ASIA IN BRIEF Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous nation, has banned the import of Apple’s iPhone 16.

Business minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita final week reportedly informed native media that Apple’s newest handset hasn’t been accepted to be used in Indonesia and is “unlawful” to make use of, or import.

The minister cited Apple’s unfulfilled guarantees to spend money on Indonesia, and failure to fulfill necessities for regionally produced parts, as the explanations for the ban.

Apple shouldn’t be a high 5 smartphone vendor in Indonesia, in accordance with analyst agency IDC. Rival analyst outfit Counterpoint rates Apple because the chief of the premium handset section, wherein units price a minimum of $600. However as Indonesia is a creating nation – with GDP per capita of $14,100 – iPhones should not a mass market proposition.

Whereas the ban will not put a notable dent in Apple’s backside line, Indonesia’s new authorities – which took workplace on October 20, two days earlier than the ban was introduced – seems to be flexing its muscle tissue early.

– Simon Sharwood

Japan, Taiwan, search assist from above

Taiwan desires to depend on high-altitude balloons to function a communication software in case of emergencies like pure catastrophe or battle, in accordance with the Ministry of Digital Affairs (MODA) and state media final Thursday.

The ministry showed off [VIDEO] its first balloon, which might fly as much as 800 meters and carries cellular base stations and energy tools that permit it to supply protection over 380 sq. kilometers. The balloon can keep aloft for 2 weeks and is powered by hydrogen gas cells.

In the meantime, researchers in Japan have reportedly transmitted solar energy generated in house again to Earth.

Solar energy acquired from house would convey a gradual power provide, unaffected by climate or evening cycles, however the practicalities of beaming it all the way down to Earth are daunting.

The mission envisions geostationary photo voltaic panels 36,000 kilometers above Earth, changing power into microwaves for Earth-based transmission by 2045.

The Kyoto College researchers performed a trial wherein they efficiently beamed microwaves to a 70 sq. centimeter goal.

In December, they plan to conduct one other experiment and transmit electrical energy from a airplane flying at an altitude of seven,000 meters.

Singapore pronounces two new supercomputers

Singapore’s Nationwide Supercomputing Heart final week introduced S$270 million ($204 million) funding to construct two new machines.

A machine named ASPIRE 2A will use AMD’s EPYC 7713 for 105,984 cores, and the EPYC 75F3 for an additional 1,024 cores. It’ll additionally sport 352 Nvidia A100 Tensor Core GPUs and 476TB of reminiscence, together with 25PB of storage and one other 10PB of scratch disk.

ASPIRE 2A+ will use an Nvidia DGX SuperPOD design, comprising 40 DGX H100 methods containing a complete of 320 Nvidia H100 GPUs. Nvidia’s 400 Gbit/sec InfiniBand can even be aboard, together with 2TB of system reminiscence per system, 27.5PB of storage and one other 2.5PB of scratch storage.

– Simon Sharwood

Samsung engineers leaping ship?

Reports emerged final week that three job openings at SK hynix for etching semiconductor engineer roles drew roughly 200 candidates from fellow Korean chipmaker Samsung.

“Which means that most of Samsung’s engineers working in its fab traces that certified for the job utilized,” wrote native outlet The Elec.

This week SK hynix posted its highest revenues and revenue ever. In stark distinction, a Samsung exec apologized upfront earlier this month for forthcoming outcomes.

Minister warns of Sri Lanka’s cyber crime potential

Sri Lanka’s overseas minister Vijitha Herath reportedly warned of the nation’s potential to turn out to be a “cyber crime hub.”

The remarks come after a raid earlier this month reportedly discovered 230 overseas nationals – principally Chinese language – engaged in scams that focused overseas banks and monetary establishments.

Lenovo appoints new ISG head

Lenovo appointed a brand new president for its Infrastructure Options Group (ISG).

Ashley Gorakhpurwalla replaces Kirk Skaugen who left this summer time.

Whereas Lenovo is fast to level out that Gorakhpurwalla is a Dell EMC veteran, his final 4 years have been spent at Western Digital’s HDD division. As identified by Blocks and Files, the servers and storage man can be anticipated to handle profitability points at Lenovo’s ISG – which noticed working losses throughout the 12 months regardless of report revenues of $3.2 billion in Q1 2025, and has posted years of reasonable progress.

APAC Dealbook

Current alliances and offers noticed by The Register throughout the area final week embrace:

  • Australian funding administration agency HMC Capital finalized its acquisition of datacenter biz International Change Australia for $1.937 billion, which features a 26MW colocation datacenter in Sydney’s CBD because it seeks to determine itself as a worldwide digital infrastructure participant.
  • Japanese MNC Fujitsu completed area trials of its generative AI know-how on Toyota Methods core IT infrastructure and can implement the tech in January 2025.
  • Keppel datacenter fund entered an settlement to develop an 80MW Tier III-equivalent greenfield datacenter campus in North Taiwan. The datacenter supervisor/operator additionally this week signed a take care of Woodside Vitality for the provision and buy of liquid hydrogen for powering Keppels datacenters in Singapore. ®

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