Apple Inc’s online book and film services have gone dark in China, after Beijing introduced regulations last month imposing strict curbs on online publishing, particularly for foreign firms.
Attempts by Reuters to access Apple’s iBooks Store and iTunes Movies services were met with a message in Chinese saying they were “unusable.”
The services were closed by Apple at the demand of China’s media regulator, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, the New York Times reported, citing two unnamed people.
“We hope to make books and movies available again to our customers in China as soon as possible,” said an Apple spokeswoman, without elaborating.
Apple’s second-largest market by revenue is Greater China, which includes Taiwan and Hong Kong, driven by the iPhone’s popularity in the world’s biggest smartphone market.
However, the company has at times met with official resistance from Beijing, with state media once branding the US tech behemoth’s iPhone a danger to national security.
Last month, regulations came into effect that prohibit foreign ownership and joint ventures in online publishing and stipulate that all content be stored on servers in China. The move sparked fear of greater curbs on foreign businesses.
In an effort to shape public opinion online, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government has implemented an unprecedented tightening of internet controls and sought to codify the policy within the law, a campaign that critics say ignores human rights and is a burden for business.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained