There may be 14 foreign firms approved to set up R&D centers in Taiwan this year, including those to be publicized by Elpida and Corning soon, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).

Toshiba made 48% of its products in Japan in the period from April to September 2009 and bought 45% of its components from Japan-based suppliers. By the same period this year, the ratios were down to 44% and 42%, respectively. The change added 4.2 billion yen to Toshiba's operating profits in the half to September, or 700 million yen for each one-yen increase in the Japanese currency's value against the dollar.

The company's US subsidiaries, Qimonda North America and Qimonda Richmond, have acknowledged the parent's ownership of over 800 patents and patent applications and abandoned claims of over US$2.1 billion against Qimonda. "We will now put all our efforts into continuing to exploit the patent portfolio by licensing and selling individual packages," said Qimonda insolvency administrator Michael Jaffe.

Applied Materials announced that Hareon Solar has selected its SmartFactory manufacturing automation software to improve productivity across Hareon's solar photovoltaic (PV) cell manufacturing operations in China.

But shares of Veeco, which makes precision manufacturing equipment for the LED and data storage markets, slipped after hours as the company predicted some revenue slated for the fourth quarter may not come in until early next year.

Customers with BlackBerry Smartphone, iPhone or iPod touch and the Starbucks Card Mobile App Can Now Experience the Fastest Way to Pay at Starbucks.

Rambus saw its results improve in the third quarter of 2010 thanks to a licensing deal signed earlier this year with former legal opponent Samsung Electronics. It is negotiating to renew deals with Toshiba and Renesas Electronics after their patent licenses expired.

Rare earth metals are sprinkled in a vast number of the things that make the modern world go round - from iPods to windturbines, electric car engines to flat-screen TVs and smart-bombs. The reason you'll hear a lot about them is 1) because China currently controls 93-97% of the world's production and 2) because China is enforcing strict new quotas on the exports of rare earths which is pushing up global prices sharply.

"New Product sales were led by particularly strong growth from the Virtex-6 and Spartan-6 FPGA families," said Moshe Gavrielov, Xilinx President and CEO. "Combined sales from these families more than doubled sequentially in the September quarter..."

The new operating system is a refreshing and complete break from the Windows Mobile OS of the past - Microsoft's failed attempt to transpose key elements of its PC operating system on to a smaller screen.

In Taiwan, where a problem with stray dogs has reached epic proportions, rescue workers have turned to smartphones to help them do their jobs. Besides collecting video testimony, they are used to show dogs to potential adopters or to let donors see how their money is being put to use.

The complete Spansion SPI product portfolio now spans densities from 4Mb through 256Mb.

Believe it or not, your phone battery's capacity to hold charge is just part of the problem -- a bigger monster lurks within the telecom operator, and the phone having to stay constantly in touch with it.

A summary on the recent exchange between Apple and RIM chiefs.

South Korean electronics giant Samsung Electronics has announced that it is working on a new joint software platform for its televisions and mobile phones. This is seen as a way of pushing developers to create apps for its platform, thus indirectly increasing the number of people who would want to buy its devices.

NOR flash supplier Spansion has named Saied Tehrani as senior vice president of research and development. Tehrani joins Spansion from Everspin Technologies, a supplier of MRAMs, where he was founder and chief operating officer.

China's GDP increased 9.6% on year in the third quarter, slowing from 10.3% in the second quarter

Western Digital has sought to reassure investors about the slowing hard-drive business, as the advent of tablet computers eats into computer demand.

Toshiba's operating profits for the April-September period is set to come to more than 100 billion yen (US$1.2 billion), beating the company's forecast of 70 billion yen, according to the Nikkei business daily. Booming global sales of smartphones have boosted demand for the company's flash memory chips and small LCD panels.

Programmable chipmaker Altera has forecast its sales would grow in the fourth quarter as China expands its wireless telephone infrastructure but some analysts warned that revenues could slow next year.