If you enjoyed the HTC Touch Pro and want to own a similar device, at least design-wise, take a look at the HB 778 that comes directly from China.

This clone is very similar to some HTC smartphones, but when it comes to the specifications list, there is an obvious winner. Anyway, the Chinese HTC rip-off has a 2.8-inch touchscreen display, and the same slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

Basic specs like a microSD memory card slot are included, as well as bluetooth and a 1-megapixel camera. Unusual features on the HB 778? Only the dual SIM slot so you can use two cards at the same time.

This not a joke but its a sort of a tribute to the next Chinese year, the year of the cow. No, you are not seeing weird things or strange faces, what you see in the image above are cow faces. It is a Zen Stone, wrapped in colorful plastic. This is the Zen Moo! That’s really its name, folks, still not a joke!

The Zen Moo, the latest Mp3 player Creative unleashed into this world, comes with a small OLED screen, 2GB of memory, an FM tuner and built-in speaker. It also has a game, which lets you feed and train your cow. What for exactly, nobody knows!

Right now it’s only available in China and I hope it’ll stay there. I had a better opinion of the Zen line. I don’t really take this Moo thing too seriously. The only thing I’m sure about is it can damage your kids’ hearing pretty well. I guess it was made for kids right?

Remember how you’re used to work on your smartphone while on the bus or on whatever device you’re using to get to your daily job? Well in China that whole work-while-you-commute experience has been upgraded.

In a move to increase productivity, Microsoft China executives are being taken to work in special buses which come equipped with computers. The computers will clock you when you log and then they’ll help you start your day. Hopefully those buses come equipped with some sort of WiFi or 3G support. You will need that for a couple of quality minutes of instant messaging with your friends.
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The G1 is going places! After being announced for the American and UK market, the phone will make it’s way to China. HTC will take the G1 to the Asian and Pacific markets and China will see it by July 2009. We’d be curious to see if the G1 gets the same treatment the iPhone got. HTC doesn’t have an official confirmation of a G1 smartphone specifically designed for the Chinese market but I’m sure they’d love to get there before Apple does.

via Engadget

TechFaith Wireless Communication Technology is a Chinese company which is said to start making mobile devices which will run on Google’s Android OS. Production will start in early 2009. There aren’t that many details to play with yet but we know that TechFaith is usually working with Motorola, LG, Sprint, France Telecom, SK Telecom, CECT, Amoi and Bird. We should get more details in November. I am already starting to thing that TechFaith plus Motorola might equal Android soon!

We know the story already. Same stuff, different handset. We’ve seen how the Chinese iPhone will loose its 3G chip and WiFi antenna. Well Nokia’s first touchscreen phone, the 5800 XpressMusic will get the same treatment. Again it looks like Chinese mobile carriers want to determine their subscribers to only use the Chinese custom TD-SCDMA network. I understand the lack of 3G but shouldn’t they be able to use WiFi if they wanted to? After all it should be one of the most important human rights! One should be able to use WiFi at any time and any place he or she would feel like, no matter of age, race or religious beliefs.

China is the major market in the world for basically anything. With a good product and a good marketing campaign, your company can make lots of money of the Chinese market. In the cell phone business that appears to be the case. It looks like the total number of mobile subscribers in China has gone up significantly and it reached 616.02 million subscribers by the end of August. That’s twice the population of the USA. Even Europe doesn’t have as many cell phone users as China.
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People say that Apple and China Mobile are almost finished with the negotiations regarding th iPhone 3G. There aren’t any official statements from any of the parties involved but it’s safe to presume Apple wants in the Chinese market as soon as possible.

How many China Mobile subscribers are going to pick up the device anyway? They can choose any iPhone clone for less money. The main concern is China Mobile’s 3G network which uses TD-SCDMA technology which isn’t compatible with the phone anyway.

A few days ago, Chinese officials tampered with the Internet, or at least the legal chunk of available Internet in China, and banned any iTunes access. This came as a response to various athletes downloading via iTunes the “Songs for Tibet” album during the recently finished Summer Olympics.

Well, fellow Chinese readers, if there are any, you’ll be happy to know that the great iTunes ban has been lifted. Chinese people can access it freely now. By freely we mean of course that they won’t be able to get the “Songs for Tibet” album. And there’s not point going to Amazon or YouTube. You won’t find it there either.

That means you will have to circle around the great firewall of China to get any of those songs. Or have your friends send them via email.

The 2008 Summer Olympics being held in Beijing are closer and closer to the end. But we’re not going to talk about any sports and special performances today. We are however taking an angry look at China which cut all iTunes access. Every person in China trying to get online to an iTunes Store will not be able to do so. Why would anyone do such a thing? Well it appears that quite a few athletes have been downloading and listening a pro-Tibetan music album.
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CCID Consulting from China is expecting a huge amount of cell phones to be manufactured in China by the end of 2008. 605 Million cell phones are expected to arrive from Chinese manufacturers this year. That’s a 55 million more handsets produced than last year.
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I am told that a certain sportive event of some mediocre significance is rolling out as we speak in China. Should you happen to be there to check it all out, and should you want to blog about it or access some porn from your hotel suite, you might find yourself hitting the Great Wall of China. The Great Firewall of course. (more…)

Cheap Chinese knockoffs were the only things that played host to two SIMs simultaneously until now, but Samsung looks to change the game with the new D980 cell phone. While it didn’t meet with much success on its first try with the P720, the D980 designed for the Chinese market (D988 DuoS in other markets) sure looks equipped to take on the relatively small dual-SIM arena. Based on the Samsung F480, the D980 has a 2.6-inch QVGA 262K color touchscreen display, a 5-megapixel autofocus camera, a microSD slot, USB connectivity, and Bluetooth 2.0. Both the SIM slots should work with GSM triband 900/1800 MHz networks with speeds topping out at EDGE. Looks like Samsung couldn’t afford to slap in 3G, but a pretty neat package nevertheless. There is no information on its availability in Europe, but we will try to keep you in the loop as more comes in.
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With the Olympics arriving in about two months, Apple is ready to hit China. Its first Apple store was just officially opened in Beijing’s newest Village at Sanlitun.

The Chinese Apple store isn’t visible from outside the Sanlitun complex, but once inside the inner court, you won’t miss the Apple. It’s a three-story building with two visible stores and a third level covered with stainless steel
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Much of Samsung’s latest media player, the YP-T08, has been borrowed from the YP-T10 that was released last year, but we will ignore that for the other improvements that it carries over its predecessor. While the YP-T10 was capable of 2 hours of video and 15 hours of audio playback, the YP-T08 takes a step ahead and provides up to 4 hours of video and 20 hours of DNSe 2.0 enhanced audio playback. It can play wmv and mp4 files for video while mp3, ogg, and wmv formats complete the audio support. There’s Bluetooth but it’s not clear if it supports the dual A2DP support that the YP-T10 had. This player is limited to China for now, but at 999 yuan (about $146), we would like it to stay that way.
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One of the first questions about the worldwide iPhone release was where are China and Russia? Everyone noticed they were not included neither in the first 22 countries nor in the other 48 to get the iPhone this year. Then we learned that both Russian and Chinese carriers are in talks with Apple for releasing the 3G iPhone.

China Mobile spokeswoman Rainie Lei said:

Apple is no longer insisting on a revenue-sharing policy, so the biggest hurdle for China Mobile to bring in the iPhone has been cleared, but there are practical issues still to be resolved.

In other words Apple won’t ask China Mobile to pay a percentage off their iPhone future subscription plan. Which means that China Mobile will go ahead and subsidize the iPhone like any other normal carrier.

I guess the practical issues are still quite big since there’s no official release date or expected price. So we’re getting closer to a Chinese iPhone but not quite. Moving on people, there’s nothing to see here!

If I was a cell phone manufacturer I would spend a great deal of my free time thinking about how I could efficiently enter the Chinese market. With 592 million people owning a cell phone, China might just be one of the most profitable markets out there. That means at least another 592 million Chinese, but probably more, do not own a cell phone yet.
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After clearing the FCC in May, Motorola has now officially unveiled the new MING A1600 and A1800 along with the Motozine ZN5. These two touchscreen entrants retain the same form factor as the original MING, the A1200, but are somewhat updated to match at least some of the features that are becoming ubiquitous in today’s market. While both the A1600 and A1800 support tri-band GSM networks with EDGE speeds, run on Linux, have a 3-megapixel camera, Bluetooth with A2DP, GPS, and a microSD slot, the A1800 has two radio transmitters enabling it to connect to two different networks simultaneously with support CDMA networks too apparently. Sadly missing is WiFi and 3G, which could have added a bit more pull to these two devices, but since emerging markets seem to be Motorola’s target this time, we will just ignore that important fact.

As I said before, the A1600 and A1800 will most probably head to China before making rounds in other developing markets at a price that is not revealed yet.

Just yesterday we were talking about the possibility of the 3G iPhone to officially arrive in Russia and today we’ve learned that Apple is planning to have iPhones in Chine too. I guess Apple is going for China in order to get some people to use their handwriting recognition software already!
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If you are one of the recently counted 143 million new mobile subscribers in China, then you’ll be happy to know that 3G is coming. Not exactly anytime soon but they are moving in the right direction. (more…)