Those Ubiquitous iPhones

Experts estimate that there are a million iPhones in China. Based on my last trip to Ghost Street, that’s about right. It seemed like every third Da Ge and Xiao Mei had a silver and black thing placed precariously close to some sesame sauce. I myself live in an apartment where 75% of roommates own an iPhone, putting us in the running for the most obnoxious apartment in Beijing. But, living with two other iPhone users has been great for troubleshooting this sometimes-tricky device.

Mine was bought in the States and brought back for me. I had it cracked by the friend of a Bai Nao Hui stall owner for RMB 200 back when you needed to attach a tape-like chip to your SIM card to use your local number. Now, it’s easy to crack the phone using a wireless connection and free online software. Installing Chinese language ability is also quite easy. The best input software I’ve seen is called WeFit and can be downloaded by the Installer program from the source http://www.iphone.org.hk.

The new iPhone hasn’t been fully cracked yet, but it soon will be. Supposedly the phones are only being sold with an AT and T plan and to cancel the plan incurs some fees making the $200 sale over $500. However, rumor has it that Apple and China Mobile are in the workings of a deal to bring the legal iPhone to China. Note, however, that China Mobile uses only the China standard 3G network called TD-SCDMA which many consider a “2.5G” standard. Once heralded, this less-than-stellar service has fallen by the wayside and may only be rolled out in a limited number of cities as the world prepares for an eventual 4G standard. For the time being, though the Quan Qiu Tong mobile service from China Mobile is great because they offer an all-you-can-eat data plan for only RMB 50/month. No matter what plan you’re on, using the wi-fi doesn’t incur any data charges from your mobile service.

Tips:
If you’ve just got an iPhone and it keeps eating your balance and you don’t know why, it might be because it’s using cell service for data when you don’t want it to. You can cancel this by sending a text message “QX” to 1860.

An interesting program is iChinese that allows you to practice writing characters using your finger as a stylus.

Google can be a bit buggy on the iPhone in China, sometimes reverting only to the Chinese language page.

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@Biscuet & Reid

I think Go Tone subscribers are able to use iPhone data - I spoke with a woman on the subway who said that she bought an iPhone in the US and was using it on post-paid Go Tone service.

By the way, if you're lost, you should check out the HoodHot Beijing Taxi Guide App on the iTunes App Store, it'll show the taxi driver the Chinese addresses to over 1000 places in Beijing. Check it out at www.HoodHotTravel.com