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South China Morning Post
30 minutes ago
- South China Morning Post
You've Got Mail no more – AOL is bidding farewell to dial-up internet
AOL's dial-up internet is finally taking its last bow. Yes, while perhaps a dinosaur by today's digital standards, dial-up is still around. But AOL says it's officially pulling the plug for its service on September 30. 'AOL routinely evaluates its products and services and has decided to discontinue dial-up internet,' AOL wrote in a brief update on its support site – noting that dial-up and associated software 'optimised for older operating systems' will soon be unavailable on AOL plans. AOL, formerly America Online, introduced many households to the World Wide Web for the first time when its dial-up service launched in 1991, rising to prominence in the 90s and early 2000s. In Hong Kong, AOL briefly offered dial-up access in the late 1990s, arriving in a crowded internet service providers market dominated by Netvigator. South China Morning Post coverage at the time captured both industry unease at its launch and early reviews of its pricing, software and bilingual content. Play The creaky door to the internet was characterised by a once-ubiquitous series of beeps and buzzes heard over the phone used to connect your computer online – along with frustrations of being kicked off the web if anyone else at home needed the landline for another call, and an endless bombardment of CDs mailed out by AOL to advertise free trials. Eventually, broadband and wireless offerings emerged and rose to dominance, doing away with dial-up's quirks for most people accessing the internet today. Still, a handful of consumers have continued to rely on internet services connected over telephone lines. In the United States, according to Census Bureau data, an estimated 163,401 households were using dial-up alone to get online in 2023, representing just over 0.13 per cent of all homes with internet subscriptions nationwide. AOL will pull the plug and end its dial-up internet service after more than 30 years. Photo: TNS AOL was the largest dial-up internet provider for some time, but not the only one to emerge over the years. Some smaller internet providers continue to offer dial-up today. Regardless, the decline of dial-up has been a long time coming. And AOL shutting down its service arrives as other relics of the internet's earlier days continue to disappear.
South China Morning Post
30 minutes ago
- South China Morning Post
A taste of the Philippines in Macau: bold flavours
Walk down Rua da Alfândega and you hear Tagalog. You smell garlic, vinegar and pork frying on stoves. You see queues outside bakeries and canteens serving unfamiliar treats. Here, in the heart of Macau, the Filipino community has built a home. Filipinos are Macau's largest non-Chinese nationality. It was estimated earlier this year that close to 31,000 live and work in the city, making up about 4.5 per cent of the total population. Many are domestic workers. Others are teachers, musicians, business owners and healthcare staff. Their presence shapes many aspects of the city's daily life. Why do so many Filipinos come to Macau? Proximity matters. Manila is a two-and-a-half-hour flight away. Macau's visa rules are friendly. The city is walkable, less hectic than Hong Kong or Tokyo. Most of all, Macau is open. People practise their faith, celebrate their festivals and find space to breathe. The Filipino community here is tight-knit. The bayanihan spirit – helping each other, working for the common good – runs deep. Edna May Lazaro, Philippine consul general, calls it 'part of our DNA'. You see it in the way Filipinos organise festivals, support each other and keep traditions alive. Rua da Alfândega stands at the centre. Locals call it Pinoy Street, and it is only a short stroll from tourist hotspot Senado Square. Here you find sari-sari shops – convenience stores – remittance agencies, salons and, above all, food. Food is the glue, comforting, connecting and telling the story of migration. Arak Philippine Bread supplies the community with pandesal and more. Photo: Jocelyn Tam Take Anak Philippine Bread. Open since 2003, it sells pandesal, the soft bread roll that tastes like home to many Filipinos. One pataca (approximately HK$1) buys you a roll. Ube cheese pandesal costs a bit more. Ari Calangi, a musician born in Macau, remembers the excitement when the bakery opened. 'We finally had a steady supply of pandesal,' he says. For many, a bite brings back memories of family breakfasts and childhood.
South China Morning Post
30 minutes ago
- South China Morning Post
China rejects OpenAI's GPT-5 trademark application in blow to US firm's branding efforts
Chinese authorities have rejected OpenAI 's attempt to register the name of its new flagship artificial intelligence model, GPT-5 , as a trademark on the mainland, where the ChatGPT creator's products and services are not officially available. According to records on the website of the Trademark Office, under the China National Intellectual Property Administration, the US firm's application through subsidiary OpenAI OpCo was denied and is pending appeal. That was the latest rejection handed by the regulator to OpenAI. Last year, it denied a series of applications filed by the US start-up between March and November 2023 to register ChatGPT and GPT – covering AI models GPT-4, GPT-5, GPT-6 and GPT-7 – as trademarks on the mainland. These are still pending appeal. The Trademark Office's recent refusal dealt another blow to San Francisco-based OpenAI's efforts to protect its brand in the fast-developing and highly competitive AI industry. In February 2024, the United States Patent and Trademark Office denied OpenAI's applications to trademark ChatGPT and GPT. 'Registration is refused because the applied-for mark merely describes a feature, function, or characteristic of applicant's goods and services,' the regulator's ruling said. OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
