China Restricts Export of Rare-Earth (Video)

Star Chang, Mar 17, 2012 12:32 PM, 925 views, 1 Comment »,

The era of cheap rare earth supplies from China is expected to end as the country tightens control over the precious resources out of environmental concerns. China produces more than 90 ercent of the world’s rare earth products, however the environmental costs were not included in the prices of the commodities. It’s in response a complaint filed to the WTO by the United States, Europe and Japan, saying China’s export restrictions are not legitimate. Rare earth raw materials are crucial for electronics and are used in a range of products such as iPhone and disk drive. The shift of China’s policy on rare earths will certainly create an impact on the prices of our everyday gadgets.

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China Mobile Has Over 15 Million iPhone Users Without Apple’s Deal

Star Chang, Mar 7, 2012 10:42 AM, 441 views, 2 Comments »,

China Mobile, the largest mobile carrier in the world, still does not have an agreement with Apple to sell the iPhone to its 655 million customers. Despite that, China Mobile has announced that it has surpassed 15 million iPhone users on their network in China. The carrier has added more than five million users since last year October, a rate of more than 35,000 users per day. Those customers can use text, voice and only 2G data, however China Mobile has built out a nationwide Wi-Fi network to make up for its 3G shortcomings …

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A Cheater Has Been Murdered for Selling Fake iPhone (VIDEO)

Maggie Hui, Mar 5, 2012 8:34 PM, 4,916 views, 8 Comments »,

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The tragedy was happened at the city of Zhenzhou, Henan province north-central China. A Chinese man wanted an iPhone so badly, he went to search for it in a local shopping district and met a seller who could sell him an authentic iPhone for a special price. After bargaining, the man bought the so-called new iPhone for only 2,000 yuan (US$330). Later he found that the phone is a knock-off and he tried to look out for the cheater. In the end, he found another group of people which were selling the same cheap knockoff iPhone to a young boy. The anger has driven him unexpectedly murder one of the cheater …

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Watch: How Smugglers Sneak iPhones into Mainland China

Star Chang, Mar 5, 2012 5:44 PM, 2,305 views, Got something to say ?,

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Apple’s iPhone 4S has become a serious smuggling problem in China. iPhone 4S is selling cheaper in Hong Kong compare to China, due to tax charging and the different of currency exchange. Smugglers try to make a quick buck buying the phone in Hong Kong and re-sell it in China. But they are frequently busted trying to illegally sneak the smartphone into the mainland. Click in to watch the action of Chinese customs officials breaking down the smuggling activities …

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Selling Used Smartphones As New Ones Is Getting Common in China

Star Chang, Mar 3, 2012 12:43 AM, 2,047 views, Got something to say ?,

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Sales of smartphones have exploded in China, but some may be paying brand-new prices for refurbished devices. Used smartphones are being resold as new to unsuspecting consumers in China. Small retailers will buy dozens of used smartphones each week from Taobao, the Chinese e-commerce platform similar to ebay. These shops repair, clean, refurbish and polish used mobile phones before reselling them. Some of these products even end up in leading electronics shopping malls, which sell them as new item at full price …

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Chinese use FaceTime to Monitor Boiling Pot in Kitchen

Star Chang, Feb 28, 2012 11:00 PM, 1,625 views, 1 Comment »,

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The Apple video calling software might provide some special use for the Chinese. A Chinese men want to make chicken stew for his wife but he did not want to stay in the kitchen to monitor the pot while it might get over-boiled . With some DIY attachement, he left his iPhone beside the boiling pot, front camera facing the pot. By using his iPad and FaceTime software, he can now monitored his pot of chicken stew while staying in the living room to watch TV and surf the net. Smart idea ! But in the end, the DIY taping has somehow peel off his iPhone screen protector !

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Chinese Hackers Provide Silly Fake iPhone Signature Service

Maggie Hui, Feb 28, 2012 9:29 PM, 911 views, Got something to say ?,

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China is well-known for making different kind of Apple knockoff. And the latest one isn’t any hardware but a fake iPhone signature service. The Chinese just pay about one dollar a month to add a “sent from my iPhone” to every message they send out. A lot of Chinese people are still unable to afford a real iPhone, but they still want to pretend they are “using” it in their virtural world …

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So Much News in China… #036

Star Chang, Feb 27, 2012 10:51 AM, 603 views, Got something to say ?,

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There are so much news from China that passes by that we couldn’t possibly cover it all. Here are the Chinese tech news we are lazy to post or left behind, there are stories on Apple iPhone, facebook’s investment, luxury e-commerce, Malata’s new tablets and so on, check them out after the break. Video for this week: Shit ‘Laowai’ Say … Hope everyone has a fresh start to your week and keep all your excitement on those new smartphones and tablets from Mobile World Congress !

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Apple Falls to 5th Place in China Smartphone Market

Star Chang, Feb 24, 2012 7:28 AM, 1,083 views, Got something to say ?,

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Previously, Apple has fell to 4th place in the Chinese smartphone race during the third quarter of 2011, beat out by Huawei. And now, Apple’s share of China’s booming smartphone market slipped again for a second straight quarter in October-December, as it lost ground to ZTE, another cheaper local brands in China …

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China’s State Police Seize iPhone Branded Gas Stoves with Apple Logo

Chris Chang, Feb 23, 2012 3:52 PM, 40,603 views, 21 Comments »,

Now here’s something you don’t often hear about. Two warehouses containing iPhone branded gas stoves got seized by the state police at Wuhan, after discovering they are not real Apple products… More photos after the break.

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