Hong Kong

Apple Pay expands in Hong Kong with support from Amex, Visa and MasterCard

Apple Pay expansion in international markets has accelerated lately, with the mobile payment system launching in France yesterday and now, just 24 hours later, in Hong Kong. According to Apple Pay’s Hong Kong website, the service is supported at launch by all three major credit card companies: Visa, American Express and MasterCard, with cards issued by Hang Seng Bank, Bank of China (Hong Kong), DBS Bank (Hong Kong), HSBC, Standard Chartered and AmEx.

Apple Pay confirmed to expand to France, Hong Kong and Switzerland

During yesterday’s WWDC 2016 keynote, Apple has confirmed that its mobile payments service is officially launching later this year in France, Hong Kong and Switzerland. Local Apple Pay webpages in these countries have already been refreshed to acknowledge the forthcoming launches in partnerships with Visa, MasterCard and American Express and detail participating banks and merchants.

Spotlight Suggestions expand to seven new countries, including India and Hong Kong

Spotlight Suggestions, a feature that recommends content from the Internet when searching with Spotlight on an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad with iOS 9.0+ or a Mac running OS X 10.11 El Capitan or later, has expanded to seven additional markets: Hong Kong, India, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and United Arab Emirates.

Counting these regions, Spotlight Suggestions are now available in a total of 26 major markets around the world, listed on Apple’s iOS Feature Availability webpage.

Apple discounts iPhones, iPads and more in Lunar New Year Sale

As promised, Apple kicked its ‘Red Friday’ sales event off today in several Asian countries to celebrate the Lunar New Year. Unlike the recent Black Friday event it held here in the US, Apple is offering cash discounts on its products—not gift cards.

Also different is the fact that the Red Friday promotion includes price cuts on all current iPhone models and the new Retina iPad mini. Apple doesn’t usually discount its handsets, as they are extremely popular and provide (by far) the largest margins…

Apple confirms January 10 ‘Red Friday’ sales event in major Asian markets

Apple has announced that it will be holding a one-day special sales event in a number of key Asian markets this coming Friday, January 10.

The promotion known as Red Friday is in celebration of the Lunar New Year, which refers to the beginning of the year in several calendars across Asia. The shopping event actually takes place three weeks before the Lunar New Year.

Red Friday is akin to Black Friday in the United States, the Friday following Thanksgiving Day (the fourth Thursday of November) which unofficially marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season in the States.

And what surprises and discounts does Apple have in store for its customers in Asia? Read on for the full reveal…

iPhone network locking under fire in Hong Kong

Just as an online petition to re-legalize unlocking has surpassed 100,000 signatures in the United States, meaning the White House must issue a response, Apple’s phone-locking is under heavy fire in Hong Kong, where a local carrier alarmed watchdogs that it lost big money over the policy. Having discovered that the iPhone 5 wasn’t functioning on its fourth-generation network, Hong Kong Telecom (HKT), a unit of telecommunications operator PCCW Ltd., filed court documents and is now seeking to contest the practice…

iPad mini enters China to mostly yawns

Apple’s iPad mini lived up to its name today in China, drawing a smaller crowd than last year’s riotous introduction of the iPhone 4S. Indeed, one observer described the Friday reception by mainland China tech fans as “nearly nonexistent”. Those consumers who did go to Apple locations, such as the the company’s Beijing store, came away not with the 7.9-inch mini, but with the larger iPad 4, instead. As opposed to January’s mobs that rioted, forcing Apple to temporarily halt sales of the 4S, no mobs appeared for the mini…

Grand opening of second Hong Kong store this Saturday

Apple will have grand opening of a new retail store in Hong Kong this coming Saturday, September 29, at 10am local time, per Apple’s retail page. Apple already runs a store in the Hong Kong Plaza at Huaihai Zhong Road.

This will be the company’s second store in one of two special administrative regions of the People’s Republic of China (the other being Macau). This incoming store is located in Kowloon Tong in the Festival Walk shopping center, as seen right below…

Apple said to be building an enormous super data center in Hong Kong

Apple’s already building another 500,000 square foot data center and a smaller tactical data center, both adjacent to its existing $1 billion iCloud facility in Maiden, North Carolina (which almost didn’t get built). In addition, the company operates a data center in Newark, California and has revealed plans to build another 500,000 square feet data center in Prineville, Oregon and an additional $1 billion facility in Reno, Nevada. And if that wasn’t enough, a report out this morning has it that another massive data center will crop up in Hong Kong SAR, China…

Reuters takes an inside look at iPad smuggling in China

After nearly five months of cutting through red tap, Apple finally launched its third-generation iPad in mainland China today. To much surprise, the tablet made a quiet landing, with only a handful of shoppers in lines spotted around the country’s signature Apple Stores.

The lack of noise can probably be attributed to Apple’s pre-registration system. In an effort to avoid the chaotic scenes of previous product launches, the company restricted new iPad purchases to pre-order only. But it could also be because many fans already have the tablet…