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Howdy, all,

Well, the Chinese may be ticked as heck at Google for various book scanning infringements, but they sure are excited about the iPhone. Add that to recent upticks in international travel and you've got a pile of information begging to be compiled; hence, today's news, China edition.

Authors Angered Again
When Chinese authors discovered that their works had been digitized by the internet giant recently, they had a bit of a meltdown! Their copyright organization is crying foul, but Google insists that though they didn't ask permission to scan the works they followed all copyright laws to the letter. Here's what they compare it to: "It is as if you have something nice in your living room and Google takes it and puts it in its living room.” Nice simile, but still...we'll be interested to follow the latest in the ongoing battle between Google and authors who would rather their books stay unavailable to a vast majority of internet users. Silly authors. (We're kidding...)

iPhone Snafus
While customers waited in long lines--sometimes three hundred people long--to purchase phones from China Unicom or Apple, there are several mitigating factors that may turn people away from the big buy. First, because of an agreement with the Chinese government, the phones sold in the country will not be equipped with wi-fi receivers. This time, we're not kidding. While street vendors sell "grey market" iPhones with wi-fi capability, law abiding citizens can't actually reap the benefits of a great feature because of government involvement. Add that to the price (which is really reduced for consumers who buy the phones from China Unicom) that can go from $730-$1,025 and you've got two good reasons NOT to buy the iPhone. In a country of about 700 million cell phone users, 1 million currently use iPhones with China Unicom, and we're sure it'll grow; the question is just by how much.

He's Got a Ticket to Ride...
...to Asia. Apple's manufacturing plants, to be exact. And folks, this is just hearsay, but you know how we get about anything related to the Apple tablet. According to Business Insider's source, a system integration engineer has several flights to the plant scheduled, even a few during the holiday season. January release, anyone? Fingers crossed...

All in all, there's a lot of news coming out of the most populated country in the world, and Apple's future sales would really be benefited by a good response in the country. While the iPhone's wi-fi may be missing, here's hoping that the novelty and status that comes with owning the device wins out over high costs and limited function.

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Till tomorrow, Newsies...