Posted 11/05/09 at 09:04:26 AM by Paul Lilly

We wanted to scream bloody murder when our folks would hide the power adapter for our Atari 2600 after a night-long gaming session. For those of you who have no idea what we're talking about, it's the equivalent to having your DSi yanked from your backpack. But no matter which generation you grew up in, it looks like we all had it easy, at least compared to kids growing up in China. Up until recently, youths diagnosed with Internet addiction were subject to beatings and confinement.

New rules have now banned such unpleasantness following the beating death of a teenager in August, which led to the discovery of abuse at other clinics. That was enough for China to reach a revelation that maybe a different approach was needed.

"Parents and teachers must analyze the causes and not arbitrarily condemn, hit, or scold youths...intervention methods that restrict personal freedom are strictly forbidden and corporal punishment is strictly forbidden," read new regulations posted on the health ministry's website.

According to local press reports, China had up to 10 million teenage Web addicts and at least 400 private Internet rehab centers nationwide in August.

Read More

Posted 11/05/09 at 07:53:33 AM by Paul Lilly

Panasonic earlier in the week said it had begun a tender offer to take over rival Sanyo for an estimated $4.4 billion, which would create one of the world's largest electronics companies. But before that can happen, China is forcing Panasonic to sell off assets in Japan if its to approve the deal, the Financial Times reports.

The landmark ruling, which is based on anti-trust laws introduced in August of last year, has some concerned over the growing power of Beijing's competition authorities. Those who study competition law say the Chinese demands go further than those of the European Union and make international companies take greater notice of China when considering acquisitions.

Should the deal go through, Sanyo is expected to become Panasonic's subsidiary by mid-December, or a year after the two companies first announced the potential takeover.

Read More

Posted 09/21/09 at 07:40:52 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Although, earlier this year, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology mandated that the vaguely named “Green Dam Youth Escort” web filtering software be bundled with all new PCs, including the imported ones, it later postponed the July 1 deadline before eventually scrapping its edict last month.

Now all remaining major PC manufacturers have stopped bundling the software with their PCs, with the announcement that Sony, Lenovo and Acer will no longer be bundling the controversial software.

However, it is still mandatory for those administrating public use computers to have Green Dam Youth Escort installed on such machines. But one unnamed Chinese high school is said to have flouted the government’s order by deleting the software from its computers. It is not often that China offers obeisance to outside pressure.

Read More

Posted 08/24/09 at 03:17:20 PM by Andy Salisbury

Four people were jailed earlier today in eastern China today for selling pirated copies of Microsoft’s operating system, Windows XP.

Hong Lei and Sun Xianzhong were both sentenced to three and a half years and fined a million Yuan ($176,000) by a Suzhou city court. Along with them, two others were jailed for two years and fined 100,000 Yuan. According to prosecutors, they were members of a gang that offered free downloads of the OS and pulled money off of ads. Apparently, more than ten million people had downloaded the software.

The site gained attention from Chinese authorities after officials with the US Business Software Alliance filed a compliant last June.

Read More

Posted 08/13/09 at 12:14:34 PM by Paul Lilly

Internet users living in China won't be forced to install the controversial Green Dam Internet filtering software after all, said China's industry minister Li Yizhong. The software will, however, still be installed on computers at schools and in Internet cafes, said Li.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, Li contends the software was always intended to be optional. But previous plans required the Internet filtering software be installed on all computers sold in China. That plan was delayed indefinitely in June following strong opposition from China's estimated 300 million Internet users. There were also reports of security holes that could potentially allow hackers to gain remote access to PCs with the software installed.

The Green Dam software also drew criticism after it was discovered that more than just pornography was being blocked. Researchers at the University of Michigan found that Green Dam restricted access to webpages containing words related to Falun Gong, a semi-religious movement that has been branded a cult by the Chinese government, PC World reports.

Read More

Posted 08/10/09 at 09:03:02 AM by Paul Lilly

Citing a "source with knowledge of the situation," news site TechCrunch reports Dell is on the verge of announcing a mobile phone in the Chinese market within the next couple of days.

Details remain super sparse, but it's believed said smart phone will be somewhat similar in style to Apple's iPhone with a touchscreen interface and no physical keyboard. Other than that, it's anyone's guess what a Dell-branded phone might be like, and if we were to make a guess, we'd say it will probably be based on the Android platform. Dell has been working with Google on an Android-powered tablet PC, so it's not a complete shot in the dark.

Stayed tuned - if this one comes to fruition, we'll post back with all the gory details once they emerge.

Read More

Posted 07/31/09 at 09:53:40 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Some manufacturers are trying their best to blur the line that separates netbooks from notebooks. According to a Commercial Times report, white-box netbook manufacturers in China have also turned their attention to producing netbooks with large displays. They are said to be manufacturing netbooks, with screen sizes in excess of 12 inches, based on AMD and VIA processors. According to the report, they are deliberately avoiding using Intel processors as the chip maker has placed restrictions on the screen size of Atom-toting netbooks. Besides, they are helped in making their choice by the fact that VIA processors are much cheaper than their Intel counterparts.

Read More

Posted 07/04/09 at 04:25:26 PM by Justin Kerr

Despite recently announced delays in China’s requirement to include Green Dam anti-pornography software on new PCs, the initiative is far from dead. PC makers who unanimously decried the hasty July 1st deadline managed to buy themselves an extension, but are still being told they to comply with the new requirements. The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology re-affirmed its commitment to Green Dam Youth Escort on Thursday, and claims that it sees the software as being an important tool for protecting young people from pornography and violence on the internet. To further reinforce its commitment to total penetration, software publisher Jinhui has been told to write a Mac OSX version of the software, and it is currently in beta testing.

Critics of the Green Dam filtering software continue to question the motivation behind the initiative, and have accused the Ministry of using the software to further political repression. This may be a valid concern when you consider that the Ministry in charge of Green Dam’s implantation is also responsible for suppressing illegal political activity. The situation for the Chinese gets even worse when you consider that several industry tests have shown multiple security vulnerabilities in the filtering software, and it even appears to have a high occurrence of false positives in the filtering algorithm. The vulnerabilities are considered so serious in fact, that Sony is including a disclaimer with all new PCs.

Will Linux be the only safe haven for the Chinese? 

Read More