Poland's draft renewables bill would give much greater support to large solar plants through a new feed-in tariff (FIT) and green-certificate programme.

Hurricane Sandy's economic toll is poised to exceed US$20 billion after the biggest Atlantic storm slammed into the Eastern US, damaging homes and offices and flooding subways in America's most populated city.

Australia only solar panel manufacturing plant is optimistic about being able to compete with China, which supplies up to 85% of the Australian market.

Toshiba is expected to report a 10% drop in consolidated operating profit for the April-September period as a strong yen hurt sales, the Nikkei reported.

MediaTek's MT7620 Wi-Fi SoC has been selected for the new ASUS RT-N14U N300 wireless router, debuting globally this quarter.

The communications and automotive IC markets are forecast to outpace the growth of the total IC market through 2016, according to IC Insights.

Chimei Innolux (CMI), a leading flat panel manufacturer, yesterday reported gross profit margin of 3.3% for the third quarter, turning positive for the first time in two years.

Young Fast Optical, a manufacturer of small- to medium-sized touch panel sensor products, returned to the black in the third quarter on the back of rising shipments of medium-sized products, a company official said yesterday.

Sandy made landfall in New Jersey, causing a record surge of seawater in New York City, flooding car and subway tunnels and leaving much of lower Manhattan without power.

ALi has acquired Abilis, a fabless semiconductor company providing RF modulators, secure media processors and broadcast-to-IP solutions, according to the Taiwan-based set-top box IC firm.

Amtran Technology, which supplies flat-panel TVs for Vizio and other TV brands, said on Friday its net profits soared 83% to NT$1.31 billion (US$48.5 million) in the first nine months from NT$660 million a year ago.

Chimei Innolux (CMI) said it expects conditions in the flat-panel display market to improve next year because of smartphone and tablet sales, after the company posted another loss because of sluggish demand and a supply glut.

Embedded and consumer markets and a broadening porfolio of flash memory devices will continue to drive increased business for memory maker Spansion in the coming months, but global economic uncertainty marked by political change is dampening industry growth, Spansion CEO John Kispert said Thursday (Oct. 25).

KLA-Tencor posted fiscal first-quarter revenue below expectations and said current-quarter revenue would fall more as chipmakers, worried about the economy, hold off on new orders of manufacturing equipment.

"Solid demand for wireless communications in both packaging and test was the key driver of our business in the third quarter," said Ken Joyce, Amkor's president and CEO. "Lower-than-anticipated supply of 28nm wafers in the early part of the quarter and the overall weakness in the semiconductor market and general economy constrained our growth."

The IT & Mobile Communications division, comprising Mobile Communications, Telecommunication Systems, IT Solutions and Digital Imaging, ended the third quarter with operating profits of KRW5.63 trillion on KRW29.92 trillion in revenue. Operating profits for the division saw 132 percent year-on-year growth.

Elpida's main bankruptcy proceeding is being handled by a district court in Tokyo, but Christopher Sontchi, the Delaware Bankruptcy Court judge overseeing Elpida's parallel US case, said the company was taking a risk by not keeping creditors better informed.

The Sony Vaio Duo 11 has a fine set of specs for an ultrabook and an excellent full-HD touch screen on which to take advantage of the Windows 8-style interface.

LG Electronics posted an operating profit of KRW220.5 billion(about US$195 million) in the third quarter, rebounding from last year's deficit.

AUO, a major maker of TFT-LC) panels in Taiwan, continues to ship AMOLED panels to brand vendors including HTC Cand Asus Computer. Along with massive shipments of iPad mini panels and growing pull-in deliveries for TV panels, AUO is shipping more different-sized panels as the high season in the fourth quarter approaches.

CNET TV TeamApple has finally officially unveiled its iPad Mini and it is, indeed, extremely light.