Tag: china

Chinese Authorities find 22 additional Fake Apple Stores

Remember the fake Apple stores that were in the news recently? Well the Chinese Authorities cracking down on impostor Apple stores have uncovered 22 additional Apple wannabes. Now, the stores are being forced to remove Apple’s official logo after Apple China accused them of violating its trademark. The Administration for Industry and Commerce will setup a hotline in an effort to catch more illegal stores.

In July, inspections of around 300 shops in Kunming were carried out after a blog post by an American living in the city exposed a near-flawless fake Apple Store where even the staff were convinced they were working for the California-based iPhone and iPad maker.

[Read]

August 12, 2011
Meizu MX to release in September, with Dual core and Quad core options

Meizu CEO Jack Wong , announced on tuesday ( in a discreet fashion) that the company upcoming 4 inch phone will be released in China at the end of September this year. The interesting bit here is that the device will have two versions, the 16GB version will come with a dual-core chip, while the 32GB version will sport a quad-core one.

No other relevant information was released about the device. We will keep you updated as we get more.

[Meizu]

August 11, 2011
Dell Streak Pro 10 Launched in China for the World
The Dell Streak never really gained popularity in India, but its successors might catch on if the timing is right. The new Dell Streak Pro 10 / 10 Pro has been launched globally with a unveiling in China yesterday. The device has interesting specs and a really good price, it is also backed by Dell’s reliable service in India.
- 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 T20 chip
- 1GB DDR2 RAM
- 1,280 x 800 LCD
- Corning’s Gorilla Glass
- 5 megapixel camera
- 2 megapixel camera ( front)
- SDHC expansion slot
- 24.1WH battery
- Honeycomb 3.1
Price of the 16GB WiFi tablet plus 2GB of cloud storage for just ¥2,999 ($465) (Rs.22,000). Stay tuned while we try and contact Dell for official word on release in India.
July 30, 2011
Huge Deposit of Rare Earth Metals Found in the Pacific

Rare earth metals are used in the production of everything from iPods to flat screen TV’s. China was the worlds leading source of these metals till today when scientists from Japan announced that they had located a huge cache of these metals in the Pacific Ocean. China accounts for 97 per cent of the world’s production of 17 rare-earth elements, whose unique electrical, magnetic, optical and thermal properties make them vital ingredients for some of the most technologically advanced products.

According to the journal Nature Geoscience, a team of scientists led by Yasuhiro Kato, found an estimated 100 billion tonnes of the minerals in mud at 78 locations on the Pacific seabed. To give an idea of just how much that is, the current reserves of rare earth metals amount to 110 million tons which are found mostly in China, Russia and other Soviet countries and the US. The commercial viability of procuring these metals has yet to be worked out as they are located deep in the ocean, at approximately 13,000ft and 16,250ft.

China’s commerce ministry said that between January and November last year, the country exported 35,000 tonnes of rare-earth minerals, up 14.5 per cent on 2009. About a third of China’s reserves have already been used up, leaving about 15 years’ worth at the current rate of depletion.

July 5, 2011
Google+ Blocked in China

China, as a country has banned Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Foursquare. Its newest target has been the Google+ service, which promises to give a better social networking experience than Facebook. A Chinese Internet Analyst Sage Brennan had this to say:

[quote]This was the quickest blockage I can remember … The speed with which they moved to block Google+ was surprising, but I couldn’t be less surprised to see it blocked.[/quote]

China has discouraged the use of online forums with a political tinge and has been wary of all foreign social networks after growing fears of uprisings in Egypt, Syria, Tunisia and Libya which were fuelled by social networks. Instead of continuing under a Chinese censorship, Google opted to pull out its search engine from mainland China last year. A few weeks ago, there were allegations that Google’s email service, Gmail, was hacked by Chinese hackers.

With the launch of Google+, Google wants to redefine social networking by fixing the alleged imperfections in the Facebook model. They say that the way we connect with people has to be re-worked. Right now, they say that the existing social network model has reduced friends to the status of fast food, where people wrap each other in friend paper. At the moment, we’re bombarded with updates from all of our ‘friends’. But in reality, you share something with your friends, another thing with your parents and a third thing with your boss.

The core of Google+ lies in its ability to define ‘circles’. Circles are basically groups that allow you to define what you are sharing and with who. There are also a host of other services like +Sparks (Strike up a conversation, about pretty much anything), +Hangouts (stop by and say hello), +Mobile (share what’s around), +Location, +Instant Upload, +Huddle and +You.

The service is going through a limited trial at the moment and is scheduled for release soon.

June 30, 2011
Chinese boy sells kidney to buy an iPad 2

We have heard some amazing and shocking stories relating to Apple products, from thieves to muggers,but this by far is the worst. A 17-year-old Chinese boy living in the Anhui province in China sold his kidney for 22,000 yuan, or about $3,400 (INR 1,60,000/-) So that he could buy the iPad 2.

“I wanted to buy an iPad 2 but could not afford it,” the unnamed boy told Shanghai Daily. “A broker contacted me on the Internet and said he could help me sell one kidney for 20,000 yuan.”

He underwent surgery at a Chenzhou hospital. When his parents found out, they notified the police immediately but they have been unable to locate the broker, according to the report. The child now says he regrets his decision.

Make sure the next time you need to buy things you cannot afford, the enjoyment of owning that item, will be a lot less without your crucially important bodily organs.

June 3, 2011
Google Stops Gmail Phishing Scheme from China

Google today said that it’s “detected and disrupted” a plan to gain access to hundreds of Gmail accounts through phishing attacks. The attacks originated in Jinan, China and targeted Government Officials from the US and several Asian countries. The attacks also included individuals from the press, military as well as political activists.

“The goal of this effort seems to have been to monitor the contents of these users’ e-mails, with the perpetrators apparently using stolen passwords to change peoples’ forwarding and delegation settings,” wrote Eric Grosse the engineering director for Google’s security team in a post announcing the crackdown. He also said that “It’s important to stress that our internal systems have not been affected–these account hijackings were not the result of a security problem with Gmail itself. But we believe that being open about these security issues helps users better protect their information online.”

Google has notified the people whose accounts are affected and has also secured the accounts. The company is prevailing on users to come up with more complex passwords and only going through the company’s secured “https://www.google.com” domain when logging on from a Web browser.

June 2, 2011
Nokia X1-01 Dual Sim Launch in India, With Price, Specs and Features

Nokia has officially announced and Launched the new Nokia x1-01 as a part of the series of dual sim phones,as promised by Stephen Elop during the MS- NOKIA announcement. The ‘Dual-Standby’ part means that you can always receive notification of calls and messages on each account – rather than having to switch your SIM cards on and off.

The device offers support for up to 16GB of storage using the SD card slot . It offers an FM radio and also an MP3 music player with dedicated music keys and one-click creation of a favourite playlist. The 3.5mm AV jack can be used to plug the output into headphones or even louder speakers. The Nokia X1-01 also has a flashlight on the top.

In addition to remembering the settings for up to five separate SIM cards, the Nokia X1-01 also lets you give each SIM its own logo, music signature or ringtone.

The X1-01 will Ship this Quarter along with the Nokia C2 Dual Sim

X1-01 will cost €34 or INR 2200/-

May 26, 2011
Nokia C2 Dual Sim Launch in India, With Price and Specs

Nokia has officially announced and Launched the new Nokia C2 as a part of the series of dual sim phones,as promised by Stephen Elop during the MS- NOKIA announcement. With the target firmly set in the developing world, the Nokia C2 offers the possibility of having one handset running two SIM cards simultaneously.

The Nokia C2 can keep both SIM cards active; meaning calls and text messages can come to either number while the phone is on. The first SIM card on the Nokia C2 sits underneath the battery. The second SIM card is ‘hot-swappable’, a feature unique to Nokia, meaning it can be removed and inserted when the phone is on. The fact that the new Nokia C2 will allow you to answer one call and keep the other on hold is great news.

At launch the Nokia C2 also offers a wide range of information covering healthcare, agriculture, education and entertainment via Nokia’s Ovi Life Tools, as well as the email account for the developing world, Ovi Mail.

There’s also enough room for up to 1,000 entries in the phone book, and a standby time of up to 16.5 days. A VGA camera, Bluetooth and GPRS also make the Nokia C2 a very attractive offering.

This Series 40 device is priced at 45 Euros or INR 2875/-

May 26, 2011
Sony Ericsson Xperia SK17i Leaked Next version of Xperia Mini Pro

The Device pictured above is codenamed “mango” and a tag of SK17i has been given to the handset. These pictures come courtesy a chinese leak of the device, and show that the device does run Android 2.3 with a SE timescape -esque interface. The device also has a side sliding QWERTY keyboard.

April 5, 2011
The Typical Person will be an Indian Man in 2030, What will he Look Like

National Geographic has been researching on the world’s population which currently stands at 7 Billion, 9 Million of which come from Male Chinese Han origin. This means the most typical man is a Han Chinese Male, and a composite of their faces reveals the image above. But their study also states:

By 2030 the Indian male population will have overtaken the Chinese Han, and the Image of the Typical Man would be a composite of images of Indians.

Proud Much? Think Not.

Check out the full video below.

March 3, 2011
BMW 5 Series Electric – But, only for China?

As part of the company’s partnership with Brilliance China Automotive, BMW Brilliance Automotive is planning to create a pure EV 5-series, and will launch it this year. BMW saw a massive growth in China – 87% – and since the green market is heating up, they probably thought best to release an electric version of their hottest selling sedan.

In 2010, the BMW Group sold 169,000 BMW and Mini vehicles in Chinan, In 2011, the group will introduce at least three new models into China through imports – the new BMW X3, the new BMW 6-series and the Mini Countryman.

Via Engadget

Source Automotive News Europe

January 23, 2011