■ ELECTRONICS
Apple rolls out new models
Apple on Tuesday rolled out new iPhone and iPod Touch models with beefed-up memory and bumped-up prices. A premium iPhone with 16 gigabytes of memory and a US$499 price tag is now the top of that line, ahead of a model with half the memory and a price of US$399. An iPod Touch with 32 gigabytes of memory costs US$499, relegating the US$399 16-gigabyte model to second position. Apple sells an eight-gigabyte iPod Touch for US$299. IPod Touch models are essentially iPhones without the mobile telephone capabilities.
■ INTERNET
Google offers new filters
Google on Tuesday began marketing new online tools for protecting e-mail from spam and other problems as it continued to challenge Microsoft. Google unveiled e-mail security services built with technology from Postini, a start-up that the Internet titan bought last year for US$625 million. The software protects, filters, encrypts and archives e-mail, and is compatible with Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes and Novell Groupwise. Google said subscription pricing for e-mail security starts at US$3 a year to "accommodate the budget of any business." Premium services that include virus protection and saving messages is priced at US$25 annually.
■ AVIATION
TAL parts for Boeing
Boeing Co, which is at least eight months behind schedule on delivering the 787 Dreamliner commercial jet, said it will partner with a unit of India's Tata group to build components for the aircraft. Boeing signed an agreement to partner with TAL Manufacturing Solutions Ltd to make floor beams for the 787, Boeing said today.
■ AEROSPACE
Bigelow looks to military
An aerospace company is negotiating to use a military rocket to ferry hardware, crew and cargo to a planned commercial space station, privately held Bigelow Aerospace said on Tuesday. Bigelow plans to build and operate an expandable commercial orbital outpost in late 2011 but needs the use of a reusable launch vehicle. The deal, if approved, would include six initial launches of an Atlas V rocket, said Mike Gold, Bigelow's corporate counsel. The rocket is made by United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co.
■ BEVERAGES
Coke buys into Honest Tea
The Coca-Cola Co said on Tuesday that it bought a 40 percent stake in organic tea maker Honest Tea, adding to its offerings of non-cola beverages. The 40 percent stake cost roughly US$43 million, which puts the total value of Honest Tea at about US$110 million. Coca-Cola can add Honest Tea to a non-cola drinks portfolio that includes Glaceau's VitaminWater, which it purchased for US$4.1 billion in June.
■ EARNINGS
Hon Hai eyes 30% boost
Hon Hai Group (鴻海集團) is estimated to boost its annual sales by 30 percent this year to NT$2.6 trillion (US$81.3 billion), despite concerns of a global economic slowdown and the US subprime crisis, the Chinese-language Commercial Times quoted group chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) as saying. Gou expected Web networking, optoelectronics and wireless communications subsidiaries to grow the fastest this year, regardless of the US economic fallout, the newspaper reported. But Gou warned people not to overlook the potential impact from the US downturn, saying that growth in emerging markets like China and India would not be able to replace the loss in the US market, the paper said.
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