■INTERNET
Firefox reaches a billion
Mozilla announced on Friday that it had passed 1 billion downloads of Firefox, its Web browser that has gained popularity as a free alternative to Microsoft’s ubiquitous Internet Explorer. Mozilla said the figure of 1 billion downloads was based on user-initiated downloads of Firefox, not automatic updates. It claims to have 300 million active users of its browser, which was launched in November 2004. According to research firm Net Applications, Internet Explorer has a 65 percent share of the Web browser market, followed by Firefox with around 22 percent, Apple’s Safari with around 8 percent and Google’s Chrome with around 2 percent.
■TELECOMS
Apple fixes iPhone problem
Apple Inc says it has fixed an iPhone vulnerability that lets hackers knock people offline — and possibly take over the phones — by sending them specially crafted text messages. Apple says it issued a software fix on Friday after the vulnerability was exposed this week at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas. Similar weaknesses were found in phones running Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating systems. The Android problem has been fixed, and Microsoft is investigating the vulnerability reported in its software.
■TRANSPORTATION
Honda plans electric bike
Honda Motor Co plans to debut an electric two-wheeler in Japan next year. The motorcycle will be powered by a lithium-ion battery, and Honda will target sales to corporate customers, Tatsuhiro Ohyama, head of Honda’s motorcycle operations, told reporters yesterday at a test-drive event in Motegi. Meanwhile, Honda recalled about 440,000 vehicles in the US on Friday over an airbag defect. The company recalled some 2001-2002 models of Honda Accords, 2001 Civics and 2002-2003 Acura TLs. The announcement was an expanded recall from last November. Honda said there was a flaw that could cause the airbag to rupture when it inflates and spray metal fragments on the driver.
■AVIATION
THAI delays deliveries
Thai Airways International (THAI) has signed an agreement with aircraft manufacturer Airbus SAS to delay the delivery of six A380 superjumbos by two years, media reports said yesterday. “We fully understand the economic climate, current market situation, their [THAI’s] concerns and requirements, and we found an appropriate solution and came to an agreement,” Airbus executive vice president Kiran Rao told the Bangkok Post. Separately, European air safety regulators told world airlines on Friday they will have to replace hundreds of air speed sensors of the type that may have contributed to an Air France Airbus A330 crash in June.
■INVESTMENT
Banks come under fire
A group of mainland Chinese investors claim they lost HK$500 million (US$64 million) after being misled by Hong Kong banks, a media report said yesterday. The banks — HSBC, Hang Seng Bank, Citibank, DBS Bank and ABN Amro Private Banking — were accused of selling high-risk equity accumulator investments as low-risk products, the South China Morning Post said. They also reported the banks’ activities to police. Equity accumulators offer shares at discounted prices but require investors to buy the same stock at the same price over a fixed period. The risk is that if the stock price goes down investors still have to buy the shares at the original price.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
Apple Inc has been developing a homegrown chip to run artificial intelligence (AI) tools in data centers, although it is unclear if the semiconductor would ever be deployed, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. The effort would build on Apple’s previous efforts to make in-house chips, which run in its iPhones, Macs and other devices, according to the Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the matter. The server project is code-named ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Center) within the company, aiming to utilize Apple’s expertise in chip design for the company’s server infrastructure, the newspaper said. While this initiative has been
GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that revenue would rise moderately in the second half of this year, driven primarily by robust demand for advanced wafers used in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. “The first quarter is the lowest point of this cycle. The second half will be better than the first for the whole semiconductor industry and for GlobalWafers,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) said during an online investors’ conference. “HBM would definitely be the key growth driver in the second half,” Hsu said. “That is our big hope
The consumer price index (CPI) last month eased to 1.95 percent, below the central bank’s 2 percent target, as food and entertainment cost increases decelerated, helped by stable egg prices, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. The slowdown bucked predictions by policymakers and academics that inflationary pressures would build up following double-digit electricity rate hikes on April 1. “The latest CPI data came after the cost of eating out and rent grew moderately amid mixed international raw material prices,” DGBAS official Tsao Chih-hung (曹志弘) told a news conference in Taipei. The central bank in March raised interest rates by