PATREONItems tagged with China
The supercomputer race has only just begun. Japan is currently planning to build the world’s fastest supercomputer. The machine, nicknamed AI Bridging Cloud Infrastructure (ABCI), would ideally be able to process 130 quadrillion calculations per second or 130 petaflops. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has called for scientists, companies, and bureaucrats to work together in order to dominate robotics, renewable energy, and other up and coming industries. The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry will spend 19.5 billion yen ($173 million) on the supercomputer project and should commence in early 2017. IBM's supercomputer WatsonJapan is particularly interested in artificial intelligence such...
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Facebook has taken censorship to a new level. The company has reportedly created software that can suppress certain posts from appearing in specific geographic areas. Zuckerberg hopes that this new software will help the company gain access to China’s market of 1.4 billion people. This is not the first time Facebook has blocked content. The company blocked roughly 55,000 pieces of content between July and December 2015 in twenty different countries. Facebook is known for employing this technique in countries such as Russia, Pakistan, and Turkey. Facebook will also block posts, even in the United States, if the post relates to a confidential criminal case. Facebook would not be suppressing the...
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Apple may be an American company, but the bulk of its products (save for the long-neglected Mac Pro, which is assembled in the United States) are manufactured in China. The relatively low cost of labor, coupled with premium pricing for devices like the iPhone, has allowed Apple to become one of the most profitable companies in the world. However, according to a new report from the Nikkei Asian Review, during the past year, Apple has at least explored the idea of manufacturing the iPhone in the United States. According to a source for the publication, “Apple asked both Foxconn and Pegatron, the two iPhone assembly plants, in June to look into making iPhones in the U.S. Foxconn complied, while...
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Nearly a week after the U.S. Presidential election, many in the United States (and around the globe) are anxious about how President-elect Donald Trump will govern once he takes office on January 20th. Will then President Trump adhere to promises that he made during the campaign or will he take a more measured approach to appease a larger slice of the American populace? But it’s not just those within the United States that are a little on edge; some nations around the world are concerned about the power that President Trump will wield. One of Trump’s frequent targets on the campaign trail was China. He relentlessly assailed the country and its trade practices, often in very unflattering terms....
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Will the Chinese population ever get to “Netflix and chill”? Not according to Reed Hastings. The Netflix CEO does not believe that his corporation will be able to enter and succeed in the Chinese market. China is currently the most populous country in the world with 1.357 billion people. Its expanding consumer class has led many international companies to invest in the country. The Chinese government, however, has an incredibly tight hold on the media and has blocked numerous major corporations. Hastings noted, “We’re focused on the rest of the world. Disney, who is very good in China, had their movie service shut down. Apple, who is very good in China, had their movie service closed down. It...
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As most US-based companies have learned by now, it's very difficult to penetrate the Chinese market (just ask Microsoft), with the country's government being at the crux of the issue more so than cultural differences. Apple in particular has had a rough go at feeling comfortable in China, and recently, things have been made more difficult with sliding sales. In the past year, Apple had to mold its products to better-suit the Chinese market, which included getting rid of iTunes Movies and iBooks, and crippling its popular news app. Since then, Apple has invested more in the Chinese market, which included a staggering $1 billion investment in "Chinese Uber" Didi Chuxing. Next up? The opening up...
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Apple’s sales across the board are continuing to slump, and that was on full display in the company’s Q3 earnings report. But despite downward-trending sales, its revenue and profit totals for the quarter are nothing to scoff at. The company reported quarterly revenue of $42.4 billion and net income of $7.8 billion — this is compared to $49.6 billion and $10.7 billion respectively for Q3 2015. “We are pleased to report third quarter results that reflect stronger customer demand and business performance than we anticipated at the start of the quarter,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook. “We had a very successful launch of iPhone SE and we’re thrilled by customers’ and developers’ response to software and...
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Well, we didn’t see this one coming. Often times, it’s American companies that are crying foul when it comes to Chinese companies ripping off their designs. However, one of the most vocal protectors of its intellectual property is finding itself under fire in China, and that company is none other than Apple. The Beijing Intellectual Property Office has found that Apple has infringed on the design patents of the Shenzhen Baili 100C smartphone. The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are listed as the guilty parties in the infringement, and surprisingly, the virtually identically designed iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus escaped scrutiny (for now). According to CNBC, the ruling only affects iPhone 6 and 6 Plus...
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Huawei is one of the largest smartphone players in China, though perhaps more importantly, the company has propelled itself into the number three spot overall in the entire world, behind only a pair of juggernauts in Apple and Samsung. In time, Huawei CEO Richard Yu believes his company can leapfrog both of them.That's what a confident Yu told The Wall Street Journal in an interview. In no uncertain terms, Yu said the goal is to be the top smartphone supplier on the planet, not number two or number three. And to reach that goal, Yu said it will take "maybe four or five years." Within that time frame, Yu hopes that Huawei will have more than a 20 percent or 25 percent share of the global smartphone...
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Sometimes, it's amazing - potentially jaw-dropping - to see huge companies make really boneheaded decisions. A great example of this came to us this past week when Microsoft rolled out an update to its Windows 10 upgrade mechanism in Windows 7 and 8 that could automatically start the process of the upgrade by closing the dialog box. It seems crazy to even say out loud! To say that this caused outrage would actually be an understatement. The world over, people were suddenly having their PCs upgraded after vigilantly dismissing the upgrade offer for months, or even the past year. For experienced users, this would be downright frustrating, but just picture all of those who know just enough about...
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It's fair to say that relations between the U.S. and China are strained, especially in regards to technology. Security researchers have often traced cyberattacks big and small back to China, for which the Chinese government often denies, and there's contention over shipping products to the region. The latter is likely to escalate as China ramps up its security reviews on U.S. tech companies such as Apple and Microsoft.China has a deep distrust of technology products originating from the U.S. As a result, China's been conducting more intensive reviews of tech companies with a focus on encryption and data storage products. According to anonymous sources who spoke with The New York Times, executives...
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A court in Beijing has ruled in favor of Facebook in an ongoing trademark dispute with Zhongshan Pearl River Drinks, a Chinese beverage company that registered the term "face book" in 2011. Even though Facebook objected, China's Trademark Review and Adjudication Board ended up approving the "face book" trademark in 2014.Facebook was none too pleased with the trademark authority's decision, and after getting nowhere with the agency, the social network took the matter up with the Beijin court. The court sided with Facebook in its original lawsuit. Zhongshan filed an appeal, but in its most recent ruling, the Beijing court upheld the ruling.It seems like a cut and dry case, though part of Zhongshan's...
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Much to the chagrin of Apple. a Chinese court has ruled against the company's trademark infringement claim in a case it brought against a seller of luxury leather accessories. The ruling allows Xintong Tiandi Technology to continue using the "IPHONE" name, which it displays in all caps, on things like smartphone cases, wallets, and purses.The good news for Apple is that it retains its trademark for mobile devices, so it doesn't have to worry about an iPhone knockoff, or at least not a legal one with the iPhone branding. Apple can also appeal the decision to the Supreme People's Court in Beijing, though so far it hasn't had the best of luck with trademark disputes in China.Source: iphone.vcXintong...
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In December, HotHardware reported that Microsoft had entered the planning stages for introducing a tweaked version of its Windows 10 operating system in China, and just three months later, the first iteration is being delivered. You have Windows 10 Pro? China has Windows 10 'Zhuangongban'. That rolls right off the tongue, doesn't it? The Chinese government has in the past made it no secret that it's skeptical of potential spying code that could run on software (or hardware) produced by American companies, which results in companies such as Microsoft having to face uphill battles anytime it wishes to release a new product in Asia's largest market. To...
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If you're passionate about the topics of privacy, government surveillance, and security and also how they relate to the FBI and DOJ's fight to unlock that fateful San Bernardino iPhone, the whole situation likely pales in comparison to what communist countries like China force their citizens to tolerate. In an effort to root out threats to society, the Chinese Communist Party has contracted for development of a data analytics technology of sorts that is best described as taking a page straight out of the 2002 movie staring Tom Cruise called Minority Report. Credit: Flickr TadokoroAs Bloomberg reports, a top Chinese contractor by the name of China Electronics Technology Group is developing a big...
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China continues to swell with smartphones—the latest data from Strategy Analytics pegs China's smartphone shipments as having grown 3 percent year-over-over to a hit record 438 million handsets in 2015. That's especially good news for Xiaomi, which retained its top spot with a 15.4 percent share of the market, but not so much for Samsung. The South Korean handset maker was pushed out of the top 5 rankings and now occupies the catch-all "Others" category, which collectively accounts for more than four out of 10 handsets (43.1 percent) in China. However, the fifth most popular smartphone brand in China is OPPO, which shipped 33.2 million handsets in all of 2015 to grab a 7.6 percent share. That...
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Apple is fighting hard to have shoot down a proposed UK law that would require tech firms to work hand-in-hand with government agencies to break encryption and provide easy access to customer data under court order. “We believe it would be wrong to weaken security for hundreds of millions of law-abiding customers so that it will also be weaker for the very few who pose a threat,” said Apple in a complaint filed against the Investigatory Powers Bill. For all its efforts to stop efforts in the UK to break down encryption walls and bend over for law enforcement, a new Chinese law looks to simply steamroll tech companies. Under the guise of counter-terrorism, the Chinese government has passed a law...
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With its Windows OS, Microsoft is likely the biggest victim of piracy on Earth, and it's no secret that China plays a major role in that. But, so too do other issues, such as the Chinese government's distaste or distrust of American companies. This ties into the reason that China is working to get its own CPU off the ground, as well as its own OS. Microsoft realizes this problem well, but can't ignore the huge potential of penetrating the Chinese government market. So it has decided to go out of its comfort zone to cater to the Chinese government's requirements. It's doing so by establishing a new company called C&M Information Technologies in Beijing, which will act as a bit of a proxy between...
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Earlier today, Apple made some big moves in its executive ranks with a wave of promotions and new hire. But tonight, Apple announced what could possibly be its most important business deal so far this year, and one that could be extremely lucrative for the electronics company that is deriving a large portion of its revenue from the Chinese market. Apple has reached an agreement with China UnionPay, which will allow cardholders to add their bank cards to Apple Pay. What makes this such a blockbuster deal is that China UnionPay currently operates nation's inter-bank clearing and settlement system and has issued over 5 billion cards both domestically and abroad. UnionPay cards are accepted at 26...
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It seems like we keep repeating ourselves, but Apple has posted yet another record quarter thanks to strong iPhone sales. Apple reported record fiscal Q4 revenue of $51.5 billion and net profit of $11.1 billion. These figures were up substantially from the same period last year, when earnings and net profit came in at $42.1 billion and $8.5 billion respectively. And that wasn’t all; gross margins also ticked up slightly from 38 percent to 39.9 percent and Apple’s international business continues to improve by leaps and bounds, now accounting for a whopping 62 percent of its quarterly revenue. Moving specially to Apple’s product portfolio, iPhone sales increased by 22 percent year-over-year, while...
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For the first time ever, Huawei is China's largest smartphone player, having surged to the top spot to replace Xiaomi in the third quarter of 2015, according to data presented by market research firm Canalys. Huawei's ascension to the top was fueled by a staggering 81 percent year-on-year shipment growth. Meanwhile, Xiaomi saw its phone shipments slide 8 percent in the third quarter, according to The Wall Street Journal, which read the full report by Canalys (it hasn't yet been published). That caused Xiaomi to slip into second place in China's smartphone market, though Canalys hasn't disclosed specific market share data. If looking back at the second quarter, Xiaomi held a slim lead over Huawei...
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Following the philosophy that it's sometimes better to ask for forgiveness than for permission, a Chinese mobile advertising firm wants Apple and iOS users to know it's sorry for running afoul of Apple's App Store rules by sneakily plucking user data through hundreds of mobile apps that have been downloaded over a million times.Guangzhou Youmi Mobile Technology Co. (Youmi from here on out) was caught collecting email addresses, device IDs, and other private information through more than 250 apps built with a software development kit (SDK) it offers to developers. The developers may not have even known what was going on.How so? Affected apps were using what's called a private application programming...
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