ASUS PC EEE

Asus has big plans for its Eee PC S101. Details on the premium ($699 and up) netbook were announced as its slimmest, sleekest netbook. According to DigiTimes, Asus expects the S101 to account for 10% percent of the Eee PCs it ships by the end of the year.

That would seem to be an impressive number, given that the S101 costs double that of the original Eee PC and that Asus seems to introduce a new Eee PC model every other week.

And I do not believe it for one moment.

In fact, Asus will reportedly introduce two new Eee PC models, which will fall between the Eee PC 1000 series and the S101.

DigiTimes reports that Asus expects to overtake Lenovo in global shipments next year, while leaping over Dell in China in 2009. At last count, Asus was eighth in laptop market share, three spots behind Lenovo.

OK, it is sexy, attractive, works and is very light to carry. Now get over that and it is very difficult to use as a laptop.

There is a lot of noise and thunder about there machines. What no one says is they are simply not very practical. And, yes, I have used one for considerable time.

There will the first mad dash of early adopters and then it will slow down to being just another machines. There is a lot of hype written about these machines. No one mentions they are too small. Which they are.
Source: CNet News

China's epic space walk

When the Olympic flame extinguished on Aug. 24, it ended a phase of modern Chinese history that began more than 15 years earlier, when Beijing first bid to host the 2000 Olympics. Then comes the question: what’s next for China?

The answer is simply. The Shenzhou-7 rocket carried three taikonauts (China’s word for astronauts, from ‘tai kong,’ the Mandarin Chinese word for ’space’) into space. Two days later, Zhai made China’s first space walk.

So what now?

Think on a smaller, more commercial scale. China already leads the world in numerous technology market sectors, including as an Internet market and mobile phone market. It’s also Asia’s largest producer and consumer of computers.

It may well be that Yang Liwei will always be remembered as the first Chinese in space, and, perhaps, another name will eventually be immortalized as the first Chinese on the moon, but the role models for China’s youth are the founders of companies such as Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent. They are the entrepreneurs who have reached for the skies. Who have made technology their very own. For them and China, it seems that in technology the sky is the limit, and that may only be a theoretical limit.
Source: PC World

Skype logo

Skype, eBaysWeb communications unit, has admitted that TOM-Skype, its China venture with TOM Online Inc, had been monitoring and storing some of its users’ text messages.

To get this into perpective: everything you writie on the Internet is stored somewhere. Bill Gates did not have that clear in his mind and had a very nasty surprise when they were produced in court.

You send a message somewhere, anyhow — if the Internet is involved it is recorded somewhere. So those, ahem, somewhat personal notes you sent your sexual partner about the night before are still hanging around somewhere. No matter what you thought. No matter how scrupulously you both cleaned them from you hard drive.

Now it has been alleged that a Web service monitors text chats with politically sensitive keywords and stores them along with millions of personal user records on computers that could be easily accessed by anybody - including the Chinese government. What is amazing is hat this should come as a surprise.

Jennifer Caukin, a spokeswoman for Skype, minority owner of TOM-Skype, admitted to the privacy breach in the servers and said it had now been fixed.

If Jennifer Caukin thinks the message thus disappears she is in for a sad disappointment.

She said that Skype needed to have further discussions with TOM after it found out that the venture had changed privacy policies without Skype’s consent or knowledge in order to store certain user messages.

Caukin said in an e-mailed statement that Skype had publicly acknowledged in 2006 that in order to meet Chinese regulations, TOM was operating a text filter that blocked certain words on TOM-Skype chat messages without compromising customer privacy. But she said that policy had changed.

Jennifer, worry not about the policy. There is no great scrubbing vat in the sky that deletes all messages. If you invent one, let me know.
Source: Reuters

Hynix Semiconductor  will  sell part of its stake in a Chinese joint venture to partner Numonyx for $100 million, as Numonyx seeks to raise its control over the Hynix-led chip plant.

After the sale, Hynix will see its stake in the Wuxi plant, which produces dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips used in personal computers, cut to 72.3% from the current 83.3%.

Numonyx, a memory joint venture owned by STMicroelectronics, Intel and Francisco Partners, has said it planned to increase its stake in the joint venture to one third.

It is also working with Hynix in a five-year tie-up to develop NAND flash memory chips, used in hand-held devices including cellphones, digital music players and cameras.
Source: Reuters

China boasts the most netizens in the world, around 253 million by June 2008. In 2007 netizens in rural areas increased by almost 130%, accounting for 40% of all newcomers, according to statistics released at the 2008 Internet Conference.

More and more Chinese farmers are turning to the internet to look for information on growing and sales as well as to release business information.

The informatization of rural areas has improved in recent years, but there is still a disparity between city and countryside. Internet use in cities is still four times higher than among rural residents.
Source: China.org.cn

Most computers are made in China

China’s IT market is projected by BMI to reach a value of more than $100 billion by 2012. Total spending on IT products and services should grow at around 12% over the forecast period as the country witnesses rapid expansion on the IT front.

Despite some concerns such as falling prices, the fundamentals supporting growth will include an expansion into Western China, rural areas and lower-tier cities, growing demand for IT services and outsourcing in key verticals, and more sophisticated demand from enterprises.

As a result of rising computer sales and internet usage in recent years, IT is being applied by enterprises to upgrade traditional technologies and enhance efficiency and value.
Much, much more HERE.
Source: PR Inside

Intel Netbook

Intel is planning the promotion of TD-SCDMA Netbooks in the Chinese market in partnership with China Mobile.

This may be slightly difficult until TD-SCDMA gets widespread acceptance and coverage.

Intel plans to bundle its laptops with China Mobile’s 3G data services. Abroad, Acer’s netbooks have also been connected with 3G Internet access services but note, that was not using TD-SCDMA which, at the moment, is confined to China and is not, perhaps, working as well as it might.

Netbooks are just smallish computers and, indeed, this item is being written one.

Some PC makers expect that this low-price, small-sized laptop suitable for wireless Internet access will see its sales reach 15 million units in 2008.
Source: Trading Markets

Keep your fingers off the hinge

Sony (China) is recalling 77,705 VAIO laptop computers in China because of a possible manufacturing defect that may cause overheating.

The recall relates to a problem with wiring near the computer’s hinge, which may short-circuit and overheat in the power supply connector or the LCD area, possibly causing a place.

The affected laptops are of the VAIO VGN-TZ series (the machine of choice for many journalists) produced between July 2007 and July 2008.

This blog is being written on such a machine.

Sony suggests users contact the company and Sony will provide quality check and free maintenance.

Until then keep your fingers away from the hinge. It may bite or worse things that could be mentioned.
Source: China View

National Library of China

The Chinese national library’s new building has opened to the public, and it the world’s third largest in terms of floor space.

With the addition of the new building, the library’s total area reached 250,000 square meters, behind only the national libraries in France and the United States.

The new building in western Beijing, which is considered the second phase construction of the library, covers an area of 80,538 square meters, combining storage rooms, reading rooms, a display area for ancient books and a digital library.

It has 2,900 seats and a capacity to cater to 8,000 readers daily with about 600,000 books.

Readers can also use wireless access to Internet on their own laptops or use any of the 460 computers in the new building. Palmtop digital book readers are also available to access the 200-terabytes of digital resources.

It also planned to open a library channel with a cable TV company to put on programs of its lectures and exhibitions, as well as a short message service on library information.

Deputy head Chen Li said, ‘In the age of Internet, we are introducing new technologies into the “old” library work.’

Yes, but can you access the whole of the library through the Internet? Apparently not. When that happens it will truly be in the age of the Internet. Not before.
Source: China View

Microsoft Academy Program.

Microsoft has launched the Microsoft IT Academy program in China to help college students with advanced IT technologies. This will of some assistance in the more rapid development of China’s information industry.

The Microsoft IT Academy program enables faculty and students to acquire new technology skills. Microsoft IT Academies benefit from world-class Microsoft curriculum and software tools to experience real-world challenges in the classroom environment.

Perhaps one real-life challenge would be to get Vista to work on all PCs.

Zhang Hongjiang, the vice president of Microsoft China R&D Group and the managing director of Advanced Technology Center said training of IT talents are essential to local information industry and a healthy IT ecosystem.

You can find sites as they open at Microsoft IT Academy.
Source: Microsoft