Kirf -- Engadget Mobile

SciPhone Dream G2 Android charger is best ever

by Thomas Ricker, posted Jun 30th 2009 @ 1:48AM

One of our favorite intellectual property rips of recent months is without a doubt the SciPhone Dream G2 from China. Having completely missed the point of Google's open-source OS being, well, open-source and thus free for SciPhone's use, the company instead chose to hack the G2's "proprietory" OS to look like Android. The charger, however, built to look like the iconic Android mascot is pretty damn cute; enough so that the idea of paying $150 just to get our hands on the 100-240V USB charger has crossed our minds. See the Android's naughty bits after the break.

[Thanks, Steven]

Continue reading SciPhone Dream G2 Android charger is best ever

Keepin' it real fake, part CCXVIII: iPhome 3G for the wim!

by Laura June, posted Jun 20th 2009 @ 9:10PM

Sure, we've seen plenty of iPhone clones in our day, but we'll say this: this is the clome to beat all clomes. It really takes the KIRF standard up a notch, running the best fake OS X we've seen to date. This one's identity is less confused than many of the knockoffs we usually see, and if you're lucky enough to get your hands on one of these 4GB having-babies... well, you just might be able to convince your grandma that it's the iPhone 3G S. Video is after the break.

[Via PMP Today]

Continue reading Keepin' it real fake, part CCXVIII: iPhome 3G for the wim!

SciPhone shocker! N12 handset features 'genuine' Android OS

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Jun 19th 2009 @ 11:41AM

It looks we don't have ol' SciPhone to kick around anymore. Sure, we had some laughs -- mainly due to the fact that the irony-resistant handset manufacturer was ripping off an open source OS -- but now it looks like all that has changed. The SciPhone N12 (apparently) runs genuine Android, sports both quadband GSM and WCDMA (3G), and packs a 3.2-inch touchscreen, WiFi, a GPS module, CMMB TV support, a 3.2 megapixel camera, and a 624MHz Marvell processor under the hood. Listed for CNY $1,600 (roughly $234), this bad boy should be out June 25. Check out a couple more pics after the break.

[Via PMP Today]

Continue reading SciPhone shocker! N12 handset features 'genuine' Android OS

Keepin' it real fake, part CCXVII: Not even Obama can sell us on BlockBerry

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted Jun 18th 2009 @ 11:26AM

The ad reads: "Obama have BlackBerry, I have BlockBerry." BlockBerry, of course, being haff-cmm's Huawei K3-based WinMo 6.1 handset. This Storm 9500 KIRF packs a 460MHZ processor, a 3.2-inch touchscreen, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, and supports 3G and EDGE. Some people's audacity, it seems, knows no limits.

Keepin' it real fake, part CCXVI: HiPhone F06-Slim is brewing up a Storm

by Ross Miller, posted Jun 17th 2009 @ 4:17AM

Oh hi, HiPhone. Not much of a surprise to see you here, again. The latest masterpiece, the HiPhone F06-Slim, is a Frankenstein amalgamation of KIRF favorite iPhone and RIM's first foray into the world of touchscreen phones, albeit with a slightly smaller, 3.2-inch display. We're also looking at a 1.3 megapixel camera, FM radio, microSD support, GPRS, Bluetooth, dual SIM card slots, and "TV phone" capabilities, which we're taking to mean a mobile receiver of some sort. Looks like it forgot the refresh button on the bottom of the device, but with any luck, it left out SurePress as well. If you hang out with the kind of friends who respect a good knockoff, the price of raising your street cred is just a penny under $190 before shipping.

[Via PMP Today]

Meizu M8 3G gets full specifications list, "planned" March 2010 release date

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 5th 2009 @ 9:12PM

That little phone thing that Apple maybe-probably has planned for Monday? Yeah -- totally pales in comparison to what Meizu has up its sleeves. The long (long!) awaited M8 3G has finally been detailed, and the full specifications list is now available for your perusal. We're seeing TD-SCDMA and WCDMA radios, an 800MHz or 1GHz Samsung processor, 3.54-inch display (with a staggering 720 x 480 resolution), USB 2.0 connectivity, 8GB or 16GB of flash storage, a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash and of course, the infamous Meizu OS. There's also support for Bluetooth 2.0, GPS, multi-touch, a light sensor and tilt sensing. Go ahead and mark your iCals, folks, 'cause this one's got a rock-solid "planned" release date of March 2010. Where's the time machine when you really need, it?

[Via PMP Today]

Keepin' it real fake, part CCXV: HiPhone Nano meets Aura in a knock-off of modest proportions

by Joseph L. Flatley, posted May 29th 2009 @ 4:43PM

The Egs HiPhone Nano F210 borrows some of the aura of... well, the Aura. And why not? Half the fun of the KIRF scene is the way that these bandits mix and match aspects of devices according to whatever crazy whim they might be experiencing at the moment. (The other half of the fun? Exploding batteries, of course.) Along with the stylish and quite possibly functional iPod click wheel, this bad boy features: tri-band GSM, a 1.4-inch screen, VGA camera, Bluetooth A2DP, FM tuner, and some sort of media player. As China Grabber puts it: "This is tailor-made for small girls in mobile phones, will the pursuit of individuality, culture, dare to do you a taste of delicacy!!!" Yours today for $139.99. If you're feeling lucky (or you've done something wrong in your past) hit that read link and see for yourself.

[Via PMP Today]

Keepin' it real fake, part CCXIV: IBM Touch T600 should totally run OS/2

by Chris Ziegler, posted May 25th 2009 @ 2:21AM

Every once in a while, the knockoff manufacturers get creative -- really creative -- by dreaming up wild, crazy "what if" scenarios, and "what if IBM got into the cellphone biz?" is the thought-provoking question we're dealing this time around. The company's industrial design -- much of which went to Lenovo in the sale of its PC business -- is legendary, and some undoubtedly Shenzhen-based concern has done a surprisingly decent job of translating that ID to a handset. The T600 runs Windows Mobile with some customizations we haven't seen before and apparently features GPS, EDGE, and a pair of SIM slots -- a surefire sign that the phone is designed and destined for the Chinese market. We're not sure why they bothered with the slightly-modified Vodafone logo, though -- whoever heard of someone wanting carrier branding on an unlocked device?

[Via Cloned In China]

Keepin' it real fake, part CCXIII: Magic trick goes awry on eBay

by Darren Murph, posted May 20th 2009 @ 9:59PM

Sigh. Where to begin? It looks like a Magic, it smells like a Magic, but the perfectionist in us fully understands that it's absolutely not a Magic. The self-proclaimed followup to HTC's G1 has itself an impostor, and that very shammer is parading around on eBay for the low, low price of $122.99. Granted, that doesn't buy you an HTC logo, Android or 3G, but hey, it just might fool a few folks on the subway. Take it from us, though, it's totally not worth the risk of embarrassment.

[Thanks, Jeremy]

Keepin' it real fake, part CCXII: Nokia's N86 cloned ahead of release

by Darren Murph, posted May 20th 2009 @ 11:42AM

It's a sad state of things in the smartphone arena, folks. Nokia can't even get its forthcoming N86 out of the door in official fashion before the cloning labs in China push out a suitable impostor. Of course, it's not as if this hasn't happened to Nokia before, but with such an anti-knockoff mentality, you think it'd take a little action to make the nightmare stop. Or maybe it secretly adores the attention -- yeah, that has to be it.

[Thanks, Jason]

Keepin' it real fake, Part CCXI: MeiLi M8 is a Meizu clone, sans the drama

by Paul Miller, posted May 18th 2009 @ 11:16AM

There's just too much inherent greatness here to bothering nursing it out: Meizu's iPhone-aping M8 just got its very own imitator in the $99 MeiLi M8. The phone harbors all of those design distinctions that Meizu so carefully implemented into its hardware to differentiate from the iPhone, but oddly goes for an iPhone cloning interface. Best of both worlds? Something like that.

[Via PMP Today]

Keepin' it real fake, part CCIX: Fake BlackBerry Storm adds some gold trim, beats the Storm 2 to clickscreen-free living

by Paul Miller, posted May 16th 2009 @ 4:35PM

Well, no need to wait around for the Storm 2 to right all of the BlackBerry Storm's wrongs, the Cool9500 is here to make it all better. Namely, the Cool9500 brings the all-important gold trim, something we always felt was a major shortcoming of RIM's first stab at this form factor. There's also an all-important TV tuner -- another wild misstep in the original. Sure, we'll miss SurePress and the usable software, but we'd say Cool9500 really hit RIM where it hurts with this impressive followup.

Keepin' it real fake, part CCVIII: Nokia E75 isn't a Nokia E75

by Chris Ziegler, posted May 16th 2009 @ 12:29PM

Usually we see these Nokia knockoffs as Noklas or Mokias, but don't be fooled: there's nothing genuine about this E75. One tug on the side should prove that for you seeing how it doesn't appear to have the real deal's hallmark feature, a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Then again, it does have flashing red and blue lights along the bezel, so it's pretty much an even trade.

[Thanks, Jack]

Keepin' it real fake, part CCVII: NOKLA Batman Mobile phone gets all its signals crossed

by Laura June, posted May 16th 2009 @ 4:30AM

Look, in real life, we all know that Batman's car is called the Batmobile, NOT the Batman Mobile, and to be perfectly honest, we don't know why it ever seemed like a good idea to name a phone after an auto anyway, but then again: it does look rather... awesome. No, it doesn't look like the most comfortable phone, but as the Dark Knight himself would surely tell you, life is full of pain. This GSM bad mother's boasting a whole host of whack features, including an FM radio, and a "pixel high definition camera," plus "basic functions," but we all know this one's purely about style -- which it's got to spare. This bad boy seems to be currently available in China, and while we doubt we'll ever see it on shores of the U.S., we can tell you this: we'd be willing to pay at least twenty-five dollars to add this to our NOKLA collection. There are a few more stunners after the break.

Continue reading Keepin' it real fake, part CCVII: NOKLA Batman Mobile phone gets all its signals crossed

First Windows Mobile 6.5 device launched without a shred of officialness

by Chris Ziegler, posted May 12th 2009 @ 4:02PM

If Microsoft had its way, Windows Mobile 6.5 wouldn't be coming to a retail device for a few months yet -- and if HTC had its way, manufacturers wouldn't be cloning its devices. This is the so-called real world, though, where a quick search on the internet will lead you to a cooked 6.5 ROM, and another search will instantly transport you into a magical universe of countless low-cost rips of your favorite name-brand handsets. It was just a matter of time before those two shady gray markets merged -- and, well, here you go. The Touch Viva knockoff is apparently based on a white-labeled Huawei platform that offers some sort of 460MHz core, quadband EDGE, a 3.2 megapixel cam, WiFi, and a 2.8-inch QVGA display. Given the forgettable design and spec sheet, we think you'd have to be extraordinarily hard up for 6.5 to bother dropping the requisite 1,099 yuan (about $161) -- but then again, you'd be making history with this one whether Microsoft likes it or not.

[Via wmpoweruser.com]