The AirPods Pro, which are priced at RMB 1,999, are identical to standard AirPods Pro but feature an ox engraved on the charging case. They also ship in a box that has the same ox icon on it.
In addition to launching new AirPods Pro for Chinese New Year, Apple has a special Chinese New Year gift guide on its website in China, recommending gifts that include iPhone 12 models, MagSafe accessories, the special edition AirPods, Apple Watch, M1 Macs, iPads, and more.
Apple unveiled the new AirPods Pro on WeChat. "Here comes a box of blessings for the Year of the Ox," reads the translated announcement, which is also accompanied by several ox-themed graphics and an Apple Music playlist with songs for the new year. In 2021, Chinese New Year will begin on Friday, February 12, 2021.
Apple says that the ox-themed AirPods Pro are in short supply, with a total of 25,400 available. 11,480 of those will be sold in retail stores, while 13,920 are available for purchase online.
Monday December 16, 2024 8:55 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
Wednesday December 18, 2024 11:39 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple is no longer planning to launch a hardware subscription service that would let customers "subscribe" to get a new iPhone each year, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Gurman first shared rumors about Apple's work on a hardware subscription service back in 2022, and at the time, he said that Apple wanted to develop a simple system that would allow customers to pay a monthly fee to gain...
Monday December 16, 2024 4:17 pm PST by Juli Clover
Blackmagic today announced that its URSA Cine Immersive camera is now available for pre-order, with deliveries set to start late in the first quarter of 2025. Blackmagic says that this is the world's first commercial camera system designed to capture 3D content for the Vision Pro.
The URSA Cine Immersive camera was first introduced in June, but it has not been available for purchase until...
Apple launched the controversial "trashcan" Mac Pro eleven years ago today, introducing one of its most criticized designs that persisted through a period of widespread discontentment with the Mac lineup.
The redesign took the Mac Pro in an entirely new direction, spearheaded by a polished aluminum cylindrical design that became unofficially dubbed the "trashcan" in the Mac community. All of ...
Friday December 20, 2024 2:22 pm PST by Juli Clover
It's looking like 2025 is going to be an important year for Apple, with the company planning to revamp the iPhone, push further into smart home products, and improve Apple Intelligence. There are tons of new products rumored for 2025, including new iPhones, M4 Macs, a smart home command center, and much more.
We've highlighted the top five Apple products that will have the biggest impact in...
Tuesday December 17, 2024 9:02 am PST by Joe Rossignol
The current Apple TV 4K was released more than two years ago, so the streaming device is becoming due for a hardware upgrade soon. Fortunately, it was recently rumored that a new Apple TV will launch at some point next year.
Below, we recap rumors about the next-generation Apple TV.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last week reported that Apple has been working on its own combined Wi-Fi and...
Contrary to recent reports, the iPhone 17 Pro will not feature a horizontal camera layout, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital."
In a new post on Weibo, the leaker said that a source has confirmed that while the appearance of the back of the iPhone 17 Pro has indeed changed, the layout of the three cameras is "still triangular," rather than the "horizontal bar spread on the...
Wednesday December 18, 2024 10:05 am PST by Juli Clover
Elevation Lab today announced the launch of TimeCapsule, an innovative and simple solution for increasing the battery life of Apple's AirTag.
Priced at $20, TimeCapsule is an AirTag enclosure that houses two AA batteries that offer 14x more battery capacity than the CR2032 battery that the AirTag runs on. It works by attaching the AirTag's upper housing to the built-in custom contact in the...
I, for one, can't support any particular support of Chinese culture over any other culture. Why is this special?
Speaking from the stance of market(s) -
"According to November data from Counterpoint Research, Apple had just 8 percent of the market share in China during the third quarter of 2019, down from 9 percent during the same time period in 2018. Huawei is the market leader with a 40 percent share, trailed by Vivo, Oppo and Xiomi"
As an AAPL holder since 1999, I don't really care about this. I do care about market diversification - manufacturing efficiencies, and an edge over competitors in emergent markets and unrealized spaces. This, to me, looks like some kind of appeasement. Does the combined tax+labour offset in China really impact your COG to such an extent that China, your *minority* market gets special and highly unique branding? ...
5) wtf.
This is borderline jingoistic hypocrisy.
First of all, China is Apple's largest market by revenue and has been for over ten years. It's not important for Apple to be the dominant brand in any specific market, they just want to be the dominant brand at the high end, where the lion's share of the profits are. This includes the United States of America and every other industrialized nation (UK, France, Germany, Japan, etc.).
You claim to be an AAPL shareholder since 1999 [sic] and yet you don't seem to realize that most of Apple's phone handset competitors ship the majority of their volume in dumbphones (a.k.a. "feature phones") and low-end smartphones, often at a loss.
Second, by your criteria Apple should ditch all regionally specific promotional activity. That would meaning dumping Black Friday sales in Western countries.
Remember that southeast Asian countries don't recognize Christmas as an official holiday. This includes Japan (which gets the Lucky Bag promotion) and China (which get this type of lunar new year promotion).
Why should Western nations get Christian-themed promotions and shut out the rest of non-Christian world (which happens to have a majority in population)?
And what about back-to-school promotions? Not every country starts the school year in the fall (August-September-October).
Please feel free to expound on your reasoning why regional Apple sales divisions can't use some of their discretionary promotional budget in an appropriate and timely manner to increase sales.
I, for one, can't support any particular support of Chinese culture over any other culture. Why is this special?
There are roughly 50 million ethnic Chinese people living outside China/HK/Taiwan, and many of them are not even citizens of PRC nor born in China. So let's be clear first that Chinese culture != CCP/PRC.
Besides, how is this different than Apple releasing pride watch band or celebrating black history month?
