As cellphones have become a virtual necessity for most people, their functions and applications have constantly expanded. Mobile phones have gone from providing basic real-time communication and text message capability to allowing digital photography, music functions and Internet surfing. In the latest development, mobile phones can even replace your house keys.
The Farglory Group (遠雄企業團), a leading property developer in Taiwan, announced last week that the residents of its four new complexes in Taipei County will be the first in the world to open their doors with their cellphones.
"Instead of flipping through a big bundle of clinking keys, our residents just have to flash their mobile phones in front of a sensor to enter their homes," Farglory chairman Chao Teng-hsiung (趙藤雄) said.
PHOTO: JESSIE HO, TAIPEI TIMES
The constructor will allot two BenQ T80 handsets -- the first near field communication (NFC)-enabled phone made by a Taiwanese maker -- to each of the 5,990 apartments, which are expected to be completed next year.
Family members who do not have one of the two cellphones can enter the houses using a fingerprint identification system.
The handset security access control system will be applied to all of Farglory's future housing projects as well, Chao said.
"As cellphones are a must-carry accessory nowadays, we want to make them as useful as possible and make daily life convenient," Chao said.
Chao, 63, started his career as a construction worker and strove to rise in the construction industry. Farglory's business later extended into insurance, recreation parks, hotels and logistics.
In the meantime, Farglory has become a trustworthy constructor in terms of reliability and comfort. Properties developed by the company are sold soon after hitting the market.
Inspired by Microsoft Corp chairman Bill Gates' house, which incorporates technology in new ways, Farglory became a pioneering constructor in integrating technology into housing in Taiwan.
Residents of Farglory apartment will also be able to use their mobile phones as an EasyCard to take the MRT system and buses and to pay for parking fees. It can also be used as a credit card.
Chao's envisions "second-generation" and "future" homes with cellphones as a remote control for home electronics, lighting and curtains when residents are away.
In addition, Farglory residents can receive community announcements and reserve entertainment facilities and conference rooms with their phones.
To meet the growing demand for high-speed Internet access, the apartments will include much faster fiber optics.
Chao's vision of the ideal home does not stop there.
As conserving energy becomes more important, Chao plans to build environmentally friendly housing complexes.
The "green" buildings would use solar cells on the roof for electricity and incorporate wastewater recycling, Chao said.
"In this way we would be able to contribute to environmental protection while adding value to the homes," Chao said.
Although the environmentally friendly features would cost more, Chao believes that homebuyers are willing to pay for these options as part of their lifestyles.
The trend is growing rapidly in Japan, South Korea and the US, and will soon hit Taiwan, he said.
Farglory will make its debut on the Taiwan Stock Exchange from the over-the-counter GRETAI Securities Market today. The shift to a bigger capital market means greater challenges ahead for the company, Chao said.
"We hope to compete not only with local rivals, but also with international developers to improve our competitiveness," Chao said.
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Apple Inc increased iPhone production in India by about 53 percent last year and now makes a quarter of its marquee devices there, reflecting the US company’s efforts to avoid tariffs on China. The company assembled about 55 million iPhones in India last year, up from 36 million a year earlier, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named because the numbers aren’t public. Apple makes about 220 million to 230 million iPhones a year globally, with India’s share of the total increasing rapidly. Apple has accelerated its expansion in the world’s most populous country in recent years, bolstered
HEADWINDS: The company said it expects its computer business, as well as consumer electronics and communications segments to see revenue declines due to seasonality Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it aims to grow its artificial intelligence (AI) server revenue more than 10-fold this year from last year, driven by orders from neocloud solutions clients and large cloud service providers. The electronics manufacturing service provider said AI server revenue growth would be driven primarily by the Nvidia Corp GB300 server platform. Server shipments are expected to increase each quarter this year, with the second half likely to outperform the first half, it said. The AI server market is expected to broaden this year as more inference applications emerge, which would drive demand for system-on-chip, application-specific integrated circuits
PROJECTION: TSMC said it expects strong growth this year, with revenue in US dollars projected to grow by about 30 percent, outperforming the industry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported consolidated sales last month reached NT$317.66 billion (US$9.98 billion), the highest ever for the month of February, driven by robust demand for chips built using the company’s advanced 3-nanometer (3nm) process. Last month’s figure was up 22.2 percent from a year earlier, but fell 20.8 percent from January, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. For the first two months of the year, TSMC posted cumulative sales of NT$718.91 billion, up 29.9 percent from a year earlier. Analysts attributed the growth to sustained global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products
RSS