One of the best things about my experience in China was being able to explore Chinese softwares and getting to use them every day. The following are Chinese softwares that I found (and still find) incredible. Unfortunately I can’t use most of them here in Seychelles for one reason or another.
.] Fetion (中国移动飞信) – feixin.10086.cn
Fetion Interface
Fetion is China Mobile’s IM chat platform that doubles as an sms-to-mobile software. It is absolutely amazing and best of all, when you send text to someone’s phone using Fetion it does not deduct from you mobile credits (which means it’s free). The IM itself is amazing, with features that aren’t even available on Windows Live Messenger. For example, if you want to send someone a screenshot, you can simply enable real-time cropping and “snatch” any image visible on your monitor. Once you’ve selected and cropped the image, you can send it to your chat buddy.
If your friend is not online, they will receive the message on their mobile phone. You can also change the settings so the messages gets sent to both devices (computer and mobile), none, or only one. You even get to earn points, although I haven’t really figured out what they’re for (perhaps you receive certain privileges). There’s also a VIP status that you can purchase for about 10RMB per month. The disadvantage with this is that it prohibits you from logging in if you have no phone credit!
This is also available as a mobile phone app, so you can use WAP, GPRS or Wifi to access Mobile Fetion.
.] Funshion (风行网) – www.funshion.com
Funshion Interface
One of Funshion’s coolest features is that there is an English version of the software! Funshion offers streaming movies of all genres. No download required. It has a shopping cart interface, but I suppose this is just for fun because you can watch movies for free. The speeds in China are excellent, so it just plays with no problem.
Some people have encountered installation problems though. It depends on the version and its compatibility with your computer.
.] Xunlei (迅雷) – www.xunlei.com
Xunlei Interface
Xunlei is a download manager with amazing speeds. The software is only available in Chinese as far as I know, and here in Seychelles it actually downloads faster than DAP (Download Accelerator Plus) which is also a download manager. Excellent interface and it also performs the same fuction as Filehippo’s Update Checker by notifying you when a new software update has been released.
.] Xunlei Kankan (迅雷看看) – www.xunlei.com
Xunlei Kankan Interface
Xunlei Kankan is an optional download that can be downloaded together with Xunlei download manager. Its purpose is similar to Funshion, but its interface is hard to beat. I actually stopped using Funshion after I found out about this. Lots of the latest movies available, and also classics. I also watched a bunch of series and reality TV shows on this. Who needs cable? Although I haven’t found the English version of this software. Movies are also streaming, and after they have been played they can be saved on your playlist and would not require an internet connection to play again.
.] Pipi (皮皮电影) – www.pipi.cn
Pipi Interface
Pipi is a streaming movie player that allows you to watch a large collection of movies. I have personally never tried it because it refused to play with me, but as much as I know the movies are in HD and they are the best according to my Chinese friends. There is no English version at the moment.
