The new iPod touch will be available next week, and if you have pre-ordered one, here are some cases for you to take a look. These are silicone-based cases, available in a wide range of colors, and you might want one since Apple is not giving you a free case when you purchase the new iPod touch.

These silicon cases are pretty cheap, you can get one for just $19 Chinese yuan (about $3), at Chinese online store Taobao. More choices coming soon…

Source: Taobao

Sending private postal to China will face import tax under new customs regulations that took effect starting on September 1. The General Administration of Customs from China will collect an import tax if the import duty payable on individual mail items is worth more than $50 RMB (US$7.34). The change is aimed at fixing loopholes in the tariff system and cracking down on tax evasion through mail. The move is widely expected to hamper overseas online shopping services.

Previously, the duty on personal postal items to China from Hong Kong and Macau was exempted if the value did not exceed $400 RMB (US$58.75), and for other countries and regions, the exemption amount was $500 RMB (US$73.44). The new regulations will impact the overseas online shopping services, because the higher entry barrier will harm Chinese buyers’ enthusiasm, leading to a slowdown in the whole online purchasing market. Many small online shops in China will shut down, because the price will only be a little different with items sold in China after the new rules.

From time to time, a lot of foreigners will send postal items from overseas to China. But it certainly seems China doesn’t want people to import personal items anymore. China is throwing up barriers to entry in the form of taxes and other obstacles, to nearly all imported goods. The WTO deal didn’t helps, it seems more and more like a hollow agreement.

Source: Xinhua, GlobalTimes

Today, we’re lucky to get a peek into the latest iPhone 4 knockoff. It looks very similar to the original and cost waaaay cheaper than any smartphones. This is the Liphone 4, available in Shenzhen.

There’s always one bad thing on these iPhone knockoffs, the software sucks. On this Liphone 4, we are getting a crappy OS too, but it’s definitely alright for those people who never see, touch or use an Apple iPhone. For its tech specs, it includes a 3.6-inch HQVGA touchscreen display (480 X 320), 70MB of flash storage, accelerometer, dual SIM card slots, a micro SD card slot, Bluetooth, GPRS, Wi-Fi, FM radio, Java, front and back cameras featuring 2 megapixel which supports video recording. It has a fake iPhone UI which looks exactly like the original iOS, and we think it’s quite nice.

Not only the phone looks like the original, the knockoff makers even tried to copy the Apple packaging. The iPhone 4 box is exactly the same, customers get instruction manual, an USB power adapter, earphones, USB cable, a battery, and a mini-CD which contains some software for the Liphone 4.

There’s an Apple logo on the back of the phone, and the volume control buttons on the side. Same with the original, there’s also a mute switch.

On the top, there’s the 3.5mm audio jack and a power/standby button.

On the bottom, you can find the speakers and dock connector. According to the manufacturer, the size of the dock connector is the same as the one on the original, so users can use the original USB cable to connect the dock connector on this Liphone 4. This is amazing.

Here’s the lockscreen, users also need to slide to unlock.

The home screen. Sitting on the left is the Liphone 4, and the real iPhone 4 is on the right. I’m impressed with the copy work of the homescreen.

Here’s how you use the camera app on this Liphone 4. Just tap the camera icon to capture a shot.

It really comes with FM radio!

There are some Java games and a music player to handle audio playback, with support of MP3 files. The UI of the music player is another good piece of imitation.

Maps is also available on this knockoff, but it’s not Google Maps.

For just $599 Chinese yuan (about $88), you can buy this for your 6-year-old kid. It’s waaaay cheaper than the original, but the performance is really crappy. We don’t how much RAM is in there, and what’s the processor behind that screen, and there’s no extra apps to add into this Liphone 4. It supports both GSM and CDMA networks, but there’s no 3G. Anyway, we think it’s pretty worth to buy it for fun, and if Android is ported into this Liphone 4, it would be an incredible iPhone 4 knockoff, maybe the best. Dear knockoff makers, do you hear me?

Source: Shanzhaiji

As we had reported previously, the Meizu M9 is going to bring us with Android 2.2 and a “Retina” Display. Yes, the same display owned by iPod touch 4, which Steven Jobs mentioned as the best display in the world. In fact, we think Meizu M9 looks similar to the 4th Generation iPod touch, isn’t that right? Actually, the official image of Meizu M9 was unearthed after Apple press conference, probably Meizu CEO J.Wong can’t wait any more to show his M9…

This is so beautiful, Meizu M9 definitely is not going to be beaten easily by Apple.

Source: PConline

E-book readers are quite popular in China, especially those produced by Hanvon. Today, we see something interesting, an ebook reader which has a color display, supports all kinds of ebook file formats and it’s capable of playing full HD movies.

This JXD BOOK A21 is pretty awesome, it may be just an ebook reader, or a portable video player device. It’s not like the Amazon Kindle, since it brings you a 6-inch color touchscreen display (800 X 480). The screen boasts handwriting recognition, and the device supports a wide range of ebook file formats, such as TXT, PDB, PDF, HTM, HTML, CHM, UMD and EPUB. What’s more, it packs an audio jack, speaker, nine types of reading profiles and Text-to-Speech feature. Most importantly, it can handle videos, supporting RM, RMVB, AVI, MOV, WMV, MKV and VOB. There’s HDMI output too.

There are page-turning buttons located on the side of the device, allowing you to read and turn pages comfortably with your left hand. Comparing with Kindle, it also has the feature of bookmarks and annotations. However, there’s no QWERTY keyboard, Wi-Fi and web browser.

Other than the support of ebooks and videos, the device includes some mini-games. Regarding to the battery life, there’s no words about it. According to the dealer, customers will get a CD containing 5000 ebooks, and an opportunity to win a “dual SIM dual standby” mobile phone when purchasing this JXD BOOK A21. For the price tag, it’s currently unknown and it’s available at all gadget malls of China.

Source: iMP3

Today, we would like to share a poster that has a batch of banned hairstyles and each of them were given some funny descriptions. This poster would definitely be a great reference guide for the students as well as for those strict Chinese teachers. We are going to translate each hairstyles in English for you, and perhaps see is your hairstyle is banned.

Before looking into the banned hairstyles, let’s behold the appropriate hairstyles.

A standard hairstyle for male students: Not blocking the eyes in the front, not blocking the ears on the sides, not touching the collar at the back.

For female students: Not passing eyebrows in the front, short hair do not pass the collar at the back, long hair do not drop on the shoulder.

Source: Mop, ChinaHush

China will introduced a new system to protect privacy and reduce spam messages for their cellphone users. When people setting up their new mobile phone accounts, they are now require to register with their real identities. All carriers in China are to adopt the real-name registration system starting this month. Within three years, the carriers must also register the real identities of all existing users. In the meantime, many Chinese mobile phone users rely on prepaid phone services rather than contract plans that often require registration…

There are about 800 million mobile phone users in China, an estimate of 321 million user did not register using their real names. In China, there’s a large floating population from one province to another, therefore many users choose prepaid phone card services. They can conveniently buy a cell phone account in newsstands on the street without any registration. When the new policy takes place, the newsstands or any other convenience stores will be prohibited from selling SIM cards, violation will have a forfeit of $5000 RMB (about $735) for punishment. Implementing a real-name system for China cell phone users will produce logistical challenges for the mobile carriers.

Some Chinese users are concerned that the identification system may lead to their private information being leaked. Unregistered phone numbers could also very well become a more popular commodity. It will make certain Chinese user hesitate to get a new mobile phone number, if they can buy another number at similar cost that isn’t registered, due to the fears on identity security.

Source: ChinaDaily, Sina Tech

The new iPod touch is just like an iPhone 4, without the phone part. It’s thinner than the original, and we are wondering if the Apple Peel 520 supports this new iPod touch. Well, we guess probably not.

I’m so happy to see Apple has put most of the key features of iPhone 4 on the new iPod touch. It has a Retina display, A4 processor, gyroscope, front and back cameras. There’s no phone and 3G functions on it, but we have seen the Apple Peel 520 bringing these features to the original iPod touch. If you are thinking if the Apple Peel supports the new device, we think the manufacturer should do some updates on it first. They need to redesign the Apple Peel case, to make it slimmer and cut a hole on the back for the camera. The openings for the side buttons, speaker, mic and dock connector should be re-adjusted. And here comes the most important part, the software. Since the new iPod touch will be shipped with iOS 4.1, Apple Peel needs a new app to support the latest firmware, and the manufacturer needs to wait for a new jailbreak to allow his app to be installed through cydia on iOS 4.1.

Looking at this, we think the manufacturer of Apple Peel definitely needs to produce another case for the new iPod touch, allowing the device to gain the phone feature. If this works, it will be a totally different story. There will be no reasons for me to buy an iPhone 4, since I could get a similar device with almost all the incredible key features from the new iPhone, for half the price now. We will just sit down and wait for the new Apple Peel to come.

This is “Kill Noise Headphone”, featuring the function of filter off noise. It is an in-ear headphone, designed by Xiao-bin, a Chinese designer. Through the knob, it can adjust the decibel level of environmental noise, which works very similar to a tap filter.

For example, if you are on a bus with a crowd of noisy, the kill noise headphone can help to make your surrounding quiet. It is convenient and small, and it’s a very good tool for workers who work under noisy environment in order to protect their hearing ability.

Source: Weiphone

Any memory of “Hanvon“? This company which proudly smashed an Apple ice sculpture at a press conference to indicate the declaration of war between Apple. The manager of Hanvon’s operations technology resources disclosed, E-book shelf will be launched in China at the end of the year. The shelf powered by an around 45-inches touchscreen which can preview digital books.

Hanvon’s E-book Shelf had been debut in Beijing International Book Fair this year. According to Sina’s report, the E-book shelf has a height of 1.5m and its display size is around 45-inches, which capable to preview information like digital books and newspaper.

Hanvon’s manager mentioned, the E-book shelf will become the platform of E-book content download and books advertising, it will be the first wireless bookstores design in the world. Allegedly, those E-book Shelf will provide in Hanvon’s store, bookstores, or street kiosks department indeed.

Hanvon’s manager said, “In China, it is difficult for consumers to pay digital books download fees. If the E-book Shelf is placed at somewhere has large population movement, such as Subway station, the large display of the E-book shelf will aid new books sales.”

Source: Sina

One Apple retail store is definitely not enough in a big city of China. We have the very first in Beijing, and another one at Shanghai. At this moment, Apple is going to open one more store at each of these two cities. The new stores are covered with black curtain showing a big Apple logo and a web address, www.apple.com/cn. Excited?

Upcoming second Apple retail store in Shanghai:

And one more store coming to Beijing:

Just in case you are interested to check out the new stores, click here for the address of the one in Beijing, and here for the Shanghai’s. We think these two stores will be opened at the same time, so please stay tuned for more photos and info…

Source: Weiphone (1), (2)

Research firm Gartner is reporting that global cell phone sales for the second quarter of 2010 has an increase of 13.8 percent compared to second quarter of 2009. Gartner also published its worldwide cell phone market share rankings for Q2. The most interesting change is the addition of China maker G’Five to the list, while Nokia maintains the number one position. G’Five is the third China cell phone company which has made it to the top 10 ranking, the other two companies are ZTE and Huawei.

Gartner has reported that global cell phone sales for the second quarter of 2010 has a total of 325.6 million units. Nokia maintains the number one position with 34.2 percent share. Samsung is number 2 with 20.1 percent share, followed by LG (9.0 percent), RIM (2.3 percent), Sony Ericsson (3.4 percent), Motorola (2.8 percent), Apple (2.7 percent), HTC (1.8 percent), ZTE (1.7 percent), and G’Five (1.6 percent). Of the top ten manufacturers, only Samsung, RIM, HTC and ZTE showed growth in market share compared with the second quarter of last year. G’Five, the never heard before Chinese cell phone manufacturer, has made into Top 10 sales for 2 straight quarter and their competitor Huawei, well-known for telecom network supply, has been drop out of top 10 for the second quarter of 2010.

G’Five sold more than five million mobile phones throughout the world during the second quarter of 2010 and surpassed all other mobile phone manufacturers when it comes to rate of growth. G’Five only managed to shift significant amount of handsets less than one year ago. The Chinese company was located at Shenzhen China, which was only launched in 2003, is battling with ZTE and Taiwan-based HTC to see who will sell the most units. G’Five is mostly present in emerging countries and has launched more than 300 different handsets. Many of them boosts familiar designs like Sony Ericsson, Nokia or the Blackberry phones, but sport unfamiliar features like dual SIM support, dual batteries and mobile TV.

G’Five CEO has told the Chinese media that they will be targeting the India market for the next step. A lot of consumers like us from the developed country, are not so familiar with the brand G’Five, but they are doing very well in emerging countries like India, Egypt, Brazil and Africa. G’Fives sales ranking is at No.10, and Apple is at No.7, so the new kids on the block are really no kidding! And with the other 2 local competitor, Huawei and ZTE, three companies are all came from Shenzhen, a city in southern China’s Guangdong province. The manufacturer of Apple iPhone’s, Foxconn, is also located in Shenzhen, which is also producing Nokia and Motorola cell phones. Shenzhen is definitely a city of making cell phones for the whole world!

Source: Gartner, Yicai, Twitteling

School Started! A new group of undergraduates from different areas all over China. Basically, sufficient stationeries and books should be well prepared before step into class. But, this year is completely different because those stuffs are no longer the biggest concern. Parents in China wouldn’t hesitate to spend millions of Chinese Yuan to buy their children, iPhone, DSLR Camera, iPad, MP4, netbook and some other electronics devices. The reason of parents are doing that is just because they want to avoid their children despised by the other kids. Is this necessary?

In many colleges and universities in Hunan, the majority of students come with their parents. A student from Nanjing, his Nike backpack carried a lot of brand new stuffs, such as an around $7000 RMB DSLR camera, an iPhone 4 and a netbook. The student parent said, he thinks is acceptable to spend that much money on their children.

A Year 1 student in Hunan University, she acquired a netbook, mobile phone, clothes, handbag, plus around $2100 RMB of Cosmetics and skin care products, added up to a sum of $13,100 RMB, this amount is just about 2 months wages of her parents. Moreover, in some Chinese forum, some netizens tend to thoroughly showed off his repository that bought by their parents. Things like, PSP, Crystal Mah-jong, Apple laptops, formal dress, etc.

Chinese Netizens criticized that, the parents told their children to stint of money, but in fact they were buying expensive equipments for their kids to avoid despisal. This behavior would have impact on their kids’ concept of consumption and values, it will raise their mental comparisons to show off.

Well guys, should the parents spend millions Yuan on their children then?

Source: HKreporter

This young man spotted in the video doesn’t need a ladder to climb to his bed. He is a student of Beijing Sports University, he can jump 1.7m height without a spring board, that’s why he doesn’t need a ladder to get to his bed.

Source: Youtube

There’s a good number of nice Android tablets in China, ranging from 7-inch to 10-inch, Android 1.6 to Android 2.1. Now we have another decent-looking Android slate here, packing enough features to at least pique your interest, with the support of 1080p HD videos.

You’ll get Android 2.1, a 10-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen display, along with a 800 MHz Telechips 8902 ARM 11 processor, 256MB of RAM, 4GB of on-board storage, a microSD card slot for expansion (up to 32GB), HDMI output, 3G and built-in WiFi and GPS. What’s more, it brings you two mini-USB ports and a built-in 3200mAh battery.

Three buttons are located on the sides, functioning as lock, power and return.

Since it’s a prototype model, the brand logo is not yet engraved on it. Maybe an Apple sticker helps it.

Here you can see all the stuff, starting from the left — microSD card slot, SIM slot, mini USB ports, audio jack and DC power jack.

Since the resolution of the screen is 800 X 480, it seems useless to watch a 1080p HD movie on it, but with a HDMI port, it allows you to connect to your HDTV. The manufacturer provides another screen resolution option, 1024 X 600, with an extra charge of $200 yuan (about $25).

This Android tablet has hardware acceleration to process the games downloaded from the Android Market, and it has built-in accelerator too. So you can rotate the device anyway you like.

Well, it’s still not perfect. We don’t know how’s the battery life, price, and availability date. The weight of the device is acceptable, just 1.1 pounds. And we think it looks nicer than a crappy iPad knockoff.

Source: Shanzhaiben

While we are waiting for Steve Jobs to bring out the newest gadget on Wednesday’s Apple event, here we have some cases for the upcoming iPod nano, on sale at Taobao, a Chinese online store. This new nano case comes in 10 brilliant colors, includes a space for 1.7″ touchscreen, with a dock-sized cut-out along with room for what’s said to be a headphone jack, volume controls, a hold button, and a clip ’round the back. The Chinese case vendors are selling this as “Apple Nano 6 Silicon Case”, for just $3 yuan (about 45 cents). More pics after the jump.

These cases are available on both Taobao and Alibaba, screen protectors are on sale too!

Source: Taobao, Alibaba (1), (2)

This is Marvellous!!! This fantastic music fountain performance had obsessed a great number of folks and visitors, it took place on the Huangpu River between the two parts of the Expo Park in Shanghai. A video and a lot of awesome photos impart after the break.

Source: Youku, Sina, Xinhua

Now is hot summer times in Mainland China, so many of the Chinese girls would like to wear something short and exposed in order to cool down themselves and show their beautiful body, such as an extremely short Miniskirt. But recently, some male Chinese Netizens were saying over exposed wears in public area are causing “Visual disturbance”. Do you think this is true?

A netizen said, he was riding in a subway, he found some passengers were whispered about a fascinating girl with sexy wears. She exposed her sexy black panties, quite a few male passengers accidentally noticed her black panties, and they were embarrassed and tend to move away from her.

The netizen stated, girls love to follow the trend of fashion but they should be aware of their behaviour and posture in public area.

A reporter in Shanghai spotted a girl in a park sitting on a chair comfortably with her legs open and did an interview with her. That girl told the reporter that she didn’t think she was sitting indecently.

In shanghai, a survey showed 55% of residents think inappropriate wears in public will cause other people uncomfortable, and 44% of Shanghai folks agreed Over Exposed Wears can caused “Visual Disturbance” to males.

Source: Xinhua

We all now know that iPhones can be hacked easily, and China Unicom is helping you to do that when you purchase the iPhone 4 or iPad from them. Yeah, this is true, China Unicom says that on their promotion posters. However, not all Unicom stores are displaying these posters…

According to a Chinese netizen, he saw these posters at a China Unicom store located in Dongguan. He was shocked to see that Unicom is providing the jailbreak service to their customers, and at the same time, he asked the staff for the prices of the iPhone 4. The 32GB model with no contract will be selling at $6980 yuan (about $1025 USD), while the 16GB is unknown yet. We think it’s over-priced since we can get a 32GB for $5888 HKD at Hong Kong. By looking at the posters, we know three things, the iPad (probably 3G model) will start from $5680 yuan (about $835), customers will get free cases from Unicom when purchasing the iPhone 4 or iPad, and pre-order starts now.

The words circled above in red reads, “Support Service: Free SIM-trimming, jailbreak, installation of more than 10 hot apps”.

We think this may not be true. The jailbreak will not work on the new iPhone and iPad which are shipped with iOS 4.0.2/3.2.2 pre-installed. So, how does China Unicom jailbreak those new devices for the customers? Maybe they would only do it for the old models, but it’s quite happy to see that Unicom is giving out cases right away, customers do not need to get it through the case program. As far as we know, the iPhone 4 will launch by Unicom on September 16, but there might be some delays.

Source: Weiphone

Ferrari is a well-known brand of cars, it is expensive but a knockoff Ferrari mobile phone is now on sale in Shenzhen. It’s gold in color and looks crappy. Overall, we think it doesn’t look too weak.

Here’s how the top view of the Ferrari phone looks like.

An alike Ferrari logo is printed at the rear.

It is a flip phone, includes a 2 megapixel camera of 2.0 with LED flash and dual speakers. The speakers’ volume are in very high decibels.

Inner view of the Ferrari Phone

The phone adopted to use dual SIM dual standby, supports QQ (China’s IM), FM radio, and some other general functions we have seen on those knockoff phones.

Maybe you can buy one if Ferrari is your dream, for just $580 Chinese yuan (about $85).

Source: m8cool