Google stops redirecting Chinese search traffic to Hong Kong

In today's podcast: Google stops redirecting Chinese search traffic to Hong Kong; Cisco announces Atom-powered tablet; and Verizon to start selling iPhone 4 in January?

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In a bid to preserve its Internet license in China, Google has stopped automatically redirecting some search traffic from China to its Hong Kong search engine in a bid to placate angry Chinese officials, the company said Tuesday. Google has stopped redirecting "a small percentage" of Google.cn visitors to Google.com.hk, and will end the redirect entirely over the next few days. The company is hoping that will be enough to placate angry officials in Beijing, and secure the renewal of its Internet Content Provider license.

Cisco on Tuesday announced the Cius tablet, a handheld device designed to help users run business applications and communicate in real time. The tablet comes with a 7-inch touch screen and is powered by an Intel Atom processor running at 1.6GHz. The lightweight device comes with a front-facing high-definition video camera that can record 720p video at 30 frames per second and a 5-megapixel camera at the back that can capture high-quality video and still images.

The long wait for Verizon users to get their hands on the Apple iPhone could be over early next year, according to a Bloomberg report. Two anonymous sources have told Bloomberg that Verizon will be getting its own version of the hugely popular smartphone in January. The addition of the iPhone would provide a boost to Verizon, as the device has shown itself to be both a hit with the critics and with the general public. The iPhone 4, which first launched last week, has already sold 1.7 million units in the span of three days.

PC maker Dell has been accused of selling thousands of desktop PCs despite knowing the machines contained faulty components, according to recently unsealed court documents first reported about on Tuesday by The New York Times. Court documents unsealed in a civil case against Dell in Federal District Court in North Carolina accuse Dell employees of having prior knowledge that the company's OptiPlex PCs sold to customers were likely to break.

...And those are the top stories from the IDG Global IT News Update, brought to you by the IDG News Service. I'm Sumner Lemon in Singapore. Join us again later for more news from the world of technology.