Back-Alley Upgrades: In China, $100 Can Get You an 128GB iPhone Boost
Posted: November 5, 2015 Filed under: Asia, China, Mediasphere | Tags: App Store (iOS), Apple Inc, Beijing, China, China Southern Airlines, iPad, iPhone, Palo Alto Networks, WeChat, Xcode Leave a comment
In China’s unbridled marketplace, you can pay $5 for soap made from human breast milk, $800 to take a cosmetics CEO out during Christmas and $430,000 for a purple Bentley convertible once owned by a corrupt official.
If you’re an Apple Inc. device user, you can also now boost your iPhone’s storage from the cramped-feeling 16GB standard to a cavernous 128GB for less than a hundred bucks.
Mobile phone repair shops in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai have sparked curiosity on sidewalks and social media by offering the service, which appears aimed at the many aspirational Chinese device users who can’t afford the roughly $200 premium attached to large-capacity iPhones….(read more)
Source: China Real Time Report – WSJ
[VIDEO] Apple’s App Store Hacked in China
Posted: September 22, 2015 Filed under: Asia, China, Science & Technology | Tags: App Store (iOS), Apple Inc, Associated Press, Beijing, China, Chinese language, Malware, Security, software, WeChat Leave a comment
Some of the most popular Chinese apps in Apple’s App Store were found to be infected with malicious software in what is being described as a first-of-its-kind security breach. Here’s how it happened.
China Chat Crackdown
Posted: August 7, 2014 Filed under: Censorship, China, Dr. Strangelove's Notebook | Tags: Beijing, China, Instant messaging, Sina Weibo, South Korea, State Council Information Office, Tencent Holdings, WeChat 1 Comment
Beijing’s recent efforts to tighten control over the Internet have so far included a crackdown on online rumors given partial credit for prompting a mass exodus from microblogging platform Sina Weibo to private messaging services, a subsequent crackdown on Tencent’s instant messaging app WeChat (and month-long renewal), and an ongoing anti-vulgarity drive. Yesterday, China’s State Internet Information Office (SIIO) announced new rules for users of instant messaging platforms. The China Copyright and Media blog has translated the new regulations in full. From Xinhua:
The Chinese government has passed a regulation that will require users of instant messaging services to use real names when registering in an effort to hold users responsible for content.
[…] Targeting China’s 5.8 million public accounts on subscription-based mobile apps such as Tencent’s mobile text and voice messaging service WeChat, the new regulation will take immediate effect.
Registrants of public accounts are obliged to register with real names and reviewed by service providers before being qualified to release information.
“A few people are using the platforms to disseminate information related to terrorism, violence and pornography as well as slander and rumors,” said Jiang Jun, spokesman of the SIIO. “Such behaviors have raised bitter feelings among netizens.” [Source]
Read more at China Digital Times.
CRACKDOWN: China Internet Censorship Escalates, Instant Messenger Services Targeted
Posted: May 30, 2014 Filed under: Asia, Censorship, China, Global | Tags: Associated Press, Beijing, China, Communist Party, Tencent Holdings, WeChat, Xi Jinping, Xinhua News Agency 2 Comments
BEIJING (AP) —Louise Watt reports: China is targeting popular smartphone-based instant messaging services in a monthlong campaign to crack down on the spreading of rumors and what it calls infiltration of hostile forces, in the latest move restricting online freedom of expression.
“Some people have used them to distribute illegal and harmful information, seriously undermining public interests and order in cyberspace.”
Such services incorporate social media functions that allow users to post photos and updates to their friends, or follow the feeds of companies, social groups or celebrities, and – more worryingly for the government – intellectuals, journalists and activists who comment on politics, law and society. They also post news reports shunned by mainstream media.
Some accounts attract hundreds of thousands of followers. Read the rest of this entry »
China Claims Victory in Censoring Internet
Posted: November 30, 2013 Filed under: Censorship, China | Tags: Arrest and trial of Chen Ziming and Wang Juntao, Beijing, China, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Communist Party of China, Computer-mediated communication, University of Nottingham, WeChat 2 Comments
A computer users sit near a display with a message from the Chinese police on the proper use of the internet at an internet cafe in Beijing, China. The Chinese government has declared victory in its recent campaign to clean up what it considers rumors and unruliness from online discourse, while critics say the moves have suppressed criticism of the government and ruling Communist Party. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)
BEIJING (AP) –Didi Tang reports: The Chinese government has declared victory in cleaning up what it considers rumors, negativity and unruliness from online discourse, while critics say the moves have suppressed criticism of the government and ruling Communist Party.
Beijing launched the campaign this summer, arresting dozens of people for spreading rumors, creating new penalties for people who post libelous information and calling in the country’s top bloggers for talks urging them to guard the national interest and uphold social order. At the same time, government agencies at all levels have boosted their online presence to control the message in cyberspace.
“If we should describe the online environment in the past as good mingling with the bad, the sky of the cyberspace has cleared up now because we have cracked down on online rumors,” Ren Xianliang, vice minister of the State Internet Information Office, said during a rare meeting this week with foreign journalists.
A study by an Internet opinion monitoring service under the party-owned People’s Daily newspaper showed the number of posts by a sample of 100 opinion leaders declined by nearly 25 percent and were overtaken by posts from government microblog accounts.
pundit from another planet 