Lenovo has dropped three tablets for its home market. Hailing from LePad series, each tablet PC is sized differently to cater different set of crowds. The LePad S2007 and LePad S2010 are 7-inch and 10.1-inch tablets respectively and come with common specifications like Honeycomb OS, 1280×800 IPS display, dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm CPU, 1GB RAM, 8 megapixel rear-facing camera whereas 1.3 megapixel on the front, dual-mode 3G and Wi-Fi. Difference between both the tablets apart from the size and weight is the battery size, which is 3,780mAh in the 7-incher and double i.e. 7,560mAh in the S2010.

The third tablet which can also be classified as a phone is the 5-inch LePad S2005. LePad S2005 runs on Android 2.3.5 and features a WVGA display with improved viewing angle, Qualcomm dual-core 1.2GHz CPU, 1GB RAM, 5MP camera with full HD video recording support, 1.3MP front camera, micro-USB, HSPA+, micro-HDMI and 1,680mAh battery. Not as spectacular as Galaxy Note but could suffice some users.

All the tablets will be available from next month in China.

[Via Engadget]

Dell has inked a deal with China’s top search engine Baidu to develop mobile devices for the Chinese market. The new devices which will include both tablets and mobile phones, will run on Baidu’s upcoming operating system called Yi, which is a forked version of Android.

Dell hasn’t divulge the release of its devices but some industry sources speculate to be as early as November.

“We have a partnership with Baidu and you know we have the Streak 5 tablet, so the partnership will be in that space.”

Baidu Yi

[Via Reuters]

Dell has made their first 10.1-inch Honeycomb running tablet official and it will not be available in United States, at least for now. The tablet got the acknowledgement in China where Engadget was at hand for the official unveiling. The tablet is just another run-of-the-mill Honeycomb tablet but scores on the price front.

Streak 10 Pro features 1GHz dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, 10.1-inch 1280×800 display with Gorilla Glass, 1GB RAM, 5MP camera at the back, 2MP on the front, 16GB internal memory, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, SDHC card support and 2GB cloud storage.

It will sell in China for 2,999 yuan or about $465.

Shopping carts are generally used to lug around all the shopped goods but with the new Smart Cart from SK Telecom, the age-old cart will be able to do a lot more. Undergoing as a pilot test in China’s Shanghai Lotus Supermarket Chain Store, the Smart Cart works with the help of a smartphone and a shopping cart equipped with a tablet PC to show various shopping-related information.

After installing the app in the smartphone, a user can search for products, coupons as well as create a shopping list. The information on the phone can then be synced with the Smart Cart which can be used to get product information, offers or receive coupons using augmented reality. The Smart Cart uses indoor positioning technology to give consumers real-time information inside the store and also facilitates during check out by showing the purchased items etc.

SK Telecom will also pilot test the Smart Cart in South Korea soon.

[Thanks, Louise!]

Facebook is blocked in China so it doesn’t make any sense marketing a Facebook phone in China, right? Well, HTC believes that too which is why they’ve swapped the Facebook button found on the Salsa with China’s homegrown Sina Weibo. Sina Weibo is a microblogging service with 140m registered users.

The phone is known as Weike and apart from the button change, rest of the features are same. The phone is powered by an 800MHz processor and 512MB RAM and runs Android 2.3 OS. Weike also features a 3.4-inch display, HTC Sense UI, 5MP camera with flash, 3G support, Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi, GPS, microSD card slot and 1520mAh battery.

HTC will also launch its Flyer tablet in China later this month.

Product Page

[Via ComputerWorld]

Sharp who recently launched its phones for the Indian market will bring 3D smartphones by next year. Sharp has confirmed smartphones that don’t require special 3D glasses will be sold in the United States, China and India in 2011.

While we don’t have details on the upcoming phones, we can expect 3D phones similar to the Galapagos line that will go on sale in Japan next month.

Sharp reckons one distinguishing factor that will help them fight in the international arena is by selling phones with “unique abilities and original services.”

[Mainchi Daily via Engadget]

Nokia will be releasing a cheap Series 40 phone in the Chinese market soon. The X2-01 was caught in the flesh during a visit to Chinese authorities for approval. The phone supports GSM network, a 320×240 TFT display, 3MP camera, FM Tuner, Bluetooth and microSD card slot.

Nokia is expected to sell this phone for a price of around $150 to $200.

[Via Fonearena]

China’s Tianhe-1A created by the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) has been crowned as the world’s fastest Supercomputer. The fully operational supercomputer was revealed at the HPC 2010 China and runs at a record 2.507 petaflops, measured by LINPACK benchmark.

Tianhe-1A has managed to achieve this extraordinary feat by integrating a whopping 7,168 NVIDIA Tesla M2050 GPUs and 14,336 CPUs that consumes 4.04 megawatts as compared to 12 megawatts if the supercomputer was powered only by CPUs (more than 50,000 CPUs).

Tianhe-1A will be operated as an open access system for large scale scientific computations.

Press Release

Apple has announced the availability of iPhone 4 for the consumers in China. Starting September 25, users will be able to buy iPhone 4 with or without a contract at Apple Retail Stores and China Unicom stores respectively.

The iPhone 4’s non-contractual price is 4,999 yuan for 16GB and 5,999 yuan for 32GB and customers who buy from the Apple Store will be eligible for a free Personal Setup service, helping them to setup their emails, apps etc. before they walk out with the purchase.

Product Page

In a bid to strengthen its presence in the world’s largest mobile market, Sony Ericsson has unveiled A8i, a touchscreen device supporting China’s homegrown TD-SCDMA network for China Mobile.

The phone runs on OMS 2.0 platform and features a 3.5-inch touchscreen display (854×480), Wi-Fi, CMMB mobile TV, 5MP camera with LED flash, Bluetooth, FM Radio, aGPS, 3.5mm headphone jack and microSD card slot supporting up to 32GB.

Sony Ericsson hasn’t revealed the retail price but it will sell in Q4 of this year in black and white hues.

[Via CNET]