China May Focus on Developing Plug-in Hybrid Cars

Randy Cheung, May 19, 2013 4:34 AM, 251 views, 1 Comment »,

Electric cars continue to face cooling global sales, while many in China debate which way the country should go forward with its own energy development. There are currently three types of new energy vehicles in development: electric cars, which uses electrical energy stored in batteries; plug-in hybrids, which combines an internal combustion engine with rechargeable batteries; and conventional hybrids, which has an internal combustion engine and can save energy, but cannot be recharged. Plug-in hybrid cars have been the main focus and priority for research and development. Industry insiders say that China should abandoned electric cars in favor of hybrid cars. The government also plans to subsidize both electric and hybrid cars according to their oil-saving ratio …

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Hong Kong Science Enthusiast Designs Robots to Discover Ancient Burial Chambers (Video)

Star Chang, May 19, 2013 1:16 AM, 321 views, Got something to say ?,

A small robot has discovered three possible burial chambers under a temple in Mexico’s pre-Hispanic city of Teotihuacan, a find that may reveal secrets about funeral rituals in the ancient site. The robot, dubbed Tlaloc II-TC, was made to navigate rough terrain and is equipped with an infrared camera and a scanner that generates detailed maps. It has located the chambers in the last section of a 2,000-year-old tunnel tucked under the temple, surprising archeologists who had expected to find just one room. The robot was one of two involved in the project put together by a team that included Hong Kong dentist and science enthusiast Dr Ng Tze-chuen. Ng has previously helped design robots used to explore a secret chamber in the Great Pyramid of Giza, as well as tools to gather soil and rock samples on missions to Mars and the moon …

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

Star Chang, May 6, 2013 3:40 PM, 349 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.

Chinese Scientist Only Interested in Porn and Pirated Movies, Not NASA Secrets

Randy Cheung, May 4, 2013 7:05 AM, 608 views, 1 Comment »,

A Chinese research scientist suspected of spying on the NASA is set to plead to a misdemeanor charge of violating agency computer rules. According to the court filing, the researcher was charged downloaded copyrighted movies and sexually explicit films onto his NASA laptop. Along with the misdemeanor, the government said it had resolved the false statements case. At the time, American authorities accused the man of sharing sensitive information with the Chinese government, he was pulled from a plane as he was about to depart for China. Now it appears that the fears were unfounded. After all, sending a Chinese James Bond to steal space technology from the U.S. is rather exaggerating. Most Chinese are only interested to download Hollywood movies that are free of charged, and we have also realized you will be getting bored if you spend too much time doing research on space technology, you need some sexy entertainment.

Suicides Return, Foxconn Workers Forced to Work Long Hours in Silence

Star Chang, May 1, 2013 8:57 AM, 1,280 views, 14 Comments »,

Foxconn has found itself once more embroiled in a suicide scandal after two apparent staff suicide attempts within four days were witnessed by workers from the company’s Zhengzhou plant in central China’s Henan province. The two factory worker, one male and one female, attempted suicide by jumping from buildings between April 24 and April 27. The man has died, while the fate of the woman remains unknown. Sources claim that the Zhengzhou factory entered “silent mode” from the beginning of April, restricting workers from discussing anything unrelated to work while on company premises. Many workers have complained about the new rule, which some believe is related to recent media reports about Foxconn products not meeting quality standards …

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Pentagon Rely Chinese Satellite to Carry Data

Star Chang, Apr 30, 2013 11:48 AM, 308 views, Got something to say ?,

U.S. lawmaker is questioning the Pentagon’s decision to use a Chinese commercial satellite to provide communications for its Africa Command. Use of China’s satellite was leased because it provided “unique bandwidth and geographic requirements” for “wider geographic coverage.” The satellite’s services were leased under a one-year, $10.6 million contract through a U.S. company. American politicians and policy-makers expressed its concern that too much American data are passing through Chinese electronics — and that those electronics could be sieves for Beijing’s intelligence services. Pentagon insists that any data passed through the Chinese satellite is protected from any potential eavesdropping by Beijing. The satellite uplinks and downlinks are encrypted. But researcher said even if the data is encrypted, the coded traffic could be used to give Chinese cryptanalysts valuable clues about how the American military obfuscates its information …

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US and China Scientists Build Smarter Artificial Skin for Robots

Randy Cheung, Apr 27, 2013 1:16 PM, 324 views, Got something to say ?,

US and China scientists have teamed up to make an experimental array that can sense pressure in the same range as the human fingertip. The advance could speed the development of smarter artificial skin capable of “feeling” activity on the surface. It’s a fundamentally new technology that allows to control electronic devices directly using mechanical agitation. The researchers used zinc oxide nanowires to build arrays consisting of about 8,000 transistors, each of the transistors can independently produce an electronic signal when placed under mechanical strain. It will provide a sensitivity comparable to that of a human fingertip. It would allow the skin to feel activity on the surface. This could make artificial skin smarter and more like the human skin. The sensors could finally give robots a more adaptive sense of touch. We just hope the ’smart skin’ won’t be adopted in adult toys.

Rescue Machines Join Relief Efforts in China Earthquake (Video)

Randy Cheung, Apr 26, 2013 2:13 AM, 534 views, 1 Comment »,

A 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Lushan county last week in China’s southwest Sichuan province. Three types of disaster relief machines have been dispatched to quake-hit areas. The machines were rushed to the quake zone in batches. The first batch, including three technicians, arrived at the quake epicenter on the second day of the disaster. The other two arrived within the next 12 hours. The robotic machines were jointly developed by the Shenyang Institute of Automation, under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the National Earthquake Response Support Service. Two of the machines are designed to enter ruins to detect life, while the third type, a flying remote helicopter, uses a high-definition camera to catch aerial images and send them instantly to relief departments. This is the first time these three types of machines, which is made in China, to be used in an earthquake rescue and relief mission …

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ZTE Joins Microsoft Android Patent Licensees

Randy Cheung, Apr 24, 2013 4:46 PM, 114 views, Got something to say ?,

Last week, Microsoft said that the Taiwanese contract manufacturer Foxconn, which makes 40 percent of consumer electronics worldwide including a variety of Android and Chrome-powered products, had agreed to license its patents. Now, the software giant announced another patent-licensing deal with ZTE, the fourth largest telecom producer in the world. ZTE makes a whole lot of Android-powered smartphones and tablets. The licensing agreement with the Chinese handset maker marks a major advance in Microsoft’s quest to extract patent payments from all its competitors making Android phones. With the ZTE deal in place, a full 80 percent of Android phones sold in the US have now taken a license to its patents. Unlike Foxconn, the official announcement regarding ZTE does not explicitly say that Microsoft is getting paid. A Microsoft spokesperson said the company’s patent agreements are “generally royalty-bearing.”

Huawei Announces to Back Out of the US Network Equipment Market

Star Chang, Apr 24, 2013 11:39 AM, 136 views, Got something to say ?,

Huawei has decided to stop focusing its priorities on the U.S market, and instead will focus its efforts on bringing its telecommunication products to the rest of the world. The company stated that its change in focus is due to “geopolitical reasons.”The company estimated that the U.S. accounts for about 30 percent of the world’s carrier business. For quite a while now, Huawei has been under fire from the United States due to allegations that the Chinese government is using its network equipments to spy on other nations. While Huawei always insists that its equipment is safe to use. The concerns surfaced again late last month, when the US government reportedly demanded to oversee equipment purchases by Sprint and SoftBank in the US as a precondition for their proposed merger. According to Huawei, the plan to pull out of the US network equipment market won’t affect its smartphone business in the country. They have also outlined plan to regain its share of European smartphone market, after losing up to a staggering 90 percent of its smartphone partners in Europe.