■ 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.
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
FORCED LABOR: A US court listed three Taiwanese and nine firms based in Taiwan in its indictment, with eight of the companies registered at the same address Nine companies registered in Taiwan, as well as three Taiwanese, on Tuesday were named by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs) as a result of a US federal court indictment. The indictment unsealed at the federal court in Brooklyn, New York, said that Chen Zhi (陳志), a dual Cambodian-British national, is being indicted for fraud conspiracy, money laundering and overseeing Prince Holding Group’s forced-labor scam camps in Cambodia. At its peak, the company allegedly made US$30 million per day, court documents showed. The US government has seized Chen’s noncustodial wallet, which contains
SUPPLY CHAIN: Taiwan’s advantages in the drone industry include rapid production capacity that is independent of Chinese-made parts, the economic ministry said The Executive Yuan yesterday approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion (US$1.44 billion) into domestic production of uncrewed aerial vehicles over the next six years, bringing Taiwan’s output value to more than NT$40 billion by 2030 and making the nation Asia’s democratic hub for the drone supply chain. The proposed budget has NT$33.8 billion in new allocations and NT$10.43 billion in existing funds, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. Under the new development program, the public sector would purchase nearly 100,000 drones, of which 50,898 would be for civil and government use, while 48,750 would be for national defense, it said. The Ministry of
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