Watch: The Impressive Process of the New HTC One

Randy Cheung, May 1, 2013 4:55 PM, 514 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.

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

Star Chang, May 1, 2013 8:57 AM, 1,232 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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Samsung Probed in Taiwan For Running Smear Campaign Against HTC

Star Chang, Apr 18, 2013 4:42 PM, 361 views, Got something to say ?,

Early this week, Taiwan’s Fair Trade Commission said that it had formally set up a case to investigate whether Samsung was deceptively pitching its products online and attacking its rivals’ devices. The case stems from media reports on a post in an online forum said Samsung hired students in Taiwan to open several propaganda accounts as part of a marketing campaign to promote its new flagship phone Galaxy S4 in the country and attacking HTC’s products. These false identity account is set up with intention to deceive or mislead others in online communities. The Taiwan commission will now check whether the South Korean company was guilty of false advertising and damaging the reputation of another business. Samsung could be subject to a fine of up to NT$25 million (US$837,500) if it is found to have violated the Fair Trade Act. HTC said that it is considering legal action against Samsung after the government decided to investigate the case …

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HTC 606w Shows Up in China, HTC Brings UltraPixels to Mid-range Device

Randy Cheung, Apr 18, 2013 2:09 PM, 132 views, Got something to say ?,

HTC 606w has been seen in China getting regulatory approval. The Taiwanese phone maker shows off a nice blue piping around the bezel of an otherwise fairly uninspiring handset. It’s similar to HTC First but minus the Facebook Home launcher. The new HTC 606w sports a 4.3 inch 720p screen with 342ppi pixel density and a dual-core 1.2 GHz processor. The phone have 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage along with the UltraPixel camera on back. There is also a 1.6MP front facing snapper. It is running Android 4.1.2 with the HTC Sense 5.0 overlay. Unfortunately, it’s powered by a 1700mAh battery which may be a bit on the weak side. No word on an official device name nor possible release date. The HTC 606w is a 3G WCDMA handset which is properly aiming to compete at the crowded mid-range segment. We hope the price will be good enough to match with domestic brand like the Xiaomi Phone or Meizu MX. In addition, HTC also need to put in extra effort in marketing to tell Chinese consumer about lower UltraPixels is better than high megapixels.

It’s Cool to Use This Auto Books Sterilizer in China Library (Video)

Randy Cheung, Apr 13, 2013 9:13 PM, 470 views, Got something to say ?,

Do you think books in libraries are clean and safe ? People who borrow books may sneezed or coughed while reading, even worse, the books may distorted with saliva. Nobody can ensure the borrowers have clean their hands while reading. If you feel unsafe about the cleanliness of books in public libraries, you’ll properly love this books sterilizer machine which can be found in China. In Hangzhou city, located at Zhejiang Province in Eastern China, their public libraries are offering these automatic books sterilizer device for books borrowers. It used ultraviolet light to clean up all the bacteria which sticking inside the books. The machine looks like a mini-fridge, and it can operate real fast to blow up every single page of the book to kill germs and remove dust particles in just 30 second, without damaging the book. The cleaning service has been introduced since last year and it is free of charge …

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HTC One Lands in Taiwan, Unboxing and Hands-on, Flaws Spotted

Randy Cheung, Mar 30, 2013 7:37 AM, 3,809 views, Got something to say ?,

Taiwanese smartphone vendor HTC yesterday launched its new flagship smartphone in its home ground market as the company adopts new marketing strategies to regain the share of the market it has lost to rivals. Taiwan is the first Asian country in which HTC launched the new model, the company plans to introduce the new smartphone to Europe, North America and most of Asia-Pacific (including Beijing) before the end of the April. The new phone will be the company’s only flagship product launched this year, as it aims to focus on quality rather than quantity in the fiercely competitive global smartphone market. Under a two-year contract, Taiwan users can own the phone at no cost by paying a minimum monthly subscription fee of between NT$2,199 and NT$2,540 (US$74-85) to local telecom carriers …

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The Rise of Chinese OEM, BYD is Making HP Slate 7

Star Chang, Mar 23, 2013 1:00 PM, 451 views, 1 Comment »,

HP has chosen China’s BYD Electronic Company to be its original equipment manufacturer for producing its new Slate 7 tablet. BYD, the well-known Chinese manufacturer for automobiles and rechargeable batteries, is one of the Chinese supplier for Apple too. The aluminum back shell of first-gen iPad was made by BYD. The company also produces handset components including microelectronics, keypad, shell and module. In recent years, electronics manufacturers from Taiwan such as Hon Hai (Foxconn) and Quanta Computer have secured the majority of OEM orders for global tablet brands. HP move is a sign of leveling the playing field between Taiwan and China’s OEM manufacturers …

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It’s a Dream to Live in Taiwan Most Eco-friendly ‘Sky Houses’

Randy Cheung, Mar 23, 2013 10:12 AM, 684 views, 1 Comment »,

Agora Garden, an inhabited and cultivated vertical garden located at Taipei city, is currently under construction and it will be completed in 2016. The design of the building was inspired by two encircling hands clasped together and the helical structure of DNA. Once completed the 42,335 sq m luxury residential building will incorporate nanotechnologies and vertical gardening into the residents’ everyday life to make this one of the most eco-friendly structures in Taiwan. It’ll play host to around 40 apartments, the residents of the luxury ’sky houses’ will have an exquisite views of the 101 Taipei tower (Taiwan’s landmark skyscraper) and the city’s Central Business District …

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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.

Asus Transformer AiO Will Officially Cost You US$1,299

Star Chang, Mar 9, 2013 7:29 AM, 354 views, 1 Comment »,

Asus first showed us its Transformer AiO — an 18.4-inch Full HD all-in-one/tablet combo that runs both Windows 8 and Android — back at last year Computex, then it showed up again at this year CES, the Tanwanese PC maker has finally given us a release date and a price for its giant tablet. Transformer AiO is a powerful desktop PC, running Windows 8, Intel Core CPU, a bunch of memory and hardisk storage. As a tablet, you can keep running Windows 8 in remote desktop mode or you can run Android Jelly Bean on the device with ARM processor. The Transformer AiO is expected to be available early second quarter at US$1,299 for the basic model. You will get a Windows 8 machine running on a Core i3, 4 GB of RAM, 1TB hard drive storage, and it also comes with a DVD-RW optical drive which properly nobody is going to use it. Popping it from the dock you will get a super-size tablet with its own internal specs: a quad-core Tegra 3, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of flash storage. We will see how the market respond to this crazy all-in-one concept.