Amazon is the First Foreign Tech Company to Offer Paid Android apps in China

Star Chang, May 6, 2013 3:40 PM, 343 views, Got something to say ?,

Amazon quietly launched its Appstore in China. The growing Chinese market is just too large to ignore. The e-commerce giant also debuted its Chinese-language Web site for developers, promising that they will soon have access to customers in 200 countries. The new Appstore might be an attractive alternative to Google Play for Chinese developers. Google Play isn’t widely available in China and most developers sell through third-party app stores. Google’s own app store only provides free apps to China, not paid apps. The open environment of Amazon Appstore can provide a worldwide customer base for Chinese developers, of course the most important is revenue sharing. The online retailer launched its e-book store and e-reader apps in China last December. Local regulator had investigated the company for the right to sell e-books in the country. Distributing mobile apps in China is the latest move in Amazon’s worldwide expansion. Amazon need to compete with hundreds of local rivals offering paid and free apps, some of them pirate. In the meantime, the Kindle hardware are still not available in China.

Lenovo First MediaTek-based Smartphone Teased by Kobe Bryant (Video)

Randy Cheung, May 4, 2013 10:30 PM, 581 views, 2 Comments »,

Kobe Bryant is injured at the moment, but he is actively for the smartphone world. Lenovo has recruited the basketball legend to plug an upcoming new handset device. A new behind-the-scenes spot featuring Bryant hit the web this week. The ad sees Kobe playing basketball around with formal suit before plugging the Lenovo P780. It is very low on appearances from the Lenovo P780 itself, with the phone only featuring in the last few seconds of the video. Before that, the Lenovo K900 is the first Lenovo smartphone that promoted by Kobe Bryant …

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Watch: The Impressive Process of the New HTC One

Randy Cheung, May 1, 2013 4:55 PM, 524 views, 1 Comment »,

We’re used to see production videos from Apple with Jony Ive talking designing and details of making a new i-product. HTC is taking design just as serious as the Cupertino company. The new HTC One is probably the most beautiful looking smartphone on the market right now. We shouldn’t be surprised that a beautiful phone has some serious design process. In a public video, HTC’s design team talks about the process of turning a slab of metal into their high-end handset. The Taiwan handset maker is taking the opportunity to assure prospective users to go for their quality product. It sound really geek to hear words like zero gap construction, electro chemical etching process, nano matrix structure, special diamond cutter, etc.

Microsoft Goes After Foxconn to Achieve Biggest Android Patent Licensee

Randy Cheung, Apr 20, 2013 3:20 AM, 446 views, Got something to say ?,

Microsoft has insisted for years now that any company making Android phones needs to license its patents. The campaign has been so successful that the American software giant was making more money from patent licensing than from its own mobile phone system. More than 50 percent of the Android phones in the world have agreed to take licenses to its patents, including smartphone makers like LG, HTC, and Samsung. And that number is likely going to jump up today, as it announces that Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that makes 40 percent of the world’s consumer electronic devices, has agreed to join its licensing program. Foxconn will be paying Microsoft, the agreement will apply to all Android and Chrome OS devices made by Foxconn worldwide, including smartphones, tablets, and televisions …

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The Return of Alibaba’s Aliyun Operating System to Compete with Android

Star Chang, Apr 19, 2013 3:23 AM, 836 views, 1 Comment »,

AliCloud, the subsidiary of China’s largest e-commerce company Alibaba, has staged a comeback by unveiling an upgraded version of its smartphone operating system and a strategic alliance with several local smartphone vendors. Last year, Acer abruptly cancelled a new smartphone launch which the phone was running the Aliyun OS, in response to threats from Google. The search giant said Aliyun OS is a “non-compatible version of Android.” Google expects Acer to build one Android ecosystem — not a incompatible versions. This week, AliCloud launched a slightly revamped version of Aliyun OS in China, and invited telecom operators and software developers to build product or services on top of it. The company promises to share all the possible revenues with all third parties. It will also invest a total of one billion yuan (US$161 million) as income shares to encourage app developers to work on Aliyun platform. Alibaba is pushing its Linux-based mobile operating system to become the “Android of China” and provide another option for smartphone makers …

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Dakele 2 Unveiled, Another Chinese 5-inch Smartphone Challenge Galaxy Note 2 with Low Pricing

Star Chang, Apr 16, 2013 7:57 PM, 1,218 views, 1 Comment »,

Earlier this week, Chinese manufacturer Dakele unveiled its second generation flagship smartphone – Dakele 2. In English, “Da-ke-le” is a transliteration of “Big Cola,” which of course has nothing to do with Coca-cola. The translation can also means “Big Happiness.” For those who failed to pronounce the word Dakele, you can simply call it as Big Cola Phone 2 or Big Cola 2. Last year, the Beijing company released the cheapest 5-inch smartphone on the market with a uncommon screen size of 3:2 ratio at 960 x 640 pixel resolution. The highlights focused on switchable custom Android ROMs and the super low price at 999 yuan (USD$160). About 300,000 units were sold and it received some market attention, but the overall sales was not that strong compare to Xiaomi phone or the Meizu MX. And due to the rebranding of knock-off manufacturers, there are also several similar 5-inch smartphones on the market with advance specification at a good price to compete with Dakele. After 6 months, the company has geared up again and introduced their second-gen model with quad-core chip, HD screen and new custom ROM, to face a new challenge on the new segment of giant-size phone …

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Huawei EDGE Upcoming Flagship Leaks Out, Going Premium

Randy Cheung, Apr 13, 2013 4:21 PM, 862 views, Got something to say ?,

The Huawei EDGE has just leaked out. The new handset has a gorgeous extremely slim aluminum body with a curved back, only measure 6.3mm thick and this will make it one of the slimmest smartphone on the market. The Huawei Edge (final name might called Ascend D3) is expected to become the company’s flagship model when it launches in the second half of the year. It packs some noteworthy specs: a 4.9-inch 1080 x 1920-pixel display, a quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM and a 13-megapixel camera. The handset will be sold in a 16GB and 32GB versions and will run on the latest Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. In that slim device, Huawei has somehow managed to cram in a capable 2600mAh battery as well. Chinese manufacturers usually have long stood for their affordable devices that might perform well but come with uninspiring design and general quailty. A phone with a polished, bare aluminum chassis would be a huge departure from this, and the improve in quality would surely have an impact on the price. A premium and elegance Android handset from Huawei, will you be interested to purchase it ? Two more pictures after the jump.

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New ZTE Geek Smartphone is Powered With 2GHz Intel Processor

Randy Cheung, Apr 12, 2013 5:18 PM, 366 views, Got something to say ?,

Chinese smartphone maker ZTE has introduced the ZTE Geek smartphone over at Intel Developer Forum (IDF), being held in Beijing this week. ZTE Geek packs in Intel’s latest 32nm Atom processor Z2580. The company had announced this processor at the MWC 2013. Lenovo was the first company to announce the Lenovo K900, which is based on Clover Trail+. Apart from the 2GHz dual-core processor, ZTE Geek packs a 5-inch display with 720p resolution, comes with 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. The smartphone will run on Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean) out of the box. For camera, there is an 8-megapixel rear shooter and a 1-megapixel one on the front. Connectivity options include 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC, GPS and wireless charging. The battery has a 2,300mAh capacity. It runs WCDMA 3G radio network, and doesn’t support 4G LTE …

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Xiaomi Phone 2S, 2A, MIUI V5 Revealed, CEO No Longer Imitates Steve Jobs

Star Chang, Apr 11, 2013 5:23 PM, 1,125 views, 1 Comment »,

There are more handset companies cranking out new smartphones in China than we can count. But Xiaomi is one of the few companies that actually has a little bit of name recognition outside of China, thanks in part to the company’s popular MIUI skin for Android. The smartphone cult hero, called out by CNN last year, has given us some pretty great hardware with good price. This year, the company seem not ready to give us the Xiaomi Phone 3 with 5-inch Full HD display, so they just did a hardware upgrade to their flagship phone from last year, which Apple will also be doing this year with their iPhone 5. The unveiling of Xiaomi Phone 2S and low-price 2A have not given us too much excitement, Xiaomi company is trying to make their MIUI custom ROM to be the spot light. Also, the announcement event is no longer mirroring Apple’s WWDC, Xiaomi is now showing its own characteristic and brand image. Xiaomi even produce a short film about the dream of a young racer, to express the entrepreneurial story behind the startup Chinese phone company. Most surprisingly, their boss is now dressing like Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos …

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Chinese Geek Turns His Coffee Table Into a 32-inch Giant Tablet

Randy Cheung, Apr 6, 2013 3:37 PM, 1,020 views, Got something to say ?,

You could wait for tabletop computing device to drop in price so you can put one in your living room. Or you could build your own, like this Chinese IT repairer living at Foshan city, in southern China. The 40-years-old geek has spend about 8,000 yuan (US$1,282) to modify a coffee table into a 32-inch multitouch Android tablet. The DIY project took him half a month to complete. The cool looking “table PC” is powered by a dual-core 1.8GHz processor, 1GB RAM of memory and running Android Jelly Beans instead of the latest Windows 8 OS. And of course, the device has a few USB ports and installed with sound system. In order to make the surface of the coffee table with touch control, it also needs to custom made a 32-inch touch screen glass panel to cover on it …

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