Meizu Me CeBIT Interview 2008: Post your questions!

Originally Posted by Tangmu

Bad news! Please check the thread again. I'm really upset about this!

I'm sorry for you, Tangmu

I will go to CeBIT tomorrow with some workmates, and I'll bring those questions - maybe someone can answer them.
I'm not experienced at this (interviewing), but hey - shouldn't be that hard

So I hope to have some answers for you when I get home by tomorrow evening (which would mean roughly 7pm GMT).

Good luck, I hope you can talk to Mr. Wong, or maybe you can ask whoever is there for an interview with Mr. Wong, on behalf of MeizuMe.

Originally Posted by CmdrCord

I'm sorry for you, Tangmu

I will go to CeBIT tomorrow with some workmates, and I'll bring those questions - maybe someone can answer them.
I'm not experienced at this (interviewing), but hey - shouldn't be that hard

So I hope to have some answers for you when I get home by tomorrow evening (which would mean roughly 7pm GMT).

Thx man! I really appreciate it. You can contact via PM and I will respond asap.

Have a nice day at the show.

So I'm back from CeBIT, and I got a chance to talk to Ella Wong. They were literally sieged by various press guys, I think because of the booth raid yesterday - so the interview was in a hurry. Also, not all questions could be answered/commented on, but here goes:

M8 related

* What was the reason not to include 3G in the initial release of M8?
* (When) Can we expect a 3G version of the phone?
* Will it be officially distributed in (England) Europe; (Canada) North America; ...? (If yes: When? / What price?)

They definitely plan addding 3G support in a later revision, if it works out already available by the end of this year (in china).
The reason it was dropped for the initial release is simply that they want to get the phone out ASAP and 3G support probably would have delayed it further.
It will also be distributed in Europe and US, but she couldn't tell me an exact date. Probably not before 2009.

* What will the sound quality be like compared to M6?
* Will there be support for A2DP? (If yes: How long will battery last using it?)
* Is there a FM radio feature?
* What audio- and video-codecs will be supported? (Video: At full resolution?)
* Does the camera offer a video mode? (If yes: What resolution, framerate, codec?)

She said they'd use the same chip for audio as in the M6, so sound quality should be on par. Also, it will feature A2DP and an FM radio.
As for audio codecs, we can expect the same support as in M6 (with an emphasis on patent free codecs like OGG). It will support MP4/H264 video (and also the usual Windows Media stuff, I think).
The camera will also support recording videos, and if i recall correctly it will encode in MP4.

* Will it support platforms like e.g. Java and Flash?
* What about 3rd party apps? (user: install feature / developer: SDK)
* Are Windows CE or Windows Mobile apps supported?
* Any chance for an alternative OS (e.g. Android)?

She couldn't tell me exactly if flash or Java was supported, I guess it depends on the underlying WinCE OS. However, they are aware that there is some interest in an SDK. Since the phone will be Windows CE based, the platform is essentially "open" (I think she meant in a sense of well known, documented), so there would be no reason why 3rd party apps wouldn't run.
She also told me that Linux/Android are now quite popular topics in china, and they might support it (though no timeframe, yet).

* Will it have USB OTG (On-The-Go) support or (and) a card slot?
* Does it offer Dual-SIM support? (If not: Will that be included in later versions?)
* Does it come with SD- / microSD card slot for extendable memory?

USB OTG (host) feature will be included, card slot (SD/microSD) won't. Dual-SIM is also not supported, probably won't appear in later revisions.

* What will the battery time be? (standby; music; video; web)

They don't know the exact times yet (subject to final design decisions), but the battery will be a 1200mAh Li-Ion one (the one in the prototype is already the final one).

The prototype already feels quite good ("valuable" in a kind, not cheap at all). She told me it already is very close to the final design, including the back. The black battery cover is aluminium. The white plastic will also remain, and after seeing it I think it's not quite as bad as it looks on photos

Ah yes and the development board, I also got a chance to briefly play with that. Well, it reacts on gestures, shows some photos and stuff, although not all is perfectly smooth yet
An interesting thing: I watched one press guy who obviously had some experience using the iPhone (I have none), and he immediately felt at home Sliding, tapping, zooming into pictures, showing/hiding parts of the GUI - it seems to come very close.

M6 related

* Will there be a future FW update to fix the most annoying problems? (stuttering, file limit [2048], artist limit [128], 3 min. auto-off)
* Does MEIZU read about the problems concerning the current FW version in forums?

They are aware of those problems, and are doing their best at trying to fix them. I just had to believe it as she told me
Obviously, most resources are now focused on bringing the M8 to market, so essentially development of new M6 firmware is slowed down (I guess at least until the M8 is out).

* What's the possibility of releasing the M3 / M6 FW as open source to fans?
* Would MEIZU support the port of 3rd party FWs (e.g. Rockbox) for M3 / M6?

They seem quiet open to the idea, although she said open-sourcing the existing firmware would be kind of difficult, as there might be copyright issues etc.
She did not really know about rockbox, but generally it sounded like they were not against a community supported effort for an open source FW.


That's all I can offer for now. As I said, the "interview" was a little hurried, and I didn't get a chance to ask all of the questions. Also, on some they would not comment yet (such as the price), which I think is understandable.
On the upside, there really was a lot of interest in their booth. I observed kind of a snowball effect: first, there were some press guys. That obviously got the attention of some visitors, and as we stood up after the short interview, we were already surrounded by 20-30 people or so

Thanks man! Nice interview

thanks CmdrCord so i will wait for videoconferencing...

Thanks CmdrCord! Really interesting infos here... FM Radio... Many users asked that on the chinese bbs, but they never got an answer

The white plastic will also remain, and after seeing it I think it's not quite as bad as it looks on photos

Interesting, if I remember correctly, J Wong said yesterday, that the white part is not made of the final material...

Originally Posted by nice2know_u

...
Interesting, if I remember correctly, J Wong said yesterday, that the white part is not made of the final material...

well that doesn't mean it won't be white plastic, does it?
Also, there's the possibility that my questions (involving the white plastic being replaced with some other material like aluminium) were misunderstood, so no guarantee for that info...

I'd also wait and import the 3G-version of the m8 at the end of this year :P. Just hope they're **** accurate with their release-periods now.

Unless iPhone2 turns out to be a jewel :P I mean, it has a far bigger community and definitly a big leap start compared to the m8.

Nice! thanks for getting the info CmdrCord. Great to here a focus on 'open source codec support' this hopefully means we will be seeing xvid for sure. Also in the engadget video of the guy touching the main board display he mentions english language and the meizu guy responds by saying it was 'just for the exhibition'. This implies that english language may not feature on the Chinese release of the phone. As Cmdrcord says, it looks like an international release will not happen until 2009, this is dissapointing as I want to get one as soon as it is released. But...if english language is not supported on the chinese release this will not be good!

Actually he said the english gui is not the final version, and is just for reference (bad translations, spelling mistakes...etc)

Good job CmdrCord

I for one am pleased that it will have an FM radio (to listen to the footy on the go)

... i just wish they asked an adult to design those three buttons, not the 3 y/o child that obviously ended up doing it

regards

Russ

Thanks for your impressions, CmdrCord. The thanks also go to Tangmu who has prepared all that.

Great interview, mate. Even my question has been answered. I really hope they will allow such things as Android to be installed on M8.

thx for sharing this information and doing the interview!

Thanks for the heads up!