china

Apple faces $118K fine in China for copyright breach

Apple will have to compensate three Chinese writers for infringing their copyright rights when it sold their books online without first seeking permission.

A China Daily report stated the Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court ruled in favor of the authors, and Apple will have to pay them in excess of 730,000 yuan (US$118,000) for the infringement. Apple had not gotten permission before selling their books on the Apple App Store, it noted.

The presiding judge, Feng Gang, said Apple has the duty of checking whether the books uploaded by third-party providers are in line with … Read more

Originally posted at Apple

By Kevin Kwang

Huawei exec: We're 'not interested' in the U.S.

A Huawei senior executive said Tuesday that the giant Chinese telecom gear maker is "not interested" in the U.S. market any longer.

According to reports by Reuters and the Financial Times, Eric Xu, Huawei executive vice president and one of its three rotating chief executives, expressed exasperation at inquiries by U.S. lawmakers into concerns that the company's gear could be used to snoop on American companies or individuals. Last fall, the House Intelligence committee issued an extensive report discouraging American companies from buying Huawei gear over espionage fears.

At an analyst conference Tuesday in Shenzhen, … Read more

Cyberattacks triple in 2012, Akamai says

Cyberwarfare incidences jumped sharply in 2012, Akamai said, with the number of distributed denial of service attacks more than tripling from the previous year.

Akamai, one of the world's largest globally distributed networks, said its customers reported being targeted by 768 DDoS attacks last year, more than three times as many as in 2011. The company's State of the Internet report released Tuesday also found that more than a third of those attacks targeted the commerce sector, while another 20 percent targeted enterprise customers.

"In many ways, DDoS has become the weapon of choice for multiple types … Read more

Huawei debuts 5-inch A199 for China

Huawei has announced (translate) a midrange Android smartphone for China and emerging markets in the form of the 5-inch A199.

Powered by Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, the Huawei A199 also features Huawei's custom Emotion 1.5 UI. On hardware, the handset falls in the mid-to-high end of the spectrum with its quad-core 1.5GHz processor, 2GB RAM, 8GB internal storage, and 8.0-megapixel rear camera.

Whereas most 5-inch smartphones tend to offer a 1080p HD display, the Huawei A199 comes with a still respectable 720p resolution screen. Additional hardware includes a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera, a 2,150mAh … Read more

Apple, Samsung, others raise $32M after China earthquake

Apple, Samsung, and other tech firms have raised more than $32 million to aid China as it tries to recover from Saturday's devastating earthquake.

The quake, which occurred Saturday morning local time in China's Sichuan province, has so far left 200 people dead or missing, 11,800 people injured, and more than 100,000 homeless.

Among technology companies sending money to aid in relief efforts, Samsung China has pledged around $9.7 million. China Samsung President Zhang Yuanji took to the company's official Sina Weibo page to express his condolences saying that "China Samsung always with … Read more

Chinese firm finds way to get apps onto iPhone, iPad -- for free

A firm in China has found a way to get users in China to download applications to their iPhones or iPads without having to pay a dime.

According to Venturebeat, which discovered the exploit, a Chinese "app store" known as 7659.com has taken advantage of a loophole in Apple's bulk enterprise licensing that allows users to download paid applications for free without having to jailbreak their devices, as they would in previous exploits.

Apple's enterprise app distribution platform allows a major company to deploy programs across all corporate devices, as long as they have a … Read more

EU puts Huawei, ZTE in crosshairs. Who will pull trigger?

The European Commission would like to prepare a case against China-based companies Huawei and ZTE over the possibility of unfair business practices, but it needs help from technology companies that are unwilling to get involved, according to a new report.

Reuters, which claims to have spoken to people with knowledge of the issue, reported that the EC would like to investigate whether Huawei and ZTE have been unfairly using state subsidies to undercut prices offered by European companies. The EC is the executive arm of the European Union.

For the trade investigation to move forward, the EC needs to have … Read more

Apple named in Chinese porn probe

Apple is again in the crosshairs of the Chinese government.

The iPhone maker has turned up on a list of companies being investigated in China over allegedly offering pornographic material through their Web sites or app stores, The Wall Street Journal said today.

Apple isn't highlighted in the story from the People's Daily, the official newspaper of China's Communist Party. Rather, it's just one of many companies named in the probe. In total, the investigation is looking at 198 Web sites and several app stores beyond Apple's.

Based solely on a rough Google-translated version of the People's Daily piece, … Read more

Xiaomi finds big success selling high-end smartphones for less

The high-end Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has no marketing budget and no flashy retail stores. And yet it is one of the most successful handset makers in the coveted Chinese mobile market.

Speaking here today at the All Things D conference, president and co-founder of the 3-year-old company, Bin Lin explained how the company has grown so rapidly from its first device sold in 2011 to now. He also offered advice to bigger multinational companies struggling to sell products in China.

"The way we sell online is to be transparent," he said. "We tell users everything about … Read more

China, U.S. to form working group on cyberspying issue

The U.S. and China have agreed to form a working group on cybersecurity, after a recent volley of cyberspying accusations from both sides.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced from Beijing that the two countries will ramp up action on cybersecurity, Reuters reported.

Cybersecurity "affects the financial sector, banks, financial transactions -- every aspect of nations in modern times are affected by the use of cybernetworking, and obviously all of us, every nation, has an interest in protecting its people, protecting its rights, protecting its infrastructure," the news agency quoted Kerry as saying after a … Read more