Business Roundup – Amazing technology – Sony develops TV screen so thin it can bend
Sony Corp. released video of the new 2.5-inch display Friday. In it, a hand squeezes a display that is 0.3 millimeters, or 0.01 inch, thick. The display shows color images of a bicyclist stuntman and a picturesque lake.
Although flat-panel TVs are getting slimmer, a display that’s so thin it bends in a human hand marks a breakthrough.
Sony said it has yet to decide on commercial products using the technology.
Tatsuo Mori, an engineering and computer science professor at Nagoya University, said some hurdles remained, including making the display bigger, ensuring durability and cutting costs.
But he said the display’s pliancy is extremely difficult to imitate with liquid crystal displays and plasma display panels _ the two main display technologies now on the market.
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NEW YORK (AP) ? Wall Street rose smartly in a quiet session Friday as investors adjusted positions ahead of a long holiday weekend and tried to determine whether a lackluster week presaged a departure from the market’s months-long run-up or merely a temporary pause.
Stocks rose Friday coming off a pullback Thursday and as investors drew some optimism from the Nasdaq Stock Market Inc.’s deal to acquire Sweden’s OMX AB. Investors showed little reaction to the National Association of Realtors’ report that sales of existing homes fell 2.6 percent in April to 5.99 million units, the slowest sales rate in almost four years.
The gains followed four mostly negative sessions for Wall Street’s major indexes. Given Wall Street’s robust performance in recent months, a pullback in which investors consolidate gains wasn’t unexpected. However, the week began with a flourish that could have suggested a further climb: The Standard & Poor’s 500 index traded above its record close for the first time in more than seven years.
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ATLANTA (AP) ? The Coca-Cola Co., which has been looking to expand its water and energy drink portfolio and jump-start sales in North America, said Friday it has agreed to buy Vitaminwater maker Glaceau in a cash deal valued at $4.1 billion.
The world’s largest beverage maker said the agreement to acquire privately held Energy Brands Inc., known as Glaceau, provides Atlanta-based Coca-Cola with a strong platform to grow its “active lifestyle” beverages.
The acquisition, Coca-Cola’s largest ever, will be financed with debt, and is expected to add to Coca-Cola’s earnings starting in 2008, but will slightly dilute profits this year, executives said.
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NEW YORK (AP) ? Road warriors will receive little relief as they head out the door for this year’s Memorial Day weekend as retail prices hover at all-time highs and gasoline futures plow higher on supply fears.
Gasoline futures gained 4.68 cents to settle at $2.407 a gallon Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Light, sweet crude for July delivery followed to close at $65.20 a barrel, up $1.02.
The average retail price inched back from its record high of $3.227 on Thursday to $3.225 a gallon, AAA said, compared with $2.862 a gallon a year ago and $2.109 a gallon in 2005.
A spate of new refinery outages this week threatens to boost future and retail prices, with retail nearing the inflation-adjusted peak of $3.29 a gallon reached in March 1981.
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NEW YORK (AP) ? As gasoline prices flirt with all-time highs ahead of Memorial Day weekend, the drivers hit hardest aren’t the ones paying the highest prices.
In an index released this week, Oil Price Information Service, a source for petroleum pricing, broke down who’s paying the most taking into account local gas prices and local monthly income.
The biggest losers are drivers living in Clay County, Ky., who shell out 14.78 percent of their monthly income to buy gas costing $3.156 a gallon. While the price there is far lower than the retail average in San Juan County, Wash., which is the highest in the country at $3.926 a gallon, Clay County’s average monthly income of $1,423.67 is the lowest nationwide.