Apple's labour practices have been under the spotlight a lot this year since a monologue by Mike Daisey published by the podcast This American Life gained widespread interest and led to international protests against the manufacturer of the iPhone and iPad. The monologue was eventually retracted after This American Life found Daisey to have fabricated numerous details in his report, thanks to the investigative work of Rob Schmitz, China correspondent of Marketplace. more ›

Wow. Looks like Apple CEO Tim Cook is here to do some serious networking on his first trip to China. On Tuesday, Cook met with Li Keqiang, the man widely believed to be the next Prime Minister of China after Wen Jiabao finishes his term. more ›

Apple CEO Tim Cook recently visited Beijing's flagship store and met with officials to reportedly discuss expansion in China, Apple's second largest consumer base and the globe's biggest mobile market. more ›

Despite recently approving an app that's a roadmap to prostitution and being sued for copyright infringement, Apple has maintained that it's a classy company by winning a patent for a handsome new design for its Shanghai store. This towering glass cylinder centered in Shanghai's Hong Kong Plaza features an Apple logo that appears suspended in space within the structure, and a shallow moat which rings the complex. The design has drawn comparisons to glass cube of New York's Fifth Avenue Apple, store and we'd even say it seems like a more commercial version of I.M. Pei's glass pyramid at the Louvre Museum in Paris. more ›

A new iPhone app offering info on massage services in Dongguan has raised concerns that it might be a roadmap to prostitution. more ›

The wildly popular US podcast This American Life has retracted the story by monolinguist Mike Daisey in which he details abuses by the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen which manufactures Apple products based on interviews with employees he claims to have met. To listen to the mp3 of "Retraction", This American Life's episode dealing with Daisey's deception, click here. more ›

The government manufacturing Steve Jobs: this idea itself is unscientific. How could Steve Jobs be manufactured? The government cannot manufacture him. He was created by the market environment. In working in science and technology, the government must not spoil things by being too enthusiastic. I advocate following the “mushroom theory”: the government creates an environment, and with the right air, moisture levels, and humidity, mushrooms will grow by themselves. The government doesn’t need to go plant mushrooms, or choose specific mushrooms, just create an environment, an ecology. more ›

Plus more links inside on China's first moon rover, Chen Guangcheng as Colonel Sanders, and breastfeeding. more ›

“Jeremy Lin is an iPhone. The accessories are made in China; a Taiwanese invested in its assembly; Chinese people want to own one; but at its core lies American technology and software, and in the final analysis it is an American brand without a cent’s worth of connection to China.” more ›

A video (with a perfect tinkly soundtrack) featuring an inconspicuous traveler crossing the border into Shenzhen from Hong Kong proves China's drug of choice for cross-border muling in 2012 is still the iPhone. more ›

Hey, look! Some super-long and pretty sweet emo-looking infographics (from...OnlineMBAprograms.org?!) on the human cost of an iPhone, in the wake of the New York Times' recent look at the human cost of an iPad. We really think some goth 8th-grader who's super into how hardcore the Foxconn suicides are should print these infographics out, and put them in the sleeve of their see-thru binder. more ›

A sigh of relief was breathed by crazy iPad fans across the country yesterday after a Shanghai court rejected Proview's request for a ban on sales and suspended their current lawsuit over the iPad trademark. more ›

China Telecom, the smallest of China’s three mobile carriers, has signed a deal with Apple Inc that will allow it to start selling iPhones beginning March 9. more ›

In Apple CEO Tim Cook's keynote presentation at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco Tuesday, he responded to complaints about working conditions in Chinese factories and notes how these would be improved: more ›

Spoilsports Proview have won their trademark lawsuit against Apple, and this week they began pulling iPads off Chinese retailer shelves in Hebei province. Even more damning for Apple operations, however, is word that Proview also seeks to halt import and export of the device. Step carefully, Proview. Apple fans in China are a very large, sometimes hysterical, and often emotionally unstable bunch who usually look up the addresses of the people they hate. more ›

"Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad", a new piece on the notorious tech manufacturer Foxconn by David Barboza and Charles Duhigg of the New York Times, was translated into Chinese and published in Caixin, one of the leading news weeklies in China. They've compiled and translated a list of the reactions by Chinese readers to the piece, which split along the usually lines of tacit acceptance and finger-pointing. more ›

We told you earlier today how the iPhone 4S release was halted in Beijing after scalper scuffles. Now watch the store get pelted with eggs. Hilarious. Watch the report from Reuters after the jump... more ›

This week's episode of massively popular US podcast This American Life zones in on Apple, Foxconn, and the workers that assemble one of the the most ubiquitous device brands on the planet. more ›

Apple fans rejoice! The iPhone 4S official arrival in China is slated for January 13, dispelling all prior rumors of other release dates, Apple's latest smartphone will also flood the markets of 20 other countries, including Senegal, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Bolivia. more ›

An explosion took place last weekend at a Shanghai-based Apple factory, making it the third lethal incident at an Apple factory in only 15 months. The incident has left roughly 60 people injured and is currently under investigation by Chinese authorities. more ›

As with other companies that have seen their logos and trademarks hijacked by Chinese companies, Apple now risks losing control over selling its iPad tablets in China, after a Shenzhen court ruled the multinational tech-giant guilty of copyright infringement. more ›

iPad news-reading application Flipboard is partnering with Sina Weibo and Renren for its debut in China, its first overseas destination. Here's why more ›

A 46-page report from the IPE shows the results of five months of research and field investigations on pollution emission from Apple's factories, revealing that the company has been seriously encroaching on local communities and their surrounding environments. more ›

Roughly 1,000 factory workers left their work stations and blocked a highway this week to protest extreme working conditions at their factory which produces parts for Apple and IBM in Shenzhen. The protest is the latest in a growing series of labor disputes in China, highlighting a need for truly independent trade unions amid worker fears over the future of China's economy. more ›

Apple's iTunes platform now allows customers in the People's Republic to pay for their mobile apps and music purchases with their Chinese bank cards. However, instead of paying for each purchase as you go, you'll now have to first top-up your iTunes account in pre-set amounts of 50, 100, 300, or 500 RMB. Payments via Alipay or Union Pay are also not currently available. Steven Millward of Penn Olson dissects Apple's move:

The move is also designed to combat piracy of iOS apps in China, which has been thriving under the previous inconveniences/restrictions. Just this week we saw a major Chinese web company, Tencent (HKG:0700), launch a shanzhai iTunes app that helps you avoid Apple’s tightly-controlled ecosystem, and there’s the Chinese-made iTools desktop app that assists in the jailbreaking and adding of pirated/cracked apps. more ›

Okay, so you're trying to seal the deal with some fatherly big boss-types in the clubhouse after a few rounds of golf. They want to know if they can take a peek at those luxury housing development plans you've been cooking up, but they can't all just crowd around your little tablet computer like a bunch of craven children, right? And they definitely can't pass it around from one person to the next, what ludicrousness. So what do you do? Looks like the new Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet has you covered. more ›

'Today we have got two from Canada, they're 11,000 yuan (S$2,183) each. If you're interested, you need to come straight away,' a salesman at a mobile phone shop at Hailong market told AFP. She said it was a 16GB model, the least expensive in the range. In the United States, the same phone is sold for US$199 (S$252) with a two-year contract. more ›

With the iPhone 4S being released today, it's only a matter of time before the first arrive on China's gray market, where Chinese will rush to bask in Apple's latest creation. However, those early adopters with sub-par English skills may not be as enthusiastic after having a few minutes to play around with Apple's newest gem, Siri. more ›

Seen on a poster outside a store selling Android mobile devices in Suining, Sichuan province: "Steve Jobs has kicked the bucket. Why would you still be buying Apple?"
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