ENTERTAINMENT
Sony halts PS2 production
Sony Corp said it has stopped producing its PlayStation 2 (PS2) consoles in Japan, fueling online rumors a PlayStation 4 is in the pipeline. Since launching in 2000 the PS2, which has a Blu-ray player, has sold more than 150 million units worldwide, making it the best selling console of all time and was so popular it outsold its replacement for the first three years. Shipments have been “completed” for the hardware of the PS2, the Japanese Web site of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc said, with no further comment.
ENTERTAINMENT
Zynga packs up 11 titles
Social games publisher Zynga Inc confirmed on Monday that it has carried out 11 of the planned shutdowns of 13 game titles, with Petville being the latest game on which it pulled the plug. Zynga in October said it would shut down 13 underperforming titles after warning that its revenues were slowing as gamers fled from its once-popular titles published on the Facebook platform in large numbers and sharply revised its full-year outlook.
INTERNET
Amazon regrets Web error
Amazon on Monday said it was sorry for a Web Services mishap that put online film streaming service Netflix out of commission on Christmas Eve. “We want to apologize,” Amazon said in a message posted at its Web site. “We know how critical our services are to our customers’ businesses, and we know this disruption came at an inopportune time for some of our customers.” Amazon.com attributed the outage to a mistake by one of its developers that caused a problem with load balancers at data centers the company uses to provide “web services” to clients such as Netflix.
AVIATION
Kingfisher loses permit
India’s troubled Kingfisher Airlines has lost its permit to fly after a deadline to renew its suspended license expired, India’s aviation regulator said yesterday. The news is a fresh blow for the debt-laden carrier whose operations have been grounded since October after employees went on strike over unpaid wages. However, the airline said there is no “cause for concern” as the rules allow for the renewal of a permit within two years of expiry.
LUXURY GOODS
Bulgari accused of tax fraud
Italian jeweler Bulgari, which was bought last year by French luxury giant LVMH, is being investigated for alleged tax evasion via Ireland and Luxembourg, Italian media reported on Monday. The company is accused of routing its revenues through countries with lower taxes to avoid paying higher taxes in Italy and thereby dodging about 70 million euros (US$93 million) in taxes, the Corriere della Sera and Messaggero dailies reported. Contacted by reporters, representatives of LVMH and Italian tax police could not be reached.
ECONOMY
Growth in Singapore slows
Singapore likely slipped into recession in the three months to last month, analysts said on Monday, as data showed growth last year came in lower than expected. In his New Year’s message, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) said “growth was slower this year, at 1.2 percent,” which is well off the official growth forecast of 1.5 percent to 2.5 percent. Lee said growth had been hit by weakness in the city-state’s key export markets of Europe, which is battling a debt crisis, and the US and Japan, where economic recovery is sputtering.
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