While we can't say Apple is rotten to the core, it looks like they could use a couple lessons in how to manage their factories better. In the biggest scandal since that Foxconn employee committed suicide, over 2,000 employees at one of the company's industrial parks in Suzhou went on strike over unfair pay and safety conditions. And like any good strike, it involved turning over cars, destroying factory property, and throwing rocks aplenty. more ›

Resistance is futile: they've already started installing Green Dam internet filtering software in schools. The censorware is, according to its proponents, help in the eternal battle against smut and other morally damaging materials. Although we have our doubts as to how many Chinese students really have the time to scour smut at school, we are old enough more ›

While China Unicom may have finally won the iPhone battle, but that the war for control of China's mobile phone market is still far from over. more ›

While the system seems pretty cool, we feel like we've definitely seen that OS somewhere else. more ›

If you have a US iPhone 3G and have been tempted by repeated reminders in iTunes to upgrade to the 2.2 version of the iPhone firmware, you may soon be able to give in to the temptation without fear of relocking your device to AT&T. The iPhone Dev Team has announced that they will be launching a software hack to unlock your 3G iPhone on New Year's Eve. This will allow you to upgrade your firmware and keep it unlocked for use in China or anywhere else with a GSM network for that matter. more ›

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

From Beijing-based techie Frank Yu: "iPhones for sale in Beijing. 1st Gen 8 gig iPhone USD 735. 2nd Gen 8 gig 3G iPhone USD 1,176. The Older iPhones rose almost 42% since 3G." [Source] 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 ›

Xinhua: British PM visits Shanghai more ›

In this day and age, you can define "torture" however you want to, and for a long time, we considered the practice of inputting Chinese characters on a Mac to fulfill our definition. OS X has a built-in simplified Chinese input that does the job, but doesn't really hold a candle to any of the Windows XP input methods—and when Sogou came out with their input method, and Google copied it, we considered that battle to be over. more ›

From Digg.com:

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If you are a text message addict like us — 10 fens do add up fast, we have some good news for you. For a limited time, China Mobile (all you 134-139, 158, 159 people) is offering free SMS service with just one string attached: download its new instant messenger client, 飞信/Feixin/Fetion (Chinese for “flymail”). The IM, at least in its current incarnation is nothing to crow about, but it does have one ass kicking feature you won’t find in MSN, Gtalk or QQ: Free SMS within the China Mobile network, PC to mobile, mobile to PC, and of course mobile to mobile. Download the PC client here, and mobile client here (under your cell phone’s brand and model number). Mac fanboys need not despair, pop in a virtualization/emulation software and you can get in on the free loving too. more ›

Michael Dell, CEO and president of computer giant Dell Inc., was in town yesterday to unveil his company's latest strategy to win market share in China: a low cost, fully featured PC with the sexy moniker EC280. more ›

It's a minimalist effort to be sure, but hey, Shanghai Talk finally has a website. That's big news. And it has the best cursor-chasing goldfish we've ever seen! (Although they don't seem to feed on Firefox on a Mac.) more ›

We simply got tired of waiting for the optical cable guy to arrive. We also started experiencing the internet withdrawal shakes had some research to do. A man can only organize his Gmail inbox so many times. So we laid down some cash and got things working again. Here's how. more ›

Good more ›

The good and the not-so-good from the previous several days more ›

For the ever-pragmatic Chinese, adopting English names has always represented a way for them to bridge the linguistic and cultural gap. Now, as China widens its reach abroad and as the number of expatriates living in China swells, picking an English name has become a rite of passage for most young, urban Chinese. So ... this is news?

The Wall Street Journal tells us that the QP marks a change in McD's marketing strategy: Rather than trying to localize their food to suit the palettes of the Chinese, they are, with the QP, insisting on the cultural integrity of the product -- almost: more ›

Photo by CAI Yan taken from the Shanghaiist photos page. To see your photos on our photos page, use Flickr and tag your photos "shanghaiist". Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site. more ›

What do local electronics retailers think of their new rival? "Who cares?," according to Shanghai Daily. more ›

We suppose no kind of intellectual property theft should surprise us anymore, but we must admit to being a little taken aback when we discovered that a Berkeley, California hot dog chain with just six locations had gotten the royal treatment right on People's Square. We learned of this transgression from Slums of Shaolin (blocked in China), a blog about Shanghai. Top Dog, according to a Shanghaiist contributor who did his undergrad work at Cal-Berkeley, is an "East Bay institution." Basically, that means lots of students get drunk or high and eat Top Dog hot dogs late at night (one location is open until 3 am). In Shanghai, across from Fuzhou Lu, we have Mac Dog, and while the silly name is different, the logo is exactly the same. (They all kind of look like Mr. Hanky to us.) If you are still not convinced that Mac Dog is a rip-off of Top Dog, check this out: more ›

That was the subject line of an email Shanghaiist reader Gerard just sent us in response to our Gmail comment in today's "Extra! Extra!" post. Here is what he had to say: more ›

Torontoist throws down the gauntlet and challenges all comers: pillow fight, bitch. They also stand up for a fellow blogger taking heat from the TTC and welcome city-wide WiFi. more ›

Call abroad ... cheaply more ›

Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) recently decided to allow two Chinese regional papers, Shanghai's Xinmin Evening News (新民晚报 or Xin Min Wan Bao）and Guangzhou based Southern Metropolis (南方都市报 or Nan Fang Dou Shi Bao) to station journalists in Taiwan. more ›

Bothered by slow downloads? more ›

Those who have passed by Jing'an Temple this week have doubtlessly noticed the mighty Whopper swaying in the breeze, ready to fatten up a populace already hip to the featherless chickens of KFC and bottomless troughs of McDonald’s fries. The closed-to the-public opening ceremony of China’s first Burger King was a sight to behold on Monday -- slick industry fat cats (many of them quite large) mingled in the shiny new space, cutting ribbons and espousing the virtues of that fantastic flame-broiled taste. (The media was there, too.) more ›