■ Telecoms
Japan, China to work on 4G
Japan and China will join forces to develop a fourth-generation (4G) cellular telephone combining Japan's skill in technology with China's huge potential market, an official said yesterday. Representatives of the two governments will meet in Tokyo tomorrow to launch the project, said the official of the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry in Tokyo. Fourth-generation cellular phones, expected to come into practical use around 2010, will be able to transmit data as quickly as optical fiber, dramatically improving the streaming of high-quality images. Japan has been at the forefront of third-generation (3G) telephones. Most of the world has been slower to catch on amid concern about the high price of 3G. Japanese mobile-phone makers' share of the Chinese market is small compared to European counterparts such as Nokia, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun daily.
■ Software
Asianux 2.0 debuts today
A partnership of companies from Japan, China and South Korea will unveil a new Linux-based operating system for local markets today in Beijing to challenge Microsoft Corp's dominance, a news report said yesterday. The new software, called Asianux 2.0, was developed by Japan-based Miracle Linux Corp, China's Red Flag Software Co (紅旗軟件) and Haansoft Inc of South Korea, the Nihon Keizai Shimbum said. The companies have been working on the system since last year with the aim of making a product that competes with the Windows operating system. Miracle Linux president Takeshi Sato said in January last year that the group hoped Asianux will be prevalent in server systems for regional businesses and governments within three years. Linux is a major threat to Microsoft's business, prompting the US giant to offer steep discounts to governments and schools around the world.
■ Automobiles
Hyundai union to strike
Unionized workers at Hyundai Motor Co, South Korea's biggest automaker, voted to go on strike for higher wages and greater say in management decisions, the union said yesterday. "We plan to have a partial walkout from tomorrow, but the extent of the industrial action will be decided in a union representatives' meeting scheduled later this morning," said Jang Kyu-ho, a union spokesman. Of Hyundai's 42,521 union members, 30,132 voted in favor of a walkout, the union said in a statement on its Web site. Hyundai has about 54,000 employees."We hope to reach a compromise with the management as soon as possible if the company provides reasonable suggestions," Jang said. In June, the union demanded an 8.48 percent increase in basic wages, incentive payments equivalent to 30 percent of Hyundai's net income and shorter working hours.
■ Telecoms
Motorola to help parents
Motorola Inc chairman Edward Zander said the company plans to make phones that would let parents monitor their children's whereabouts and censor obscene content. Phones that assuage parents' concerns are also to be matched by features to attract young consumers, like next month's planned release of a phone with iTunes, Apple Computer's popular media player, Zander said. "Mobile phones today are more like television when I was a kid," Zander said on Tuesday. But "there is a way to keep it secure," he said.
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
‘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)
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