After hours of waiting in line, the army of scalpers that descended on Beijing's Sanlitun Apple Store to buy the iPhone 4S have reportedly been told that there are no iPhones and that they all have to go home due to scuffles that occurred throughout the night! more ›

At 7am on Friday morning the doors of Shanghai's Apple Stores will open allowing all Chinese citizens who properly queued overnight an equal and fair chance at receiving their new, unlocked iPhone 4S. Hah, fat chance! In an impressive feat of organization, scalpers have bussed in over 200 people (all wearing matching red hats) from out of town to wait in line overnight and buy iPhones at Shanghai's Huaihai Road Apple Store! more ›

more ›

How many of these people do you reckon are queueing up for phones destined for the black market on the mainland? 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 ›

Steve Jobs' keynote addresses were the main platform that he engaged with the wider world. Standing with his ubiquitously talked-about ubiquitous black turtleneck, Jobs would unveil the next object of immaculate tech perfection to a rapt audience of adoring listeners. Tuesday's keynote for the iPhone 4S was the first post-Jobs product reveal, and it still feels quite surreal to see someone else now telling the world of the next iteration of iProducts. more ›

Created by Italian developer Molleindustria (other games include deconstructions of McDonald's and the oil industry), the most unsettling mini-game in the app is "Suicides", in which players thumb a pair of rescuers holding a fireman's trampoline left and right, in a bid to save Foxconn employees bent on jumping off of a building to meet their makers. 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 ›

Steve Jobs, British Petroleum, Jacques Cousteau, Obama and ALIENS...this video has it all. Seriously dudes, whoa. We had no idea iPhones were alien tech. Sure, they kind of resemble the Obelisk in 2001: A Space Odyssey, but we'd expect alien phones to at least drop our calls less, no? more ›

You're out and about in Shanghai and you see something cool or newsworthy that you want to share with the Shanghaiist community. more ›

It looks like the scourge of suicide at Foxconn continues unabated: a 21-year-old Foxconn employee fell from the sixth floor of a factory dormitory in the Longhua district (龙华) of Shenzhen on the 18th. Foxconn is of course the infamous manufacturing giant that produces iPhones, iPads, Xbox's, Playstation 3's, and not to mention products for other clients like Dell, HP and Nokia. It is the third suicide this year, following incidents in January and May, and the 18th since the beginning of 2010 (other sources [in Chinese] have the number lower, at 16). more ›

Apple must somehow turn Chinese people into imbeciles. First, there was iPad boy, who sold his kidney for an iPad 2. And now, a girl named Wang Meiping (王美平) is trying to get her hands on an iPhone 4 in exchange for her virginity . more ›

Grindr, the gaydar-in-your-pocket mobile app that's taken the international gay community by storm is now back online in China after an extended period of being blocked by the Great Firewall. more ›

It looks like an iPhone, feels like an iPhone, and it even appears to have the iOS. Introducing the GooApple, the shanzhai phone that's a complete rip-off of the iPhone 4, except that it runs on Android 2.2. And if the English-language demo below (yeah, shanzhai-makers are seriously upping their game these days) is to be trusted, it seems to run really well too. Unfortunately we weren't able to find any prices on the GooApple website which is now accepting pre-orders, but if prices on Taobao are any indication, older GooApple models are going for between RMB1060 and RMB1430. more ›

Having not been to Hong Kong Plaza's M2 in years, we have no way of checking out how true this rumor is for ourselves, but after receiving an email from a Shanghaiist reader about it and, just days later, hearing another friend complain about the same thing happening... we thought it might be worth putting up. Even if there isn't a specific gang trying to steal your phones, this could be a reminder to keep close watch over your belongings when you're out at the club. more ›

Have an iPhone and not on 3G yet? Now's your perfect opportunity to dump China Mobile once and for all because China Unicom, so far the only mobile operator offering 3G packages, is slashing down prices to as low as RMB66 per month. China Unicom aims to convert more iPhone fans over to 3G fast because China Telecom is said to be in talks with Apple to introduce the iPhone. China Mobile also hopes to finally hop onto the iPhone bandwagon once its 4G system is up. more ›

You've seen Yosion's Apple Peel, the wonderful device that turns your iPod Touch into an iPhone. But now here's a similar gadget by another maker, Xun Ying Tech, which allows your iPhone 4 to take up to three SIM cards. Just the tool you'll need if each of your schizophrenic personalities requires its own mobile number! The gadget is retailing online for RMB799.
more ›

Not a bad way to make ancient relics hip with the kids these days: draw a comparison between 2000-year-old bronze and the number one iPhone app. Thanks goes out to the Chinese microblogger who spotted this Shang dynasty wine container at the Shanxi museum and tweeted it to the world. It's now been forwarded 5,000 times and drawn 500 comments on Sina Weibo. more ›

An Apple spokesperson has confirmed that a third Shanghai Apple store will be opening on Nanjing Road. Our reaction to this is really? Already? It'll be the fifth in China (there are two stores in Shanghai and two in Beijing) and the largest in the nation. Supposedly, the size of the retail space is necessary "to accommodate the crowds that routinely pack its China Apple stores, which are visited by more than 40,000 people per day-four times the average traffic in their American stores." more ›

Nowhere as gei li as the original iPhone band on the NY subway but still a first for a homegrown effort: more ›

Next time you take a squat and “swipe” on your iPhone to play Papertoss or send a quick message, please remember this guy in Jiangsu province. After dropping his phone into the toilet, he had the intestinal fortitude to go fishing it out. Instead, he ended up getting stuck but, after a couple of crowbar-brandishing firemen, showed up he was able to fully relieve himself. He saved his phone but it’s probably safe to say lost the high score on the snake game he had going. more ›

For all of you heading south to Hong Kong to pick up your beloved iPhone 4’s and iPad’s, you’ve been warned. Chinese customs officials have been notified to crackdown on iPhones and iPads by assessing a 20% import duty. more ›

• A kitten dressed in lambs clothing? Hmm, we’re sure that’s not how the saying goes. Oh well, that’s the least of our worries; latest rumours to reach us are that street vendors are selling “lamb shiskabobs”….without the lamb; opting instead for kitty cat.
• Well that’s the mid-autumn festival over for another year. Unfortunately it isn’t the end of the hectic ‘holiday’ timetabling that we’re sure many of you are suffering. This mid-autumn festival, Google joined in with the ‘festivities’ by ‘pimping’ their homepage for the day. They paid homage to the lady on the moon; a lady soon to be joined by Chinese astronauts! Obviously remembering her by eating mooncake’s is far easier…and far more cost efficient. You may just want to disregard any leftover cakes though - no point in expanding China’s waistline anymore.
• We’ve been struck with a dose of i-Fever this week. Not only were we slightly puzzled by the over eagerness of some Macnerds to get their hands on an i-pad, (including one guy who queued for 19 hours….despite already owning one?!) but we also realised that Apple get off on seeing people form ‘en mass’ outside their shops; there second store in Shanghai opened yesterday - the same day as the China iPhone4 launch.

From a press release I just received (but on the web here): "Apple today announced that iPhone® 4 will be available to customers in China beginning Saturday, September 25 at 8:00 a.m. at Apple Retail Stores including the new Apple Store Hong Kong Plaza in Shanghai... Customers who buy their iPhone 4 at an Apple Retail Store will receive free Personal Setup service, helping them customize their new iPhone by setting up their email, loading their favorite apps from the App Store, and other tips to get up and running before they leave the store. iPhone 4 will be sold in China through Apple’s retail stores for a suggested retail price of CNY4,999 for the 16GB model and CNY5,999 for 32GB model without a contract. At China Unicom stores, iPhone 4 will be available for qualified buyers with a new two year contract, sold separately." more ›

While dates for a China release are still up in the air, the iPhone 4 was recently launched just a short flight away in Hong Kong... and it turns out that, count our lucky stars, that may actually be the cheapest place to go to to get one! more ›

Long before the iPad was released, Chinese shanzhai manufacturers had already come out with their own version. So I guess it's not surprising that, way before the iPhone 4G's launch date has even been announced, some enterprising company would have made their own fake 4G. more ›

Just when we thought we wouldn't be hearing anymore of that hellhole-of-a-workplace otherwise known as Foxconn, yet another scandal has erupted. This time, several security guards at Foxconn's Beijing plant have been filmed getting physical with factory workers. In a clip that has been circulating around on Chinese interwebs, two guards are first seen pulling a Foxconn employee by his shirt and shoving him around. Meanwhile, three other guards outside have pinned another employee to the ground, and they are joined by another ten or so guards who then jointly beat the living daylights out of that guy. more ›

How, um, exciting! Forget queues for the Expo pavilions and prepare for an on-line stampede to download the new Expo app for the iPhone. Shanghai Daily, official media partner of the Shanghai Expo 2010, has launched the app to bring users all the latest info at the touch of a button. Not convinced you want it...? No, neither are we! more ›

Just so you know, we - well, our parent company at least - now has an app out for the iPhone called The Istaverse. The great thing is, you can now easily read all the latest posts from all the Ist sites. It'll also remember your previous city choice on relaunch, and (while this isn't that much of a problem here) it'll store articles to your memory so you can read us even when you're not online. more ›

• While China may have been all about itself at the Beijing Olympics, it heads to the Vancouver Winter Olympics with its head in its hoodie, downplaying expectations of how well it would do. [LA Times]
• You know what would be the thing to calm Xinjiang down? Investment, thinks China. [Reuters]
• Speaking of which, four more people have been sentenced to death over the riots that happened over the summer. [New York Times]