Acer Inc (宏碁) and Asustek Computer Inc (華碩) yesterday unveiled a wide range of new Internet of Things devices and PC products ahead of the IFA trade show that opens in Berlin tomorrow.
Acer chief executive officer Jason Chen (陳俊聖) introduced the company’s first interactive wireless pet camera, Pawbo+, which is designed by its wholly owned subsidiary.
Chen told a news conference that the interactive camera, priced at US$169, will be available for customers in Taiwan, the US, Germany, Italy and Japan from today.
Photo: EPA
As part of Acer’s progress in its new businesses, Acer and Starbreeze AB began shipping their first StarVR head-mounted displays to IMAX Corp in preparation for the opening of the IMAX VR Center in Los Angeles later this year.
Following the production of a small number of StarVR HMD this year, Acer plans to begin mass production of the devices next year.
Acer is also to showcase a curved-screen Predator 21X gaming laptop and its latest Chromebook product line, including a convertible 13.3-inch Chromebook, at the show.
Asustek unveiled its latest generation of ZenWatch in a separate news conference in Berlin.
Unlike its previous generation of square-shaped ZenWatches, the new ZenWatch 3 is round and compatible with iOS and the Android operating systems, Asustek said.
The starting price for a ZenWatch 3 is 229 euros (US$255), higher than the starting price of its previous generation of watches, which sold for 149 euros.
However, Asustek did not disclose the launch date for ZenWatch 3.
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],”
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
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