China's LeEco eyes up US, takes on, er, Apple, Samsung, Netflix, Tesla Chinese tech maker LeEco (pronounced Le Echo) has made its entrance into the US market – with a lavish press conference in San Francisco that showed the Middle Kingdom isn't afraid to take on some of the biggest names in technology. The giant unveiled a high-spec smartphone that massively undercuts rivals Apple, Samsung, and …
I'm sure there's a place in the market for a company like LeEco, but they will need to be careful not to over promise.
A high-spec, low price phone is one thing, but they will have to make sure the cars work properly.
The only Chinese car brand I have any experience of is a Great Wall brand ute (pick up truck for our septic mates) that my brother-in-law bought because it was cheap.
My word was it cheap, it barely made it to the end of the warranty period in one piece, and the resale value was almost nothing.
...few months ago I found out Kyocera makes 3D printers. Last night learned Kyocera made hand coffee grinders (that turned into a four hour exploration of coffee grinding science*, put $100 Zassenhaus Brasilia on wish list ;).
Today I learned a Chinese company with an unfortunate name** makes some pretty cool stuff.
*electric blades are bad and make too much powder - I can agree with the powder part.
** Le Echo is really close to Le Car, which still has a horribly bad reputation in the US - Kit better work properly or the comparisons will sink them.
This is off topic, but could not resist:
that turned into a four hour exploration of coffee grinding science*, put $100 Zassenhaus Brasilia on wish list
You cannot beat an ancient Turkish Grinder. The one I have is probably a 100+ years old and still works like a charm (when I can be a*** to grind my own). I have tuned it to produce a slightly coarser grind so I can use it in a Bialetti Moka to make "lethal power level" coffee.
Zassenhaus produces an imitation. Not a bad one, but not really anywhere near the real (from before it became an exportable good) original.
You need a coarser grind when you don't use any kind of filter, in other words when making any kind of coffee by putting the grind in a cup and pouring water over it. Like turkish mocca. I learned that in - Norway. You can buy coarse ground coffee there; mostly used when going hiking. All you need is a kettle and a cup, no messing around with filters. You'll have to watch out for the dregs though.
If you use paper filters, you'll need a finer grind. If your filter is some kind of fine wire mesh or basically a sheet of thin metal with lots of tiny holes in it (like in most espresso machines) you're somewhere on middle ground, grind wise.
If you invest in a really good espresso machine, you should go the whole nine yards and buy a proper grinder too. It will take a little experimentation to find out what level of coarseness yields the best results - it varies with the type of beans/coffee blend, the type of coffee you brew (espresso, cappuchino, macciato, etc, etc) and of course personal taste. Purists will say that when grinding your beans you should even take the weather into account, i.e. variations in the air's humidity.
My grandmothers both had hand operated 'coffeemills'; it was fun using them and you just can't beat the smell of freshly ground coffee.
Allora, prendere un caffè...
"You need a coarser grind when you don't use any kind of filter, in other words when making any kind of coffee by putting the grind in a cup and pouring water over it. Like turkish mocca. I learned that in - Norway. You can buy coarse ground coffee there; mostly used when going hiking. All you need is a kettle and a cup, no messing around with filters. You'll have to watch out for the dregs though."
Makes really good coffee though. It's called "kok malt" coffee, directly translated "boil-ground"
After you bring it (briefly) to the boil, let it sit for a minute, poor out a few cups, and poor them back into the pot. All the grounds will sink to the bottom, produces a really nice cup of coffee.
But an 85" TV for $3999? You need to build a bit of brand equity before an unknown company can sell something like that.
I won't even get into the idea of paying probably 10x more than that for a car. Where do you take it to have it serviced if it breaks down? Buying Tesla would be a big enough risk for me considering their nearest service center is several hours away from where I live, but at least that's in the same hemisphere!
The article said that they bought an entire company, distribution, service etc. to gain traction.
Given the price of a 60 inch mere token of a TV these days, the extra is not really worth it, for a while.
That size (and actual TV) will be 2000 in just a year so many will wait, they expect that I am sure.
Given that it runs Android, I just hope it doesn't have a camera/mic or network access, oh!
Close those ports people, and don't install any apps of course.
Not sure what difference it makes that it runs Android versus running some 'proprietary' smart OS that 9 times out of 10 these days means Linux + a proprietary GUI. Either way you will get built in security holes, most of which you will never see fixes for.
The mention of the TV's camera reminds of last night Blindspot episode where they were looking for a fugitive hacker in a Bulgarian hotel. The NSA officer pulls out her laptop and hacks into the hotel's network to access the camera on the TVs in the rooms. There is one room where the camera is covered up, so she correctly assumes that must be the hacker's room :)
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
