Gizmodo: fake iphone

Made-In-China Handset Turns iPhone Into a Clamshell

Elaine Chow — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 22:15:00 EST

We've seen our fair share of phony iPhones here before, but this is the first time I've seen a company take a more ingenious approach to copycatting and, I dare say, I wouldn't mind if the real iPhone took a page out of this guy's book one day. I introduce you to the iPhone Flip.

The phone measures 105 x 53 x 17mm, and weighs roughly 110 grams. It comes with a .3MP camera, a 2.6-inch screen with a 240 x 320 resolution, the ability to play mp3s and mp4s and some “built-in” games.

Also note the plastic “brushed aluminum”, almost-but-not-quite Macbook Air look and the adorable Apple icon on the front. It lights up! You can see the exact amount of LEDs underneath! How cute! It can be all yours for roughly $100. How's THAT, economy? [Shanzhaiji]

iFauxne Of The Day: The Sciphone V188

Elaine Chow — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:30:00 EST

One of the most hilarious things I've seen in China is the number of small cellphone companies churning out perhaps less-than-genuine iPhones. Though originally nothing more than crappy shells with barely a sliver of the original's functions, now many of them boast specs that'll actually cause you to give them a second look—including, if you're lucky, touchscreen goodness! Today we look at the Sciphone V188.

At 116 x 62 x 16mm, the Sciphone is just a tad thicker than its Apple-made counterpart. Despite that, you get a slightly smaller screen (at 3.2-inches) and much less resolution (240 x 320 pixels). Still, there's multitouch, which makes it a step above most fakes out there!

And the Sciphone includes a couple of things the iPhone doesn't have: a removable battery (rated for about 120 to 180 minutes of talk time), dual sim cards so you can receive two numbers worth of calls at once and... three pages of menus. I guess when you can't load apps from iTunes, the company has to provide them for you from the get-go.

Cost of the iFauxne: 700 yuan ($102.50) [Shanzhaiji]

You Almost Had Me, Fake Russian iPhone!

Mark Wilson — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 13:15:00 EDT

I'm the kind of guy who roots for the underdog. Sure, the real iPhone is pretty great. But I'm just as happy to see a clever manufacturer pull one over on us all and sell me an iClone on the cheap. This knockoff found in Russia doesn't look so bad at first glance, but it's actually a complete hoax.

The battery is simply dead, the salesmen will contest. Hold that power button and you'll see the Apple logo flicker for a moment. See? Real iPhone! Or at least, decent iClone! That is, until you open it to replace the battery:

It looks like there are just enough electronic components to light up an Apple logo...powered by a couple of watch batteries. The only thing worse would be if we saw a miniature hamster on a wheel inside. In case you're interested in what a real iPhone looks like when its guts are spilled on the table, check it out here. [English Russia]

Glossy Black iPhone 3G is Just a Third-Party Case

Haroon Malik — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 07:45:00 EDT

The first allegedly-leaked shots of the 3G iPhone arrived earlier this month. Yesterday, Engadget claimed that the iPhone was going to look all black and shiny, like in the photo. (Although they didn't say that was a photo of the said unit.) Today, what we know for sure is that the thing in the photo is just a protection case available for the current iPhone out of Hong Kong. While it's logical to assume that 3G will be in the next iPhone, we still have to wait to see if its all-black color, the GPS, or any of the other predictions are true or not. [winandmac]

Paper-Made iPhone Clone Is Made to Burn Baby Burn

AddyDugdale — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 04:42:07 EDT

We've seen all sorts of iPhone wannabes from China, but this SPhone is made of paper and it will be yours for just 3,999 Taiwanese dollars or $122. You may not want it, however. Not because it's made of people but because actually, according to a Taiwanese reader, it's made out of paper so people can burn it at funerals. That way, according to him, dead people will get it in the afterlife. And even while it may be for burning, it comes with specs:

There's a 3-megapixel camera, infrared, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, as well as a memory card slot and polyphonic ring tones.
Just 100 of these beauties are waiting to be snapped up from Taipei company Skea (nope, me neither), although I think* it says that the SPhone will be readily available for the knock-up price of 6,000 Yuan in December.
[Yahoo! through Google Translate — thanks, Joe]

*Life's a riot with Google Translate.