back to article Chinese 'Superphone' manufacturer declares war on Apple

Under the moniker of “Superphones”, streaming TV company LeTV has launched a trio of high-end mobes with all the subtlety of a hippo with toothache. As the first devices to have a new reversible USB type C, the specs are impressive. The key application for the device is LeTV’s over-the-top video service, akin to Netflix. As a …

  1. Phuq Witt

    Who? They?

    Who are these young upstarts? I thought this was going to be another Xiaomi story, when I read the headline.

    Slight correction:

    *"...posted a cartoon on its Weibo (Facebook for the Chinese) page..."*

    Ack-cherly, Weibo is more like a Chinese version of Twatter.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      They'll be bankrupt by the end of the month if their staff spend any more time on Weibo

      @ Phuq Witt; "Weibo is more like a Chinese version of Twatter."

      Did someone just say "Weibo"? 'Cause I think I just heard someone say "Weibo"

      "WE-I-BO! WE-I-BO!"

      Also, I like the name "Sina Weibo", because it'd be an ideal term for a Western person obsessively into Chinese culture. :-)

  2. james 68
    Facepalm

    "4K videos at 30ft..."

    I think you mean fps.

    1. Richard Taylor 2

      Yup a little limiting :-)

  3. Khaptain Silver badge

    The original image is easy to find and "subtle" would not definately not be one of the adjectives used to describe it

    http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/27/8298999/apple-hitler-china-letv-jia-yueting

    I wondered how much the Chinese know about Hitler and I came across this unusual article

    http://tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/theater-and-dance/75920/great-dictator..

    Obviously out cultures are quite dfferent

    1. Alan Brown Silver badge

      "I wondered how much the Chinese know about Hitler and I came across this unusual article"

      Not a lot, not a lot in other SE Asian countries either.

      Once you get off the beaten track it's not unusual to see scooter riders wearing german army-style helmets complete with nazi swastika decorations. They think it looks cool until they find out the philosophy behind it.

      1. Khaptain Silver badge

        "scooter riders wearing german army-style helmets complete with nazi swastika decorations"

        Replace "scooter" with "Harley" and that description could easily represent your local Hells Angels/Bandidos outfit....

  4. J. R. Hartley

    Dance the Adolf Hitler.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Und tanz der mussolini

  5. K

    Darn.. I think I've found the replacement for my xperia Z ultra.

    Now just got to figure out how to get one imported.

    1. Moktu

      That was my thinking too, seeing as Sony dont seem to be in a rush to replace the Z Ultra.

      I am also considering buying a new ZU, as they can be had for not much over £200 nowdays, and they're still powerful enough.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        The Z Ultra

        "I am also considering buying a new ZU, as they can be had for not much over £200 nowdays, and they're still powerful enough."

        I bought one because it was the cheapest small tablet I could get with a 3/4G connection. It gets more reaction than anything else; battery life is excellent, it's fast and the screen is very good. Just do not do a bend test on it, because it flexes visibly if you apply any force to the corners.

  6. matthewjs

    (Pedant alert) Surely a 6.3-inch screen means it's bordering on tablet territory, not phablet? A screen that big puts it smack at the far upper edge of what's considered a phablet.

    1. Steven Raith

      Phablet = phone and tablet, as opposed to being based on arbitrary size limits, does it not?

      1. Jamie Jones Silver badge

        Optional

        I have a 7 inch one (no sniggering at the back) and whilst I use it as a tablet, it's referred to as a phablet by the manufacturer, because of the dual sim.

        It also arrived with the os type set as android-phone, and all the same touchwiz crap that comes with typical phones. It was basically a giant phone, out of the box, both by software and by physical appearance.

      2. matthewjs

        No, phablet = phone so big it could almost be used as a tablet. And of course size is a differentiating factor: you don't get tablets with a 4-inch screen, and no one calls the 3G-enabled iPad a "phablet". As tablets start at around 7 inches, then a phone with a 6.3-inch screen isn't "bordering" on phablet territory - it's so far deep into phablet territory it's almost out the other side.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Not a tablet

      (Pedant alert) Surely a 6.3-inch screen means it's bordering on tablet territory, not phablet? A screen that big puts it smack at the far upper edge of what's considered a phablet.

      This is one of two reasons why I am no longer a BlackBerry owner. I was looking forward to being able to use BB Blend to work my Q10 from a Z Ultra when at home.

      Then the Play Store told me that the Z Ultra (6.3 inch screen) is not able to run BB Blend which requires at least a 7 inch screen.

      Personally I think that should be my decision.

      1. James 51

        Re: Not a tablet

        Couldn't you side load it?

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Not a tablet

          Possibly I could install it somehow, but I don't do that kind of thing on any of my line of business kit. And I shouldn't have to.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Like the Nazis? You'll *love* their allies!... oh no, hang on, you won't.

    There was that infamous Chinese "Nazi wedding" thing a few years ago:-

    http://www.cracked.com/article_20584_the-5-most-absurdly-offensive-theme-weddings-ever-planned.html

    http://www.chinasmack.com/2011/pictures/nazi-chic-cosplay-chinese-netizen-reactions.html

    This seems to be more common than one might expect over there.

    IMHO, the most effective way of making a point to Chinese would-be Naziphiles would be simply to ask politely how willing they might be to swap the costume with that of the Nazis' close allies. Then present them with the uniform of the Japanese army of the 1930s and 40s (of "Rape of Nanking" occupation infamy, et al).

    I suspect that wouldn't go down nearly as well... which is rather the point. If they weren't deservedly offended themselves (or still too ignorant to get it), they'd probably understand after the response they received walking down a busy streetful of government propaganda-indoctrinated citizens.

    1. PhilDin

      Re: Like the Nazis? You'll *love* their allies!... oh no, hang on, you won't.

      There's an interesting paralell, I always found the Mao themed restaurants in Dublin (I think originally from London) to be in bad taste likening it to the Chinese having a Hitler or Stalin themed restaurant. Well it turns out they know/care as much about our culture as we do about theirs.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Like the Nazis? You'll *love* their allies!... oh no, hang on, you won't.

        One major difference is that (as far as I can tell) the Chinese in general don't view Mao in the same way that Europeans view Hitler. While the Communist party acknowledges that some (emphasis *some*) of what he did was bad, he's quite obviously not seen- or at least not shown- that way.

        That said, I agree that those restaurants are still in very poor taste, given what most people in free countries know (or ought to know) about- for example- Mao and the party hierarchy gorging themselves on banquets at the same time that tens of millions died from overwork and being starved to death, reduced to eating tree bark, as a result of their policies.

        Quite how the Chinese would feel about Mao if entirely uncensored discussion about him were permitted is unclear. I'm sure that a surprising number of zealots and nationalists would still argue that what he did was A Necessary Evil that led to the resurgence of the country's power.

        But I know that personally I consider him as much of a sociopathic mass murderer as Hitler and Stalin.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Like the Nazis? You'll *love* their allies!... oh no, hang on, you won't.

        Not really, because a Mao is not a villain in China, I've eaten at restaurants with Mao Pictures on the wall, one tiny place I ate at had a picture of the owner with Mao on the wall...

        I think that the west (especially the USA) has a very negative view of Mao, yet in China, they learn more about the good that came out of what he did... The only known cure to Malaria is due to him (mistrusted the west, told scientists to go back to nature and Chinese medicine, they found a cure using a plant)

        1. james 68

          Re: Like the Nazis? You'll *love* their allies!... oh no, hang on, you won't.

          If you are referring to quinine (which is an extract of a tree bark) then that was discovered centuries ago by native Bolivians and Peruvians and brought back to Europe by Spanish Jesuits in the 17th century and was been used in "Western medicine" for 300 years before Mao was even born.

          Methinks you'll find that the story you related is just another of many examples of communist dictators claiming credit for something they had nothing to do with, much like everything claimed by Kim il Sung, Mao etc.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Like the Nazis? You'll *love* their allies!... oh no, hang on, you won't.

            nope, not quinine... its artemisinin I think... first heard about it in a British documentary about Malaria...

            this was something known to Chinese medicine for centuries..

            Sure he did bad, but he also did good, and the west only ever talks about the bad, that is the point I was trying to make....

            The Famine is probably the one thing that sticks out as his worst legacy..

            1. Tom 35

              Re: Like the Nazis? You'll *love* their allies!... oh no, hang on, you won't.

              1596, Li Shizhen recommended tea made from qing hao specifically to treat malaria symptoms.

              I think that's just a bit before your friend Mao.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Like the Nazis? You'll *love* their allies!... oh no, hang on, you won't.

          <em>Mao is not a villain in China</em>

          Depends. As it does with Mussolini. In many Italian magazine shops you can buy calendars featuring pictures of Il Duce (quite possibly the most silly looking 20th century dictator, which is quite an achievement).

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Like the Nazis? You'll *love* their allies!... oh no, hang on, you won't.

            "In many Italian magazine shops you can buy calendars featuring pictures of Il Duce (quite possibly the most silly looking 20th century dictator, which is quite an achievement)."

            Mussolini's big mistake was falling in with Adolf. He was considerably less bad than Franco, and apart from his African war (no worse than those of the other European powers) possibly even an improvement on Pinochet. And if I thought GWBIII really made the decision to invade Iraq, and not his minders, I'd say Mussolini wasn't as bad as Shrub.I'd put him, in fact, on a par with Blair (who also chose the wrong mates but lived to profit).

            This is not to say he was one of the good guys - he wasn't - just that there are plenty of former rulers at least as bad who are looked on favourably by at least the Conservative Party in this country, and perhaps UKIP.

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    > There was that infamous Chinese "Nazi wedding" thing a few years ago

    Prince Harry wannabe ...

  9. Sir Sham Cad

    Well, it got the headlines.

    On another note, 6.3 inches for a phone screen? I know it's designed to maximise the VoD experience but seriously, how sodding big have your hands got to be to use that as a phone? I had to make a call on an iPhone 6+ earlier and that was a fistful!

    Deffo more to the Tablet side than Phablet. God it's beautiful, though.

  10. Miss Config
    Holmes

    Chinese And Hitler ? Wong

    Any query about Chinese knowledge of the Nazis is answered by the fact that there is a Chinese actor named Hitler Wong. I shit you not :

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120894/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm

    1. Adam Foxton

      Re: Chinese And Hitler ? Wong

      Does he have a sibling with a similarly Nazi-ish name?

      If so, could the two Wongs make a Reich?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Chinese And Hitler ? Wong

        That post is just wong on so many levels.

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