Plugged In – An Update on New Technology Trends in Beijing

Swiped Out

It seems that you need a card for everything these days. Aside from the traditional bank and credit cards, Beijingers are now also forced to cram transit cards, door-key cards to their house and office, and phone cards into their ever-expanding wallets (maybe this explains the whole man-bag phenomenon). But the problem of oversize wallets may soon be solved. According to reports in the Chinese media, you’ll soon be able to use your cell phone to pay for tickets on public transport (and in theory taxis as the present transit cards have the capability of being swiped in a cab – it’s just not so popular with Beijing’s cab drivers who fear that it’ll be quite a wait before they see the cash reimbursement) by simply swiping it across the regular transit card reader.

Although the mobile phone-integrated smart card is yet to arrive, it reportedly will also allow Beijing residents to use their smart cards to pay for household essentials like water, gas and electricity.

Charged Up

If you’ve ever been caught with a rapidly dying cell phone and had to scramble around to try and find someone with the same brand of charger, you’ll probably whole-heartedly support the recent decision taken by the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry. China has almost 450 million cell phone subscribers and nearly 100 million cell phones are replaced every year. To avoid waste and lower costs, the Chinese government has set a new national standard on mobile phone chargers. Under this new standard, all mobile phones designed after June 14 must adopt the universal charger interface, which means every cell phone will be able to share one charger. As an added bonus, chargers must also be USB compatible so that users can charge their shouji via their computer. Several local companies have already designed phones that comply with the new regulations and Motorola, Nokia and Sony-Ericsson said they are in the process of producing new models with universal chargers, which should be available later this year.