China

Apple CEO Tim Cook will attend China's state-run internet conference next week, reports the Wall Street Journal. The annual World Internet Conference starts on Sunday in Wuzhen and is organized by the central government's Cyberspace Administration. According to the conference's website, other foreign executives and officials set to attend include Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Facebook VP Vaughan...

Microsoft has confirmed that Skype has been "temporarily removed" from the App Store on iPhone and iPad, according to a statement given to The New York Times. Apple told The New York Times that it was forced to remove a number of voice and video calling apps from the App Store in China to comply with laws in the country.We have been notified by the Ministry of Public Security that a number of...

Apple chief Tim Cook was among a group of leaders who met China's President Xi Jinping on Monday at an annual gathering of advisers to the Tsinghua University business school in the capital Beijing, according to Reuters. Apple declined to comment on details of his visit. Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, who also attended, stated that "every year this trip is a great way to keep up with the...

Two U.S. senators have written to Apple CEO Tim Cook asking why the company removed third-party VPN apps from its App Store in China (via CNBC). Reports that Apple had pulled the VPN apps first arrived in July, following regulations passed earlier in the year that require such apps to be authorized by the Chinese government. In the open letter dated October 17, Senators Patrick Leahy and Ted ...

The cellular capabilities of the Apple Watch Series 3 remain unavailable to new carrier plan subscribers in China, after having been "abruptly cut off...without explanation" just one week after the device's launch in September. A new report published today by The Wall Street Journal has looked into the LTE setbacks faced by the Apple Watch in the country, which is predicted to face ongoing issues ...

Taiwanese movie "The Great Buddha+", a dark comedy shot extensively on an iPhone 6 Plus, has picked up ten nominations in the Golden Horse Awards, including best feature film and best new director (via Variety). Directed by Huang Hsin-yao and produced and lensed by acclaimed photographer Chung Mung-hong, the black-and-white film follows the voyeuristic antics of a pair of small-town Taiwanese...

Chinese mobile maker Huawei has taken to trolling Apple in a new Facebook ad that pokes fun at the iPhone X's neural engine and urges people to wait for "the real AI phone" – a reference to its upcoming flagship smartphone, the Mate 10, set to debut next month. The short ad takes aim at Apple's Face ID feature on the new iPhone X, and uses a jaunty clown emoji animation on a smartphone...

Chinese ride-hailing company Didi has added Apple Pay as a payment option to the full range of its personal mobility services (via TechCrunch). Apple's mobile payment platform can now be used to fund Didi Express, Didi Luxe, Didi Premier, and ofo, a partner bicycle rental service embedded into the main Didi app. Image via Technode Support of the digital wallet adds another Apple feature to ...

Apple is facing an uphill struggle in its attempts to wean Chinese smartphone users off cheaper rival devices in a saturated mobile market, according to a new Bloomberg report. With Apple gearing up to sell its most ambitious but most expensive iPhone yet, local competitors like Huawei, Oppo, and Xiaomi are already poised to compete by launching their own less expensive feature-packed devices...

In a statement sent to multiple Chinese media outlets today, Apple said iPhone and iPad users in China can now use WeChat Pay as a payment method for App Store and Apple Music purchases."We are glad to offer users in mainland China the option of WeChat Pay for their favorite mobile app or Apple Music products. We continue to be dedicated to provide multiple simple and convenient payment methods...

A group of 28 developers in China have enlisted a local law firm to file a complaint against Apple in a case alleging that the company engaged in "monopolistic behavior" during some of the actions it has taken to regulate the App Store in China (via The Wall Street Journal). Lin Wei, an attorney with Dare & Sure Law Firm, filed the complaint this week and targeted Apple for removing apps from ...

Apple's difficulty in garnering a larger share of the smartphone market in China has been looked at recently by The Wall Street Journal, which described the ubiquitous mobile app WeChat [Direct Link] as the iPhone's "toughest rival" in the country. Citing data from QuestMobile, on average WeChat is said to have captured nearly 35 percent of each user's monthly smartphone usage time, averaging...

Russia has banned VPNs and other software that enables users to gain anonymous access to websites. The new law was signed by President Vladimir Putin on Monday and will come into effect on November 1st (via TechCrunch). Leonid Levin, chairman of the Duma's committee on information policy and technology, was quoted by state-run media as saying that the new law is not targeted at "introducing...

Apple is quietly working with Chinese battery manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited on automotive battery research and development, according to Shanghai-based Yicai Global. The report, citing unnamed sources, claims the two companies have signed a confidentiality agreement to work together on a "scheme" related to the field of batteries, but no specific details were provided. ...

China has reportedly started blocking some features of the WhatsApp messaging service, as authorities continue to tighten controls over the country's internet. WhatsApp users began reporting problems with sharing content on the chat platform yesterday, with many unable to send video and pictures. Despite initial fears of a communications-wide ban of the Facebook-owned service, text-based...

Apple today announced that Isabel Ge Mahe, the current vice president of wireless technologies, has been made the vice president and managing director of Greater China. In her new role, she will report directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook and COO Jeff Williams. According to Apple, Ge Mahe, who has led Apple's wireless technologies software engineering teams for nine years, will provide leadership...

Apple today launched a large-scale promotion in China offering special discounts for consumers who use Apple Pay, in the company's latest bid to counter the dominance of rival digital wallets in the country. Between July 18 and 24, Apple device owners who use the mobile payment system to make purchases in participating merchants across mainland China will receive concessions of up to 50...

Apple has announced it is setting up its first China data center in partnership with a local internet services company, in accordance with the country's new cybersecurity laws introduced last month. Apple told Reuters on Wednesday that the data center would be built in the southern province of Guizhou with data management firm Guizhou-Cloud Big Data Industry (GCBD) as part of a planned $1...

A popular virtual private network service has been forced to close in China on orders from the government, it emerged on Monday. Bloomberg reported that GreenVPN sent a notice to its customers saying it would end the service from July 1 after "receiving a notice from regulatory departments". VPNs route and encrypt internet traffic to servers outside of the country, making them popular with...

Apple updated its App Store Review Guidelines this week to indicate that developers may now sell virtual currencies in the form of in-app purchases to enable customers to "tip" content creators within apps. Like all other in-app purchases, Apple will now receive a 30 percent cut from the virtual currencies used for tipping. Tipping within apps is popular in China, where live-streaming...