Apple was no doubt banking on the launch of the iPhone 4S in China being a success, but the launch didn’t quite turn out as hoped. According to various reports, violence erupted within crowds after the Apple store in Beijing failed to open on time, forcing Apple to postpone sales.

Many would-be customers eagerly waited outside the Apple store in Beijing’s Sanlitun district for their shot at being among the first in the nation to pick up their very own iPhone 4S, but things got out of hand quickly when the store remained unopened at 7 a.m., the advertised time.

Various reports indicate that fights broke out among gangs of scalpers, of irate customers flinging insults at one another, and even reports of egg-throwing. Fortunately, there aren’t any reports of any injuries at this time.

In a statement to AllThingsD, an Apple spokesperson confirmed that the launch of the iPhone 4S at that particular store has been postponed for the time being.

“The demand for iPhone 4S has been incredible, and our stores in China have already sold out,” an Apple spokesperson told AllThingsD. “Unfortunately we were unable to open our store at Sanlitun due to the large crowd, and to ensure the safety of our customers and employees, iPhone will not available in our retail stores in Beijing and Shanghai for the time being. Customers can still order iPhone through the Apple Online Store, or buy at China Unicom and other authorized resellers.”

You can check out a video of the irate crowd below.

Source: Bloomberg, AllThingsD

[Image credit: Feng Li/Getty Images]

iPhone 4S launch in China gets violent, Apple postpones sales is a post from: The Inquisitr

BEIJING, CHINA – Actor Christian Bale was attacked this week in Beijing after an eight-hour drive to visit a Chinese dissident.

Chen Guangcheng, a blimd human rights lawyer has been confined to his home since his release from prison last year. When approaching Chen’s home guards pushed and punched Bale and his camera crew.

After being chased 40 minutes away from the village by men in a van Bale sale:

“I’m not brave doing this,” while adding, “The local people who are standing up to the authorities, who are visiting Chen and his family and getting beaten or detained, I want to support them.”

In the CNN captured video Bale can be seen and heard pleading with the guards as he repeatedly says:

“Why can I not visit this free man?”

The guards then shout back at Bale, “Go away.”

According to Bale his trip was nothing more than an inspirational trip for him:

“What I really wanted to do was to meet the man, shake his hand and say what an inspiration he is.”

Chen was sentenced by the Chinese government after he represented thousands of local women who had become the victims of an aggressive family planning campaign that led to forced abortions and sterilizations.

Here’s the full CNN coverage of the incident:

Do you think the Chinese government is going to receive plenty of international pressure following an attack on a British actor and his camera crew?

Christian Bale Attacked In China By Government Guards [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

A breath of fresh air is hard to come by these days in Beijing and that fact was further realized this past weekend when Chinese officials were forced to shut down Beijing International airport because of a blinding smog that choked the areas airspace.

The world’s second busiest hub was forced to shut down after state-run media in China finally stopped called the smog “fog” and instead began talking about increased threats of smog based pollution.

Realizing the risks posed by the bad air residents around the country quickly began buying up all the masks and air filter machines they coulda get their hands on.

The smog, some of the worst witnessed to date by the world’s largest carbon emitter comes at a time when Chinese officials are attending the Durban summit to discuss ways they can reduce emissions throughout their country.

Thankfully for residents in the area a cold front began moving in on Tuesday, helping slow the spread of bad air.

Speaking about the pollution issue in the country the Global Times (a publication owned by the Communist Party’s People’s Daily) has begun telling citizens that they must “face the reality” of the countries pollution problem.

In an unsigned editorial the paper writes:

“Our pollution has become severe,” and “It is time for us to shift our focus from development to protection.”

The unsigned editorial adds that government protection for the environment is “hardly a functional system.”

In monitoring air pollution in Beijing the US embassy’s only pollution monitor was down to a “moderate” rating on Tuesday from a level of “very unhealthy” the day prior. On Sunday the air pollution monitor at the US Embassy was not able to measure air pollution because it was so far beyond the monitors technological ability to measure the air.

Flights Grounded In Beijing Because Of Extreme Smog, Chinese Officials Admit It’s Not Fog is a post from: The Inquisitr

Olympic gymnastics captain Alicia Sacramone was not on the lineup in Beijing today.

Sacramone, 23, reportedly injured her right Achilles’ tendon during practice on Thursday. The athlete was landing a double Arabian at the time the injury occurred, and Sacramone is being evaluated by doctors to determine the severity of the setback. Sacramone’s absence is expected to strike the US team hard, as she is proficient in several events. Sports Illustrated explains:

Losing Sacramone is a huge blow for the Americans, who prize the 23-year-old as much for her veteran leadership as her big scores on vault, where she’s the defending world champion, balance beam and floor exercise. She was one of only two Americans who’d competed at worlds before – Aly Raisman was on last year’s silver-medal squad – and she considered keeping the rookies calm and focused as important as anything she did on the floor.

The mag points out that this isn’t the first time the US has had to forge ahead in international competition without key athletes. In 2003, three team members were sidelined by injuries, but the team went on to win their first world title. While the US is expected to qualify for the Olympics in London next year, rating a medal now- when they were originally hoping to earn gold or silver- will prove a challenge without Sacramone’s contribution.

In addition to Sacramone, uneven bars specialist Anna Li is also out due to an abdominal injury, placing far more pressure on the five remaining team members- Jordyn Wieber, Aliya Mustafina, McKayla Maroney, Sabrina Vega and Gabby Douglas to perform flawlessly. Should the team achieve a medal, Sacramone would as well- tying her for most medals won by an American with Shannon Miller and Nastia Liukin.

Alicia Sacramone Injures Achilles’ Tendon, Not in Lineup is a post from: The Inquisitr

So what’s the real story here? We checked with the folks at GoDaddy, who initially acknowledged having seen the reports but ultimately came back with a “no comment” on the matter. Moonlight speculates the move may have an Olympic connection, and its logic makes sense: The Chinese government had banned anyone but the nation’s Olympic gold medalists from registering domains based on the athletes’ names within the “.cn” suffix. It even “advised” anyone who already owned such a domain to turn it over to the medalist “as a gift.”

Moonlight says the government wants to go a step further and force people to turn over those domains if they don’t do so on their own. If the domain is registered with an outside company such as GoDaddy, however — as opposed to with China’s own CNNIC domain registry service — the government won’t be able to gain control and seize the name.

That theory, of course, is no more than speculation at this point — though, from the looks of it, an official explanation may not be in our sights any time soon.

Report: GoDaddy Banned in China is a post from: The Inquisitr

The newest tidbit is about iTunes and China’s apparent blocking of the site in the midst of its international moment. Computer users in Beijing say they haven’t been able to download songs all week. Speculation points the sudden silencing to a Tibet-themed album made available on the service. The Art of Peace Foundation says several dozen athletes downloaded its work “in an act of solidarity,” and the site was blocked soon thereafter.

China’s government officials have not responded to any press inquiries. Apple, for its part, is only saying it’s “aware of the logon problems” but has “no comment at the moment.”

Oh yeah, and those medal-winning Chinese gymnasts? Newly uncovered documents may finally prove what everyone’s suspected all along: that more than one of them is underage and not eligible to be competing.

Add all of this to the opening ceremony saga, the questions over judging validity, and the backing down of promises for “complete media freedom” for press — not to mention the hoards of quickly quieted and slyly arrested protesters all throughout the days — and the Games haven’t exactly brought China the glory it wanted. It’s a damned shame, too. But beneath the eerily plastered-on smiles being shown for the cameras, the entire world has seen a disturbing and consistent picture of censorship, dishonesty, and questionable treatment of people.

You can put on all the fake fireworks and lipsynced performances you want, but when the charades are over, there’s little to celebrate — and no one is being fooled.

Hey China: The Olympics Haven’t Helped Your Image is a post from: The Inquisitr

According to reports, the children appearing in costumes representing China’s 55 minority groups at the Olympic opening ceremony were fake. The children were performers from the Galaxy Children’s Art Troupe, a group that only includes children drawn from the Han Chinese majority. According to Wikipedia, China has 55 minority groups consisting of an official figure of 123.33 million people, or 9.4% of the population. Visually some of the minority groups have little differences to the Han population, but others are distinctly different, including a Russian minority who are white.

There is delicious irony in China showing the word that it embraces its minority groups by showing fake minority group members. Even those with pro-Chinese sympathies will shake their heads at this.

It also begs the question: is anything at the Olympics real? There have been allegations of biased judging, empty stadiums, promises of foreign press freedom that has seen journalists beaten, boards hiding construction sites and obvious poverty… and probably a whole range of other things covered or faked as well. China could have used these games to highlight the good in the country, but in their own controlling paranoia they are actually causing more negative press than would have otherwise been the case.

This time it’s fake minorities [Olympics] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Organizers have been upping the number of rubbers every year since they started offering them to athletes back in ’92. Apparently, they severely underestimated the athletes’ abilities in 2000: The original supply of 70,000 ran out in no time and cartons of extras had to be rushed in.

This year, it’s not just your average Trojanman making the rounds, either. All sorts of varieties are floating around, including some condoms with the Olympics mascots printed right on them. Here’s where it gets good. The 2008 Olympics mascots are Beibei the fish, Jingjing the panda, Huanhuan the Olympic flame, Yingying the Tibetan antelope, and — I kid you not — Nini the swallow.

One guess which design is the most popular.

Now, THAT’S a Lot of Condoms is a post from: The Inquisitr

Chen Qigang, the General Music Designer of the Opening Ceremony, revealed that the voice everyone heard singing at the Opening Ceremony was actually a pre-recording of another child, Yang Peiyi, a student of the Attached Primary School of Beijing University at Zhongguancun on a television interview, according to a report at China Digital Times.

This is the translated transcript

Chen Qigang: The first condition was that the director wants the image to be very cute. We selected about ten children… Then we had to choose one from those who had a good image who can sing well…

We chose one ten-year-old child, whose voice was really good. All the rehearsals were using her singing… In the end the director thought her image was not the most appropriate, she was a little too old… so regrettably, we had to let her go.

Then, as we chose another singer, the standard was that she needs to be seven years old. Lin Miaoke (林妙可) was one of them, another was Yang Peiyi (杨沛宜), and there were others.

Then we went to the Central People’s Radio Station to do the recording…

Finally we made the decision that the voice we would use was Yang Peiyi’s.

TV Host: Yang Peiyi?
林妙可~北京奥运会开幕式上演唱《歌唱祖国》的小女孩
[via Apture]

Chen Qigang: Yes.

…The reason was for the national interest. The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feelings, and expression.

Lin Miaoke is excellent in those aspects. But in the aspect of voice, Yang Peiyi (杨沛宜) is flawless, in each member of our team’s view.

TV Hostess: … So the one in front of camera is Lin Miaoke, but the voice [we heard] is from Yang Peiyi?

Chen Qigang: Yes. This was a last minute decision, we had to do it. We had been through several inspections，they were all very strict. When we rehearsed at the spot, there were spectators from various divisions, especially leader(s) from the the Politburo, who gave the opinion: It must change. This is to say, we had no choice.

… We have a responsibility to face the audience of the whole country, to give this explanation. Everyone should understand this in this way: this is in the national interest. It is the image of our national music, national culture. Especially the entrance of our national flag, this is an extremely important, extremely serious matter. Then we made such a choice. I think it is fair to both Lin Miaoke and Yang Peiyi.

That is to say, we have a perfect voice (in our team’s view), and a perfect image and representation, two combined together.

…But as far as Lin Miaoke is concerned, since we have two recordings – one from Lin Miaoke, another from Yang Peiyi – and their voices are not too different, so when Lin Miaoke was singing, she may not have realized that was not her own voice.

Here’s the fireworks in action for those who missed it:

Not only were the Olympic Fireworks fake, so was the 7 year old singer is a post from: The Inquisitr

For that moment where Kazakhstan is going for the gold and you’re completely bored, presenting round one of our Olympic sport substitution list: water sports.

Note that the following games require Flash and will not work on an iPhone

Rowing

The heats of the rowing are already under way at Shunyi, Beijing’s Olympic rowing venue, and you can be part of the action with Extreme Rowing!

Diving

Not everyone’s favorite sport, but Monkey Cliff Diving adds new dimensions.

Kayaking

Olypmic kayaking delivers excitement galore as men meet whitewater in a race for the gold.

Yachting

Join Captain Chaos in the race for Olypmic Yachting gold….

Swimming

Join Teddy as he swims for gold by following this link. (we won’t embed it because of audio autoplaying).

Online Play: Olympic Water Sports is a post from: The Inquisitr