China to Provide Financial Incentives For Filing Patent Applications Abroad

Under the new Measures, patentees can be subsidized only after the patent is issued. The new regulation also requires novelty, inventiveness, utility, and a stable legal status of the foreign patent

via China to Provide Financial Incentives For Filing Patent Applications Abroad | China IPR – Intellectual Property Developments in China.

China’s radical new space drive

It may not sound very much, less than three ounces, but in space a little thrust goes a long way. Boeing’s advanced XIPS thruster, which fires out Xenon ions at high speed, generates less than a quarter as much thrust from twice as much power. It’s used to maintain satellites in position, or move them to a slightly different orbit. Crucially, Xips weights about twenty kilos, more than an equivalent EmDrive, and the propellant for prolonged operation can weigh much more.

via EmDrive: China’s radical new space drive (Wired UK).

China Says It Now Has 1.104B Mobile Users, While Mobile Communications Revenue Totaled $116.26B Over First 11 Months of 2012

The rapid growth of the Chinese smartphone market means that it is set to top the U.S. iOS and Android install base next year. According to a research report by Flurry released last month, China currently has 167 million iOS or Android devices, compared to 181 million in the U.S.

via China Says It Now Has 1.104B Mobile Users, While Mobile Communications Revenue Totaled $116.26B Over First 11 Months of 2012 | TechCrunch.

Chinese space probe flies by asteroid Toutatis

The flyby was the first time an unmanned spacecraft launched from Earth has taken such a close viewing of the asteroid, named after a Celtic god.

It also made China the fourth country after the United States, the European Union and Japan to be able to examine an asteroid by spacecraft.

Chang’e-2 came as close as 3.2 km from Toutatis and took pictures of the asteroid at a relative velocity of 10.73 km per second, the SASTIND said in a statement.

via Chinese space probe flies by asteroid Toutatis — Shanghai Daily | 上海日报 — English Window to China New.

Splinternet Behind the Great Firewall of China

GFW is not perfect, however. Some Chinese technical professionals can bypass it with a variety of methods and/or tools. An arms race between censorship and circumvention has been going on for years, and GFW has caused collateral damage along the way.

via Splinternet Behind the Great Firewall of China – ACM Queue.

VPN (virtual private network) and SSH (secure shell) are the most powerful and stable tools for bypassing all surveillance technologies, although the basic ideas are the same as with the aforementioned tools: proxies and encrypted channels. The only difference is that VPN and SSH depend on a private host (or virtual host) or an account outside of China, instead of open, free proxies. Only technical professionals are able to set up such hosts or accounts, and most of them are not free. Commercial or public VPN services will be blocked by IP address and/or domain names if they are popular enough. In fact, the domain names *vpn.* are all blocked (such as vpn.com, vpn.net, vpn.org, vpn.info, vpn.me, vpn.us, vpn.co).

iFlyTek’s YuDian—the “Chinese Siri”—is available to anyone with a mobile phone in China.

iFlyTek has developed a series of text-to-speech (TTS) products and, more recently, speech recognition and the cloud-based speech tech platform, called Voice Cloud. Over the years, accuracy rates steadily improved and the technology found its way onto an ever-wider range of products.

Its Voice Cloud platform supports speech recognition, speech synthesis, and speech-input applications, and as of March of this year, speech understanding and “iFlyTek YuDian”—dubbed the Chinese Siri—to anyone with an Internet-enabled mobile phone.

via iFlyTek’s YuDian—the “Chinese Siri”—is available to anyone with a mobile phone in China. | MIT Technology Review.

Finally, its extensive network of 10,000 partners and developers has ensured the tech is available via a wide variety of devices, channels, and applications. The world’s largest network operator, China Mobile, recently took up a 15 percent share in the firm, further expanding its reach.

Chinese smartphone vendors cut Apple out of top five in shipments for Q3

The big surprise was the rise of Yulong Computer Telecommunication Scientific which took third place. Yulong sells smartphones under the brand name Coolpad. The company is largely unknown outside China, but has seen its shipments in the country steadily increase as a result of its broad product profile and low-end handsets, which reach prices below US$100, said Nicole Peng, an analyst with Canalys.

via Chinese smartphone vendors cut Apple out of top five in shipments for Q3 – Huawei, consumer electronics, smartphones, iPhone, ZTE, Android, Lenovo, Apple, samsung – Computerworld.

China Unicom replaces Cisco devices over security concerns

As the world’s largest maker of networking equipment, Cisco occupies a large market share in China. It accounts for over a 70 percent share of China Telecom’s 163 backbone network and over an 80 percent share of China Unicom’s 169 backbone network.

via China Unicom replaces Cisco devices over security concerns – Companies & Industries – Morning Whistle – Latest chinese economic, financial, business, political and society news.