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Becarefull when buying iPhones from China

bab2010

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Recentely I had again a home button issue with my iPhone which I purchased originally in Hong Kong. Being in Beijing most of the time, I went to the Apple store in SanLiTun. There they decided to give me a brand new iPhone, I was very glad at the proposition at first, anyway I signed a couple of papers and within 15mn upon signing those docs I was having a brand new iPhone. After I arrive home later I went through the process of reinstalling the iOS and restoring my files settings etc... Everything was fine until I've noticed the YouTube app missing from the home screen. Also it was no where to be found in restriction and in the spot search. The following day, I called apple store to know why there wasn't the YouTube app on the phone and they replied that it's not allowed in China to have YouTube app on the iPhone. I though I could pass this limitation by installing an US or UK ipsw but nothing helps. Later while driving, I needed to use the map and there I've noticed that everything was wrote in Chinese compare to my previous one which was from hong kong and was having the map in English. I tried to view other countries on the map and things are all in Chinese. I then called again the apple store to know how I could change the language in the map and the same answer: the map languagecan not be change because this is a device for Chinese. Next I opened the safari browser to google about the map issue and I was so surprise to see that www.google.com wasn't allowed to work in China, but www.google.cn instead, then whenever I made a search on google.com I was redirected to the google.cn
The YouTube app didn't worried me at all, I'm not a YouTube man and moreover I easily create a YouTube short cute to my homescreen. But I travel fairly and use the map most of the time where ever I go and so I need the map rather in English than in Chinese since I'm not a Chinese, the same goes for google search which actually display most of the results in Chinese and few of them in English. I called back the apple store and told them to get me back my original hardware which was hong kong made, that wasn't easy, I argued with 5 of apple staff on the phone for 2h13mn, I would even have invited the to police into this matter since none of them informed me about what will be missing in the iOS compare to my previous one. It sure maybe was mentioned In the docs I've signed, but they were all in Chinese and well they where too busy at the genius bar to explain me the content of the docs resulting of me just signing it without knowing really what I've signed. I took it as administrative formalities since I saw other clients signing those kinda docs. At the end they finally agreed to bring back my original hardware from the factory because they've said that they've send it to the factory. They refuse to call apple store in Hong Kong to ship them a new one to Beijing, and also they've refuse to fix only the home button on my original hardware, they said that they agree to give me a new one as a replacement but they will not fix that home button.
So if any one go to China and have to go to apple store in China, make sure that you do not agree to change your phone if they want to do that. You will not have the YouTube app, map will be in Chinese and google search will always be in Chinese.
 
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A lot come to China to purchase their iPhones or iPads because most of the iPhones here are factory unlocked. But just so you know what's behind the Chinese factory unlock iPhones.
 
really? i would of thought thats the safest place to buy one since the phone is assembled in china
 
dude I know your pain. usually china block a lot of thing even YouTube and facebook. they also don't want google to be stronger because they do have huge search engine called baidu
so go to Taiwan or HongKong to buy you asia iPhone :)
 
really? i would of thought thats the safest place to buy one since the phone is assembled in china

Yep that is, it's assembled in China, but those that are to be use in China, or that have to be sell in China by apple are all cripted, the others which are to be send out of China don't have those issues and of course are not allowed to be sell in China unless you go to some black markets, but will they be with warranty when buying them from the black market? Don't know.
 
dude I know your pain. usually china block a lot of thing even YouTube and facebook. they also don't want google to be stronger because they do have huge search engine called baidu
so go to Taiwan or HongKong to buy you asia iPhone :)

Yep it's really a pain to not have the YouTube, but I could go without it, but the map and the google search engine all in Chinese??? I will receive my old hardware in few days time I think. I will then have to travel to apple store in Hong Kong to get the home button fixed or to get the hole device changed.
 
Never thought China could be so uptight even with their iPhones. I do agree that you should go to HK (even Singapore, Taiwan and Bangkok) for a better unlocked iPhone unit :)
 
but the price is very low

The Hong Kong iPhones are a bit cheaper than the Chinese main land ones. Yet the Hong Kong ones are fully open and no censorship on them.
 
Isn't this where all the Iphones are made or are you talking about if you lived there and had to get a warranty replacement?
 
Isn't this where all the Iphones are made or are you talking about if you lived there and had to get a warranty replacement?

Not all the iPhones are made in China but most of them are. Depending to which country the iPhone is made for, they put a serial code in the device, a serial code which can't be change, you will find the serial code of your iPhone in the setting> general> about/ page in your device. That code is holding information about the country, the factory, and the destinated country of the device. Which means that once it's assembled in China it will be shipped out of China to the country for which it was build for. That serial number with country information have everything regarding the law of the country the phone belong's to. Ex in Emirate Arabe Unite they don't have face time on iPhone 4, and so that serial number have all those censorship information to work according to the country regulation so that when you install whatever iOS in a phone which come with a serial code of China and this code doesn't allow google.com or YouTube, after installation of the iOS, there is a part during the installation when iTunes will over check the iOS with the serial number and iTunes will make sure that the iOS is in accordance with the serial number of the device so that at the end of the installation, if your phone is a Chinese one, you will end up missing YouTube and google.com maps.google.com
Same goes to other country iPhone like Egypte and some Arabic countries and so on... Now it doesn't matter where ever you go on earth, if the device is having a serial number to not allow YouTube on the device, you can go to US and install an US iOS while you are in New York with a New York IP address, at the end of the installation, iTunes will check the serial number of the device and apply whatever censorship have to be apply according to that serial number. At the end you will notice that you have no YouTube, you are always redicted to google.CN and that the google map will always be in Chinese.
 
Isn't this where all the Iphones are made or are you talking about if you lived there and had to get a warranty replacement?

Not all the iPhones are made in China but most of them are. Depending to which country the iPhone is made for, they put a serial code in the device, a serial code which can't be change, you will find the serial code of your iPhone in the setting> general> about/ page in your device. That code is holding information about the country, the factory, and the destinated country of the device. Which means that once it's assembled in China it will be shipped out of China to the country for which it was build for. That serial number with country information have everything regarding the law of the country the phone belong's to. Ex in Emirate Arabe Unite they don't have face time on iPhone 4, and so that serial number have all those censorship information to work according to the country regulation so that when you install whatever iOS in a phone which come with a serial code of China and this code doesn't allow google.com or YouTube, after installation of the iOS, there is a part during the installation when iTunes will over check the iOS with the serial number and iTunes will make sure that the iOS is in accordance with the serial number of the device so that at the end of the installation, if your phone is a Chinese one, you will end up missing YouTube and google.com maps.google.com
Same goes to other country iPhone like Egypte and some Arabic countries and so on... Now it doesn't matter where ever you go on earth, if the device is having a serial number to not allow YouTube on the device, you can go to US and install an US iOS while you are in New York with a New York IP address, at the end of the installation, iTunes will check the serial number of the device and apply whatever censorship have to be apply according to that serial number. At the end you will notice that you have no YouTube, you are always redicted to google.CN and that the google map will always be in Chinese.

that is it! thanks!
so the serial number counts.
 
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