AUTOMOBILES
Honda recalls 528,000 cars
Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co announced the recall of nearly 528,000 vehicles worldwide on Friday because of a defect with the cylinder that holds brake fluid. The recall comes a day after Toyota announced a safety recall of about 1.5 million vehicles worldwide to fix a brake fluid leak that it warned can gradually diminish braking performance. The defective cylinders were built by the same Ohio-based supplier, ADVICS, a Honda spokeswoman said.
GAMING
Microsoft opening game store
Microsoft on Friday announced plans to open an online shop stocked with downloadable games for play on personal computers running on its software. Games for the Windows Marketplace Web site will launch at gamesforwindows.com on Nov. 15, the Redmond, Washington-based software titan said. Marketplace will launch with a portfolio of 100 games including blockbuster titles such as Fable and Grand Theft Auto, according to Microsoft.
TECHNOLOGY
HP aims tablet at businesses
Hewlett-Packard Co’s new tablet might look a little bit like Apple Inc’s latest blockbuster gadget, but it’s no iPad killer. HP, the world’s largest computer maker, unveiled the Slate 500 on Thursday. It costs US$799 and, like the iPad, has a -gesture-sensitive touchscreen and no keyboard. However, unlike the iPad, the device is aimed squarely at business users. The Slate 500 runs Windows 7, the same Microsoft Corp operating system found on modern PCs. It will be available in the US before it goes on sale in other regions.
TECHNOLOGY
Macs lose Flash
Apple Inc said on Friday it would no longer ship Mac computers with Adobe Systems Inc’s Flash player pre-installed, as the company continues to erect barriers to the software. Apple’s decision does not ban Flash software from its computers — as it has from the iPhone and iPad. Users will still be able to download and install a Flash player, which is widely-used to view videos on the Web. Apple has been publicly hostile toward Flash and Steve Jobs has criticized it as a buggy battery hog.
BANKING
Sumitomo Mitsui profit triples
Japan’s major lender Sumitomo Mitsui Banking is likely to see its interim net profit triple from a year earlier to a record ¥350 billion (US$4.3 billion), a newspaper reported on Saturday. As a result, its group company, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG), is expected to post ¥400 billion in net profit for the April-September period, the Yomiuri Shimbun said, adding that it may upgrade its full-year outlook. The brisk performance is mainly due to smaller-than-expected loss reserves as well as a rise in prices of bonds held by the bank, the daily reported.
BANKING
Six more US banks closed
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp (FDIC) said on Friday that US regulators closed six more banks, bringing the total so far this year to 138. The biggest was Hillcrest Bank of Overland Park, Kansas, which had approximately US$1.65 billion in total assets and US$1.54 billion in total deposits. FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair has said she expected the number of bank failures this year to exceed last year’s total of 140, but that total assets of the failures would probably be lower.
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
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last