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. 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 ›

The speed of mobile Internet in China is the second slowest in the world, only faster than that of India, according a report recently unveiled by the GSM Association (GSMA), an association of mobile operators and related companies. 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 ›

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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 ›

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 ›

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 ›

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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Gang Lu of TechNode points us to a unique little innovation developed by China Unicom that he says the provider is selling "under the table". The device basically allows China Mobile users to use China Unicom's 3G network which makes sense since China Mobile has better mobile coverage while Unicom remains the better 3G provider. Here's how it works:

Basically, you just attach that film sticker (card) on your China Mobile sim card, then insert it back to your phone. What happens is that you can still make/receive the call, send/receive sms message etc using China Mobile service, but in the meanwhile, you can also surf the internet using China Unicom’s 3G network. As we said before, it is pre-paid data card which means you can just do top-up when the credits run out. It’s so impressive, and I bet China Mobile will get pissed off by this innovative product.

Taiwan megastar and singer-songwriter Jay Chou (周杰伦) has joined the ranks of Ashton Kutcher as a celebrity tech investor. His latest venture comes in the form of 31SMS, a mobile messaging application for iPhones and Android phones which he's hoping his star appeal will help make a WhatsApp-killer, at least for the Greater China market. more ›

Looks like the subway mobile shopping space is really heating up. First we had the subway supermarket shopping app Yihaodian that seeks to replicate the success that Tesco had in South Korea. Now we have Ubox, a mobile app for iPhones, Android and Java-based phones, that allows you to pay for your vending machine purchases with your cell phone. more ›

This is the decidedly low-tech parallel to the Anthony Weiner sexting scandal, and it involves Wang Xiangui (王先贵), a department chief at the taxation bureau in Guiyang, Guizhou province. more ›

A new mobile shopping experience is coming to major cities around China with a subway network, and is currently being tested in Shanghai and Beijing. more ›

If you can't live without Weibo, then you will want this phone. Mobile powerhouse HTC has worked with Sina Weibo to develop ‘Weike’ (微客), the first ever dedicated Weibo phone. The phone is, according to MICGadget, a custom version of HTC Salsa, and will be priced at RMB3380. There is deep integration with Sina Weibo via a dedicated Weibo button which gives you instant access to the microblogging platform and really nifty one-touch sharing of photos.HTC's Friend Stream has also been modified to integrate with Sina Weibo, and there is also an IM-like chat system that works via Weibo's direct messaging system. Not bad at all! 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 ›

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 ›

"BLACKBERRY is expected to officially launch its App World service for Chinese mainland users in the next couple of days, sources said yesterday, and users now can access the service for a trial period. A company source told Shanghai Daily that the short trial period would help the company solve any problem before the official launch whose date was not confirmed by the firm. The App World went live in other countries and regions in 2009, but BlackBerry didn't open it to domestic users. Industry observers said the move to officially launch the App World was to coincide with the launch this month of the Playbook tablet computer by Research In Motion, also the maker of BlackBerry phones. BlackBerry phones accounted for about 4.6 percent of the domestic smartphone market in terms of sales in the fourth quarter of 2010, according to research firm Analysys International." [Shanghai Daily] more ›

What began as a simple call by Professor Yu Jianrong for internet users to snap pictures of street children and post it on Sina Weibo, the leading Chinese microblogging service, has become something of a revolution that is being talked about by everyone today. At last count, the campaign's official account @随手拍照解救乞讨儿童 (lit. Snap a picture to save a child) has about 152,000 followers while @Yujianrong himself has become something of a superstar with close to 380,000 followers. more ›

Yay for faster Chinese input, and double yay for our homegrown talent! more ›

On your marks! Get set! Whoooa.. So close yet so far. The eager beavers at Reuters got us all excited earlier today reporting that China Unicom had finally inked the deal to bring the iPhone to China. They went so far as to report that the device would cost Unicom RMB3,000 per phone, a price they will hopefully pass on to the consumer which would make it RMB1,000 cheaper than the smuggled US models sold at Metro City. more ›

The words "unconfirmed", "anonymous" and "sketchy" all come to mind whenever we talk about the arrival of the iPhone to China, but this latest story actually originates from Foxconn, the contract manufacturer for Apple's game-changing phone. JLM Pacific Epoch reports that an unnamed source within the company has leaked that they have already commenced mass production of wifi-less versions of the iPhone for release in this country. more ›

If you are waiting anxiously for the upcoming iPhone 3.0 firmware update - due to be released tomorrow - but concerned that it will relock your iPhone, you need not fear (too much). @MuscleNerd from the iPhone Dev Team announced on twitter that he would be airing a demo of an unlocked iPhone running on the new software. more ›

If you've been in Shanghai for long enough you will notice that China Mobile generally has a great deal of outdoor advertising, from billboards to those annoying little screens mounted on the headrest of taxis. As we are draw close to having the conveniences of high speed internet in the palm of our hands, China Mobile has reverted to an older form of advertising on East Nanjing Road. more ›

Here we have it: the most ostentatious religious-themed cellphone in China! more ›

As "G-Day" approaches and suburban Beijing start to get their 3G signal, we are still speculating about the arrival of the iPhone. Rather than relying on official announcements, pundits are now looking further up the iPhone supply chain to make predictions about how and who will bring the iPhone to China. more ›

Kaiser Kuo of Youku Buzz writes:

Here’s a short video of a download speed test of China Telecom’s trial 3G wireless network, which is on the CDMA 2000 1x EV-DO standard. (We usually hear about China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA network, foisted on them by regulators against their wishes, and the “European” standard WCDMA network that will be operated by China Netcom). more ›