In July we got our first taste of Aliyun OS, running on the W700. Now, with the Gregorian calendar year coming to a close, Alibaba is prepping its second wave “cloud-powered” hardware. First up is the W800, the successor to the original Aliyun handset. As far as specs go, the two look more or less the same — with the latest version still rocking a 1GHz Tegra 2. The one obvious difference is the slightly larger 4.3-inch display gracing the front of the W800. Perhaps more interesting though, is the still unnamed tablet which also clearly bares NVIDIA branding. Speed and exact model of the CPU inside is anyone’s guess, but we’re assuming this isn’t a Kal-el device. Price and release date for both are a mystery, but the W800 is expected to land sometime before November is out. Of course, you probably shouldn’t expect these to show up in your local Best Buy, but you’ve got a friend in Hong Kong who can send you one, right?

Alibaba unveils W800, second-gen Aliyun phone, and unnamed ‘cloud-powered’ tablet originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 00:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The inability to win US government approval isn’t exactly an unfamiliar issue for Huawei, which by now must be conditioned not to expect a nod from major US telecom companies. But now, The Daily Beast reports that the U.S. Commerce Department has made it very clear that the Chinese company won’t have a role in building the country’s new dedicated first responder wireless network. A spokesman wasn’t shy about the reason, either, explaining that Huawei “will not be taking part in the building of America’s interoperable wireless emergency network for first responders due to U.S. government national security concerns.” And what about those national security concerns? Well, Huawei president Ren Zhengfei’s former role as a People’s Liberation Army technologist may have something to do with it, considering it wouldn’t be unreasonable to suspect that he still has some fairly close ties to Chinese government officials. We haven’t heard a peep from the feds regarding Huawei’s invitation for US officials to investigate the company earlier this year, but it’s safe to assume that the investigation either didn’t go very well, or more likely that it hasn’t happened at all. We imagine that whole corporate espionage debacle probably didn’t help the company, either.

Huawei blocked from first responder network contract, US cites ‘national security concerns’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 14 Oct 2011 11:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In case you haven’t been keeping an eye on the countdown, we thought we’d remind you that Ubuntu 11.10 — otherwise known as Oneiric Ocelot — is now available to download (completely free of charge, of course). That brings with it an updated version of the Unity interface that includes features like a new alt + tab switcher and “Lenses” with some expanded functionality instead of the previous “Places” feature — not to mention full support for Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and other script languages. Did we mention it also now has its own soundtrack? Head on past the break for a taste, and hit the source link below for a nifty web-based preview of the OS before you download.

Continue reading Ubuntu 11.10 ‘Oneiric Ocelot’ now available to download

Ubuntu 11.10 ‘Oneiric Ocelot’ now available to download originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not content with offering up merely modular Android tablets, ASUS has revealed a new seven-inch tablet that’s water and dust resistant — perfect for a spot of bath-time browsing or… desert rallying. The ASUS TOUGH-ETBW11AA has rubberized bezel and strips across the back, contributing to the substantial 22.2mm profile, but that hefty frame can survive drops from the heady height of 76cm. Aside from its tough-guy credentials, there’s a 1280 x 800 screen, five megapixel camera, Tegra 2 dual-core 1GHz processor, WiMAX connection and the staple WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS medley. It comes with 16GB of well-protected storage, but there’s room for more via microSD. For those seeking a slate that’ll survive the bumps and scrapes of the business world — and not look ridiculous – it’ll be available to enterprise customers of Japanese carrier KDDI this November. No news yet on whether it’ll canoe its way across from the Land of the Rising Sun, but we can give you a few more photos of the rough and tumble tablet after the break.

[Image credit: Keitai Watch]

Continue reading ASUS TOUGH 7-inch Honeycomb tablet lands in Japan ready for some corporate abuse

ASUS TOUGH 7-inch Honeycomb tablet lands in Japan ready for some corporate abuse originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 28 Sep 2011 13:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Presumably feeling a little left out after being turned down from the global love-in that is the International Space Station, China’s decided to go it alone. The ever-expanding nation will be ready to launch the first module of it’s very own space station, the Tiangong (Heavenly Palace), by the end of this month. The initial launch will be unmanned, delivering an 8.5-ton module ready for docking practise and other interactions with three more spacecraft that are planned to join it later this year. Pegged for completion by 2020 and with a complete weight of over 60 tons, the Tiangong will look positively petite compared to the hulking 419-ton ISS, but is also said to be significantly cheaper. Meanwhile, we still await China’s take on the Robonaut.

China readies its own space station module for launch originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 27 Sep 2011 08:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With Mango finally on its very official way — that’d be one day away for certain AT&T owners — it’s hardly surprising to see OEMs jumping on Redmond’s mobile bandwagon. ZTE’s joined the allied Windows Phone 7.5 ranks, outing its Tania phone at the China International Postal and Telecommunications Exhibition 2011. The modestly specced 4.3-inch device runs Microsoft’s latest OS atop a single-core 1GHz processor, with 512MB of RAM, 4GB of storage and a 5 megapixel rear camera on-board. It’s certainly no HTC Titan, but then again, not every smartphone needs to be a roided-up beast. Let’s just hope MS gets those regional marketplace availability issues squared away before this handset’s Chinese launch. After all, what fun is a live-tiled phone without the apps?

ZTE Tania joins Windows Phone Mango brigade, says Ni Hao to Chinese market originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With Mango finally on its very official way — that’d be one day away for certain AT&T owners — it’s hardly surprising to see OEMs jumping on Redmond’s mobile bandwagon. ZTE’s joined the allied Windows Phone 7.5 ranks, outing its Tania phone at the China International Postal and Telecommunications Exhibition 2011. The modestly specced 4.3-inch device runs Microsoft’s latest OS atop a single-core 1GHz processor, with 512MB of RAM, 4GB of storage and a 5 megapixel rear camera on-board. It’s certainly no HTC Titan, but then again, not every smartphone needs to be a roided-up beast. Let’s just hope MS gets those regional marketplace availability issues squared away before this handset’s Chinese launch. After all, what fun is a live-tiled phone without the apps?

ZTE Tania joins Windows Phone Mango brigade, says Ni Hao to Chinese market originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Sep 2011 11:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just a few days after introducing its own Android-like OS, Baidu is now looking to expand its mobile reach to the hardware front, with the help of Dell. According to Reuters, the Chinese search giant has joined forces with the PC manufacturer to produce a line of tablets and smartphones within China, in the hopes of capitalizing on a market of more than 900 million mobile subscribers. A Dell spokeswoman declined to offer a launch date for the new line of products, but sources close to the matter say they could launch as early as November. Details on the devices remain equally opaque, though Dell seems intent on resurrecting its tablet / handset unit, following the demise of the Streak 5. “We have a partnership with Baidu and you know we have the Streak 5 tablet, so the partnership will be in that space,” the company’s rep explained, adding that future releases would involve Baidu’s mobile app platform, as well. Today’s announcement also comes after Dell’s Chinese sales grew by 22 percent during the first quarter of this year, though it remains to be seen whether or not this alliance will have much affect on a market currently dominated by Apple and Lenovo.

Baidu, Dell join forces to produce line of smartphones and tablets in China originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Sep 2011 06:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell’s Chinese site just took the wraps off the Vostro 360 all-in-one, which we already glimpsed in some prematurely released support documents. The product page actually calls it the ‘Vostro Success 360′ to hammer home its productivity focus, as if the inclusion of Windows 7 Professional Edition wasn’t enough. Other specs are pretty much as expected: a choice of touchscreen or non-touchscreen variants of the 23-inch Full HD WLED display, Intel i3 or i5 processors with the H61 chipset and up to a terabyte of 7200RPM storage. There’s also a 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M for those out-of-hours LAN parties. The 4,999 Yuan price tag for the base model translates to a respectable $780, but we’ve no clue as to when this office beauty will arrive outside the Chung Kuo.

[Thanks, Czar]

Dell Vostro 360 unveiled in China, a decently priced all-in-Yuan originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Aug 2011 10:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’ve already seen the Xiaomi M1 announcement about a month ago, well, forget it, because Xiaomi has already made some significant changes since then. What we’ve just learned from today’s Beijing launch event is that the M1 — now officially “Xiaomi Phone” — no longer packs a 1.2GHz dual-core chip; instead, it’s been given a bump to a Qualcomm MSM8260 SoC, thus becoming the first Chinese phone to sport a 1.5GHz dual-core chip. As part of the Snapdragon package, the phone is also powered by a powerful Adreno 220 graphics processor, which will no doubt make good use of the phone’s 1GB RAM and a staggering 4GB ROM. Oh, and that