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Apple Restricts iPhone AirDrop With Everyone to Just 10 Minutes in China

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Version 16.1.1 of Apple’s iOS has an unusual update in China that hasn’t been implemented in other countries. Apple has restricted AirDrop sharing for users in China to 10 minutes in the latest iOS update. In essence, this implies that Apple users in China cannot use AirDrop for an infinite period of time.

airdrop
Image Source: techgoing.com

Users can still share files without being constrained by the update, but the 10-minute time limit may put some people off using AirDrop services.

After demonstrators in China used the tool to distribute photographs critical of the Chinese government, Apple has imposed time limits on AirDrop sharing across iPhones.

For users in China, the “Everyone” button in Airdrop is currently restricted to a ten-minute duration. AirDrop’s device-to-device sharing will revert to “Contacts Only” once the ten minutes have elapsed, making it more difficult to systematically send content to random strangers. Just a few weeks after it was utilized to disseminate posters critical of President Xi Jinping, Apple has implemented these additional time limitations to AirDrop.

AirDrop is one of the few unrestricted communication channels in China. Although Apple hasn’t explicitly said this is the motive for the move, the corporation has previously customized its products specifically for the Chinese market.

Read More: Google One VPN Service Now Available on Windows and Mac

According to Bloomberg, AirDrop has frequently been utilized as a fix to circumvent China’s stringent online censorship. That doesn’t mean, though, that AirDrop is a haven for free speech since the tool has also been abused to ground aircraft with fictitious terrorist threats, send nude photos to random people, and, send nude pictures to ground aircraft.

Apple has already come under fire for making adjustments intended to please the Chinese government, including banning VPN apps and concealing the Taiwan flag emoji for customers in Hong Kong and Macau.

Users of Apple devices, like iPhones and iPads, can wirelessly transfer files to other device owners using AirDrop. Peer-to-peer Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy are both used for transfers. Users must explicitly modify AirDrop’s default option of “Contacts Only” in order to get files from “Everyone.”

It’s common for Apple to implement regional limits in order to follow local laws. For instance, the company has not enabled satellite connectivity on the iPhone 14 in India. Due to requirements for hearing protection, users cannot surpass the EU Volume Level in EU member states, for instance.

Apple has a history of enforcing stricter regulations in China for content-related services, like games and podcasts, an area that the national government heavily regulates.

According to Techcrunch, some Weibo users in China believe Apple should impose a 10-minute time limit on all devices worldwide because many people forget to switch off AirDrop. Users who keep it enabled to run the risk of receiving unwanted media files. It is still unknown whether Chinese Android rivals Xiaomi, Huawei, and Oppo would likewise restrict their own sharing services akin to AirDrop in response to government pressure.

Apple has maintained its supremacy in China despite the growth of regional rivals like Oppo and Huawei, especially among more wealthy groups. According to Counterpoint’s analysis, iPhones made up 13% of smartphone shipments in China in the second quarter, falling from 18% and 22% in the first and fourth quarters, respectively.

youtube

YouTube is automatically deleting comments that can harm China’s Communist Party

Leave a Comment / COVID-19, Tech News / By

The pandemic caused due to the novel coronavirus has exposed China’s political system to a rough situation. The spread of coronavirus from the Wuhan city of China has made people believe that the novel coronavirus might be a bio-weapon after all. In this vulnerable situation, the rage of people towards China has increased which led to posting, commenting, and sharing content that holds the nation guilty.

In the meantime, YouTube is automatically deleting the two phrase comments in the Chinese language that is insulting to the CCP. The platform and its users have witnessed that within seconds these two phrase remarks are automatically vanishing from the comment section.

Is it a glitch on the system?

YouTube in response to the automatic deletion of specific Chinese comments said that it is an error in the system. The company reported to The Verge that it is a glitch on the system and they are looking into it already. According to a YouTube spokesperson, the investigation has begun and confirmed that this act is certainly not a result of any changes in the moderation policy.

A few months back YouTube declared to make some changes in its community guidelines in response to the content related to coronavirus. The spread of conspiracy theories was increasing from this platform hence they decided to use automated filters to remove them. On 16th March 2020, YouTube declared that it will remove some contents immediately without any human review if found against the guidelines. So, the company, this time said that since they are more dependent on automated filters based on AI. So, it will delete even the positive comments including those two-phrase.

User says the problem existed for a long time now

But, many of the users have also reported that it is not a recent “error” or “practice” of YouTube. Evidence shows that YouTube is responsible for deleting such comments for the past six months or more. Many users raised this issue on the official help page of the platform demanding a proper explanation for this problem. But, the issue has finally got voice when Palmer Lucky, U.S. technologist tweeted about it. Thorough investigation shows that human right activist; Jennifer Zeng raised the same issue a few weeks back.

But, the question is why YouTube would do it intentionally given that the platform is currently blocked in China. So, deleting or establishing censorship to save the reputation of the current ruling party of China should be of no concern for Google. This is very disturbing for the users of every other nation and questions the integrity of the company.

The two phrase comments

According to the reports, the Google-owned-platform, YouTube is specifically deleting comments like “wu mao” and “communist bandit” written in Chinese. The former term is a slang often used to insult the Communist Party of China. The latter was mostly used when the Chinese Nationalist government ruled the nation. The slang “wu mao” means “50-cent party” which is often used for the paid internet users that direct any kind of criticism regarding CCP away from the discussion. People believe they are paid 50 Chinese cents per post and thus the name-calling.

The human rights activist, Jennifer Zeng who spotted this mishap also posted relevant screenshots. She commented on the same phrase three times and YouTube automatically deleted it within fifteen seconds. This is not the first time that Google is criticized for censoring content that goes against CCP. Project Dragonfly launched in 2018 is proof of it.

Also read: Steve Chen – Co-Founder of YouTube

Project Dragonfly

In August 2018, Google launched a censored version of its search engine in China. It was for more than a decade that citizens of China were barred from accessing Google’s search engine. Hence, this censored search engine, also known as Project dragonfly was maybe an attempt by the company to re-establish itself in the Chinese market. But, this act of Google’s raised many questions about public interest and transparency.

Google accepting even the strictest policies of China’s search engine rules questioned its moral principles. This act of Google’s received criticism not only from many politicians but also from its employees. Hence, in June 2019, Google declared that it has dropped the Project Dragonfly and has no plan to launch China.

Liu Qiangdong

Liu Qiangdong: The Journey of jd.Com Founder To Set One Of The Largest Chinese E-Commerce Company

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Today, JD.Com is the famous and largest Chinese enterprise. Also, for delivery services the company boasts the largest fleet of drones. It also provides a wide range of quality products and the best customer service. In fact, it acquired 300+ million active customers. Liu Qiangdong set up the JD.com with his extraordinary vision in mind. However, in a very short period, it became one of the successful companies in China. Presently, the company aims to grow the business into Europe, Southeast Asia, and other regions of the world.

Liu Qiangdong

A Chinese entrepreneur and businessman, Mr. Liu Qiangdong is well-known for business skills. JD.com is the e-commerce venture of Liu. The company is also known as Jingdong Mall, China’s well-known e-commerce industry. Liu holds the net worth of USD 12.7 billion approximately.

Early life

He was born in China, either on 14 Feb 1974 or 10 March 1973. The parents of Liu were in the business of Coal-shipping. However, he spent most of the time at hometown, where he completed his formal education. Liu attended the people’s University of China for a bachelor’s degree in Sociology. At his young age, the Internet was just breaking the eggshell. But still, he was busy in learning programming, exploring the internet. As well, he discovered the e-commerce landscape very soon.

Career and Earlier businesses

During college, Liu started a restaurant venture. That time, he invested the income that he earned from programming also took loans from the family. But unfortunately, the business was unsuccessful. After his education, he served at Herbal supplement Giant Japan life. Soon, he became the director of the computer and service there.

The Backstory of JD.com Foundation

Eventually, he plunged into entrepreneurship with his innovative idea in 1998. He started the business by renting a small retail space located in the tech hub of China. It was the magneto-optical product distributor. However, he discovered that an e-commerce platform has much potential than physical retail stores. That time, the e-commerce platform was thriving, fortunately, which favored and encouraged his idea. So, he executes his idea and starts the E-commerce company called Jingdong. Afterward, it renamed as JD.Com. The initial J and D stands for JingDong.

One thing is very admirable that Liu always focuses on customer satisfaction, throughout his journey. In fact, the company uses advanced technology to offer a seamless user experience.

Achievements at JD.Com

The company soon flourished as the fastest growing E-commerce firm in China. Initially, the company JingDong was in the business of brick-mortar sales. But in 2005, after gaining online customers, Liu stopped those stores. In 2005, Liu had an offer in hand to sell his company for big money, almost 18 Million Yuan. However, he rejected the offer and focused on improvising the business. He included a wide range of goods in 2007. Earlier, the company was limited to selling consumer electronics.

Today, Liu Quiangdong has fame in the business world. Also, he has been compared to Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos. However, JD.Com is a tough competitor of Amazon.

Personal life

The company JingDong is named after Liu and his ex-girlfriend Gong Xiaojing. He has a son, but the mother is anonymous. However, in 2015, he married Zhang Zetian. She is an Internet celebrity popular as “Sister Milk Tea”. The couple has one daughter. Also, he was suspected in some controversy related to Criminal Sexual Conduct. Later, no evidence found against him and he released and did not face charges.

In 2008, he volunteered as a part of the Red cross. Basically, for helping the victims of the Sichuan Earthquake.

Bottom Line

JD.Com, the tiny enterprise founded by Liu Qiangdong has flourished in a very short period. In 2014, it was the Largest IPO as of its NASDAQ public listing. Today, the company is the result of business skills and the Future tech perspective of Liu. However, one thing is very admirable that Liu always gave top priority to customer satisfaction throughout thriving the business.

Baidu

Robin Li : The Founder of Baidu, the “Google of China”

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The emergence of the Internet opened new ways for everyone, especially for them who were innovative and wanted to create something big. It also helped those who had no resources as a child, but later, reached the heights of success. The rags to riches stories are interesting and inspire people to fight with their situations and face the struggle. One such person who presents the most appropriate rags to riches story is Robin Li, an internet entrepreneur from China, who once faced the worst financial conditions and now is one of the richest men in China. He is the founder of the multinational company Baidu, which is the owner of China’s biggest search engine, with the same name.

Early Life

Robin Li was born on 17 November 1968 in Yangquan, Shanxi, China in a labour family. He was a single boy among the five children of his parents. The Shanxi province was an underdeveloped area, and there were no good resources of education. But still, Li tried his best and on the advice of his mother, worked hard to get a better education. Ultimately, he was able to crack the entrance exam for Peking University, Beijing, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in library information management.

After completing his bachelor’s degree, the next step was to get a job. He worked in a company in Beijing for one and a half year, but fortunately got admission to a Fellowship program at the State University of New York. He moved to New York and completed a master’s degree in science from the university in 1994. He was enrolled in the PhD program in computer science but did not complete his doctorate.

Career

Robin Li
Image Source: buffalo.edu

As soon Robin Li completed his master’s he joined Dow Jones and Company’s IDD Information Services as a software engineer. At IDD, he became the part of the development team, which was working on software program for the online edition of The Wall Street Journal. Here he also got the chance to work on the search engine algorithms as well.

While working at IDD, he started working on page-ranking algorithms, and ultimately developed Rankdex, the first web search engine with page-ranking and site-scoring algorithms that means, it used hyperlinks to check the quality of a website. Rankdex later became the inspiration for Google’s PageRank algorithm.

After Li successfully developed Rankdex and got the U.S. patent for its ranking algorithm, he left his job at IDD, in 1997. He then, joined Infoseek, another internet company that was working on search engine algorithms. During his time at Infoseek, he developed a new function for Go.com, through which it could do image-based searches. Here he worked for two years and left the job in 1999.

Founding Baidu

Robin Li moved back to China, to work on his own product and in 2000, he developed Baidu with the help of his friend Eric Xu. The two used the same algorithm as of Rankdex to develop Baidu. Li did not have a permanent apartment in China at that time and did all the coding work and the launch of Baidu from a hotel room near Peking University. Li became the Chairman of the company and Xu was appointed as the CEO.

In 2001, Baidu offered people to bid for putting ads on the search engine. This led to the monetization as well as the growth of the company. Baidu was an instant hit, and Li was named among the “Chinese Top Ten Innovative Pioneers” in the same year. In 2003, the company introduced image-based searches as well as a news search engine.

In 2004, Xu resigned from his post as CEO, and Li held the position. The next year, Li took Baidu to NASDAQ, and the value of its every share raised by 350 per cent, i.e., from $27 to $122. In December 2007, Baidu was listed in the NASDAQ-100, becoming the first Chinese company to do so. In the same year, Li was named in CNN Money’s annual list of “50 people who matter now”.

By 2010, Baidu was the most used search engine in China, and it also got the title of “Google of China”. The company has partnered with big names like Qualcomm, Continental and Bosch. It has also started working in the field of AI. The company has also launched a self-driving vehicle platform under its Apollo project (Apolong).

Along with hosting the biggest search engine in China, Baidu offers over fifty internet-related services as well as artificial intelligence-based products to its users.

Baidu is one innovative product that helped Li to fight with his circumstances. Today, Li is one of the richest men in China and ranks at number eight with $16.5 billion’s net worth. He has been awarded great accolades, including “15 Asian Scientists To Watch” by Asian Scientist Magazine in 2011, “Most Influential Business Leader in China” by Fortune, and “World’s Best Business Leader” by the American Business Weekly in 2006.

nio

William Li : The Founder of Chinese Tesla, Nio

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Everyone is aware of the potential of electric motor vehicles, as these can help the world save on fuel as well as money. Tesla has been the biggest inspiration for every other automobile company, and most of them have already built their electric cars, and are steadily moving towards manufacturing autonomous vehicles. One such company is Nio, founded by a celebrity entrepreneur William Li, that is working on something inspired by the same concept of Tesla electric cars, but a bit on the cheaper end.

William Li was born on born 9 August 1974 in Anhui, Eastern China. Li’s family did not have a very good financial condition, so they started saving for his college since he was seven. He had to work part-time while he was still in school to support his family. He attended a local school and later, joined the Peking University in Beijing to pursue a graduate degree in sociology. He also opted for a minor in law.

Despite the humble beginnings, Li managed to start a business at the age of 21 in 1996. The business was an internet-based startup, and the boom in the industry helped him grow as a successful entrepreneur.

William Li Founder Nio
bloomberg.com

In 2000, he started his second company, which later become his first biggest business. The company name was Bitauto, and it was an automobile Internet content and marketing services provider. Bitauto later became public and traded on the American Stock Exchange Copyright in 2010. It saw huge success and valued at $1 billion. It helped Li to gain enough experience as a businessman and established him as one of the most influential entrepreneurs in China. He served as the CEO and chairman of the company for thirteen years and finally sold Bitauto in 2013.

A fine entrepreneur is never out of ideas and cannot stay idle. Only in a year after he sold his second company, he came up with a new luxury electric car manufacturer startup, Nio, in 2014. Since he had always been into the automobile and stuff related to it, he was inspired to start his own automobile business.

But to start a huge vehicle manufacturing business, one needs a lot of money. For that, he started looking for investments. Li has got great convincing skills, which can be estimated from how he changed the mind of Xiaomi from starting its own electric car manufacturing brand to investing money into another such startup.

Li had always been inspired by the founder of Xiaomi, and how its business model worked. He even implemented some of the strategies from the business model of Xiaomi into his own startup. In a year of struggle, Li was able to bag investments from the major tech companies, including Tencent, Temasek, Baidu, Lenovo and TPG.

NIO EP9 is the first sports car model that the company produced and was launched on the same day as the company. In 2016, the company raised over a billion-dollar from its investors. To expand its specializations, the company received the “Autonomous Vehicle Testing Permit” from the California DMV, in October 2016. Since then, the company has been working on the level-three and level-four autonomy to build its own autonomous vehicles. By the end of the year, the company launched a new two-door coupé, named NIO EP9. Li being an experienced businessman is not afraid of taking risks, but he believes in steady growth. That is why Nio is still producing limited-edition vehicles. Though the company has now made some plans on mass production of its vehicles.

In four years of Nio, it produced over 14,000 units of electric vehicles, and by the end of 2019, the company expects to make the number 20,000 units. Till the year 2019, the company also raised over $2.5 billion through four rounds of investments. In September 2018, the company went public on the New York Stock Exchange and raised a US$1.8 billion.

Nio participated in the Formula E in the 2014–2015 season and also the other race championships. It also won the 2015 Long Beach ePrix and the 2015 Moscow ePrix. NIO has even set five records in their track-only EP9 for the fastest lap for an electric-powered car.

Along with his three startups, Li has also made some good investments. In fact, he has invested in 32 companies from the transportation sector. Li was famous before he started Nio, but the success of Nio has made him known globally. He, in fact, is often termed as the “godfather of the transport sector” in China and sometimes the “Elon Musk” of China.

sinovation ventures

Kai-Fu Lee : The Indisputable Rockstar of China’s Technology Industry

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Technology is the field that is introducing people to new things almost every day. Whether it is the smartphone, self-driving cars or a mission to Mars, technology is taking us to new horizons. In fact, in the past few years, it has completely transformed the way people live their lives. Great minds are coming with greater ideas, and one such great mind is the Chinese technology enthusiast and the AI expert, Kai-Fu Lee.

Kai-Fu Lee is the founder of the venture capital fund, Sinovation Ventures, and the inventor of the world’s first speaker-independent, continuous speech recognition system, which he developed as his PhD thesis subject.

Early Life

Lee was born on 3 December 1965, in Taipei, Taiwan to a legislator and historian, Li Tianmin. In 1973, when he was thirteen, he moved to the U.S. In the U.S., he attended the Oak Ridge High School. In 1983, he completed a B.S. degree in Computer Science from Columbia University followed by obtaining a PhD degree from the Carnegie Mellon University in 1988.

Kai Fu Lee Sinovation Ventures
Image Source: edge.org

During his PhD at the Carnegie Mellon, he got interested in machine learning and pattern recognition. He even participated in a few competitions, one of which was the US national tournament of computer players, where he represented a Bayesian learning-based system used to play the board game, Othello. He developed the system with his classmate Sanjoy Mahajan and even won the competition.

The topic of the thesis of his PhD was speech recognition, and he developed the world’s first large-vocabulary, speaker-independent, speech recognition, in 1988, as a Kluwer monograph, titled Automatic Speech Recognition: The Development of the Sphinx Recognition System.

Career

After completing his PhD, he joined the Carnegie Mellon University as the member of the faculty. In 1990, after working at the university for two years, Lee left the job and started working for Apple Computer as one of the leading research scientists. At Apple, he was appointed as the head of the research and development groups that worked on the major Apple projects, including Bandai Pippin, PlainTalk, Casper, Galatea, etc. Lee stayed with Apple for six years, and in 1996, left the company to join Silicon Graphics.

At Silicon Graphics, Lee worked as the vice president of the company’s Web Products division, and then was promoted to as the president of Cosmo Software.

After two years of his job at Silicon Graphics, Lee then joined Microsoft and was sent to Beijing, to set up the Microsoft Research (MSR) division there. In 2000, he shifted back to America, where he held the post of corporate vice president of interactive services division at Microsoft.

In 2005, Lee after leaving his job at Microsoft moved to join Google. This move of Lee led Microsoft to initiate a lawsuit against Google and Lee, as Lee had joined Google within one year of leaving Microsoft, which was against the company’s non-compete agreement. Google soon resolved the lawsuits, but Lee was restricted to work on Google’s projects similar to Microsoft’s. So Google sent Lee to China to handle its Asian subsidiary, as its President. Lee held the position till 2009. He became one of the key people for the establishment of Google.cn, and the achievements that the company had during this time in China.

Founding Sinovation Ventures

Despite a great career with Google, Lee left the company in 2009, to found a venture capital to provide support for Chinese talent and technology. On 7 September 2009, Lee formed Innovation Works, later renamed as Sinovation Ventures. The company funds the five most innovative technology ideas from the Chinese entrepreneur and startups every year. Sinovation Ventures involves some big names from the tech industry as the prime investors, including YouTube, Legend Holdings, WI Harper Group, etc.

Lee collaborated with Google to bring an OS for Android specifically built for the Chinese people. The collaboration also brought a desktop phone manager for Android for China.

By 2017, the company had raised over $1 billion funds, and in 2018, it raised over $500 million from its investors. Since its inception, Sinovation Ventures has helped over 300 Chinese startups with their business establishment.

Lee is an iconic personality that has been inspiring not only Chinese people, but people from around the world. In his career, he worked with big tech companies and even chaired some big-name organisations. He held the position of the chairman of the World Economic Forum’s Global AI Council. He was named under the Time 100 list in 2013 and was also featured as the Asia House Asian Business Leader in 2018.

Lee has also published a few books including Be Your Personal Best (2005), A Walk into The Future (2006), Making A World of Difference (2009), Seeing Life Through Death (2015), Artificial Intelligence (2017) and AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order (2018).