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Beidou, China's GPS alternative, is now complete
China’s own global navigation system is now complete. Today, the country launched the last of the satellites that comprise its Beidou Navigation Satellite System.
China's alternative to GPS should be complete by mid-2020
China's competitor to GPS is nearly finished after years of work. Project lead Ren Chengqi has revealed that the Beidou Navigation Satellite System's core was completed earlier in December, and that the last two satellites should reach orbit "before 2020." This will technically be the third phase of Baidou, which first rolled out in 2000, but it represents the culmination of the satellite system. in its present form. You won't see a major upgrade until 2035, Ran said.
China gives its homegrown GPS rival another big push
Alibaba has teamed up with Norinco, a Chinese arms manufacturer, to roll out global positioning services using China's homegrown alternative to GPS. The two companies have sunk roughly $310 million into a new joint venture that'll harness Beidou's navigation satellites to provide mapping data to local businesses. It's another big step on the road to the country ending its reliance upon GPS, and comes two years after the service was opened up to heavy-duty transport vehicles and smartphones. It may not affect us outside of Asia-Pacific just yet, but with Beidou set to become available for all global users by 2020, it's worth keeping an eye on how good this new-fangled offering turns out to be. [Image Credit: ChinaFotoPress via Getty Images]
China's homegrown GPS to open up for smartphones
Now that China is comfortable letting drivers access Beidou to get around the middle kingdom, it's decided that everyone else should get easy access as well. Talking to Xinhua News, state official Yang Qiangwen said that it won't be long before the nation's made-at-home GPS is adopted by local smartphone makers. The government is seeking to attract investment to promote the technology for public use, presumably lobbying domestic manufacturers to get on board -- before making similar overtures to the big boys elsewhere.
Little Chilli LA-M1 outshines other QRD-based quad-core budget phones, we go hands-on
Spotted outside the auditorium at Qualcomm's China QRD (Qualcomm Reference Design) Summit earlier today were a handful of -- surprise, surprise -- QRD-based smartphones from China, several of which featured the Cortex-A5-based quad-core MSM8x25Q announced back in September. The usual suspects were there in the quad-core lot: Yulong had its Coolpad 5890 (EVDO) and Coolpad 7268 (UMTS), along with Hisense's U958 (UMTS) and Tianyu's K-Touch U86 (UMTS). These all fall within the so-called "¥1,000 ($160) phone" category and yet they are also gifted with a second SIM slot. But what really got our attention was Beidou's Little Chilli LA-M1, which also does dual-SIM (UMTS) but packs an OGS gapless IPS display, while the others came with an LCD panel of obviously lesser quality. Read on to learn more about this mysterious phone, as well as checking out our hands-on photos of the other aforementioned quad-core QRD phones.
China's homegrown GPS mandated for use in commercial vehicles
Store-bought clothes are the norm for most people, but there's always one kid at school whose parents insisted on hand-making everything they wore. In this labored metaphor, China's the overbearing matriarch, demanding its progeny adopt Beidou, its made-at-home GPS system to rival GPS, GLONASS and Galileo. The country's ministry of transport is mandating that vehicles used for transporting "dangerous articles," passenger buses and heavy-duty trucks swap out their existing systems for Beidou the next time they're due for an upgrade. Personal drivers escape the current decree, but those in rural areas will be greatly encouraged to make the transition as the country tries to reduce its dependence on Apple Maps western navigation platforms.
China launches GPS-like Beidou satellite services across Asia-Pacific region
China has kicked off commercial and public services of its Beidou satellite navigation system across the Asia-Pacific rim in earnest, after finishing trials it started last year. Civilians in the region as far away as Australia are now able to navigate using the satellites to a distance of 30 feet and speeds as low as 0.5 mph -- comparable to (WAAS-less) GPS, according to officials. Currently the nation has 16 navigation satellites aloft along with four experimental models, and expects to provide worldwide coverage by 2020 when it'll have as many as 40 additional units in orbit, according to China Daily. China launched the project in 2000 to avoid reliance on the US GPS system, and joins that service, Russia's GLONASS and eventually Galileo in the EU at the sat nav soirée. Check the source for the party line. [Image credit: Xinhua]
ZTE's U950 shows how Tegra 3 phone is done under $160
This might not be the $199 Tegra 3 tablet that NVIDIA's keen to see, but hey, a 999 yuan ($160) quad-core phone is just as impressive. Unveiled in China earlier today, this ZTE U950 smartphone packs a 1.3GHz Tegra 3 chip, 1GB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage and a 2,000mAh battery beneath the 4.3-inch display. There's also a five-megapixel camera plus a VGA front-facing camera inside the 9mm-thick body. Pretty standard stuff for an Android 4.0 phone, except for the price-per-performance ratio, of course. The first 100,000 customers who register now will be eligible to order on November 11th, though chances are the quota's all gone by now.
China begins trial operations of home grown Beidou GPS system
The Russians have GLONASS, and the EU will eventually have Galileo, so China's probably been feeling left out of the GPS party so far. Not for much longer though, as the switch for its home grown Beidou system has just been flicked on, providing location and timing data to its home turf. There are ten satellites already in place and six more to follow next year, by which time, most of the Asia Pacific will be covered. The rest of the globe will be taken care of by 2020, once all of the planned 35 satellites are sent up. So, while we may not see something like iPhone support right away, it might be handy to study the Interface Control Document the Chinese government's put online anyway, y'know, just in case.
