■ Internet
Download classics for free
Google made classic literary works available for free download in printable format on Wednesday as part of its controversial quest to make the world's books available online. Works that are no longer copyrighted such as Dante Alighieri's Inferno and Victor Hugo's Marion de Lorme, can be printed out at the Google Book Search Web site books.google.com, according to the company. "Users can search and read these books on Google Book Search like always, but now they can also download and print them to enjoy at their own pace," the Mountain View, California, company said in a release. "We do not enable downloading of any books under copyright."
■ Robotics
Miuro gives iPod a lift
The new Japanese robot Miuro is designed to turn an iPod music player into a scuttling boombox-on-wheels. Equipped with speaker systems developed with Japanese audio maker Kenwood Corp, the 35cm long machine, which looks like a ball popping out of an egg, from Tokyo-based venture ZMP Inc will roll and twist from room to room blaring music. Apple Computer Inc's iPod portable player locks into the top of the robot, which comes in white, black, yellow or red. The ?108,800 (US$930) Miuro, short for "music innovation based on utility robot technology," responds to a remote-control handheld manipulator. It receives wireless signals from a personal computer to play iTunes and other stored digital files. At a show in Tokyo, the 5kg Miuro did a preprogrammed vacuum-cleaner-like dance, rolling about and pivoting to music. The company is hoping to sell 10,000 Miuro robots in the first year, targeting sales of more than ?1 billion.
■ Travel
Official warns of crisis
Over 100,000 people a week could be stopped from flying unless the US and the EU strike a deal over the provision of sensitive information on passengers, the top industry body said yesterday. The EU's top court in May overturned a decision forcing airlines to supply data on European passengers to US authorities as part of a security crackdown, giving the two sides until Sept. 30 to reach a new agreement. "The US and Europe must move quickly to avoid a big potential crisis over the Atlantic in the following weeks," said Giovanni Bisignani, director general of the International Air Transport Association. "Failure to agree by Sept. 30 could ground up to 105,000 travelers a week," he told reporters in a speech in Tokyo.
■ Telecoms
Samsung unveils 4G phone
South Korea's high-tech giant Samsung Electronics yesterday unveiled the world's first fourth-generation (4G) mobile technology with a demonstration on a bus. Samsung said the new technology, an upgraded version of existing wireless communications platforms, would enable users to download 100 MP3 music files in less than 3 seconds -- even when the consumer is in motion. Samsung held a demonstration on a moving bus traveling at speeds of up to 60kph on the southern island of Jeju. Compared with wireless broadband, 4G technologies will guarantee a faster and more seamless transmission of data and other multimedia content, it said. With the new technology, people can view multi-channel high-definition TV broadcasting through mobile devices. Samsung plans to put the technology into commercial use by 2010.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique