Customers who want to purchase the products need to first submit reservation applications via the Internet, and then they can pick-up the iPhones.

According to information published on Apple’s Hong Kong official website, from 09:00 to 12:00 each day, consumers will be able to access the registration system and complete the information, including the products they want like iPhone 4S, iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS; their names; and their Hong Kong identity card numbers. Those who successfully book the iPhones will receive a confirmation email from Apple, informing them of the time to retrieve the products. When getting the products from Apple stores, consumers need to produce the identity cards which are used for the registrations.

The Apple store in Hong Kong has stopped selling iPhones to consumers who directly walk in to purchase the smartphones. This new measure aims to stall speculative smartphone buyers picking up several devices to smuggle across to mainland China. Rumors are that the measure may also be expanded to the Chinese mainland market.

Prior to this, Apple announced plans to suspend the sales of its iPhone 4S smartphones in Chinese mainland retail outlets due to a scalper riot outside the Sanlitun Apple Store in Beijing.

Related Links:Find more stories about: Apple, Beijing, Hong Kong, iOS, iPhone, mobile, mobile phone, retail, riot, Sanlitun, smartphone, website, Wireless

source : www.chinatechnews.com

Most laptop keyboards display a key’s Fn action in blue on the keyboard. To activate one of the features, one has to press the Fn key and the key the function is mapped to.

Function key layouts may differ depending on the manufacturer of the laptop. Media keys most of the time are mapped to the F-key bar at the top.

One of the issues here is that it is often not that comfortable to use these keys. It may be difficulty to almost impossible to use the functionality with just one hand.

SfunKey has been designed to provide comfortable access to some of the extra keys. It maps a total of 12 keys to the F-keys on the keyboard. These features can now be activated by pressing the key twice on the keyboard, which is more comfortable than having to use the Fn key with one of the F-keys.

The following actions are available after the portable program has been launched (from F1 to F12): Sleep, LCD Brightness-. LCD Brightness+, Connect to Projector, Lock PC, Task Manager, Volume Mute, Volume-, Volume+, Previous Track, Play/Pause, Next Track.

The F12 key is not active by default, as it is often reserved by the system.

The program displays selected actions in an on screen display by default which can be disabled in the program settings.

Incompatible programs can be added to the compatibility listing which blocks program features when those applications are running on the system. This may be useful for full screen games for instance.

SFunKey is a handy portable program for mobile users who prefer to access media actions and other actions without the Fn key. The program is compatible with all recent 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Microsoft Windows operating system.

source : www.ghacks.net

Amazon is the latest Internet B2C retailer to give up the free delivery policy for all shipments in China, following 360buy.com and Newegg.com.cn.

Wang Hanhua, president for Amazon.cn, revealed to local media that the free delivery measure was a very costly investment and Amazon.cn has spent several billion Renminbi to support this policy in the past.

Amazon.cn has marked on its official website that consumers can gain free delivery by purchasing goods of over CNY29, effective from 07:00 on February 2, 2012. The new policy affects all products sold and delivered by Amazon.cn as well as those sold by vendors and delivered by Amazon.cn. However, products sold and delivered directly by vendors are not included.

B2C e-commerce websites in China have recently started slicing distribution costs. On November 22, 2011, 360buy.com announced that it would give up the complete free delivery policy and started charging a CNY5 delivery fee for any order under CNY39. About a month later, Newegg.com.cn, which previously provided free delivery in first-tier Chinese cities, stated it would charge delivery fees for any order under CNY99.

Related Links:Find more stories about: 360Buy.com, Amazon, B2C, courier, delivery, e-commerce, Internet payment, Internet shopping, investment, Newegg, on-line payment, on-line shopping, procurement, retail, sourcing, Wang Hanhua

source : www.chinatechnews.com

Yesterday a third design was spotted that combines the black bar with the menu structure of the single menu bar.

The new bar displays Google’s most popular services directly again on the bar for quick access. The More link leads to additional services. Users of the gray bar design will notice that the black bar has been moved on top of the design. Everything else, with the exception of the Google logo menu has remained the same.

The Google Operating System blog has posted instructions on how to enable the new Google bar design.

Open google.com in your web browser of choice.In Google Chrome, press Ctrl-Shift-JIn Mozilla Firefox press Ctrl-Shift-KIn Internet Explorer press F12 and choose consolePaste the following code into the form

Press enter and close the console again.Local users need to replace the domain in the information (google.com) with the country code domain, e.g. (google.de)

The page should refresh automatically, and you should see the new layout on the Google page. Please note that it will only be active for as long as the cookie remains on your system.

Users who want to return to the old Google homepage layout can repeat the steps, by loading the following code in the console.

My personal opinion? Google should give users more choice when it comes to the services that are displayed on the homepage. I’m for instance not using Google News, so why should it be there that prominently on the page? Google furthermore needs to choose a design and stick with it, instead of confusing users with different designs and layouts. Some users, depending on the browser they use to access Google, have reported that they are seeing different layouts on the same computer.

What’s your take on this, and what’s your favorite bar so far?

source : www.ghacks.net

You begin each map with all of your characters which you can place on the map. Your one and only goal is to keep them away from Azra, your lead character. Azra, while not fighting actively, has a repertoire of spells at her disposal to aid in battle.

You begin the game with a single melee class which only gets you that far. New characters are recruited in town, and sometimes awarded during the story telling in between battles.

Each character has a skill set available to that class. The berserker for instance gets a double-cut early on in the game which hits two enemies passing by when executed.

Your sorceress gains PSI power during battles which can be used for spells, summoning more characters to the battlefield or powering up characters. When you power them up, they grow considerably stronger.

Characters have attack, armor and health values that you need to keep an eye on. Especially health – and armor items – become important later on when enemies begin attacking your characters either in melee or range.

Your characters gain experience with every battle they fight, and the occasional level up awards one skill point that you can spend to improve an existing skill or learn a new one. Skills are divided into active skills, like the berserker’s double hit, and passive skills like swiftness which increase capabilities passively.

You can equip each character with a weapon and armor, to increase their damage and resistance. These items become more important later on in the game.

Some maps grant you to choose a challenge level with considerably stronger enemies and greater rewards. Rewards usually get you more experience and items that you can equip your characters with.

Defender’s Quest all in all is a solid game that does a lot of things right. If there are things to criticize, it is the low variance of enemies that you encounter on the map. The developers have released a full version of the game which boasts more maps, character classes and five additional acts to play through. The full version retails for $6.99 currently, and you get $2 off when you visit the buy page from the Kongregate website.

source : www.ghacks.net

EnfoDesk, Analysys International’s business information service branch focusing on the new media economy, has published a monitoring report for the Chinese Internet advertising market in the fourth quarter of 2011, stating that the market scale of Chinese Internet advertising operators reached CNY14.87 billion, a year-on-year increase of 52.9% and an increase of 6.4% compared with the previous quarter.

According to the analysis of EnfoDesk, affected by seasonal factors and the placement behaviors of advertisers, the growth of Chinese Internet advertising market saw a slight slowdown. Meanwhile, there were three major factors that influenced the changes of the market structure.

First, the keyword advertising sector led the market. Stimulated by the promotional effects and traffic brought by keyword advertising, the overall Chinese Internet advertising market maintained stable growth. During the fourth quarter of 2011, keyword advertising accounted for 39% of total Internet advertising. In the long run, the good promotional effects and search services provided by search engine operators will continue to improve to increase the value of search engine marketing, so as to encourage the placement of keyword advertisements by advertisers.

Next, the share of brand advertising was stable. During the fourth quarter of 2011, brand advertising accounted for 25.3% of total Internet advertising in China, a decrease of 0.1% over the third quarter. Although its overall share saw a slight decrease, its core business continued to develop. The report says its expansion on portal websites will help maintain its media value and ensure the stable growth of revenue.

Finally, other advertising types such as video advertising, interactive advertising and advertisement insertion were gradually recognized by advertisers. Accurate targeted advertising, especially video advertising, has gained fast growth and business recognition and should develop in 2012.

Related Links:Find more stories about: advertising, Analysys International, Baidu, EnfoDesk, Google, Internet advertiisng, keyword advertising, on-line advertising, search engine, SEM, SEO, Sogou, statistics

source : www.chinatechnews.com

Google describes the move on their blog as happening because…

“Migrating to localized domains will grant us to continue promoting free expression and responsible publishing while providing greater flexibility in complying with valid removal requests pursuant to local law. By utilizing ccTLDs, content removals can be managed on a per country basis, which will limit their impact to the smallest number of readers. Content removed due to a specific country’s law will only be removed from the relevant ccTLD.”

This move comes just under a year after the beginning of the Arab Spring which began with the people taking to the streets of Egypt and protesting against the thirty year rule of President Hosni Mubarak in which social networks such as Twitter were used extensively.  Similar uprisings quickly spread to neighbouring countries with Syria now the target of sanctions discussions at the United Nations.

It also follows Google’s discussions with China last year which saw the company temporarily withdraw from the country, only to return later having made concessions to the Chinese government.  Currently the changes apply only to Australia, New Zealand and India though Google apparently plan to roll the new system out globally.  It does not appear however that this has been introduced at the request of any specific country or countries.

The move would grant both Twitter and Google to block access to specific web content at the request of a country’s government or court-order.  This could include specific words in the case of Twitter or the blogs of people who are seen as dissidents or criminals.

In a statement the company said…

“If you visit a blog that does not correspond to your current location as determined by your IP address, the blogspot servers will redirect you to the domain associated with your country.”

Google believe the move will grant them to comply with local laws while keeping the content on-line around the world.  It is not yet clear however how this and the Twitter system might work with privacy browsers intended to bypass local filtering.  These are used by dissidents and political activists in countries including China, Burma and North Korea.

In the past Google have blocked specific content from their search engine in China, and blocked other content such as Nazi-related websites in Germany where such things are illegal.  Many people however believe that the Internet should not be filtered at all, and arguments are certain to continue over these moves.

source : www.ghacks.net

Under the agreement, Midea’s products will be sold in Suning’s Expo super flagship stores, flagship stores, community stores, boutique stores, and Laox stores. Apart from the physical stores, Midea’s products will also be available on the e-commerce platform of Suning. The two parties stated they will strengthen the research of on-line consumer features, enhance the diversified operation of on-line products, and improve on-line sales.

The cooperation will cover Midea’s full product lines and Suning’s full channels, including on-line and offline ones, aiming to achieve total sales of over CNY50 billion. With the channel development of Suning, the two parties will enhance their cooperation in third- and four-tier markets in China.

Moreover, the two companies have concurred to share enterprise customer information, and to reinforce their cooperation in commercial air-conditioning and appliances to expand their business in the engineering sector.

source : www.chinatechnews.com

Dashlane is currently in private beta, which means that you need an invite to begin using it (thanks to The Next Web). Once you have have entered your email address you are redirected to a page where you can download the Windows or Mac client to your local system.

Dashlane currently connects with the Chrome and Firefox web browser only, with an Internet Explorer version in the making. Installation gives users choice to connect to one, multiple or all of the supported browsers, which is better than Norton’s all or nothing approach. It felt kinda weird though that you had to close all browsers, even if you unselected the extension from being installed in them.

The program ships with a desktop program that you can use for all management purposes, and a browser extension that handles input and detection in the web browser.

The browser extension basically acts as a link between the desktop app and the web browser. It can fill out login information automatically for you if you have configured it that way, and will automatically ask you if you want to send new logins to the password manager for safe keeping. It is furthermore possible to click into a login form directly to choose one of the available accounts for the site.

You can configure the program to generate strong passwords for you whenever you register new accounts. Just click in the password field of the registration form, and then on the generate strong password button that appears right beneath it to create a strong password.

Dashlane furthermore can do all the form filling for you, if identity related information have been saved into the program’s database previously. The program takes care of multiple identities for you, and if you like also of ID related information and payments that you make on the Internet. These information can then be filled out automatically whenever you register a new account on a site.

One interesting feature of the desktop application is the security dashboard, which lists password strength ratings for all accounts.

Links point directly to low safety accounts giving users options to change their passwords on site directly to make them more secure.

The desktop app is protected by a master password which needs to be supplied on begin before you are able to access the information. The developers have published a white paper that explains the security concept in detail.

You can synchronize password information easily, provided that your devices are running a support operating system and web browser. Data is encrpyted with an AES-256 key before it is written to the computer’s hard drive. Information may also be stored in the cloud, if users choose to synchronize their information across devices for instance.

Users can access their data on the web as well, which is useful if you are on a public PC, mobile phone or computer that’s not compatible with the Dashlane desktop app. They should note though that the web app is read-only.

The program only asks you if you want to import your browser passwords into the password manager (and delete them afterwards). Users find desktop password manager import options under the File menu. Supported are popular password managers such as Last Pass, KeePass or 1Password.

Dashlane shows a lot of promise for a closed beta product. It is definitely superior to Norton’s password manager at this point in time. Not everything is golden though right now. The program lacks support for Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari currently, with only Internet Explorer listed as “soon” to be compatible.

An option to generate secure passwords, or to alter password creation rules, is not available currently.

It is also not clear if the developers plan to turn the service into a commercial password manager at a later point in time, or if they are going down the LastPass road which would keep the basic desktop version free.

If you are looking for a password manager for Windows or Mac, and are using Firefox or Chrome, I suggest you give it a try.

source : www.ghacks.net

The latest news released by Chinese local media said that China Telecom has been preparing for the launch of CDMA-based iPhone 4S; and the new product will be available at the end of February or the beginning of March 2012.

China Telecom has apparently set various packages for iPhone 4S with contracts, and their monthly costs range from CNY89 to CNY589. In addition, the operator is rumored to only provide iPhone 4S with contracts, but it has not yet been officially confirmed.

Under the rules and regulations in China, a new mobile phone product should obtain a network license issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and a 3C license issued by the Certification and Accreditation Administration of China before entering the market. Prior to the Chinese New Year, China Telecom gained the network license for the CDMA-based iPhone 4S, and the launch of the product is subject to the issuance of the other license.

According to information published on the official website of MIIT, the license number of CDMA-based iPhone 4S is 02-8573-120476, with a valid period of five years.

Related Links:Find more stories about: 3C, 3G, Apple, CDMA, Certification and Accreditation Administration of China, China Telecom, iPhone, MIIT, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, mobile, mobile phone, smartphone, Wireless

source : www.chinatechnews.com