TECHNOLOGY
Joint effort for 3D glasses
Japan’s Sony and Panasonic and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics yesterday said they would jointly develop new standards for glasses used to watch 3D images on television, computer and movie screens. The consumer electronics giants, working with European technology firm X6D Ltd, said their collaboration would cover a technology called “3D active glasses.” The glasses — which can be used on TVs from all three firms — will go on sale next year and will be compatible with 3D sets being released this year, they said.
BANKING
HSBC wants to sell US unit
HSBC Holdings PLC is in talks to sell its US card and retail services unit as it pares North American operations to focus on faster-growing emerging markets and retail banking in the UK. “These discussions are ongoing and no decision has yet been made,” the London-based bank said in a filing to the Hong Kong stock exchange yesterday. Capital One Financial Corp is in advanced talks to purchase the credit-card portfolio, a person familiar with the discussions said on Monday.
BANKING
Freddie Mac asks for aid
US government-controlled Freddie Mac is asking for US$1.5 billion in federal aid after posting a loss this spring. The mortgage giant says it lost US$4.69 billion, or US$1.44 per share, in the second quarter. That takes into account US$1.6 billion in dividends paid to the Treasury Department. It compares with a loss of US$6 billion, or US$1.85 per share, during the same quarter last year. Standard & Poor’s cited the link to the US government when it lowered Freddie and Fannie’s credit ratings on Monday, from “AAA” to “AA+.”
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained