We've been hearing that China Mobile would have its act together and get TD-SCDMA ready well in advance of the 2008 Beijing Olympics since last November, and with merely months to spare, it seems things just may work out. Reportedly, the carrier is all set to begin commercial trials of the home cooked 3G standard on April 1st, where it will be tested in Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Qinhuangdao and of course, Beijing. Initially, China Mobile Group will provide 20,000 lucky souls with free TD-SCDMA phones and subsidies of 800 yuan per month, while folks outside of that group can also walk into retail outlets and pick up discounted handsets on a whim. Maybe it's just us, but we'd probably hold off until those guinea pigs gave everyone else a heads-up of the network quality before we went dropping our own change on it.

[Via mocoNews]

Oscar Pistorius, a double-amputee sprinter, has been denied a shot at the Olympics... for being too fast. The runner -- who uses carbon-fiber, prosthetic feet -- was reviewed by the International Association of Athletics Federations (or IAAF), a review which found the combination of man and machine to be too much for its purely human competitors. According to the IAAF report, the "mechanical advantage of the blade in relation to the healthy ankle joint of an able bodied athlete is higher than 30-percent." Additionally, Pistorius uses 25-percent less energy than average runners due to the artificial limbs, therefore giving him an unfair advantage on the track... or so they say. Oscar is expected to appeal the decision, saying a lack of variables explored by the single scientific study calls for deeper investigation into the matter. Our suggestion? Prosthetic legs for all!

[Via Medgadget]

In celebration of the "one-year-out mark for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games," Lenovo has just announced that it will be conducting a series of back-to-back, week-long auctions to gift high bidders with its svelte Olympic-themed machine. Beginning on February 8, 2008, a "Cloud of Promise" laptop will be available for bidding each week leading up to the Olympic Games, and a number of them will even be "autographed by athlete ambassadors." Reportedly, "100-percent" of the proceeds will be distributed through the Lenovo Hope Fund to select philanthropies, including Right to Play, and the auctions will take place at the currently unavailable www.lenovohopefundauctions.com website.

[Via TechDigest]

It looks like the city of Beijing was suitably impressed with Nissan's still-in-development transportation safety system, as the city's now tasked the company with installing the system in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. According to The Wall Street Journal, the system, dubbed Star Wings, will rely on an existing Beijing system to collect traffic data, which Nissan will then turn around and transmit to drivers via an unspecified wireless network. That'll allow drivers to determine the quickest route to take which, in theory, should reduce congestion in the city, something Beijing's been trying to get under control in time for the Olympics. While that's not all that far away, Nissan seems confident that it can make a difference, saying it hopes to put the technology into a fifth of Beijing's 3 million cars by August of 2008 -- an ambitious goal it believes in can achieve in part by working with rental car companies and taxi fleets.

Following up on its Olympics-themed laptops, Lenovo has just announced a new series of desktops which will sport a tiny, barely visible Olympics logo in support of the upcoming Bejing games. The 3000-series J200 and J205 desktops both look the same on the outside (drab, gigantic, PC-ish), but pack ever-so-slight differences on the inside. The J200 is an Intel Celeron based model, with 512MB of RAM, an 80GB hard drive, and an integrated graphics chipset, while the J205 will feature an AMD CPU and... nope, that's all. The Olympic-lovers will be on sale in August for $399 and $449, respectively.

Just as in years past, the "planet's largest robot competition" is about to get underway in San Francisco. This time around, over 800 robots from 30 countries will be competing in 61 various RoboGames events, the most notable of which include combat, fire-fighting, android acrobatics, android kung-fu, and iron-man exoskeleton weight lifting. Best of all, the mayhem is actually open for the public to enjoy, so drown your kids' whining and head on over to watch metal-framed machines put your skills to shame. Check out a few more peeks of the action after the jump.

[Via Physorg]

Considering the sensational amount of knockoff gadgetry and counterfeit software that manages to emerge in China, it's only surprising that it has taken this long for a company (or two) to unveil a legitimate solution to at least curb the amount of black market goods that leave the country. Reportedly, Oracle will be teaming up with Hitachi to "jointly market wireless IC tags in China that can be used to identify whether products are real or not," meaning that tagged goods can now be easily identified as authentic when placed over a reader. The tags will be made and distributed by Hitachi and the duo of firms will promote the usage of said anti-piracy measures with the Tokyo-based Ubiquitous ID Center which issues and manages IC tags. Initially, the tags will purportedly be used with tickets for the upcoming Beijing Olympics and Expo 2010 in Shanghai, but there was no word on any planned rollouts or potential takers outside of these two events. Still, for Japanese wares makers that operate in China, ¥10 ($0.08) a pop for these piracy-thwarting tags sounds like an awfully fair deal. [Warning: Read link requires subscription]

[Via Yahoo]

Yeah, you may have thought those Santa Rosa, er, Centrino Pro-based ThinkPads were hot stuff, but they ain't got nuthin' on the future eBay value of the svelte new Olympic-inspired iteration. Shortly after Lenovo unveiled its 2008 Beijing Olympic torch design, the firm has already thrown down snapshots of its Olympic laptop, which certainly looks dashing in its own right. The stunning red and black case design is accented with a motif similar to that found on the torch, and the spiral designs actually seep beyond the external casing right onto the palm rests and around the LCD's bezel. Unfortunately, not much is know about the internal hardware that these presumably finely trained machines will sport, but early details suggests a 12.1-inch XGA display and Intel's L2400 Core 2 Duo processor will be in the mix. Additionally, mum's the word on pricing and availability, but you can rest assured that this bad boy will be one hot commodity whenever it lands in limited quantities. Click on through for a few more glamor shots.

[Via Engadget Chinese]

Apparently, Lenovo kept enough staff on board to create the 2008 Olympic torch, as the firm's Cloud of Promise design was recently selected over 300 competing themes and will be "carried by torchbearers around the world in the Olympic Torch Relay preceding the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games." With Lenovo being a China-based firm, the company's chairman (Yang Yuanqing) stated that it was "an honor to have its torch design chosen," and oddly enough, that wasn't the only cloud-related Olympic news coming out of Beijing. Reportedly, meteorologists will be utilizing a process known as "cloud seeding" to force rain out beforehand and subsequently clear the filthy skies and alleviate the purported "50-percent chance of rain during the opening and closing ceremonies." Of course, this isn't exactly a push to become a greener society or anything, but at least the HD feeds from around the area will look a bit better during the competitions.

Read - Lenovo designs Olympic torch
Read - Cloud seeding in China

If robots are going to take over the earth, they're obviously going to want to be active about it, even if it's only so they can stop us humans from pulling the plug. Taking a very tiny step towards such a fit robotic uprising is the RB2000, a 12-inch tall programmable gymnasticbot from JR Robotics in collaboration with Vstone. The RB2000's most innovative feature is that it's capable of performing complex swinging maneuvers on a crossbar, as the little fella does pull-ups and 360 degree swings with quite some competance. Seeing as this model is physically stuck on the bar (the bar slots in between openings in the robot's arms) we're not quite worried about robots hidden in the rafters just yet, but as always, we wouldn't say no to a quick update of that handy robot ethics guide. Death by swinging robot kick just ain't humanity's style, y'know?

[Via Primidi]

Even though the U.S. government may want nothing to do with its computers, Lenovo's still got so much love for the red, white, and blue that it's releasing a special-edition notebook branded with one of the most recognizable American icons: everyone's favorite tooth-decaying soft drink. Oddly enough, the company's Coca Cola-red, Pentium M-powered F20 was designed in honor of the 2008 Olympic Games -- which are not only two years away, but taking place in China, and not the U.S. (where was this lappy in 1996 when the Games were held in Coke's hometown of Atlanta?). Anyway, besides the snazzy paint job and stick-on Olympic rings, this version of the F20 is pretty much your run-of-the-mill 12.1-inch laptop, sporting an ULV 1.66GHz CPU, 512MB of RAM, integrated graphics, an 80GB hard drive, and all the ports, wireless radios, and card readers you've come to expect from notebooks these days. Obviously priced in yuan, this model is going for the equivalent of $1,575, but since Lenovo knows that you can't possibly resist drinking a Coke while you're using this machine, they're throwing in some of that high-tech Batmobile-style armor plating on the house.

[Via I4U]

Following unanimous approval by city council, the only remaining impediment between the City of Brotherly Love and ubiquitous wireless Internet access is a signature from Mayor John Street that, given his stance on the project, seems to be just a formality. Once Street gives the go-ahead, Earthlink will begin deploying its 15-square-mile test network in parts of North and South Philly, after which point the company will have the option of backing out should they be unhappy with the results of the trial. Assuming that all goes well, the city's entire 135-square-miles should be covered by glorious, data-rich signal sometime in the third quarter of 2007, which is when Earthlink and other ISPs will begin offering $20-a-month access with 50% discounts for low-income households. Besides creating a more attractive destination for businesses and tourists, the citywide network may also help convince U.S. Olympic Committee officials to choose Philadelphia as the country's representative to battle it out with other international cities seeking to host the 2016 Games.

[Via The Wireless Report]