China’s Foreign Ministry said today that U.S. tech companies have nothing to fear from the country’s new anti-terrorism law, which could require companies to create “back doors” in products, or to hand over encryption information to the Chinese government.
iRich: Businessman gifts former classmates 39 iPhone 6s handsets
Christmas came early for schoolfriends of a Chinese businessman when he distributed 39 brand new iPhone 6s handsets during an elementary school reunion (!) over the past weekend.
The rose gold iPhones were engraved with the words, “To commemorate the Beilun Sanshan Primary School Class of 1998.” The generous giver of the gifts, a businessman with the surname Zhang, reportedly handed out the iPhones during a dinner in Ningbo, a city in China’s Zhejiang province.
iPad Pro sales may be off to a disappointing start
Apple may be hoping that the iPad Pro can help turn around its flagging tablet sales, but according to a new report sales are off to a somewhat disappointing start — with just 49,000 units selling in the first month in Apple’s much-emphasized China region.
Samsung Pay is taking its fight against Apple Pay to China
Apple Pay will finally arrive in China next year, and it’s going to have strong competition from day one. Just hours after Apple announced the expansion of its mobile payment service, Samsung confirmed its own will be following after it struck an almost identical deal with China UnionPay.
Apple Pay is finally coming to China
After more than a year of calling it “top of the list” in the company’s priorities, Apple today announced that it is partnering with China UnionPay to bring Apple Pay to China, the country Tim Cook has been outspoken about calling Apple’s biggest market of the future.
Apple has crucial deal in place to bring Apple Pay to China
Apple has come to a preliminary agreement with China UnionPay to introduce Apple Pay in China through UnionPay’s point-of-sales network.
The deal — which builds on this week’s report that Apple Pay will be coming to China by February 2016 — will help UnionPay and Chinese banks to fend off third-party payment services like those belonging to Alibaba and Tencent.
Apple Pay may arrive in China by February
Tim Cook has described his desire to bring Apple Pay to China as “top of the list” in terms of priorities — and now it seems like he may finally be on the verge of hitting his goal.
According to a new report, it is hoped that Apple Pay will launch in China by early February, after Apple struck deals with China’s four biggest state-run banks.
China’s secret shops can upgrade your 16GB iPhone to 128GB
China’s legendary black markets have goods and services for every need, from organs to counterfeit designer handbags. For cashed-strapped Apple fans in this communist country, there’s also a thriving market around iPhone upgrades.
For as little as $100 U.S. dollars, the 16GB iPhone can get upgraded to 126GB. That’s a big deal to Chinese consumers, who have trouble affording the 16GB iPhone 6 at just over $700, let alone any models with more capacity.
Apple’s retail store assault on China linked to weak online sales
Apple is opening yet another major brick-and-mortar Apple retail store in China this weekend. But according to a new report, the company’s retail assault on China is linked with a more negative factor: weaker than expected online sales.
Tim Cook defends faltering Chinese economy
Tim Cook has stuck his neck out again in support of the Chinese economy, saying that Apple will continue to pour money into the market, despite a slowing stock market and economy.
“I know some people are worried about the economy,” Cook said in an interview with the Chinese Xinhua news agency. “We’ll continue to invest. China is a superb place to be. Nothing has changed that.”
Apple steps up its clean energy efforts in China
Apple and Foxconn are teaming up to build solar power plants that will ensure its iPhone-manufacturing factories in China run on 100 percent clean energy.
Foxconn has committed to constructing more than 400 megawatts of solar power plants, beginning in China’s Henan Province, by 2018. Apple will also build an addition 200 megawatts of solar projects throughout China, helping offset the carbon produced by the rest of its supply chain.
Chinese ad company apologizes for snooping on iOS users
The Chinese mobile ad company responsible for malicious code discovered in 256 iOS apps has come forward and apologized after being named and shamed by Apple.
Hundreds of iOS apps secretly collect users’ data
A security firm claims to have discovered 256 apps that illicitly gather user email addresses, lists of installed apps, serial numbers and other identifying information.
Apple may be obsessed with user privacy, but these apps — which violate App Store policy and have been downloaded by an estimated 1 million people — somehow got by Cupertino’s gatekeepers.
China’s 21st Apple Store will be among world’s biggest
Apple is continuing its Chinese Apple Store expansion by announcing the opening of its 21st Chinese retail store in the city of Dalian, China.
A port city known for its clean air, good food, and luxurious shopping, Dalian attracts visitors from China, Japan, and Korea. In other words, it’s the perfect location for a new Apple Store — which is why it’s no surprise that it will be among the biggest Apple brick-and-mortar retail outlets in the world.
iTunes and Apple Music go live in China
Apple today launched Apple Music, iTunes Movies and iBooks in China.
As with the U.S., Chinese customers are being treated to a three-month free trial for Apple Music. After this, the subscription service will cost a very reasonable 10 yuan ($1.57) per month — just one-sixth of what customers in the U.S. pay for the service.
iPhones 6s captures China’s beauty (and liberates Nat Geo photog)
The new camera on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus have already been put to the test in the fashion world, and on the baseball diamond, and now ahead of the device’s release tomorrow, National Geographic is showing fans what the new 12MP sensor can do when it replaces your entire camera bag.
National Geographic sent Mark Leong to the Chinese city of Sanjiang to retrace the first road trip that set the tone for his career as a professional photographer. Instead of lugging around his DSLR and suitcase of extra gear though, Leong was only allowed to shoot with the iPhone 6s Plus, which he says turned out to be ‘incredibly liberating.’
Take a look at some of the stunning images he captured:
Apple takes steps to avoid a repeat of XcodeGhost debacle
Apple is taking steps to avoid a repeat of this week’s serious XcodeGhost incident — in which hundreds of App Store apps were discovered to include malware in the form of a counterfeit version of Xcode, the platform used by developers to build their apps.
Apple Pay is one step closer to arriving in China
Apple Pay is a bit closer to making its debut in China — thanks to a new company, Apple Technology Service (Shanghai) Ltd., which Apple has set up to operate in the Shanghai free-trade zone with the express purpose of running its mobile payment service.
Apple has reportedly seeded the new company with registered capital of $13.4 million, and names Apple’s VP and corporate treasurer Gary Joseph Wipfler as its legal representative and chairman.
Chinese sperm bank wants you to swap your swimmers for an iPhone 6s
China seems to have a bit of a problem with certain members of the population trying to trade vital organs for Apple’s next-gen iPhone 6s.
Responding to this, a local sperm bank at Renji Hospital in Shanghai is offering donors the cash to buy Apple’s new handset in exchange for a sperm sample.
“No need to sell your kidneys – you can easily have a 6s,” the hospital writes in an online posting.
That’s advice worth living by!
Crazy Apple fans tried to sell their kidneys for iPhone 6s
How much do you want an iPhone 6s? Probably not as much as the two men in China’s eastern Jiangsu Province who reportedly attempted to sell their kidneys to buy Apple’s latest must-have handset.
The bizarre story claims that friends Wu and Huang decided to sell a kidney each to get the money for an iPhone (mistake No. 1), and found an illegal agent on the Internet (mistake No. 2) who would help them.
Apple Watch is huge in China with 1 million actual users
Apple is still being pretty cagey about exactly how many Apple Watches it has sold since the wearable premiered in April, but a new report suggests that the device is doing just fine in the all-important Chinese market.
Shanghai-based research company RedTech Advisors estimates that China has more than 1 million Apple Watches in use, and it reached this number in a mere 17 weeks.
Here’s definitive proof of Apple’s legendary reality distortion field
You might remember that on Monday, AAPL stock had a bit of a bad day before rebounding. It wasn’t just a bad day for Apple stock, though: Fueled by fears of a total collapse of the Chinese stock market, the whole S&P 500 collapsed that day.
In the first 24 hours, only Apple rebounded. It’s proof positive of Apple’s fabled “reality distortion field.”
Tim Cook reassures investors as Apple stock falls below $100
It’s not a good start to the week for Apple, as shares fell below the $100 mark even before the market opened.
Seeing investors panicking, Tim Cook shared a few thoughts with CNBC Mad Money host Jim Cramer — particularly reassuring him about Apple’s continued success in China, which Cook continues to be bullish on due to its “unprecedented” opportunities.
Chinese devaluation is terrible for Apple, great for its suppliers
China’s surprise devaluation of the yuan is likely to have a massive impact on Apple and its suppliers.
China devalued its currency in an attempt to boost a flagging economy — resulting in the country’s biggest one-day loss in 20 years.
And while some will be celebrating, others (likely including Tim Cook) can’t be too happy about it!
Police bust fake iPhone factory in China
Apple business may be soaring in China, but not all of it is the legit kind!
According to a new report, police in Beijing have busted a factory which produced in excess of 41,000 fake iPhones, with a market value of around $19 million.