For a country who doesn't really do April Fools' Day, you know China means business when it lays the smackdown on its weibo services. Here's the background story: about a week ago there was a rumor on the Chinese web about a military coup on one of the main streets in Beijing, and coincidentally I was in town around the time (for the Windows Phone launch). Funnily enough, I wasn't aware of this at all until my taxi driver in Hong Kong asked me about my visit, as he claimed that the passenger he picked up beforehand was actually a Chinese military officer who had several intense phone calls about said coup.

But of course, nothing actually happened. In fact, the guards at Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City were pretty relaxed when I visited on that very day. As for the rumormongers, the Chinese government announced through Xinhua that 16 websites have been shut down and six people have been detained, while local microblogging platforms Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo have been "criticized and punished accordingly," though it didn't elaborate on the details. All we know is that comments under each weibo post are now disabled until local time 8pm on April 3rd, during which these two companies can, in their own words, clean up the mess. Well, at least we now know where to draw the line for China's April Fools'.

Weibo services 'punished' for Beijing coup rumors, comments temporarily disabled originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 31 Mar 2012 22:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft on Wednesday began sending out invitations to the press for the company’s Windows Phone 7.5 Refresh launch event in China. According to Liveside, the event will be held in Beijing on March 21st. While the invitation doesn’t mention any specific handsets, HTC recently launched the Titan — becoming the first manufacturer to release a Window Phone device in China. Nokia CEO and president Stephen Elop will also reportedly host a separate event on March 28th. The company is expected to launch three Lumia devices, most likely running the refreshed Windows Phone 7.5 operating system. As of the fourth quarter of 2011, Nokia controls 16.1% of the Chinese mobile market, second only to Samsung.

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China’s third largest carrier, China Telecom, launched the iPhone 4S on Friday. The popular smartphone starts at free on contract for the 16GB model and is available at 2,850 of the carrier’s retail locations. According to M.I.C. gadget, Apple’s smartphone received an astonishing 200,000 pre-orders, with orders in Beijing and Shanghai exceeded 10,000 and 20,000 units, respectively. China Telecom has 129 million subscribers and operates the largest CDMA network in China. The carrier is the second, behind China Unicom, to offer the iPhone China.

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Apple on Wednesday defended itself in a Shanghai court against Proview International, which claims Apple is violating a trademark it holds on the “iPad” name, the New York Times reported. Proview’s allegations have prevented the Cupertino-based company from selling its popular tablet in numerous smaller Chinese cities, however Apple Stores in Beijing and Shanghai continue to sell the device. The four-hour session at the Pudong New Area People’s Court ended without any ruling from the district judge, though both sides reportedly presented new evidence in the case. Apple claims it acquired the iPad trademark from Proview in 2009. “We bought Proview’s worldwide rights to the iPad trademark in 10 different countries several years ago,” the company said in a statement. “Proview refuses to honor their agreement with Apple in China and a Hong Kong court has sided with Apple in this matter. Our case is still pending in mainland China.â€� Proview claims that Apple is using the iPad name illegally, however, as the subsidiary that licensed the trademark to Apple was not authorized to do so.

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Apple says it's suspending iPhone 4S sales in mainland China following the violence we reported earlier, in which angry customers threw eggs at the company's flagship store in Beijing. The crowd had queued in freezing temperatures to purchase the newly-arrived 4S, but were subsequently told the store would not be opening for business -- hence their angry response. It seems that many in the mob weren't normal consumers, but were workers put in place by resellers who wanted to buy up devices and sell them on at a profit. There was similar disorder when the iPad 2 went on sale in China, and now an Apple spokesperson has said the risk to its staff is too great, forcing it to halt 4S sales "for the time being."

Apple stops selling iPhone 4S in China to protect its staff originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 13 Jan 2012 06:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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They had come from miles around, stood in sub-zero degree weather for hours, and patiently queued for the store to open its doors. Today was iPhone day in Beijing! But when the doors did open, the huddled masses were told there would be no iPhone 4S, not today. And then shit got real. More »

In eight hours, Apple’s iPhone will touch down in China for the first official time. Thousands have already lined up outside of Apple Stores, and in Beijing and Shanghai locations, there are hundreds of people waiting in the hopes of getting their hands on the iPhone 4S. The image above was posted on Twitter on January 10th, three days before the highly-anticipated smartphone’s launch. China Unicom is the only carrier set to offer the iPhone 4S, with both the 16GB and 32GB models free with a two and three-year agreements. In the future, the device is also expected to land on China Telecom, the nation’s third largest wireless carrier.

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Two former RIM executives who were recently removed from an Air Canada flight on its way to Beijing after causing a drunken raucous apparently gnawed their way through plastic handcuffs and tape, new court documents reveal. The two men, aged 38 and 45, were allegedly intoxicated before boarding the plane and then “drank, passed out, and woke up to continue consuming alcohol and yelling at one another,” CBS said. One of the executives laid down in the aisle and kick the floor while he was being restrained. In another case, one man “assaulted a flight attendant and threatened to punch her,” a court document said, noting that the man also threatened to “off people when they left the plane.” The two men have since been fired from Research In Motion. 

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While Apple fans around the globe have had the iPhone 4S for awhile now, many of our friends in the Far East haven't gotten to enjoy the fruits of their countrymen's labor due to a lack of governmental approval. You see, before a handset makes it onto Chinese networks, it's got to be approved by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). The good news is, the 4S has finally been blessed by Beijing and will be brought to the masses by Chinese Unicom sometime soon. That means that China's home-grown superphone, the Meizu MX, is going to have some Siri-ous competition for Chinese hearts and yuan in 2012.

iPhone 4S cleared for use in China, sino-Siri coming soon originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Dec 2011 06:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Two Research In Motion executives were so drunk on a recent Air Canada flight that the airline was forced to make an emergency landing to remove the men from the plane. The pair, George Campbell and Paul Alexander, were ordered to pay a total of $71,757 in restitution fees, The Record reported on Friday. The two men were apparently so drunk that the crew on the flight from Vancouver to Beijing needed to handcuff them to their seats before the plane was forced to make an unscheduled landing back in Vancouver. Read on for more.

“Based on the limited information available at this time, RIM has suspended the individuals involved pending further investigation,” RIM spokeswoman Marissa Conway said in a statement.

One of the arresting officers said the incident stands out because the plane had to divert so far off of its flight path. “They were far too intoxicated and were just being unruly. The flight crew was asking them to smarten up, but they weren’t listening to anything they were being told,” Corporal Sherrdean Turley said.

The two RIM employees have been banned from flying on Air Canada during a probation period. The flight they were on was forced to switch crews airline regulations, and it landed in Beijing 18 hours behind schedule.

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There's a Chinese saying that will suit most of our Western readers here: "quenching thirst by gazing at plums." Oh yes, we're talking about Dell's Streak 10 Pro alright. Just as promised, said US company has skipped its home country to debut its first 10.1-inch Honeycomb tablet in China (ka-ching!), and we happened to be at the Beijing press event for some intimate hands-on time. To be honest, you won't be needing many imaginary plums for this Android's rather mundane specs: it's equipped with the oh-so-familiar 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 T20 chip, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 1,280 x 800 LCD (with Corning's Gorilla Glass), 5 megapixel camera and 2 megapixel camera back and front, and regular-size SDHC expansion. That said, Chinese buyers can grab this 16GB WiFi tablet plus 2GB of cloud storage at just ¥2,999 ($465) a pop -- a slightly more attractive price compared to its competitors. Check out our impressions after the break.

Continue reading Dell Streak 10 Pro tablet makes global debut in China, we go hands-on

Dell Streak 10 Pro tablet makes global debut in China, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jul 2011 01:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WTO says China's rare earths export controls violate international rules, US applauds originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jul 2011 06:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It doesn't move and it certainly doesn't transform, but we're still not sure we'd stand anywhere near this jagged metal contraption ripped right out of the silver screen. The giant Megatron tank replica from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen not only looks like it'd grind us up like so much beef beneath its spiky treads, it reportedly weighs five tons and stands eight feet tall. It's allegedly constructed entirely out of scrap metal by a designer known as "Steel Legend" -- a honorific that we imagine few will dare question now. If only it could take on junkyard Optimus Prime in a Beijing Battle Royale. More pics of the tank at our source links below!

[Thanks, leungxd]

Chinese designer makes Megatron tank a steel-toothed reality originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 27 Feb 2011 02:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Following word that the release of Nokia’s E7 smartphone has been delayed, some uplifting Nokia news comes from Beijing Tuesday morning. IDG reporter Mikael Ricknäs is in attendance at the 2010 International Mobile Internet Conference, and he has relayed some tasty tidbits from the show. First, Nokia apparently has some big things in store for the Symbian OS in 2011. The somewhat stale UI will be a primary focus, which is of course great news for Symbian users. Of course we’ve known that the Symbian UI would be overhauled in 2011 for quite some time now — Symbian^3 was intended to be a major behind-the-scenes update, while Symbian^4 and S^5 would address more user-facing issues. The only difference now is that the S^4 and S^5 monikers have wisely been dropped.

Getting into specifics, an update in Q1 2011 will include more than 50 enhancements, such as an overhauled Web browser UI. Second and third quarter updates will bring “a new look and feel for the user interface, a more flexible home screen, an updated HTML5 browser and an easier software update experience.” Nokia will also issue more powerful hardware next year as it reportedly prepares to release 1GHz and dual-core devices. Finally, Nokia is planning to release hardware with “true zoom camera” technology in late 2011 or early 2012. While Nokia did not clarify what this new camera technology is, it could very well bring optical zoom to Nokia’s smartphones.

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Olympic stadiums have a short shelf life. They're oohed and aahed at during the games, but after the festivities, they're forgotten and left to rust. China is trying to prevent that by re-inventing the beautiful Water Cube as a theme park. More »

A little over a week ago, Google announced that it would stop redirecting Chinese web queries to its uncensored Hong Kong site (a practice that began in March of this year). The change came as Google was about to submit its application for a Internet Content Provider license renewal (necessary to operate a website) to the Chinese government; a renewal Beijing indicated was unlikely if the redirect was still in place. Today, Reuters is reporting that China has in fact renewed the search giant’s ICP licnese, and in an official statement Google wrote, “We are very pleased [...] and we look forward to continuing to provide web search and local products to our users in China.” Mark this chapter in the Google v. China saga closed.Read

It's pretty much set in silicon -- in the future, you will monitor your home power consumption, and perhaps even enjoy doing so. Futuristic touchscreen panels and free monitoring software abound, each designed to reward you with a warm, fuzzy Captain Planet feeling and a reduced energy bill when you finally turn off that blasted light. Thing is, unless you've got a home automation system, you won't know which switch to flip. Intel wants to change that with a new wireless sensor that can identify each individual appliance in your house by their unique electrical signal, just by plugging into a single outlet in your house. The reportedly low-cost sensor works by simply recognizing voltage drop patterns when devices are turned on and off, and doesn't require special appliances to function; Intel demonstrated it on a standard toaster, microwave and fridge in Beijing this week. Demonstrate your supreme demand for this "why didn't I think of that" idea by directing traffic to our source link -- you can jump to 20:10 to see the sensor in action.

Intel's experimental sensor analyzes appliance power consumption from single outlet originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Apr 2010 08:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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