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Samsung has postponed Galaxy Fold launch events in China
The $2,000 Galaxy Fold is already off to a bumpy start no thanks to some broken review units (ours is fine, by the way), and though the April 26th launch in the US remains unaffected, folks on the other side of the world aren't as lucky. Over the weekend, Samsung announced that it has postponed the press events in Hong Kong and Shanghai, which were originally scheduled for April 23rd and 24th i.e. this coming Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.
Apple HomePod launches in China on January 18th
Apple's HomePod has only been available in a handful of countries (mostly North America and Europe) so far, but it's expanding availability in grand fashion. The company is releasing its smart speaker in China, including Hong Kong, on January 18th. There aren't any major changes to the device for its Asian debut, but it'll naturally tap into local playlists and support AirPlay for services beyond Apple Music.
Cathay Pacific data breach affects up to 9.4 million customers
Cathay Pacific, the primary airline of Hong Kong known for its high-speed WiFi, was hit with a major data breach that affects up to 9.4 million passengers. The company said that personal information including passport numbers, identity card numbers, credit card numbers, frequent flyer membership program numbers, customer service comments and travel history had been compromised. No passwords were compromised, which may not be any consolation.
Google Pixel 3 XL hands-on in Hong Kong -- three days early
With some smartphones, it seems inevitable that the closer the launch date, the more leaky they get. Google's upcoming Pixel 3 series -- due to launch in New York next Tuesday -- is no exception, and I'm speaking as someone who had just gotten up close and personal with a Pixel 3 XL earlier today. I borrowed the phone from Hong Kong mobile shop WahPhone Digital, which is actually offering this fully-boxed device for a mere HK$15,880 or around US$2,030. Ouch.
Xiaomi's Hong Kong IPO expected to raise at least $10 billion
Xiaomi's interest in listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange hasn't exactly been a well-kept secret, and following months of speculation, the time has finally arrived. Today, the Chinese smartphone maker filed its initial public offering documents, and according to Bloomberg's sources, this IPO is expected to raise "at least $10 billion." This would make it the world's largest IPO since Alibaba listed for $25 billion in New York back in 2014. Furthermore, Bloomberg said Xiaomi may see a valuation of "as high as $100 billion," which is about one-ninth of Apple's.
Lumos bike helmet adds Apple Watch gestures to control turn signals
It's been almost three years since we first came across the Lumos smart cycling helmet, which got our attention with its cunning automatic brake lights and wirelessly-controlled turn signal indicators. The helmet has since been shipping as of late 2016, but the Hong Kong startup didn't stop there. Today -- which happens to be the first day of Bike Month -- Lumos is releasing an update that adds gesture control for the helmet's blinkers via Apple Watch, along with Apple HealthKit integration for automatic cycling tracking.
Smugglers used drones to sneak $80 million worth of phones into China
China's Legal Daily reported today that officials in the country just shut down a major smartphone smuggling scheme. A total of 26 suspects were arrested in connection with the plot. The individuals allegedly used drones to string two cables between Shenzhen in southern China and Hong Kong and with the setup, they could reportedly transport as many as 15,000 phones in a single night. Those arrested are accused of smuggling 500 million yuan (approximately $79.5 million) worth of smartphones.
My $200,000 bitcoin odyssey
This was not what I expected to be doing with my October. But there I was, on a flight to Hong Kong, hoping I would be able to retrieve $200,000 worth of bitcoin from a broken laptop. Four years ago, I was living in Hong Kong when a fellow journalist named Mike* and I decided to invest in bitcoin. I bought four while Mike went in for 40; I spent about $2,000 while he put in $15,000. At the time, it seemed super speculative, but over the years, bitcoin surged and Mike seemed downright prescient. I had since relocated to Los Angeles and had been texting Mike about the 2,000 percent rise in our investment. *Name changed for anonymity. Strangely, I wasn't getting much of a response from him. He had 10 times as many bitcoins as I did -- shouldn't he at least have been excited? Finally, when the price of one bitcoin broke $4,000 this summer, I sent him this message: "You do still have those bitcoins right?" That's when he broke it to me: "Maybe not ..." Here's what happened: At some point in 2013, Mike had rightfully become concerned about security. He initially kept his coins in an exchange called LocalBitcoins. Exchanges are commonly used to buy and sell cryptocurrency, but you shouldn't keep your coins there. The most infamous bitcoin scandal to date was when Mt. Gox, an exchange based in Japan, lost 850,000 of its users' bitcoins. Exchanges can also suddenly close, as some did in China this year when the Chinese government suddenly made them illegal. Any serious cryptocurrency investor will tell you that your coins are best kept in "cold storage" (an offline hardware wallet). That's what I'd done with mine, but Mike hadn't gone that far three years ago when he started thinking about security. Instead, he set up a software wallet. It was a good step, but he would soon learn, it was not foolproof.
Orii smart ring turns your fingertip into a Bluetooth earpiece
While modern Bluetooth earpieces are more compact than ever, chances are you'll still need to leave at least one stuck in your ear. This can get uncomfortable over time, not to mention the dorkiness that's been haunting this form factor since day one. Hong Kong startup Origami Labs thinks it has an alternative solution to this problem: why not repackage the Bluetooth earpiece as a ring, and then use bone conduction to transmit audio to the fingertip? That's the basic concept behind the Orii smart ring.
Iran censored porn so hard it broke the internet in Hong Kong
If you had trouble visiting explicit websites in the last few days, the fault may have come from an unexpected source: Iran. According to a new report from The Verge, a recent attempt to block pornography websites in the country's borders hampered access in Russia, Hong Kong and other nations in the region. What happened? Apparently, Iran's national telecom abused the honor system.
You can still buy the Note 7 in Hong Kong, but you shouldn't
Hong Kong's Sincere Podium is home to all manner of mobile devices -- be it second-hand phones, imported handsets (mainly from Japan and Korea), spare parts and even prototypes once in a while. This time, the mall appears to be the last place in the city -- if not the world -- to still be openly selling the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 despite the worldwide recall. Over the weekend, I came across a shop with a glass cabinet full of boxes for the 64GB Note 7, with a bright sticker on one of them saying "Samsung Note 7 dealer goods: special offer" in Chinese. I didn't think much of it and simply tweeted a couple of photos, only to be surprised by the posts' traction over the last two days.
Hackers steal $63.7 million from Bitcoin exchange
A Hong Kong-based Bitcoin exchange has suspended all transactions after hackers stole a significant sum of the cryptocurrency. Bloomberg is reporting that 119,756 BTC, currently valued at $63.7 million, has been taken from Bitfinex. The news has helped to contribute to a drop in Bitcoin's value, and over the last two days it has fallen by around 13 percent.
Hong Kong Pokémon fans protest over Pikachu translation
Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have caused a minor international kerfuffle after deciding to reduce the number of languages it translates Pokémon games into. Back in February, the pair revealed that Pokémon Sun and Moon would be released in traditional and simplified Chinese -- the former for Hong Kong plus Taiwan, and the latter for Mainland China. But rather than keeping the three original sets of localized character names for these markets, the companies dropped Cantonese -- the main dialect of Hong Kong and many overseas Chinese folks -- and unified the Mandarin Chinese names used by the two other larger markets. The news didn't go down well with Pokémon fans in Hong Kong, and yesterday, around 20 locals staged a protest outside the Japanese consulate, with help from anti-communist political party Civic Passion. They came armed with banners demanding that Pei-kaa-jau (Pikachu's new name in Cantonese) should be restored to Bei-kaa-chyu (the original Cantonese Pikachu) for their local market.
uHoo edges out other air quality monitors with extra sensors
We've now gotten to the point where we can rely on pigeons for monitoring outdoor air quality, and there are plenty of conventional options for indoor as well. But there's always room for improvement, which is why we're looking at the uHoo. Impressively, this pint glass-sized device packs up to five air pollutant sensors, thus allowing it to measure the usual dust and volatile organic compounds, as well as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and ozone -- these three can't be detected by most other monitors in the consumer market. On top of that, the uHoo can also keep an eye on the temperature, humidity and air pressure, which comes in handy as these contribute to our wellness, too. The live data is fed to your iOS or Android device via Wi-Fi, and the app will alert you when the air goes bad in one of the rooms.
Move It puts a smart mini gym in your room
Eons ago, I used to go to the gym several times a week, but nowadays I can give you hundreds of reasons for why I no longer do so. Meanwhile, my beer belly is slowly engulfing my belt, and that's never a good sign (I really should have joined the Engadget Fitness Challenge). This is pretty much the kind of scenario that Hong Kong's Eggplant Technologies is targeting with its Move It smart fitness apparatus, which has just launched on Indiegogo ahead of its August shipment. In a nutshell, this is a four-in-one compact gym kit that you can leave in one corner of your home, and it comes with a mobile app that not only coaches you, but also lets you meet and challenge other fellow Move It users around the world.
Two major visual effects studios join forces for VR push
Digital Domain, the visual effects studios that brought you feature films like the Transformers series, the X-Men series, Iron Man 3 and Her, has announced that it's acquiring an 85 percent stake in Hong Kong's Post Production Company Limited and its parent company for HK$135 million (about US$17.3 million), in order to make a big push in virtual reality. This is obviously a big deal for both parties: Post Production has been involved in many major Chinese movies, TV ads, music videos and even a cooking show hosted by the company's founder, Nicholas Tse, who also happens to be a local pop artist and actor. Digital Domain CEO Daniel Seah put it best by calling Post Production "the Digital Domain of China," and he added that Tse will stay on to run that part of the business.
Tesla wants a factory in China, and fast
Ahead of his participation in a Hong Kong technology forum tomorrow, the ever so busy Elon Musk has managed to take some time out to give us an update on how Tesla's doing in Greater China. Without revealing specific sales figures, the CEO told Engadget that his company is now "doing reasonably well" in Mainland China despite the earlier hiccup, and he aims to lock down manufacturing plans -- finding a local partner and a location for the plant -- for the local market by middle of this year. As with most other foreign auto makers who do business in China, this key strategy is to waive the high import duties charged by the local government, as well as to access other local incentives for EVs. Until then, Musk said there's no further news to share on that end.
Air Button adds handy shortcuts to NFC-enabled phones
The idea of customizable add-on buttons for smartphones isn't exactly new. First we had Pressy (which was quickly cloned by Xiaomi and others), then the Dimple NFC button pad came along. So what's next? Well, a Hong Kong startup thinks Dimple has space for improvement, which leads us to the Air Button. As the name suggests, this is yet another battery-less button that also makes use of -- and without interfering with -- NFC on the back of many Android devices, except it doesn't have a memory limitation as the commands are stored in the app, so you can assign literally as many actions and apps as you want. For instance, you can set it to be an emergency button that toggles an audio alert, a flashlight and a phone call at the same time. Or you can have a sports mode button that starts playing music as well as launching your preferred fitness app.
Apple Pay comes to Australia and Canada this year
At last, Apple Pay will be available outside of the US and the UK... if you have the right credit card. Tim Cook used his company's fiscal results call to confirm that the tap-to-pay service will be available in Australia and Canada by the end of 2015, while Hong Kong, Singapore and Spain will get it in early 2016. However, it sounds as if you'll be limited to using an American Express card at first. Despite leaks, you probably won't be using any other account for iPhone-based purchases on launch. It's likely that other providers will get with the program, though, so don't despair if you prefer MasterCard or Visa.
Beddi smartphone alarm dock hooks up to Uber, Spotify and Nest
We've seen plenty of smartphone -- well, mostly iPhone -- alarm docks in our lifetime, but there's been little development on that end in recent years. OK, there was that one bacon scent alarm from Oscar Mayer, but not much else. That's why we were pretty stoked when we came across Witti's neat and affordable solution dubbed Beddi. This $100 minimalistic dock houses an iOS or Android phone in landscape mode on the top, and recharging is done via your own USB cable -- you get a 2.1A port and a 1A port on the back. But it's really all about the companion app: Once paired up over Bluetooth, you can preset Beddi's three physical buttons to either call an Uber taxi, toggle a Spotify playlist, control the temperature on your Nest or switch on a Philips Hue light. Some of these can even be automated according to your desired schedule.
