■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
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day