China Mobile's celebrating its recent TD-SCDMA 3G network launch by giving away free 3G handsets to members of the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee. The network is running in trial-form in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen and Qinhuangdao, according to Wang Jianzhou, CEO of China Mobile. And, to give the network some added [...]

In a country that hasn't even seen the official launch of the iPhone, more than two-thirds of the Chinese population is aware of the iPhone. There are so many iPhone clones coming out of Chinese factories, it's almost impossible not to ignore the counterfeit side of things. Perhaps the prevalence of China-made iPhone copies has [...]

You would think that the head-honcho of one of the US’s premier technology rags is fairly proficient with the latest gadgets and doo-hickeys. Especially those gadgets that he actually uses everyday. You would think that, and you’d be wrong. Kevin Allison, of the Financial Times, has reported that, “Chris Anderson, the editor-in-chief of Wired, the US technology magazine, has revealed he was hit with $2,100 in charges for using his iPhone on a recent foreign trip, thanks to a glitch that led him to be charged each time the mobile handset automatically refreshed his e-mail inbox.” So, here’s another case of a roaming iPhone causing a major, multi-thousand-dollar headache for a faithful AT&T customer. Or is it? It’s widely known that you should disable data-roaming on your iPhone when traveling abroad to ensure that just this type of data roaming charge does not occur - or at least subscribe to a global roaming plan . Further, Mr. Anderson was even contacted by AT&T customer service to advise him to be careful when using his iPhone in China, as it might lead to costly roaming data charges. Funny, we can’t recall any reports of AT&T calling any non-technical writers to warn them of costly roaming charges. But, the ridiculousness doesn’t stop there. Wired’s top-editor had to specifically call AT&T in order to enable his iPhone for roaming use in China, so he can’t even argue that he didn’t know about roaming issues with the iPhone.  “He said the bulk of the charges were due to the fact that his iPhone was set to check his e-mail account for new messages every 10 minutes. The Wired editor said that he receives ‘hundreds’ of e-mails every day. ‘This is a phone that I wasn’t using,’ Mr Anderson said. ‘I was simply walking around with the phone in my pocket,’” according to Allison. Right, you weren’t using it, but it was set to automatically check your email. It’s hard to pinpoint who is more dim-witted here - Anderson or Allison. So, is this another case of AT&T being incredibly callous and overcharging their loyal customers? Or is this a case of a possibly-staged story with skewed facts - FUD? We’re going to leave it to you to decide, you probably already know where we stand on this one… [Via: FT ] ---Related Articles at IntoMobile:AT&T: No more hundred-page long detailed billsForum Nokia PRO Awards announced at Nokia WorldAT&T iPhone bill comes out to hundreds of pages!Verizon ONE-BILL, integrated billingVideo: iPhonami, or the art of making the iPhone stand from a standard dollar bill

Following on the recent announcement from RIM that China’s government gave the green-light to bring the outdated BlackBerry 8700 to the Chinese masses, China Mobile has announced that they will be launching the BlackBerry 8700 by month’s end. TCL Communications, the Chinese manufacturer of RIM’s BlackBerry 8700 said that they’ve gotten an order for 10,000 BlackBerry 8700 handsets from China Mobile, which will be sold under the “Alcatel BlackBerry 8700″ branding. TCL owns the Alcatel brand and helped RIM push certification of the BlackBerry 8700 through the Chinese beauracracy. The Alcatel BlackBerry 8700 will presumably be used with China Mobile’s existing BlackBerry wireless plans (available for BlackBerry handsets from abroad). There are two plans offered by China Mobile - one costs RMB 398 ($53.8) per month and the other will run RMB 598 ($80.8) per month. We’re sure Chinese businessmen will be happy to hear that they can now get an official BlackBerry 8700 from China Mobile. You know, instead of the more advanced BlackBerry handsets that could just as easily be brought in from, say, the US. [Via: MocoNews ] ---Related Articles at IntoMobile:RIM to bring the BlackBerry to Russia in 2008BlackBerrys finally ready for ChinaAnother RIM BlackBerry outage?BlackBerry 8830 on Sprint next month?Meizu M8 MiniOne to debut at CES? Apple's lawyers rejoice!

The Chinese wireless market is a formidable force. With their hundreds and hundreds of millions of wireless subscribers, it makes sense for Yahoo to cater to the Chinese market. The search-giant has announced that they will be releasing their Yahoo! Go 2.0 mobile service in a Chinese-flavored version. The US has had Yahoo! Go 2.0 for some time now. And it seems that Yahoo! Kimo (Taiwan) will be taking the traditional Chinese-language Yahoo! Go 2.0 software platform overseas. We’re sure the Yahoo! Go 2.0 service will be fully-censored to the Chinese government’s liking. We can’t imagine that searches for “Chinese censoring” or “religious oppression in China” will yield any productive results.  Still, we’re sure Chinese Yahoo! Go 2.0 users will be happy to have Yahoo! Kimo’s online services at their fingertips. [Via: DigiTimes ] ---Related Articles at IntoMobile:Yahoo! Go Mobile Launches with NokiaHi-end Nokia phones to come with Yahoo applicationsYahoo! Mobile Ads Are Here!Virgin Mobile USA partners with YahooYahoo! - Symbian Platinum Partner program

The largest wireless operator in China, nay, the world, is reportedly in talks with Apple to bring the iPhone to the 350 million end-users that China Mobile calls its subscriber-base. We already know the iPhone will be hitting the Asian-region in 2008, so it makes sense for China Mobile to court Apple for exclusive rights to the iPhone. China Mobile’s CEO, Wang Jianzhou, has confirmed that they are negotiating with Apple. However, the Chinese carrier is a bit reluctant to give up iPhone revenue to Apple - a kick-back model that Apple has forced all iPhone carriers to obey. Says Wang, “We still think we can maintain the operator-centric model because we have the customers, the end users.” Sure, China Mobile has the subscriber-base to make demands, but will Apple give in to these demands? Precedence would dictate, no. Afterall, revenue sharing from a potential pool of 350 million customers is just way too enticing for Apple to pass up. [Via: iPhone Central ] ---Related Articles at IntoMobile:Another Apple iPhone Knock-off - The IPHONEMore iPhone cases, this time from ChinaMobile phone unlocking laws keeping iPhone out of France?Apple and Orange still negotiating iPhone deal?Vodafone wants to carry the 3G iPhone?