■TECHNOLOGY
Elan complaint probed
Elan Microelectronics Corp’s (義隆電子) patent-infringement claims against Apple Inc over touch-screen devices including the iPad and iPhone will be reviewed by a US trade agency that could order imports halted. The US International Trade Commission in Washington on Friday said it would investigate the complaint filed last month against Apple. Notice of the commission’s decision was posted on the agency’s Web site. Elan, a Taiwanese designer of integrated circuits, claims Apple’s iPhone 3G and 3Gs, iPod touch, iPad players, Mac computers and Magic Mouse wireless mouse violate a US patent.
■TECHNOLOGY
HTC ‘drops’ Palm bid
HTC Corp (宏達電) and Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) declined to comment on a report that HTC pulled out of talks to acquire Palm Inc, leaving Lenovo as the main bidder from Asia. HTC declined to make a bid for Palm, the Sunnyvale, California-based maker of the Pre handset and WebOS platform, because the deal lacked synergies, Reuters reported on Friday, citing a person familiar with the matter it didn’t identify. Lenovo remains as the only major Asian bidder because talks with Huawei Technologies Co (華為) stalled, it said.
■TECHNOLOGY
Bookseller adds features
US bookstore giant Barnes & Noble added Web surfing and games to its electronic reader on Friday as rivals move to break the momentum of Apple’s freshly launched iPad tablet computer. Barnes & Noble updated its Nook devices with features that included letting users browse complete works instead of just getting summaries of the content of digital books they are considering buying. Amazon, meanwhile, will make its Kindle electronic book reader available at US retail giant Target later this year in a deal that marks the first time the device will be available anywhere other than the Amazon.com Web site.
■INTERNET
Twitter buys Cloudhopper
Twitter announced on Friday that it had bought Cloudhopper, a small SMS technology company, in the second acquisition by the popular micro-blogging service this month. The Seattle-based Cloudhopper is a messaging infrastructure firm that helps Twitter connect directly to mobile carrier networks around the world, Twitter said in a blog post. Financial terms of the purchase were not disclosed.
■ENERGY
Reliance profit up 30%
India’s largest private sector firm, Reliance Industries, said on Friday its sales more than doubled but net profit rose only 30 percent in the quarter to March due to pressure on its refining margins. The oil and gas giant said net profit was 47.10 billion rupees (US$1.02 billion) for the three months ended March, from Rs36.2 billion a year ago, while turnover jumped 125 percent to Rs602 billion.
■PRINTERS
Xerox forecasts profit
Xerox Corp, the largest maker of high-speed color printers, forecast second-quarter profit that beat analysts’ estimates as customers renew spending on printing and office services. Per-share profit this quarter, excluding some costs, will be at least US$0.20, Xerox said in a statement on Friday. That compares with the average analyst estimate of US$0.18 in a Bloomberg survey. First-quarter profit and sales also exceeded analysts’ projections. Xerox said that full-year profit would be at the high end of its forecast.
STILL HOPEFUL: Delayed payment of NT$5.35 billion from an Indian server client sent its earnings plunging last year, but the firm expects a gradual pickup ahead Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), the world’s No. 5 PC vendor, yesterday reported an 87 percent slump in net profit for last year, dragged by a massive overdue payment from an Indian cloud service provider. The Indian customer has delayed payment totaling NT$5.35 billion (US$162.7 million), Asustek chief financial officer Nick Wu (吳長榮) told an online earnings conference. Asustek shipped servers to India between April and June last year. The customer told Asustek that it is launching multiple fundraising projects and expected to repay the debt in the short term, Wu said. The Indian customer accounted for less than 10 percent to Asustek’s
‘DECENT RESULTS’: The company said it is confident thanks to an improving world economy and uptakes in new wireless and AI technologies, despite US uncertainty Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it plans to build a new server manufacturing factory in the US this year to address US President Donald Trump’s new tariff policy. That would be the second server production base for Pegatron in addition to the existing facilities in Taoyuan, the iPhone assembler said. Servers are one of the new businesses Pegatron has explored in recent years to develop a more balanced product lineup. “We aim to provide our services from a location in the vicinity of our customers,” Pegatron president and chief executive officer Gary Cheng (鄭光治) told an online earnings conference yesterday. “We
LEAK SOURCE? There would be concern over the possibility of tech leaks if TSMC were to form a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday stayed mum after a report said that the chipmaker has pitched chip designers Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Broadcom Inc about taking a stake in a joint venture to operate Intel Corp’s factories. Industry sources told the Central News Agency (CNA) that the possibility of TSMC proposing to operate Intel’s wafer fabs is low, as the Taiwanese chipmaker has always focused on its core business. There is also concern over possible technology leaks if TSMC were to form a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, Concord Securities Co (康和證券) analyst Kerry Huang (黃志祺)
It was late morning and steam was rising from water tanks atop the colorful, but opaque-windowed, “soapland” sex parlors in a historic Tokyo red-light district. Walking through the narrow streets, camera in hand, was Beniko — a former sex worker who is trying to capture the spirit of the area once known as Yoshiwara through photography. “People often talk about this neighborhood having a ‘bad history,’” said Beniko, who goes by her nickname. “But the truth is that through the years people have lived here, made a life here, sometimes struggled to survive. I want to share that reality.” In its mid-17th to
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