■ Computers
Apple updates armor
Apple Inc released a software update to keep hackers from running programs remotely, the Computer Emergency Response Team at Carnegie Mellon University said today in a statement. The updates are intended to fix the Mac OS X, Mac OS X Server and iChat software packages that Apple distributes with its personal computers, the national computer security center said. Apple has 4.7 percent of the personal computer market, according to a Jan. 17 report from IDC and Gartner Inc. The Cupertino, California-based company has produced advertisements promoting its operating system as being less vulnerable to viruses and other malicious attacks.
■ Entertainment
Court pooh-poohs Disney
US media giant Walt Disney Co has lost a court battle in a long-running fight over the copyright of the Winnie the Pooh character, the attorney challenging the company said Friday. A US federal judge in California granted Stephen Slesinger Inc, which claims the rights to Winnie the Pooh, a "summary judgment" that effectively ends Disney's efforts to take back the copyright, attorney Barry Slotnick said. The heirs of Stephen Slesinger, who bought the US rights from Pooh author A.A. Milne in 1930 and began licensing them to Disney in 1961, claim the powerful firm has cheated them out of hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties.
■ Communications
US, Japan scratch tariff
The US and Japan agreed on Friday to remove a key non-tariff barrier to their trade in telecommunications and radio equipment worth nearly US$3 billion a year. They signed a so-called Mutual Recognition Agreement in Washington to make certification of such equipment easier, officials said. Following the pact, Japan will accept results of "conformity assessment" procedures, including product testing and certification, performed by the US that determine if equipment meets Japan's technical requirements.
■ Utilities
Contingency plan in place
Taiwan's state-run enterprises have formed special task forces to address possible emergency situations during the nine-day Lunar New Year holiday, officials from the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Friday. Taiwan Power Co (台電), CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Taiwan Water Corp (台灣自來水) have taken steps to ensure a stable supply of electricity, oil and water during this period, the officials noted. Should a power failure occur during the holiday, the public can call a hotline on 1911, while the water company said that customers can call a toll-free hotline at 0800-000-876 if water supplies fail or leaks occur, officials said.
■ Currency
Circulation hits new record
The amount of NT dollars issued has hit a record high of NT$1.38 trillion (US$41.75 billion), Taiwan's central bank said on Friday. The amount of currency issued often peaks on the day before Lunar New Year's Eve, the central bank said, because companies pay year-end bonuses and customers buy more. The figure has been growing every year since 2003, this year growing NT$57.7 billion, or 4.38 percent, over last year's amount, according to central bank records. Central bank officials said that with the Lunar New Year holiday lasting nine days, people need to keep more cash at hand.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to