Japan may be famous for its bullet trains, but if China’s plans for a high-speed railway go forward, people could be zipping over from London to Beijing in under two days.
The train would go on from Beijing to Singapore, and also connect to India and Pakistan, opening up the East to non-fliers.
One of the senior consultants on the railway project, and also a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Wang Mengshu, said that they are “aiming for the trains to run almost as fast as aeroplanes,” and that with any luck, the railway should be “completed in a decade.”
In addition to the London to Beijing plan, they’re also hoping to build railways from Beijing to Russia and Germany, connected with the European railway system. A third project that goes south from China, to Vietnam, Thailand, Burma and Malaysia has already started, with a deal struck between Burma and China that will see the Chinese paying for the Burmese line, with the Chinese able to tap into their lithium reserves—which they can then use in production of batteries. [Telegraph]
Image credit: Occam
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Hide wires, powerboards, your prized mini-figs—heck, even the droids the stormtroopers are still looking for, all in this tidy flatpacked AT-AT model from China.
The company sends you all the materials needed to construct the AT-AT, but can’t promise protection from the rebel snowspeeders lurking nearby. It costs 55 Yuan, which is only $8, but that doesn’t include postage obviously. [GeekCook via WalYou]
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Joking they were not, when Google vowed to take down China. Ok, that’s not exactly what they said—but after refusing to launch two Android phones there mid-January, they’ve now pulled out of a developers event in Beijing. Updated.
Following developer events at TED and MWC (plus the upcoming GDC), they were scheduled to tour around Asia, visiting Hong Kong, Taiwan and Beijing with armfuls of Nexus Ones to give away. Really driving the point home, they’ve pulled out ahead of the event next week. Not launching Android phones from Motorola and Samsung is one thing, but no Nexus Ones? This could be the end of China’s censorship, for once and for all. [Reuters]
Update: A Google spokesperson contacted All Things D to set the record straight: Google didn’t cancel any event in Beijing, because there was no Beijing stop on the Nexus One tour to start with.
The spokesperson explained: “The reports are incorrect…There was not a Nexus One launch event scheduled in Beijing. Google is hosting 3 Android Developer Labs in Asia over the next couple weeks in Singapore, Taipei, and Hong Kong…We never planned to hold an Android Developer Lab in Beijing, and suggestions that we did plan one are not true.” [All Things D]
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Last Friday’s situation at the Mexican Foxconn factory (the company that supplies components and products to Apple) where enraged employees burnt the place down over being forced to work unpaid overtime will be receiving extra pay, according to Foxconn.
Nothing like a bit of exposure on the tech blogs to force the Juarez arm of the Taiwanese company into doing the right thing by its workerbees. Apparently, the “ringleader” was someone who actually left Foxconn last year, and will be the one punished by the heavy arm of the law—not the hundreds of other workers who joined in on the arson.
Thankfully, Foxconn has also confirmed that nothing was severely damaged by the fire, so they can get back to work polishing those nice shiny gadgets we’ve been expecting. [Digitimes]
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Google may’ve delayed the launch of two Samsung and Motorola Android phones last week, but if you speak to the Chinese government, they have no problems with Google (their free-speaking arch-nemesis) offering their wares in the country. [Reuters]
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One lucky Chinese blogger was kind enough to share his
Dell Mini 3i unboxing experience beyond the
Great Firewall, just a tad before
Dell officially announced their first-ever smartphone. What’s interesting is that the China Mobile version comes with a special stylus for the capacitive touchscreen — a very handy tool for writing Chinese — but there’s been no mention of this accessory for the Brazilian 3iX. Dell’s also bundled a 3.5mm adapter for the mini-USB port in case their handsfree isn’t good enough for your audiophilic ears. Yeah, too bad about the missing headphone jack, but don’t let this deter you from checking out the Mini 3i’s full glory after the break.
Continue reading Dell Mini 3i unboxed in China, capacitive stylus included
Filed under: Cellphones
Dell Mini 3i unboxed in China, capacitive stylus included originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Nov 2009 08:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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With a name like HiPhone, it has to be good, right? Totally. The outfit famous for knocking off RIM’s BlackBerry Storm in impressive fashion is back, this time with a psychedelic mishmash that could make even the most hardened soul chuckle once or twice. The F320 is — as you can so clearly see above — a terribly funny combination of iPod nano and rotary phone, and while we wouldn’t trust the specifications for a minute, we’re told that it’s a dual-band GSM handset with a built-in multimedia player, FM tuner, camera, 2.6-inch touchscreen and Bluetooth. There’s no mention of a price (unless you’re willing to commit to buying a few hundred), but trust us, it’s better that way.
[Via PMP Today]
Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video
HiPhone F320: ‘a rotary phone and an iPod nano walk into a bar…’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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