An IC (integrated circuit) credit-card system will begin operation in August as a part of the opening of a new mega mall located in downtown Taipei, local media reported yesterday.
That 205,000m2 mall dubbed "Core Pacific City" (
The IC card was developed in a joint-venture between Cosmos Bank Taiwan (
"With the IC memory function, this card is not only a credit card, but also a powerful marketing tool," said Sheen Ching-jing (沈慶京), chairman of Core Pacific Group (威京集團) who owns Core Pacific City.
Taking advantage of the multi-application operating system (MULTOS), developed by MasterCard international, this IC credit card can reduce the risk of unauthorized use via a built-in firewall, he said.
According to a survey by the Consumers' Foundation (
The addition of an IC adds memory to the card and extra convenience for customers at the planned mall.
The card can be inserted in a mall kiosk to download coupons, book movie tickets and make restaurant reservations.
In addition, users can see where they spent their cash by accessing personal shopping records in the kiosk system.
Core Pacific City will integrate shopping, entertainment activities and online services to fulfill the company's vision of creating a "living mall" environment, Sheen said. Core Pacific City has set a first year sales goal of NT$20 billion.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day