■TELECOMS
HTC posts record revenue
Global smartphone maker HTC Corp (宏達電) posted record revenue of NT$18.66 billion (US$575 million) last month, up 49.5 percent year-on-year, on the back of strong market demand for its high-end mobile phones. Last month’s revenue showed an increase of 3.6 percent from NT$18 billion in April, according to a company statement on Thursday. It was the second consecutive month HTC registered record monthly sales. In the first five months of the year, revenue totaled NT$74.37 billion, up 34 percent from a year earlier, the company said.
■TELECOMS
Smartphone games hacked
Hackers have planted viruses in video games for smartphones running on Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system, according to a firm that specializes in securing mobile devices. The games — 3D Anti-Terrorist and PDA Poker Art — are available on sites that provide legitimate software for mobile devices, said to John Hering, CEO of San Francisco-based security firm Lookout. Those games are bundled with malicious software that automatically dials premium-rate telephone services in Somalia, Italy and other countries, sometimes ringing up hundreds of dollars in fees in a single month.
■INTERNET
Google to hand over data
Google will begin handing over private data mistakenly gathered from wireless Internet connections to European regulators within the next two days, the Financial Times reported on Friday. The news comes amid growing controversy over the Internet giant’s admission that Street View cars taking photos in more than 30 countries inadvertently gathered fragments of personal data sent over unsecured Wi-Fi systems. Google will hand the information initially to data protection authorities in Germany, where prosecutors have opened an investigation into the firm, and then in France and Spain, the newspaper said.
■INTERNET
Microsoft ends Bing rebate
Microsoft is shutting down a program that gave online shoppers rebates when they found items through Bing search. The cashback program was started in May 2008 and Microsoft initially hoped it would help lure more people to its search engine. Despite its best efforts, Microsoft remains a distant third in search behind Google Inc and Yahoo Inc. Cashback offers will end on July 30. People who have earned rebates have a year to redeem them.
■SOFTWARE
Oracle slashing more jobs
Oracle is cutting more jobs as part of its takeover of Sun Microsystems. Oracle said in a regulatory filing on Friday that the new round of cuts would mostly hit employees in Asia and Europe. The company — the world’s biggest database-software maker — didn’t specify how many employees would be laid off. But it did say the restructuring would be at least twice as expensive as the one Oracle initiated immediately after closing the Sun deal in January.
■AUTOMOBILES
GM sets up investment firm
General Motors Co has set up its own venture capital company with an initial investment of US$100 million to invest in companies that are developing auto-related technology. The automaker announced the formation of General Motors Ventures LLC in a statement released early on Friday, saying it wanted to nurture transportation technology and help bring it to market so GM has access to
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is