Business Industry

Samsung, the world's top maker of memory chips, has recently taken a backseat to its competitors. The company was bumped from its first place spot after being forced to shut down six of its chip production lines due to a power outage at a Seoul ... plant. Are your favourite electronic devices at risk? Likely, since the plant in question produces dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips, NAND flash chips, and non-memory chips. Many of the gadgets and appliances that we use on a regular basis, such as personal computers, digital cameras, and music players, rely on these chips. (Source: today. ... (view more)

Is Sony assisting the adult entertainment industry? In terms of technical support, the answer is yes. Japanese companies creating films with adult content have encountered problems while trying to mass produce their products for Blu-ray disc. ... However, there is no need to worry, as Sony has come to its rescue. According to the director of administration for a Japanese DVD replication firm, "Companies cannot press Blu-ray discs because they cannot touch adult-related contracts. So we asked some makers in Taiwan to do the work, and then we import the discs back to Japan. The Taiwanese company ... (view more)

BSkyB and Sony are teaming up to satisfy European customers. The pair will make it possible for users in the UK and Ireland to download films and television programs with Sony's handheld PSP console. The innovation will be Europe's first PSP video ... download. With the new technology, programs can be downloaded directly onto PSP units using a Wi-Fi connection. Since BSkyB will work with third-party providers, content will be available by subscription. BSkyB picked Sony to be its partner because of the intelligent technology behind the PSP console. In the words of James Murdoch, BSkyB's chief ... (view more)

About a month ago, Carlo Orlando reported on Toshiba's plan to combat falling revenue by doubling production of its NAND flash memory chips. Not a bad idea, although one wonders if the company should be fixing its foundation before building a new ... rec room. Once again, Toshiba is recalling a significant number of laptop batteries, representing just another chapter in a long and painful customer service manual. Thankfully, the numbers continue to decrease. This time, Toshiba is forced to call back just 10,000 of its potentially dangerous batteries. Of course, as has been the case for most of ... (view more)

Sony has officially apologized for using a sacred and historically beloved Anglican cathedral in its violent shooter, Resistance: Fall of Man. In the eighth level of the game, developed for the PlayStation 3, there is a bloody shootout in Manchester ... Cathedral. "The sequence in question has the player defending the church...against an all out alien assault." (Source: blogcritics.org ) Once the Church of England discovered its presence in the video game, it began a public war against Sony. As a result, Sony appears to be sorry for the uproar. "It was never our intention to offend anyone in the ... (view more)

Maybe they're just getting a little older at Nvidia. The company that carved out a name for itself in the video game market is now switching gears, producing a new line of super-powerful graphics chips for use by geoscientists and molecular ... biologists. Until now, Nvidia has made its fortune as the graphical muscle behind consoles like the Xbox and PlayStation 3. The incredible sunsets that peak over canyon horizons in Motorstorm may be credited to Nvidia's hard work and impressive technology. (Source: wikipedia.org ) It only makes sense that they'd bring these tools into the scientific world ... (view more)

In an effort to increase market shares and regain losses suffered because of falling prices, Toshiba recently announced plans to more than double their monthly production of NAND flash memory chips. The company intends to increase its monthly output ... of NAND chips by using 300-millimeter wafers and hopes that the total monthly production will reach 210,000 chips by June 2008. (Source: sfgate.com ) This would be an increase from only 100,000 total memory chips produced this past March. NAND flash memory chips have become a major source of income for Toshiba. The abundance of rival companies and ... (view more)

Sony now has a new enemy: God. Well, sort of. The Church of England has accused the company of using Manchester Cathedral in its first-person-shooter (FPS) video game, "Resistance: Fall of Man." Sony, of course, denies the charges. The Church has ... requested a formal apology and removal of the game from store shelves. Is Sony likely to comply? Probably not. "It is game-created footage, it is not video or photography," Sony spokesman David Wilson said to The London Times. "It is entertainment, like Doctor Who or any other science fiction. It is not based on reality at all. Throughout the whole ... (view more)

Although most gamers are aware that Sony has, for the time being at least, been stripped of its console crown, few realize just how bad times are for the Japanese company. Although speculation has run rampant for months that Sony might lay off some ... of its workforce in the wake of the PlayStation 3's early troubles, only recently is the company officially announcing plans to do just that stateside. It seems Sony's American workers will be worst hit, with plans for Japanese operations to remain mere "restructuring". When the PlayStation 3 launched in November, few could have predicted Sony ... (view more)

Some tech writers, including myself, have compared the upcoming Apple iPhone to the Sony PlayStation 3. Both boast a plethora of extras and an equally awe-inspiring cost, factors that could doom the iPhone's June release (and future). It certainly ... hasn't proven to be a successful tactic for Sony, whose PlayStation 3 is routinely outsold in mass numbers by the Microsoft Xbox 360 and especially the beloved Nintendo Wii, which also launched in November of last year. Recent sales statistics are even more depressing for PS3 owners, as the Japanese market continues to ignore Sony's big black ... (view more)