china

Ticked off that the United States gave the Dalai Lama the prestigious Congressional Gold Medal this week, China may be taking out its aggression by "hijacking" American search engines.

Over at Search Engine Land, Danny Sullivan reports that numerous users trying to access Google, Yahoo, or Microsoft search engines from within China or using Chinese Internet service providers are being redirected to Chinese-owned search engine Baidu.

Sullivan says it's not exactly clear how that process is working, but he cites a news report from 2002 that indicates this sort of thing has happened in China before. At … Read more

The chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee is summoning Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang to Washington to talk about "how the Internet company gave false information to Congress about its role in a human rights case in China that sent a journalist to jail for a decade," according to a release from the committee chairman's office.

Chairman Tom Lantos has asked Yang and Yahoo General Counsel Michael Callahan to appear at a hearing on November 6.

"Our committee has established that Yahoo provided false information to Congress in early 2006," Lantos said … Read more

CNET Asia blogger Rick Martin has posted pictures from various Chinese sites about two guys from Nanjing who built a life-sized Transformer robot.

The bot, which is almost 15 feet tall, took the builders three months to make with parts from a Citroen C2 car. This model doesn't really transform or move, but it's impressive nonetheless.

In an interview with a Chinese newspaper, the creators said they are planning to build an even larger Optimus Prime in the future. That'll be quite a sight--and one we can hardly wait for.

(Source: Crave Asia)

Cisco Systems will partner with one of China's largest appliance makers to develop networking gear for homes, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.

Cisco and the Haier Group said in a statement that they will share best practices in management, strategic investment and construction in an effort to build home networking systems. Specific details of how the companies will do this weren't provided.

The Haier Group has been expanding into international markets for the past couple of years. And CEO Zhang Ruimin said the company will look to Cisco to help it expand its brand overseas.

"We believe … Read more

I woke up Monday to the announcement that starting September 24, the XO laptop (famous as the little laptop that could) will be made available to buyers in so-called first-world countries, in quantities less than 100,000 units. In fact, for less than $400 you can give one and receive another--an excellent solution to an age-old moral dilemma.… Read more

Social-networking pioneer Friendster might have been losing out to rivals Facebook and MySpace for some time now, but the company isn't giving up any time soon. The San Francisco-based company announced on Monday evening that its site is now available in traditional Chinese in addition to English.

This is a strategic move for Friendster, as numbers have shown that it's far from dead in the Asia-Pacific region, where 35 million of its 50 million users are based--in fact, ComScore numbers have indicated that with global growth taken into account, Friendster is growing more quickly than MySpace. Traditional Chinese, … Read more

A lot of thin-film solar-panel concepts will face hurdles to gaining ground in established markets. The silicon shortage will ease, the cost of making and installing silicon solar panels will decline, and silicon will likely remain more efficient at converting sunlight to electricity than the thin-film alternatives.

But in emerging nations, it could be a completely different story, Alain Harrus, a partner at VC firm Crosslink Capital, said during a meeting this week. Many villages and homes in Africa, Asia and Latin America don't have electricity to begin with, so there's no incumbent technology to dislodge, he noted. … Read more

As noted on Slashdot, and as reported by Xinhua,

A Beijing university student is suing Microsoft for infringing upon his privacy, demanding 1,350 yuan (180 U.S. dollars) in compensation and an apology printed in a national newspaper.… Read more

In addition to the stereotypical diet of Red Bull and Cheetos, geeks have become known increasingly for having a collective sweet tooth: Specifically, this has often taken the form of gadget cakes. And now it's become clear that the phenomenon is an international one.

GeekSugar has come across some edible mobile phones from China, which are actually moon cakes--a traditional treat served for the fall Moon Festival.

It's interesting to note that these phone cakes are of a variety from Finland-based Nokia, one of the few handset makers not based in Asia. (This, by the way, is … Read more