This week Apple launched both a Chinese online store and app store. Sounds great! But, as many of our previous posts indicate, Apple and China mix as well as oil and water. Apple’s app store is accessible if you have the proper credit cards and the online store has already been brought down by scalpers in less than a day.

The release of the iPhone 4 this weekend drew large crowds and long lines. One of the anticipated features of the new iPhone was its WIFI capability – a feature restricted by the authorities until recently. But this is China and before everyone thinks that the powers-that-be are going soft we found some other interesting aspects unique to the Chinese iPhone.

Pleco, a New York-based company who specialize in developing tools to learn Chinese, have announced a new iPhone feature that looks like it will be invaluable, not only for those learning Chinese characters, but for anyone who lives here and isn’t fluent in reading Chinese. The feature uses the iPhone camera to look at and “read” Chinese characters through an Optical Character Recognition system. There’s no need to take a photograph – you just point you camera and the app provides an instantaneous definition.

Steven over at Lost Laowai has provided a list of cool China iPhone apps for those who have made the leap to smart phones. Unfortunately I’m still using an antique Nokia, so I haven’t been able to check out the Lost Laowai suggestions, but a couple of them sound particularly useful for Beijingers.