NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M refreshes mobile graphics midrange (update: hands-on pics)

Uh oh, just as we thought NVIDIA had moved beyond its penchant for rebadging hardware, here comes the vanguard of its 500M mobile GPU series — which happens to be specced nearly identically to what’s already on offer in the 400M family. The GT 540M chip maintains the same 96 CUDA cores and 128-bit memory interface as the GT 435M, but earns its new livery by cranking up graphics and processor clock speeds to 672MHz and 1344MHz, respectively, while also taking the onboard memory to a max speed of 900MHz. Power requirements have been kept unchanged, mind you, and NVIDIA itself admits it’s exploiting the maturation of the production process to just throw out some speedier parts. China gets the GT 540M immediately, courtesy of Acer, while the rest of the world should be able to buy in at some point next month. Jump past the break for the full press release.

Update: We’ve managed to track down the particular Acer model that’ll mark the GT 540M’s debut, it’s called the Aspire 4741G. The option we saw came equipped with a 2.66GHz Intel Core i5-480M processor, 4GB of RAM, a 640GB HDD, a Blu-ray disc drive, and a 14-inch screen up top. There’s not much, aside from the new top cover design, to really distinguish this from the rest of Acer’s Aspire line, with the keyboard in particular being the very same one that we’ve witnessed on Timeline series machines for over a year now — comfortable, well spaced, but exhibiting quite a bit of flex around the Enter key. See more of it in the gallery below.

Continue reading NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M refreshes mobile graphics midrange (update: hands-on pics)

NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M refreshes mobile graphics midrange (update: hands-on pics) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Dec 2010 22:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Chinese passenger train reaches 302mph, claims speed record for unmodified trains

Did you find the 262mph record that China scooped up only two months ago impressive? Well, add another 40mph to that number as today Xinhua News has revealed China’s claim to the new speed record for unmodified commercial trains. The new line presently being tested between Beijing and Shanghai has delivered a mind-warping 302mph (486kph) top speed, which is projected to help cut down travel times between the two cities in half, down to a mere five hours. As with the Shanghai-Hangzhou connection that held the record previously, speeds with actual passengers on board will probably be limited to more moderate levels when this connections opens up in 2012, but the Chinese government’s goal is still that magical 312mph (500kph) mark — at this pace, they should be there by Tuesday.

Continue reading Chinese passenger train reaches 302mph, claims speed record for unmodified trains

Chinese passenger train reaches 302mph, claims speed record for unmodified trains originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Dec 2010 06:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Associated Press (PhysOrg)  |  sourceXinhua News  | Email this | Comments

Lenovo teases S800 phone with translucent color display, won’t let anyone touch it

Step aside, Sony Ericsson, your Xperia Pureness has been beaten at its own game by an enigmatic new handset that Lenovo has been showing off over in China. The above images come from a Beijing fashion event, where Lenovo chose to debut its S800 featurephone with a color translucent display. It looks to still be at the concept stage, one that not many of these luxury items seem to ever exit, but lest you think it’s not for real, the models showing it off at the show were photographed backstage using the lustworthy piece of glass to do whatever it is that models do with their phones. Check out the links below for more.

Lenovo teases S800 phone with translucent color display, won’t let anyone touch it originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Nov 2010 09:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Cloned In China  |  sourceChina News  | Email this | Comments

WikiLeaks: Chinese Politburo responsible for Google hacking

You had to know something interesting would come out of the quarter million diplomatic cables that WikiLeaks just, well, leaked late on Sunday, and the New York Times has picked out a doozie for us. As it turns out, that big brouhaha in China surrounding the hacking of Gmail accounts was actually a state-authorized attack. Such was the report from a Chinese informant working for the US embassy, and the disclosure goes on to say that it was part of a “coordinated campaign of computer sabotage,” reaching a wide net of targets, including American government machines, American private businesses, and… the Dalai Lama. Hey, China’s hardly the first country to ever engage in state-sponsored cyber espionage (ahem, Stuxnet), but we can’t say we’re not disappointed. Let’s keep it classy from here on out, alright guys?

WikiLeaks: Chinese Politburo responsible for Google hacking originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Nov 2010 05:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechCrunch  |  sourceNew York Times  | Email this | Comments

AMOLED shortage to become a surplus in 2011

AMOLED shortage to become a surplus in 2011

Samsung’s beautiful Super AMOLED panels are becoming more and more common in mobile devices, but they’re not as common as they could be if there were more of the things flying out of Samsung Mobile Display factories. Predictably that’s set to change in 2011, with SMD planning to fulfill its promise and bring another production facility online, while other competitors in Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore will ramp up their own AMOLED facilities in the coming year. Meanwhile, China is said to be working on its OLED supply chain as well, meaning those displays of the passive matrix variety will also be flying off of assembly lines soon. So, 2011 may still not be the year of a chicken in every pot, but it could be the year of glowy organic goo in every smartphone.

AMOLED shortage to become a surplus in 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Nov 2010 15:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Phone Arena  |  sourceDigiTimes  | Email this | Comments

Chinese man plays MMO on titanic screen, pleads for higher pixel density (video)

Never mind your 103-inch plasmas or Guinness Word Record-holding stadium displays, real gamers do their thing on LCDs that span a cool seven thousand and five hundred square meters (translated into imperial measuring units, that’s… a lot!). What you see above is a little glimpse of an MMO enthusiast with a big passion and no less sizable wallet. The gent in question was displeased by the fact a competing guildmaster in the Chinese MMO Magic World Online 2 got to play in an IMAX theater, and therefore decided to one-up him in the only way possible: by hiring Beijing’s crazily oversized display (titled “All Beijing, look up!”) for a little session of supersized gaming. Jump past the break to see it on video.

Continue reading Chinese man plays MMO on titanic screen, pleads for higher pixel density (video)

Chinese man plays MMO on titanic screen, pleads for higher pixel density (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Nov 2010 04:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Kotaku  |  sourceMMOSite  | Email this | Comments

In China, One Tweet can Cost You a Year in a Labor Camp

chinatwitter.png

China, the worst country in the world*, recently sentenced a 46-year-old woman one year in a labor camp for a sarcastic tweet. Or as they call it “disturbing social stability.”

Back in October, Cheng Jianping under the twitter wangyi09, RT’d a post from her fiance Hua Chunhu with a few words of editorializing. The post mocked Chinese protesters who smashed Japanese products during a recent demonstration.

Eleven days later, on the day the couple planned to marry, Ha Chunchi was taken away by police from his office. He was released five days later, only to find that Cheng was missing. Family members told him the police had taken her away the same day they came for him. She was sentenced to a year in the Henan Province labor camp.

In her twitter feed, Cheng has also supported imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo.

via CNN

* There are certainly more dangerous totalitarian regimes out there, but China is the only one who is a true emerging super power. One which has a near-unbreakable symbiotic economic relationship with the West. One which national American politicians refuse to publicly condemn due to the sheer amount of economic debt China holds. If China wants to be a true global player, they are  going to have to break away from their backwater mental shackles and grow up. This is some unnecessary third-world stuff.

Sharp plans 3D smartphones for US, China and India in 2011

It might be all Japanese to you now, but Sharp’s autostereoscopic 3D is coming to a smartphone near you next year. The tech will debut next month on the Softbank-bound Galapagos 003SH and 005SH Android handsets, but now Sharp has confirmed its intention to also bring it Stateside as well as to two of the world’s most populous nations in China and India. It’s not yet exactly clear what handsets those markets will be getting, but if you’re looking for further signs of Sharp’s expanding international ambition, the company’s reported to also be contemplating extending its e-reading tablet platform out to the US and China. Taken alongside Panasonic’s recently announced plans to start selling Android smartphones globally in 2012, this does suggest we might soon be watching a neat little resurgence from our buddies from the land of the rising sun.

Sharp plans 3D smartphones for US, China and India in 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Nov 2010 03:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink 3D-Display-info  |  sourceMainichi Daily News  | Email this | Comments

One million Chinese cellphone users reportedly infected with zombie virus

Viruses have been making the rounds on cellphones for quite a while now, but it looks like China has now been hit by a particularly troublesome one. According to Shanghai Daily, a so-called zombie virus disguised as an anti-virus app has infected more than one million cellphone users in the country, and it’s left users’ phones vulnerable to the malicious hackers that created the virus. They’ve naturally taken advantage of that access to not only spread the virus further, but cash in by spamming the phones with money-making links and other general annoyances — all of which has also added up to about $300,000 a day in added text message charges for the users affected. What’s more, while authorities have apparently tracked down the company that created the anti-virus application, it apparently insists that it had nothing to do with the virus, and that it’s actually a victim of it as well.

One million Chinese cellphone users reportedly infected with zombie virus originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 16:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Yahoo! News  |  sourceShanghai Daily  | Email this | Comments

Chinese Build 15-Story Hotel In Just Six Days, Rest On Seventh [Video]

Six days. That’s how long it took to build this level 9 Earthquake-resistant, sound-proofed, thermal-insulated 15-story hotel in Changsha, complete with everything, from the cabling to three-pane windows. The foundations were already built, but it’s just impressive. More »