That didn't take the Chinese long... "iPed"

[marki]

Originally Posted by kinetic

Oh the irony....
How many people protesting the blatant ripoffs of a product, intellectual
property etc.....own a Chinese refractor or reflector?
Or anything Chinese in your house.
Each purchase was a conscious, informed decision by you.
If the Chinese brought out a clone of the A.N. tomorrow for example...
at one quarter the price....
I bet you would all buy one.....
What is your position in this argument? You can't have it both ways

It's not all rubbish btw...a lot of it is far better than the costly European
or Western alternative. Lathes one example......

and finally...I'm sure we have some members here who are of this ethnic
origin....
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hypocrite


Steve

No I don't have any telescopes made in China nor am I having a go at the ones made there, many are very well made indeed. What I do have is a chinese designed and manufactured CCD camera (kodak chip being the exception) which I absolutely love and Dr Qhiuy of QHY produces very good own design camera's at a competative price. I also own a chinese lathe and mill for the reasons you have stated e.g. they are like nothing else produced and are good value when compared to other brands. They are very innovative and accurate in their capabilities despite what the detractors may say. I doubt you would find any house in the world totally free of some kind of chinese product but this is not what is being discussed here. Blatant rippoff's of other products without the required research and aftersales support is the issue and I doubt anybody of any race culture or creed would be offended by this.

Mark

[mic_m (Michael)]

That’s great... but c’mon China where is the low cost Obsession UC dobsonian clone!

[Jules76 (Julian)]

Hmmmm, $149.99 USD, worldwide shipping.

http://chinagrabber.com/buy-m70003-m...ad-m70003.aspx

Who wants to be a guinea pig?

I bet Google Sky Map would look just great on that screen.....

http://www.google.com/sky/skymap/

Any takers?

[Jen]

Copy cats

[Shano592 (Shane)]

I'll see if I can sniff one out tomorrow, when I go into the electronics market. Not sure if the iPed/aPad has filtered this far north yet, but I'll have a look around. (I'm up near Shanghai atm).

If I find one, I'll have a play, and report back.

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Originally Posted by marki

Blatant rippoff's of other products without the required research and aftersales support is the issue and I doubt anybody of any race culture or creed would be offended by this.

Mark

Yes, I think that's the point. To extend it a little, plain design theft with an intention to deceive is my problem with these people. Even the box is close to identical, so how's that not deception? It's absolute skulduggery.

I buy plenty of Chinese stuff too - but I really avoid items that pretend to be what they're not.

[Shano592 (Shane)]

Couldn't find one in the local market, and none of the vendors we asked knew anything about them.

Pity, it would have been an interesting distraction...

[Analog6 (Odille)]

Originally Posted by renormalised

The reasons why China is able to almost match anyone else in the manufacturing of technology is because they either stole it through industrial espionage and/or people were willing enough to deal with them regardless of any restrictions to trade that may have once been imposed upon them...i.e. backdoor technology transfer and sales of goods. It's precisely how their military has managed to drag a large chunk of itself up from what was basically a peasant "pitch fork and plow" military in the 70's and 80's, to having some halfway decent equipment, now.

If other countries governments weren't so inept, or in cahoots with the businesses involved, or the businesses weren't so mercenary and had some moral fibre/conscience, then China would still be in the same position it was 30-40 years ago. Their little economic miracle might not have happened, or it would've been a whole lot more painful.

I fully agree, I don't think China should have been given the Olympics in view of their blatant human rights abuses and the conditions of poor factory workers.

In view of the fact that Apple has a factory there (Foxconn) manufacturing various pieces of technology including iPads and iPhones is it any wonder there are knockoffs? The workers are so lowly paid they suicide reglarly (see links here or go to www.smh.com.au and type 'Foxconn' in the search box at the top) - wouldn't you indulge in a little industrial espionage if you got the chance?

The iPed probably has exactly the same technology inside as the real thing!

BTW - they are on eBay too!

There is a thread at Whirlpool and some one who has tried one says it is slow and clunky
Home page here.
There is also the aPad! Home page here

[MrB (Simon)]

Originally Posted by Analog6

There is a thread at Whirlpool and some one who has tried one says it is slow and clunky

HAH!
I thought it looked slow and clunky in that youtube video of the Japanese news story.

[RickS (Rick)]

The big boys are starting to play with this too. Huawei has produced an Android based tablet. They have some history of allegedly playing fast and loose with the IP of others (using parts of Cisco IOS in their products).

Cheers,
Rick.

[Astro78]

Considering you can't fart in the mainland without the government's communist party member spies knowing what you're up to: state sponsored theft of intellectual property ?

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Originally Posted by Analog6

The workers are so lowly paid they suicide reglarly (see links here or go to www.smh.com.au and type 'Foxconn' in the search box at the top) - wouldn't you indulge in a little industrial espionage if you got the chance?

That's a bit of early sensationalist journalism, so be careful with this. It has also been said that most workers took advantage of the fact that there was a suicide compensation package and exercised it for the sake of their families - their decision. It's why the package has been discontinued. It in itself was motive for suicide. None of us here are sufficiently endowed with first-hand knowledge to make proper comment on this as we are not involved. I gather the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Foxconn is a huge company, and it is more responsible for its problems than Apple, Sony Corporation, Hewlett-Packard Company, Amazon.com, Nokia Corporation, Motorola, Inc., Nintendo Co., Ltd , Microsoft Corporation, Dell Inc. and Cisco Systems Inc. The customers are not to blame, so please stop levelling blame on Apple and the others. The Chinese government is finally getting off its own couch over the past couple of days, and there's a new article here on that:

http://www.digitaleastasia.com/2010/...n-on-suicides/

Much of the early reporting on the deaths were attributed to the difficult working conditions at Foxconn which employs over 800,000 people across mainland China. While working conditions may be very strict, structured and isolating for the young workers, the vice minister’s comments show a willingness to exonerate Foxconn from complete responsibility.

It seems like that tipping point was reached back in late May when Foxconn’s CEO, Terry Gou, who felt that growing pressure was beginning to spook customers like Apple, decided to address the issue during a visit to one of the facilities in question. Unfortunately his visit and his announcement of an across-the-board wage increase did nothing to stop another suicide from occurring within 12 hours of his statements.

Since the last suicide on May 27th the government has offered another wage incentive to workers and has installed netting around buildings to make successful suicides more difficult. Nevertheless, despite the steps the company is taking the Chinese government and a number of Foxconn customers are concerned that the scandal will continue to be attributed to poor working conditions, high pressure production schedules and restrictive worker policies that cause some to become despondent.

Not what you thought, huh. It's a fast way to make a buck.

Originally Posted by Analog6

The iPed probably has exactly the same technology inside as the real thing!

Ah... no. Not by a long shot. It has been cobbled together and is a terrible thing to use - unlike the real thing. Don't be taken in by a notion that the copies are "as good" as the real thing because they're plainly not. They're junk.

[Terry B]

Originally Posted by Omaroo

Yep - and only need to buy it once.

The Chinese arn't the only ones that don't always have the best quality stuff.
Remember the hassle with ipods when they first came out with their non changeable batteries not even lasting til the warranty ran out. Apple was not known for its customer service to fix this problem.

[TrevorW]

They now have a warranty plan called

PedIcure

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Tell me you still want an iPed after watching this.... Mmmmm... Nup.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEqD9LA-F4U&sns=em

$200 on eBay. Hmmmmmmm...... An expensive laugh...

[Zaps]

Originally Posted by renormalised

Like all things Chinese, it'll either work straight out of the box and be perfectly reliable, or like most of their stuff, it'll last a week if it's lucky.

Yes, just like all that Chinese-made telescope equipment. Who'd be dumb enough to buy any of it?