June 11th, 2009

China has received a squall of criticisms in and outside the country after the country issued new regulations that all personal computers sold in the country should include software that can filter out pornography and other “vulgar” content from the Internet.

Computer industry executives, free-speaking advocates and common computer users have responded furiously to the new requirement, which gives time to manufacturers until July 1 to preinstall the software on millions of new machines.

The Chinese government presented the regulations to PC makers on May 19, but they were not released publicly until Monday of this week, which was responded with anger by a local newspaper by saying that “Mandatory installation of filtering software is simply acting blindly.”

But computer makers in the United States say it will be impossible to fulfill the requirement by the end of the month and have asked the Chinese government to reconsider the directive. They say it raises thorny questions about censorship and whether manufacturers will be liable if the software, designed by a company with ties to China’s military and public security agencies, conflicts with operating systems or causes computers to crash.

Until today, the Chinese government has not indicated any backdown. On Tuesday, state-owned media and officials defended the new software, known as “Green Dam,” and said suggestions it could be turned into government-operated spyware were exaggerated.

Bloggers, dissidents and even normally cautious state media outlets have greeted the announcement with skepticism, questioning the software’s reliability and wondering whether it could be used to censor nonsexual content. Some criticized the government’s decision to spend 41 million yuan, or US$6 million, on a program that was not solicited through an open bidding process.

China vigorously restricts Internet content, regularly blocking Web pages devoted to Tibetan independence, human rights issues and other politically sensitive subjects. An anti-vulgarity campaign this year has shut down thousands of pornographic sites.

Green Dam’s designers say the program, which uses image recognition technology and text filtering to block material, is not capable of acting as spyware. Most important, they say the program can be disabled or erased by computer owners who do not want to use it.

The Beijing News devoted a full page to Green Dam and found its performance less than stellar. For example, an innocent math question that included the word “balls” was filtered out, as were apparently harmless photographs with yellow backgrounds.

Buying smartphones has now turned more problematical unlike it was two years ago, because there are many competing devices in the market.

Although BlackBerrys were easier to type on than iPhones, they were tough to customize since there was no BlackBerry application store, while Palm’s new Pre is very close to the iPhone’s, at least until the iPhone’s newest version is rolled out on June 19.

Palm’s new Pre looks like a great option with price of US$200 from Sprint after rebate, while Verizon likely to follow by year’s end. The keys, while small, still allow for easy typing, and of the plans offered by the major carriers, Sprint’s Simply Everything is the cheapest all-you-can-eat offering, for about US$100 a month.

A BlackBerry Curve (ranging from about $50 to $150 from most carriers), will also perform nicely, as will T-Mobile’s G1 ($180) and the new Sidekick LX ($250).

It is worth noting that the G1 has an app store right on the phone, while the Sidekick does not. An easy connection to Apple’s App Store, Android’s Market or BlackBerry’s App World means the device can evolve with the user’s needs.

So the big question today is Palm Pre or iPhone? There are many features of the Pre, like the slide-out keyboard and the fact that, unlike the iPhone, it can run more than one application at a time. But there are simply too many good apps on the iPhone.

We can search a business or restaurant and the smartphone will give us all in the area, then transfer us over to the map app to give us detailed directions from my current location.

Asustek has pledged to make better products than Apple’s after the company smashed the globe two years ago when it launched the Eee PC netbook that became the best-selling computing productsat that time.

The company has been too conservative so far, but now it realizes about it and has decided to do better communications with the customers to make them informed that Asus is more than just an Asian computer firm.

Asustek has allocated a lot of money for engineering, so it has been quite slow in launching marketing campaigns, and this is why the company will now continue striving to attract consumers with more ground-breaking designs.

Like Acer which is also Taiwanese PC maker, Asustek has spent the last several years on separating itself from its manufacturing unit bid to create a more independent brand. Its manufacturing subsidiary, Pegatron, sells nearly 60 million motherboards per year, which makes it the world’s largest motherboard supplier.

Asustek which is founded by a group of ex-Acer employees, plans to create more distance between itself and Pegatron in the coming years by inviting investors to take larger stakes in Pegatron.

The company sells approximately all kinds of of laptop computers that range from tiny netbooks and super-thin laptops to devices with touch-screen software. It recently introduced a keyboard-cum-PC that has a screen attached to its right side for things like instant messaging and e-mail, and it offers smart photo frames, tablets and video-conferencing units for consumers.

Later this year, Asustek will also launch phones in partnership with Garmin. It claims to have the best location-based technology on the market as a result of their engineering relationship.

The company has polished off an e-book reader and a video game system to rival the Wii as well. Asustek, however, has yet to release either product as it is striving to hammer out content deals.