Chinese search giant Baidu has fired one of its researchers, after the company found he had deliberately broken the rules of an artificial intelligence contest.The company was among the participants in a computing competition called the ImageNet Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge. However, last month the contest organizers found that Baidu had essentially cheated to improve its results.Baidu was notified, and the company launched an investigation. On Thursday, it finally spoke publicly on the matter in a blog post, and said the team leader involved had been terminated from his position.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft has taken its big data analysis to China, with computing models that can forecast the air quality across 41 cities in the country.Pollution continues to be a major problem in China, with hazardous air quality levels a common occurrence in cities including Beijing. To bring some clarity to the situation, Microsoft has come up with a mobile app that can predict the air quality two days in advance.The Your Weather app works by first taking official data from government air quality monitoring stations across a 300 kilometer distance, and then using weather data to predict the pollution levels. The weather data used includes forecasts, along with current information on humidity, temperature and wind direction in a selected city.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft has taken its big data analysis to China, with computing models that can forecast the air quality across 41 cities in the country.Pollution continues to be a major problem in China, with hazardous air quality levels a common occurrence in cities including Beijing. To bring some clarity to the situation, Microsoft has come up with a mobile app that can predict the air quality two days in advance.The Your Weather app works by first taking official data from government air quality monitoring stations across a 300 kilometer distance, and then using weather data to predict the pollution levels. The weather data used includes forecasts, along with current information on humidity, temperature and wind direction in a selected city.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
With the PC industry starting to adopt USB 3.1 technology, prices for cables that can connect to these products are also expected to rapidly fall, according to manufacturers.In March, Apple was among the first to come out with a laptop built with a single USB 3.1 port that used the Type-C connector.The USB 3.1 standard promises data transfer speeds of 10Gbps (gigabits per second), two times faster than USB 3.0. But given that the technology is still new, prices for USB 3.1 cables with Type-C connectors are hovering between US$24 and $29.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Can a Chinese PC vendor learn to be cool?On Thursday, Lenovo, a maker of business laptops, tried to answer that question. It brought out dance club music, a Chinese movie actress, and a retired NBA player at a company event that hailed Lenovo’s new logo.“Users need cooler, more innovative devices,” said its CEO Yang Yuanqing, while speaking at the Beijing event. “The devices need to be more capable, fashionable, and they need to have personality.”At a time when tech companies are all targeting young consumers, Lenovo is hoping it can hang around with the cool kids. The vendor is more focused on consumers than ever, in its bid to rise to the heights of Apple and Samsung, and lead in the tech market.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Following its IBM x86 server business acquisition, Lenovo plans on attacking the enterprise hardware arena with low-cost products to undercut the competition.“We can give a better cost solution to enterprise companies,” said Lenovo Executive Vice President Gerry Smith in a press briefing in Beijing Thursday.The Chinese vendor is preparing to offer a wide range of products, targeting markets including supercomputing and hyperscale servers for data centers. “We’re going to play in every segment,” Smith said.Lenovo last year bought IBM’s x86 server business as a way to drive company growth. The deal helped make the Chinese vendor the world’s fourth largest server vendor in this year’s first quarter, with a 7.5 percent share, according to research firm IDC. A year ago, Lenovo had only a 1.1 percent share.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Smartphones and smartwatches won’t just display content, but will also be able to beam it on to tabletops, walls and even to the eye, according to Lenovo.More remarkably, users will be able to interact with the projected images.On Thursday, Lenovo unveiled a concept smartphone called “Smart Cast” that’s fitted with a laser projector module on top of the device. The feature lets the handset display the phone’s content on a hard surface, like a table or wall.However, the phone isn’t just a mobile digital projector. It can also read the gestures of users interacting with the projected images. In a demo, the Chinese company showed off the concept device, by using it to project a virtual piano keyboard on a table. The user could then play a song on the keyboard.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Lenovo will be one of the first to offer a Windows 10 tablet, with a new ThinkPad device that’s slated to arrive in August.The next generation ThinkPad 10 will be loaded with Microsoft’s upcoming OS, and is aimed at business users. It will have a starting price at $499.The ThinkPad 10 is available with a choice of quad-core Intel Atom processors, the X5 Z8500 or the X7 Z8700, which are part of Intel’s “Cherry Trail” line of processors.Other options include either 2GB or 4GB of RAM, and 64GB or 128GB of internal storage. Apart from the faster processors and a new USB 3.0 port, the ThinkPad 10 is otherwise similar to the previous generation. It still contains a micro-SD card slot, and there is optional support for a fingerprint reader and smart card reader. The 10.1-inch screen has a resolution of 1920 pixels by 1200, and battery life is up to 10 hours.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Lenovo’s recent acquisitions have taken a bite out of the company’s earnings, with its net profit in the first quarter dropping 37 percent despite strong PC sales.The Chinese company paid US$2.9 billion for Motorola Mobility and $2.1 billion for IBM’s x86 server business. Prior to the acquisitions, Lenovo typically reported strong earnings on continued PC demand in its home market.The impact of the acquisitions was not unexpected. The Chinese PC maker has said its net profit will fall in the short-term, following the acquisitions last year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Lenovo’s recent acquisitions have taken a bite out of the company’s earnings, with its net profit in the first quarter dropping 37 percent despite strong PC sales.The Chinese company paid US$2.9 billion for Motorola Mobility and $2.1 billion for IBM’s x86 server business. Prior to the acquisitions, Lenovo typically reported strong earnings on continued PC demand in its home market.The impact of the acquisitions was not unexpected. The Chinese PC maker has said its net profit will fall in the short-term, following the acquisitions last year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
China's Huawei Technologies is targeting smart homes, cars, wearables and more with its own operating system, Liteos, intended for the international market.On Wednesday Huawei launched the OS to help third-party vendors break into the emerging Internet of Things space. The whole industry is eyeing opportunities to turn household objects and industrial equipment into connect devices, but the development costs still remain high, according to the Chinese company.INSIDER: 5 ways to prepare for Internet of Things security threats
Huawei, however, claims its new "lightweight" OS can streamline the whole process. The Liteos software can be as small as 10 kilobytes in size, and is designed to run on minimal power, making it suitable for a wide range of hardware, including microcontrollers and ARM Cortex embedded processors.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Alibaba Group has been hit with a lawsuit from luxury brands that alleges that the Chinese e-commerce giant has been deliberately promoting the sale of counterfeit products.The lawsuit, filed in a New York federal, comes from Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent and other brands owned by Kering. The brands claim that Alibaba has knowingly helped an “army of counterfeiters” to sell their products over its e-commerce sites.These counterfeiters include little-known Chinese vendors that are selling fake Gucci bags for cheap prices, and in wholesale quantities. Alibaba’s search algorithms direct customers to these counterfeits, even when it’s obvious that the products are fakes, the brands alleged in a filing.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
China’s government is pressing for faster Internet access speeds and lower prices, two moves that aim to boost the number of its citizens going online.On Friday, all three of China’s telecommunications operators announced plans to lower broadband and data plan costs for consumers. This came a month after China’s premier Li Keqiang said the country needed to do more to expand Internet access.China has the world’s largest Internet-connected citizenry at over 649 million users, but that’s still less than half of the country’s population. And average Internet speeds in China are 3.4 megabits per second(Mbps), far lower than the U.S. where average access speeds reach 11.1 Mbps, according to Akamai Technologies.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
After taking over the reins, Alibaba Group’s new CEO has made global expansion a top priority for the Chinese e-commerce giant.Alibaba will heavily invest in “new and existing overseas operations,” said Daniel Zhang in a speech on Wednesday to employees, an excerpt of which was posted on the group’s website.Zhang, 43, was the company’s chief operating officer until he replaced CEO Jonathan Lu last week, as the group said it was looking to tap new younger talent.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
After taking over the reins, Alibaba Group’s new CEO has made global expansion a top priority for the Chinese e-commerce giant.Alibaba will heavily invest in “new and existing overseas operations,” said Daniel Zhang in a speech on Wednesday to employees, an excerpt of which was posted on the group’s website.Zhang, 43, was the company’s chief operating officer until he replaced CEO Jonathan Lu last week, as the group said it was looking to tap new younger talent.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Not satisfied with offering eight-core chips, Taiwan’s MediaTek has unveiled a mobile processor with 10 cores.On Tuesday, the vendor announced its Helios X20, a “deca-core” chip that it claims can offer better power efficiency and improved performance over competing processors.The cores of the Helios X20 are in three clusters, essentially packing together a dual-core chip with a pair of quad-cores. The dual-core cluster, which uses two ARM Cortex-A72 2.5 GHz processors, is meant to handle the most intensive tasks. The pair of quad-core clusters are designed for medium and lower-scale computing.MediaTek claims this configuration can help save 30 percent on battery life over traditional chips, while keeping the phone’s software running smoothly.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Not satisfied with offering eight-core chips, Taiwan’s MediaTek has unveiled a mobile processor with 10 cores.On Tuesday, the vendor announced its Helios X20, a “deca-core” chip that it claims can offer better power efficiency and improved performance over competing processors.The cores of the Helios X20 are in three clusters, essentially packing together a dual-core chip with a pair of quad-cores. The dual-core cluster, which uses two ARM Cortex-A72 2.5 GHz processors, is meant to handle the most intensive tasks. The pair of quad-core clusters are designed for medium and lower-scale computing.MediaTek claims this configuration can help save 30 percent on battery life over traditional chips, while keeping the phone’s software running smoothly.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The world’s largest smartphone market, China, isn’t so hungry for the products anymore.First quarter smartphone shipments there dropped by 4 percent year over year, according to research firm IDC. It’s the first time in six years that China’s smartphone market has contracted, signifying that the country’s appetite for the handsets is reaching its limit.The number of shipments to China was still high, at 98.8 million units. IDC expects the market to remain flat for the rest of the year. To drive future growth vendors in the country will have to convince existing users to upgrade to newer phones, IDC said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple plans to make its supply chain in China greener as a way to cutdown on carbon emissions from its product manufacturing, the company announced on Monday.The U.S. tech giant has already been making its offices and data centers more environmentally friendly, but wants to extend those efforts to its suppliers in China, Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. Although the transition to more greener manufacturing will take years, Cook said it is important work that needs to be done.In China, Many Apple products, including the iPhone and iPad, are assembled in large factories run by Foxconn Technology Group and by other large contract manufacturers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This week when ZTE launched its latest phone, the Z9, the Chinese company wasn’t embarrassed to reveal its high price.The cutting-edge device will retail in the country starting at 3499 yuan (US$574), which is far more than the cost of low-end handsets that have flooded store shelves, and turned China into the world’s largest smartphone market.For years, Chinese handset vendors have been competing in the local market by offering cheap products that most people can afford. Prices have continually gone down, as rival companies have sought to undercut one another with Android phones at 599 yuan or even lower.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Michael Kan