TECHNOLOGY
Mozilla pitches Firefox OS
Mozilla Foundation announced on Sunday it will this year launch its widely anticipated Firefox operating system for smartphones in a direct challenge to the duopoly of Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. Mozilla, which campaigns for open development of the online world, showed off the first commercial version of the Firefox OS on the eve of the opening of the world’s biggest mobile fair in Barcelona, Spain. Smartphones equipped with Firefox OS look familiar to those on other systems, with an array of apps to be made available on an online store, and a mapping program developed by Nokia. The foundation said it was working with handset manufacturers South Korea’s LG and China’s TCL and ZTE (中興) on Firefox OS-run devices, with China’s Huawei (華為) to follow later in the year.
SMARTPHONES
Nokia unveils new products
Nokia Oyj, the Finnish mobile phone maker attempting a comeback, unveiled two cheaper Lumia smartphones and two basic handsets, broadening its portfolio to challenge Apple Inc’s iPhone and devices using Android. The Lumia 520 is to cost 139 euros (US$184) before wireless-carrier subsidies, Nokia’s cheapest handset using the Windows Phone 8 software from Microsoft Corp. The Lumia 720, which includes wireless charging similar to the flagship 920, will cost 249 euros. Both are set to start shipping this quarter, and will be available from carriers including China Mobile Ltd, and Espoo, Finland-based Nokia said in a statement. The devices will compete with cheaper Android phones from makers such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) while trying to lure customers who do not want to spend more on an iPhone.
BOOKSTORES
Riggio plans Nook deal
Barnes & Noble Inc’s founder and chairman, Leonard Riggio, has told the bookstore chain he is interested in buying its consumer business and spinning out the unit that makes the Nook tablet, a person familiar with the matter said. Riggio, who still owns about 30 percent of the company’s stock, has told the board of his interest without starting a formal process yet, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. Riggio has made a preliminary proposal and may make it more official this week, the person said. Riggio’s plan would keep the 689 consumer bookstores, which generated US$996 million in sales during the quarter ended in October last year, the person said. A collegiate unit, which had US$773 million in sales during the quarter, and the Nook-making technology unit with US$160 million in sales would be separated.
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