

Overnight

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 170.5 points, rising 0.95% to 17,737.37. The Australian dollar is currently trading at US81 cents.