■ Software
New Office for Apple
The latest version of Microsoft Corp's Office software for Apple computers will be in stores in the third week of next month, the company said. The announcement was scheduled for yesterday. Jessica Sommer, a Microsoft product manager, said Microsoft is scheduled to send the latest version of Office 2004 for Macs to manufacturers on April 14, paving the way for the product to get to store shelves the following month. Online retailers were also to begin offering the software for pre-order yesterday, Sommer said. The new software will cost the same as the previous version, she said. Office for Macs currently sells for anywhere between US$149 for educators to US$499 for the full professional version.
■ United States
Boeing suspension to end
The US Air Force is preparing to end an eight-month suspension on Boeing Co bidding for government rocket contracts, the Wall Street Journal said on Monday. Air Force and Boeing officials expect to announce an agreement in the next few weeks that paves the way for the No. 2 US defense contractor to resume bidding for contracts valued at up to US$5 billion up to 2010, the daily said, citing confidential sources. The Air Force stripped Boeing of US$1 billion in launch contracts and suspended three of the company's units from bidding on new rocket business last July over an industrial espionage scandal. Officials took the step after concluding that Boeing improperly came by thousands of pages of documents from rival Lockheed Martin Corp that gave Boeing an unfair advantage in the bidding process for a rocket launch contract.
■ Cellphones
Motorola ships V600
Motorola Inc, the world's second-largest maker of mobile phones, has begun shipping its V600 camera phone to AT&T Wireless Services Inc after four months of testing delays. The V600 lets customers take photos, send e-mail and make calls in 125 countries. It is available on AT&T Wireless' Web site for US$174.99 after a US$195 rebate, and will be in most of AT&T Wireless's retail stores by next week, AT&T spokesman Ritch Blasi said. Motorola is relying on the V600, already on sale in Europe, to win back market share lost to bigger competitor Nokia Oyj of Finland. Motorola's handset sales fell 3 percent in the fourth quarter in part because component shortages caused shipping delays for some phones.
■ Semiconductors
KEB proposes Hynix sale
Korea Exchange Bank (KEB), controlled by a US investment fund, proposed yesterday that creditors sell up to 20 percent of their stake in Hynix Semiconductor Inc. The proposal from bank president Robert Fallon came in an interview with the Yonhap news agency, a bank official said. Creditors including KEB hold a combined 81.4 percent stake in Hynix and are banned from selling their holdings until December 2006 as part of a bailout for the world's third largest microchip maker. Hynix, which accounts for 30 percent of South Korea's memory-chip exports, escaped insolvency last year with a 3.2 trillion won (US$2.8 billion) bailout arranged by creditors. KEB, taken over by US investment fund Lone Star in January, holds a 13.8 percent stake in Hynix.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)