China

Mistakes and software bugs are a normal fact of life but some can be more damning than others. At a time when phone manufacturers, especially Chinese ones, are fighting to wash their hands clean of any perception of political bias, even an allegedly innocent mistake could become a PR and legal mess. That might be the situation Finnish company HMD Global might find itself in after it has been discovered that a number of its Nokia 7 Plus phones have been sending data to a still-mysterious server located in China.

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The CEO of Meizu took to the brand's official bulletin board in China to suggest that their futuristic "Zero" phone was no more than a marketing ploy. The phone seemed pretty neat, what with its complete lack of ports and holes (save the microphone holes), and a design that seemed utterly futuristic. Working models of the phone DID exist, but it seems clear now that the company never meant to actually put the phone into production.

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The OPPO F11 Pro has a 6.52-inch display with no notch, no camera hole, and a bare minimum bezel around all its edges. This smartphone is beautiful - and not just because it's got a full-coverage front-facing display. This device is also colorful, and it has a rising front-facing camera, and it's been revealed officially by OPPO just this morning.

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China has plans to launch four deep space missions by 2030, and one of those projects will include launching its own Mars lander. The nation anticipates launching multiple Mars probes, the first scheduled for a 2020 launch with the goal of putting a lander on the Red Planet. Assuming it is successful, the rover would join NASA's still-operational Curiosity and InSight landers.

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China's dystopian 'social credit' system has resulted in millions of people being banned from public transportation. According to the National Public Credit Information Center, China blocked the attempted purchase of train tickets and, in some cases, attempts to travel outside of the country due to low 'social credit,' which can result from back taxes and unpaid fines, among other things.

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Chinese smartphones have taken the market by storm by sheer numbers. Disregarding international phones that are made or at least assembled in China, phones from Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, and OnePlus have filled every tier in almost every market with phones whose prices would make other manufacturers cringe and consumers drool. But if these phones are really that great and they offer the best value for your money, why have they failed to establish themselves as the smartphone brands to beat. Unfortunately, these days, it's less about actual technical or quality issues and more about public perception based on history and, sadly, some ill-advised decisions by a few key players.

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Hong Kong's Correctional Services has revealed plans to test various surveillance technologies with the intention of creating 'smart prisons,' according to a local news report. The technologies are intended to monitor for unusual behavior among prisoners, Correctional Services Commissioner Danny Woo Ying-ming revealed this week. The systems will include AI cameras, robots, and real-time heart rate monitoring.

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The near future is a race to the first real-deal functional and worthwhile foldable display smartphone, and iQOO seems to be right up front of the pack. We don't yet have evidence of a final, real smartphone just yet - but the renders look top-notch. If what we're seeing here translates into a real product in the near future, big-name brands bringing foldable devices to the market better watch their back - this might be a real contender.

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There's a bit more information - and some very clear, extremely vibrant photos of the Xiaomi Mi 9 out there this morning, courtesy of the company itself. They've made clear they intend to show the Xiaomi Mi 9 in the immediate future, not only at an event on February 20th, but again on February 24th, too. What better way to put the crunch on Samsung than to hold two events where one event just won't do the trick?

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Xiaomi is aiming directly for Samsung's bread and butter this month as their next smartphone's reveal event date shows. This event will take place on February 20th in China - making it impossible to not see the reveal of their next phone as a direct challenge to Samsung's same-day event. The Samsung Galaxy S10 will have to face off against the Xiaomi Mi 9, a smartphone the company calls its "most powerful and beautiful phone" they've ever made.

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The Chinese Academy of Sciences has announced the successful launch of a weather rocket from an unmanned semi-submersible vehicle. This is the first time a rocketsonde has been launched from an autonomous watercraft of this kind, according to the institution, which says the vehicle was designed and developed entirely within China. The vehicle can be used to launch these meteorological rockets when in "severe sea conditions," according to the project's lead author Chen Hongbin.

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If you're looking for daring design in a new smartphone in 2019, look toward China. Today we're looking at three new phones revealed by the folks at Oppo as they take aim at the UK for the first time ever. In the mix are the Oppo Find X (a truly powerful beast), and two editions of a device we've already seen up close and personal: Oppo RX17 Pro and RX17 Neo.

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