The Week in Tech: The “iPhone 5” goes on sale in China

This week in the world of tech, a decidedly dodgy "iPhone 5" went on sale in China, while Rovio's long-awaited The Amazing Alex hit app stores.

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The "iPhone 5" hits China

Forget about all the iPhone 5 rumours that have been swirling around the internet - you can pre-order the handset and even pay full price for it right now in China. Yes, we did say "China", so take that advice with a huge dollop of salt.

Taobao, a unit of the Alibaba Group, has optimistically begun accepting orders for the phone to the tune of a $160 deposit or a full payment of $1,100. Never mind that the phone itself or its pricing has not been announced or confirmed in any form.

Before you begin to laugh at the tactics of Alibaba.com, however, it's important to note that when iPad 2 cases appeared on the site before it was even announced, their wares accurately predicted the device's rear-facing camera.

Rovio's new non-Angry Birds app is finally released

Finnish developers Rovio couldn't only make Angry Birds sequels forever, could they? Thankfully not and this week saw the release of a brand new IP, Amazing Alex.

Released on iPad, Android and iPhone, the app centres around its titular hero, a young boy with a passion for building items. The game itself transpired after Rovio purchased the original IP for the game Casey's Contraptions from developers Mystery Coconut and Snappy Touch.

“We’re so excited for our fans to meet Amazing Alex,” said Rovio’s executive vice-president of games Petri Järvilehto on the app.

“We’ve taken our time polishing a fantastic game and believe we’ve created something fun and accessible for all ages. We’ve had a lot of fun with the game, and we can’t wait to see what our fans come up with!”

Is Angry Birds to be a one-franchise wonder? We'll find out very soon.

Yahoo admit massive hacking attack

Is your Yahoo password safe? Does anyone still use Yahoo? Well if you do then you should be on your guard as potentially 450,000 passwords are at risk after a hacking attack earlier this week.

The attack happened after hackers stolen and then posted a file online which contained around 450,000 usernames and passwords - likely to be combinations used across the internet for multiple logins rather than just on Yahoo.

"We confirm that an older file from Yahoo Contributor Network... containing approximately 450,000 Yahoo and other company users' names and passwords was compromised yesterday," admitted the online giant. "Of these, less than 5% of the Yahoo accounts had valid passwords.

As always in times like this, if you're worried then we suggest you change your passwords one-by-one this weekend.

Digg.com sells for a staggeringly low price

Once valued at $200 million, once-Reddit rival Digg.com sold for a paltry figure this week. Once considered close to a Google takeover at its social media prime, Digg instead changed hands for just $500,000 to San Francisco tech firm Betaworks this week. Ouch.

“We are turning Digg back into a startup. Low budget, small team, fast cycles. How? We have spent the last 18 months building News.me as a mobile-first social news experience," said Betaworks in a written statement.

"The News.me team will take Digg back to its essence: the best place to find, read and share the stories the internet is talking about. Right now.”

Good lucks, lads - you'll need it.