■ Bankers get new jobs
Herbert Chung (鍾甦生), former chairman of state-run Taiwan Business Bank (台灣企銀), is going to take up the chairmanship of Waterland Securities Co (國票證券), a brokerage arm of Waterland Financial Holdings Co (國票金控), a Chinese-language newspaper said yesterday, citing Waterland chairman Victor Liu (劉維琪).
The board of Waterland Financial, the nation's smallest financial-holding firm, approved Chung's appointment on Wednesday, the report said.
Chung resigned as chairman of Taiwan Business Bank last month after the failure of the bank's share sale. The sale collapsed after the bank's union went on strike, scaring away potential buyer E.Sun Financial Holdings Co (玉山金控).
Meanwhile, Taiwan Business Bank president Hwang Shiu-nan (黃秀男), who had offered to resign his post because of the failed share sale, has been confirmed as chairman of the Taichung Commercial Bank (台中商銀), the bank said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Tuesday.
■ XP Media Center available
Eyeing the promising digital home segment, Microsoft officially announced the arrival of the Chinese version of Windows XP Media Center Edition in the local market on Wednesday.
In conjunction with the launch, more than 10 hardware and software vendors introduced their respective computers and electronics products based on the new Microsoft operating system, including Hewlett-Packard, Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), Acer Inc, Intel Corp, Gigabyte Technology Co (技嘉科技) as well as Chungwha Telecom Co (中華電信), according to Chinese-language newspapers.
The prices of Media Center-based personal computers range from NT$28,900 to NT$88,000.
Consumer electronics such as acoustic equipment are priced from NT$3,000 up to more than NT$1 million, the reports said.
A Media Center PC is designed to help home users manage their digital content, including photos, television shows, movies or music stored on a desktop's hard drive. Its interface is different from the standard Windows XP platform, as it has larger icons designed to be visible to a user sitting on a couch away from a television or large screen.
■ New service to Cambodia
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 華航) will start flying to Cambodia next month and will resume service to Thailand's Phuket Island next year, CAL said yesterday.
CAL will launch the Taipei-Phnom Penh flight with three flights per week, the carrier said in a statement.
CAL plans to resume its regular flight from Taipei to Phuket next January. CAL suspended the Taipei-Phuket flight after last December's Indian Ocean tsunami, which devastated the tourist resort island.
CAL began offering irregular charter flights to Phuket on July 13, but will increase the frequency to one charter flight every two days from now until the year-end.
To cope with the growth in Southeast Asia-bound Taiwan tourists, CAL will add one more flight to its regular service to Hong Kong, Chiang Mai, Manila and Singapore. Currently CAL operates from three to six flights per week to these destinations.
■ Notebook demand booming
The demand for notebook computers is booming in the Asia-Pacific region with India recording the strongest personal computer (PC) growth, International Data Corp said yesterday.
The third quarter marked the biggest notebook growth in the region outside of Japan, IDC said.
"Notebook shipments for the region grew by an astonishing 54 percent year-on-year, while desktop PCs only grew 12 percent," the Business Times quoted IDC associate director Bryan Ma as saying.
RSS