Apple stung with another huge tax bill
This is going to hurt
On the day that Apple’s iPhone 7 went on sale in Japan, it’s emerged that it’s been told to pay a hefty $118 million (¥12 billion) by government tax authorities in the country.
Panasonic launches lower-cost Ultra HD Blu-ray player
Lacks THX certification, analog outputs
Panasonic has just launched a lower-cost version of its flagship DMP-UB900 Ultra HD Blu-ray disc player in Japan, according to a recent listed posting on the company’s Japanese website.
ISC Fujitsu builds supercomputer from ARMv8 cores
Will crush Chinese rivals
ISC Fujitsu is working on a supercomputer built around 64-bit ARMv8 cores and creating a machine which will clean the clock of the new crowned Chinese king of the supercomputers – Sunway TaihuLight machine.
Panasonic surrenders LCD screen making to Sharp
TVs will use other manufacturers’ materials
Panasonic has given up making LCD panels for televisions because the price competition has become a little too steep.
Japanese earthquakes could damage IT supplies
Sony plant damaged
The two major earthquakes rocked southern Japan this week damaging Sony's image sensor plant.
Windows 10 pop-up invades Japanese bill-boards
Call Godzilla
Microsoft’s continued obsession with forcing users to upgrade to Windows 10 is starting to break things.
8K broadcasts of the Olympics expected
Hi-res boredom other than the crowd shots
It looks like Japanese who have 8K tellies in time for the Rio Olympics will actually have something to watch in August.
Foxconn bails out Sharp
Writes $5.8 billion cheque
Sharp has accepted Foxconn's offer and will be acquired for $5.8 billion.
German take-over of Japanese Renesas unlikely
Japanese government to block the deal
A chance for the chipmaker Renesas to be acquired by Germany's Infineon is likely to be squashed by the Japanese government.
Japan Display would not kick Sharp out of bed
Assuming it tried to crawl in there
Japan Display has said that it would not turn down a partnership with embattled rival Sharp after rumours started to circulate that Japan Display's top investor wants a tie-up between the two.