Hasta La Gadget!

Symantec names Shaoxing, China as world’s malware capital originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Mar 2010 06:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Times Online  |  Symantec MessageLabs (PDF), Press Release  | Email this | Comments

Oh, brother. This just keeps getting better and better, and by “better and better,” we mean “uglier and uglier.” Google’s abrupt decision to stop censoring results in China and redirect users on the mainland to the outfit’s Hong Kong portal has stirred up all sorts of tense feelings around the globe, and if you thought this whole war would be confined to the desktop, you were sorely mistaken. China Unicom, which is gearing up to present its customer base with a few more smartphone options with Android loaded on, recently announced that it wouldn’t be using Google as the search engine on those very phones. Lu Yimin, president of the operator, was quoted as saying that his company was “willing to work with any company that abides by Chinese law,” but that it didn’t have “any cooperation with Google currently.” Granted, this is just the latest in a series of blows to Android’s proliferation in the world’s biggest nation, but you can really tell it’s getting personal now. C’mon guys — can’t we just hug it out?

China Unicom won’t use Google’s search engine on Android phones originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Mar 2010 16:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  MarketWatch  | Email this | Comments

We’ll confess — the Segway did a lot of damage to urban mobility as a whole, but General Motors (of all companies) might have just mended a wound we thought un-mendable. Unveiling today in Shanghai, the two-seater EN-V concept is a play on last year’s altogether riveting (albeit forgotten) P.U.M.A., and yes, it seems as if some of those design cues have worked their way into this one as well. The Electric Networked-Vehicle was engineered to “alleviate concerns surrounding traffic congestion, parking availability, air quality and affordability for tomorrow’s cities,” and they’re also fully capable of transforming this place we call Earth into a next-generation Epcot. A trio of designs made their debut — Jiao (Pride), Miao (Magic) and Xiao (Laugh) — and we’re told that twin electric motors and “dynamic stabilization technology” allow ’em to turn on a dime and operate autonomously (!) using integrated GPS. The Li-ion batteries can be juiced from a conventional wall outlet, and the expected range is around 40 kilometers on a single charge. Best of all? There’s built in wireless of some sort, enabling your fellow EN-V owner-friends to keep track of your late-night escapades if you so allow. We know — you’d buy one of each if these were available today, but mum’s the word on when (or if) they’ll ever hit the production line; meanwhile, expect something called a “Malibu” to remain in the product pipeline for the better part of next decade.

GM’s two-seater EN-V concept makes ‘urban mobility’ hip again originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 11:43:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  General Motors  | Email this | Comments

We’ve been hearing that China Telecom would be grabbing hold of Palm and RIM’s respective stables of smartphones since early last year, but at long last we’ve some official quotes to prove those whispers correct. According to a new report over at the Wall Street Journal, Chairman and Chief Executive Wang Xiaochu has affirmed that it will offer an undisclosed amount of BlackBerry devices in China this May, while Palm’s Pre (no word on the Pixi) will hit this July. These deals could certainly bode well for the carrier; as it stands, it’s going up against China Mobile — which already sells BlackBerry handsets — and China Unicom, which is home to Apple’s iPhone. Unfortunately, pricing details weren’t available, but we’re guessing those will pop sooner rather than later.

China Telecom launching Palm Pre, BlackBerry handsets this summer originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 02:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Pre Central  |  Wall Street Journal  | Email this | Comments

It’s not quite the ceasing of operations that the local papers were reporting last week, but Google has announced today what it’s calling an “entirely legal” way of giving mainland China unfiltered search results. The Google.cn domain now redirects to its Hong Kong servers via Google.com.hk, providing uncensored access in traditional and simplified Chinese. Needless to say, any mainland Google China servers have thus been given an early retirement. “We very much hope that the Chinese government respects our decision, though we are well aware that it could at any time block access to our services,” writes David Drummond, SVP of Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer, on the official Google Blog, while also noting to expect some slowdown while the HK servers deal with an expanded load of users. As for its men and women on the ground, Google reiterates that these decisions were driven by executives in the U.S. “and that none of [its] employees in China can, or should, be held responsible for them.” R&D work will continue on the mainland, and a sales presence will remain. The company has created a “China service availability” page, promised to be updated daily, for seeing what parts of Google’s business are being blocked by the country at any given time — as of today, that includes Youtube, Google Sites, Blogger, and partial blocks of Docs, Picasa, and Groups. We’re very curious to see how the page’ll look in tomorrow’s update.

Update: China has given its own response, in English, saying that Google has “violated its written promise.” An official for the State Council Information Office goes on to say, ”
This is totally wrong. We’re uncompromisingly opposed to the politicization of commercial issues, and express our discontent and indignation to Google for its unreasonable accusations and conducts.” More details via Xinhuanet.

Update 2: The White House has chimed in. “We are disappointed that Google and the Chinese government were unable to reach an agreement that would allow Google to continue operating its search services in China on its Google.cn website,” said National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer. More via Yahoo! News.

Update 3: The New York Times sat down, briefly, with Google co-founder Sergey Brin for a few elaborations on today’s events. For starters, Brin noted that the new policy was entirely Google’s idea, and the US government was not involved in any way. He also silenced whispers that Google would be releasing software for bypassing censorship.
“I think those tools are going to come of their own accord. I don’t think we have to do anything,” he said.

Google.cn now rerouting to Hong Kong domain, an ‘entirely legal’ workaround to censorship woes originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Mar 2010 16:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Google Blog, Xinhuanet, Yahoo!  | Email this | Comments