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]
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.
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]
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]
Engadget scored some time with a Meizu M8 mini One prototype board at CeBIT. And even while this demo is not constrained by the size of the M8 final hardware, the experience leaves a lot to be desired. The touchscreen has major, persistent lag issues (though Meizu claims it’s a demo hardware issue) and, as you’ll see, the software is too buggy to last two minutes before crashing. While we’ve been looking forward to Meizu’s iPhone knockoff for a long time now, we’re wondering if it’s not too early for our anticipation to throw in the towel. [engadget]
The Meizu M8 may not seem like the most…original concept on the market, but that hasn’t stopped the company from pursuing a patent on the device. Filed back in February 2007, Meizu proclaimed to the world that, sure, their M8 may be just an iPhone clone. But clones have rights too, dammit! [meizume via wired]
Meizu’s CEO dropped an interesting nugget about the hardware of the highly anticipated MiniOne M8. Apparently, the smartphone will feature three physical buttons, as oppose to a single one right in the centre. That means it will differ from another phone that it bears a striking resemblance to. Of course, the new information means any screenshots we have seen of the hardware in the past are now inaccurate, from the front at least.
The folks over at Meizu have decided that it’s finally time to unveil actual shots of the Meizu M8 iPhone-inspired phone, and they’ve got some low quality shots to prove it. You can see that it’s got a miniUSB port, a camera just like where the iPhone’s camera is, and button placement just like the iPhone. The only major difference that we can see between this and the iPhone is that it’s entirely black instead of silver. That’s about it. [Meizu via MeizuMe]
Despite making a Meizu phone that looks way too close to the iPhone to be a coincidence, the latest news about Meizu ripping off an artist to pimp their work is off-base. It’s true that someone placed Deviant Art artist Lithium Picnic’s photo onto a Meizu M8, but it turns out that the image was actually rendered by a fan on Meizu’s forums. Not that it makes things any more legit, but Meizu themselves aren’t to blame for this round of appropriating someone else’s work and calling it their own. [Meizu]
Although the Meizu M8 Phone may rip off the iPhone with its music UI (and every other UI), it could be a good thing. First, take a look at the photos in the gallery and see just how similar they are to the iPhone.
