The Fastest Train in the World [Trains]

The fastest commercial train in the world is now fully armed and operational.
Developed with Siemens, Bombardier and Alstom, the new train swooshes across the red land at 245mph (394km/h). The service covers 663 miles (1,068 kilometers) at an average of 217mph (350km/h), which means it's the fastest train in operation in the world according to China's railways ministry. It's part of the network of 42 high-speed lines that will be finished by 2012. If you have never tried these amazing trains in Europe or Japan, imagine going from New York to Chicago in just a bit over three hours, no absurd controls, no waits, no taxis needed.
The new Chinese high-speed lines will increase their total network from 53,437 miles to 74,564 miles. That's still smaller than the US railway system which, by contrast, only has one single 'high-speed' line, bridging the 456 miles that separate Boston with New York at a whooping 70mph average, totaling seven hours. Don't take that line, folks. It will liquify your brain.
[Gizmodo via Time of India]

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Motorola MT710 is a 3.7″ OPhone Beauty

Motorola’s commitment to Android is becoming clearer by the week. It seems like every time we turn around, they are up to something else involving green robots. What we like best is that their products aren’t just the same old, same old. Each has a distinctive look and feel to them. Take for instance the MOTO MT710. Based on the OPhone platform, it features a Droid-sized 3.7″ FWVGA screen at 480 x 854 resolution, 5-megapixel pic snapper, and more. The desktop screen has a unique cubicle-wall style to that lends to plenty of personalization.
Don’t expect to see this one stateside though. It’s designed for China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA network. Still, it’s nice to see to Motorola’s not pumping out clones of other handsets. The red vertical stripe that accents the left side is a nice touch. According to Engadget Mobile, the MT710 is expected in stores later this month.
MT710 Specs include:

• Marvell PXA310 Processor 624 MHz
• RAM 256 MB Flash ROM 256 MB
• 480 x 854 (FWVGA) Resistive Touch Screen Display
• 5-Megapixel Camera with Flash (dual LED)
• OPhone OS 1.5
• CMMB mobile TV Multimedia
• GSM 900/1800/1900 TD-SCDMA 2010/2025
• 3.5mm Headphone
• WiFi, Bluetooth,
• Ambient Light Sensor

Mobile Review has a higher resolution shot of the phone from the front and back. The red actually runs the entire back yet still manages to look ‘cool’.


[AndroidGuys via Mobile Review]

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HP Acquires 3Com For $2.7 Billion

HP is acquiring network infrastructure manufacturer 3Com for $2.7 billion. 3Com provides networking, switching, routing and security components.

HP says the acquisition will further its data center strategy “built on the convergence of servers, storage, networking, management, facilities and services.” The acquisition of 3Com also help to expand HP’s Ethernet switching offerings, add routing solutions and significantly strengthen the company’s position in China thanks to 3Com’s strong presence in China.

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Now in Production: The First Google Android Car [CarDroid]

The first car equipped with Google’s Android mobile operating system will hit the streets this April 23. It’s called the Roewe 350, and it will launch at the Beijing Auto Show.
Roewe vehicles are luxury cars made by Chinese car company SAIC (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation) using technology purchased from British company MG Rover, which has been owned by both BMW and Ford in the past.
The 2.1 version of Google Android — the same that Google used in the Nexus One and Motorola Droid — is installed on the vehicle’s GPS computer. You can use the computer for directions and traffic reports just as you can with many other GPS devices. But it’s not all vanilla; you can also surf the web and engage in some form of Internet chatting. There’s no telling yet which chat service you’ll be using, but hopefully you won’t be doing it while you’re driving!
We haven’t heard whether or not you’ll be able to install apps from the Android Market yet. We also don’t know how the device connects to the Internet. The car will cost between 70,000 and 130,000 yuan, or about $10,250 – $19,000.






[Mashable via The Next Web]
[img credit: autohome.com.cn]

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Huawei Unveils 4 Android Handsets and an Internet Device

Chinese handset maker Huawei is in Barcelona and it's not to see what the competition is up to. They've just pulled the curtain back on 4 brand new Android handsets, the U8300, U8100, U8110, and the U8800. In addition to that, they've also announced a SmaKit S7. Let's take a quick look at each of them, shall we?

U8300

The U8300 is targeted at the youth market, integrates social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter, features a QWERTY keypad, and is designed to allow for chatting and texting in comfort. Look for the u8300 in three 'bright' colors - green, yellow and purple.

u8100

Up next, the U8100 and U8110, are the same phone on the inside. The outside however might appeal to different segments (read boys versus girls). These are considered entry-level handsets although we don't have a complete list of specs. What we do know is that they both have 2.8-inch QVGA touchscreens, a 0.3 mega pixel camera in the front and a 3.2 mega pixel camera in the rear. Both of these models are expected in Europe at some point in Q2 of this year.

u8110

The high-end handset,the U8800 runs Android 2.1, offers support for HSPA+ (14 Mb/s download), a 3.8-inch screen and more. With the right network and ideal situations, this phone can download a 400Mb feature-length movie file in under a half minute. As far as carriers, price, or availability go, we're still waiting to hear more.

u8800

Huawei is also introducing their first Android-based Internet Device, the SmaKit S7. Featuring a 7-inch wide screen (800x480 resolution), it's designed to support 'information-sharing across screens to present the same content simultaneously on computers, mobile phones and TV screens'. A screen this size makes it easy to read emails, tweet, and stay connected to friends and family. The SmaKit S7 can also be connected to home gateway, TV, and of course, Android handset.



Be sure to check back with us as we fill in the blanks with the hardware specs and various Android builds for each phone!

[AndroidGuys]

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China Using Freebie Flash Drives to Spy on Britain [Espionage]

UK security agency MI5 has issued a warning regarding freebie flash drives and cameras. Apparently Chinese spies are handing them out to UK businessmen in hopes of infecting their computers with trojans and gaining access to corporate secrets.

Of course old-fashioned methods—sex and money—are still being used as well, but it seems that few people expect an innocent gadget gift to contain danger in the form of a trojan or malware. After all, why else would a security agency's 14-page report be focusing on this espionage approach more than it did on other tricks?

I guess it's time for me to become a bit more paranoid about the pile of flash drives I picked up at CES.
[Gizmodo via Times Online via IEEE]

Note: Pictured flash drive is not a known spy and belongs to Gadget_Guru

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China's Loongson Processor Could Power First Natural-Born Chinese Supercomputer [PopSci]

The People's Republic has unveiled more details on its quest to phase U.S.-made processors from its microchip diet. China's next supercomputer will run purely on Chinese processors, possibly before the end of this year.
China has been developing its own CPUs at the state-run Institute of Computing Technology (ICT) for several years, but iterations of its chip – known as Loongson or 'Dragon Core' – have been incapable of breaking into the elite ranks of supercomputing. China's last supercomputer, the Dawning 5000a, was intended to run on Loongson processors, but was eventually constructed around AMD processors when the ICT couldn't deliver a powerful enough chip quickly enough.

The Loongson 3, under development since 2001, should change all this if the ICT can deliver on its promise. Based on the MIPS architecture, the chips theoretically can be strung in 16-core clusters to perform at extremely high speeds, possibly hitting the petaflop performance mark with just 782 16-core chips. That's one quadrillion operations per second, for those of you keeping score.

Right now, of course, this is all on paper (well, a quad-core chip is in prototype, but the proposed 16-core bad boy is still under development). But authorities in the supercomputing field seem to agree that the chips, running in clusters, can hit the performance marks necessary to create a top-tier supercomputer. This isn't the first time the Chinese have promised a home-grown high-performance supercomputer, but for the first time it looks like they are going to deliver.

[Gizmodo via Technology Review]

Popular Science is your wormhole to the future. Reporting on what's new and what's next in science and technology, we deliver the future now.

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