Tech Data, a distributor of IT products, announced on 15 May, its Digital Signage and Projectors Specialized Business Unit (SBU) has established distribution agreements with HANNspree North America, a provider of LCD TV products, electronics company Hitachi Home Electronics and Vivitek, a manufacturer of visual display and presentation products.

Touchpanel Laboratories exhibited a resistive touch panel that enables multi-point detection for up to nine points.

A number of efforts to leverage Google's "Android," software for Google's open source project for mobile phones and other home information appliances, were introduced at the 12th Embedded Systems Expo.

Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing is in talks with lenders to change terms of debt due after 2010 as the global recession hurts earnings. Chartered Semi has S$3.9 billion (US$2.7 billion) of loans and bonds outstanding, including US$390 million of bonds due August 2010.

China's unprecedented growth in recent years has come at a terrible price. Ahead of most forecasts, China in 2008 passed the US to become the world's largest source of greenhouse gases.