Malware dubbed “DeathRing” has recently been found pre-installed in several China brands. At a thread on Chinaphonearena, some users are discussing this situation. (more…)
Category: Noteworthy
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New 2015 Regulations Regarding Lithium Electronics
Starting just a few years back, as the number of consumer electronics with high energy density lithium batteries began to skyrocket, a serious and growing concern regarding spontaneous combustion causing fires on airplanes became a priority in regards to making new regulations.
The question of whether it’s actually dangerous or not, is a moot point, as we have no control what the IATA/ICAO committees decide.
The noose has slowly tightened and it will be tightening even further as of January 1st, 2015, when IATO/ICAO regulations mandate that lithium metal batteries will be prohibited from being shipped loosely (eg, not in the product they power).
From the official DHL website:
Following an IATA/ICAO decision to ban loose Lithium Metal batteries on passenger aircraft as from January 2015, DHL Express is likewise unable to accept these batteries on its network. The IATA /ICAO regulation applies to loosely packed Lithium Metal batteries adhering to Section II, PI-968 while Lithium Metal batteries packed with equipment (PI-969) or contained in equipment (PI-970) are acceptable for transport as before. There is no change to the regulations for Lithium Ion batteries.
The keywords for those of us interested in receiving extra batteries for our China mobiles is “metal” and “ion”. Currently, the batteries in our China mobiles are lithium-ion, which means that this new mandate should not effect our receiving extra batteries.
Note, I said “should not”. Already in many parts of Thailand, they are refusing to ship lithium-ion electronics with the battery inside the unit, let alone the lithium-ion battery loose.
This is likely due to their misinterpretation of current mandates, or an executive decision by EMS fueled by the need for a cut-and-dry standard for employees to follow. In other words, “if it’s got a battery in it, it can’t be shipped” is a much easier to follow standard, than making sure employees are trained to check battery type and to make sure shippable lithium battery electronics are packaged and labeled correctly.
Recently I was prohibited from sending a phone back to China at Thai post, but when going up the street to FedEx, it was no problem.
It seems for 2015 we will still be able to receive our mobiles and extra batteries (at least by courier, EMS/standard post may be another problem all together), but things are getting tougher year by year and there may come a time when buying locally is our only option.
I don’t see a complete ban happening, as the mail-order electronics business is just too huge to shut down entirely, but I wouldn’t put a complete ban out of the realm of possibility. Let’s hope this doesn’t come to pass.
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DARPA Bridging the Terahertz Gap
In 2012, the Guinness World Record for the fastest circuit was awarded to the 850 GHz Vacuum Amplifier. Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems have taken things a step further and have replaced the world record with a 1.012 THz solid-state amplifier IC.
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Eta Devices Gearing Up To Prolong Your Phone’s Battery
Eta Devices, a fresh chipset manufacturer, is aiming to solve the high battery-drain problems of smartphones and save the environment while they’re at it.
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Torment: Tides of Numenera Review, inXile Entertainment Raises $4.7 Million
inXile Entertainment who rebooted Bard’s Tale and Wasteland is now working on a new Torment reboot.
A bit of game legend history
For those of you born after 1990, let me bring you up to speed. The first Torment game, Planescape: Torment, was released in 1999 and is built on BioWare’s Infinity Engine. Infinity Engine is the engine which games such as Baldur’s Gate and the Icewind Dale series are built on. The engine uses a three quarters perspective with pre-rendered 2D backgrounds. (more…)
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72 Moments In This Millenium That Will Define Us
How will we be remembered? Here are 72 of the most memorable moments of our millennium so far.
How will we be remembered? Here are 72 of the most memorable moments of our millennium so far.
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Action-Cam Battle: GoPro Hero 4 Review Specs, Contour Review Specs, and Polaroid Cube Review Specs
A battle of action cameras is heating up. GoPro is about to release a few new models, HTC is rumored to be sneaking in to the arena with a 16MP sensor cam, and two camera companies that took a fall are making a comeback with action cams.
Those in the market for an action cam might be considering GoPro Hero vs Contour vs Polaroid Cube, so lets have a look.
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Clone iNew V8 On The Market – Is My SoC/CPU Fake?
Unfortunately in the China phone market there are quite a few fakes. Often phones that have MT6572 SoC will be cleverly disguised to look like MT6582 or MT6592. Recently there has been a clone iNew V8 put out on the market that goes by “Alps V8Y”. The phone is MT6582 1GB RAM/8GB ROM. (more…)
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Biggest Camera Sensor in a Mobile in the World – Panasonic DMC-CM1 Review Specifications
Panasonic recently announced their LX100, a camera made to go head to head with Sony’s RX100. I think it would have been smarter to release a 1″ sensor camera that size-wise would match the Sony RX100, but Panasonic hasn’t completely forgone pocketable — Check out the Panasonic CM1, an Android phone with a 1″ sensor, which easily gives it the biggest sensor in a smartphone in the world. (more…)
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Panasonic LX100 Review Specifications – Ground Breaking Compact Micro 4/3-inch
Quality aside, there is something special about holding a standalone camera in your hands to take pictures as opposed to a smartphone. The buttons, rings and dials are damn fun to play with. (more…)
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KitKat 4.4.2 for China Phones Has Arrived
There was a lot of complaining a couple of months back about KitKat not arriving to China brand phones. Many accused them of being ‘behind the times’ (more…)
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Google’s Camera App & KitKat On The iNew V8
Just this month Google released their Google Camera on the play store. The good news is that we will no longer have to wait for OS changes to get the upgrades and changes Google implements. The bad news is that it is for KitKat devices only. (more…)