Hasta La Gadget!

By definition, the Qi Smartbook U1000 isn’t a smartbook. It’s more like a touchscreen MID, but we’ll let the semantics slide (just this once). Based on a 624MHz CPU, Windows Mobile 6.1 and a 5-inch touch panel (800 x 480), this Chinese device is also equipped with WiFi and a mysterious camera ’round back. Sadly, that’s about all we know, but those who find themselves in Shenzhen should definitely check it out. Just be wary of those KIRFs — we hear they’re kind of prevalent over there.

[Via GadgetMix]

Filed under: Handhelds

Qi Smartbook U1000 rolls with WinMo, few buttons originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 Sep 2009 05:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ah, the Meizu M8. Undoubtedly the funnest smartphone ever to talk about, though based on shipping success rates, it’s probably not the phone to order if you actually value the whole “getting what you paid for” thing. Dodgy ownership aside, we’ve been waiting for Google’s own mobile operating system to splash down on the M8 since June, and if the video seen down there in the read link is to be believed, said scenario has finally become reality. All we’re shown are a few swiping motions, but when you’re talking Meizu, that’s all you really need to believe.

[Thanks, Bidur]

Filed under: Cellphones

Video: Meizu M8 seemingly runs Android, definitely sets expectations too high originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Sep 2009 09:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ah, if it isn’t RAmos again. The only Chinese PMP maker that cranks out wares that aren’t chock full of KIRF. The outfit’s latest endeavor is the T6 icon, a sleek, simplistic media player that isn’t apt to head stateside anytime soon. Packing a 4.3-inch LCD (800 x 480 resolution) and a frame that’s just ten millimeters thick, the HD-capable device also boasts an HDMI output and nary a button on the front face. ‘Course, the assortment of rockers around the edges ensures that your volume level and track selection isn’t solely controlled by a touchscreen, but we definitely appreciate the clean look.

Filed under: Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

RAmos T6 PMP don’t need no buttons originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Aug 2009 08:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The NYT has more on the death of Sun Danyong, the Foxconn worker who apparently committed suicide after an iPhone prototype went missing. As compensation, his family has been paid about $44,000, and his girlfriend received an Apple laptop.

Sun apparently was given not just one, but 16 prototype iPhones on July 9 or 10 to deliver to R&D, and he reported one missing three days later. He committed suicide early in the morning on July 16, after allegedly suffering through brutal interrogations.

Foxconn’s China general manager James Lee told the NYT that Sun had a history of disappearing products: “Several times he had some products missing, then he got them back,” and that they “don’t know who took the product, but it was at his stop.”

The NYT closes with an episode that again shows the kind of people Sun had to deal with: Not long after Sun’s father finished telling journalists Foxconn treated the family well, a security guard with two men in Foxconn shirts appeared and threatened to beat up a journalist’s translator if they kept asking the family questions. Foxconn swears the guard wasn’t one of their guys.

I’m sure he had nothing to do with Foxconn, and was just some dude who asked to tag along with the guys in Foxconn shirts. You know, for fun. [NYT]

Chinese newspapers have been piecing together Foxconn worker Sun Danyong’s final hours, and claim to have recovered his final text message to his girlfriend, sent two hours before he died. It’s clear something horrible was happening to him:

“My dear, I’m sorry, go back home tomorrow, something has happened to me, please don’t tell my family, don’t contact me, this is the first time that I have ever begged you, please agree to that! I am so sorry!”

And in what is reportedly his final online chat—supposedly verified as authentic—Sun tells a friend he never stole the phone, and thinks it was swiped. He also again implies that he was tortured, or at least forcefully detained and interrogated with physical force, clearly contradicting what Foxconn’s security chief told a Chinese paper:

“Even at a police station, the law says force must never be used, much less in a corporate office. I was just a suspect, my dear head of security, so what reason and right do you have to confine me and use force?

If Foxconn is directly involved in his death, it and all of its executives could go bankrupt a million times over and that would still not even come to close to justice for Sun Danyong. [The New Yorker]