Quanta, MIT in virtual project
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), the world's largest maker of laptops, said it is developing a so-called "virtual computer" with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
The company and the institute will cooperate to develop software and patents for the computers, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday, citing Quanta's chairman, Barry Lam (林百里).
"It's an academic project we have with MIT," said Carol Hsu (?[), spokeswoman for Taoyuan, Taiwan-based Quanta. "The idea is something we want to develop, and products could be a few years away."
Virtual computers will provide processing power to access data stored on a network without having their own storage drive.
Quanta makes the XO notebook for the One Laptop Per Child charity, which was started by Nicholas Negroponte, a co-founder of MIT's media laboratory.
Taipower dumps bonds sale
Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電), the nation's biggest electricity producer, canceled a plan to sell NT$15 billion (US$464 million) in bonds this month after failing to agree on fees with banks.
The state-run utility won't auction bonds this month after the banks that were interested in guaranteeing the securities asked for higher fees than the company planned to pay, said Clint Chou (周義岳), a Taipower spokesman.
"We probably won't sell any more bonds this year," Chou said from the company's head office in Taipei yesterday. "We'll likely borrow from banks instead."
Arsenic allegations rebutted
Concentrations of arsenic and arsenic compounds in ambient air at the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區) are within environmental standards, the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) said yesterday.
ITRI vice president Chu Hsing-sheng (曲新生) said that in the latest round of tests, airborne arsenic concentrations in and around the science park were found to be within the range of 1.5 nanograms to 2.1 nanograms per cubic meter, lower than the 6 nanograms per cubic meter that the EU has set as targets to be achieved by 2012.
Chu said the ITRI renewed monitoring in collaboration with the Hsinchu Science Park Administration and National Tsinghua University in order to alleviate concerns over allegedly high concentrations of airborne arsenic -- thought to reach 120 nanograms per cubic meter -- in ambient air at the Hsinchu Science Park.
Cellphone firms heed watchdog
Japan's two largest mobile phone operators agreed yesterday to alter advertisements after a government watchdog warned them that they misled customers amid a price battle in the sector.
Japan's Fair Trade Commission told industry leader NTT DoCoMo Inc and second-ranked KDDI Corp that their advertisements on discounts were attracting customers on unfair grounds. The firms pledged to respect the order.
The commission said the two operators advertised a 50 percent discount on the base price for calls without clearly specifying that customers needed to subscribe for two years to enjoy the rates.
HK growth slows
Hong Kong's economic growth slowed in the third quarter, expanding 6.2 percent from the same period a year ago, the government said yesterday.
GDP during the July-September quarter was slower than the 6.6 percent rate in the second quarter. On a seasonally adjusted basis, it rose 1.7 percent in the third quarter from the second quarter.
The government said it revised up its 2007 GDP growth forecast to 6 percent from between 5 percent and 6 percent previously.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last