Apple's ranking in China's smartphone market slipped to sixth in July-September

Apple's ranking in China's smartphone market slipped to sixth in July-September, according to research firm IDC, [ID:nL4N09G1QK] but investors, primed to look to China product launches for an uptick in Apple's quarterly sales, have good headline numbers to digest - more than 300,000 iPhones pre-ordered on one carrier alone. But it's the lack of a deal with the No.1 carrier that prevents those numbers being stronger.

The iPhone is currently sold through Apple's seven stores, resellers and through China Unicom and China Telecom- which together have fewer than half the mobile subscribers of bigger rival China Mobile.

The Tigers will see Vogelsong

"Sometimes you can't explain it," Tigers catcher AlexAvila said before a workout Friday. "In our case, we've had trouble all year with left-handed pitching, which is strange because we have a lot of good hitters on the team."

"It'll be a nice change, obviously, to face a right-hander because we've had more success."

The Tigers will see Vogelsong, followed by fellow right-hander Matt Cain in Game 4.

"We've gone through spurts this whole season where we've thrown the ball like this as a staff," Vogelsong said. "We obviously had our downtime there in the middle of September and at the end of August."

"And we're just all kind of hitting our stride here at the same time. It's up to me and Matt now to keep it going over here in Detroit."

Zabriskie, who raced with Armstrong on the U.S. Postal team

Wednesday's report reveals that evidence in vivid detail, describing hotel rooms riders transformed into makeshift blood-transfusion centers and chronicling how Armstrong'sex-wife rolled cortisone pills into foil and handed them out to all the cyclists.

It is the most detailed, unflinching portrayal yet of Armstrong as a man who, day after day, week after week, year after year, spared no expense — financially, emotionally or physically — to win.

In his sworn testimony, Zabriskie, who raced with Armstrong on the U.S. Postal team from 2001-2004, said cycling was a "refuge" for him and helped him deal with his father's history of substance abuse. He noted the irony that he himself turned to drugs at the behest of team management in 2000.

Noting that so many of the world's best players are at Medinah Country Club

Still, there was a certain charm about having the team arrive as one.

U.S. captain Davis Love III remembers his first RyderCup in 1993 at The Belfry, when Tom Watson assembled his group in New York and spoke of a grand adventure to Europe with the sole purpose of bringing back the cup.

Golf is different now.

"I miss that a little bit," Love said. "We all gather and fly over. They fly over here. That was a really cool thing. But I think what we have got now is a much bigger event."

Noting that so many of the world's best players are at Medinah Country Club, Love said that golf has become "incredibly better."

"What we have in our team rooms now and the camaraderie between the two teams is just incredible, and it's amazing how much it's changed over the years," Love said. "And we're playing against our friends, but it's still as intense — maybe even more — because we are more familiar with them."

Debates are unique, unlike the highly choreographed campaign event

Incumbents usually are at a disadvantage, defending a record against a challenger critiquing four years of work. Obama will be trying to avoid the fate of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, who turned in flat debate performances in their first encounters with rivals. In the end, though, it didn't hurt either one as they both won re-election.

"Debating is a muscle that doesn't get used very often," said Alan Schroeder, a journalism professor at Northeastern University and the author of "Presidential Debates: Forty Yearsof High-Risk TV." ''Mitt Romney is better toned because he came off 20-plus primary debates. President Obama has not been on a debate stage in four years."

Debates are unique, unlike the highly choreographed campaign event or stump speech marked by over-the-top rhetoric. Schroeder said debates require a different dynamic — candidates need to be respectful, differing in opinion but avoiding any impression that it's personal.

The announcement comes just over six months after a heated battle

But the two men expressed caution and urged Google to carry out the change with the vigorit adopted in combating pirated videos on YouTube, which Google owns.

"The devil is always in the details," Mr. O'Leary said. While Mr. Sherman added, similarly, that changing the search algorithm "is not the only approach and of course, the details of implementation will matter."

The announcement comes just over six months after a heated battle between big media companies and technology companies, who were sparring over proposed legislation intended to crack down on pirated online content, particularly by rogue foreign Web sites.

Boyle, one of Britain's most successful filmmakers

The evening started with fighter jets streaming red, white and blue smoke and roaring over the stadium, packed with a buzzing crowd of 60,000 people, at 8:12 p.m. — or 20:12 in the 24-hour time observed by Britons.

Boyle, one of Britain's most successful filmmakers, who directed "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Trainspotting," had a ball with his favored medium, mixing filmed passages with live action in the stadium to hypnotic effect, with 15,000 volunteers taking part in the show.

Actor Rowan Atkinson as "Mr. Bean" provided laughs, shown dreaming that he was appearing in "Chariots of Fire," the inspiring story of a Scotsman and an Englishman at the 1924 Paris Games.