An enterprising Chinese man has come up with a solution for gadget-crazy people who desperately want Apple’s popular iPad tablet computer but cannot afford it — DIY.
In a 20-minute video posted on Youku — the Chinese YouTube equivalent — Liu Xinying (劉新營) demonstrates how to assemble an iPad look-alike using computer parts, a touch screen and a case with a keypad, to the sound of metal music.
At the end of the video dubbed “DIY IPAD 3,” the IT whiz shows off the finished version — an apparently functional tablet computer that looks like a thick iPad, but runs on Windows, an operating system made by rival Microsoft.
Photo: AFP/HO
News of Liu’s apparent feat spread on several foreign and Chinese technology Web sites, as well as on the nation’s Twitter-like Weibo (微博) service.
When contacted by AFP, the 21-year-old from the eastern province of Shandong said that since he posted the video online a month ago, he has knocked back requests from a dozen people wanting him to make them a DIY iPad.
“I did this for fun,” said Liu, who works at a computer store in Jinan city. “It cost me 2,000 yuan [US$309] to make it, so I guess that’s how much it’s worth.”
By comparison, the cheapest 16-gigabyte version of the iPad 2 sells for 3,688 yuan in China, while the most expensive 64-gigabyte model costs 5,288 yuan.
iPads and iPhones are hugely popular in China — the world’s largest Internet market with 457 million online users — and the launch of new models has been known to trigger fights and even crimes.
Last month, a court in the southern province of Guangdong sentenced three people to prison for stealing the design to the iPad 2 and using it to make fake tablet computers.
Apple also was forced to -compensate a customer who sustained injuries in a fight at its Beijing flagship store in May, when the iPad 2 was launched.
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