Hasta La Gadget!

We may be living in a “post PC” world according to some, but PCs are unquestionably still big business, and they’re now a bigger business in China than anywhere else. That’s according to the latest report from market research firm IDC, at least, which found that both PC sales and shipments in China inched ahead of those in the US for the second quarter — the first time that’s ever happened, and earlier than IDC had previously projected. In terms of hard numbers, that translates to sales of $11.9 billion in China (compared to $11.7 billion in the US), and shipments of 18.5 million units, which represents a 14.3 percent jump year-over-year (as opposed to a 4.9 percent drop to 17.7 million units in the US). Not surprisingly, Lenovo is the big winner in all of this — it’s both the top PC maker in China and the fastest growing one, with a market share just shy of 32 percent.

China inches ahead of US in PC sales for the first time originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Aug 2011 18:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola’s XT531 has gone through more name changes than a certain rapper-cum-vodka shilling mogul, and the trend might continue as it makes its way to the US. The budget-friendly handset, known as the Fire XT in Europe and the Spice XT in Latin America, has just surfaced at the FCC toting AT&T-compatible GSM bands, UMTS / HSDPA 850MHz / 1900MHz support, WiFi and Bluetooth. Based on Moto’s official PR for the handset’s Chinese release, we know this 3.5-incher also sports a front-facing VGA / 5 megapixel rear camera, and is set to launch with Android 2.3 onboard. With Google’s newest pal clearly chasing after heat-related naming conventions, we expect to see this one launch with an equally caliente moniker.

Motorola’s XT531 hits the FCC, ready for its US crossover originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Aug 2011 16:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oppo, beloved maker of a variety of electronics rarely released outside of China, is jumping into the smartphone business with an Android-powered slider called the Oppo X903. Take the following specs with a pinch of salt, but the device is believed to have a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255 CPU and comes with an eight megapixel camera and a 3.97-inch WVGA IPS screen. So far, so normal — what’s not normal is the ad campaign for the phone, in which a bemused Leonardo DiCaprio stares glumly out of a moving train as a woman writes “find me” in condensation on a perfectly clean window. That’s right after the break and you won’t have to look too hard to find press shots of the phone itself either. They’re down there in the gallery.

Continue reading Oppo announces X903 smartphone, leaves Leonardo DiCaprio confused (video)

Oppo announces X903 smartphone, leaves Leonardo DiCaprio confused (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Aug 2011 13:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Meizu MX now aiming for end-of-September release, coming in dual-core and quad-core flavors originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Aug 2011 12:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s a well-known fact that China’s Great Firewall isn’t particularly friendly with certain foreign online services, and sadly, it appears that we may now have a new victim joining the likes of Facebook, Twitter and, sometimes, Android Market. According to Windows Phone Sauce blogger Kane Gao, many Windows Phone 7 users in China have had limited access to the Marketplace over the last few days — they can’t download any app, but they can still browse content and receive update notifications.

While Microsoft’s service has yet to go live in China, Chinese users could still purchase apps by changing all of their profile location settings to the US. Alas, this trick is of no use now, though it’s unlikely that Microsoft’s the culprit here — it wouldn’t make sense to block genuine US users who are visiting China. Fortunately, Kane had no problem getting to the Marketplace via a US VPN, which is a big tell-tale sign showing that the Great Firewall has decided to barricade WP7’s very own app market. The reason? We’ll never know, and there’s no telling on whether this is a permanent ban, either. Nokia, being a big player in the country, sure hopes not.

[Thanks, JagsLive and Rahul]

China loses partial access to Windows Phone 7 Marketplace, Great Firewall to be blamed? originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Aug 2011 09:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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