China

iBooks Store and iTunes Movies shut down in China by state agency

Cody Lee ∙ April 21, 2016

Apple's iBooks Store and iTunes Movies have been shut down in China by a state agency, reports The New York Times. The outlet says the Chinese State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television was behind last week's mysterious outage.

The shutdown occurred just six months after the two services were made available in the country. An Apple spokesperson said in a statement that the company "hopes to make books and movies available again to our customers in China as soon as possible."

iTunes Movies and iBooks Store go offline in China without explanation

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 15, 2016

As of this morning, customers in China are unable to access Apple's content stores for digital movies and books, the iTunes Store for Movies and the iBooks Store, as both services went offline last evening without explanation. These stores are now inaccessible in China on the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad devices, as well as on computers with iTunes.

No reason was give for the downtime and Apple had not commented on the move at post time, but AppleInsider has learned that it has something to do with the government's pending investigation into Apple's business practices.

Preliminary numbers show strong iPhone SE interest in China with 3.4 million pre-orders

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated October 16, 2018

Apple's new four-inch iPhone SE could prove very popular in China, Apple's second largest market in terms of revenue, as launch weekend pre-orders from retailers have topped an estimated 3.4 million units, said CNBC on Monday. Data from local retailers reveals that Gold and Rose Gold are the most popular colorways among buyers in China. Those are preliminary figures: Apple has not publicly boasted about iPhone SE pre-orders as of yet.

What you need to know about the AceDeceiver trojan that’s affecting some iOS devices

Anthony Bouchard ∙ March 16, 2016

Stock, non-jailbroken iOS devices appear to be vulnerable to a new security threat; a trojan known as AceDeceiver, which can be installed on an iOS device without the user's knowledge and without the help of an enterprise certificate. Once installed, it will spread malware and unwanted software to the user's device.

AceDeceiver only seems to be affecting those located in China at this point in time, but because that could change on the fly, you need to know how to protect yourself so similar threats don't affect users across the globe in the future.

Apple Pay launch in China hits a snag over sign-up issues

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 19, 2016

The official launch of Apple Pay in China didn't go as smoothly as hoped as a lot of users faced problems trying to link their credit cards to their accounts. According to local reports collected by Mashable, Apple may have underestimated the demand from China as its servers struggled to keep up with a huge rush of people trying to sign up for the service.

Apple Pay has officially expanded to China

Christian Zibreg ∙ February 17, 2016

In a move that could really help open up the market for Apple Pay, Apple just announced that its mobile payment service has expanded to China, the 1.33 billion people market.

“You can now support Apple Pay for your customers in China, providing an easy, secure, and private way for them to pay using their China UnionPay credit and debit cards,” reads an update on Apple's portal for developers.

It’s possible to upgrade your iPhone’s storage to 128GB for $60

Anthony Bouchard ∙ February 3, 2016

When deciding what iPhone to buy so you end up with the right amount of storage capacity, you can get the bare-bones $16GB model, or you can end up with an upgraded 64GB, or 128GB model, which are probably your best bets with the new video cameras capable of recording at 4K quality.

That's not to say you won't pay a pretty penny though; moving up to 64GB from 16GB is $100 more, and moving up to 128GB from 16GB is a staggering $200 more. But if paying that much more for a storage upgrade is going to be too much for you, then you'll be happy to know there are cheaper alternatives, so long as visiting Shenzhen, China is on your bucket list for the near future.

Apple Pay’s China launch could be imminent

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 21, 2016

In December 2015, Apple officially confirmed plans to roll out its mobile payment service in China in co-operation with UnionPay, as soon as early-2016. Well, here we are in 2016 and a pair of videos discovered by MacRumors gives us a good indication that Apple Pay might be on the verge of launching in the 1.33 billion people market.

The videos show a customer choosing a UnionPay card in Apple Pay and completing a purchase at McDonald's by holding their iPhone near a QuickPass-enabled Verifone payment terminal.

Apple prematurely leaks exclusive Apple Watch Sport models for Chinese New Year

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 5, 2016

Apple will sell some new, exclusive Apple Watch Sport designs to celebrate the Chinese New Year, MacRumors said Tuesday. As evidenced by Apple's websites in China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan, the new models of the Apple Watch Sport will be available in the aforementioned countries until February 22.

That information was briefly available on the website before being removed earlier today. With a rumored Apple Watch 2 media event planned for March, Apple is likely to roll out additional bands to accompany the launch of a second-generation Apple Watch.

Apple announces UnionPay deal to bring Apple Pay to China in early 2016

Cody Lee ∙ December 17, 2015

Apple on Thursday announced that it has reached a deal with China UnionPay to bring Apple Pay to China in early 2016. The partnership will allow UnionPay cardholders to take advantage of Apple's mobile payment system on iPhone, Apple Watch and within apps on iPad.

Using Apple Pay in Chinese stores will be as simple as holding your iPhone near a UnionPay QuickPass-enabled POS terminal with your finger on Touch ID. And with Apple Watch, you'll be able to double click the side button and hold the watch face up to the contactless reader.

As Apple goes 100% green in China, the company launches clean energy programs for its suppliers

Sébastien Page ∙ October 21, 2015

Apple tonight announced the company is now generating enough clean energy to cover the totality of its operations in China, and then some. In addition, Apple also announced two new programs aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of its partners in the region.

Apple Music, iTunes Movies and iBooks make their long-expected debut in China

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 30, 2015

Apple on Wednesday announced that users in China can now enjoy Apple Music, as well as browse and download their entertainment from the iTunes Store and iBooks Store, marking the first time customers in the 1.33 billion people market will have access to Apple’s entertainment ecosystem with music, movies and books right at their fingertips.

“Customers in China love the App Store and have made it our largest market in the world for app downloads,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “One of the top requests has been more great content and we’re thrilled to bring music, movies and books to China, curated by a local team of experts.”