NOVPUB
Chapter 1152: Chapter 110 ’Powerful’ Configuration (Subscribe please!)
He played with it for a while.
Admiring the appearance and feel of the mobile phone in his hand.
Tang Kai gave it a perfect score, "Tangtang, where’s the power button?"
"Top right corner, we’ve reduced the number of buttons, only keeping three—, a function button, and two volume buttons. Try pressing that small button and hold it for a few seconds."
Tang Qing instructed from the side.
"Okay."
Tang Kai followed Tang Qing’s instructions and pressed and held the power button.
After three seconds.
The screen of the mobile phone lit up.
Accompanied by a short burst of light music, an animation appeared on the screen—it was Qingyuan Technology’s dynamic LOGO, currently just a test version; the brand name might change once finalized.
But a few seconds later.
The phone entered the operating interface.
Seeing nothing on the lock screen interface, Tang Kai asked, "How do I unlock this?"
"Just slide a finger from the bottom of the screen upwards," Tang Qing explained. Unlike Apple’s phones, which unlock from left to right, this phone unlocks from bottom to top and doesn’t have a ’progress bar.’
Just slide upwards a certain distance.
Tang Kai followed the instructions.
He extended his index finger and gently swiped upward.
Instantly.
The interface changed.
Various mini-apps appeared.
The icons were clear and illustrative, like Phone, Messages, Alarm, Calendar, etc., all self-explanatory, with large Chinese characters labeling each app besides the fixed apps at the bottom.
"Right now, the phone only has a few standard functionalities integrated—phone, text messaging, calculator, alarm clock, browser, camera, calendar, file management, flashlight..."
Tang Qing spoke while.
Tang Kai experimented with the various mini-apps.
Before long.
He had mastered the usage of this new phone, which essentially involved just tapping. Each app had a straightforward function, evident from the Chinese characters, making operation quite convenient.
"This is really handy," Tang Kai remarked.
"Hehe, it’s alright," Tang Qing chuckled.
Tang Kai then asked, "Is there a SIM card inside? Can it make calls?"
"Sure, you can try it out," said Tang Qing.
Tang Kai tested the calling function.
It was very clear.
Much better than the ’luxury’ of button phones.
"What about going online?"
Tang Kai accessed the browser. 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘱𝘶𝑏.𝑐𝘰𝑚
"Of course, but first, you need to connect to something." Saying this, Tang Qing took the phone, started configuring it, and connected to the WIFI signal. This was initially developed for a first-floor projector.
This was a trial-level product from the Research Area, powerful in performance.
Uncle connected a dedicated line here, already reaching hundreds of M, just like the Internet cafe, and installing a modem with routing capabilities enabled high-speed WIFI data transmission.
"So that thing can connect to a mobile phone too." Astonished by the explanation, Tang Kai said.
"Of course, once the network speeds up, thousands of homes in Huaxia will install this, as despite 4G’s expensive data charges, broadband’s monthly packages are relatively cheaper," Tang Qing explained.
Connected to the internet.
Tang Kai launched the browser.
Baidu’s homepage popped up instantly; although the browser was developed by Qingyuan Technology, it still used Baidu for searches. Tang Kai entered a keyword and was able to browse the internet very smoothly.
"This is incredible, the internet is so fast," Tang Kai rejoiced.
Tang Qing smiled and said, "That works at home, but outside, with the current 2G network in Huaxia, it’s basically a brick, which is why I’m also waiting for the widespread adoption of 4G."
Huaxia’s 2G internet speed.
Many people had experienced it, and it was truly touching. Even 3G was just barely adequate for browsing web pages.
Unfortunately,
Two years later, in 2008, Huaxia would finally issue 3G licenses to operators, which was quite delayed, whereas abroad, developed countries had almost achieved full 3G coverage.
This was why Huaxia’s 3G construction hadn’t yet been fully completed.
And 4G was already starting to gain traction.
Not because technology developed fast.
But because 3G commercial use had already started abroad: Japan began in 2000, six years ago, followed closely by South Korea and Europe and America within the next two to three years.
Huaxia only started using 3G eight years after Japan.
Leading to 3G becoming obsolete before it was even fully developed because of 4G.
Therefore, Tang Qing estimated that even if his mobile phone launched next year, the initial phase in Huaxia might be hindered by internet speeds, and sales might not be very good. Domestic operators, without 4G licenses, couldn’t possibly roll out completely.
"That’s a pity," Tang Kai said, disappointed when he heard they couldn’t go out.
"This all takes time, let’s take it slow," he added.
"Anyway, you’re making a killing. Let me check out the videos. Huh, Comet has a mobile app too, and it’s playing quite smoothly," Tang Kai said as he exited the webpage and opened an app labeled ’Comet Video’.
The interface was almost the same as the web version.
The download speed of the video was acceptable, but it was not without flaws. The video would stutter when fast-forwarded, and after playing for just over three minutes, the mobile phone got a bit warm.
"Hardware limitations, there’s nothing I can do," Tang Qing said helplessly as he shook his head.
To be honest,
developing smartphones in 2006
was a very challenging task. The concept of smartphones appeared very early, not as an innovation, but because hardware couldn’t meet the standards, which is why development was so slow.
The processor was the most crucial part.
Without a good processor and highly-integrated manufacturing technology, it was impossible to meet the standards of smartphone applications. It couldn’t even support high-definition displays, let alone larger apps.
Take Apple’s first-generation model, for instance.
It utilized the best microprocessor available at the time.
However,
its features were quite ’timid’.
Low resolution.
Small screen.
The camera had only two megapixels.
The memory was 128 megabytes, which was the cutting edge of integration technology back then. The chip could only smoothly support that small screen; anything bigger, and the chip couldn’t handle it.
And now,
Qualcomm’s flagship product, the ’Snapdragon processor,’ hasn’t even released its first generation (S1); it’s still being tested. Thus, at this time, the entire smartphone field was nearly being held back by hardware limitations.
Theoretically,
Tang Qing’s current large-screen mobile phone
shouldn’t be able to support so many functionalities.
Nor could it perform multi-thread processing, just like Apple’s first-generation model, which couldn’t change ringtones or wallpapers, only supported 2G networks, and didn’t support copy and paste, lacking many essential functions.
It also couldn’t run background apps.
For ordinary people,
due to hardware restrictions,
it would be difficult to develop any powerful smartphones at this time.
But,
the scientists under Tang Qing were not to be underestimated.
They managed to create something out of such a ’harsh’ hardware integration environment.
For this device,
the fighters did a lot of work behind the scenes.
Last month, a chip design company held by the fighters designed a mobile phone chip. In the current 45-nanometer process, it achieved dual-core and multi-threading capabilities.
Its performance was already close to the Snapdragon S2 processor.
Now,
even Qualcomm was astonished.
With this new chip, their own Snapdragon first-generation processor could be completely phased out. They wanted to buy the technology behind this chip, but selling it outright was out of the question; the fighters only agreed to cooperate and were currently negotiating the terms.
Apple was also aware of this chip.
But as the first-generation Apple device was already finalized and seemingly had no competitors on the market, they didn’t plan to use this chip.
The news was already spreading within the industry.
Qingyuan Technology had reached out, expressing significant interest and currently actively negotiating cooperation matters.
Aside from the chip,
there was practically nothing else that Huaxia could produce.
Camera, earpiece, memory... all these required collaboration with foreign companies. Therefore, during this period, Qingyuan Technology was extremely busy negotiating with dozens of global suppliers.
Determining dimensions, collaborative research and development, trial production, patent licensing... at least three hundred people were running around the world doing these auxiliary tasks, the complexity of which left Tang Qing speechless.
It was fortunate that many licenses could be managed by one company.
A mobile phone.
Involved too many patent-holding companies, with foundational patents numbering in the tens of thousands; it was impossible to bypass them. This was the power of standards; if you use someone else’s standards, you must pay.
In the area of communication protocols,
even if Tang Qing exploited loopholes, it wouldn’t help unless he abandoned all existing communication protocols and covered the entire system with quantum communication. But that technology was too high-end, and Tang Qing could only temporarily comply with the ’traffic rules’.
In summary,
people at Qingyuan Technology were insanely busy.
