Seems like I’m not the only person excited and wanting to share the news about the upcoming GM Volt. GM is showing off the first drivable Chevrolet Volt at the World Expo 2010 Shanghai currently going on in China too.

General Motors celebrated the arrival of the first drivable Chevrolet Volt in China today. China is one of the initial markets outside the United States to receive the Volt. GM’s landmark electric vehicle with extended-range capability will go on sale locally next year.

“GM has made a long-term commitment to bringing our industry-leading technology to China,” said Kevin Wale, President and Managing Director of the GM China Group. “This is enabling us to provide the best mobility solutions for addressing the transportation challenges associated with the growth in demand for personal mobility. With GM taking the lead, the development of electric vehicles is opening up entirely new industries.”

During today’s celebration, GM delivered two Chevrolet Volts to the Shanghai Expo Bureau for use as part of its VIP transportation fleet at World Expo 2010 Shanghai. The Volt will shuttle special guests to and from Shanghai’s Expo Park and demonstrate GM’s pathway to its vision of sustainable urban transportation.

Outside of the US, China will be one of the first places to also receive the GM Volt in 2011.

I’ve covered OQO news in the past, anticipated the OQO Model 02+ which was to come with their first Intel processor but somewhere along their timeline to come out with that model, OQO went out of business. Or did they?

From out of nowhere, OQO.CC has come forth with news about how they are/were the Chinese arm of the American OQO firm that went out of business officially in April of 2009, before the release of the OQO Model 02+. There are even official sounding specs on the device:

Operating system: Windows 7
Processor: 2.0 GHz Intel Z550
Memory: SSD 128GB
Memory: 2GB
LCD: 4.8-inch bright LCD screen (supports 1024X600)
Touch mode: Multi-touch
Graphics: Intel GMA500
Sound Performance: Built-in speaker and microphone
Communication: Wireless LAN, Bluetooth 2.0 chip, 3G, Ethernet (optional), etc.
Computer Interface: High-speed USB2.0 port headphone jack DC power input port HDMI port
Interface expansion slots: Power input port VGA port Ethernet interface (optional)
Input Devices: Built-in keyboard pointer keys
Battery Type: Polymer lithium battery
Power adapter: V AC 12 V DC/100-240
Supplied Accessories: Standard Battery Double the battery power adapter
Price: 31,888 yuan

While it looks very official and even has an official release date of Q3, 2010… that price is a killer. 31,888 Yuan translates to about $4700 USD. Ouch!

Guess my old OQO 01+ will have to wait to get replaced after all.

[ Links: OQO Chinese ]

Ford has revealed its compact concept car Start targeting the Chinese market during 2010 Beijing Auto Show, which is powered by 3-cylinder EcoBoost engine.

LG Electronics launches its Android based smartphone OPhone, model: LG GW880 in the China market. The LG OPhone supports TD-SCDMA, the 3G standard in China.

Adopting a 3.5-inch WVGA touch screen with 800 by 480 resolution, the OPhone features CMMB (China Multi Media Broadcasting) support, a 5M camera, GPS and Bluetooth connectivity.

Link to the original article…

The numbers are almost too large to fathom, so many Americans stop trying. As bodies pile up in disaster after global disaster, even the most sympathetic souls can turn away.

Charities know this as “donor fatigue,” but it might be more accurately described as disaster fatigue — the sense that these events are never-ending, uncontrollable and overwhelming. Experts say it is one reason Americans have contributed relatively little so far to victims of the Myanmar cyclone and China’s earthquake.

Ironically, the more bad news there is, the less likely people may be to give.

“Hearing about too many disasters makes some people not give at all, when they would have if it had been just one disaster,” says Michal Ann Strahilevitz, who teaches marketing at Golden Gate University and specializes in the factors at play in charitable giving.

Compared with disasters like the Asian tsunami and Hurricane Katrina, those in China and Myanmar have generated just a trickle of aid. As of Friday, Americans had given about $12.1 million to charities for Myanmar, according to the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. The group said on Monday that it was too soon to count contributions to China.

A number of factors may be at play in the slow American response, including a lack of sympathy for the repressive governments involved, doubts about whether aid will get through, and an inclination to save pennies because of shaky economic times at home.

But Americans may have also been influenced by the quick succession of monumental catastrophes in two distant lands. At least 130,000 people are dead or missing in the Myanmar cyclone, and more than 34,000 in China’s earthquake.

“For the vast number of Americans, if they just gave to some disaster far away and then another disaster happens, in their mind that’s clumped as `faraway disaster,’” Strahilevitz says. “So they will feel, ‘I just gave to a faraway disaster.’”

This problem came up after the 2004 Asian tsunami, an event that brought an avalanche of $1.92 billion in charity from the United States, according to the Giving USA Foundation. Hurricane Katrina eight months later generated even more, $5.3 billion.

But then fatigue seemed to set in. The earthquake in Pakistan that killed nearly 80,000 people generated just $150 million from Americans. And the Guatemala mudslide shortly thereafter that killed at least 800 was virtually forgotten.

If one disaster can be galvanizing, several in a row can be paralyzing.

Just raising some awareness. Give where you can give. Give to the lesser fortunate.

BEIJING, China (AVING Special Report on ‘CHITEC 2008′) — LG Electronics(www.lge.com) presented its 3G mobile handset ‘KD876′ during CHITEC 2008, which supports TD-SCDMA, a 3G mobile telecommunications standard in China. The KD876 is equipped with 3M and 0.3M cameras.