Allwinner Pimps Android 5.0 In New Video

This is the second video announcing Android 5.0 for the Allwinner platform.

The first focused on low-end devices.

This new one is in English and for the A80 (which is in the Onda V989, among other tablets).

Windows 8.1 Tablet: Changing Chinese To English Language

You want this:

Well, if you want English.

Most Windows 8.1 tablets from China ship with only the Chinese language installed.

To learn how to install English — or any other language — see the step-by-step video after the break.

The Damage Has Already Been Done In Book Publishing

Book publishers are incentivizing midlist authors to abandon them for Amazon

So when you’re a company that’s dealing with revenues in the billions (with a B), suddenly a product that can only sell a few thousand units and is ultimately “unscalable,” isn’t worthy of investment. So instead they invest in products that have the potential to not only sell millions of units, but also spawn spin-off merchandise and movie deals.

This has been happening for quite some time. It was evident way back in the early 1980s. Alarms were sounded back in the 1970s.

And here’s something the publishers haven’t taken into account. Even books that can grow into the kind of scale they seek don’t need them.

Exhibit A, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles first appeared in an American comic book published by Mirage Studios in 1984 in Dover, New Hampshire. The concept arose from a humorous drawing sketched out by Eastman during a casual evening of brainstorming and bad television with Laird. Using money from a tax refund, together with a loan from Eastman’s uncle, the young artists self-published a single-issue comic intended to parody four of the most popular comics of the early 1980s: Marvel Comics’ Daredevil and New Mutants, Dave Sim’s Cerebus, and Frank Miller’s Ronin. The TMNT comic series has been published in various incarnations by various comic book companies since 1984.

The Turtles started their rise to mainstream success when a licensing agent, Mark Freedman, sought out Eastman and Laird to propose wider merchandising opportunities for the franchise. In 1986, Dark Horse Miniatures produced a set of 15 mm lead figurines. In January 1987, Eastman and Laird visited the offices of Playmates Toys Inc, a small California toy company that wanted to expand into the action figure market. Development was undertaken by a creative team of companies and individuals: Jerry Sachs, ad man of Sachs-Finley Agency, brought together the animators at Murakami-Wolf-Swenson headed by Fred Wolf. Wolf and his team combined concepts and ideas with the Playmates marketing crew, headed by Karl Aaronian, VP of sales Richard Sallis and VP of Playmates Bill Carlson.

The established publishers can never, ever be as hungry as an individual who can see an opportunity and pounce on it.

Just ask — and here’s Exhibit B for the win — the McDonald brothers who met Ray Kroc!

Lei Jun: Pigs Will Fly

Weibo:

Get With The Post-Print World

Century 21 FX Exclusive

I understand how they’re marketing to collectors. But some of us out here are no longer collectors — yet we’d still like the information and images.

So why limit this to print and limit possible income?

China Android Malware Alert 2

‘DeathRing’ Chinese Malware Found Pre-Installed On Several Smartphones

One of the phones listed is branded by Haier, from 2009.

If a Haier phone can wind up compromised before it’s shipped, then something is very, very rotten inside of China.

Additional:

Android tablets at Best Buy, Target, Amazon, Walmart found to include major security flaws, malware

Previously here:

China Android Malware Alert
The Little Haier That Could

Teclast Dual-Boot X98 Air 3G User Report

Over at the IMP3Net forum is a post from a user about the Teclast Dual-Boot X98 Air 3G [Google Translate]. All of the photos were posted improperly and many don’t show.

This is the important part:

Benefits:

A thousand [yuan] to get into the dual system, affordable, value for money;

2, thin, large screen, ultra-high change rate performance to the edge, easy to carry;

3, modify a word, Excel, PPT to be easy;

4, when the phone can make [voice calls] (backup machine, ha ha)

5, can be connected computer, mouse, just like with a regular computer use;

6, extended stored dual system can be shared;

To be improved:
1, touch a little under WIN8 failure, occasionally off the page, point several times, hoping that all cases;

2, during input, the keyboard does not pop up automatically every time require a single tap keypad, good trouble, I hope this can be improved;

3, camera pixel bit low, enlarge the picture after seeing a lot of jagged, needs to be improved.

It also seems to me that the boot time to enter either system is slower than I’d like and could be a source of friction and frustration.

Previously here:

Teclast Dual-Boot X98 Air 3G Gets A Second Review

iFive Air: iFive Skin Examined

Over at the IMP3Net forum is a post examining the UI of the iFive Air [Google Translate]. No mention of Rockchip’s MultiWindow Android 2.0 being included.

There’s also an embedded video that shows the actual cold boot time of the iFive Air is more than the boasted ten seconds.

Previously here:

Prior iFive Air posts

CUBE i6 User Report

Over at the IMP3Net forum [Google Translate].