Last week, 9to5 Mac ran a piece from the Beijing Evening News about Apple store scalpers selling Genius Bar reservations. In their article, the Beijing Evening News claims that it’s impossible to make an appointment at the Genius Bar without purchasing one from a scalper. But is it really?
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Beijing is one of the earliest still-existant cities planned around a grid: the old city is organized around a chessboard-like matrix of alleys, known as hutong, that date back at least a millenium. But as developers in Beijing scramble to built modern towers in the urban core, hutong are disappearing.
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On the left is the sunset as seen from Mars. On the right is the same view from Beijing. Were it not for the latter’s urban setting, you might not be able to tell the difference. Crazy, right? Fortunately, science can explain why.
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Truth be told, not much has been announced on the consumer end at IDF Beijing earlier today, but Intel did tease us with upcoming refreshes of its Xeon E7, E5 and E3 families for the enterprise space. In chronological order we have the Haswell-based E3 with TDP as low as 13W, and it’s coming in mid-2013. This is followed by the “Ivy Bridge-EP” E5 in Q3 and then the “Ivy Bridge-EX” E7 series in Q4, the latter of which boasting three times the memory capacity of its predecessor, along with Intel’s Run Sure reliability feature. More details in the press release after the break if you’re into these flavors of chips.
Also mentioned at the keynote were the now-available Atom S12x9 family for storage systems, as well as a couple of upcoming 22nm 64-bit Atom SoCs codenamed “Avoton” and “Rangeley,” both of which are sampling now and are expected to launch in the second half of this year. We’ve actually already heard of the microserver-friendly Avoton from Facebook’s Open Compute Project, whereas Rangeley for network infrastructures was also detailed around the same time; so again, hit up the press release for more details.
Right after Intel’s somewhat mundane announcement of the Ultrabook Convertible and Ultrabook Detachable sub-brands at IDF in Beijing, SVP Kirk Skaugen surprised us by whipping out an unnamed laptop coming from Toshiba, so we jumped onto the stage to get a sniff of the only two units at the venue. Judging by the looks of it, we’re confident that this is actually the Portege Z10t that hit the FCC last month — the vents, camera and logo on the back match those in the drawing (embedded after the break) filed in the application.
Gallery: Toshiba Portege Z10t hands-on
Beijing’s smog problem isn’t exactly new information, but it’s been getting way worse lately. In response, local artist Matt Hope decided to integrate an air purifier into his bike so riding around the city would be less hazardous. More »
Beijing isn’t doing so hot right now. I don’t mean their weather, and I’m not talking about their economy either. Rather, I’m talking about the alarming reports regarding the state of their smog-laden atmosphere, which news agencies have been covering non-stop since a week ago.
As if that isn’t enough to raise awareness on the situation, entrepreneur-slash-activist Chen Guangbiao is now marketing canned air to fellow citizens with the hopes of creating a bigger buzz about the situation.
Hopefully, the Chinese government will take action – and soon. People have already been advised to stay indoors and wear masks to protect their lungs from the smog. The air won’t clear up on its own if the people don’t do something about it, and from the looks of it, it’s high time they take matters into their own hands.
Going back to Chen and his canned air, it would seem like what he’s selling is more of a novelty than an actual product. I say this because of the variety of canned air he currently has up for sale, like post-industrial Taiwan, revolutionary Yan’an, and pristine Tibet.
Aside from that, Chen claims that his cans of air come with a chip that detects the concentration of negative oxygen ions; when it reaches a certain concentration level, the can’s lid automatically shuts. But at 80 cents a piece, I doubt he’ll be making much of a profit.
But still, the idea and the goal behind the entire project is a commendable one. I just hope it helps drive the point home and that something good and substantial comes out of it.
[via Dvice and Los Angeles Times]
You probably have seen the extreme smog in Beijing, so bad that you can observe it from space. But this shot blew my mind just because it looks like a frame from Blade Runner. So awesome—if you don’t live there. [Twitter] More »
Beijing is choking – as these two pictures vividly demonstrate. On the right is the city’s skyline on Monday; on the left the same view on 4 February 2012. The suffocating smog is not just bad for health, it may also have a more potent effect on climate change than previously thought. More »
China has a thing for pushing the limits of trains. As of today, that includes distance: the country claims to have the world’s longest high-speed rail line. Paying ¥865 ($139) will take you 1,428 miles from Beijing in the north to as far as Guangzhou in the south. The 8-hour, 186MPH trip is technically slower than flying, but it’s cheaper and potentially less stressful than the often protracted airport boarding process. It’s certainly far more viable than the 20-hour rail trip it’s replacing, which could lead to some locals choosing a ground route that wasn’t even a realistic option until now.
[Image credit: Xinhuanet]
Filed under: Transportation
Via: Wall Street Journal
Source: Gaotie (translated)
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