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World Business Quick Take

■ Forex
Wen pledges no surprises
China plans no "surprise adjustment" in its currency's exchange rate, Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) said, defending Beijing's policy of gradually adjusting its controls on the yuan. Wen's comments, posted on the Foreign Ministry's Web site yesterday, come amid speculation that Beijing will relax those controls in the face of mounting pressure from the US and other trading partners for the value of the yuan to rise. "The floating of the renminbi exchange rate will be mainly determined by market supply and demand and its flexibility will be increased gradually," Wen said. "So there will be no `surprise' adjustment in the renminbi exchange rate."

■ Semiconductors
Chip measures sunlight
South Korea's Samsung Electronics yesterday announced an "intelligent" light-sensitive microchip, allowing displays on devices like mobile phones to be clearly seen even in bright sunlight. Samsung said the new display chips will maintain image quality on liquid crystal display screens by automatically measuring sunlight and adjusting the backlight. Because of their sunlight-detecting abilities, the new chips will be able to save power when mobile phones are used indoors. Mass production of the chips will start this year.

■ Entertainment
PlayStation 3 delayed again
Sony said yesterday that it was again delaying the launch of the PlayStation 3 games console in Europe, pushing back the rollout of one of its most pivotal new products until March. The launch of the next-generation video game console will also be delayed in Russia, the Middle East, Africa and Australasia due to a shortage of laser parts, Sony said. It said that it still planned to launch the PlayStation 3 in Japan and North America in November as planned and it still plans to ship 6 million PlayStation 3 consoles globally in the 2007 fiscal year.

■ Travel
Korean Air limits laptops
Korean Air, South Korea's largest airline, has banned the in-flight use of all Dell and some Apple laptop computer models while operating on battery power after the two US firms announced massive recalls over a battery problem, a company official said yesterday. The ban has been in place since Aug. 30, but passengers can still operate the laptops if they use electricity from the in-seat power supply system after separating the batteries from the computers, an airline spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity.

■ Internet
MySpace to sell music
The Web site MySpace announced on Tuesday that it will enable members to sell their music. MySpace said it made a deal with San Francisco digital music technology firm SNOCAP to provide musicians and studios tools to sell tunes in a virtual storefront on the Web site. A beta version of the service began testing with offerings from a few bands on Tuesday and MySpace expected to have the polished service rolled out in the US by year's end.

■ Media
BMG Music sold to Vivendi
Bertelsmann AG said yesterday that it had agreed to sell its BMG Music Publishing Group to France's Vivendi for 1.63 billion euros (US$2 billion). The move means Vivendi and its Universal Music Publishing arm will become the world's biggest music publisher.

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