Today in shady Chinese electronics manufacturer news, we've got a whopping three iPhonies vying for your (counterfeit?) dollars. iFone, which isn't another of my clever puns but is actually a very brazenly-named company, announced the iFone 3G and the two-for-one ripoff iFone X1. Meizu, who wins the dubious title of the classiest in the bunch, has finally made its M8 official on its website.

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Meizu's fabled M8 iPhoneclone may indeed be soon on sale, but until now we've only seen bits and bobs of its user interface: Now Meizu is demonstrating this with a neat little animation site. And guess what? Go on, you'll never guess! ...It's a pretty similar beast to the iPhone. There're some tweaks and differences of course, but Meizu's taken inspiration from Apple pretty deeply into their own design. We'll just have to see what it looks and feels like in the flesh to see exactly how similar it ends up being. [Meizu via Engadget]

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We recently mentioned that Meizu's M8 iPhone clonephone was really coming to the shops in China at the end of the year, but according to the head of the company, things'll be happening a bit sooner than that.

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Meizu's iPhone copycatting M8 mobile phone is to be vaporware no longer thanks to GeekITstores, who will be launching it in China then India from December onwards. The 8GB model is apparently due to cost somewhere between $US380 and $US470, and will be launched with "complete fanfare"...presumably because it's the "iPhone killer," or so says the press release. In fact, GeekITStores really seem to love the device, saying it was looking for a "better, cheaper alternative" to the iPhone for Indian customers. Read on for the press release.

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Remember the Meizu M8? It was the iPhone clone, the one that we were all excited to see...back in 2007. Now that Apple's added 3G to the mix, expanded storage and lowered the price with contract, the prospect of a (still unreleased) 8GB iClone has gotten a whole lot less enticing. But just for those who thought Meizu could never do it, here's a decent walkthrough of their interface. Please note, however, that the clip contains some suggestive images of (underage?) females that you may not want to play at work. Stay classy, Meizu! [via Electronista]

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Meizu will finally release the iPhone-wannabe M8 in August, according to a cryptic message board post by CEO Jack Wong. The first version will have 128MB RAM and an unspecified amount of storage, and a second version should ship in October with 256MB RAM and 8GB on-board flash. The funniest part? The M8 will cost around US$320, or US$120 more than the AT&T subsidised 8GB iPhone 3G here in the US of A. Luckily for them (and us) this probably won't see its way outside of China. [Meizu via Electronista]

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The apparently incombustible Meizu CEO, Jack Wong, has just announced that they are going to add Live Messenger to their M8 mobile phone, the rather pathetic and sad motherboard that wants to be an iPhone clone when it grows up (if it ever gets released). In other words: new vapourware announced for vapourware. The usual cynics are probably asking themselves "why should I care about this crap?" Which is exactly what we are asking ourselves right now. [Meizume—thanks Heartwork]

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A whole week almost elapsed without there being any rework to Meizu's M8 MiniOne UI, which is so shocking, I almost fell of my chair. Thankfully, it was not to be, as some new images are making the rounds on the old tubes.
Update: Apparently, this is just a mockup by the guys at CNMO and not at all a UI refresh. Dammit.

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Meizu's CEO, Jack Wong has just posted a whole bunch of new images, all showing a tweaked UI for the hotly anticipated iPhone-esque mobile phone. It is not a massive rework of what we have already been shown, but the pictures showing a new colour scheme and number pad should keep the fanboys happy, even if the iPhone reference has incensed them with rage. On a side note, Meizu's MiniOne is a bit iPhoneish, no? Jump for a ton of visual eye candy. [Meizu Forum; Thanks, Alvin]

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It looks like we weren't the only ones not impressed with Meizu's M8 iPhone ripoff — its booth at CeBIT was shut down by the local police and all products and promotional materials were removed. Yikes! Apparently some other booths were shut down as well, as this was part of a wider initiative to protect patent and copyright owners. What does this mean for the fate of our favourite junk copycat Chinese ripoff phone? Time will tell. Stay strong, my friends.
UPDATE: The shutdown was actually due to a mistaken MP3-licensing issue and the booth is now back open. Apple had nuthin' to do with it. Carry on! [Heise via Electronista]

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