china

This is another one of those deals that's likely to raise a few eyebrows, or at least produce some unwarranted exclamation points. The long and short of it is that Microsoft and Motorola have come to a deal that will make Bing the default search engine on Android devices released in China in the first quarter.

Here's another way to write that headline: "Manufacturer does what it wants with its own phones."

While it's the first time we can think of Bing...

It's no secret that Google and China are having some differences. The crux of the disagreement is China's notoriously stringent censorship of the web and we definitely applaud Google for refusing to continue censoring search results that may cause Google to pull their search engine from China entirely (especially given the massive potential profit they could be making).

This is incredibly odd. China Mobile's Ophone platform, which is based off Android, just received an update from 1.5 to 2.0. That's great because it gives Ophone users new features like voice recognition and SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) support. But that's not odd part. The odd part is that the update to the Ophone platform will also include support for Windows Mobile API. Android and Windows Mobile sitting in a...

If you're just dying to get your hands on the Motorola Backflip (speaking of hands-ons, check out ours with the phone), tickets to China are running about $800 right now. 'Cause that's where you're going to have to go to pick up what's being billed as the ME600 on Motorola China's Web site....

Hey hey! Even though Google and China are having a little standoff, with Google even going as far as delaying 2 Android phones in China, it looks like the Lenovo LePhone will carry on business as usual. It's set to release in May of this year...

Looking to market your Android app in China? Don't want to be bothered with Google's Android Market? Motorola's got you covered with SHOP4APPS. It's offering app testing, merchandising and promotion within China, interesting given Google's recent pullout.

On the one hand, it's yet another app store. Just...

Looks like we might be seeing the first fallout in Google's tiff with China over reported cyber attacks and having to censor search results because of Chinese law. The launch of pair of Android-powered smartphones -- one from Motorola and another from Samsung -- scheduled for this week has been delayed. According to Reuters:

A source familiar with the situation said Google Inc wanted customers to have a "positive experience" with...

Seth Weintraub at Computer World asks a good question: If Google really leaves China because of Internet search filtering, what will that mean for the future Android? There are billions of eyeballs at stake in China, and Motorola already has a...

The Droid, Cliq, & Backflip aren't the only Motorola Android devices around. There's also the XT800 and MT710. Confused? Yeah, it's okay. We've seen these China-only devices previously but have heard very little since. At CES, we actually got a brief hands-on with both devices and came away pretty impressed. Surprisingly, these devices are extremely well built...

Why, hello again Motorola Zeppelin. We've seen the back of you already, and now we finally get to see your front face. Not too shabby in our opinion, the contours of the Zeppelin, or XT800 as it's called in China, liken in to a rock or pebble--there's something very natural about it. The same good stuff we reported might be even better than...

The Motorola Sholes Tablet that popped up a few days ago has reared its (rather ugly) head again. The Sholes Tablet is actually looking less like a tablet and more like just a smartphone but any way you spin it, that odd bump on the lower right corner is unshapely and just plain weird. Considering the hard angles and clean lines of the DROID, it's rather odd that Motorola would...

Dell's first Android smartphone, the Dell Mini 3i, is set to launch in China on China Mobile and some details have finally come to light. According to China Mobile, the Dell Mini 3i packs:

The much anticipated Dell Android Smartphone is officially official and it's headed to China & Brazil. The Dell Mini 3i, as it's known, looks like a cross between an iPhone and a Palm Pre with touches of the myTouch 3G. The Dell Mini 3i will launch on China Mobile in China without 3G and Claro in Brazil with 3G. Obviously, the biggest head scratcher is why is a big time US company not releasing their first big time phone in the US and we honestly have...

Update: The WSJ reports that the Dell Android Phone may be headed to AT&T. AT&T is currently the only carrier who have yet to reveal their Android plans.

When we first heard that Dell was making an Android-powered smartphone we...

Not this again. China Mobile has ruined another potentially good phone. The LG GW880 is LG's first Android device, and though we were once eager to see what LG was cooking with Android, the GW880 is another WiFi-less device that runs China Mobile's Ophone. Which is pretty much code for saying we'll never sniff this Android phone. Yeah, lame.

The LG GW880 specs packs a 3.5-inch WVGA touchscreen with 256MB RAM, 512 MB ROM, GPS, 5MP...

There you have it. A picture of the Dell Mini 3i aka dellphone in real, breathing life. Look at that polish! Look at that glare! Getting excited? Don't. Your hopes for a high-end device will be crushed when you realize that the first ever dellphone, though beautiful and runs Android, lacks WiFi and 3G. Why? Well, because China seems to have a rule that all cellphones must suck in order to gain approval.

So though these pictures show...

The Dell Android smartphone has been expected for what feels like years now so hearing that Dell is going to make an Android Smartphone is hardly surprising--what is surprising is that it's supposed to launch within the week. What's even more surprising is that the US (and any Western country) will largely be ignored on launch. Say what?

Dell is planning to launch the Android-powered Ophone mini 3i on China Mobile and since China...

The world's biggest market, China, has largely been ignored by Android. Partly due to China's unique (read: difficult) phone standards, there has been little movement in preparing an Android phone for launch. This is all about to change. The HTC Hero, HTC Click, & HTC Magic are all headed to the shores of the Orient--this year.

The HTC Hero and HTC Click will both be re-branded under the Dopod brand (apparently a common occurrence for HTC...

HTC CEO Peter Chou recently stated that HTC will build an Android device for China Mobile, one of the biggest carriers in the world. The HTC Ophone (no, not that one) is a re-branded HTC Magic with highly customized software from China Mobile. The brand Ophone is supposed to represent the Openness of Android and assumedly less abstract than...

The uber-sexy Ophone is reportedly being released to China in May. This is noteworthy because it is supposed to be a direct competitor to the impending-iPhone launch on a competing carrier and because it runs a custom build of Android.

Obviously, we want to see what those crazy kids at China Mobile...

Demonstrating that the old adage "beauty is only skin deep" is true, we've learned that the sleek, full touchscreen Huawei G7000 is running a propriety OS rather than Google's Android. This beauty is launching inside China and may never see the world outside of the Great Wall. Strikingly similar to a certain phone that sounds like "eye-fone", it's a shame that we won't see the little green 'droid bounding happily across it's full...

It looks like China Unicom may have scored a coup against bigger rival China Mobile. They just might be the carrier in China that will launch the HTC Dream (T-Mobile G1) and the iPhone. Take that China Mobile!

There isn't an official confirmation but China Unicom has posted specs of the G1 and listed it as a supported handset. Getting on a Chinese carrier is almost guaranteeing Android a large slice of the worldwide mobile handset...

China Mobile has a highly customized HTC Magic in the works loaded with custom firmware and TD-SCDMA capabilities (China's own network which should mean no Wi-Fi or 3G). If you take a look at the pictures you can see that this pre-production model has a lot of the software that is different from typical Android goodies, you almost get an iPhone-esque layout that honestly bears no resemblance to Android.

Huawei Technologies has just announced that they'll be bringing an Android-powered device in the first half of 2009. Huawei has typically focused on cheaper, lower-end phones but have realigned their focus toward smartphones with customization capabilities.

We at Android Central only knew of Lenovo as the maker of laptops and tablets. Admittedly, we're a fan of their PC work but we had no idea that they were big time makers of cell phones and smartphones in China. Until now.

This is kind of interesting. China, notorious for their hands-on control over the Internet and such, is actually getting a lot of T-Mobile G1 units in all of its Android openness. The report says that the G1s are "pouring into China" since it was released in the US last week. The prices are hefty too, about $584 for the G1 and $73 to unlock it, I guess they really want some of that freedom.

Dopod China has its sight set on bringing the current G1 to China as early as first quarter 2009. Dopod is a partner of HTC who sells selected HTC phones to the Chinese market under their own name and Dopod brand.

China's TechFaith Wireless Communication Technology just announced that they have finished developing a device prototype for Android. Though its unlikely to ship by the end of this year, early 2009 is looking like a fairly decent date to expect.