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Japan's Toshiba Corp plans to sell part of its chip business as it aims to recover from a $1.3 billion accounting scandal, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Saturday. The electronics conglomerate has started accepting bids, with early interest shown by the Development Bank of Japan Inc, said the sources, who declined to be identified because they are not authorized to talk to the media. The state-owned bank has already invested in Seiko Holdings Corp's semiconductor operations.

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By Ritsuko Ando and Reiji Murai TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan Display Inc's new chief executive said on Thursday the screen maker's “biggest client”, widely understood to refer to Apple Inc , is increasing orders ahead of the expected launch of a new iPhone this month. Mitsuru Homma, who was appointed CEO in June, said weakness in China's smartphone market, the world's biggest, amid that country's broader economic slowdown was not affecting the orders for display screens it was getting from its top client. Apple is expected to unveil the new iPhone at an event on Sept. 9.

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Mark Karpeles, the former head of defunct bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, was arrested on Saturday in connection with the disappearance of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of the virtual currency, Japanese media reports said. The French-born Karpeles, 30, is suspected of falsifying data on the outstanding balance of the exchange, at one point the world's largest hub for trading the digital currency, they added. When it filed for bankruptcy in February 2014, Mt. Gox said 750,000 customer bitcoins and another 100,000 belonging to the exchange were stolen due to a software security flaw.

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Japan's financial watchdog plans to seek a financial penalty on Toshiba Corp , currently being investigated by an independent committee over accounting irregularities, the Nikkei reported on Saturday. The Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC) believes the company falsified financial statements and will recommend as early as September that the Financial Services Agency impose a fine, the business daily said, citing sources. An SESC spokesman declined to comment, while Toshiba officials were not immediately available for comment.

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(Reuters) – Apple Inc on Wednesday launched its latest iPod touch gadget at a time when the company is looking to popularize its new music service. The new iPod features an 8 megapixel iSight camera, FaceTime high-definition camera and also houses Apple-designed A8 chip, which is used in iPhone 6. The iPod, which will give access to Apple Music, also features fitness tracking M8 motion co-processor.

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By Leika Kihara and Kaori Kaneko TOKYO (Reuters) – Factory worker Satomi Iwata has new co-workers, a troupe of humanoid automata that are helping to address two of Japan's most pressing concerns – a shortage of labor and a need for growth. The 19 robots, which cost her employer Glory Ltd about 7.4 million yen ($60,000) each, have eye-like sensors and two arms that assemble made-to-order change dispensers alongside their human colleagues in a factory employing 370. Glory is in the vanguard as Japanese firms ramp up spending on robotics and automation, responding at last to premier Shinzo Abe's efforts to stimulate the economy and end two decades of stagnation and deflation.

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By Teppei Kasai TOKYO (Reuters) – The Apple Watch launched globally on Friday with a small queue of Japanese tech-addicts lining up in Tokyo for Apple Inc's first wearable gadget, but there was no sign of the excitement usually attached to the company's product rollouts. Buyers can take the smartwatch home from a handful of upscale boutiques and department stores, including The Corner in Berlin, Maxfield in Los Angeles and Dover Street Market in Tokyo and London, which Apple courted to help position the watch as a fashion item. About 50 people lined up to buy the watch at electronic store Bic Camera in Tokyo's Ginza district, while at the nearby Apple Store it was like any other Friday, according to Reuters reporters at the shops. “I buy one or two Apple products every time they release something new,” Chiu Long, a 40-year-old IT worker from Taiwan, told Reuters while queuing up at Bic Camera.

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By Astrid Wendlandt and Pauline Askin PARIS/SYDNEY (Reuters) – Consumers flocked to Apple Inc's stores around the world on Friday to get the first close-up look at the tech giant's smartwatch, which the company expects will be its next runaway hit. The Apple Watch, CEO Tim Cook's first new major product and the company's first foray into the personal luxury goods market, was available for pre-order online and to try out in stores — but not to take home. On April 24, consumers will be able to buy it online or by appointment in shops including trendy fashion boutiques in Paris, London and Tokyo, part of Apple's strategy of positioning the wearable computer as a must-have accessory. Testing Apple's mastery of consumer trends, the watch is an untried concept for the California-based company.

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By Andrew Chung NEW YORK (Reuters) – Apple Inc has been ordered to pay $532.9 million after a federal jury in Texas found that its iTunes software infringed three patents owned by patent licensing firm Smartflash LLC. Though Smartflash had been asking for $852 million in damages, Tuesday night's verdict was still a blow to Apple. The jury, which deliberated for eight hours, determined Apple had not only used Smartflash's patents without permission, but did so willfully. Apple, which said it would appeal, said the outcome was another reason reform was needed in the patent system to curb litigation by companies that don't make products themselves.