iFive Mini 3GS Notes

There hasn’t been much to report until now. Users have stopped posting their reviews. Their main occupation is screaming for root access. The new Google restriction on how SD card storage works is something they all want to get around with a patch [Google Translate].

1) The big news. MIUI is released for it [Google Translate].

Next-day update: STOP! This isn’t for the 3GS. It’s for the Rockchip 3188-based Retina-class Mini 3!

Sorry for the confusion! I will have an updated post [see this post] showing a tour of it and AnTuTu on the Mini 3 later today.

Oddly, only PadHz is reporting that. I can’t even find a post announcing it at the 5Fans forum. The last I read, it was still in beta testing and not to be a wide release to the general public. Anyway, for those outside of China, here is the direct link to the Baidu download [Google Translate; which tends to fail and displays the Baidu TOS in Chinese]. It’s a 495.29MB download. Next-day update: STOP! This isn’t for the 3GS. It’s for the Rockchip 3188-based Retina-class Mini 3!

It’s no coincidence this is done on the day Xiaomi announced their MiPad.

Windows Beta For Teclast X98 3G Released

Not only has Teclast released a Beta Preview of Windows 8.1 for their 9.7-inch Retina-class X98 3G, they’ve done it in a very stupid and restrictive manner.

This link goes to their forum, where the first problem occurs. The content is restricted:

Click=big

That is the usual pain in the ass, which translates to:

Tourists, if you want to see the hidden content, please quote reply

In other words, you must be a registered user of that forum and reply to the post in order to access the locked content.

Good luck registering with a Chinese forum outside of China!

This restricted content BS has been the bane of Chinese forums for me. Tablet wonk iambillbil has posted a few new reviews and they’ve been locked up just like that on the IMP3Net forum.

But at least I can still read the unlocked content.

Not so with Teclast!

Not Even China Can Save Microsoft

Microsoft is now irrelevant to computing, and they want you to know it

Then:

For the past few decades, Microsoft has been a monopoly with one game plan, leverage what they have to exclude competition. If someone had a good idea, Microsoft would come out with a barely functional copy, give it away, and shut out the income stream of the innovator. Novell, Netscape, Pen, and countless others were crushed by this one dirty trick, and the hardware world bowed to Redmond’s whims.

That is exactly how it was done, over and over again. To see it in action, go read Startup: A Silicon Valley Adventure by Jerry Kaplan. It’s all documented by a victim of Microsoft.

Xiaomi Introduces MiPad Tablet

And it matches nearly all of the rumored specs. The differences after the break.