Apple expands into health, home with new software

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― Apple is expanding into home and health management as the company tries to turn its iPhones, iPads and Mac computers into an interchangeable network of devices that serve as a hub of people’s increasingly digital lives.The new tools for tracking health and controlling household appliances are part of updated operating systems that Apple unveiled Monday in San Francisco at its 25th annual conference for application developers.The revised software for Apple Inc.’s devices won’

June 3, 2014

China manufacturing improves in May

BEIJING (AFP) ― China’s manufacturing activity improved in May, but weakness remained as the world’s second-largest economy faces headwinds, particularly in the property sector, HSBC said Tuesday.The HSBC final purchasing managers’ index, which tracks activity in the nation’s factories and workshops, came in at 49.4 in May, lower than a preliminary reading of 49.7, the British banking giant said in a statement.But the figure improved from 48.1 in April and was the highest reading since January’s

June 3, 2014

77,000 banks to share tax info with IRS

WASHINGTON (AP) ― It will soon get a lot harder to use overseas accounts to hide income and assets from the Internal Revenue Service. More than 77,000 foreign banks, investment funds and other financial institutions have agreed to share information about U.S. account holders with the IRS as part of a crackdown on offshore tax evasion, the Treasury Department announced Monday. The list includes 515 Russian financial institutions. Russian banks had to apply directly to the IRS because the U.S. bro

June 3, 2014

Buffett lunch auction accelerates with $355,100 charity bid

Warren Buffett’s annual charity auction drew an offer of more than $355,000 as bidders vie for a chance to have lunch and a conversation with the billionaire investor.The event kicked off Monday with a starting price of $25,000, according to a page on eBay Inc.’s website. The top bid was $355,100 as of 3 p.m. in San Francisco. The event is scheduled to end at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.Buffett, 83, uses the event to raise cash for San Francisco’s Glide Foundation, drawing admirers and acolytes who want

June 3, 2014

U.S. to seek 30% cut in emissions by 2030

WASHINGTON (AP) ― The Obama administration on Monday will roll out a plan to cut earth-warming pollution from power plants by 30 percent by 2030, setting in motion one of the most significant actions to address global warming in U.S. history.The rule, which is expected to be final next year, will set the first national limits on carbon dioxide, the chief gas linked to global warming from the nation’s power plants. They are the largest source of greenhouse gases in the U.S., accounting for about

June 2, 2014

Putin pausing as Russia volatility kills trade to invest

Vladimir Putin’s territorial ambitions are bumping up against financial markets. As the Russian president plots his next move on Ukraine, investors are giving his inner circle pause for thought. Since Putin annexed Crimea in March in the teeth of international outrage, Russian stocks have become the most volatile since 2009. Swings in the ruble against the euro are now the most extreme on record while expectations for fluctuations in the currency against its emerging-market peers are at the high

June 2, 2014

Smart lifestyle takes center stage at Asia tech show

TAIPEI (AFP) ― Asia’s largest tech trade show will be a battleground for smart innovations when it kicks off in Taiwan Tuesday ― from car systems which warn when you are driving badly to a toothbrush-style camera that films the user’s teeth.More than 1,500 exhibitors, including some of the world’s leading technology brands, will set out their stalls at Computex, in the capital Taipei, with 130,000 visitors expected for the five-day event.This year sees the launch of a new SmarTech area featuring

June 1, 2014

Motorola to close lone U.S. factory

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) ― Google’s Motorola Mobility handset unit has announced it will close its Texas factory by the end of this year, barely a year after it opened as the first smartphone factory in the U.S.Sales of its flagship phone, the Moto X, have been weak and the costs of running the plant are too high to keep operations going, Motorola Mobility spokesman Will Moss said. Singapore-based international contract electronics manufacturer Flextronics Ltd. operates the plant.Even though the c

June 1, 2014

Siemens says nearly 12,000 jobs under threat

FRANKFURT (AFP) ― German industrial giant Siemens said Friday it was weighing cuts of nearly 12,000 jobs around the world as part of a major restructuring.Chief executive Joe Kaeser told a conference of investors and analysts in New York on Thursday that a previously announced cost-cutting drive would create “noticeable changes all across the entire organization,” a spokesman, Michael Friedrich, confirmed.Some 7,600 positions will be “affected” as part of a company overhaul announced by Kaeser o

June 1, 2014

Strains building up for China property market

BEIJING (AFP) ― After years of boom that have seen prices rocket, the prospect of a bust is looming over China’s vast property sector, with authorities hoping to avoid a meltdown that could send shock waves through the world’s second-biggest economy.Housing was doled out by the state when Communist-style collectivism dominated economic management. But in the past two decades that has given way to market-oriented principles as China’s economy has opened.New home prices have soared, more than quad

June 1, 2014

GM executive says Google car could be ‘competitive threat’

Google Inc. could become a “serious competitive threat” to the auto industry if it continues to push its self-driving cars, said Mark Reuss, product-development chief at General Motors Co. GM, which is developing its own autonomous vehicle technology, isn’t in a race with Google to create driverless cars, he told reporters Wednesday in Detroit. Google announced Tuesday that it plans to deploy at least 100 fully autonomous vehicles that it designed in tests starting this year. The two-seat cars w

May 29, 2014

Apple acquires Beats

Beats Electronics’ Beats by Dr. Dre headphones are displayed for sale at an H.H. Gregg Inc. store in Reynoldsburg, Ohio. ( Bloomberg)CUPERTINO, California (AP) ― Apple is striking a new chord with a $3 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics, a headphone and music streaming specialist that also brings the swagger of rapper Dr. Dre and recording impresario Jimmy Iovine.Wednesday’s announcement comes nearly three weeks after deal negotiations were leaked to the media. It’s by far the most expensi

May 29, 2014

Fed’s Yellen has scant power to relieve housing slowdown

The hesitant housing recovery has surprised and concerned Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and her colleagues at the central bank. It’s not clear how much they can do about it. While the industry is rebounding from a weather-ravaged first quarter, the pickup will probably fall short of previous projections, according to economists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. of New York and Macroeconomic Advisers LLC in St. Louis. As a result, they trimmed their forecasts for economic growth in the second half

May 29, 2014

IMF chief Lagarde praises ‘remarkable’ African growth

MAPUTO (AFP) ― IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde on Wednesday hailed the leaps made by African economies in the last decade as “nothing short of remarkable.” On the eve of a major conference in Maputo that will bring together policymakers from across the region, Lagarde said it was time to kick start the “next phase of its economic development.”The sub-Saharan Africa region is expected to grow at more than five percent this year according to the IMF’s latest projections, after similar grow

May 29, 2014

Average CEO pay crosses $10 million

NEW YORK (AP) ― They’re the $10 million men and women. Propelled by a soaring stock market, the median pay package for a CEO rose above eight figures for the first time last year. The head of a Standard & Poor’s 500 company earned a record $10.5 million, an increase of 8.8 percent from $9.6 million in 2012, according to an Associated Press/Equilar pay study. Last year was the fourth straight that CEO compensation rose following a decline during the Great Recession. The median CEO pay package cli

May 28, 2014

Twitter sees strong growth in emerging markets: report

WASHINGTON (AFP) ― Twitter is seeing strong user growth in the Asia-Pacific region, helping the messaging platform compensate for a slowdown in the U.S. and Europe, a research report said Tuesday.The report by eMarketer forecasts that Twitter’s global user base will increase 24.4 percent in 2014, led by big gains in countries such as Indonesia and India, and to a lesser extent Argentina, Mexico and Brazil.The research firm said its figures on current Twitter usage are lower than company estimate

May 28, 2014