Diversifying Ruined

Apple cuts iPhone price and revamps iPod

SAN FRANCISCO - Apple on Wednesday cut the price of its hot-selling iPhones and unveiled a slick touch-screen iPod as part of a bold product line overhaul aimed at boosting year-end holiday season sales.

"A lot of consumers said they don't want a new mobile phone but they want all the other stuff the iPhone has."

IPod Touch models feature Apple's Safari web browser and a built-in wireless antenna, meaning users can connect directly to the Internet at WiFi "hot spots" the same way they might with a laptop computer.

Apple built custom Google and Yahoo search functions into iPod Touch models, along with YouTube video viewing and an iTune WiFi Music Store that permits shopping at the online store without going through a computer.

Eight gigabyte iPod Touch models are priced at US$299 and 16 gigabyte models at US$399.

Apple is cutting the price of the popular eight-gigabyte iPhones US$200 to US$399 in a surprising move that some analysts at the event said could give the California company "a lock" on the market.

A four-gigabyte Nano is priced at US$149 and eight-gigabyte models are priced at US$199. Nanos are the most popular model in the iPod line and users clamoured for the addition of video-viewing capability, Jobs said.

Full story here.

SGX hit by third technical glitch in less than a month

SINGAPORE: The Singapore Exchange (SGX) suffered its third trading glitch in less than a month on Thursday morning when the Straits Times Index failed to accurately reflect actual movements in share prices.

Thursday's trading problem, the second in two straight days, was a result of inaccurate reflection of the ST Index's closing level on Wednesday.

The market suffered a similar technical glitch on Wednesday, preventing the exchange from posting the index accurately for half of the trading day.

The SGX had said the trading glitch was an "isolated computational error" that had been resolved.

The exchange did not give a reason for Thursday's problem, but said the STI was correctly reflecting the market prices of the components after 11am.

The glitch is the latest of several this year that have interrupted trade and prompted the exchange to pledge action to prevent future problems.

On February 28, SGX's system buckled under a deluge of orders and prompted complaints from traders who were locked out of their terminals.

On August 17, heavy volume again overloaded the system, with brokers reporting delays in prices and trade executions.

The exchange is due to upgrade its computer system, but it is not expected to be ready for at least another year.

Full story here.