ViewSonic is mostly known for the display game, but in January the company got into netbooks this January , and now it looks like it’s going after the complete opposite end of the spectrum with a 22-inch laptop for China (and hopefully elsewhere). At least that’s the word from not-always-reliable “industry sources” in Taiwan, who also claim ViewSonic is looking to sell small laptops bundled with monitors to further pad sales. We’ll have to wait and see if either tidbit pans out, but we’re always up for an extra gargantutop on the market to laugh at and secretly desire. Filed under: Displays , Laptops ViewSonic prepping 22-inch laptop for China? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Mar 2009 09:50:00 EST

Sure, you could always wait for Apple to release its first netbook (if they actually do ). But over here in China, when we want something bad enough, we go and make it ourselves. That’s right, manufacturers in Shenzhen have gone and created their own netbook. And in true copycat fashion, it has a hilariously inverted fruit adorning the top cover. Spec-wise, the WF188 actually isn’t too bad. It has a 10-inch LED display with a resolution of 1024 x 576, a 1.3Ghz Via Nano processor with the VIA VX855 chipset, and a max of 2GB RAM.

Good news people! The US army has confirmed that Israel has their very own circumcised version of Dr Manhattan’s schlong , which is estimated in 200 to 400 nuclear warheads by other sources. After years of ignoring the Israeli nuclear program—which was denounced in 1986 by former nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu—the United States’ Department of Defense has acknowledged Israel nuclear power status for the first time. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied the existence of its own nuclear arsenal, but page 37 of the US Joint Forces Command report recognizes the fact, putting it in the same group as Pakistan, India, China, North Korea, Russia, along with an “emerging Iran,” Taiwan, and Japan having “the capability to develop nuclear weapons quickly.” According to “The Samson Option” report—an investigative article written by reporter Seymour Hersh—Israel may have 200 to 400 atomic warheads, ready to use as the last resort in case of a massive attack that may put in danger the existence of the country. This is a big deal for two reasons: First, because the subject has been dodged forever by the US government, including President Barack Obama, who recently ignored the question when asked by White House correspondent Helen Thomas. And second, because to the Symington Amendment—which bans support to countries developing nuclear weapons—this may mean the end of US help to Israel. Or maybe this just means that someone at the DOD will get fired and the report corrected with a big black marker.

Chinese officials have reported a UFO sighting while they were on an airplane and, in case anyone thought it was just a case of baijiu -induced hallucinations, they snapped pictures of it too. In a report from Xinhua, the government-sponsored news agency, a group of journalists and officials were on a Southern Airlines flight in late February when one of them noticed an unusual luminous object traveling alongside their vessel. After excitedly pointing it out to everyone around him, one journalist managed to snap a few photos before the object suddenly changed directions and swerved north east. The witnesses debated whether it had been a plane – but later, another plane did appear and everyone agreed that it looked nothing like the unidentified object they’d just seen. Altogether, the alleged UFO sighting lasted about a minute. Any idea what it could have been

In case the Aura , Motorola’s 2008 luxury phone, didn’t scream nouveau-riche enough, some Chinese counterfeiters have decked their version out in a Louis Vuitton skin. Fake LV Aura eschews its pricey inspiration’s circular display for a standard square one and we’re guessing its specs aren’t even close to the already middling 2-megapixel camera, 2GB internal memory, 400 hour stand by time of the real Aura. But that one’s still $2000 (and you can’t resell it ), while this one’s about $113. And if you’re going to have a phone that tells people “I care about looks more than anything!” you might as well drop the illusion that you have any class at all. [ shanzhaiji ]

Generally speaking, SmartQ has stuck to what it’s best at — mediocre portable media players — without deviating an inch. Finally, someone at the company conjured up enough courage to take a risk, and we think the outcome is pretty decent. The simply titled and not-at-all-confusing HDTV Player is the firm’s very first set-top-box , which aims to play back a litany of high-definition files on one’s HDTV. As predicted, the box offers up an HDMI 1.3 port for getting all that lovely 720p+ content onto your screen, and there’s also a pair of USB 2.0 ports for connecting external HDDs and the like. Beyond that, details are astonishingly sparse, but we get the feeling it’ll be quite some time (read: forever) before this thing floats far from the shores of Asia. [Via MP4Nation ] Filed under: HDTV , Home Entertainment SmartQ introduces HDTV Player, lets it explain itself originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:41:00 EST

China Mobile already has one Android-based handset on track courtesy of Lenovo , but it looks like it’s not stopping there, with this pre-production HTC Magic (a.k.a. G2) now apparently making the rounds ahead of a May launch. What’s more, as with some other phones that have landed on the carrier, this one looks to have been pretty heavily customized for its debut, both in terms of its interface and its specs, which should now comply nicely with China’s own TD-SCDMA network. That, unfortunately, means the phone has dropped both 3G and WiFi connectivity, though it has at least picked up some nifty Dopod branding in the process. No word on pricing or an exact launch date just yet, but you can find plenty more pics and some (translated) impressions by hitting up the read link below

During the Lantern Festival last month, one village in China celebrated the same way they have for 500 years—by throwing molten iron at a wall to create showers of make-do fireworks. The villagers of Nanchuan, China put on an hour-long performance each year called Da shu hua (beating the tree to produce flowers). The iron throwers are protected from all that molten metal by nothing more than a hat and a sheepskin coat. Is it dangerous? The throwers joked that it’s not, as long as you’re not afraid to die.

Dell fully unveiled their Adamo laptop and it appears to fit somewhere between the Voodoo Envy 133 and MacBook Air with a 1.2 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 128-gigabyte SSD and .65-inch thickness. At .65-inches, the Adamo is one of the thinnest laptops ever, sitting five-hundredths of an inch closer to the ground than the Envy (.7″). But at 4 pounds, it’s heavier than both the Air (3 pounds) and the Envy (3.4 pounds). Its machined, one-piece aluminum chassis and glass display round out the premium features found on the Adamo.

We thought the RAmos T10 looked better than decent when we first saw it in January, and now that the company has hosted up a real-deal website for it, we’re even more in love. The unarguably stylish PMP sports a 4.3-inch WQVGA display (800 x 480), support for practically any audio / video format you can think of, a TV output, between 8GB and 16GB of internal memory, USB 2.0, and a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack. Word on the street has it that this sucker will be loosed in China next month, but who knows how long it’ll take to make its way into North America. [Thanks, Boris] Gallery: RAmos gets real official with sleek T10 PMP Filed under: Portable Audio , Portable Video RAmos gets real official with sleek T10 PMP originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Read