SMARTPHONES
Galaxy 5 security foiled
A Berlin-based researcher said he has managed to fool the fingerprint-based security system on Samsung Electronics Co’s new Galaxy S5 smartphone using wood glue and a picture of the original print. Ben Schlabs, who works for Security Research Labs, said the trick is identical to the one hackers used to unlock Apple Inc’s iPhone 5s last year. The S5 flaw is potentially more serious, because Schlabs said he was also able to trick the electronic payment app PayPal, which uses Samsung’s fingerprint authentication. Schlabs said users concerned about security can choose to use a strong password instead of the convenient but flawed fingerprint system.
CHINA
Real-estate hikes pause
China’s new-home price increases eased across the country last month amid tighter credit that prompted developers to give discounts. Home prices from the first-tier cities to those less affluent all weakened last month, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Prices in Beijing rose 10 percent from a year earlier, the slowest since April last year, while those in Shanghai added 13 percent, the smallest since June. Prices rose in 56 cities last month from a month earlier, compared with 57 in February, data showed.
TECHNOLOGY
Nokia recalls tablet chargers
Nokia on Thursday recalled 30,000 chargers for its Lumia 2520 tablet due to risk it could give customers an electric shock. The AC-300 charger, manufactured by a third-party supplier, was sold in Austria, Britain, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Russia, Switzerland and the US. The Lumia 2520 is the first tablet by Nokia. “The plastic cover of the charger’s exchangeable plug could come loose and separate,” the Finnish company said in a statement. “If loose and separated, certain internal components pose a hazard of an electric shock if touched while the plug remains in a live socket.”
MANUFACTURING
GE posts Q1 results
General Electric Co’s (GE) new focus on oil and gas equipment helped the company to post strong first-quarter results. GE posted lower overall first-quarter net income than a year ago, due to the sale of NBC Universal during that period. The company said on Thursday that its industrial divisions, especially oil and gas, performed well and that the global economic environment was improving. The company earned US$3 billion on revenue of US$34.18 billion in the year’s first three months, down from US$3.5 billion on revenue of US$34.94 billion during the same period last year. On a per share basis, GE earned US$0.30.
AUTOMAKERS
GM sold 2.42m cars in Q1
General Motors Co (GM) said it sold 2.42 million cars and trucks in the first three months of the year, keeping it slightly ahead of Volkswagen in the global sales race. The Detroit automaker said its sales grew 2 percent worldwide from January through March. The company was led by 13 percent growth in China. However, sales fell 2 percent in North America. Sales leader Toyota has yet to release first-quarter numbers, but said it is on the way to selling 10.1 million vehicles this year. Volkswagen said it sold 2.4 million vehicles in the first quarter, up almost 6 percent. Toyota finished first last year with a record 9.98 million sales. GM finished second and Volkswagen third.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to