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Upset that the rumoured mini iPad wasn’t announced at Apples 1st September iPod event? Well perhaps this little Eken tablet will suit your needs.

The Eken M003 features an 8inch LCD touch screen with IPS technology and built in iReader software, supporting most popular ebook formats.
Eken didn’t want their tablet to only be a versatile ebook reader so have packed it full of the usual multimedia features found on tablets such as gravity sensors, music playback, access to the Android market and video capabilities.

Eken go so far as to claiming the M003 will fully support Flash on the built in Chrome browser! We’re not sure how they’ve managed to get Android 1.6 to play nice with Adobe’s popular video and game format, but if they have they’ve accomplished what many have been demanding for a long time.
An 800Mh/z processor keeps everything purring along nicely and WIFI 802.11G/B means you’ll can happily surf the net at the coffee shop and at work, but the absence of 3G could be a bit of a deal breaker for some.
Apps, video, photos and documents can be saved either to the built in 1G/b of memory or to micro SD cards which can be added to the reader on the base (the edge below the home button). Also along the bottom edge you’ll find a single USB plug, 9v charger socket, a 30 pin style dock connector, head phone jack and 2 built in speakers.
The Eken’s plastic body comes in choice of either black, white and silver and has one of the beefiest looking bezels we’ve come across, and personally quite like.
Overall the M003 looks quite good for a basic tablet device. It should be more than adequate for emailing, Internet, the odd game and watching video plus the 1.3 pounds weight and 8 inch form factor make it ideal for throwing in your bag and taking it where you want.
The best part about the Eken? It costs less than $100 (680 yuan to be exact), not sure about the iPad packaging though!

Despite the fact the iPad has yet to officially launch in China (and sources tell us there is a delay) NetEase e-mail CEO Ding Lei has already had his team of developers launch a special iPad version of their popular 163 email service.
The new service located at ipad.mail.163.com, can be accessed through the iPad’s Safari browser. As it has been developed especially for the iPad other browsers will be redirected to the default email style for the device your on (but if you really need to take a look activate developer tools in Safari and change your client to iPad).
As I don’t have a 163 Netease email, I’ve yet to see what has been changed, but according to official word HTML5 and CSS3 technology have been brought together to offer iPad users a much faster experience, 50% in some cases, over the traditional email experience.
iPad’s have yet to be launched in China, but it is estimated that tens of thousands are in daily use here already!

There are literally hundreds of fake iPhone 4’s on the market here in China. Varying from not bad, to total garbage. Problem is with so many clones it’s difficult for new up and coming faux iPhones to get any of the limelight.
This problem is similar to one many aspiring actress in Hollywood face, and like those down on their luck ladies, this Window’s Mobile based iPhone 4 clone has taken up some rather dubious modeling work to make a few dollars!
The image was taken from Shanzhaiji, who posted a review of the phone here (translated by Google).
Oh dear iPhone 4 clones you really have fallen on hard (accidental pun) times haven’t you.

Ever been out and about and wished you’d taken your newly purchased paper back book with you? Perhaps you planned to pop in to town for a few minutes to do some shopping but find yourself stuck in a 9 day traffic jam! If only you had that copy of ‘War and Peace’ with you to whittle away the hours.
Thanks to ZenKee Systems a producer of RFID chips, all you would need to do in this situation is pick up a device which can connect to the web, access your home server and browse for your book then read!
Of course your copy of ‘War and Peace’ would need to have an implanted RFID chip with IOT technology for this to work.
IOT stands for ‘Internet of Things’, not very imaginative, but very accurate. A book with IOT would not only be a physical paper back or hard back book with content on it’s pages, but also a web enabled digital book which can be accessed while out and about.

An RFID tag like the one pictured here, is placed in the spine of your book. On the tag will be the complete contents of the book including images and a small wifi antennae so it can connect to the web. Once accessed your book can be read without actually needing the book.

The first of these IOT enabled books, ‘Ancient Painting’ was released in Beijing this week, with more books to follow as the technology gains ground.
It sounds like a fantastic idea for bookworms who, although are happy to read ebooks, still prefer to pay for a physical book rather than just digital information.

Last week we posted a blurry video of the Samsung Galaxy Tablet , this week though we have a great video from Korean TV  of it in action. The video shows off some great features!

No wobbly cameras or blurred images, just crisp video, funky music and if you can read them Korean labels!

This truly will be an iPad contender!!

Video after the jump!

Read the rest of this entry »

If you can’t wait until tomorrow to see what Apple have in store for you take a look at these cases that were recently leaked on to the Chinese Internet. The manufacturer of the silicon skins claim that the smaller of the protective covers is for a 1.7 inch touch screen iPod Nano (or iPod Nano 6) From the picture it also seems the new Nano will have a clip for attaching it to your person.

The larger of the two cases is said to be for the new iPod Touch 4 (or Touch 4G) and as you can see it quiet clearly shows a camera hole!! This is big news for iPod Touch fans who have been asking for a camera ever since it’s original launch!

Thanks to zx.sj.91.com for the picture!

Shanda have released details that it plans to launch some of it’s titles on to Apple’s iOS devices in the near future.
As the the multi-million dollar company is leading the way in on-line MMORPG titles in China it’s a safe bet we’ll see a few of those heading toward our iPhones and iPads soon along with puzzle games and some board style games.
If you are a Chinese gamer, however, and were hoping to get some time in on your faveorite RPG on your iPhone, you might be disapointed to hear that these games will not be aimed at the Chinese market and will actual fact be released and focused solely overseas.
Then again if you’ve Jailbroken your phone that shouldn’t bother you too much.

The Chinese press have been speculating for months about what Motorola had planned for it’s Chinese phone range, and it looks like they’ve finally spilled the beans.
Motorola are planning to launch 3 new Android phone with full touch screens around the Fall of 2010. What’s more all 3 of the new phones will have flip out ‘Ming’ writing areas to support Chinese character input with the use of a stylus.

Non of the new phones have very pretty names, but they do have some good looking spec’s for example the MT810 doesn’t sound as flash as a HTC HD2, but it will have a 3.2 inch touch screen and will support 720p HD video playback. The MT810 will also boast support for the CMMB, which is the Chinese standard for mobile television, and pack a 5 mega pixel camera with LED flash.

The XT806 may not sound as cool as an iPhone 4, but it will handle pretty much everything the latest iPhone can do thanks to its 512MB RAM, built in GPS and it’s 5 mega-pixel camera which is capable of recording HD video.

The third phone in the line is to be a budget model and will only be running Android 1.6 (the other 2 will run at least Android 2.1) meaning you probably aren’t going to see many updates for it. The A1680, as it is known will however have a rather splendid 3.1 inch AMOLED display!

Looks like Chinese customers are in for some Android love over the next few months.

Not only is this 330 meter tall building currently the tallest building in China’s capital, but is also has a mighty long name to go along with it.
The (deep breath) ‘China World Trade Center Tower III” has been completed in 3 stages , hence the “III”. Stage 1 of the build was commenced construction way back when I was knee high to a grass hopper in 1985 and opened in 1990. Stage 2 was finished in 1999. This the third stage was finished back in June of 2005, but only opened officially this week.
The 1.14 million square meters of tower block will house business recreation centers.

Cell phone numbers have always been easy to get hold of here in China. You could go to your local branch of China Unicom or China Mobile and get one there, pop along to the local convenience store and grab one with your instant noodles or pick one up at those little kiosk’s you sometimes find dotted around towns.
From Wednesday (tomorrow) however the process of getting a new number might become a little less convienent due to to legistlations requiring new customers to provide their real name and proof of who they are.

The new laws will affect only new customers to begin with, but the government plan to have old phone number owners registered with their real details within 3 years. Interestingly though,  a government source claimed that any existing customer not releasing their real details will not be punished and will still continue to be provided with a phone service!? Which could be why China Unicom are planning to reward existing owners with gifts if they come forward and provide their real information quickly.
Phone users are split on the new requirements with some thinking their personal information might be used in ways against their interest, with others beliving the new law could wipe out spam text messages and phone calls, and could eventually lead to a better standard of service.