Tag: china

Chinese Rover Shares First Photo Of The Far Side Of The Moon

China has sent two robots to the moon! The term ‘Over the moon’ has a new meaning now because no human has ever been to the far side. Despite several pop culture references, it isn’t actually dark. And we know that because the rovers are now sending us images!

What is Far Side Of The Moon?

For the uninitiated, we only see one side of the moon from earth. This side is called the near side. This is because the moon takes roughly the same time to orbit the Earth as it takes to spin around it’s axis. It is the first time that a rocket has landed on the far side as well. However, it isn’t the first time that the far side has been photographed. Luna 3, a Soviet spacecraft did photograph the far side of the Moon in 1959. Sometimes the far side is referred to as the dark side because we know very little about that area, hence the term ‘dark’. The problem with sending machines to the dark side is that it is so far away that it becomes extremely difficult to communicate with the robots.

China has overcome this problem by sending a satellite named Queqiao, which communicates with the rover and relays information to and from the rover back to earth. China has sent a rover along with a lander as part of Chang’e-4 mission. The robotic lander and rover is called Yutu-2. The rover and lander was launched 7 December 2018 and entered orbit around the Moon on 12 December 2018. It landed at 10:26AM Thursday, Beijing time.

Lunar rover of Chang'e 4 probe given the name 'Yutu 2' pic.twitter.com/lUw2CcSNBK
— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) January 4, 2019

Mission Objectives

The photos that it has sent shows a barren, desert-like surface with craters. The mission of the rover and lander, apart from documenting the area, also involves scientific research as well. It will be studying the geophysics of the landing zone, researching solar bursts, gather radiation dosimetry for future human exploration of the Moon among other important things. However, the most important payload it carries is a 3 kg sealed “biosphere” with seeds and insect eggs to test whether plants and insects could hatch and grow. If successful, this might mean that there is a bright future for humankind’s survival on this barren satellite.

January 4, 2019
Sony Mobile to Reduce Focus on Indian, Chinese and US Market

Sony Mobile India at a recent investor meet has confirmed it will focus less on select markets like China, India, and the US where its performance low. Sony has also slowed operations in Brazil and plans to focus more on the Europe, Middle easy and Japanese markets.

Sony also points to “growth slowdown in emerging markets”. According to the report, Sony’s Mobile division has incurred 40 Billion Yen of Net reductions between 2014-2016 which is roughly US $ 400 Million.

Sony will rampantly reduce product footprint and plans to focus on premium smartphones. Sony also claims that their growth percentage has been poor in these regions, as low as 0.3%.

Via

July 4, 2016
iPhone SE Pre-Orders in China Cross 3.4 Million

The iPhone SE, reports suggest may be Apple’s secret super seller. This may just come true thanks to the numbers the phone has already gathered during pre-orders. It is also a huge bump in sales for Apple prior to

The phone which features many of the features of the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus in a smaller size may be just what the company needed. The iPhone SE should provide a huge bump in sales for Apple prior to their iPhone 7 launch later this year.

A CNBC report showcases the numbers, massive 3.4 million iPhone SE pre-orders, with people choosing the iPhone SE in Gold as their color of choice, the rose gold variant comes in a close second.

It is estimated that more than 50% of these pre-orders will end up in the black market.

The iPhone SE costs US $ 505 in China which is roughly Rs. 33000, a whopping Rs. 6000 cheaper than what Apple will sell it’s iPhone SE in India for. India and Brazil are where Apple expects to do exceedingly well.

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March 29, 2016

Xiaomi Launches Redmi 3 With a Massive 4,100 mAh Battery

In an official teaser released earlier, Xiaomi had mentioned 12th January as the official date for the global release of Xiaomi Redmi 3. As for China, the phone was launched there on Monday morning.

The specs of the phone include a 5 inch display with 1280 X 720 resolution, as had been revealed by the teaser earlier. It’s powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 616 processor, along with four cores marked at 1.2 GHz, and another four cores at 1.5 GHz.

Redmi 3 further has 16 GB of in-built storage expandable up to 128 GB via microSD card. The highlight of the device is its massive 4,100 mAh non-removable battery. It runs on MIUI 7 with no news about the Android version of the phone.

Redmi 3 has a 13 MP main camera with LED flash and 1080p full-HD video recording, and a 5 MP front camera also capable of full-HD recording. The phone is a dual SIM device capable of supporting one Micro-SIM and one Nano-SIM along with a microSD card; with an all-metal body, Redmi has a plaid design on the back and is priced at CNY 699 (about Rs. 7,000).

Specs	Xiaomi Redmi 3
Display	5-inch IPS LCD
Resolution	1280 X 720 (294 ppi)
Processor	octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 616
GPU	Adreno 405
Storage	16 GB
Rear Camera	13 MP, f/2.2, LED flash
Front Camera	5 MP, f/2.2
Expandability	128 GB
Battery	Non-removable 4,100 mAh
Connectivity	Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, hotspot, Bluetooth v4.0, GPS with A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, microUSB v2.0
OS	MIUI 7
Price	CNY 699 (about Rs. 7,000), Price in India unannounced

January 11, 2016

Google To Launch Play Store In China Next Year

Google wants to launch a special version of its Play Store in China next year. Reports suggest that the company wants to launch a stand-alone version for the country in order to comply with their government’s censorship requirements.

Google has had a short and somewhat tumultuous relationship with the country. It left China in 2010 as a reaction to the Chinese hacking attacks and the government’s censorship requirements. However, with the new turn of events, it seems like the company is agreeing to comply with content censorship request, but will keep the Chinese version of the Play Store separate from the existing app store. This will be done so that the rest of the users located outside the country won’t have to comply with those specific censorship guidelines.

Even with Android being the most used operating system in China, many users do not have Google apps on their phone because of the above mentioned reasons. They currently use web browsers like Tencent and Baidu in order to access app stores from mobile phones. Therefore, hopefully with the introduction of the Google Play Store, things might change for the ‘techizens’ of China, and will inversely even help Google expand towards more areas of influence.

This app store can be expected to launch during the first half of 2016, sometime after the Chinese New Year in February.

November 21, 2015
Samsung Galaxy J3 Launched with 5-inch Display and a Quad-Core CPU

After receiving TENAA and 3C certifications this month, Samsung’s new smartphone Galaxy J3 has now been listed on the company’s China website. However, the name of the device has been slightly altered, it’s called Galaxy J3? now.

In terms of the specs, the phone packs a quad-core 1.2GHz CPU, along with 5-inch 720p Super AMOLED display. It further has a 1.5 GB RAM and 8 GB of expandable internal memory. The battery is marked at a 2600 mAh. The main and the front cameras are marked at 8 MP and 5 MP respectively. With a measurement of 142.3 x 71 x 7.9 mm, the device weighs a 138 g.

Though the TENAA certified model was running on Android 5.1.1, the official listing doesn’t mention the operating system of the phone. Milk Music app and a Smart Manager tool are some of its other highlights on the software front. The official listing also doesn’t mention the price and the availability of the phone in other markets. Watch this space for more updates.

November 21, 2015
China to Target Online Music Platforms in 2016, Apple Music Likely to Suffer

Aren’t we all aware of China’s internet policing? So, nothing it does can further surprise us. Now they are going to tighten their policing on online music services including Apple, in order to filter out “harmful” content before streaming.

The self-censorship program states that companies offering streaming services will need to start filtering out content from the 1st of January 2016. As of now, Chinese customers rely on local firms such as Ali Baba, Baidu etc for streaming music.

However, Apple had just launched a special Chinese version of Apple Music alongside an access to iTunes Movies and iBooks. So, customers who signed up then, are halfway through their three-month free trial period, soon after which China will enact the above mentioned regulations.

As of now, nobody knows how much these regulations will affect Apple Music. Although if Apple Music chooses to give China a miss, which is most likely what will happen because Apple has usually always been against censorship, then it might mean a whole lot of profit for other music platforms such as Spotify and Pandora. But what good is a platform without the global musicians, who might also back out with all the censorship issues? Let us know what you think about this.

November 10, 2015
HTC One M9e Launched in China With One A9’s Camera

Adding to the fray of HTC’s complicated naming scheme, the company’s newest smartphone HTC One M9e (phew!) has been launched in China. Notice the presence of the ‘e’ here as opposed to the previous One M9, the M9+, the One E9, the E9+ and so on.

This device seems to be a hybrid of M9 and A9 with a 13 MP OIS camera and 1080p recording, minus 4K. The smartphone further incorporates the OneM9+ chipset -the MediaTek MT6795T Helio X 10. This is a step up from the Snapdragon 617 in the One A9 and therefore is capable of 2160p video recording.

HTC has equipped this phone with a 13 MP rear camera and an UltraPixel 4 MP front camera. M9e runs on the older Android 5.0 Lollipop featuring HTC sense. On the RAM front One M9e is marked at 2 GB and comes with 16 GB of storage.

In terms of display, the handset is marked at 5 inches with an 1080p screen. The aluminium unibody of M9e supports a single SIM. Connectivity options for One M9e include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1, and MicroUSB 2.0.

HTC One M9e is priced at CNY 2,700 ($425 or close to Rs. 28,000). Though it has been launched in China, it is unclear when will it be made available in other countries.

October 31, 2015
Huawei Replaces Xiaomi as China’s No. 1 Smartphone Manufacturer

Research firm Canalys reports that Huawei has replaced Xiaomi as the number one manufacturer of smartphones in China, a first for Huawei to have topped the ranking. While Xiaomi’s sales declined, Huawei’s increased by an 81% over the last one year. Though Canalys didn’t share the exact details, the firm says other details will be made available by the end of this month.

Both Xiaomi and Huawei have been warmly welcomed in the country as well, providing smartphones with impressive specs and price-tags friendly with the average Indian pocket. Huawei however has been more in news lately primarily because of one of the two latest Google Nexus smartphones. Nexus 6P is the device which is made by Huawei and has provided a high-end gadget to the smartphone industry.

Huawei Nexus 6P

Xiaomi on the other hand grabbed the limelight with its Mi 4c, which has similar specs as the other Nexus device launched recently, Nexus 5X, but at half the price. You can find the entire comparison here. While the two tech giants fight it out in the world, tell us your preference in the comments below.

October 23, 2015
The Chinese Built an Incredible Glass-Bottomed Bridge 600ft Above Sea Level

For those of you who have vertigo – this piece of information may not interest you. Eleven engineers in China have made a new glass-bottom bridge that is 980 ft. long and is suspended between two cliffs at 600 ft above the ground.

The bridge is being called the Haohan Qiao Bridge, which means the ‘Brave Men’s Bridge’ in English. It is located at the Shiniuizhai National Geological Park in southern China and is attracted many tourists from all over the country.

However, this bridge was not always made of glass, it was previously just a long wooden overpass that linked the two peaks of Stone Buddha Mountain.

More information about the bridge tells us that it was made using double thick glass panes, which weighed about 140 kg and required four people to lift and put it in place. The glass is also said to be 25 times stronger than regular window glass and visitors are given special footwear to travel across.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7z06mcBEHA

What we’ve also found out, is that this idea of glass-bottomed walkways is a new adventure thrill among the Chinese in recent times. Apart from the Haohan Qiao Bridge, there is also a glass elevator opened in Hubei. This elevator allows people to reach the peak of the mountain, without having to trek it up.

It is situated next to the cliff face and is 3,543 feet above sea level. This is not even the end, there’s another glass-bottomed bridge that is currently being constructed in Zhangjiajie, Hunan at 984 ft. above the canyon it is being built over.

October 3, 2015
Xiaomi Under Investigation For Allegedly Misleading Potential Buyers

New reports have suggested, that Chinese smartphone manufacturer, Xiaomi Corp is under investigation for allegedly violating China’s new advertisement law. This new law, that became effective from the 1st of September, 2015, states that the use of superlative adjectives in promoting products would be banned.

Investigation of the matter is being made on suspicion of the usage of phrases such as “the best” to describe their product. Zhu Dalin, an analyst at the Beijing based Internet Consultancy Analyses told the Economic Times :

“The new law will have a certain impact on Internet companies, but not too much-after all, consumers are so accustomed to cliches such as ‘the super phone’ and ‘the omnipotent TV’ that these phrases make no real sense to them now.”

Allegedly, Xiaomi has also been in a similar situation earlier, when it had launched the Red Mi Note 2, where it showed the device to be equipped with panels from Japanese electronics giant Sharp Corp and the Taiwan manufacturer AU Optronics Corp. Soon, after buying the product, consumers found that the screens were actually produced from a Microelectronics Co Ltd based in Guangdong province.

This kind of an allegation is probably going to cost the manufacturer its reputation. However, no official reports have been made by the company so far.

September 30, 2015
Another Major Chinese Smartphone Manufacturer to Enter India

Meet ZOPO, a new Chinese smartphone company, that is planning to launch a phone called ZOPO Speed 7 in India on the 26th of August 2015. They have currently partnered with Advantage Computers India Pvt. Ltd. (ADCOM) to be their Indian distributor. The ZOPO Speed 7 will be sold online through an exclusive retailer and also through offline stores in India.

The phone is said to come with a 5 inch display and 1080 X 1920 pixels resolution along with a full HD view. It is powered by a 1.5GHz Octa-Core 64-bit MediaTek MT6753 processor with Mali-T720 GPU and a 3GB RAM. It has 16GB of internal memory which is expandable up to 64GB with the help of a microSD slot.

It is also run by the Android 5.1 (Lollipop) and connectivity features include a dual-SIM, 4G LTE / 3G HSPA+, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS. The ZOPO 7 Speed comes with a 13.2MP rear camera with LED Flash and a 5MP front camera.

The dimensions of this phone are 146.1×70.6 x8.65mm and weight – 150g. The phone comes with a battery life of up to 2500mAh. It also comes in two colours – Black and White. You can buy the phone on Snapdeal from the 26th of August 2015, at Rs. 12,999.

However, the import of so many Chinese smartphones into India – Meizu, Xiaomi, OnePlus etc, providing high end services at lower rates, is really increasing the competition between Indian companies to step it up. We saw Micromax’s move of starting the Yu Yureka line up of devices to compete with the Chinese companies.

So should we allow the Chinese companies to export their products to India, or should we empower our own companies by boycotting the Chinese devices? Or should the Indian companies just stop whining and step it up? Feel free to leave your comments below.

August 24, 2015
Gartner: China Smartphone Sales Drop In the Second Quarter

New reports suggest that smartphone sales in China have fallen for the first time in their second quarter. This report come as a surprise, since China is the world’s biggest market for smartphones.

Sales had dropped by 4 percent making it the first year-over-year fall said Gartner Inc, a market research company.

“China has reached saturation — its phone market is essentially driven by replacement, with fewer first-time buyers,” said Anshul Gupta, research director at Gartner.

They also said that the worldwide smartphones sales grew at the slowest pace since 2013, with China accounting for 30 percent of the total smartphones sales during this second quarter.

However, Apple’s smartphone sales rose to 14.6 percent from 12.2 percent, a year earlier. In fact, the iPhone sale in China rose by 68 percent to 11.9 million units. These numbers are attributed to Apple’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Samsung is also said to have suffered a fall to 21.9 percent from 26.2 percent, despite the introduction of the S6 models.

Huawei on the other hand, reported the highest sales growth rate at 46.3 percent due to strong international sales and 4G smartphone sales in China. So, let’s hope that China’s smartphones that have taken India by storm, positively impact China too.

August 21, 2015
Meizu to Launch a New Product in India Soon

Meizu, one of China’s top 10 smartphone brands, is said to be soon launching a new product in India on the 26th of August 2015.

Reports suggest that this new product could be the MX5 smartphone which was announced in China back in June this year. The expected pricing of this product is quoted as being in the sub-20,000 range.

The MX5 is priced at 260 euros (approx. Rs.18,826) with features such as – a 5.5 inch screen with an AMOLED captive touchscreen and a 20.7 MP camera and a 5MP front camera.

The MX5 is reportedly being closely followed by other Chinese vendors, especially OnePlus. As Kiranjeet Kaur, Research Manager with IDC’s Asia/Pacific MobilePhone team said:

“Key to the success of the Chinese vendors has been popular flash sales through online players such as Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon. At the same time, they also focused on bringing more 4G phones at affordable $100-150 price points which is left unattended by Indian and global vendors”.

It is yet to be seen whether India will be the new battlefield for Chinese vendors.

August 17, 2015
China Blocks Alphabet Within Hours Of its Announcement

Yesterday was dedicated to Google’s new parent company, Alphabet, and the new CEO of Google, Indian-born resident of US, Sundar Pichai. The social media feeds have been trending with these two names in countries all over the world. Well, all but one.

China, the country made infamous on the grounds of not allowing its citizens access to sites like Google and Facebook, banned Google’s new Alphabet website in less than 24 hours of the announcement. China has one of the most sophisticated Internet censorship systems in the world, named as the ‘Great Firewall’. This has blocked the website that only contains Google’s co-founder Larry Page’s letter and a link to Google’s existing investor relation page. Though, this is not a new story. Google withdrew from China in 2010 over censorship issues where China drew the last ball when Beijing blocked Google’s widely used Gmail service last year.

The latest news on Google Inc. is that it has renamed itself as Alphabet, an umbrella company that owns Google and the other companies that Google owned. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will run Alphabet as CEO and President, respectively, while Sundar Pichai will be the new CEO of Google.

In an official blog post, former Google CEO Larry Page claimed that the major restructuring is to make “things cleaner and more accountable.” The official Google announcement on its blog, suggest that there will be a new placeholder site called abc.xyz. However, the entire list of companies that come under Alphabet is unclear.

August 12, 2015