Wallet full of cash and bags at ready, I stood, mouth agape, in front of the five-story electronics bazaar in front of me. It was one of several dozen in Shanghai, magical places where floor after floor are filled to bursting with gadget vendors begging you to stop by and see their wares. Like Circuit Cities on crack, everyone inside is desperate to make a sale and every price is negotiable. Welcome to the way the Chinese--or at least the majority who live in megacities like this one--buy their electronics.

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Meizu's iPhone copycatting M8 mobile phone is to be vaporware no longer thanks to GeekITstores, who will be launching it in China then India from December onwards. The 8GB model is apparently due to cost somewhere between $US380 and $US470, and will be launched with "complete fanfare"...presumably because it's the "iPhone killer," or so says the press release. In fact, GeekITStores really seem to love the device, saying it was looking for a "better, cheaper alternative" to the iPhone for Indian customers. Read on for the press release.

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OK, so the Chinese space walk did happen, contrary to previous time-travelling propaganda spin, and here's the proof. This video shows the Taikonauts exiting the Shenzhou 7 spacecraft and conducting a few simple experiments. Thanks to the riveting play-by-play commentary in the background, we know that one of these experiments involved retrieving "lubricant material that is placed on the outer body of the spacecraft." Kinky. The video is ten minutes, but it's a good ten minutes, and there's a Star Wars style text progression at the very end that was probably made with iMovie. Lastly, politics be damned, this was inspiring.

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China has successfully launched their Shenzhou 7 mission this morning. It will be their first-ever spacewalk and a major steps towards their trip to the Moon, so its completion is vital not only for their space program but also for Chinese propaganda. So vital that a full article describing the success of the launch was actually written and posted hours before the actual launch, including descriptions and astronauts' dialogue that never happened:

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While NASA is having problems reaching milestones for their new Ares rockets--the conventional rocket that will get the US to the moon and Mars--China is actually trying to build a reactionless space thruster like the ones used by Cylon Basestars. Yes, that's science fiction, but the engine is theoretically possible. And I don't know about you, but anything that looks this cool and says "Magnetron" on its plans is good enough for me:

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According to the South China Morning Post, in China the iPhone 3G won't have 3G or Wi-Fi. China Mobile wants Apple to disable these two features. The first because they don't have a 3G network in place. The second nobody knows or can imagine why, but it simply makes the iPhone an almost-useless shiny brick. [Cellular News via Gadget Lab]

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Who says you need to have a fancy carnival-worthy setup to make cotton candy? In China, they make cotton candy using a simple bike. There's propane underneath the apparatus, heating up the sugar, but then it's all spun around and stretched out by simple pedal power. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like they figured out a way to make fried dough or sausage with onions and peppers using only a bike, so you might still need to go to a fair to get those. [Make]

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China's HiVision has debuted a Linux-based laptop that makes the OLPC seem ridiculously expensive. For US$98, you get a MIPS-based processor, 1GB flash storage, 3 USB ports, Ethernet, an SDHC card reader, WiFi, audio in and out, voice-chat and Firefox browser support on a Linux user interface. No word who this is being marketed towards, but with a price tag that low, maybe this will end up being the device that fulfils Nicholas Negroponte's much criticised mission. The video above is Tech Video Blog's review of Hivision's miniNote (hmm, naming conflict with HP in the near future?) at IFC 2008. [ Tech Video Blog via The Earth Times]

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After a Foxconn factory worker had adorable snapshots of her discovered in a brand new iPhone and posted all over the internet, many worried that she would be fired--or you know, worse. A Foxconn rep told a Chinese newspaper that "she is definitely not fired," and that the pictures were test photos "accidentally" left on the iPhone. He didn't comment on the number of lashings she received. I'm glad that all worked out, I wouldn't want Adam's conscience burdened by the fact he ruined some girl's life while he's vacationing on the Cape. [Macrumors]

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While the city of Philadelphia is content with using 3D images to deter speeders, the authorities in ShanXi province, China are taking a far more drastic approach. They built a 100 foot (30 metres) long, 2 foot (60cm) high, winding speed block smack dab in the middle of the Jing Zhuang highway. Sure, it scratches up cars, looks hideous and causes massive traffic jams, but hey--by screwing everyone it manages to screw the speeders. Suck on that leadfoot!

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