An exploration of virtual experiences and environments in and about China.
Catching up on news: NTT DoCoMo unveiled the official mobile phone game of the 2008 Olympics at the Tokyo Game Show 2007 in September:
"In one of the game’s events, you put the phone down on a table and pump your arms like a sprinting runner. The phone’s camera picks up your movements and accelerates your onscreen running character accordingly."
Unfortunately I have been unable to find more information on the game.
Thanks to Jason Tester for the link. Original short post at picturephoning.
Jason posted on Citybar/City8.com last summer, and I thought I’d give a little update because I love it. City8 gives you a beautiful high res full-screen photo of the place you choose, which you can navigate for a 360 degree view, move closer and farther, annotate, and see others’ annotations as well. (Tip: click on the middle of the green nav tool. It will take you to full screen. Wait for it to resolve). The short video (in Chinese) on their homepage with "Little C" shows you what the site can do. You can follow it even if you don’t speak Chinese (there’s a City8 English tab at the very bottom of the page but it only allows you to search in Shanghai and Beijing, and it has much less functionality than the Chinese version).
At the home page you can click on the images of 8 different cities (Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Jinan and Wenzhou of all places) and just play with the locations they give you (places to eat, tourist spots, places to shop). The site is also searchable by street or keyword. You can also enter your own spot to see what’s there.
You can drop into, say, the Five Horses Mall in Wenzhou and get a pretty good feel for what street life looks like in Wenzhou on a nice day. Great stuff!
糖果猫猫 popil is a Guangzhou-based designer (comic, graphic, fashion, animation) who runs a pretty little blog called "candy variety shop
糖果杂货铺." I’ve picked out two of her works below.
First up, an illustration of a street-market scene with a classical border. The title suggests its based on a 烧衣街 in Guangzhou.
Second up, a page from her sketchbook, an infographic of artifacts on a train in China, which should strike a chord with anyone that’s been in one.
Link to her old blog (where these pictures are from). New blog here.
Mad that Youtube is BANNED in China Facebook group seems mostly to be expats, although not completely. It has over 700 members at present.
From TechCrunch:
Sohu paid 30 million dollars back in 2005 to create the official 2008 Olympics’ website, and now claims exclusive rights to all internet advertising for it as well. The Beijing International Olympic Committee has yet to process their claim, but the original article from AFP reveals some insider views:
"Zeng says he should know. He worked for Sohu.com as business department director before defecting to Tom.Com two years ago. One of his projects at Sohu.com was the Olympic deal.
‘The claim about exclusivity on advertising has no basis… It would be like saying that all Olympic sponsors in the US would have to put their TV ads on NBC.’"
Thanks to Adaptive Path’s Dan Harrelson for the tip.
Businessweek ran an article recently called Rise of the Asian D-School. (Here "D-school" is short for design school, not to be confused with Standord’s "d.school" which is Stanford’s catchy name for its Institute for Design.)
Summary: Asian design schools are ramping up to recruit and retain talent, and multinationals are arming themselves with these grads to conquer the Asian market.
Details that caught my eye: I was happy to see that my hometown’s Hong Kong Polytechnic University named, and that the school had made Businessweek’s top "D-Schools" list two years running. They also mentioned that "Beijing’s Tsinghua University recently hosted a sustainable design workshop with Milan Polytechnic University."
Are these signs that design in Asia is on the rise? Or are they false alarms? To answer that question, answer this one: How long are you willing to wait?
Businessweek: Rise of the Asian D-School.
Advanced Chinese mobile phones are gaining an audience, but judging from the comments that are still piling up on this ChinaTech news item from May, there seems to be a growing need for a Chinese mobile phone hacking website — in English. Someone should do it!
On May 21, 2007, ChinaTech posted a general news article/press release titled CECTs Mobile Handset Offers Fingerprint Recognition, which described the release of "the T100, a mobile phone featuring fingerprint recognition and streaming TV," by Qiao Xing Mobile’s subsidiary CECT. A month later a reader named RUMELL posted the following:
I want to get CECT mobile phone software. please send this.
The comment has spawned a long scroll of desperate non-Chinese-speaking owners of CECT phones from all over the world, in search of help, hacks, software, CECT phones, and especially, manuals in English. People are exchanging emails. The article is the top Google hit for a search of "CECT mobile English." Excerpted comments, including one exasperated reader who wonders why people buy phones they can’t operate, and even a Nigerian in search of business opportunities, below:
Arcia Says:
August 16th, 2007 at 6:49 am
I have the english manual for the CECT P186. e-mail me and I will send it
Tony Says:
August 21st, 2007 at 8:09 pm
Hi, I need copy of the P168 manual in english….
Thanks
Albert Says:
August 23rd, 2007 at 9:09 pm
can
any one help, I have got a Cect P168 but its arrived ni chinese, can
anyone tell me how to change it to english please, I am really stuck
Ralph Harris Says:
August 25th, 2007 at 4:06 am
Try this eBay listing: 270158049230
cenzurath Says:
August 29th, 2007 at 5:20 pm
hi
i need a CECT mobile phone software too 
my phone looks like nokia
n73… but it’s not .. and i think it’s a CECT … send me pls the phone
software :(( thnx
Abhay Says:
September 1st, 2007 at 10:58 pm
Hi, I am unable to play any videos in my CECT phone that i am transferring from other phones. errror message is "invalid video file". PLease Help me on this.
jagawar Says:
September 3rd, 2007 at 10:48 am
vidoes for cect are supposed to be in 3gp or mp4 format.
jagawar Says:
September 3rd, 2007 at 10:50 am
i
need an english manual for cect n99. need to know if i can install
applications and games. also how to transfer phone contacts from
another phone. jagawar@yahoo.com
Madu Says:
September 5th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
can anyone e-mail me the official website for CECT
Indrajit Das Says:
September 9th, 2007 at 6:18 am
I
have purchased a CECT phone but not sure about which model.After a long
search i got to know that its a CECT mobile phone.can anyone send me a
CECT any model manual. can any one answer me some query regarding this phone.
1.What kind of OS is installed in CECT phone?
2. Can i installed additional software in this phone like i used to installed in Nokia N72
Symbian phone?? Thanks in advance.
Mail me at indrajit_dasin@yahoo.com
Richard Says:
September 10th, 2007 at 4:01 am
I have one CECT N95,which soft install for put java applications/games inside. I try with PC-Sync Manager but wont install JAVA app.
BABA BELLO Says:
September 11th, 2007 at 1:04 am
Please i need the instruction manual to enable me enjoy full usage of my set and software to install the set on my Laptop.
Murphy Says:
September 22nd, 2007 at 2:21 am
I
am a propectus business man in Nigeria. Due to the current trend by
internals on Nigeria(we are regarded as fraudstars) i will like to get
to know more about the tv phones and how i can enter into a fraudulent
FREE transactions. I reside in okokomaiko Lagos State and own a mobile
phone shop in CC234,Alaba Int’l Market. Pls reply urgently(anyone with
a good bargain)
711 Says:
September 26th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
Why don’t you contact CECT and have them send you a bloody manual? Their web-site is located at www.cectelecom.com
Jacky Says:
September 26th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
Hi,
Im a proud owner of CECT T888 and i wish they could add features like
bluetooth and pc sync.It sucks having to download almost everythin via
USB.But the fon is so cool!
wayne Says:
September 27th, 2007 at 12:50 pm
Hi, i would like to buy 1 and possibly more CECT mobiles. Who is the cheapest seller of these that can post to australia?
thank you
armstrong Says:
October 5th, 2007 at 10:18 am
Why
do all of you idiots need these manuals for CECT mobile phones? Why
didn’t you think of that when you bought those Chinese phones?
Obviously since so many don’t have a manual, they are difficult to
find, and therefore they probably are not available. Are there this
many stupid consumers on planet earth that still buy dumb Chinese
products?
PERKNOT Says:
October 5th, 2007 at 9:01 pm
HI
guys, i have a cect HLF-K808 phone - it has a chinese manual. i wonder
if some of you have an english maual for that and if do so can you
kindly send it to my emaol - r_flordeliz@yahoo.com
- another question - are cect phone capable of having other softwares
like java, or ebooks, is it instalble. what os is being use in it.
thank you for your help!
dmerrilldnd Says:
October 7th, 2007 at 9:45 am
I have the user’s manual for setting up the SMS, MMS and the internet settings. Just email me. I’ll send it to you.
And the most recent comment, from ana, today, continuing the call for help:
Hi I need copy of the a380 fingerprint ecryption manual in english….Thanks
"Coca-Cola is to launch a range of drinks based on traditional Chinese herbal ingredients and recipes."
Via PFSK; original article over at BrandRepublic.
They seem to have a Chinese pop-star motif going on, and there’s some talk in the blogosphere about how they rely less on user-generated content and focus more on entertaining people.
I haven’t checked it out yet, but I wanted to get it on the radar, for those of you tracking these things.
In beta stages. See their website.
An exhibition using "infographics" to compare and contrast cultural differences between east and west, from a Beijingnese artist in Germany.
See the exhibit online at Yang Liu Design; via Information Aesthetics.
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