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Tim Cook visits Apple reseller in China
Apple CEO Tim Cook is in China supposedly meeting with government officials to talk about China's IT industry and Apple's role in this burgeoning field. It's not all business for the affable CEO, who used part of that time to soak up the local flavor. According to AppleInsider and M.I.C. Gadget, Tim Cook has been photographed inside an Apple reseller store in Beijing, caught on film with an Apple fan at the Wangfujing Apple store and even spotted talking to a group of fans in an underground passageway. M.I.C. Gadget claims marketing head Phil Schiller is also touring Beijing. Schiller is apparently keeping a much lower profile than Cook as photos of him in public have not surfaced. Details on why he is in China are also not known.
China claims world's longest high-speed rail line, takes travelers 1,428 miles in a workday
China has a thing for pushing the limits of trains. As of today, that includes distance: the country claims to have the world's longest high-speed rail line. Paying ¥865 ($139) will take you 1,428 miles from Beijing in the north to as far as Guangzhou in the south. The 8-hour, 186MPH trip is technically slower than flying, but it's cheaper and potentially less stressful than the often protracted airport boarding process. It's certainly far more viable than the 20-hour rail trip it's replacing, which could lead to some locals choosing a ground route that wasn't even a realistic option until now. [Image credit: Xinhuanet]
iPhone 5 launches in mainland China and Taiwan today, lines show up as usual
While the iPhone 5's been out for some time already, it wasn't until today that our friends in China and Taiwan (along with many other countries) can finally buy the device locally. Since midnight local time, several carriers and shops welcomed customers with balloons, drinks and even musical performance. But in the case of Apple Stores in China, the lines were much shorter than before as interested buyers have to first make an online reservation, before trekking to the stores once they are notified -- a policy no doubt welcomed by residents of bitterly cold Beijing at this time of the year. On top of that, both China Unicom and China Telecom are simultaneously offering the iPhone 5 -- with WCDMA or CDMA radio, respectively -- alongside several tariff options. In China, the unsubsidized iPhone 5 starts from ¥5,288 or about $850. Our brethren in Taipei went to check out the various shops today and saw warm reception for the iPhone 5 launch as well, with Chunghwa Telecom getting the most attention, followed by local resellers Studio A and Data Express. Including tax, the Taiwanese iPhone 5 starts from NT$21,900 or about $750 unsubsidized. More pics after the break.
Scalpers greet iPad mini launch in Beijing
In the past when new Apple products have been released in mainland China, near-riots have taken place at Apple Stores when crowds of legitimate customers and groups of scalpers have descended upon the stores to grab the limited stock of new product. Apple instituted a system called iReserve to quell the crowds and make sure that legitimate purchasers can get their new goodies -- but a Wall Street Journal China Real Time Report post shows that scalpers are still getting the bulk of newly released products. A Wall Street Journal reporter saw a herd of scalpers (see picture above) standing by collecting iPad minis -- which went on sale today in the mainland -- from Chinese customers in exchange for cold, hard cash. The reporter was trying to film the scene, and was then surrounded by angry scalpers who were upset with the "invasion of their privacy." The reporter responded that they were doing business in a public place, after which point they began to "kick, swat and push him as Apple and mall security stood by." Despite the action at the Sanlitun Village mall in Beijing, many iPad fans were able to get their hands on the new device. Apple currently has a 71.4 percent market share in China, with Samsung -- makers of the rival Galaxy Note -- at a distant 3.5 percent share.
Meizu to unveil MX2 flagship smartphone in Beijing on November 27
It's that time of the year again. Meizu's just sent out invitations for the upcoming launch of its new flagship device which, according to founder Jack Wong, will be dubbed MX2. While details are scarce, Wong previously mentioned that he's still not interested in making tablets, but he'll certainly be making a larger phone. In fact, Wong recently leaked a screenshot (posted after the break) that contained sketches of the new UI, but the screenshot itself came at a resolution of 1,280 x 800, which is rather different from the old 960 x 640 in terms of detail and aspect ratio. Considering that Wong had also expressed that there's no point in going beyond 400ppi (ouch), chances are the MX2 will come with the more common 330ppi pixel density, which would give a 4.57-inch diagonal screen size; though 312ppi is also a possibility, which would make it a 4.8-inch device. Both options would still be sharper than the original 4-inch MX's 292ppi. Whatever the truth is, we shall find out at the Beijing Water Cube on November 27, so stay tuned.
Thousands line up for Beijing's newest Apple Store
Apple's newest store -- the Beijing Wangfujing location -- opened on Saturday with fanfare appropriate to a flagship store in a prominent shopping district. M.I.C. Gadget had photographers on hand to capture the smiling faces of the estimated 1,000 people who were there for the opening, and reported that lines were huge outside the store throughout the day. The Wangfujing store boasts almost 25,000 square feet of retail space, a three-story glass staircase and a huge curved glass facade through which the store can be viewed. Notable photos of the crowd include a homemade "Gangnam Style"-like sign imploring "Open Apple Store" and a young woman with a sign saying "My husband did not buy an iPhone 5 for me and he is not reliable. I'm looking for a highly eligible bachelor." If any TUAW readers were on hand for the opening and want to fill us in on their insights about the Wangfujing Apple Store, please do so in the comments. Video of the exciting opening can be viewed below.
Gallery of new Beijing Apple Store
Apple is opening its third Apple store in China's capital city of Beijing. The newest addition to Apple's retail chain will feature a stunning, curved glass front, with a huge display that advertises other stores in the popular Wangfujing district. According to M.I.C. Gadget, the new Wangfujing store will open to the public at 9 AM on Saturday, October 20. Members of the press got a tour of the store, which is now being stocked and prepped by store employees. The interior has the same glass, spiral staircase that is present in Apple's Fifth Avenue store and the typical wooden display tables that grace most Apple retail stores. You can check out the gallery of photos at M.I.C. Gadget's website.
Apple to open third Beijing Apple Store on iconic Wangfujing Street
Residents and visitors to China's capital, Beijing, will soon have a third Apple Store available for their shopping pleasure. Chinese gadget site M.I.C. Gadget featured a group of photos today showing the construction site on Wangfujing Street in the Beijing City Center, less than a mile from Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. The store is located on a corner and it appears that it will feature a large curved glass curtain wall on the ground floor. There's a huge display above the store, although it appears that it's used to advertise other stores in the Wangfujing district. M.I.C. Gadget speculates that the store could be a four-story affair, and unconfirmed rumors have the opening date listed as October 20.
Daily Update for August 13, 2012
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Third Beijing Apple Store planned
Apple already operates two stores in Beijing, and a report from ifoAppleStore suggests the company will add a third location early next year. According to local sources, Apple may open a street-level store on Wangfujing Street, a popular pedestrian-only thoroughfare that's lined with over 200 retail stores. This new location is not too far away from the Xidan Joy City store, which was visited by Tim Cook earlier this year. It's also close to the Sanlitun store, the country's first Apple store. The Wangfujing Street store could open sometime in early 2013.
Macworld | iWorld Asia event begins in Beijing
The second annual Macworld | iWorld Asia event has begun in Beijing this week. IDG has hosted the conference twice now to serve the growing number of Mac, iPhone, and iPad users in China. It sounds a lot like San Francisco's version of Macworld | iWorld, with dev conferences, a big keynote event, and an open exhibition floor, with exhibitors like LaCie, Macally, and Logitech showing their wares. One thing San Francisco doesn't have that Macworld | iWorld Asia does is a "Macworld Girl" beauty contest, which apparently is a common happening at conferences in China and that area. But other than that, the event sounds just about as popular as the one in San Francisco, with about the same stuff to see. Macworld | iWorld Asia, in case you're there or want to go over there (good luck with that), continues through August 5. [via TNW]
BYD intros dual-mode electric Qin vehicle, Remote Driving key for outside-the-car operation
The New York Auto Show may be done and over with, but the 2012 Beijing International Auto Show is just hitting its stride. Predictably, BYD is in attendance, and it's got a couple of new gizmos out on the red carpet. For starters, there's the Qin (pronounced "Chin," not Kin), a dual-mode electric vehicle that includes seven percent better efficiency, power and energy-saving in pure EV mode compared to the first generation's F3DM system. All told, the vehicle can scoot some 31 miles on a single 10KWh charge, and in hybrid mode, it can use both its 110KW electric motor and its 1.5 Turbo engine to output some 223KW of power and 440Nm of torque. For the technophiles, the car is also equipped with an intelligent cloud system platform, which incorporates things like "telematics, cloud-computing and a full-range of services 24 hours a day (like roadside assistance, vehicle positioning, remote monitoring, music and video downloads etc.)." As if that weren't enough, the outfit's showcasing a new Remote Driving Controller for its F3 Plus, which enables owners to perform a variety of driving functions -- moving it forward / back, turning left / right and traveling at a "restricted speed" -- without having the owner inside of the vehicle. Naturally, we're anxiously awaiting a test unit of our own. Or, for a wave of lawsuits -- whichever comes first.
Most iOS devices in China sold to customers in urban areas
A report from Chinese strategic advisory firm Stenvall Skoeld suggests that Apple has a 10 percent penetration rate in China with the highest levels of ownership found in urban centers like Beijing, Guandong and Shanghai. The lowest percentage of ownership was found in Tibet which had a 0.1 percent penetration rate. The report also claims that, at the end of 2011, China was home to 21 million iPhones and iPad. The actual number may be higher as China Mobile, which does not carry the iPhone, says it has 15 million iPhone users on its network. You can read the full report on Stenvall Skoeld's website. [Via Apple Insider and The Next Web]
Weibo services 'punished' for Beijing coup rumors, comments temporarily disabled
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'.
Tim Cook meets with mayor of Beijing
Tim Cook was spotted in a Beijing Apple store on Monday and a report from a Chinese newspaper says the Apple CEO also met with Guo Jinlong, mayor of Beijing, later that day. Details about the meeting are not known, but it is thought he talked about market expansion and working more closely in the future with the Chinese city. Apple spokesperson Carolyn Wu confirmed Cook's trip to China and said, "Tim is in China meeting with government officials. China is very important to us and we look forward to greater investment and growth here." [Via Computerworld]
Tim Cook visits Apple Store in Beijing
According to TechNode, Tim Cook spent his Monday morning with the employees and customers at the Xidan Joy City Apple Store in Beijing. The random spotting, recorded by user STwing of Chinese micro-blogging service Sina Weibo, kicked off rumors that the Apple CEO was in town to talk about the next generation iPhone with local carriers China Unicom and China Telecom. [Via AppleInsider]
HTC Titan aka Triumph to become China's first official Windows Phone
Look who just beat Nokia, ZTE and Lenovo to launching the first official Windows Phone in China? At the opening of HTC's first Chinese flagship store in Beijing yesterday (pictured after the break), Sina Tech's Zāng Zhì Yuān noticed that the company's already accepting pre-orders for the 4.7-inch Titan, which is priced at ¥4,399 or about $700 sans contract -- very much in the high-end of the market, surprisingly enough. In fact, we had already heard HTC's managers claiming to have the first Chinese Windows Phone at MWC last week, except they couldn't comment on the actual timing.Judging by the sign above, the only noticeable difference here -- depending on your Chinese literacy -- is that the phone's dubbed Triumph locally; but additionally, HTC informed us that its first Chinese Windows Phone will be powered by WP7.5 Tango, with its Facebook and Twitter integration replaced by the likes of Sina Weibo, Tencent Weixin and SkyDrive to play the local rules. If you'll recall, such localization is very much what Nokia's Stephen Elop had confirmed in our Engadget Show interview back in November. So, any bets on who's next in line to climb over the Great Wall?
Apple stops selling iPhone 4S in China to protect its staff
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."
China launch of iPhone 4S goes awry as crowds overwhelm Beijing flagship store (Updated)
The mainland China launch of the iPhone 4S hasn't gone as planned in Beijing, according to reports from Bloomberg, MIC Gadget and other sources. When massive lines of people waiting overnight in sub-freezing temperatures at Apple's flagship Sanlitun store in the capital city began to cause crowding problems -- and when Apple employees and Chinese security personnel realized that the vast majority of the queued would-be buyers were scalpers looking to purchase & then resell the in-demand phones -- the store opening was delayed. Angry linewaiters began chanting for the store to open, eventually throwing eggs at the store facade. Now the announcement has apparently been made: no more queuing, and no iPhone 4S sales at the Beijing flagship store today. Other stores in the capital and in Shanghai apparently had no such crowd control issues, and China Unicom sent text reminders to subscribers that they could order the iPhone 4S for free home delivery. Update: The New York Times reports that Apple has officially suspended in-person sales of the 4S at its China stores, although phones are still available from China Unicom. [via MacRumors]
Lenovo LePhone K2 to arrive with 4.3-inch IPS display, 1.5GHz dual-core chip
Frankly speaking, the phones that Lenovo have announced so far this week haven't been all that exciting (unless, of course, you're somehow aroused by its 5-inch tabletphone), but it turned out the folks had a little surprise for us: the LePhone K2. What we got here is a 4.3-inch IPS display (resolution of which not yet announced), a powerful dual-core 1.5GHz Qualcomm MSM8260 chip, 1GB RAM, 1GB ROM and an eight megapixel 1080p camera. Sadly, like the S2 and the S760, this crouching tiger also packs Android 2.3.5 instead of Ice Cream Sandwich, but without a price or a release date, perhaps there's still a small chance that we'll see it eventually launching with the newer OS. Anyhow, that's just our wishful thinking. Chinese hands-on video after the break. %Gallery-140597%