TABLETS
Google to launch 3D model
Google plans to start cranking out prototypes next month of a 3D tablet designed to give users immersive experiences that could include virtual reality, according to US media reports. The tablet will have a 7-inch display and an array of sophisticated cameras, sensors and software, the Wall Street Journal said in a story citing unnamed sources. The tablet was reported to be part of Project Tango worked on by a special team at the California-based technology firm. The project was said to involve giving advanced mapping and virtual reality capabilities to mobile devices powered by Google’s free Android software.
MOBILE APPS
Uber seeking fresh capital
Uber, the startup app that connects people with taxis and drivers, is seeking to raise fresh capital that would give it a US$12 billion value, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The Journal said Uber, which has already raised significant venture capital, is seeking US$500 million from various investor groups. San Francisco-based Uber, launched in 2009, offers a mobile app connecting passengers and taxis along with a “black car” service. Uber is the most prominent of the apps that are shaking up the traditional taxi landscape in cities around the world. Uber has also faced regulatory issues in Europe and protests from taxi operators who claim the service is unfair competition and fails to live up to standards set for such services.
MEXICO
Growth forecast slashed
The nation’s growth forecast was cut this year from 3.9 percent to 2.7 percent on Friday after a weak first-quarter performance linked to new taxes and an economic freeze in the US. The government revised its outlook after the national statistics agency reported 1.8 percent growth in the first quarter compared to the same period last year, a weaker-than-expected result. The finance ministry acknowledged that tax hikes on items such as junk food and sodas, part of a fiscal reform that came into force this year, put a damper on growth. Deputy Finance Minister Fernando Aportela said the effects of the new taxes were only “transitory” and that growth would speed up in the next three-quarters of the year. The central bank had cut its own annual growth forecast on Wednesday to a range of 2.3 percent to 3.3 percent in Latin America’s second-biggest economy.
GERMANY
Retirement age reduced
The government pushed a flagship pension reform through parliament on Friday to lower the retirement age to 63 for some citizens, despite warnings from economists that the move could hurt the economy. A previous ‘grand coalition’ government of conservatives and Social Democrats (SPD) had agreed in 2007 to gradually raise the official retirement age to 67 from 65 between 2012 and 2029. That plan was discarded and a reduction agreed at the SPD’s behest in negotiations for the present coalition last year. The new legislation passed easily through the Bundestag lower house of parliament, thanks to the large majority enjoyed by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives and the SPD. Early retirement was a pet project for the SPD, though economists have warned that the nation, with its ageing population and shortage of skilled labor, could suffer under the cost.
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
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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],”
MAJOR BENEFICIARY: The company benefits from TSMC’s advanced packaging scarcity, given robust demand for Nvidia AI chips, analysts said ASE Technology Holding Co (ASE, 日月光投控), the world’s biggest chip packaging and testing service provider, yesterday said it is raising its equipment capital expenditure budget by 10 percent this year to expand leading-edge and advanced packing and testing capacity amid strong artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing chip demand. This is on top of the 40 to 50 percent annual increase in its capital spending budget to more than the US$1.7 billion to announced in February. About half of the equipment capital expenditure would be spent on leading-edge and advanced packaging and testing technology, the company said. ASE is considered by analysts