Chinese 'Apple Peel' Turns iPods Into iPhones 178
angry tapir writes "The Apple Peel 520, a Chinese-developed product that drew the media's attention for being able to turn an iPod Touch into an iPhone-like device, is coming to America. The add-on device, which just went on sale in China, has been billed as a more affordable option for users wanting to get their hands on an iPhone, but lacking the budget."
It is a phone (Score:2)
Re:It is a phone (Score:5, Informative)
'It juts uses the iPod as its UI.'
Or to put it another way, it replaces the cheap phone components that Apple left out of the Touch so that it could cash in on the low end of the market without threatening the status of its expensive flagship product. Although the true cost is often buried in a contract, in the UK you can buy an unlocked 64Gb iPhone 4 for £599. The equivalent iPod Touch is £329. Obviously the iPhone 4 is more expensive to produce, but not £270 more. The cost of this device (not to mention the cost of a complete PAYG Android phone, about £100 over here) shows that Apple could produce a much cheaper device if they chose to. But rather than owning the whole smartphone market (as they already own the mp3 player market all the way down to the Shuffle), they've decided to focus entirely on the high end. Whether this will turn out to be a wise decision in the long term remains to be seen, but it's obviously highly profitable right now! In the meantime it leaves us with the oddity of the iPod Touch, a device designed by bean counters, which has no real competition in the market because only Apple can get away with selling a 'smartphone without a phone'.
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I don't know about in the UK, but here in Australia the iPhone is quite a bit more expensive than the iTouch, but so are Android phones. Most people get these kind of phones on contracts - $0 upfront and $59 p/m (anything from $350 to $500 of cap) over 24 months seems like the standard plan for a majority of the providers. I'd say people are drawn here by the small monthly payments. Why pay $380 for a lesser product when you pay nothing for it on a cap plan (the plans are almost identical to the BYO plans)?
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The cheapest PAYG Android phone in the UK is about £80, less than half the price of the cheapest Touch. Step up to a better model and add an 8Gb card to equalise the storage and it's about £115, £74 less than the basic Touch. Another payment of £20 will buy you 6 months worth of 3G net access on T-mobile (though with adequate rather than great coverage where I live). Cheap PAYG phones are common in much of the rest of Europe, though less so in some other countries including Apple's c
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The cheapest PAYG Android phone in the UK is about £80, less than half the price of the cheapest Touch.
Which phone is that? Most I have seen have been twice that, and I don't think I've seen one below £100. At £80 I might get one
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T-mobile Pulse Mini from Argos. But you only get a resistive screen (the regular Pulse for £20 more has a very decent capacitative screen).
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The cheapest Android phone is also a turd. Heck I have an EVO and I think that's a turd for the most part.
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I'd rather not use ATT. I also wanted to try out an Android phone, but it's a turd that I'm stuck with for two years now.
Re:It is a phone (Score:5, Insightful)
only Apple can get away with selling a 'smartphone without a phone'.
I recall something that was called "PDA" which seems to qualify quite well as a "smartphone without a phone", and quite a few companies like Palm, HP has been quite successfully selling those before smartphone became popular.
I know it is trendy with moderators to bash Apple here, but at least try to bash for things they are actually guilty of, ok?
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'I recall something that was called "PDA" which seems to qualify quite well as a "smartphone without a phone", and quite a few companies like Palm, HP has been quite successfully selling those before smartphone became popular.'
I think the key phrase here is 'before smartphones became popular'. Now that the additional phone components are so cheap, PDAs have essentially vanished and the Touch pretty much has its niche to itself. I can't imagine any similar device without Apple's brand image and iTunes/App st
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Except that my Touch needs to be recharged maybe once a week, depending on exactly how much I use it for gaming on the subway. My ordinary cell phone also lasts about a week on a charge. Yet if I were to combine both, I'd end up needing to recharge it every day. And I'd better have my charger around 'cause it might not last through the entire day.
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It's certainly true that the current generation of smartphones is very battery hungry. But a lot of this comes down to additional capabailities that even the combination of a wifi media player and a conventional phone won't give you. The things that really seem to drain my battery are 3G net access and GPS; if I just leave the phone switched on to receive calls and only use non-networked apps like an epub reader I can go a couple of days between charges (with normal usage, I charge once a day). And, of cour
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my android phone lasts 3 days if i don't run games or listen to music. also, i can recharge it on any USB port in the world, a compatible cable (micro USB) is dirt cheap.
and i only have to carry one device.
there was a time that i'd rather have an ipod for music a phone for calls, since most "feature phones" of the time had crappy music players with shitty sound.
today, most phone have comparable sound quality to ipods, have pretty decent screens that i can read well even in the sun, plus very decent mobile b
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my android phone lasts 3 days if i don't run games or listen to music. also, i can recharge it on any USB port in the world, a compatible cable (micro USB) is dirt cheap.
and i only have to carry one device.
Uh, the iPhone/iPod touch charges on USB. A micro USB cable is still not a standard USB cable so there is no real difference. Just carry the the dock connector to USB cable with you and you can charge on any plane with a USB port in the seat back or on any USB port you find on a computer. I find it hard to believe that you cannot carry a USB to dock cable with you. It takes up about the same space as any other USB cable other than the dock connector end being a bit bigger.
The iPhone has the advantage of bei
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I can't imagine any similar device without Apple's brand image and iTunes/App store compatibility doing well, at least in countries like the UK where several PAYG Android phones are available for substantially less than the cheapest Touch.
I wish the US were like that. I bought the Touch to use as a pda, but shopped around looking for something similar running android instead (which I'd rather have). Sadly, the only competing device I found that ran android cost about $400, when the Touch cost me $150. I
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If you 'recall' then, Apple was also first on that bandwagon. Newton anybody?
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The Newton wasn't really the first device of that type; at least Psion and Atari had devices of the type on the market years before.
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in the UK you can buy an unlocked 64Gb iPhone 4 for £599. The equivalent iPod Touch is £329.
There are more differences between the iPod touch and the iPhone than just the phone components:
GPS, compass, battery capacity. In the previous generation the touch was also missing the cameras and microphone.
OK, that's still less than £270 worth but the difference is closed somewhat.
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It's actually a £350 difference for the 32Gb models (my mistake, see above), and I'd say that GPS and compass at least are now 'cheap phone components' even if the Apple Peel doesn't come with them - an £80 PAYG Android phone on sale in the UK has both.
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Re:It is a phone (Score:4, Insightful)
... components that Apple left out of the Touch so that it could cash in on the low end of the market...
This is so disengenuous as to be silly. Not everyone wants an iPhone. A lot of those people who don't want an iPhone might be in the market for a high end mp3 player. There are two different markets, ergo two different products. Yes, these products have a lot of synergy, but that's just good business.
... only Apple can get away with selling a 'smartphone without a phone'.
If Apple didn't already have the iPod before they had the iPhone, your rant might actually sound clever. However, in light of actual history it just sounds like a lame rant.
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'There are two different markets, ergo two different products.'
More like overlapping (and rapidly converging) markets currently artificially divided by pricing of the hardware and/or phone contracts. How many people would really prefer to do without the ability to make calls or use the net outside wifi range on a phone-sized device, for reasons other than cost? If a basic unlocked, modestly priced iPhone were available in the US, just how popular would the Touch be? Why do you suppose there are so many Andr
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You're missing the point. First there was the mp3 player. Then the mp3 player got a few apps. Then there was a phone and a new version of the mp3 player that shared a lot of design elements and features because Apple isn't stupid.
You're making it sound like Apple took their iPhone and dumbed it down. I'm saying that's not what happened.
I know a lot of people that have iPods, but have no interest in an iPhone. People that want both an iPhone and an iPod appreciate the overlap. People that want an iPod a
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'You're making it sound like Apple took their iPhone and dumbed it down.'
Yes, I think that's exactly what happened. Take the SIM card out of an activated iPhone and which other Apple device does it most closely resemble? Answers on a postcard, etc.
'You call that a lack of innovation - I call it brilliant! And let me remind you, I don't even like iPhone, but I can appreciate the brilliance of the strategy.'
Apple (like many other companies) has been using this brilliant, fully synergized marketing strategy of
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Apple own the MP3 market? That's interesting news ; did it happen in the couple of weeks while I've been on holiday? Does that mean that if I considered replacing the 4-year-old MP3 player that I haven't quite worn the ink off from, then I've no option but to buy an Apple, or that I must at least consider an Apple MP3 player? Will i
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'In the UK you can buy products that don't exist? Like a 64 GB iPhone 4?..'
Oops! The correct comparison is of course between the £599 32Gb iPhone 4 and the £249 32Gb iPod Touch. Of course this just makes the iPhone look even more expensive relative to the Touch.
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...and within the iPhone 4 line, going from 16Gb to 32Gb will set you back £100 (I suspect the flagship iPhone has a higher markup than any of their other pocket devices). I guess it's all about charging what the market will bear.
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I can do better then that! (Score:2, Funny)
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Just so you know, My iPhone dual boots into Android as well. Current release only gives internet/voice/mms functionality (if your SIM is unlocked), but next release should have the Android app store.
http://www.iphodroid.com/ [iphodroid.com]
Why an iPhone (Score:2)
It would have been much better to turn the iPod into an Android phone.
Unless they now release a way to install Android in the resulting pseudo-iPhone.
They can call it iBerration.
iTypical?
iBnormality?
Damn! you're a tough public. Tip the waitress anyway and don't worry, I won't be here all week.
Innovation (Score:2)
Is this kind of innovation even possible in the lawsuit happy culture and the carrier-locked-phones environment of the US?
Maybe 7-8 years ago, there were already tack-on devices that turns Palm PDA (anybody remember those, actually it's a Sony Clie) into a phone, one that can use the address book of the PDA, and uses the PDA screen as UI. Why did nobody in the US made this for the iPod touch in all these years?
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Easy, the minute you bring this onto the market you have bazillion of laywers on your back who sue you into poverty. 90% probably coming from Apple 10% coming from patent troll companies who seek an easy cash in.
Face it innovation is crippled, a modern apple would not even stand a chance in the US if you look at apples phone breaking/ garage innovation / xerox copying history.
One of the main reasons why the western industry goes down the gutters currently, we are strangeling our still possible small garage
Yikes (Score:5, Informative)
TFA,
Who is GoSolarUSA?
http://www.gosolarusa.com/company.html [gosolarusa.com]
Apparently they don't do anything yet. Okay, let's check out CEO Tyson Rohde. Says he /was/ CEO of Biotricity before this gig.
http://www.biotricitypower.com/company.php?main_cnt=our_team [biotricitypower.com]
Huh, what a shock. Biotricity is /another/ company that doesn't seem to do anything. Including list the current CEO who replaced Tyson.
Okay, how about Brewer Captital Group? Ah, well their link redirects to a 404.
http://www.brewercapital.com/ [brewercapital.com]
Goldbridge Energy Partners then? I get "network problem" -- no site available.
http://goldbridgeenergypartners.com/ [goldbridge...rtners.com]
And none of those "companies" or Tyson Rhode have managed a mention in Wikipedia of course.
I thought it was a little unlikely to see a solar energy company going into dubious electronics, but this is looking like a less unlikely match with every link. Maybe this'll even get some steam and be good for a couple of weeks of /. stories. I kinda miss Darl.
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Dear Friends,
My name is Tyson Rohdes.
In September 1988 my car was reposessed and the bill collectors were hounding me like you wouldn't believe. I was laid off and my unemployment checks had run out. The only escape I had from t
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I'd say these articles at least demonstrate a history that indicates this product is in true development and why the company might have shifted direction so dramatically.
Apple Peel 520 Ready for Retailers [yahoo.com]
Massive iPod Touch Sales Figures Prompted Apple Peel Deal [yahoo.com] (It was actually Chinese firm Yosion that developed the device)
Huge iPad Sales Figures Prompted New Deal with PREE Corp. [yahoo.com] (It's not just the Touch market they're looking to capitalize on)
GoSolarUSA Appoints New President and CEO [yahoo.com] (All the iPod/iPa
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I'd argue the exact opposite. Every single one of those "supporting articles" was a press release issued by GoSolarUSA. You do understand what a press release is, right?
This will work great (Score:5, Insightful)
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This will work great... right up until apple releases a firmware upgrade that intentionally breaks it.
Of course, you can't interface with Apple's device unless Apple gets some money for it. Now that iphones are a dime a dozen and ipods and ipads are selling well ios will hopefully become the dominant mobile OS so we can have anti-trust suits that remove these ridiculous business practices from apple.
Cost (Score:2)
A new iPhone starts at $99, and a iPod touch starts at $229.
So why would you want to add iPhone capabilities to a iPod touch in the first place?
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Maybe because people want to outright purchase an iDevice, rather than chain themselves to a particular network? $99 to shackle yourself to AT&T, or $800 to have it free and clear.
I know if this works for T-Mobile, I'll be purchasing a 64GB iPod Touch in a heartbeat...
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Funny, I always said that is a case of them doing whatever the hell they please because they have no appreciation for the hard work of others.
Because, as we all know, Apple developed their products from scratch. They started with the fire, then the hardened wooden spear, etc. Up to the iPhone.
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The difference is that Apple has paid licensing fees. Random Chinese copycat production company? Not so much.
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The difference is that Apple has paid licensing fees.
I would need a citation for that. Who did Apple pay for the fire? plastics? electricity?
Never forget that you're talking about a non-natural law concept that shouldn't be treated as moral law.
If a different country doesn't share your mercantile laws, tough luck. You change that by military or economic threats, but you have no moral claim on those rulings.
I would have a different opinion were we talking about human rights, for example, in which you have both morale and law on your side.
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in which you have both morale and law on your side.
I understand your point and I generally agree with you. However your final line made me think about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [un.org]. You might be overly optimistic because many of points of that declaration are not taken fully into account by the laws or the common practices of even the major countries of the world.
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You're right. I thought about that but I lack a term for what I understand as "basic human rights".
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Tell that to Nokia who is currently in an infight with Apple because Apple violated their patents blatantly without paying them. Tell that to HTC which is older than Apple in the mobile phone arena which apple currently is suing for stuff they have copied themselves.
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Btw. do you remember digital research which was sued by Apple for implementing a deskop ui with moving windows (which Apple itself stole from Xerox)
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Licensed actually, but don't let the facts get in the way of your indignation.
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I can't figure out why you and the GP'insightful comments were modded "Troll" and "Flamebait". Neither one is inflamatory in the least, and both are perfectly true and informative. Maybe someone from the RIAA or MPAA has mod points today, who knows? I hope someone corrects the moderation.
As Sir Isaac Newton said (borrowing a phrase from someone a thousand years earlier), "If I see farther than other men, it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants." All science, technology, and art are based on what ha
Re:Oh, that's what they do? (Score:4, Insightful)
Wait, are you saying that tethering your iPod Touch (or any other TCP/IP client) to some sort of mobile network gateway is, "a case of [those pesky Chinese] doing whatever the hell they please because they have no appreciation for the hard work of [Apple]"?
The biggest differentiator between an iPhone and an iPod Touch is the 3G radio. Guess who didn't develop GSM tech, but doesn't adhere to the licensing terms offered by the developer? I guess it's a case of [Apple] doing whatever the hell they please because they have no appreciation for the hard work of [Nokia].
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The biggest differentiator between an iPhone and an iPod Touch is the 3G radio. Guess who didn't develop GSM tech, but doesn't adhere to the licensing terms offered by the developer? I guess it's a case of [Apple] doing whatever the hell they please because they have no appreciation for the hard work of [Nokia].
If we're talking about 3G..... Nokia? WTF? Nokia?!?
It's Qualcomm, not Nokia. When it comes to 3G, know who to appreciate, dammit. :)
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The biggest differentiator between an iPhone and an iPod Touch is the 3G radio. Guess who didn't develop GSM tech, but doesn't adhere to the licensing terms offered by the developer? I guess it's a case of [Apple] doing whatever the hell they please because they have no appreciation for the hard work of [Nokia].
If we're talking about 3G..... Nokia? WTF? Nokia?!?
It's Qualcomm, not Nokia. When it comes to 3G, know who to appreciate, dammit. :)
Maybe you need a history [umtsworld.com] lesson.
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Nice timeline.
So let's see...
In Sept 1998, Nokia makes the first call on a WCDMA trial network.
According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W-CDMA [wikipedia.org], WCDMA was developed by NTT DoCoMo using CDMA (the channel access method, not the mobile phone standard abbreviation).
According to http://books.google.com/books?id=p631MJdn4XAC&lpg=PA25&ots=X2rRYLiVWN&pg=PA25#v=onepage&q&f=false [google.com], usage of CDMA (the access method) for mobile communications was widely believed be impossible except by Qualcomm.
Accor
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Did I miss anything?
That CDMA and W-CDMA are not the same thing. No-one's disputing Qualcomm's patents are necessary for 3G GSM, however that doesn't mean Qualcomm created 3G GSM.
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That CDMA and W-CDMA are not the same thing.
That, I know. I do find it annoying that the industry uses the acronym "CDMA" for both the channel access method, and for shorthand for cdma2000/IS-95.
No-one's disputing Qualcomm's patents are necessary for 3G GSM, however that doesn't mean Qualcomm created 3G GSM.
And I don't dispute that either. But between Qualcomm, Nokia, and NTT DoCoMo, I'd say Nokia contributed the least of the three to making 3G GSM. (Unless there's some major thing I missed.)
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Yep, just keep moving those goal posts...
Honestly, taking account your nickname, I'm wondering if you're just purposely trolling. No one could really be this big of an idiot, can they?
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Were it not for Apple, whose products would the Chinese 'tweak'?
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Zune :-)
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Re:I hear lawyers licking their chops... (Score:4, Insightful)
I get the feeling that China values innovation far more than the USA does.
Re:I hear lawyers licking their chops... (Score:5, Insightful)
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China values imitation much more than the USA does.
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china values imitation much more than the USA does.
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To use a Fark meme (Score:3, Interesting)
LOL WUT?
Are you serious? Have you looked at the Chinese market? China does very little innovation. Their economy is nearly entirely based around either producing things to the specifications of other companies (some of their best known places like Foxconn do this) or to copying devices that other made. China is big on knockoffs. You innovate, they'll copy.
Even when they try and innovate, it is often rather shallow. For example China has been trying to enter the CPU market with the Loongson processors. So, s
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People said the same thing about Japan 30 or 40 years ago. Now look where they are.
...and? (Score:3, Insightful)
I never said China wouldn't change. My statement is on what the situation is, not what it will be. The original poster seems to have this idea, as do many online, that the US doesn't do anything. Nothing comes out of the US anymore except movies...
Well that is completely false and it takes not much research to discover the fact that the US does tons of R&D, tons of innovation (and for that matter is still the world leader in manufactured goods, though China will overtake them by 2020 or sooner). It also
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Yeah, look where they are. Stuck in a deflationary spiral, with high unemployment and a ticking demographic timebomb.
What's so funny about that is I can clearly remember when Japan was a "threat" and there was all kinds of hoopla about them buying US industries and real estate.
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People were talking about Japan in the same disparaging terms during the early seventies. Ten years later those same people were all "japanese work ethic" this and "kaizen" that and "we must be saved from cheap, excellent, innovative Jap cars" the other.
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Interestingly, much of the modern Japanese approach to design and manufacturing is based on quantitative quality management practices created by Americans like Ed Deming. U.S. companies were not interested because they were experiencing strong success based on the way they had always done things. Japan was recreating many of its industries from scratch, and knew good ideas when they say them. Decades later they bore fruit as the Japanese were able to produce higher quality products, faster, and cheaper than
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Here's an innovation.
I wonder if this link will work :
http://j.map.baidu.com/r-jM [baidu.com]
that's the world trade centres in Beijing.
If that doesn't work go to http://maps.baidu.com/ [baidu.com] search for beijing '', and the click the '3D' button ().
Amazing.
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That's nice, but I'm struggling to see how that is relevant to anything...
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Their government is probably just interested in having "good enough" electronics for a wide range of products. Even if they cannot replace imported components, they can still have their own home grown electronics used on strate
Right because the USA makes nothing (Score:5, Insightful)
Well except for CPUs. Every desktop CPU is designed in the US (both AMD and Intel are there) and a large number are made in US fabs. But that's it. Oh well and graphics cards, nVidia designs their cards in the US (AMD in Canada). And ICs like A/D converters (Texas Instruments designs in the US). And airplanes, one of the two remaining major airline designers/manufacturers is Boeing, who is in the US. And search engines, both Google and Bing are developed in the US...
Getting the point? The US actually innovates a hell of a lot. You find a great many new, high tech, things are developed in the US, even if they aren't built there.
This is NOT an example of Chinese innovation, it is an example of the opposite. Apple did the innovating, to the extent there was some. The developed the platform, the OS, the UI, all of that stuff. This just adds a cellphone radio to the iPod Touch. That isn't innovative, that is what an iPhone is. Not saying it may not be nice for people but innovative it is not. They just bought off the shelf GSM parts and wrote an app (probably using Apple's development tools) to modify another off the shelf device to act just like yet another off the shelf device. Neat? Perhaps (though if iPhones are too expensive just get something else, seriously there are plenty of other good, maybe even better, smartphones out there). Innovative? Not hardly.
Seriously, this hate on the US's industry shows nothing but your own ignorance of the actual markets. Do some research, if you actually care, and you'll discover that the US designs (and actually builds too) a whole lot of high tech, state of the art, shit. You'll discover China does not. Usually when they make somethign high tech, it was designed elsewhere and many of the parts are made elsewhere too.
Like say you buy a Denon receiver. Very high tech gadget with lots of nifty features. Unless you buy the high end ones, it is made in China (the high end ones are made in Japan). However all of them are designed in Japan, China only does the assembly per Denon's specs. Also the DSPs, the heart of their capabilities, are designed by Analog Devices (USA) and fabbed at either their US or Irish fab. Their converters are designed and made by AKM Semiconductor in Japan. Their room correction software is designed by Audyssey Labs in the USA. It's video processing system was designed by IDT (USA) and made by TSMC (Taiwan).
So while the label may say "Made in China," all that means is they assembled the parts. All the "innovation" went on in other countries.
Go research it, if you care, but please stop spouting off if you aren't willing to.
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This is an example of the kind of innovation that happens in the developing world, where ingenious, relatively low-tech, cheap solutions are found to problems that don't really exist in the developed world.
The Economist had an article on this in the last year or so (and a stupid name for it that was irritating but would at least have helped me google it up for you).
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So while the label may say "Made in China," all that means is they assembled the parts. All the "innovation" went on in other countries.
Indeed, when the Chinese started trading knockoff machine tools with the rest of the world they copied designs so faithfully that they copied every last flaw. It's great for parts interchange, though.
Denon (Score:2)
Like say you buy a Denon receiver. Very high tech gadget with lots of nifty features.
Is that the same Denon as the one that makes high-tech gadgets like $500 ethernet cables [slashdot.org]?
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"And airplanes, one of the two remaining major airline designers/manufacturers is Boeing, who is in the US."
And the other, Airbus, also has engineering offices in the US [google.com] (pretty much splang in the middle of the US).
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Well except for CPUs. Every desktop CPU is designed in the US (both AMD and Intel are there).
Their corporate headquarters are there, but if you've actually researched it a bit you'd see they have hardware engineers all over the world, not just in the US, particularly Intel has them in the UK, India and Israel among others.
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Yes, but the Pentium M is primarily a P6-core(Pentium Pro -designed in Santa Clara.... the city I'm sitting in at the moment) with some pieces pulled from Netburst (The Pentium 4). It's a CPU that has not any actual significant redesign (despite what marketing would have you believe) since 1995, despite it being a good chip. Yes, it took effort to finalize the Pentium M design, but just because a entirely different design center was working on it doesn't mean they actually designed the entire thing. Afteral
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And is that "Israel, CN" perchance?
The comparison was of innovation between USA and China. I don't think it implied that the USA invented everything.
-dZ.
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Sorry, I meant to reply to that comment.
-dZ.
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That's almost certainly what they'll do, and I'll tell you how they'll do it.
They'll point out that iPhone, iPod and Apple are all trademarks of Apple Computer. If the distributors wish to continue selling their product, they'll have to sell it with a description along the lines of:
"The new Peel device turns a well-known MP3 player into a telephone! But we can't tell you which MP3 player it is!".
Wasn't a well-known parallel importer from Hong Kong closed down with a similar suit?
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So what? These things can and will be sold across borders, regardless of whether there is a company on US soil that is legally able to put them on store shelves. A lawsuit would bring much-needed publicity, the closing of a front company with maybe two employees total and not much else.
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You'd better tell Lik Sang that. They thought they could do exactly that.
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Presumably they do apply in America, though?
Unless you're a Muslim
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Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic.
Grab a copy of Telexy Networks software for it, and you can now sync your phone via 802.11 or even via a VPN with your data plan.
Cheap as all crap too :)
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Well, its working on my 3G network here, /shrug
And I agree, don't put the music on your phone, leave that on your file server at home and just stream it via the VPN ;)
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Are there any "cheap" smartphones that do 3G?