PC vendor Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) and its subsidiary Unimax Computer (宇碩) yesterday introduced Android-powered GPS units in Toyota vehicles in collaboration with Hotai Motor Corp (和泰汽車) for tourists in Nantou County.
Running on Nvidia Corp’s Tegra 3 chip, the 7-inch GPS units integrate vehicles’ embedded multimedia devices and Asustek’s cloud-computing automobile guidance systems that operate automatically when the cars are started.
A total of 35 Toyota energy-saving vehicles, including 19 electric cars and 16 Prius hybrids, are available from tomorrow for tourists traveling around Sun Moon Lake (日月潭) to rent from local branches of Hotai Leasing Corp (和運租車).
Photo: Yang Ya-min, Taipei Times
“Asustek aims to develop products not only related to 3C [computers, communications and consumer electronics], but also 5C, which includes cars and cloud computing technologies,” Kent Chien (簡孝堅), general manager of the multimedia business unit at Asustek, said on the sidelines of the launch ceremony.
“As energy-efficient products become more popular in the market, we foresee integration between products, services and technologies will generate a certain amount of market value in the future. There is huge room for the vehicle market to fulfill its growth potential,” he added.
Asustek said the new products are similar to the company's smaller-sized tablets, but installed in vehicles. The company said it expects to receive orders for the GPS units by the end of the year, if the market reaction is better than forecast.
The GPS units are designed to function like tourist guides, Chien said, adding that the products display residual battery life, the location of charging stations, information about famous sites in the area and broadcast Internet radio programs from all over the world.
To provide tourists with safe and convenient battery charging services, Delta Electronics Inc (台達電), the nation’s largest power supply unit maker, yesterday said at the ceremony that it has installed 32 7-kilowatt alternating-current and 50-kilowatt direct-current charging machines at 28 charging stations around Sun Moon Lake.
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
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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