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China Launches Linux-Based Smartphone

An anonymous reader writes "This news item at LinuxDevices provides photos and specs of a new Linux-based smartphone being launched today in China. The device, called the E2800, sells for about $600, and targets business users, offering PDA functions, touch-screen, handwriting recognition, a camera, and memory expansion to 512MB through an SD memory card, the article says. The device's manufacturer is a Shanghai company named E28. The E2800 is a 900/1800MHz, GSM/GPRS class 10 device based on dual ARM9 processors, running embedded Linux with a 2.4-series kernel. Other recent Linux-based mobile phone announcements have been Japan's NTT DoCoMo's 3G phones and Motorola's A760."

235 comments

  1. Open Source.. ? by junkymailbox · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Do they make the source code available?

    1. Re:Open Source.. ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What if they don't? And more importantly, who's gonna make them?
      Remember kids, China has nukes. You don't fuck around with someone who has nukes.

    2. Re:Open Source.. ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, try telling that to Osama bin Laden or Saddam Huss-- oh... never mind.

    3. Re:Open Source.. ? by femto · · Score: 2, Informative
      I couldn't find any mention of source code on their website. I notice the Chinese version of their news page is more comprehensive than the English version. Perhaps source is on the Chinese code version of the site or on an FTP site somewhere?

      Does anyone know if the the phone comes with a written offer of source for the GPL'd bits, or a CD?

    4. Re:Open Source.. ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If they want to sell the phone in countries with an independent legal system, and not be forced to pay damages for copyright violations, they will have to comply.

    5. Re:Open Source.. ? by femto · · Score: 2, Informative
      Further investigations...

      They have a download page. It seems to contain ringtones, pictures and some games. There is also a FAQ. Can anyone read Chinese?

    6. Re:Open Source.. ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      One billion people can.

      It'd be a fucking useless language if nobody could read the shit... Like you kind of useless.

    7. Re:Open Source.. ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm sure a billion people appreciate having their language called 'shit'.

    8. Re:Open Source.. ? by Richard+M.+Nixon · · Score: 0

      What if they don't? And more importantly, who's gonna make them?

      The Chinese government has done far worse than copyright infringment, and yet they still have most favored nation status.
      They can pretty much get away with anything they want short of an act of war.

      --
      Nobody died when Nixon lied.
      I'm meeting you half way you stupid hippies!
    9. Re:Open Source.. ? by toast0 · · Score: 1

      They can pretty much get away with anything they want short of an act of war.

      I think they can get away with that too. (See, for instance, Tibet)

    10. Re:Open Source.. ? by fuzzbrain · · Score: 1

      My Chinese is very rusty but I had a look at that page & I'm pretty sure that there's nothing in there about GPL or code licensing. The faqs are just things like 'How do I dial a number?', "How do I sync with Outlook, etc', 'How do I listen to music on the phone?', etc

    11. Re:Open Source.. ? by femto · · Score: 1

      Thanks!

    12. Re:Open Source.. ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I looked through the Chinese section and found no mentioning of source code, it's all marketing crap there. As a matter of fact, the word "linux" is never mentioned on www.e28.com, while it appered only once on www.e2800.com.cn, in the "specs" page. I'm afraid they never worried about distributing the source code at all.

    13. Re:Open Source.. ? by Anguo · · Score: 1
      I had a look at the page. I don't read simplified chinese well, but when one knows traditionnal chinese, it's not that difficult. The problem is that Konqueror renders the page using a Unicode font that is not complete (never had the need to correct this: I actually never noticed that the font was not complete for simplified chinese). So it's difficult for me to read when many of the key words in the sentences are rendered as little squares (character mising).

      Anyhow, the download page requires to be logged in and, apparently only the owner of one of their mobile phone can register (i am not sure, I haven't tried).

      The support page is a list of howtos: howto download mp3, how to configure this and that. I didn't see anything about source code.

      --
      http://www.masquilier.org/republic/election/ Condorcet, Plurality voting and alternative voting enabled bulletin board.
    14. Re:Open Source.. ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All these ignorant comments on Tibet makes me laugh. Is Free Tibet part of your package that you use to define who you are and feel good about yourself? If so, please actually read some history or better, travel to Tibet to discover the truth. Britain was the one who invaded Tibet as well as rest of China during the turn of the century. If you are talking about Communist take over, will, the communist took over every part of China, what makes Tibet different? It has been part of China longer than there has be a USA.

  2. I've tried it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    But the person on the other end always sounds like they're speaking Chinese.

    1. Re:I've tried it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      +1 Racist

    2. Re:I've tried it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Uh, Chinese people speak Chinese. How is it racist?

    3. Re:I've tried it by Canadian_Daemon · · Score: 1

      +1 funny, learn something called humour

      --
      This sig is definitive. Reality is frequently inaccurate.
    4. Re:I've tried it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then don't mind me calling you a canuck.

    5. Re:I've tried it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not one Chinese person I've met minds being called Chinese. Next?

    6. Re:I've tried it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's a huge difference between saying 'they are speaking Chinese' and 'they sound LIKE they are speaking Chinese'. Learn that.

    7. Re:I've tried it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The JOKE was that the other people are CHINESE and thus sound like THEY'RE SPEAKING CHINESE because it's a phone from CHINA.

  3. holy..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    fisher price looking palm M100 piece of chinese ish!

    just my thoughts....

    1. Re:holy..... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You know that phone pimps harder than anything you got.

  4. Dual Processor! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    lol

    Dual processor in a phone now! What next?

    1. Re:Dual Processor! by anubi · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Actually, I am quite impressed. Dual processor. Linux 2.4 kernel. In a phone.

      They have very substantial requirements.

      Its gotta fit in the palm of your hand, not a laptop.

      Its gotta work real time - when it rings and you answer it, you don't wait for processes to load or having it boot.

      The thing's gotta run all day at least of nonstop run on a set of batteries!

      I don't know just how they pulled this off... as I have always custom programmed my realtime embedded stuff - usually in 68000 assembler. Sometimes Atmel AVR, but damn near always in assembler. Using custom design, I can design for very low power consumption, but doing so really makes way for a lot of upfront investment in design time.

      Running a 2.4 kernel. In your hand. All day. On internal batteries.... I am definitely impressed.

      --
      "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]

    2. Re:Dual Processor! by Burnon · · Score: 4, Informative

      I work on this sort of thing for a different company, so I can say a little bit about what's likely going on under the hood. This sort of architecture sounds pretty standard for a modern smartphone, whether it's running Linux, WinCE, or Symbian. There are tons of these gadgets on the market already, with more on the way. They could be doing something atypical, but the specs make it sound fairly pedestrian (other than the use of Linux, still rare) - hence, I'd assume they went for the cheap (standard) path. (And yes, $600 sounds, if not cheap, at least normal for this sort of thing. Your typical wireless network operator selling a phone at a lower price is subsidizing the heck out of it, and you're paying it back with a multi-year service contract. High end phones can cost this much, easy).

      The typical pattern is just like this one: one ARM to control the wireless modem/dsp functions, running an RTOS, and another ARM to run the applications on an OS like Linux. So the dual processor aspect is pretty normal - probably nothing special about this phone. If it follows the pattern, odds are that the processors aren't SMP - they run separate OSes to keep the real-time function separate from the smartphone function under Linux.

      All these smartphone designs draw on the heritage of "dumb" phones made over the last decade or so. A "dumb" phone would only have one ARM processor, and run the cheesy sort of text oriented UI that's been typical till recently. This is pretty much just an evolution of an old, proven design. Slap another ARM on it, running at hundreds of MHz, fabricated with a top end process to keep the current draw down, and there you go. The parts that go into this thing are made in huge volume, keeping costs down. Basically, we're talking about processes as high tech as the ones in top-end desktops, but designed for reducing current draw, not increasing MHz.

      As far as battery life goes, the name of the game is to turn the processors and the radio off as much as is possible. The modem processors and radio are rarely turned on - they wake up periodically, sometime for a duty cycle measured in tens of milliseconds every few seconds to check to see if anyone's calling. If not, everything gets shut down for another sleep period. They only stay on when in a call, and when that's the case, the current draw due to turning the transmitter on is going to dwarf the draw of the processors and receiver themselves.

      You can say similar things about the second ARM that's running Linux. There's a whole lot of time between a user pressing keys or the touchscreen. Typical PDA functions shut the processor down in between bursts of CPU activity. Start playing a MPEG4 clip, and you'll see the battery drain that much faster, though. If the user isn't doing anything, the normal case, the thing goes to sleep practically forever.

    3. Re:Dual Processor! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You were just waiting to tout your skill in real-time embedded equipment, weren't you.

      ; ) Just joking.

      Normally I would think Linux embedded in a cell phone is overkill, but whatever. I can't deny the coolness of this.

    4. Re:Dual Processor! by Oper+Sorcerer · · Score: 1

      Imagine a beuwolf cluster of ... oh ... it's a phone? -- never mind.

      --

      karma: Marianas Trench (mostly blub blub)
    5. Re:Dual Processor! by raffe · · Score: 1

      Thanks for that! I learned something to day!
      Great info!

    6. Re:Dual Processor! by anubi · · Score: 1
      Dear AC, you noted:
      "You were just waiting to tout your skill in real-time embedded equipment, weren't you."
      Uh, actually you are right. I do want to spread the word around on what I do. Maybe someone out there has something interesting for me to work on. Who knows what might turn up... there's a few things out there I would love to play around with, and maybe get what I need to pay the power bill at the same time. :)

      --
      "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]

    7. Re:Dual Processor! by anubi · · Score: 1
      It still amazes me just how much "bang for the buck" we get from processors these days. I guess maybe I still think of the old RCA 1802 as being about the ultimate in low-power operation ( despite the fact it was really, really slow and a real bitch to program. )

      I get rather aggravated when I see a lot of this new stuff coming out that appears to be running on the very edge of meltdown. Fans have always been my nemesis. Moving parts. Big. Failure prone. Noisy. Vibration.

      I have always liked to build my stuff where I can seal it up and get it out of harm's way ( and bugs, dust, spilled coffee, and whatever else goes around.) I agree with the guys who speak with disgust about trying to build a DVR, but have to tolerate noisy fans.

      Another thing that I find disappointing is bootup time. Having to do the same thing over and over every time I start my machine. I could only imagine having to boot the processor when the phone rang, and having some poor soul on the other end wait through the typical boot process.

      Knowing my experience so far with every new software OS release taking longer and longer to boot, requiring faster and faster machines, it seemed to make just about as much sense to me to specify an embedded OS as it did to send a letter to my Congressman to have the federal government come and remove a weed I found growing in the street. Seemed a lot easier to me to walk over and address the problem directly without involving anything else.

      But if they get these cores down pat, with all the intelligence of an OS without needing that lengthy bootup process... wow! Linux sure seems a natural for that, as hopefully the core will already be object-oriented aware, have GUI objects already in its repetoire, just awaiting configuration as to what to do with them.

      Sounds like comparing the new cores to the old is kinda like comparing a new AVR chip to my old IMSAI 8080 machine.

      I liked your post... I betcha you had a lot of fun working with those cores. I can only imagine what those guys are doing with those cores on video boards - where they can do all the 3D matrix math right on the board. Or Hauppauge - where they are doing that PVR250 stuff putting the MPEG encoder in one from what I can tell.

      --
      "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]

    8. Re:Dual Processor! by JasonAsbahr · · Score: 1

      Any thoughts on the best low-cost ($50) embedded Linux platform out there?

    9. Re:Dual Processor! by Burnon · · Score: 1

      None whatsoever!

  5. HA! by Hangtime · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Retail for $600 in China!! From the country that can't afford to purchase software and piracy so rampant you can buy any piece of software on the streets for $5. Yes, I'm sure this will do quite well.

    1. Re:HA! by melgeroth · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Dont be too hasty to judge. China includes places such as Hong Kong, a place I lived for several years. I can personally vouch that they usually have new technologies two or three _years_ before America. America has only recently gotten into the cellphone fad, yet almost everyone had a cell phone in china a couple years ago. When you speak of China, you must remember the large land mass it controls: Shanghai and Beijing and Hong Kong are still huge consumer-ridden industrialized areas.

    2. Re:HA! by penguinoid · · Score: 1

      That's because this phone is targetted at rich businessmen, not the poor masses. They have the money to buy one of these.

      Personally, though, I would preffer a good laptop with a microphone...
      (No, I'm not some rich businessman)

      --
      Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
    3. Re:HA! by The+Cydonian · · Score: 1

      The point is still valid. How long will it be before we see this on Mong Kok's night market?

    4. Re:HA! by melgeroth · · Score: 1

      Any target area in the modern economy will have obvious rip-offs and clones. You can get Casio watches a dime a dozen of street vendors in New York. My point was merely that the sheer surplus of people who will buy from places like the Wan Chai Computer Centre presents a large target consumer-base, just as there is in many other countries. Hong Kong has alot of piracy running rampant, but do not discount the potential market held in southeast asia, as it is not an area completely full of poor pirates and triads like some reports would suggest.

    5. Re:HA! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only recently gotten into the cellphone fad. Is recently, 20 years. You sound like one of those idiot eurotrash

    6. Re:HA! by The+Cydonian · · Score: 1
      southeast asia ... is not an area completely full of poor pirates and triads like some reports would suggest.
      No, of course not, didn't say that. I should know; I live there. :-)
    7. Re:HA! by melgeroth · · Score: 1

      Nay you did not, but the original poster implied it, to whom my response was directed :).

    8. Re:HA! by mattjb0010 · · Score: 1

      The point is still valid. How long will it be before we see this on Mong Kok's night market?

      Once they finish downloading from an American on cable internet running a P2P/IRC/Usenet client/server ;)

    9. Re:HA! by _Qiang_ · · Score: 0
      in china, M$ stuff are pirated the most and everyone can easily get a CD that is combo of windows OS. i don't see this changing for person users in china now.

      speaking of this $600 phone/PDA, almost all of my friends in china have a cellphone. the brand varies from chinese brand and foreign brand. the expensive ones are around $400(3000Yuan). i regret that i didn't buy one when i was there in this summer ;/

      oh, here is the product page from company website. although it's in chinese, you can play those flash to get a quick look at it.
      http://www.e2800.com.cn/products/product.html

    10. Re:HA! by phoxix · · Score: 1

      I can personally vouch that they usually have new technologies two or three _years_ before America.

      I'll tell you why that is so ...

      First, compare the size of Hong Kong (Tiwan, Japan, South Korea, etc) to the size of the United States. Obviously it is going to be easier to deploy technologies in smaller countries.

      Lastly, (to counter your China size claim). The USA has had a very large land line telecom system for quite sometime. Therefore there isn't such a huge need to jump to mobile phones left and right. (I just visited India, and depending on where you live, it might just be easier to get a mobile phone over a landline phone due to cost of installation and such. I'm 100% sure this applies to China, and many other second/third world countries.)

      I'm tired of people saying "XYZ country has had that for years! United States sucks!". 99% of the time they are comparing apples to oranges and they don't have their facts right.

      Sunny Dubey

    11. Re:HA! by phoxix · · Score: 1

      I'm tired of people saying "XYZ country has had that for years! United States sucks!". 99% of the time they are comparing apples to oranges and they don't have their facts right.

      I'd just like to add:

      Especially when the United States invented the bloody cell phone.

      Sunny Dubey

    12. Re:HA! by tkw954 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      While the average mainland Chinese is very poor, I think you're missing the fact that there are a lot of "nouveau riche" in China who want to buy the most expensive phone out there in order to impress their friends. Whenever you buy something in China, one of the first questions is, "How much did it cost?" and more expensive is better.

    13. Re:HA! by taweili · · Score: 1

      The country has 250 millions mobile phone users and the average price for cell phone is about US$250. 250 millions is about the population of the US.

      $600 price tag may "only" give them about a potential market size of said top 20 millions. With just 100,000 handset in sales, it's US$60 millions.

      Do your math!

    14. Re:HA! by telecomtom · · Score: 1
      Have you read Stephen Coonts's book "Hong Kong"? I wonder, if Hong Kong is really like that, i mean, if the city is like the book? i really liked it, the book that is.

      maybe Someday I'll go there, to Hong Kong, the city.

      --

      -- tt

    15. Re:HA! by Natalie's+Hot+Grits · · Score: 1

      "I'm 100% sure this applies to China, and many other second/third world countries"

      China isn't 2nd or 3rd world. Visit any of their large cities or their farmers, and you will understand.

      --
      Two infinite things: your stupidity and mine. But I'm not sure about the latter. If my sig offends you, I'm sorry.
  6. In SOVIET CHINA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Phone Taps You!

    1. Re:In SOVIET CHINA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hahaha. In Soviet Russia, the troll feeds you!

  7. Be silent, fascist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Do not speak of things you do not understand and which are beyond your level of comprehension. The world is not black and white, or simple as you would like to dream.

  8. Wow by zeroprime · · Score: 1

    This reminds me about the article on uber-gadgets.
    If only this were available stateside
    -drool-

    --
    Hey! come on! try dividing it by anything!
  9. The new smart phone by cluge · · Score: 3, Funny

    Some technology in the phone that isn't talked about

    It will automatically phone police when if you text "Falun Gong". Also the words democracy, voting and human rights will also cause the phone to dial the appropriate authorities to protect the poor citizen from potential harm. It also helps identify and track citizens that need to be re-educated.

    Isn't technology great? **remove tongue from cheek**

    AngryPeopleRule

    --
    "Science is about ego as much as it is about discovery and truth " - I said it, so sue me.
    1. Re:The new smart phone by Hillman · · Score: 5, Funny
      I hear US version will automatically phone police when you text "Terrorist", "Civil desobiediance", "recount", "death penality", "fair trial for poor black people in the south".

      Isn't technology great?

    2. Re:The new smart phone by mgs1000 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Do you mean it wil phone the spelling police?

    3. Re:The new smart phone by Hillman · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yep, my english(not my native language, I think you saw that) spelling sucks but it's getting always better. How's your french and spanish coming along?

    4. Re:The new smart phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For you it probably wil

    5. Re:The new smart phone by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 1



      Some technology in the phone that isn't talked about

      It will automatically phone police when if you text "Falun Gong". Also the words democracy, voting and human rights will also cause the phone to dial the appropriate authorities to protect the poor citizen from potential harm. It also helps identify and track citizens that need to be re-educated.



      Nah, the Chinese cops doesn't have to come. Instead, what the user needs is the fire brigade.

      Once "Falun Gong" and "Protest" are typed in, the new smartphone will incinerate the user, just like what the Falun Gong followers did to themselves.

      Isn't technology wonderful ?

      --
      Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
    6. Re:The new smart phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck you Hillman. Your lame comment doesn't even make sense. Eat shit and die asshole.

    7. Re:The new smart phone by radja · · Score: 1

      not for the american version. the spelling police wouldn't be able to cope with the load.

      --

      No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness.
      --Sheikh Abd-Al-Kadir, 1587
    8. Re:The new smart phone by spectrokid · · Score: 1

      But you can't use it in Guantanamo. That is a non-existing area ripped out of the time-space fabric. No laws, no cellphones....

      --

      10 ?"Hello World" life was simple then

    9. Re:The new smart phone by deconvolution · · Score: 1

      ... and text of "IDE Master/Salve Drive" should be banned automatically when moving to LA.

    10. Re:The new smart phone by cluge · · Score: 2, Funny

      Actually it only phones the police if you spell the word christmas within 500 feet of a public school.

      --
      "Science is about ego as much as it is about discovery and truth " - I said it, so sue me.
    11. Re:The new smart phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hear US version will automatically phone police when you text "Terrorist", "Civil desobiediance", "recount", "death penality", "fair trial for poor black people in the south".

      Don't forget, you can't text in the word "China" and the reverse is true while in China. Also, if you key in Democracy, it automatically forwards you to Disney.com.

    12. Re:The new smart phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry, baby, but original poster WAS NOT JOKING.

      If OP was joking, it's one of those black humor It's-real-but-so-horrible-I-can't-do-anything-but- laugh things.

  10. The link to the product homepage... by AtomicBomb · · Score: 4, Informative

    Link to E2800

  11. SMP cell phone? by MadDog+Bob-2 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I can see the ad campaign now...

    Like that stupid Cheerios ad except instead of some middle-aged sad sack saying "I lowered my cholesterol," it would be a bunch of hopeless geeks running around muttering "cat /proc/cpuinfo".

    I know I would :)

  12. Re:/. loves China by Psx29 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    China still has some problems, but it seems they are on the path of improvement. Compare that to the US where I constantly feel we are on a declining path to destruction...

  13. u smokin crack? by aosgood · · Score: 2, Funny

    Sorry guys, but does anyone realize that the far world is leveraging west influences to bring prosperity to their country? Its not about freedom but economics. Support your local coffee shop

  14. Awesome! by iamdrscience · · Score: 2, Funny

    Now Chinese business men will be able to peruse the 5 websites their government allows them to view -- on the move! Plus they'll be able to speak with their business partners and family about ideas that are inoffensive to the government!

    1. Re:Awesome! by atommoore · · Score: 1

      Yeah, and just imagine how tough the Chinese business men will have it when they leave the US and go back home!

      --
      You are not your blog
    2. Re:Awesome! by Richard+M.+Nixon · · Score: 0

      Yeah, and just imagine how tough the Chinese business men will have it when they leave the US and go back home!

      How big are the hard dives on these phones?
      And can you do a wget websuck?

      --
      Nobody died when Nixon lied.
      I'm meeting you half way you stupid hippies!
    3. Re:Awesome! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm sure you would be able to answer that, being an expert at diving n all.

    4. Re:Awesome! by jandersen · · Score: 1

      "Now Chinese business men will be able to peruse the 5 websites their government allows them to view..."

      Yes, I really feel for the poor Chinese who can't access the mindless PR0N sites and what other sediments the great minds of the 'fwee world' have deposited at the bottom of the Information Sewer (TM).

  15. Re:/. loves China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What about the U.S.es involvement in the branch Davidians? I think it is similar to China's dealings with Falun Gong. Not that I particularly sympathize with the Davidians (I mean, if you lived a couple of minutes drive away from them, you'd be glad those dangerous people are gone). Likewise, the Falun Gong aren't as innocent as western media likes to play it. Just because they try to circumvent the Chinese government's great firewall doesn't automatically make them flawless heros. For all of it's flaws, there isn't a single person starving in China.

  16. Re:/. loves China by cgranade · · Score: 1

    Hm... I don't see that /. loves China... all I see is that you don't seem to understand the difference between talking about the exports of a country, talking about the population of a country, and talking about the gov't of a country. This is like saying that no one should love America because we make SUVs, and have Bush for a dictator.

    --

    #define DRM chmod 000

  17. News for Nerds? Yes. by CSharpMinor · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Stuff that Matters? No.

    As cool as it is, these stories lost relevance when IBM put Linux on a wristwatch.

    --

    Whatever it is I'm complaining about, I'm sure the Republicans did it. This is /., after all.
    1. Re:News for Nerds? Yes. by ultrabot · · Score: 2, Insightful

      As cool as it is, these stories lost relevance when IBM put Linux on a wristwatch.

      I guess you don't realize the complexity difference b/w a wristwatch and a Smartphone. Or the economic value. Linux in a wristwatch is a fun hack - Linux on a smartphone is a potentially disruptive technology.

      --
      Save your wrists today - switch to Dvorak
    2. Re:News for Nerds? Yes. by EvilTwinSkippy · · Score: 1
      Potentially you say...

      I for one would like to see how they tweak the kernel to handle real-time tasks. If you can make it work for a smartphone it could work in a hell of a lot of real-time control systems.

      (Dark clouds form.) Of course there are plenty of military applications for a realtime kernel too.

      --
      "Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
      --Dr.W.Edwards Deming
    3. Re:News for Nerds? Yes. by ultrabot · · Score: 1

      I for one would like to see how they tweak the kernel to handle real-time tasks.

      In smartphones, the real time part is typically running another OS, while the "smart" OS communicates w/ the other OS and delivers "value added functionality".

      --
      Save your wrists today - switch to Dvorak
  18. Re:/. loves China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I didn't know the Chinese Gov't posted on Slashdot.

  19. Re:The future by tomstdenis · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How the fuck was that insightful?

    Ok mods how about this.

    I imagine in the future we will be using...um...future things that are more futuristic than now. I forsee people using things that are futuristic. !!! I can tell the future I can.

    First off, even if you put an Athlon 3200+ in a phone it's still a phone. You can't type at it and unless it has 99% voice recognition [for entering text] it's useless. Well actually more than that. Have you ever tried to read C source out loud?

    I actually forsee a small market for these devices. I mean sure PDAs are trendy but they're not as popular as laptops or desktops. At my college way more people have laptops because while they're a bit bulkier they do have keyboards, guts and large monitors [my 14.1" laptop monitor is HUGE compared to a 2.9" or whatever the avg. PDA has] that make using the computer less than painful.

    What will catch on are lighter laptops. If Compaq made my laptop in a "less than 7lbs" model I would be very very happy. However, I'm willing to carry it around [well it's not that heavy anyways] considering I get a nearly 100% sized keyboard, 14.1" screen, 768MB of ram, 60GB of disk, an Athlon-M 2400+ [barton!], 2USB, 1394, Ethernet, serial, parallel, PS/2, svideo, VGA ports, a floppy drive and a DVD-CDRW drive....

    That's a bit more than in the avg 600$ PocketPC device... ;-)

    Tom

    --
    Someday, I'll have a real sig.
  20. Re:/. loves China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...Mudslums
    ... we are more tolerant...

    Indeed

  21. Re:/. loves China by JanneM · · Score: 2, Insightful

    So what do you suggest - not carry any technology news that concerns China? Mentioning their abysmal human rights record every time they are mentioned?

    In all fairness we should be doing the same for everyone else as well: mention the thousands of suspected Al Qaeda people imprisoned in the US without a trial or defense attorneys whenever there is a story on Intel or Microsoft; mention the lurking racism and attacks on immigrants throughout much of europe whenever Nokia or an european Linux distro is mentioned; bring up Japans xenophobia and unresolved wartime issues whenever /. mentions Sony? Oh, and for all of the above we can certainly bring up the dismal record on fair trade with the third world.

    As for Steve Jobs enriching himself - well, he is welcome to it. That is what the relevant licenses allow, after all. If you have code that "Steve Jobs used to enrich himself" and you are not happy about it, then you should perhaps have released it under a different license?

    --
    Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
  22. Re:/. loves China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    mudslum apologist, get the fuck out of my country.

  23. Re:/. loves China by Hillman · · Score: 1

    What about those native americans? Or the intolerance we hear on hispanic americans? See I can generalize too.

  24. China signed the Berne convention. by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 4, Informative

    Do they make the source code available?

    What if they don't? And more importantly, who's gonna make them?


    They're their own country. They make their own laws.

    GPL is based on copyright law, which is roughly the same for all signatories of the Berne Convention (of which China is one). So in principle it's enforcable against Chinese businesses or government operations in Chinese courts.

    What that means is authors of the base code (or their assigns) might get Chinese courts to issue an injunction to block the distribution of the code or the selling of boxes containing it, if the source isn't available or is wrong. And maybe the government would enforce the injunction, to avoid reciprocal hassles protecting Chinese authors in international markets.

    But the real teeth would be obtaining and enforcing injunctions against selling the product in other countries, for western hard currency, if the source isn't forthcoming.

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
    1. Re:China signed the Berne convention. by JanneM · · Score: 1

      They only need to make the source available to the buyers of the phone. Can be done with an archive on an accomanying cd-rom, on the website (including on a registered users only part of it) and so on. And as long as they aren't distributing the phone, they need not give the source to anyone.

      --
      Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
    2. Re:China signed the Berne convention. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You don't understand China. They don't operate like other western countries. They have huge manufactoring plants that can produce any (and I mean ANY) kind of item or device they can imagine (or, more typically, that they can get ahold of and copy). Patents don't mean jack to them. They'll hapilly copy something invented in USA or europe and produce it much cheaper. Then when consumers want to buy, who do you think they'll buy from? The originall seller, or the chinese? Money talks, bull^H^H^H^HBerne Convention walks, my friend.

    3. Re:China signed the Berne convention. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wish patents didn't mean jack to us.

    4. Re:China signed the Berne convention. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If I were China I'd supply the source code in paper form, preferably from paper made from the bamboo forests that house the pandas.

      You want source? Panda Killer!

    5. Re:China signed the Berne convention. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      because you're the typical slashdork communist. please die. thanks.

    6. Re:China signed the Berne convention. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, sure. They're inherently evil. That's why they went so far out of their way to design the Godson processors with open architecture, avoiding anything copyrighted.

      Why don't you grow up a bit. I mean seriously, do you think that China's sole reason to exist is to destroy the U.S.? Do all Americans think this? Is that why you have all been acting paranoid as of late?

      China is going through a natural evolution of the manufacturing process. That's it. They're not going out of their way to cripple the U.S. Economy. Enron did. Worldcom did. Take care of your shit at home, and quit pissing people off, because thenext thing the "Evil Chinese yellow riceeaters" are going to mass produce is rifles. You keep acting like bullies, and someone's going to bite your nose off.

      I just hope that you live to see the day when you're looking down the wrong end of a chinese made M16 (mass produced because they got their grubby yellow paws on one and copied it, nevermind that the Kalishnikovs that they are using are a superior weapon anyways, piece of shit M16 jamming up in the sand). How morally superior are you going to feel then? Maybe you and your government should have cut off a little fat instead of picking a fight with the chinese because they are building things cheaper than you can, and you'll have to give up that third car because your overinflated economy can't take it anymore)

      Oh wait, it was built in China, it'll break right? Well, even if it does, it's only gotta fire one.

      Suck it as your dollar falls even further to the euro and you are left as a second-world nation, becoming a raw materials supplier to all those "euro-fags" that will (and do) own your pitiful country.

      Oh wait,

    7. Re:China signed the Berne convention. by mattjb0010 · · Score: 1

      The issue (and the Berne convention) is about copyright, not patents, which are something different. Confusing the two is hardly "+1 insightful". Patents have to be applied for on a nation / nation-bloc basis, and this costs extra money, so it's probably perfectly legal to make knock-off products. Also, China was in the Eastern Hemisphere last I checked, so of course they're not going to operate like a Western country.

    8. Re:China signed the Berne convention. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not so fast. I was pointing out China's uncaring view of so-called Intellectual Property law and only gave the example of patents. But don't be disillusioned to think they care about copyright law or any other of the so-called Intellectual Property laws. You can also buy for real cheap just about any commercial software and it looks legitimate, except it's a copy... This sort of thing is done out in the open, unlike in the USA or europe where so-called pirates would fear retaliation from industry or government officials.

    9. Re:China signed the Berne convention. by mattjb0010 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If you were talking only about patents, why bother mentioning the Berne convention? As I pointed out, patents are a bad example to use for reason I gave. Discussing differences in methods of copying is hardly evidence that the problem is worse in China or in SE Asia for that matter. They've been getting tougher, the problem is that unless you crack down on the poeple running the operations they just set up shop again, kind of like on P2P / IRC in the US.

    10. Re:China signed the Berne convention. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Last I checked the atlas Europe and America are on opposite sides of the map. Doesnt make their culture different by that much does it?
      western is what you name it, it has nothing to do with where they are geographically.

    11. Re:China signed the Berne convention. by mattjb0010 · · Score: 1

      western is what you name it,

      Ever heard of a dictionary?

      it has nothing to do with where they are geographically.

      Well China is neither in the Western Hemisphere, not in Western Europe, nor does it share much in common (using the other definition) culturally with either (though that is changing).

    12. Re:China signed the Berne convention. by Eric+Smith · · Score: 2, Informative
      They only need to make the source available to the buyers of the phone.
      That's true if and only if they include the machine-readable source code with the phone when it is distributed commercially, perhaps on an accompanying CD-ROM. (As stated in section 3a of the GPL.)

      But if they don't include the machine-readable copy of the source code with the phone (and when is the last time you got any source code with a consumer product?), section 3b of the GPL requires them to provide the source code to any third party, not just to the same party to whom they've distributed the object code.

    13. Re:China signed the Berne convention. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your logic is wrong in saying that just because they are geographically in the east they can't be a 'western' country. the US is not in the western hemisphere and it's a ;western' country. Don't try and squirm out of what you said earlier.

    14. Re:China signed the Berne convention. by mattjb0010 · · Score: 1

      Your logic is wrong in saying that just because they are geographically in the east they can't be a 'western' country

      I didn't say that they can't be a 'western' country because they aren't in the Western Hemisphere. Believe it or not, there is a correlation between geopgraphy and culture.

      the US is not in the western hemisphere

      Yes, yes it is.

    15. Re:China signed the Berne convention. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      YHBT HAND

    16. Re:China signed the Berne convention. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, it's not enough to make it available to buyers. They have to make it available to everyone. If they distribute the phone once, that's it.

    17. Re:China signed the Berne convention. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nassssty troll. What has it in its pocketssses? Nassssty troll. No glassss shard-filled asian poontang for you!

    18. Re:China signed the Berne convention. by pe1rxq · · Score: 2

      No, they only have to include a written offer for source. Any third party can claim the source once they get there hands on this offer (which ultimatly boils down to just about everyboddy when you distribute a few million phones but its not the same)

      Jeroen

      --
      Secure messaging: http://quickmsg.vreeken.net/
    19. Re:China signed the Berne convention. by BasilBrush · · Score: 1
      The Western Hemisphere in a geographical sense that wich lies to the west of the Greenwich meridian in London, and the Eastern Hemisphere that which lies to the east of it. i.e. Western Hemisphere = longitude 000W-180 W. Eastern Hemisphere 000E-180E. 000E and 000W are both the Greenwich Meridan. 180W and 180E are both the same line in the middle of the Pacific, and the international date line follows it, with a few deviations.

      It isn't possible to get any more "Western Hemisphere" than the US. The U.S. is slap bang in the middle of the Western Hemisphere. China on the other hand is near the middle of the Eastern Hemisphere.

      Clearly culturally, the definition is more blurred, with Germany for example being in the Eastern Hemisphere but considered to be a western country. Gerally speaking the Western World is considered to be America and Europe, the Eastern World to be Asia and Australasia, and the Third World to be Africa. Which ever way you slice it the U.S. is West and China is East.

  25. population control by Mazzie · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    The phone is actually another Chinese population control device.

    After the birth of his first child, Ho Chen takes a digital picture with his new smartphone. The smartphone senses a baby picture has been taken, and upon its return to Chen's pocket, it radiates his testicles to ensure he will not procreate ever again.

    --
    Having a bookmark to Google does not make you an expert on everything.
    1. Re:population control by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      You obviously must have put one of these to your head.

    2. Re:population control by Mazzie · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      thank you for the insult anonymous coward

      --
      Having a bookmark to Google does not make you an expert on everything.
    3. Re:population control by zalas · · Score: 1

      Actually, it's not quite a limit of 1 child per family anymore. The number of siblings you have in part determines how many children you can have.

  26. Re:/. loves China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Crazy.

    How many native Americans have we had executed lately?

    How many bullet bills have we had mailed to their family?

    Sorry, fuckwits, but the Chinese are EVIL, and the US is not nearly as evil. Sorry to disappoint.

  27. Confusing by Capt'n+Hector · · Score: 4, Funny

    Ya know, people are going to become REALLY confused when phone processor speeds reach 900 and 1800 mhz.

    --
    Quid festinatio swallonis est aetherfuga inonusti?
    Africus aut Europaeus?
  28. Call to tech support: by Molina+the+Bofh · · Score: 1, Funny

    rrrrring
    - E2800 tech support. How can I help you ?
    - Your company sucks. This stupid phone sucks. I cannot get a dialtone while I'm in the parking area of my building. It says "no signal". And it's just 3 levels underground.
    - Oh. I see. (with the best BOFHish voice). I'll be more than pleased to boost the signal level specially for you, in order to promptly solve this problem that's so annoying you. What's your username ? >clicket< >click<

    --

    -
    Roses are #FF0000, Violets are #0000FF, find / -name '*base*' |xargs chown -R us && mv zig greatjustice
  29. Re:The future by penguinoid · · Score: 2, Funny

    I forsee that in the future, we will be living in futuristic homes (deep, underground shelters), futuristic clothing (radiation protection and mask), using futuristic power sources (nuclear -- oh, the irony), largely replacing our transportation system (biologically powered bipeds), and eating prehistoric foods (grain lasts a loooong time, you know). And we will probably have some missiles left over, in case anyone else survived.

    Just my $0.02

    --
    Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
  30. Re:/. loves China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ok, get it right. The Chinese people are not evil. Their government is. Now, the US is pretty damn evil as well. As a rule we don't unfairly execute people. But, the US government is engaged in a war on its own people. It's called the "war on drugs" but it is in fact a war on drug users. That's right. Somebody who just likes to pack up a bowl of weed, burn it down, and mellow out is subject to being thrown in prison. The fun thing about it is, practically everyone who is arrested for drugs is charged with intent to distribute, whether they actually intend to do so or not. Then, when they are convicted, law enforcement can pat itself on the back for a job well done -- another horrible evil corrupter of youth behind bars. This allows the proponents of this American war on its own people to declare with confidence that it's a war on the dealers and not the users. Just because cops and DAs can get away with trumping up intent charges. If that isn't persecution, I don't know what is.

  31. Re:/. loves China by Hillman · · Score: 1
    Put that in perspective. China is a developping country. If we can forgive the native american genocide why can't we forgive China; who proportionally kill less people than the US each year? I'm not saying that one is better than another, I'm saying that the world isn't black or white. And drop that EVIL rhetoric, you read slashdot, you're smarter than that.

    And I didn't even use profanity.

  32. What kind of capacitor would it need? by tepples · · Score: 1

    A speakerphone with a web camera, running compromised softwre, also amounts to a DANDY audio/video room bug.

    Not if the Li-Ion battery is physically removed when the user isn't in the mood to receive calls. Or do you suggest that the main body of the phone contains a big capacitor to power it even when the battery is removed?

  33. Re:/. loves China by melgeroth · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The Chinese are evil? That implies that the entire race of human beings who scrape food off the ground are somehow inherently "evil". As for the Chinese government vs. the American government, the similarities abound. One of the big hype words I hear alot coming from people describing China is "Communist." Although in practicality Communism (or Marxism) has nothing to do with popular opinion of Communism, the colloquial meaning of the word has come to be something like "Kills people for speaking out, is against 'freedom'". I hate to break the news, but the USA has its fair share of anti-sedition laws, take the Patriot Act for example. It is currently legal for the US government to accuse someone of being a terrorist and lock them away without trial. (Communist "witch-hunt" trials in the 1940's anyone?) Who's to stop the government from saying comic books are a "terrorist-like" medium and banning them? Anyone protesting could be called 'unpatriotic' and thrown away. To be honest, I am glad that China is developing into a new research/technology center. They have started to contest and challenge already implemented protocols/standards in America and Europe, and to that end I commend them. We shouldn't just write them off because they are "evil" because, folks, AMERICA also has its share of corruption. Modern-day capitalistic China is beginning to grow, and these new product lines and recent announcements are only the beginning of it.

  34. Re:/. loves China by AtomicBomb · · Score: 1

    Yeah.... Some guys tend to mix up all these, which is not good for health discussion.... At the end of the day, I think the technical stuff is the main theme for /.

    Come back to the technical side, does anyone notice the most special feature of this yet another linux PDA/phone: the dual ARM9 processor? If your embedded applications needs, say, 400 MIPS of computing power, from the view of an electronics manufacturer, does that make sense to go for dual processors?

  35. Re:not as obligatory as I make it out to be by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Imagine a Bewolf Cluster of these phones.

  36. Behold!!! by spikev · · Score: 1

    China's answer to Hyperthreading.

  37. Why is this "China launches"...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The news story reads:

    A Chinese company based in Shanghai named "E28" has quietly been selling Linux-based smartphones in China since August,...

    So, how is this "China", the country launching a product? It's a company doing the launch, and quietly at that. When Cisco releases a new product, do we say "The United States Launches..."?

    I suppose slashdot editors see product lines as the new arms race, where products created in a market are attributed to the country as a whole.

    1. Re:Why is this "China launches"...? by azuretek · · Score: 0

      I'm sure if an american company launches a new product that will be news to the world other countries say something like "america releases new gizmo"

      since we live here we dont need to know it was released here...

    2. Re:Why is this "China launches"...? by aulendil · · Score: 1
      other countries say something like "america releases new gizmo"

      No, we dont.

    3. Re:Why is this "China launches"...? by azuretek · · Score: 1

      but you would if america produced anything worth mention

    4. Re:Why is this "China launches"...? by EvilTwinSkippy · · Score: 1

      Nah. We don't produce anything here anymore except lawsuits and war equipment. I don't think there is a coincidence.

      --
      "Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
      --Dr.W.Edwards Deming
    5. Re:Why is this "China launches"...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sorry, that's not very likely.
      More like "Sony Launches", etc.

    6. Re:Why is this "China launches"...? by BJH · · Score: 1

      Sony, of course, is a Japanese company...

    7. Re:Why is this "China launches"...? by Cajun+Hell · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Most Americans think of that country as being Communist. You know, planned economy. The proletariat has siezed the means of production. Industry == Government == Nation == People. It's all the same entity. There are no "independent companies" of the corrupt running dog capitalist variety, comrade, because private enterprise would just be a way of shirking man's responsibility to other men. That would be like stealing!
      Look around at this world we've made
      Equality our stock in trade
      Come and join the Brotherhood of Man
      Oh, what a nice, contented world
      Let the banners be unfurled
      Hold the Red Star proudly high in hand.

      (Ok, that's obviously not the reality of the situation. Reality, schmeality. That's the connotation of Communism, the western perception of China. (In Soviet Russia, product releases YOU!))

      --
      "Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
    8. Re:Why is this "China launches"...? by adept256 · · Score: 1

      It's funny you mention "arms race", because the dual arm9's immediately made me think of aim-9 sparrow heat-seaking missiles you see on f-16's. Now that would be the uber-device to have for xmas!

      --

      I ran a benchmark on my quantum computer, now I can't find it anywhere!
  38. But... by jchawk · · Score: 1

    Why buy a first generation smart phone? When you could buy a treo 600 that does everything you want, has tons of applications because it runs PalmOS, and is supported by a company that's been in the business of making pda / cell phones for a while now?

    1. Re:But... by Natalie's+Hot+Grits · · Score: 1

      Maybe because some people want "phones" and not big bulky "PDAs" taking up their space in their skimpy pockets they give you nowadays in clothing.

      I'd much rather flip open a phone and answer a call than bust out a PDA and hold it up to my face like im holding a phone from zack morris's locker.

      Who needs a full featured PDA with a phone built in when you can get a full featured phone with a PDA built in?

      The question is worth asking, and so far, that is why the motorolla MPx200 (windows smartphone) with SD/MMC Memory slot and stero headphone jack with fully featured PDA Applications is among the most popular of GSM phones currently in the united states. It has all the fancy stuff you would find in a PDA, plus it comes with a built in media player, something you don't normally find integrated in a palm. The only thing it lacks is PDF and excell document viewers/editors but I have read on the internet that they are available to download. Those flash MP3 players cost over 150$ at bestbuy for just 128-256MB. The 299$ list price tag on a high end smartphone is well worth the investment just for the mp3 player alone so you don't have to carry around 2 seperate devices.

      Take a look at the screenshots on this link and tell me you would rather have a full size Palm Tungsten W or Handspring PDA phone insted of this high resolution (but smaller screen) smartphone in a small and light flip design.

      "tons of applications because it runs PalmOS, and is supported by a company that's been in the business of making pda / cell phones for a while now?"

      If you haven't noticed, Linux has been around longer than Palm OS. It has more applications available. QT/Embedded has been around for a reasonable while now and it is very fast. Pretty much all the smartphones being manufactured in china are coming with linux on them. Including motorolla, the world's second largest handset manufacturer. By the time they hit the streets in the US, I'm sure we will be seeing some very interesting products. I'm talking stuff that blows palms out of the water. Konqurer built into the phone, etc etc..

      --
      Two infinite things: your stupidity and mine. But I'm not sure about the latter. If my sig offends you, I'm sorry.
  39. Re:It's a telescreen! by spikev · · Score: 1

    Not a bad boint, but it's more likely that when the Chinese government wants to spy on someone with a cell phone, they just monitor the cellular networks.

    Just like the US Government.

    We're really not that different. The sad thing is we'll probably destroy each other because of it someday.

  40. you make ME sick... ignorant dolt. by gotr00t · · Score: 1, Flamebait
    You are obviously associating the government with the people and making them one entity, which is a wrong assumption to begin with. For one, most Chinese people are not part of the government of the nation. The wrongdoings of the Chinese government can be debated, but they are not the fault of the Chinese people! There is nothing wrong about reporting about the accomplishments of a people in an objective way. I have never seen a Slashdot article than praises the controversial actions of the Chinese government, which is the entitiy that you have problems with.

    So before you go troll around with your anti-China posts, know that he people and the goverment are two different things. Get that straight.

    Moreover, Slashdot being enligtened or liberal is not up to you to determine. In a totally open public forum, you cannot possibly make intelligent generalizations about the people here. By doing so, you are merely being ignorant.

    1. Re:you make ME sick... ignorant dolt. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're joking right? I suppose you also can't call certain parts of the country liberal or conservative because the borders are open for anyone to pass. Unfortunately, everyone who knows the first thing about demographics will tell you you're dead wrong. How does it feel to be so stupid?

  41. SMP? by berteag00 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "dual ARM9s..."

    So, someone tell me ... does that mean the kernel is SMP? Do the ARM9s support it natively, making the kernel think it's only one processor?

    Does uCLinux support SMP? (Next on the SMP docket: UserModeLinux... whee!)

    1. Re:SMP? by h4x0r-3l337 · · Score: 3, Informative
      So, someone tell me ... does that mean the kernel is SMP?

      No. One core runs the phone-stack, the other core runs the OS. It's pretty much like having two separate devices (usually linked via a serial connection) in a single enclosure.

    2. Re:SMP? by pesc · · Score: 0

      One core runs the phone-stack, the other core runs the OS

      I don't know if the Chinese thought of this, but if you are selling this in the US or Europe, this is quite clever.

      It means that one chip can be running a closed-source prorietary phone app. Since it is not hackable it can pass any radio/telephone regulations. The other CPU can run a fully open-source hackable Free Linux OS where users can download new kernels all they want. And be fully GPL compliant.

      --

      )9TSS
  42. Re:/. loves China by Gothmolly · · Score: 1

    Indeed, China is a savage country where the people are held to be the property of the State, where AIDS education is nonexisten, where SARS went unacknowledged and untreated, where infanticide of female children is commonplace, where freedom of speech is nonexistent, where the soldiers are given amphetamines to make them more aggressive when disrupting protests, the list goes on and on. Just because they stole (dont kid yourselves, all of RMS' crying wont get the kernel source for this thing) the Linux kernel and put it in a phone, the Slashdotters are drooling over them and calling them 'progressive'. My only hope is that the world turns to the shit you people advocate just after I die.

    --
    I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
  43. Flashapp on their page by gotr00t · · Score: 1

    On their site, there are a number of flash videos avaliable. On the one that is about gaming, and has "battle bee" initially printed on it, can anyone identify the first song that it plays?

  44. Linux 2.4 on a phone.. ?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ok, maybe this is just me. But the Linux kernel is a Unix server-style kernel. Why is it being used in a Cellular phone? I can think of a lot of reasons not to use a full blown OS in a phone, but I'll just let /. list all the things you can only do on a cell phone using Linux 2.4 and then whether it could be better accomplished using a light, specialized OS.

    I guess on the bright side you might be able to use a commercial full-featured browser, but given the relative scarcity of these devices you're probably going to have to contract it or build your own anyway.

  45. Hold your horses. by The+Cydonian · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Is it me, or does the picture in the article look as if it's been photoshopped?

    Note the edges of the screen people, how did the display become so square, while the screen itself isn't? Even more blatant, why should the phone have an oval outerlid that would, apparently, only shows a grey box-like icon?

    Something's not quite right here, methinks.

    1. Re:Hold your horses. by juuri · · Score: 1

      You missed the most obvious, the lighting on the screen don't match whats shown on the case.

      --
      --- I do not moderate.
    2. Re:Hold your horses. by The+Cydonian · · Score: 1

      Didn't mention it specifically coz thought it was trivially obvious. :-)

    3. Re:Hold your horses. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, using Photoshop is communism!

    4. Re:Hold your horses. by Cajun+Hell · · Score: 1

      No, it doesn't look Photoshopped. It looks GIMPed!

      --
      "Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
  46. Motherboard... by herrvinny · · Score: 1

    Does anyone know where to get motherboards and hard drives that small? I'm about to start on a project that would benefit from a tiny motherboard, the type that fit into this cellphone's case, and I haven't been able to find any sources except for the upcoming nano-itx form.

    1. Re:Motherboard... by Urkki · · Score: 2, Informative

      I think they don't exist, not in the way you want anyway, you can't get 'em off the shelf. You sure can get a devkit and then you can design your own board etc, but I gather that's not really what you mean.

      If it has to be that small, it has to fit into specific case (such as a cell phone or a pda or...) and then it has to be custom designed anyway, so you get exactly the processor you want, with the amount of memory and other features you want. That's why there's no real market for very small boards, and even smallest "Off the shelf" stuff (currently micro-ITX I believe?) will always be a lot bigger than custom designed stuff at any given time.

    2. Re:Motherboard... by Natalie's+Hot+Grits · · Score: 1

      Well, if you could find a motherboard that small, usually they come with a "mini" IDE Connector... Not one for laptop hard drives but for Compact Flash cards... Compact Flash is pin compatible with IDE ATA/33 interface and that is what you would probably be using for a DIY ultra small PC of the size you are thinking about...

      I know, compactFlash is still a little bulky, but it is the only cost effective flash memory I am aware of that uses standard interfaces you would find on everyday motherboard chipsets...

      --
      Two infinite things: your stupidity and mine. But I'm not sure about the latter. If my sig offends you, I'm sorry.
  47. Re:/. loves China by flynt · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Maybe you just need to stop being so cynical. Tonight I've been reading (for homework) papers on AIDS clinical trials. These are on the incredible advances in HIV fighting methods since the 1980's. Where was this research conducted? The USA. Who published these papers? The New England Journal of Medicine. What company made the wonderdrugs to increase AIDS survival so drastically. GlaxoSmithKline, a USA company. Now that's just what I did tonight, an incredibly small portion of all the cool R and D going on in this country. It seems to me the US is still a pretty decent place to live, but I suppose since China is putting Linux on a phone that it's on the 'path of improvement'. Now I'm not blindly cheerleading for the USA, but really, open your eyes. There are tons of opportunities for you in this country, why don't you use some of them?

  48. Japan draws the heat? by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

    Since the US doesn't manufacture cellphones, and Japan does, is the tech threat from the new Chinese phones directed at Japan? Does the US only benefit from cheap new tech here?

    --

    --
    make install -not war

    1. Re:Japan draws the heat? by taweili · · Score: 2, Interesting

      US doesn't manufacture the phone?!? The #2 handset manufacturers in the world is called Motorola and it is an US company!!! Motorola has been #1 handset vendor in China for the past 10 years and it was passed by Bird this year.

      Most Chinese phone vendors still rely much on the Western companies including Motorola to provide components and software for phone. Motorola has been doing good business on this.

      The launch of E2800 by E28 is a threat to Motorola because it will potential cut into a big software/components market now dominated by Motorola!.

      Japan makes most cellphones for domestic use and the launch of Chinese phones have no impact on the Japanese vendors!

    2. Re:Japan draws the heat? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well perhaps he meant: "Cell phones aren't manufactured in US".

      I don't know if that is true, but 50% of cell phones are manufactured in China, lot of them are also manufactured in South Korea and Japan.

    3. Re:Japan draws the heat? by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 1

      Now that I've goaded someone into describing the competitive landscape (with an 85% "!" density :), how about some insight into how the Chinese mobilephone business will undercut Japanese access to the US market, and vice versa.

      --

      --
      make install -not war

    4. Re:Japan draws the heat? by taweili · · Score: 1

      Japanese phone in US market? Take a quick look at the cell phones available in the US, Japanese vendors have very small percentage of the market. Korean vendors like LG or Samsung has much better share of the markets.

      Japanese 2G system is based on Docomo's own TDMA technology and isn't compatible with the international standard GSM. While this allows Docomo to evolve the system faster and benefit from the success of i-mode in Japan, the incompatibility has casue Japanse phone vendors such as Panasonic, Sony and others the world market.

      The world wide mobile phone market has been dominated by the MEN (Motorola, Ericsson, and Nokia) and three of them has combined market shares of 80% or so.

      Right now, the battlefield for mobile phone market is in China who has 250 millions mobile subscribers and that's almost the whole population of the US. Chinese market is expected to double to 500 millions by 2007.

      The battle in China is just the beginning and the next will be India with has only 5 millions of cell phone subscribers. With a population of 1 billions, there are plenty of growth opportunities.

      Laying out the facts about the market, we can see how important Chinese cell phne market is today. Whoever gets Chinese market will get India market. Cell phone, much like computers, has almost the same price across the world. A handset costs $100 in the US will still cost $100 in China or Inida. In this regard, US market is relatively unimportant.

      In late 2002, several Chinese vendors like Ningbo Bird, TCL, Haier and Legend announced that they would enter the Chinese cell phone market while was dominated by MEN with 80% market shares along with Samsung, Panasonic and Seimen for the rest, the Chinese vendors was laughed at by the press. The prediction was the Chinese vendors' combined market share would be about 10%. Early this year, the number was adjusted to 20% and the truth came out is that Chinese vendors now have 55% of the Chinese cell phone markets and Motorola was overtaken by Ningbo Bird which is now the #1 cell phone vendor in China.

      However, with all the glory in gaining the market share, Chinese vendors was doing it by licensing, OEM, ODM the phones from vendors from other countries such as Korea, Taiwan, Europe, and US including Motorola. Lack of the control to the core technologies, the Chinese vendors can't gain huge profit from their market share and also means their market domination depends on the competitors to supply the technologies.

      Now, with market shares at hand, the Chinese vendors will be able to support domestic vendors to develop technologies for cell phones. Europe GSM has long developing the model of having large companies like Nokia or Ericsson in charge of the global branding and marketing while supporting start-ups at home to do design and development. Same thing is going to happen in China. The company E28 in the story was founded by top level executive of Motorola's China operation.

      In conclusion, Japanese vendors are niche in the global cell phone markets. US cell phones market isn't important because there is no market growth and the standard used in the US is also not standard compliant (GSM runs at 900/1800 Mhz while US GSM called PCS runs at 1900 Mhz). The real market of significant is China today and India tomorrow and whoever wins China today will have India tomorrow.

  49. UMMM.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    20 years ago, cell phones were the size of watermelons.

  50. Re:/. loves China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The chinese government isn't even evil.

    When you start talking about how evil the Chinese government is that just opens you up to fall for propoganda when a war against China is getting pushed in the media.

    China has a completely different history and culture than the West.

    When people talk about Falun Gong without understanding the history of sects and cults in China they always make errors comparing it to the western Church.

    Also Chinese people don't hate their own government. Neither are they brainwashed to love it. They know it has room for improvement, at the same time they don't wish to be "liberated" or any shit like that. China isn't nearly as "totalitarian" as people claim it is. With over a billion people you just can't in practice be very authoritarian. Also, you think the FBI, CIA and NSA don't watch everything going across the wires in America?

    There are many many more differences. Anyways to jump on China and it's government as evil just becuase it isn't the same as the West is just not realistic. You can't measure China with the same stick you use on Western countries, and vice versa.

    I'm sure the same also holds for muslim countries...

    P.S. the US has the most people in prison per capita of any country...and most are non-violent offenders (i.e. drugs) With a prison population that giant you have to ask who's the authoritarian one? With laws like Californias "3 strikes law" that sends a petty theif to jail for 25 years I have to say I don't find America to be any big bastion of "justice".

  51. Re:/. loves China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    God I hope not, I couldn't stand a "War on Pretzels"

  52. Why is it that China launches cellphone, not E28!? by Cordath · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Why is it that every time a Chinese company does something the slashdot article begins with "China does Blah-blah-blah... plop."

    You know, there are over a billion people in China. I'm sure many of them even have some small ammount of autonomy from the evil borg communist collective that americans seem to think dominates them all. Is this just simple racism or is it some kind of fear complex?

  53. Wouldn't it be colossally stupid by morelife · · Score: 0, Redundant

    If someone said

    "All your Linux 2.4 SCO SMP Code in your new telephone are belong to us."

  54. Re:Why is it that China launches cellphone, not E2 by taweili · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yes, for Japan, it's Docomo launches a Java phone and for America, it is Motorola launches a Java phone. For the poor small Chinese company, launching the Java phone is just part of its patriotic duty to the massive communistic collective?!?

    Give the Chinese company a name and a face!!! They are not a faceless commies collective!!!

    The company is called E28 and the phone gets launched is E2800.

  55. ring ring by MrLint · · Score: 1

    "The E2800 is a 900/1800MHz, GSM/GPRS class 10 device based on dual ARM9 processors, running embedded Linux with a 2.4-series kernel."

    Hello is this the SCO to which i am speaking?

  56. Re:/. loves China by heinousjay · · Score: 1

    For all of it's flaws, there isn't a single person starving in China.

    Art thou high?

    --
    Slashdot - where whining about luck is the new way to make the world you want.
  57. China's censorship is not THAT bad... by Enoch+Root · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I live there, and I can still read your dumb comments on Slashdot.

  58. Re:/. loves China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    where the soldiers are given amphetamines to make them more aggressive when disrupting protests

    Sounds like those pesky fly-boys if you ask me. The ones which bombed Canadians in Afghanistan. The ones which are fed speed (=amphetamine) during long flight missions. (Probably because drugs are bad mmmkay)

  59. Re:SADDAM WAS CAUGH All you fucking commies cry by Trolling+4+dollas · · Score: 0

    I will laugh on the graves of Americans as I eat my dimsum with my new found overlords. Ha ha goat fucking American donkey whores. Fucking die in shit piled buildings in your defacating cities of hell.

  60. Re:/. loves China by Trolling+4+dollas · · Score: 0

    Nice freudian slip donker fucker american fag. I'll dance on your grave you fucking freak of shit infidel crap. I take a dump on your flag and then set it a fire.

  61. Re:/. loves China by Trolling+4+dollas · · Score: 0

    Look how Bush shit his pants about the Chinese sending someone into space. Now the US is going back to the Moon just so they can say they've done it again! Fucking tards. Give it up and bend over you fuckers. Your time has come. Me chinese me no dumb me going to shove riffle up your bum.

  62. hmmm... by grmb1 · · Score: 0, Troll

    More Chinese spam-relaying servers then?

    --
    -- grmbl woz heer
  63. Re:The immorality of Open Source by bckrispi · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    I know IHBT, but I'll bite anyway...

    The only thing different now is that the software is being acquired legally. Before, the Red Army would've just used their pirated Oracle 9 to keep tabs on Democratic Activists.

    --
    Xenon, where's my money? -Borno
  64. O2 XDA 2 by grmb1 · · Score: 1

    Have someone seen O2 XDA 2? Truly amazing gadget.

    It's Microsoft-powered, but cool anyway.

    --
    -- grmbl woz heer
  65. Re:/. loves China by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    racist motherfucker, get the fuck out of our planet.

  66. Woohooo!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A america-proof handy has finally arrived.

  67. Re:Why is it that China launches cellphone, not E2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Is this just simple racism or is it some kind of fear complex?

    It's the racist, fear complex of anti-american success stories.

  68. Re:The future by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I am Anomymous Coward because apparently my password "broke" for the record i am t4b00:

    "Have you ever tried to read C source out loud?"

    the whole point of voice recognition (to me) should be combined with "human level" AI in such a way that coding in C would become obsolete. IE: tell the computer in english (or whatever languae) what you want the computer to do, and it "just does it"

    sure, we are a long way from that, but the day will come.

  69. Re:Why is it that China launches cellphone, not E2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    God thanks, china has enough military power to ensure that things will stay this way. After you've understood the nature of this american complex it's pretty entertaining - for a foreigner who knows the world from a different view than CNN's.

  70. United States of America launces Windows XP update by corgi · · Score: 1

    (nuff said)

  71. Re:/. loves China by Hatta · · Score: 1

    There's a quote that sometimes comes up at the bottom of ./ "Love your country, but never trust its government." Says it all if you ask me.

    --
    Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
  72. Re:/. loves China by amorsen · · Score: 1
    The phone is most likely using multiprocessing to provide isolation. Should the Linux kernel take an extended vacation of a few milliseconds, it is nice that the phone conversation still works and the GSM/GPRS packets still get sent and received. This can be achieved with the real time Linux extensions and appropriate buffering, but getting it right is not trivial - especially if you are close to the throughput limit of the CPU. It is only appropriate where you have more than one application running.

    If a single CPU does not have the power to handle one application you are screwed; you have to split it up and parallelize, and you most likely need closely-coupled SMP instead. SMP for a single real-time application is hard to get right.

    --
    Finally! A year of moderation! Ready for 2019?
  73. Re:Why is it that China launches cellphone, not E2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let's get to the point.

    As long as the average american isn't convinced that the average chinese ISN'T immune to radioactivity, they'll see china as a threat, forever.

  74. Re:The future by tomstdenis · · Score: 1

    Someone will have to program the AI...

    Tom

    --
    Someday, I'll have a real sig.
  75. Chinese and Japanese handwriting recognition by wowbagger · · Score: 1

    I have to wonder if the problem of handwriting recognition is easier for languages that use an ideographic written form rather than an alphabetic form.

    The biggest problem for somebody like me is the computer determining if I wrote "please" or "cheese" (yes, my handwriting is that bad). I would think that in an ideographic language it would be a lot easier for the system to sort through the known ideographs.

  76. Fat and Ugly by BasilBrush · · Score: 1

    The phone is fat and ugly compared to all the other smartphones out there. And where's the camera?

  77. Re:The future by visgoth · · Score: 1

    As long as I get to venture forth from the vault to find the replacement water chip its all good.

    --
    My patience is infinite, my time is not.
  78. werrrdddd by comet69 · · Score: 0

    I think that phone looks pretty tight actually... nice icons ;)

    cept the only thing with linux devices like that, knowing that it runs linux makes me want to access a terminal immediately.. i want a phone with a terminal!!!!!!

    lol....

    --
    - Hi I'm Linus Torvalds and I pronounce Linux, Lih-nix..
  79. Linus should be proud by utoddl · · Score: 1

    I don't know how Linus maintains his humility, but it must really kick butt to have your pet Uni project running in a gazillion devices all over the planet. Of the several projects I did in my free time in college, _none_ of them are running in cell phones. (Of course, they were done on punch cards, but still.)

    I wonder if Linux would have caught on if Linus had been named Frank. Would anyone have been interested in working with/on an OS called "Franx?"

    Hey, if this is off topic, call me on my Linux powered cell phone (as soon as I get one) and tell me all about it.:-)

  80. Re:Why is it that China launches cellphone, not E2 by Rinikusu · · Score: 1

    I understand, sir. If we launch a product serving Project China Consumer, it has a name.

    His name was E28.
    His name was E28.
    His name was E28.
    His name was E28.
    His name was E28.

    --
    If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
  81. Re:Why is it that China launches cellphone, not E2 by jc42 · · Score: 1

    Here in the US, the typical citizen can't be bothered to distinguish between Chinese, Japanese, Koreans and even Indians.

    I have heard a useful perspective on this from a number of Chinese immigrant friends. They all like to comment that, bad as it might be, American racism is nothing compared to Asian racism. While being quite aware of the way that most white Americans see them, they comment that American racists are much easier to deal with than the racists they've known in Malaysia, Thailand, Korea, Japan, or even other parts of China.

    One thesis I've heard is that at least the American racists know that they're wrong. This doesn't stop them, of course, and they will rarely admit their racism even to themselves. But at least they have subconscious feelings of guilt. My Chinese friends seem to think this is something unusual, since in their experience, racism is open and unapologetic wherever they came from.

    Well, at least they have a sense of humor about it all.

    It might be effective if we were to start seeing headlines attributing the actions of some US corporation to "Americans". How would American geeks respond to being tossed into the same bin as Microsoft's marketing people or SCO's lawyers?

    "Americans sue teenagers and grandmothers for sharing music."

    "Americans say that the GPL violates copyright laws."

    "Americans threaten companies that use Finnish linux operating system."

    "Americans capture ex-dictator in Iraq."

    Oh; wait ...

    --
    Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
  82. When it isn't news . . . by Leroy_Brown242 · · Score: 1

    I can't wait until the day when linux powering something is not news. When it's common place for linux/BSD or whatver other freeNIX to run on something, and have it not be a big deal. I mean, something running windows isn't news, because it's pretty common. Although, I was pretty shocked to find out that the self checkout terminals in most both Fred Meyer and Home Depot are Windows based.

    Back on topic though. Won't it truelly be a milestone when running an alternative OS isn't news?

  83. Re:United States of America launces Windows XP upd by jc42 · · Score: 1

    (nuff said)

    Nah; we can have fun with this one.

    United States of America threatens companies that use the Finnish "linux" operating system.

    Anyone else got a headline?

    --
    Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
  84. cryptophone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    cryptophone.de

    CryptoPhone is the name of a new PocketPC-based phone that provides state-of-the-art encryption technology for everybody (who can pay the price). The phone is based on a combination of two recognized encryption standard named AES-256 and Twofish using just a single dynamically generated key per phone connection.

    What makes this phone outstanding is that its source code is going to be published in full for peer review. This a strong difference to other commercial products that do not disclose their encryption underpinnings which makes independent review impossible. The CryptoPhone people have a completely trustworthy approach. Check out their great FAQ to get more information on the details.

    Best of all the product comes with a free windows telephony application using the same encryption allowing secure phone calls from PCs to the CryptoPhone. Hope there will be a Mac port soon.

  85. Open phones would be so cool by Cajun+Hell · · Score: 1
    Phones that use open code, that the user could modify and maintain, would be totally bitchin'! As much as phones have been advancing, they have been retarded (held back) in certain ways. If they were open, then there would be no stopping us from adding some rather obvious features.

    Imagine this scenario: Type in 555-1234 and press send. Here's what you see on the screen:

    Searching database... found. DSA/1024 keyid 65342954. Warning: This key is only signed by two moderately trusted introducers.

    Connecting to foreign host.. connected. Negotiating protocol... DSA signature matches our database. AES256 session key generated. Negotiating codec... using Ogg Speex. Ringing user-agent...

    Oh, the possibilities...
    --
    "Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
  86. Why Smartphones and Pocket PC's? by miscellaneous_havoc · · Score: 1

    Wouldn't it be more useful to have a phone device that would communicate with a Pocket PC for all of those extra features (handwriting, voice recognition, etc) and the phone would just be used for communicating with the service provider? Make the phones dumber and cheaper but give them a lot of compatibility with PDA's and Pocket PC's, so those do the work for the phones. Is it too much to ask to make my Pocket PC useful with other devices?

    --

    -----
    Make Love not [Browser] War!
  87. Re:It's a telescreen! by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 1

    Not a bad boint, but it's more likely that when the Chinese government wants to spy on someone with a cell phone, they just monitor the cellular networks.

    But what if they want to spy on him when he's NOT ON THE PHONE? This way they can.

    Which is probably why they're going with open source: So the people can check it, some of them will, and they'll thus trust the box and buy it.

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
  88. 1 billion strong by p3d0 · · Score: 1
    China Launches Linux-Based Smartphone
    The whole country?
    --
    Patrick Doyle
    I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
    1. Re:1 billion strong by Gwyn_232 · · Score: 1

      Yes. Just like they could all knock the earth off it's orbit by jumping, they're using the combined strength of 1 billion people to improvise a cellphone-based railgun. Them pesky commies are trying to shoot down the moon!

  89. Re:/. loves China by Gwyn_232 · · Score: 1

    And who benefits the world by supplying the medicine cheap or free to 3rd world countries?

  90. Re:Why is it that China launches cellphone, not E2 by taweili · · Score: 1

    I think this is exactly the kind of attitude that got American industries into so much troubles over the past couple decades. First, there came the underpower radio built on transistor from some Japanese company. Well, before you knew it, Sony was #1 brand in the consumer electronics in the US. Second, there came some faceless Japanese car vendors and before you knew it, Luxus is top brand.

    It's easier to dismiss a threat if you made it faceless and nameless and think of their action as stupid. Who knows what happened next? You will wake up, walk into Wal-Mart and found all the cell phones you can buy are made by Haier, TCL, and Ningbo and powered by E28.

    This has happened in the past and it can happen again.

  91. Last i checked.... by Natalie's+Hot+Grits · · Score: 1

    ...AIDS education is equivilent to baptist religion in the United States of America.

    ...Citizens of the United States of America pay 2-3x as much for US Made Rx drugs than any other people in other countries pay for US Made drugs. And George W Bush's recent seniors drug bill just made it illegal to go to canada to purchase drugs.

    ...Internal Government agencies murder and jail for life farmers for producing state sanctioned crops.

    ...freedom of speech is nonexistant in the United States of America.

    ...soldiers are given amphetamines to enhance battle skills.

    ...infanticide of children in poverty is commonplace

    ...
    of course the list goes on...

    --
    Two infinite things: your stupidity and mine. But I'm not sure about the latter. If my sig offends you, I'm sorry.
  92. Re:/. loves China by Natalie's+Hot+Grits · · Score: 1

    "Honestly, you all make me sick."

    You are just ignorant.

    Communist china is more liberal than the US in almost every government aspect. Larger government, state owned businesses, state housing everywhere.

    In the US, it just so happens that the conservative audience is also the less enlightened citizens that typically push for the human rights violations on US soil (drug war, enemy "terrorist" combatant arrests, racism and seperatists, taxing food for poverty class, non-existant freedom of speech via DMCA, etc.)... In China, since there are no conservatives to attract the less enlightened, it is the less enlightened liberals that do the same type of things... and since democracy does not exist in any form there, there is no accountability against these people.

    --
    Two infinite things: your stupidity and mine. But I'm not sure about the latter. If my sig offends you, I'm sorry.