China

Checking e-mail at 17,000 feet on Mt. Everest

China Mobile has opened a wireless service center and Internet cafe at an altitude of 17,000 feet at the Everest base camp, making it the world's highest such site, according to People's Daily Online.

According to reports, the Internet cafe is aiming to effectively protect the Olympic torch relay teams' communications needs at Mount Qomolangma in Tibet. China Mobile has built a business office and Internet cafe at an altitude of 5,200 meters at Mount Qomolangma base camp to provide mobile services and Internet services to government officials, mountain climbing members and journalists.

Maybe they'll … Read more

Remembering China's May Fourth Movement: slowing the internet to a crawl

Blogspot has re-disappeared, MSN Messenger is inaccessible from an artsy Beijing cafe, searches for Carrefour are just back from going unanswered, and the spring sky is clear. It's the 89th anniversary of China's May Fourth Movement.

In 1919, student activism took a powerful and still-honored turn for the patriotic in China. On May 4, thousands of students gathered at Tiananmen to protest the Treaty of Versailles and its treatment of previously German-held territory in Shandong Province, which was given to Japan rather than back to China.

Today, students have been at the forefront of recent demonstrations of national … Read more

Peek-a-Blogspot: blocked again

Blogspot is gone again from here in Beijing and also according to Ullrich in Shanghai via Twitter. As the last time it went out, a traceroute stops on a Chinese ISP server.

This image is from last time, but I'm seeing similar readings, with the blocking server this time as 219.158.5.118.

Fake the fake!

This high-end designer boutique in a trendy part of Seoul sells these bags at higher than Louis Vuitton's full prices, which is not nearly as hilarious as Louis Vuitton's unique methods in fighting back counterfeiters these days. Just look at this fake set-up of a fake bag seller that sells real bags during a recent exhibit launch party in New York. (via Notcot)

3Com's new chief to be based in China

Network equipment maker 3Com announced Wednesday a new CEO who will be based in China.

Robert Mao, 64, will succeed Edgar Masri as chief executive officer. Mao, who is fluent in Mandarin and English, had most recently been 3Com's executive vice president for corporate development. Prior to working at 3Com, he headed up Nortel Network's China operations. And before that he had worked for the French telecommunications equipment maker Alcatel, which is now Alcatel-Lucent.

3Com also said Wednesday that it has hired Ronald Sege, 51, as chief operating officer. Sege, who will run 3Com's U.S. operations, … Read more

Where we're not even gonna talk about Miley Cyrus until she's 18

EPISODE 88

Randall Bennett is out today playing his copy of Grand Theft Auto IV. It's for "work purposes." He promises. Meanwhile, Phil Ryan joins Jeff Bakalar and Wilson G. Tang to talk about the New York Times' interesting GTA IV review. Also, Hans Reiser gets convicted of murder, Free Tibet flags made in China, overweight discrimination, iTunes is 5 years old, and The Dark Knight leaked trailer online. All that and more on this jailbait free edition of the 404.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Philips phone plays a different tune in China

As the mobile phone industry churns out new handsets every day, the opportunities to distance a product from the massive pack can seem infinitesimal. For that reason Philips deserves some credit for trying some new tricks on the Chinese market.

Its latest offering, the M600, attempts to capitalize on the continuing evolution toward music devices with a design that looks almost more like a media player than a phone. Not only does it have a giant play button just above the keypad, according to SlashPhone, but it also features MP3 hotkeys, 40 hours of playback, and the same "SRS … Read more

Vodafone, China Mobile, and Softbank in mobile net tie-up

A trio of mobile companies including two global giants will collaborate to find more ways to profit from and develop mobile phone-based internet use, the Financial Times reported.

Vodafone, the biggest-earning mobile company, China Mobile, the company with the largest user base, and Softbank, the third-place Japanese carrier, form the coalition.

FT writes, "The collaboration underlines how mobile operators are keen to stop internet search engines such as Google and Yahoo dominating the provision of potentially lucrative services on the wireless internet."

Indeed, Google is working on ever more wireless applications. At WWW2008 in Beijing on Wednesday, Google'… Read more

Can China now claim most Internet users?

China has captured the No. 1 ranking as the country with the greatest number of Internet users, according to a Reuters report.

The country clocked in with 221 million Internet users in February, surpassing the U.S. for the top billing, according to Reuters, which cites the Xinhua news agency's reporting of figures from the government-backed China Internet Network Information Center.

However, the Chinese government's figures do have some competition.

Market researcher ComScore told CNET News.com on Thursday that the U.S. maintains a slight lead over China, according to its March figures. The number of U.… Read more