■ Telcos
Vodafone, Google join forces
Vodafone Group PLC, the world's largest mobile phone network operator, said yesterday it had agreed with Google to develop maps for mobile telephones. The company said it will, in conjunction with Google Maps, provide easy-to-use maps and local listings, as well as local search and navigation capabilities. "Vodafone sees Google Maps as a new milestone in the relationship that both companies are developing. It is a prime example of how Vodafone, through its location service and distribution scale, can complement Google's products and unlock mass-market access to exciting services," said Frank Rovekamp, global chief marketing officer of Vodafone.
■ Electronics
LG sues China's TTE
LG Electronics Inc, South Korea's second-largest electronics maker, sued China's TTE Corp and Hong Kong subsidiary TCL Multimedia Technology Holdings Ltd (TCL多媒體科技控股) for alleged infringement of TV patents. LG Electronics filed a complaint against the two companies in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on Saturday, claiming they infringed on four digital TV patents, the Seoul-based company said today in an e-mailed statement. LG filed the complaint after discussions that began in 2005 collapsed, the statement said.
■ Automobiles
Toyota to build India factory
Toyota Motor Corp plans to build a new factory in India by 2010 to produce small cars as it tries to tap the growing automobile market in developing countries, a report said yesterday. Japan's biggest automaker plans to spend ?40 billion (US$330 million) to ?50 billion on the plant, which will be built near the company's first assembly plant in Bangalore, the Nikkei Shimbun reported, without saying how it got the information. With car sales slowing in developed markets like the US and Japan, companies are increasingly turning to developing areas like Brazil, China, Russia and India to ramp up production closer to growth markets.
■ Finance
Inflation forecast lowered
Australia's central bank on Monday lowered its inflation forecast, signaling that key interest rates were unlikely to be increased from their current six-year high of 6.25 percent, analysts said. The Reserve Bank of Australia said in its quarterly statement on monetary policy that underlying inflation was expected to ease to 2.75 percent at the end of this year and through 2008, from around three percent. It forecast that the headline rate of annual inflation will be below 2 percent in the middle of this year, the annual rate having been 3.3 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.
■ Internet
MySpace adds filter
News Corp's social networking Web site MySpace said it started using a program that blocks videos containing unauthorized content from its pages. The filter uses digital fingerprint technology to screen videos uploaded by users on their MySpace pages and remove them if they are protected by copy-rights, MySpace said in an e-mailed statement. MySpace is taking measures against illegal downloading after YouTube was ordered by Viacom Inc to take down more than 100,000 unauthorized clips earlier this month.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
The Chien Feng IV (勁蜂, Mighty Hornet) loitering munition is on track to enter flight tests next month in connection with potential adoption by Taiwanese and US armed forces, a government source said yesterday. The kamikaze drone, which boasts a range of 1,000km, debuted at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition in September, the official said on condition of anonymity. The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology and US-based Kratos Defense jointly developed the platform by leveraging the engine and airframe of the latter’s MQM-178 Firejet target drone, they said. The uncrewed aerial vehicle is designed to utilize an artificial intelligence computer
Renewed border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia showed no signs of abating yesterday, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced people in both countries living in strained conditions as more flooded into temporary shelters. Reporters on the Thai side of the border heard sounds of outgoing, indirect fire yesterday. About 400,000 people have been evacuated from affected areas in Thailand and about 700 schools closed while fighting was ongoing in four border provinces, said Thai Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesman for the military. Cambodia evacuated more than 127,000 villagers and closed hundreds of schools, the Thai Ministry of Defense said. Thailand’s military announced that
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