justinhuang
Latest
Taiwan prosecutes HTC's ex-lead designer for fraud and leak
Earlier today, the Taipei District Prosecutor's Office concluded its investigation on the HTC saga that mainly involved ex-lead designer Thomas Chien (pictured above). The report indicts the ex-VP for leaking HTC's upcoming icon designs -- likely from the yet-to-be-released Sense 6.0 -- by way of a presentation, which was shown to his then-future business partners for a new company they were forming together. There's no mention on whether the other party was tied to the Chinese government, as previously rumored, but the meeting was known to have taken place in Beijing back in June. The investigation also confirmed that Chien's naughty crew managed to rake in NT$33,566,000 or about US$1.12 million, in the form of false expense claims plus kickbacks from a supplier. In case you forgot, about a quarter of that cash was found inside Chien's Audi, with another quarter confiscated from him separately earlier. The prosecutors said while most other perpetrators have admitted to their wrongdoings, Chien continued to defend himself and remained in denial of some of his crimes. The court is therefore advised by the report to offer a heavy sentence for the traitor's "malignant" behavior.
HTC's ex-lead designer may have leaked info to China's Chengdu government
The latest development on the recent HTC saga reveals that Thomas Chien, the arrested ex-VP of Product Design, was possibly lured by the Chengdu municipal government to set up a phone company in China. According to Taiwan's Next Magazine (pictured above by sister publication Apple Daily), Chien flew to Chengdu several times in the first half of this year, which got HTC suspicious since it doesn't have any direct business there. The alleged offer was that if Chien left HTC with some of the technology plus some money, then the municipal government would -- through another company it set up -- take care of the remaining costs for opening the factory, production and marketing. Previous reports say while still at HTC, the ex-exec had e-mailed some confidential Sense 6.0 files to external contacts, but there's no confirmation on whether those people are linked to the Chengdu government.
HTC's exiting designers interrogated for expense fraud and stealing trade secrets (updated)
Earlier today, several top designers at HTC were arrested in Taipei under suspicion of fraudulent expense claims, as well as stealing trade secrets ahead of leaving the company to run a new mobile design firm in both Taiwan and mainland China. Five people were interrogated, with the most notable ones being Vice President of Product Design Thomas Chien (pictured above), R&D director Wu Chien Hung and design team senior manager Justin Huang (who also personally sketched out the One's design). Chien and Wu are taken into custody, whereas the others were released on bail (see video after the break). Their offices were also raided yesterday as part of the investigation.
HTC One is highly repairable with special secret tool, says lead designer
Many folks who've torn down an HTC One agree that it's practically impossible to do so without damaging the body, hence iFixit's low repairability score of 1/10. That said, as we found out from HTC's Frequencies Asia event earlier today, there's apparently an elegant solution to this problem. This little surprise came from none other than Justin Huang, the man who personally sketched the phone's conceptual designs. "During the development [of the One], there was another team inside HTC who looked at the repair process," said Huang, who's also the Senior Manager of the One's design team. "So every phone sent to HTC, they have a special tool to disassemble the back cover, to let us have the ability to access all the components inside." Huang added that his folks can even put everything back together neatly, as you'd expect. But the problem is that only HTC has this tool, and our man wasn't keen on revealing the magic behind it. This is bad news for those who want to do a bit of DIY repair or modification -- especially with different colors. "Don't try it," teased Huang with a smile. Fine, we'll just have to keep an eye out for this oh-so-precious kit in the Huaqiangbei markets. Or we can just tickle Peter Chou when we next see him.
