Samsung Galaxy S4 Early Leak, Thanks to China Unicom

Star Chang, Mar 12, 2013 1:45 PM, 854 views, Got something to say ?,

A hands-on video of Samsung flagship Galaxy S4 has emerged on youtube, the leak is came from a Chinese forum known as 52Samsung.com. Judging from the footage, the phone looks absolutely huge, there’s metal-looking trim round the sides and a nondescript plastic back, which we think is very similar to Meizu MX2, a Chinese smartphone which is quite popular in China right now. We are seeing a WCDMA version from China Unicom, which is the second largest telecom operator in China. The device has two SIM-card slots, Samsung has also provided us a microSD card slot. The video shows the purported S4 running an up to date version of Samsung’s TouchWiz user interface, which it’s plopped on top of Android 4.2.1 Jelly Bean. Overall, the S4’s design is truly Note-ish, it has transformed into a thick and big 5-inch phablet. And by the way, we really hate verticle video. Why ? See here. A few more pictures after the jump.

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The Chinese Need 20 Million Trees to Make Disposable Chopsticks for One Year Usage

Star Chang, Mar 12, 2013 11:25 AM, 375 views, 1 Comment »,

China produces 80 billion disposable chopsticks a year. The volume of that many chopsticks is equal to consuming 20 million 20-year-old trees and could cover an area the size of about 360 Tiananmen, the iconic city square in Beijing. A 20-year-old tree can only produce about 4,000 chopsticks. Authorities are giving advise, people should get off the habit of using disposable chopsticks provided at restaurants. Restaurants owner should also cut back on their distribution. Substitute materials can be developed to replace wooden disposable chopsticks. But start doing the math and the disposable chopstick, made largely from birch and poplar, begins to look deeply menacing — an environmental disaster not to be taken lightly. Disposable chopstick is hard to be resisted in China. Calls to abandon the use-and-toss type began more than 10 years ago and have since persisted unabated. The reasons ? Because the chopstick industry is making a great contribution by creating jobs for many people, and the cost differential is significant for sterilizing the tableware while comparing to the wooden disposables in small restaurants.

Samsung Beat Nokia to Seize the Top Spot in China’s Smartphone Market

Star Chang, Mar 11, 2013 11:55 PM, 409 views, 1 Comment »,

South Korean electronics giant Samsung took top spot in China’s smartphone market in 2012, after sales of its devices nearly tripled from 10.9 million in 2011 to 30.06 million last year. According to the data by market researcher Strategy Analytics, Samsung held 17.7 percent market share in 2012, which was a jump of 5.3 percent from the year before. This also marked the first time it topped the Chinese smartphone market since entering the market in 2009, thanks to global brand recognition and increased cooperation with Chinese carriers. Samsung’s rise in China was at the expense of rival phonemaker Nokia. The Finnish phonemaker, which was No. 1 in 2011 with 29.9 percent market share, plunged to 3.7 percent last year to take seventh place …

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Lamborghini Burns To The Ground In China Shenzhen (Video)

Star Chang, Mar 11, 2013 8:13 PM, 837 views, Got something to say ?,

A Lamborghini burst into flames after it broke down last weekend in Shenzhen. The overpriced Italian sports car had burned to the ground before the fire crews had even arrived. Chinese media outlets claim the fires started while the car was running in a street race on the busy downtown street. No one was injured during the accident and the driver had managed to escape before the car caught fire. The driver had disappeared on the spot, we believe the authorities should be able to track down who is the car’s owner, as the license plate had captured on photograph before it turned into a piece of junk …

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‘Listening’ to TV Becomes a New Trend for the Chinese

Star Chang, Mar 11, 2013 7:55 PM, 217 views, Got something to say ?,

Television is no longer mainly for “watching” but is trending toward something to which people “listen”. According to Google Taiwan, many people when supposedly “watching” TV will turn on their smartphone, tablet or laptop computer to surf the net, so that their eyes are constantly moving from screen to screen. In Taiwan, many people have the TV on as background and only pay attention to the screen when they hear things that interest them. According to Google’s research, 79 percent of the mobile users in Taiwan will search the internet after watching TV ad. Using the Internet to watch TV has also become a trend in Taiwan. Google’s YouTube cellphone view rate grew by three times last year compare to the previous year. The public is also familiar with using YouTube to watch TV content. From our own observation, most people in Hong Kong are also having the same pratice of “listening” to TV instead of watching. Over here, some TV ad can even interact with mobile phone user. As for the people in mainland China, the young generation spend most of the time using their smartphone to watch streaming video, watching or listening to TV is not common, especially for the rural dwellers.

Not Every Chinese Mobile Phone User Can Use the New ‘China-Style’ e-Wallet

Star Chang, Mar 11, 2013 5:11 PM, 245 views, 1 Comment »,

China Mobile is teaming up with China UnionPay, the country’s only domestic bank card organization, to promote their new mobile phone wallet service. The service, based on near field communication (NFC) technology, allows users to make financial transactions through their mobile devices. Users with phones equipped with an NFC SIM card will be able to make payments at affiliated stores and locations. The service will effectively integrate information on users’ bank cards, public transportation cards and membership cards into a single digital storage space. The service will be push in 14 pilot regions including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The scale of the entire e-wallet industry chain is expected to reach 150 billion yuan (US$24 billion) this year. Some analysts even expect the penetration rate of NFC mobile phones will reach 20 percent over the next 3-5 years based on the pool of 1.1 billion Chinese mobile phone users. We doubt the widespread of the e-wallet service in China. Not all smartphones come with NFC, the best example is Apple’s iPhone. And the NFC SIM card is also not compatible to every single phone on the market, such as model that use micro-SIM, or battery that cannot be replaceable which has no room to hide the antenna bridge.

China Ready to Export Advanced Nuclear Power Technology That is Designed By The U.S. (Video)

Star Chang, Mar 11, 2013 3:18 PM, 420 views, 1 Comment »,

China is so-called ready to export its advanced AP1000 reactors after gaining a vital breakthrough in its nuclear power technology. The AP1000 is a two-loop pressurized water reactor sold by US company Westinghouse Electric. The AP1000 reactor is a result of cooperation between China and its foreign partners, with 70 percent of its components have been made in China. China now possesses the full know-how about the manufacturing process of the main pump and a supply chain has formed …

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So Much News in China… #074

Star Chang, Mar 11, 2013 11:06 AM, 342 views, Got something to say ?,

There are so much news from China that passes by that we couldn’t possibly cover it all. Here are the Chinese tech news that have left behind because we are just too busy or too lazy to post. There are stories onSmart TV’s user habit in China, Alibaba’s online shopping credit, China better internet infrastructure and so on, check them out after the break. Video for this week: a tourism video of Dongguan city telling the world they are not “Dickensian Factory City”… Hope everyone have enjoyed your weekend and a fresh start to your week.

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Watch: What Kind of Chinese Processors Chips You Should Look for on Your Android Tablet

Star Chang, Mar 11, 2013 12:24 AM, 558 views, 1 Comment »,

There are many cheap Chinese Android tablets on the market right now, if you were thinking of picking one up you might want some advice on what type of processor you should look for and avoid. The folks over at MobileGeeks has given us a brief explanation on a dual core Rockchip and an IMAP processor, both are common Chinese ARM processors in the same price range. Rockchip is manufactured by Fuzhou Rockchip Electronics company. Their chips are widly used in many China domestic brand that made low-cost Android tablets. While IMAP processor is produced by Shanghai InfoTM Microelectronics company, is a less developed IC design company compare to Rockchip. Allwinner processor is the new kids on the block. The red-hot Chinese fabless company has flooded the Chinese tablet market with its own turnkey system, and now Rockchip faces stiff competition. This year, Taiwan-based IC developer MediaTek joined in the party, the recent announced Lenovo budget Android tablets are all powered by MediaTek’s quad core SoC.

You Can Now Fish Dead Pigs Out of Shanghai River (Video)

Star Chang, Mar 10, 2013 8:50 PM, 1,069 views, Got something to say ?,

[UPDATE 2] Shanghai found more than 1200 2800 5900 dead pigs in the main river that provides drinking water for the city’s residents. The government said water quality so far hasn’t been affected (hard to believe …). Shanghai’s agriculture commission have carried out bio-safety treatment on the retrieved dead pigs, and investigation has been carried out. The committee said so far it has not received reports of animal epidemic outbreaks in the city. In the meantime, local authorities are still retrieving, or you can describe as fishing dead pigs inside the river to avoid water contamination. The dumping is the latest environmental scare in China. Last year, a Chinese mining firm dumped toxic cadmium into Longjiang river and triggered panic buying of bottled water. We will also not forget the ‘river of milk’, where a trading company loads and unloads latex into the river …

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