How to remove China-specific limitations from Chinese iDevices?

[keaide]

Hi there,

I have been living in China for some time and bought several iDevices during that time (iMac, iPhone, iPod and iPad). They all come with some China-specific limitations, such as a crippled Maps app etc. I will be moving to Europe soon and wonder if there is a way to remove these China-specific limitations in some way. Any ideas about that?

Are there different versions of the operating system available? I am using the German App Store so the Store/iTunes seems not to be the problem.
I have also tried VPNs already, but that only seems to work for devices bought in Hong Kong (such as better maps).
I wonder if there is a special device ID range that ties the device to a country in order to allow to control that...

 

[perkedel]

I'd probably do a disk wipe & restore for all the idevices once in Europe, that should take care of the crippled apps.

Unless Apple sell a slightly modified hardware version for the Chinese market, or like you said, specific serials, then you're screwed. I wonder if they do that (selling different hardware version for use in China, not related to wireless frequency of course)?

 

[Applejuiced]

Sell it before you leave and get a new one with no chinese limitations.

 

[keaide]

@perkedel: Chinese authorities have a lot of negotiation power when it comes to what kind of "specifications" a product needs to meet before it's allowed to be sold here. So I am not very confident about being able to get rid of that. Another thing is my iCloud data, which I really hope is not stored on the Chinese servers...

@Applejuiced: Definitely want to renew my range of Apple hardware. But I want to catch the right moment. Buying a new iPhone in July would not be wise considering that the new model comes out some time in September and I could get it by early December (I always try to skip the first production batch). The same goes for the iPad. And not sure about the right moment to replace the iMac and Airport Extreme/Express. The updated 13-inch MacBook Pro on the other hand looks like a direct buy as soon as I set foot on European soil again. iPods won't be replaced.