China has started to work on their own space station. Rebuffed from the U.S. led space station, China is launching a module to practice docking at its own station planned for 2020.
The eight-ton module will serve as an orbital testbed for China to practice robotic rendezous and docking techniques, a necessary skill for the assembly and operation of the manned outpost China intends to build around 2020.
via – Discovery
Apple launched the iPad 2 in China yesterday and boy did it bring a lot of people to their retail stores! There are only a few Apple stores in China at the moment, but they are expecting to open another 25 retail stores very soon.
Pricing for the new Wi-Fi iPad 2 models in China is set approximately 15% higher than in the United States, with 16 GB models coming in at 3,688 yuan ($568), 32 GB models at 4,488 yuan ($691), and 64 GB models at 5,288 yuan ($814).
Additionally, customers will be able to buy the iPad 2 through the online store which is now available in China.
It seems like Japan and China are battling over the worlds fastest train title. Japan is planning on building a high speed mag-lev train between Tokyo and Nagoya that will be completed in 2027. The $64 billion project would be able to carry passengers at dizzying speeds: up to 310 miles per hour. With the current train running at around 167 miles per hour, the new high-speed wonder would trim about 40 minutes off of the trip.
Currently, China holds the title for the world’s fastest passenger train: it can travel up to 302 miles per hour on its track between Beijing and Shanghai.
Its been reported that the Blackberry Playbook production is in full swing. Quanta, the China-based manufacturer charged with building the BlackBerry tablets is said to be producing around 150,000 to 200,000 units per month
An earlier report from DigiTimes claims that RIM has 1 million BlackBerry PlayBook tablets on order in the first quarter of 2011. RIM plans to launch a Wi-Fi-only version of its PlayBook tablet in March, while 3G and 4G versions are expected later in the first half of this year.
SEC filing has shown that Sequoia Capital has raised a new $1.3 billion fund. Sequoia Capital plans on using the fund to continue the firm’s focus on investment in early and growth stage technology companies in the U.S. and expand its investment efforts in those same sorts of early stage companies in China.
Sequoia has been an investor in some of Silicon Valley’s most successful companies – Apple, Cisco, Google, YouTube.
It seems like the iPhone 4 would have been released worldwide by now, with as much of an impact as its made culturally. Still, there are indeed areas of the world where the iPhone 4 has not been released and China is one of those countries. The release of the iPhone 4 on September 25th will come a week after the iPad was released to long lines of fans awaiting Apple’s first and successful attempt at a tablet device.
The phone will be retail for approximately $743, for the 16GB model, if purchased at one of Apple’s retail stores and will not require a contract. The second way to secure an iPhone is to purchase it through China Unicom for $874 which includes the device and the deposit for a two year contract. Sound pricey? That won’t deter buyers from rushing to the stores to pick one up if sales of the iPad are any indication.
To coincide with this release Apple is also opening two brand new stores, the Hong Kong Plaza Apple Store in Shanghai and the Xidan Joy City Apple Store in Beijing. These two new additions add to an already aggressive move into the Asian market place. Numbers for sales will come shortly after the release date and should be interesting to see compared to US and other country launch numbers.
China’s company eDoo will be announcing later this year the launch of the “eBox”, which will provide gaming and entertainment experience just through the body actions detected by a webcam-style device, and no other controllers will be needed. Thinking Kinect?
This is what it seems a leaked image of the eBox:
China’s government announced recently that they will not allow the commercialization of XBOX Kinect device; but as always, people are always looking for a workaround, and the eBox device is appearing.
There are no official announcements, but apparently more news will appear in November and possibly the launch of this product will be on 2011. XBOX games won’t be supported by the eBOX console, but there are currently working 16 professional teams, some of them have developed games for Xbox 360 and Wii, from 8 countries will take part in the development of eBox’s games.
When I see this pic, I cannot avoid thinking about the other Chinese invention this year: The iPed.
China is receiving Apple’s new toy and is expected, as in the rest of the world, that the iPad will be quite a hit there. But Apple will have a ferocious competitor: The iPed.
Oh no, I’m not misspelling, this one is called the iPed. And you can find it in Shenzhen, China available with a cost of U$S100, where also the iPad costs U$S536.
But that’s not all the differences between these two tablets. The iPed contains an Intel chip inside and Google’s operating system Android.
Let’s take a closer look to the product:
The box seems similar?
Wait… what I’m reading there…?
Oh, neither iPod nor iPad… iPed, of course
Mmm… the manual says APad… I’m a little confused now
This would be a great gift to get a friend excited, isn’t?
The Chinese have become infamous for successfully imposing strict internet restrictions on their nations which stop people from searching for things such as previous Chinese military blunders, the Tibet issue and pornography. Google, being the symbol of all things ‘Internet’ are taking quite a bashing because of it. As a result they are considering pulling out of the country.
They say that they will be holding talks with the Chinese government to try and work out a way in which Internet search results are not filtered thus passing the book onto someone else. I don’t think this is going to be very likely as China like to keep a lid on their populations knowledge, much like Iran.
Google say that if they cannot active this then they will pull out all of their operations from the Communist country. Could this be the end of Google in China?
One look at my Twitter account will prove that I like the old inter-web. I Tweet, Google, chat, play, surf and download. Am I addicted? No. On average I’d say I spend around 4-5 hours a day at my computer which isn’t bad for someone who makes a living as a writer. However, imagine if you or I were addicted to the internet and were beaten to death for it.
Deng Senshan was shipped off to a paramilitary style boot camp by his parents to cure his computer/internet addiction. These camps are notorious for treating teens harshly with physical and mental abuse. They have even been known to shock their young clients with high amounts of electricity as a punishment.
Upon arriving at the camp, Deng was placed into solitary confinement as though being addicted to the internet was illegal. Then, just days after arriving at the camp, instructors beat him to death because “he ran too slow”.
His family, who paid £600 to have him sent to the camp for a month are calling for the immediate closing of the camp. Three instructors who are taught to have killed Deng are being held by local police.
Internet and gaming addictions are becoming widespread in countries such as the US, UK and France, but loosing your life for it is wrong. I guess this story goes to show what living in China on a day to day basis is like where instructors are allowed to beat, shock and mentally torture kids.
