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.
Apple's Tim Cook visits China to sort out looming issues
Apple awarded design patent for Shanghai outlet
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.
iPhone "massage" app could guide you to a brothel in Dongguan
A new iPhone app offering info on massage services in Dongguan has raised concerns that it might be a roadmap to prostitution.
Weib of the Day: Jeremy Lin is an iPhone
“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.”
Infographic: iKill! The human cost of an iPhone
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.
In Beijing: One city, two air quality readings
This screenshot of real-time Beijing air quality readings as seen on the iPhone/iPad application China Air Pollution Index comes to us by way of CNN's Steven Jiang. On Monday, the Air Quality Index in the capital was 234, or "very unhealthy", according to the US Embassy, but a mere 96 ("good") according to China's Ministry of Environmental Protection.
China Telecom to start selling iPhones
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.
iPhone 4S release canceled in Beijing after scalper fight!
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!
Shanghai scalpers hire hundreds to queue for iPhone 4S release
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!
Watch: Crazy queues for the iPhone 4S in Hong Kong
How many of these people do you reckon are queueing up for phones destined for the black market on the mainland?
iPhone 4S now available for upwards of RMB11,000 in black markets
'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.
Watch: Steve Jobs introduces the iPhone 4 in 2010
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.
Foxconn Follies: Apple bans satirical iPhone game
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.
A physical keyboard for your iPhone? Yes, why not?!
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.
Watch: The secret to Steve Jobs & Apple's success
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?
Share your photos with Shanghaiist on Instagram!
You're out and about in Shanghai and you see something cool or newsworthy that you want to share with the Shanghaiist community.
iDeath: 2011 Foxconn suicide total now at 3
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).
Chinese teen virgin offers her INNOCENT LUST for iPhone 4
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 .
GooApple: The shanzhai iPhone that runs Android
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.
Shanghai rumor mill: iPhone stealing gangs targeting M2?
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.
China Unicom to slash iPhone 3G packages down to as low as RMB66 per month
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.
Nifty new Apple Peel-like gadget allows your iPhone 4 to take up to three SIM cards
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.
Photo: Ancient Chinese version of Angry Birds
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.
Apple opening its third and biggest store yet in Shanghai
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."
Watch: Chinese iPhone band in action
Nowhere as gei li as the original iPhone band on the NY subway but still a first for a homegrown effort:
Oh, the things we do for our phones! Man gets arm stuck in toilet.
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.
China customs wants a slice of the Apple iPhone/iPad pie
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.

