■ Electronics
Sony to release new Aibo
PHOTO: AFP
Sony Marketing Japan Inc. said yesterday it will release an improved version of its popular robot entertainment dog Aibo in November. The new robot dog will have improved image-recognition functions and will be able to make smoother body movements than its previous models, Sony Marketing said. The toy pet, which vaguely resembles a beagle with floppy ears, weighs 1.6kg (?3.6), and has 20 joints and 64 megabytes worth of SDRAM memory that allow it to make moves similar to real dogs, Sony Marketing said. It can also pick up the Aibone toy bone in its mouth and play with it, the company said, adding that owners can also program the robot dog's movements. Sony will accept orders for the new Aibo units from Japanese buyers from Sept. 27. The robot will sell for ?185,000 (US$1,581) a piece. Sony has so far sold 130,000 units of AIBO robot dogs since its original edition was launched in 1999.
■ Beverage-Makers
Diageo's profits rise
British drinks giant Diageo reported Thursday a 6-percent rise in pre-tax profit to ?2.16 billion (US$3.38 billion) in the year to June and pointed to tentative signs of a recovery in its markets. But accounting charges linked to the sale of the company's loss-making fast-food chain Burger King caused a sharp fall in its net profit, down by 95 percent to ?76 million. Diageo, which owns brands such as Smirnoff vodka, Johnnie Walker whisky and Guinness stout, has been selling off assets in recent years to concentrate on its alcoholic beverages business.
■ Trademarks
MacTea upsets McDonald's
Fastfood giant McDonald's Corp is trying to stop a Singapore company from labeling its instant beverages and food products MacTea, MacChocolate and MacNoodles, a local newspaper reported yesterday. Since registering the names in 1995, former computer vendor Future Enterprises has been using them on the instant tea, cocoa mixes and instant noodles sold in countries such as Russia and Vietnam, the Straits Times said. The McDonald's complaint was dismissed by Singapore's Principal Assistant Registrar of Trade Marks in April and its appeal is being heard in the city-state's High Court.
■ Food Safety
HK shop has cholera in tank
The Hong Kong government said yesterday it will prosecute a supermarket chain owned by the territory's richest man, Li Ka-shing (李嘉誠), after finding cholera in a fish tank at one of its stores. Park-n-Shop will be charged with violating a food business regulation requiring shops to keep their fish tanks free of bacteria that lead to human illness, said Food and Environmental Hygiene Department spokeswoman Iris Au. The charge carries a maximum penalty of HK$10,000 (US$1,282) and one month imprisonment, Au said. The cholera was found in a sample from a tank at a ParknShop store in residential Pok Fu Lam district on Aug 26. ParknShop spokeswoman Teresa Pang said the company has not been informed of any charges.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so
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