Hasta La Gadget!

Why, it’s another robot-themed hotpot restaurant! This time we’re looking at Jinan — once famous for demolishing a whole stash of illegal arcade machines — up in north China, where a ballsy robotics manufacturer started trialling a robot-themed eatery. While there are still human chefs working back in the kitchen, some near-hundred customers will be served by six robots (about ¥40,000 or $6,000 each to build) that follow a white line to seat diners and deliver dishes. Oh, and don’t expect any slapstick comedy here — these bland-looking droids will only stop if you dare stand in front of them. You’ll have to hurry up, though, as this venue closes in about 16 days; but for those who can’t make it, we’ve got a video right after the break.

Continue reading Chinese hotpot restaurant gets robot waiters, may soon be serving droids as well (video)

Chinese hotpot restaurant gets robot waiters, may soon be serving droids as well (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 09:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Talk about timely. We’ve been waiting for months (with bated breath, might we add) for Pleco 2.2 to finally hit Apple’s App Store, and after dealing with a few launch day bugs last week, we can finally say it’s out and ready to dominate any Chinese homework you’ve been hastily procrastinating on. The Pleco Chinese Dictionary is now available in the app store at version 2.2.1, supporting both fullscreen handwriting input and live camera-based character recognition. Have a peek at the video past the break if you’re still curious as to what this app can do for you, and feel free to toss your experiences with it down in comments below. Here’s hoping this is only the first of many languages Pleco decides to tackle — not that we’re much on tossing out subtle hints.

Continue reading Pleco Chinese Dictionary iPhone app now handling real-time image translations

Pleco Chinese Dictionary iPhone app now handling real-time image translations originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Nov 2010 20:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember the 15-story hotel built in six days? Well, this 12-story apartment building fell down in three seconds. More »

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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C’mon, let’s all color ourselves shocked at once. It’ll be fun. We promise. If you’ve been calling the underside of a rock home for the past decade or so, you may have missed out on a Chinese outfit by the name of Meizu. For all intents and purposes, the company has done its darnedest to copy Apple in every respect, particularly with the software on its M8 and M9 smartphones. Strangely, we’ve never actually heard confirmation that Cupertino’s best lawyers were breathing down Meizu’s neck… until now. As the story goes, Meizu CEO Jack Wong’s forum postings have been rather tense of late, and one in particular seems to explain why: Apple’s all up in his grille. The details are hidden beneath a good bit of pent-up rage, but what is clear is a mention of Apple’s lawyers and their “unreasonable negotiation tactics.” In essence, Jack finds it absurd that Apple could claim rights to the touchscreen smartphone form factor, and while Apple could only serve a relative few in China, he (obviously) expects Meizu to serve far more. We won’t pretend to be sad on Jack’s behalf — we mean, the guy had it coming — but we can’t shake the looming depression when thinking of a world with no future Meizu devices to chuckle at.

Apple’s lawyers finally going after Meizu, or so it seems originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Oct 2010 11:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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