Complaints greet Google Nexus One phone

Google is being inundated with complaints about its Nexus One phone.
The touchscreen smartphone was launched on 5 January and can be bought directly from Google and used on almost any phone network.

But confusion over who should answer customer queries has led many to file complaints on support forums.
Many people are unhappy with Google only responding to questions by e-mail and are calling for it to set up phone-based support.

Phone frustration

Americans can buy the Nexus One directly from Google for $529 (£331) or on a contract with T-Mobile for $179 (£112). In the UK the phone will be available via Vodafone but prices and launch dates have yet to be released.

The support forums that Google has set up for the Nexus One are filling up with complaints from many of the first to buy the phone who need help.
The top query, with more than 500 responses, is about how much people should pay for the phone and whether existing customers of T-Mobile can get the device at a reduced rate. Only new customers of T-Mobile will be able to pay $179.

Many are also trying to get more information about the phone they have placed an order for to see how long it will take to reach them.

Almost 500 people have logged problems with the Nexus One's support for 3G wireless networks. Others reported bugs when synchronising contacts or getting the handset to work with existing Google accounts.

Many are also complaining about the amount of time that it takes Google to respond to queries. Google said it would answer problems via e-mail though any response may take a day or two to arrive.

Frustrations were also reported by those that had turned to either T-Mobile or HTC for help and had been bounced back and forth between the handset maker and the mobile operator. Conflicting information about the phone, particularly if it supports 3G, is being given by Google's partners.

A common sentiment on the support forum was that for the $500 people have paid for the phone they should be able to call a dedicated help line.

"Right now it's a big mess," said KseniaCoffman on the forum.

Google has answered a handful of the questions posted on the query but so far the vast majority lack a response from the search firm.

"We've worked closely with our Nexus One launch partners to make support available through a variety of channels," said a spokesman for Google. "This is a new way to purchase and support a mobile phone, and we're committed to sorting out the few kinks that do exist."

China faces growing gender imbalanc

More than 24 million Chinese men of marrying age could find themselves without spouses by 2020, says the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The gender imbalance among newborns is the most serious demographic problem for the country's population of 1.3 billion, says the academy.

It cites sex-specific abortions as a major factor, due to China's traditional bias towards male children.
The academy says gender selection abortions are "extremely common".

This is especially true in rural areas, and ultra-sound scans, first introduced in the late 1980s, have increased the practice.

Forced prostitution

The latest figures show that for every 100 girls born in China, 119 boys are born, the academy says in a new book.

Researcher Wang Guangzhou, quoted by the Global Times newspaper, said the implications were that men in poorer parts of China may remain single throughout their life.
"The chance of getting married will be rare if a man is more than 40-years-old in the countryside. They will be more dependent on social security as they age and have fewer household resources to rely on," he said.


In some provinces, 130 boys are born for each 100 girls, the book says.

Experts at the academy also predict the gender imbalance will lead to more inter-generational marriages, where a wife is older than her husband.

A reluctance among young urban Chinese to have a first or second child is exacerbating the problem.

Academy sociologist Yan Hua said: "People's minds have changed a lot during the last 20 years.

"Young couples either don't want to have a second child, or would prefer to live a DINK (Double Income No Kid) life."

The growing imbalance means that forced prostitution and human trafficking has become "rampant" in some parts of the country, according to the researchers.

While analysts admit there is definitely a pronounced gender imbalance in China, they also say that exact information is difficult to obtain because some families are thought to avoid registering female babies in order to make it easier for them to have a second child.

US and French soldiers among six killed in Afghanistan

Six international soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan, Nato officials said, making Monday the deadliest day for foreign troops there in two months.

The dead include three Americans killed in southern Afghanistan and one French soldier north-east of Kabul, Nato said.

The nationalities of the other two have not yet been released.

The deaths came as a poll commissioned and others showed most Afghans are increasingly upbeat about the state of their country.

Of more than 1,500 Afghans questioned, 70% said they believed Afghanistan was going in the right direction - a big jump from 40% a year ago.

Deadly patrols

The Americans died in a clash with militants during an "operational patrol" in southern Afghanistan, US military spokesman Col Wayne Shanks said.

France has said one of its soldiers was killed and another wounded while patrolling with Afghan troops in Alasay, a valley largely under militant control.
A non-commissioned officer paid with his life for the commitment of France to the peace and security of the Afghan people, and an officer was very gravely wounded," a statement from President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said.

Nato said one other soldier had died in eastern Afghanistan and another in the south - but did not give their nationalities.

The Mark Dummett, in Kabul, says the latest casualties bring the death toll for foreign troops in Afghanistan this year to 15.

It suggests that 2010 will be just as bloody - if not more so - than last year, which was the deadliest for international forces since the US-led invasion in 2001.

The high death toll is partly because insurgents have changed their tactics and are using more powerful bombs, our correspondent says.

But it is also because foreign troop numbers are rising, he adds.

President Barack Obama announced last month that an additional 30,000 US troops would be deployed quickly in Afghanistan to fight the insurgency.

The reinforcements will take the total number of US troops in Afghanistan to more than 100,000.

In a recent interview on US TV, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, Gen Stanley McChrystal, said the troops surge was having the desired affect and the tide was turning against the Taliban.

The insurgency is largely concentrated in southern and eastern Afghanistan, but analysts say it is moving to the previously calm north and west.

On Sunday, an American service member and two Afghan road construction workers were killed in separate attacks in southern Afghanistan.

Earlier this month, a suicide bomber killed seven CIA agents at America's Forward Operating Base Chapman near the eastern Afghan city of Khost.