BUSINESS NEWS ROUNDUP
SMARTPHONES Samsung to update Note 7
Samsung plans to issue a software update for its recalled Galaxy Note 7 smartphones that will prevent them from overheating by limiting battery recharges to 60 percent.
The front page of the Seoul Shinmun, a South Korean newspaper, carried a Samsung advertisement on Tuesday announcing the software update for any users of the Note 7 who are continuing to use the smartphone.
The update for South Korean users will start Sept. 20, it said.
It was not clear when the update may be issued overseas. Also unclear was whether it will be forced on Note 7 phones regardless of user consent.
Samsung plans to begin issuing new Note 7s with batteries it says will not be prone to overheating starting Sept. 19 in South Korea. It recalled 2.5 million of the devices just two weeks after their release after dozens of cases in which batteries exploded or caught fire.
REAL ESTATE Hawaii most expensive state
A new report shows that Hawaii has the nation’s highest average home prices as the cost of housing has soared over the last year.
The 2016 Coldwell Banker Home Listing Report ranked states based on their average price for a home with four bedrooms and two bathrooms. Hawaii took the top spot with average home prices at nearly $905,000. That’s about $325,000 more than homes in the second-priciest state, Massachusetts.
Honolulu had the state’s highest average home prices this year at $1.2 million. The city ranked 14th among the nation’s municipalities, up from 17th in 2015.
The country’s most expensive market is Saratoga, where the average four-bedroom home costs $2.5 million.
SPACE SpaceX to fly in November
SpaceX, which lost a rocket in a launch-pad fireball Sept. 1, is seeking to restart flights in November.
“We’re anticipating getting back to flight — being down for about three months — and getting back to flight in the November time frame,” Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell said Tuesday at an event in Paris. “We’ll obviously take another look at the rocket, focus on the ground systems.”
The company lost the Falcon 9 rocket in a blast that also incinerated an Israeli telecommunications satellite that Facebook had planned to use to improve Internet service in Africa.
SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, is still trying to determine the cause.
UTILITIES $4 million deal for gas leak
Prosecutors say they reached a $4 million settlement with a utility that had a massive gas leak that forced thousands of Los Angeles residents from their homes.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey said Tuesday that the settlement requires Southern California Gas Co. to adopt expensive safety measures at its Aliso Canyon facility that go beyond federal and state requirements.
The company pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor count of failing to immediately report the gas leak.
The well leaked for nearly four months and led more than 8,000 families to move out of their homes in the Porter Ranch area of the San Fernando Valley.
SOCIAL MEDIA Facebook apologizes
Facebook’s chief operating officer has apologized to Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg for deleting a photograph from its pages and conceded that “we don’t always get it right.”
Sheryl Sandberg said in a letter to Solberg that she’d raised important issues about Facebook’s decision to remove postings of a 1972 image of a naked, screaming girl running from a napalm attack in Vietnam. On Friday, following protests in Norway the Menlo Park company reversed its decision and allowed the photo “Terror of War” to be seen on its pages.
In a letter Saturday, Sandberg conceded that historical importance “sometimes ... outweighs the importance of keeping nudity off Facebook,” after Solberg had reposted the 1972 image and other photos with black boxes covering parts of the images.