China’s stolen the US’ chip-laden crown for building the world’s fastest supercomputer. The National University of Defense Technology’s Tianhe-1A PC uses “American” chips from Intel and Nvidia, and supposedly it solves math problems 29million times faster than 1976’s supercomputer. More »
It happened. China just passed the US and the world with the reveal of the world’s fastest supercomputer. The fully operational Tianhe-1A, located at the National Supercomputer Center in Tianjin, scored 2.507 petaflops as measured by the LINPACK benchmark. That moves it past Cray’s 2.3 petaflops Jaguar located at Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee. Tianhe-1A achieved the record using 7,168 NVIDIA Tesla M2050 GPUs and 14,336 Intel Xeon CPUs consuming 4.04 megawatts. Knowing that 10 petaflops is within reach by 2012, we’ll see if Tianhe-1A can maintain its title when the new Top500 supercomputers list is released next week.
China’s Tianhe-1A is world’s fastest supercomputer, plans to usurp the West now complete originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Oct 2010 01:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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High speed railways, particularly in Asia, have been soaring at around 200 miles per hour for quite some time now, but given just how much pride the Chinese have in their own rail system, it’s no shock to hear the entire nation gloating about a new speed record. Of course, we’re pretty partial to records ourselves, so we’ll happily open up a round of applause when a bullet train hits 262 miles per hour without imploding. The newfangled Shanghai-Hangzhou connection (which connects Hongqiao and Hangzhou) has gone into service today, with most riders treated to a top speed of only 220 miles per hour. Officials have already stated that they’re hoping to improve speeds to over 312 miles per hour, with other nations reportedly anxious to get ahold of their technology. Oh, and if you’re curious about details, the CRH380 train covers 126 miles in just 45 minutes, with seats starting as low as $12.
Update: We’ve learned that a maglev train in China has been known to hit around 268 miles per hour as recently as two months ago — we’re sure semantics are too blame here.
China’s Shanghai-Hangzhou rail line opens, hits record breaking speed of 262mph originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 26 Oct 2010 13:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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If you happen to be enthusiastic about Lenovo, tablets, and your American residency, look away now. Lenovo still plans to ship the Android-based LePad in China some time soonish, but its US roadmap can pretty much be summed up as “wait and see.” The company’s COO Rory Read has been cited as saying there are no plans to release a slate for the US market until at least Android’s Honeycomb version comes out, agreeing with Google on the point that Froyo is not “the right base to have a fully functioning pad.” Lest you think Windows 7 will fill the void until whenever in 2011 that Android tablet does arrive, Lenovo’s director of new technology, Howard Locker, sets you straight: “Windows 7 is based on the same paradigm as 1985 — it’s really an interface that’s optimized for a mouse and keyboard,” and the Thinking machine team doesn’t intend to build a slate around it. And if you were thinking of maybe picking up a LePhone as a consolation prize, tough luck, that won’t be arriving in the US for at least another two years (which in smartphone terms is basically “never”), although it’s good to know that it’s now got 13 percent of the smartphone market in China. You know, in case you own stock in LeCompany.
Lenovo says no Android tablet in US until Honeycomb; no Windows 7 tablet, period originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 05:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
When we say this chap was trapped in the toilet, we don’t mean he was stuck in the bathroom, he literally jammed his arm down the porcelain-encased pipe. The poor gentleman from Jiangsu Province in China was clearly in desperate need of his cellphone, as not even the typically repugnant idea of diving down for it was enough to prevent him from trying to chase the thing down. Good news is that emergency services rescued him with only minor cuts and bruises to his arm, though we suspect the injury to his ego will take a long, long time to heal.
[Thanks, Adiwidya]
Man traps himself in toilet trying to retrieve cellphone, has time to re-evaluate life priorities (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 03:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Nokia has problems. Smartphone problems. Software problems. American problems. But to fully understand what’s wrong, we’ve got to understand what’s been right, or to put in another way, what’s distracted Nokia. Meet the most popular phone in the world. More »
Do you dream at night? Do you stare at your ceiling pondering questions that no other Earthling could possibly ponder? Contrary to popular belief, you aren’t actually alone in this nightmare, and we too have wondered what would happen to our universe if a Magic Mouse and iPhone collided. Look up. Now down. Now back up again. That greenish, devilish device you see above is the iPhonc, a “KIRF of all KIRFs,” if you will. It’s hard to pinpoint who exactly thought to shove a dumbphone into the body of a Magic Mouse, but in some strange way, they’ve managed to make our souls smile. Best of all? Even the source here admits that it’s meaningless to wonder over the specifications and price, noting that the shell alone should attract sufficient attention. Makes the fading of Meizu a little easier to handle, you know?
Keepin’ it real fake: Magic Mouse and iPhone converge into iPhonc originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Oct 2010 19:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Well, can’t say we didn’t see this coming; we’re just surprised that it’s taken this long for Meizu to take a hit over its notorious handset. In case you have no idea what we’re talking about, earlier this month said Chinese company’s been in heated talks with Apple due to the M8 smartphone bearing an “appearance roughly similar” to the iPhone. Seriously, that’s the only reason Apple provided for the accusation, if CEO Jack Wong is to be trusted (and hey, he did kinda ask for it). Anyhow, the latest development is that Meizu’s bowing to pressure from both the provincial intellectual property office and Cupertino, and announced that it’s shutting down production lines for its flagship M8 this month. This is no doubt a big blow to the company, but it might get even nastier — here’s what Jack said in one of his many frustrated forum postings:
Apple requested that we cease manufacturing the M8 this month, we agreed but then [Apple] came back and asked for a sales ban instead. I can cope with a production freeze, but not with having our shops closed and thus not being able to use up our inventory. If Apple and the provincial IPO take another insatiable step, I can only go head to head against them.
So, it looks like the M8’s all set for an early retirement, either way — it doesn’t look like Apple’s going to let this one go easily, and Jack’s also expressed concern over the fact that the IPO has the power to shut his factory down without going to court. That said, things are still looking positive for the elusive M9 — from the sounds of it, Meizu’s upcoming Android phone isn’t affected by this takedown (yet); but the question is whether Jack and co. can keep the shops running until a December launch for their next flagship device. Oh well, hang in there, Meizu!
Meizu M8 ceases production amid pressure from Apple and intellectual property office originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 09 Oct 2010 21:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Editor’s note: Wired.com contributor Jeremy Hart is making a 60-day, 15,000-mile drive around the world with a few mates in a pair of Ford Fiestas. He’s filing occasional reports from the road on gadgets he’s field-testing.
Asia: the spiritual home of the gadget. After a month of reporting on the gadgets we have brought with us on the Fiesta World Tour, I figured it was time to hit the streets and see what new Asian toys I could get my hands on.
After Dubai, we leaped ahead to China for the next leg. India, sadly, was off limits. I flew into Hong Kong and snuck across the border to the Chinese gadget powerhouse of Shenzhen. This is where the iPod and iPad are made.
In China, any 21st century boy or girl is only as good as his/her gadgets, and the place to find those on Huaqiang Road in Shenzhen. To get a sense of what it’s like, imagine Tokyo’s liveliest retail locales, add a dash of Bladerunner on steroids, and flick on megawatts of neon.
This phone looks a bit like a McLaren and includes both Mercedes and Porsche trademarks.
An expeditious Google search reveals that there are 13 dedicated, multi-level and densely-utilized electronic and telecommunication markets on Huaqiang. They house 18,000 individual stores and directly employ more 50,000 people. When you the seething mass of shoppers, it is believable that the street attracts up to half a million shoppers each day, with the two largest markets pulling in 50,000 punters each, rising to 100,000 during holidays.
iPhones were being touted aggressively on our visit ($110 for the 16Gb iPhone 4 model; though it’s hard to tell whether it’s real or fake). But we had no interest in knock-offs, copies, or even discounts on ordinary gear. We were looking for weird stuff; for madcap stuff. And within minutes of entering the Shenzhen SEG Communications Market, we’d found much of interest.
I wanted garish. So I plumped for a keyring with a hidden micro-camera (from the instruction pamphlet: “Hope it can help your life safe and happiness.”), and another Bond-like piece of kit: a cigarette case with the ability to record video and 2Gb of memory secreted within. A mobile phone shaped like a racing car and decorated with the a hodge-podge of supercar logos completed the deal. I paid just 40 dollars for the lot.
Well if you pay peanuts you get monkeys. The keyring camera failed to charge and so ended up as a keyring with a large bit of plastic dangling on the end. At least the cigarette packet camera fired up immediately and the first video was pretty good. If I were spying on a cowboy builder or cheating spouse, it would do the job just great.
The MercPorsche SLarrera phone (with a mix of Porsche, Mercedes Carrera and Cayman styling and trademarks) was a great deal. Twin SIM sockets and Bluetooth almost made my iPhone 4 and Nokia backups redundant. But the big problem was language. The sole screen language is Chinese, so the minute I said goodbye to my guide the phone became useless to me.
The Huawei E5 mobile Wi-Fi unit was all but useless in China where 3G networks are mainly limited to the cities. But, by a stroke of luck, once we were across the border in Thailand we fitted it with a 2G SIM voice card. That made the unit just about as valuable as the Virgin MiFi was in the States. The pleasant difference is that Thailand’s Happy network clearly did not bank on such a use for their pay-as-you-go SIMs. As a result, I surfed for 5 days for just $6. I only hope for the same value in Malaysia and Australia as the global trip comes close to an end.
Finally, to the biggest gadget test of the trip. Two things Bangkok has plentiful amounts of are sunshine and smog. And those are two reasons for Thailand’s green transport guru, Air Marshal Morakot Charnsomruad, to take the tuk-tuk, the most iconic of Thai modes of transport, and make it solar powered.
Thailand's Air Marshal Morakot Charnsomruad with a solar-powered tuk-tuk and a fuel cell vehicle he is developing.
“Thailand is in the solar belt and so has lots of solar power,” says the 77-year-old Charnsomruad. “Houses, offices, trucks…you name it, there is no reason why they should not have some solar power.”
The canopy atop the bright yellow three-wheeled C-FEE is covered in solar panels. It is midday in the Thai capital and the sun is beating down through the thick tropical air to charge the tuk-tuk’s under-seat battery.
“There is not enough power from the panels yet to actually power the electric motor directly,” says the inventor. “But it increases the 60km range and saves carbon emissions by keeping the battery topped up.”
Jeremy Hart drives a solar-powered tuk-tuk at top speed through the streets of Bangkok.
Ironically, the solar tuk-tuk has sold more in less overtly sunny locales like London than it has in its native Thailand. Here it is twice the price of a smelly, two-stroke petrol version, which limits its appeal. The Air Marshal thinks the government should do more to support the three-wheeled green machine.
The tuk-tuk controls are simple. A rocker switch for forward, neutral and back. A stop and go pedal and a steering wheel. Oh, and a horn.
I stomp on the accelerator and the single nose wheel almost lifts off the road. The torque is supreme. And on streets where fury and noise reign, it runs almost silently. Only a little whine gives away the sense of drive beneath my flip-flopped feet. The tuk-tuk carries a little more weight than a petrol version but handles nimbly. And after 2 hours of play, there is no hint of the power running out.
I vow my next circumnavigation will be by tuk-tuk.
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If only this was a hoax. Yes, that’s some bitter talk alright, because this Motorola MT716 from China Mobile is almost the perfect Droid that we once had on our dusty wish list: a similar slider form factor but with a hard-cap keyboard, as opposed to one with spongy mashers. In fact, eagle-eyed readers might have already spotted that this is the exact same keyboard as featured on the Cliq. Compared to its distant relative, other differences on this OPhone include an 8 megapixel camera (with dual-LED flash and 720p camcorder feature), an extra VGA front-facing camera, TD-SCDMA radio, WAPI connectivity (WiFi-compatible), and CMMB TV streaming; otherwise, you’ll find the same weedy 600MHz TI OMAP3430 chip, 480 x 854 LCD, AGPS and Bluetooth 2.1 inside. Now if you’ll excuse us — we have a petition to write up.
Motorola’s MT716 OPhone launched in China, looks just like a Droid with Cliq’s keyboard originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Oct 2010 10:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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