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

Randy Cheung, May 4, 2013 10:30 PM, 608 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 …

Read More >>

Silicon Valley Just Couldn’t Live Without Chinese Tech

Star Chang, Apr 8, 2013 8:03 PM, 407 views, 1 Comment »,

US congress recently signed into law to restrict government purchase of computer equipment and other IT gear manufactured in China. Silicon Valley is now taking issue with the restrictions. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and ten technology trade groups representing some of the large U.S. tech companies, including HP and Intel, fired off a letter to congressional leaders voicing their concern. Tech companies don’t want the language to be included in future spending bills or be expanded to cover other federal agencies. They’re worried an FBI review of tech products would hurt sales to government agencies. U.S. tech companies also worry the spending bill’s language could also cover their subcontractors in China and routine purchases of laptops or other technology. Retaliation is another potential worry, the trade groups warn that China could easily demand similar reviews for items imported from the United States. The tech firms are hoping that lawmakers will “review the security implications and competitive impact” of the provision as it currently stands, and ideally come up with a less clumsy solution. Practically, Silicon Valley’s interest is profit and stay competitive on price, many foreign tech companies just couldn’t give-up the world factory.

Lenovo Announces 30-inch AdobeRGB Display For Professional Photo Editing

Star Chang, Apr 6, 2013 12:28 PM, 258 views, 2 Comments »,

Lenovo hasn’t been known for the quality of the display panels they put in their product lines. Ever since the Chinese PC maker took over IBM’s computer business, those ThinkPad laptop haven’t been a favourite to serious professional photographers, due to poor contrast and brightness and low color fidelity. It’s certainly surprise to hear Lenovo announced a professional 30-inch LCD display which will cover 99 percent of the Adobe RGB color gamut, which is a color space good for desktop publishing and digital printing. The new ThinkVision LT3053p display has so far only been made in Japan. The display sports a resolution of 2560 × 1600 pixels, promising crisp images and create a lot of area for photo and video editing. The monitor will start shipping from April 11, 2013 at a retail price of $1599 in the US. There is currently no information about the availability for other market region.

Chinese IT Equipment Makers May Lose Business in the U.S.

Star Chang, Mar 30, 2013 2:45 PM, 474 views, 5 Comments »,

US Congress quietly tucked in a new cyber-espionage review process for government technology purchases into the funding law signed this week by President Obama, reflecting growing American concerns over Chinese cyber attacks. The law prevents NASA, and the Justice and Commerce Departments from buying IT equipment overseas unless federal law enforcement officials give their approval. The assessment must include “any risk associated with such system being produced, manufactured, or assembled by one or more entities that are owned, directed, or subsidized” by China. The provision underscores the increasing concerns the U.S. appears to have with China. The impact on Communist China could be great. According to congressional research, the U.S. imports a total of about $129 billion worth of “advanced technology products” from China …

Read More >>

Major Chinese Handsets Fail to Meet China’s Safety Standards

Randy Cheung, Mar 21, 2013 12:18 PM, 441 views, Got something to say ?,

The Zhejiang Provincial Administration for Industry & Commerce of China has announced the result of its spot check for 36 different mobile phones in the market. Twenty-seven of them were unqualified, failing to pass the battery heating test which is one of the critical safety benchmarks. Surprisingly all Chinese mobile brands are in the list, which include Lenovo, Huawei, ZTE, TCL, Hisense, Vivo, Coolpad and K-Touch. All the sample products were collected from authorized retail outlets of China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom – the country’s major telecom operators. Tests were carried out on the products’ general function, battery capability and quality of chargers, and it has been found that most of the defective phones could not pass the heat exposure as required by the national standard …

Read More >>

More Chinese Manufacturers Looking at Windows Phone ?

Star Chang, Mar 17, 2013 6:34 PM, 306 views, Got something to say ?,

Windows Phone is supported by several major brands such as Nokia, HTC, Samsung, and Huawei. Despite these big names, Microsoft is still looking for new partners. Chinese OEM Phicomm is in negotiation with Microsoft to produce a Windows Phone handsets. Phicomm is the brand name for Shanghai Feixun Communication Co. Ltd. The company is typical of the multitude of small Chinese manufacturers that are creating phones largely by building off the back of standard reference designs, effectively putting together products from off the shelf components. These companies do make some efforts to customise the design or software, but the biggest selling point is usually the low cost of the devices. A Phicomm Europe representative has revealed it’s negotiating with Microsoft to adopt Windows Phone 8. As the negotiations are in an early stage, a budget Windows devices may still take some time to reach the market …

Read More >>

Acer Plans to Release Affordable ‘Phablet’ Device at Computex 2013

Star Chang, Mar 15, 2013 1:47 PM, 434 views, Got something to say ?,

Acer plans to unveil its first phone-tablet hybrid handset at this year Computex, hoping to gain traction in the fast-growing smartphone market. The “phablet” category, which is defined by Acer as a mobile device larger than 5 inches that still can be held with a single hand, has become very popular among female and elderly consumers. The new Acer phablet will have special features in terms of size, camera and software. The company’s CEO projected that the global phablet market will grow to about 10 million devices in 2013, up from between 7 million and 8 million devices last year. Pricing for the large-screen handsets will be critical to drive demand, since consumers ideally want to pay about US$299 for such devices, lower than the US$399 to US$499 for which the product currently sells. During 2011, Acer had released the Iconia Smart S300, a handset with 4.8 inch display, 1024 x 480 resolution and run Android 2.3. The screen has a uncommon scale ratio and it only gained limited market popularity. Now all top Chinese PC makers are tapping into phablet segment, we will see how Acer’s new phablet is going to compete with Asus PadFone Infinity and Lenovo K900.

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

Star Chang, Mar 11, 2013 12:24 AM, 603 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.

Lenovo Announces New Budget Android Tablets to Compete with Nexus 7 (Video)

Star Chang, Feb 25, 2013 1:54 PM, 386 views, Got something to say ?,

Lenovo has announced a new lineup of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean tablets with varied form factors and configurations in the budget/mid-level segment at the Mobile World Congress currently underway in Barcelona.The range consists of two new A Series tablets dubbed as the A1000 and the A3000 sporting 7-inch screens and an S6000 which stands at the top of the line with a 10-inch screen. The A3000, which is the spotlight, is the Chinese PC maker’s answer to the Nexus 7. It’s specced very similarly to Google’s tablet, although its 7-inch 1024 x 600 display and quad-core 1.2GHz MediaTek processor fall short of the Nexus 7’s 1280 x 800 display and Tegra 3 processor. Lenovo has also fitted the tablet with a micoSD slot — something missing from the Nexus 7 — and there’ll be a 3G variant with dual SIM slots …

Read More >>

Using a Lenovo Yoga Laptop on a Spinning Wheel Chair While Traveling on a Bus (Video)

Star Chang, Feb 13, 2013 2:18 AM, 645 views, Got something to say ?,

Lenovo has recently hosted an interesting marketing campaign in China to promote its Ideapad Yoga laptop. The leading Chinese PC company has developed a yoga-oriented bus with see-through transparent glass. Inside the bus, there is a living room, a small office and a custom-made wheel chair which can provide 360 degree spinning. The special bus traveled to different cities and was acting as a mobile showcase to let passers-by get on-board and tried out the flip-and-fold laptop. The most notable facilities on the bus was the spinning wheel chair, passengers can use the laptop while sitting on it, stretching in various body positions. The inspiration came from the design of the Ideapad Yoga. Video and more pictures after the jump.

Read More >>