According to Apple's China website, the opening date for Shanghai's third Apple Store has been confirmed for this Friday morning at 9am. You can find the store at the corner of East Nanjing Road and Henan Middle Road, and normal operation hours will be between 10am to 10pm every day of the week. more ›

Now here's a smart little idea by a Chinese guy that hasn't become a real product yet but remains in its conceptual stage -- a physical keyboard for the iPhone. Before you go scoffing at the idea, there are actually many people with fat fingers out there who never quite manage to type right on the iPhone. more ›

With no open operating system, no high resolution display, no Dolby Surround Sound, no Flash, no microSD, no USB port, why the hell would you want an iPad? That's the question Taiwanese electronics giant Acer is asking consumers in a campaign for its newly released tablet, the Iconia Tab A500 -- which we're happy to report is quite a decent tablet after we tried it hands-on at a store recently at MetroCity. The below ad, from Taiwan, features two men in a , or crosstalk, trying to convince you that Acer is the better choice. more ›

The Chinese love Apple, never mind the fact that Apple products here are considerably more expensive here than in Hong Kong, the US and other places. After a long wait, sales of the iPad 2, priced at RMB3,688 and above, finally began on Friday 8am in Shanghai and Beijing. Many Apple fanatics queued overnight for the device and massive queues were seen outside Apple stores in both cities. But as Global Times noted, scalpers formed the majority of the queue. For each iPad 2, scalpers generally ask for a markup of between 150 and 400 RMB. more ›

PR practitioners need to watch this. At the recent launch of Chinese manufacturer Hanvon's (汉王) very own TouchPad, which they hope to be the next iPad-killer, senior executives were invited on stage to smash an effigy of Apple made out of ice. When asked by the emcee how they felt afterwards, one of them replied in a most nonchalant manner, "I never thought it'd be this easy to smash Apple!" 没想到砸苹果还那么轻松啊！ more ›

Man! Would you just take a look at what we found on our favourite blog for shanzhai gadgets? Shanzhaipads! They had to come out sooner or later! Tell us -- should we choose the Eken M003 iPad-lookalike on the left? Or the smaller SmartQ MID V7 on the right which allows us to run Windows, Linux and Android? More importantly, which of these shanzhaipads do you think will allow us to do this?
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Steven Lin of Youku Buzz informs us:

It’s rumored that the Meizu M8 will be on the shelf later this month with a 3.3 inch 720×480 touch screen (much higher than iPhone’s 480×320) and compatibility with most mainstream multimedia formats you can find online (who needs Apple’s iTunes Store any more?). And my friend from Engadget China told me, the price would be RMB 2300 (USD 335).

Check out John Pasden's helpful tips here (and be jealous that your company doesn't subsidize the purchasing of cool smuggled gadgets). more ›

"'As soon as we get it from Hong Kong and bring it over and unlock it.' ... Asked about claims that the new iPhones could not be hacked, he replied: 'The Chinese are very quick at unlocking iPhones. They used to say that the PSP couldn't be hacked as well, but we hacked it,' referring to Sony's PlayStation Portable game console." We believe the price they quote for an iPhone — 3,000 kuai — is for the earlier model. Story says new iPhones are going for upwards of US$860 in Thailand and US$600 in Hong Kong, where users must sign a two-year contract. [Source: IHT] more ›

A few weeks ago it came to our attention that what appeared to be a large price tag-shaped sign was affixed to the front of a building under construction across the street from Zhongshan Park. The sign was under wraps, but the shape alone was enough to conjure up images of Best Buy and many high school hours spent searching in vain for movies and music that they don't keep in stock. Now despite the fact that Zhongshan Park already has a Gome, Yolo, Suning, and a host of other crappy electronics stores, we couldn't help but get a little nostalgic for the good old days, when buying a print cartridge just meant you had to pick up the box and take it to the register. No red stamps, no getting an attendant to take it out from behind bullet-proof glass, and no waiting around for someone to go find the 'real' product after you've paid and shown your stamp to the requisite three to ten people. more ›

In tribute to our city's place at the cutting edge of technology, AMD have decided to name their latest processor "Shanghai". more ›

Heres' a public service announcement to (illegal) satellite TV users from Shanghaiist: Don't put stuff on top of your satellite receiver box. We had gotten in the habit of placing the occasional DVD or DVD sleeve on top of our satellite box, which is covered by a bunch of small vents. Not long ago, while working at our computer (surprise, surprise) at around 1 am, we heard a popping noise coming from near the TV... more ›