china

After a lengthy newspaper investigation on China's prime minister, The New York Times claims, the newspaper's computer systems were infiltrated and attacked by Chinese hackers.

The attacks began four months ago and culminated with hackers stealing the corporate password for every Times employee, according to the paper. The personal computers of 53 of these employees were also broken into and spied on.

The Times discovered the attacks after observing "unusual activity" in its computer system. Security investigators were then able to get into the system and track the hackers' movements, see what the infiltrators were after, … Read more

A gigantic QR code took form in China a couple of days ago. Mission Hills China trumpets the accomplishment with the headline, "World's Largest Golf Club & Spa Resort Creates the World's Biggest QR Code." Sounds like someone is obsessed with being the world's largest.

That headline is a little misleading, though. A Canadian corn maze turned out a 309,570-square-foot QR code last year. What Mission Hills China created is most likely the world's biggest human QR code. It certainly beat out the 1,300 people Taiwan drafted for a promotion event.

The club rounded up 2,000 employees for the massive publicity stunt. They stood in designated spots and opened red and white umbrellas above their heads. Seen from 270 feet above the ground, the formation created a scannable QR code. The code links back to an eco-tourism campaign that lets entrants sign up for a chance to win a holiday at the resort.… Read more

Chinese PC giant Lenovo said its third fiscal quarter, ended December 31, was its best ever, with record numbers for both sales and profit at US$9.4 billion and US$205 million, respectively.

The company said in a statement today that the US$9.4 billion in revenue was a 12 percent increase from the year before, while third quarter profit leaped 34 percent year over year to reach US$205 million.

Gross profit for the third quarter increased 15 percent year over year to US$1.1 billion, while operating profit climbed 26 percent to US$243 million.… Read more

Microsoft assumes you probably haven't used an Internet Explorer browser since the mid-1990s, and the company's latest commercial for IE10 takes us all back to those awkward times with a montage of '90s nostalgia that includes slap bracelets, Oregon Trail, LA Gear Lights, and Tamogotchis. We're not sure how any of those items are supposed to lure us away from Firefox or Chrome, but check it out anyway.

We knew it was only a matter of time before a 6-second clip of hardcore porn made its way to the Twitter Vine, but we never expected it to come from Twitter itself--a nasty clip was featured for a short time on Vine's "Editor's Choice" pick list. Granted, it's not the first instance of adult content on the new social video service.

With Vine's TOS giving users creative freedom to access its service, an unfiltered stream of dirty hashtags is already building out on VineRoulette. Then again, who the hell wants to watch porn for only six seconds?… Read more

If Singapore and Hong Kong are to be our guides, Apple might be having some trouble in Asia, according to a new report.

Reuters yesterday made some waves in a report outlining Apple's perceived troubles in Asia. The news outlet argued that in the most "trend-setting" areas in Asia, the popularity of Apple's iPhone seems to be dropping off.

To make its point, Reuters pointed to data from StatCounter, an analytics provider that delivers market share data based on page views collected from sites running its platform. At last count, that meant a global sample of … Read more

Authorities in Beijing are considering allowing the likes of Sony and Nintendo to once again sell video game consoles in China, according to reports.

Video game consoles such as Sony's PlayStation and Microsoft's Xbox were banned more than a decade ago over worries that video game playing could corrupt children and hamper their development. But now the China Daily says at least one governmental official believes that there is a possibility for gaming to once again hit the Chinese market.

An anonymous source from the Chinese Ministry of Culture told the publication:

Apple has severed its relationship with a China-based third-party labor supplier after discovering a conspiracy to employ dozens of underage workers there, Apple reported in its latest Supplier Responsibility report, which was released this evening.

The iPhone maker said it discovered the violations during an audit of the supplier, Guangdong Real Faith Pingzhou Electronics (PZ). In addition, Apple reported the labor agency that knowingly provided the child labor to PZ to local authorizes.

The agency, which allegedly conspired with the children's families to falsify age-verification documents, had its license suspended and was levied a fine.

"The children were … Read more

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will be establishing a digital dispute-resolution center to deal with disagreements over intellectual property and online copyright issues.

According to the Sina Tech news site yesterday, the plans had been unveiled at an annual meeting by the Internet Society of China and the Mediation Center Internet Legal Professionals held in Beijing last week.

The dispute-resolution center will be an arm of MIIT responsible for IP disputes, and will provide third-party mediation services and dispute-resolution services to technology companies involved in disputes.

If everything goes according to plan, the center is likely to … Read more

Having secured the trademark for the iPad name in China last year, Apple is now going after rights over the tablet's likeness.

In a new trademark application, spotted earlier today by Patently Apple, Apple aims to trademark the likeness of the iPad, as depicted in both color and black-and-white photos. The filing shows a simple front shot of the device with a standard set of application icons, though not the sides or the back.

The move follows a short but intense legal battle with a Chinese company named Proview over the rights to the iPad moniker trademark. Proview took … Read more