New images have leaked showing what may be code-name London, or the first of the next-generation BlackBerry 10 superphones expected to ship from RIM at the end of 2012 and... they look like Android phones that look like iPhones. Kevin Michaluk from CrackBerry.com pitches them a phone-sized PlayBooks but after being teased with the far more original looking, Porsche Design-style concepts we saw a few weeks back, I can't help but be a little disappointed.

Sure, Apple didn't invent the black slab form factor, but in an era that was then dominated by front-facing QWERTY devices, including the Treo, Windows Mobile Standard, Nokia communicators, and, yes, BlackBerrys, Apple inarguably popularized them. They popularized them to such an extent that Google smartly, swiftly switched gears from making Android BlackBerry-like to iPhone-inspired. RIM dabbled in that form factor as well, with the near disastrous Storm line, and now the expanded Torch line.

But to lead with it into the new generation of BlackBerrys, and now, some 5 years later? (And yes, once again, I informed you thusly.)

A big part of me hopes not. I'm tired of iPhone clones. Sure, Samsung has proven that the closer you are to copying Apple without being Apple, the more money you make in the not-Apple market (just look at Motorola and HTC profits by way of comparison), but Apple didn't get to where they are -- sitting on one of the largest bankrolls in history -- by copying the BlackBerry or Treo back in 2007.

They looked at the market. They saw a problem with existing offerings. They tried to solve it with something new. RIM has had 5 years since then -- 5 years to study Apple, look for the iPhone's weaknesses, and figure out how to take then next great leap forward. To figure out how to do to Apple what Apple did to Palm and RIM.

They wasted a lot of that on the Storm and Torch and PlayBook. Hopefully they're not wasting one precious moment of it now.

I want BlackBerry back. I want them putting pressure on Google and Apple. I want more great phones to choose from. I don't want Jonathan Ive to be the lead designer-by-proxy of yet another me-too phone line.

Delight me RIM. Surprise me. You've got a new CEO. He has great contacts. I'm holding out hope for you.

Source: CrackBerry.com

We've seen our fair share of iClones in the past but this product out of China has taken the knockoff to a new level. It is quite unique in the fact it's the first iClone we've come across that runs two mobile OS's - Windows Mobile 6.5 and Android 2.1. The hardware is composed of a cheap plastic casing and buttons, 512MB of RAM, 5 megapixel camera sporting auto focus, and a 3.6 inch WVGA capacitive touch screen with multi-touch.

All of this can be yours for a cool $260.

More images after the break!

[bbs.m8cool.com, M.I.C. Gadget]

Microsoft has opened their first Microsoft Store, and kudos to them for that. However, we can't help but feel that by literally copying an Apple Store to the degree that only the signage and products are swapped out, Microsoft cost consumers a chance to experience something different, something innovative, and something that would have continued to push the retail part of the computer and smartphone industry.

Same decor, Gurus in lieu of Geniuses, colored shirts, hiring Apple executives and store staff, even the same opening festivities. Gruber's right:

It’s creepy, as in like stalker-ish creepy, just how blatantly they’ve copied Apple.

Stepford.

[Thanks @justin_horn horn for the tip!]

While even our friends over at PreCentral.net haven't exactly been thrilled by Palm's own, creepy Pre ads, we're not sure Bell Canada's approach -- filming an original iPhone 2G ad using the Pre as a stand in -- is any better.

As a Canadian myself, I'd like to assure the world we're really a heckuvalot more creative than this! (Right Bell?!)

Recent iPhone ad for comparison's sake, after the jump!

[via TUAW]

"Pink" iPhone Killers, from the folks who brought you "Blue Screens" and "Brown Zunes". Mmm, taste that rainbow... Sigh. Maybe Pink is the XBoxPhone we've always dreamed of. Maybe it really is just a candy-coated Diamond 2 with pop-tart trademarks. Dunno. Nobody does. Giant mystery in puzzle pastry with enigma frosting. Until we know for sure, however, there's no danger in speculating, is there?

WMExperts links to a Wall Street Journal story that makes it seem like something Microsoft and Verizon think could might possibly take on the iPhone with such killer features as "multimedia" and "App Store".

Wow, never heard that one before.

(And really Verizon, you haven't even gotten Apple to go out on a date with you yet and already you're chatting up Microsoft? What happened to your "iPhone Killer" with Nokia...?)

Seriously, isn't it time ya stopped skating to where the puck was?

Guessing it's NokiaExpert Matt Miller week and Windows Phone day here at TiPb, as we're linking up another great review about another interesting WinPho: the HTC Touch Diamond 2... that just happens to be put to the test against our very own iPhone 3G.

I've already gone on record (and on video!) with my thoughts on the previous-generation HTC touch experience (and I still stand by those reviews, dagnabit!), but what will someone with different tastes and perspectives, not to mention next gen HTC goodness, think when he puts them phono-a-phono?

Check out Matt's ZDNet "Clash of the Touch Titans" review to find out! (Then come back and tell us why the iPhone pwned, k?)

[via WMExperts]

Our sibling sites, WMExperts and CrackBerry.com have both, coincidentally, just put up posts that show how to make your Windows Phone or BlackBerry "slide to unlock" just exactly like the iPhone. This may be nothing new, as themes and indeed the ability to theme other platforms is almost as longstanding as it is popular in some circles. iPhone Jailbreakers can even get in on the action with WinterBoard. But here's the thing, if you're running a Windows Phone or a BlackBerry, why would you want it to look or behave more like an iPhone? (and yes, the same holds true if you hack your iPhone to look/act like something else).

Do you love the iPhone UI but need functionality it doesn't offer? Are you locked to a non-iPhone carrier and can't get the iPhone, so will make do with a skin until your contract expires? Do you just love to be able to configure your phone, your way, and change it up as the mood strikes you?

Personally, I re-install and restore stuff so often, I've just gotten used to leaving almost everything I can in its default look and with its default settings, so I'm curious as to how the other side rolls.

Those of you with iPhones, any desire to skin it up like a WinPho or a BBerry? Maybe a Palm Pre? (Have you already?) And to those rocking other smartphones and going for an iPhone-look, how's it working for you?

Personally, I still think Microsoft's only hope at this point is an XboxPhone, but what do I know, I don't run the largest, richest, most talent-laden software company in the world... that runs itself, and everything it produces, into the ground due to paralyzing politics and committee. So, excuse me if I'm nonplussed by the rumors of a new Zune HD, which while not an iPhone clone, or even an iPod classic or nano clone, looks to be positioned exactly opposite the iPod touch. A strategy which has proven so successful for Microsoft thus far...

Dear Steve Ballmer: Please, scorch the earth, start from scratch. Stop worrying so much about Apple and Google and start investing in Microsoft. Start making wonderful experiences for customers all your own. Build an integrated ecosystem from the ground up where Server, Windows, Xbox Windows Phone, and Zune all share a single unified brand and delightful cross-compatibility. Take a lesson from Palm. Spend your years in the desert if you have to, but at least walk in a single, considered direction.

Kthxbai

[Via Engadget]

No, we're not talking about Bono. Sigh. We're talking about Don Lindsay, who was, according to Apple Insider:

Design Director of the Mac OS User Experience Group, he led what was called the "Mac OS X interface concept project" and directed the design team responsible for the user experience of Mac OS X 10.0 "Cheetah" through Mac OS X 10.3 "Panther," which included the company's first-generation of iLife digital lifestyle applications.

From there he was hired away by Microsoft to create -- wait for it! -- Vista. More specifically, AERO Glass, Flip3D, and Windows Calendar. Redmond start your copiers, indeed.

So what do you get if you copy a copy? Aside from artifacts and banding galore, RIM's new VP of user experience, it seems. There's only one problem with this, of course, and it should be obvious to RIM or to anyone who's seen Vista or the Star Wars prequels.

Great artists need great editors. The best kindergarten teachers know when to pull the paper away from the kids. Steve Jobs is a great editor, a great kindergarten teacher. Word is he would scrutinize the UI down to the pixel level.

Hiring the guy who was already hired away by the other guy doesn't give you the iPhone. It gives you the Storm. And RIM already learned how that worked out. Vista on the Storm... Good luck with that.

If you'd like a better idea, instead of trying to get the guy Microsoft got from Apple, and trying to dupe the dupe that is Vista, find someone new. Find something new...

Think different!

Every spring, the interweb gadgeteratti turn their attention towards rumormongering Apple's June iPhone release. So what does the BlackBerry world do? Try to wedge in a little next gen Storm chatter.

CrackBerry.com rounds up some rumors from Slashgear and BGR and appears to get confirmation from Tweakers.

The code name just might be "Odin". The Storm, of course, first leaked as the Apple Killer (AK -- yeah, that turned out well...) but was originally code named the Storm, then became branded as the Storm so was re-code named (code re-named?) as Thunder. This time fears that media disdain and user dissatisfaction may have reached levels where the Storm brand itself is radioactive could get it changed again. What's with Odin? Father of thunder-god Thor (we get the connection!), one-eyed lord of the Aesir, gallows-god...

But what's the iClone aspect this time? Why trying to tout a long missing feature as a big upgrade, of course! Sure, the little berry has long supported copy/paste and MMS, so no luck there. But -- wait for it! -- this one may actually have WiFi! (If Verizon doesn't strip it out as per usual...).

Yeah, that should distract attention away from whatever little device Apple was planning for WWDC...

Okay, so the iPhone stole the Nintendo DS' portability, touch screen (albeit capacitive instead of retro resistive), creative input methods (like blowing into the mic), and emphasis on casual, on-the-go gaming. And since all's fare in love and console wars, is it really a surprise that the big N has decided to follow Apple's lead -- and the growing Google Android Market, RIM BlackBerry App World, Microsoft Windows Phone Marketplace, Palm (Pre Store?) conga line -- with the launch of their own direct download DSiWare application store alongside their new DSi hardware.

Sure, DSi doesn't have ubiquitous internet connectivity like 2G or 3G enabled smartphones, so it's WiFi only (WPA if you can dig it out of the settings). You also have to buy credit in ridiculous $20 chunks (some things never change, eh, money-grabbers?), but this will no doubt appeal to gamers who want new stuff now, now, now, and developers who want to excise the the usual 75% retail+licensing cut, along with manufacturing, storage, shipping, and other physical media related costs.

Ars Technica has an excellent article up with all the details and developer comments, and it's certainly worth the read.

Our question is, is the iPhone enough for your casual gaming needs or do you also carry a DS (and/or PSP) everywhere you go, and will DSiWare make you more likely to carry a DS in the future?

Dieter managed to score an awesome video walkthrough of the Palm Pre's app launching functionality and a look at some of the apps themselves. We've joked about how the Palm Pre, supervised by the guy who helped build the iPhone, developed by engineers who helped program the iPhone, felt more like a branch of the iPhone sometimes than a linear descendant of PalmOS.

Turns out we were wrong. To be joking. You swipe horizontally to switch Home Screens, just like the iPhone (though you can scroll down vertically as well to jam more apps on each screen). You hold your finger down and then move to reposition apps, just like the iPhone (though they don't do the jiggle dance). They even seem to be a little bit laggy and slow to launch at times, just like iPhone 2.0 was! (Though these are widgets, not native apps, so that's really more of a concern at this point).

Also announced today was something that sounds an awful lot like Push Notification Services for the Pre.

Palm, I love ya. I had PDA's going back to the Visor, smartphones going back to the 600. You left me, I didn't leave you, remember? So now I found a new phone, and seriously, dressing up just like it isn't the way to win me back. You gotta be yourself, the new you not a new version of it.

Don't get me wrong, I really dig your Synergy, that touchstone charger, and that awesome alert system. Gold. But Apple didn't make that first big iPhone splash by holding up something that worked like a BlackBerry or a Treo. They didn't show off a Nokia-style experience. They made something new and instantly iconic. Copying the iPhone's UI and interactions to this degree isn't recognizing that Apple nailed the multi-touch paradigm for all time. It's not surrendering the default behavior. It's just copying Apple's experience when you should be creating the next generation Palm experience.

Maybe you should have stuck with Palm leadership, engineers, and innovation?

Our newest sibling site, NokiaExperts.com has linked up an article suggesting Nokia and Verizon's previous iClonic efforts were just generations one, and now they're preparing to transform and merge into... A Nokizon (Verkia?) uber-iPhone killer?

It seems that Verizon may have deep hard feelings against the Apple and iPhone exclusivity deal and appears to be making a deal with Nokia to create a 4G LTE (long term evolution) touchscreen device for the US market.

The backstory here is that Apple reportedly went to Verizon first with the iPhone and was rejected, so despite the recent rumors (and Verizon's rather sad little surveys), there's no reason to think Apple will be helping them out any time soon, hence... Vernokiazon?

No word on specs or release dates or whether it will have phaser functionality and arrive on unicorns or anything yet, but in all seriousness, Nokia puts out amazing specs (see the n97) and Verizon has a great network, so is it possible that whatever they put out could join the Android G1, BlackBerry Storm, WinPho 6.5/7, and the Palm Pre in the long list of "iPhone Killers".

[NokiaExperts.com via TheStreet, thanks to The Reptile for the tip!]

CrackBerry.com is reporting that BlackBerry maker RIM has finally settled on a name for their version of the App Store: App World.

See, it's not a place to buy applications, it's a planetary system where apps spawn and live SIM lives, and... argh. Who knows?

RIM is expected to spin it 'round their sun some time tonight. Given that BlackBerry's can only store applications on the tiny sliver of internal RAM left after the OS and filesystem have taken their share (estimated to be 50-100 megs as opposed to 7-15GB on the iPhone), it's likely to be a small, small App World after all.

To be fair (not that we want to remove our tongue from our cheek any time soon), RIM has to respond to the App Store, just like Google did with Android Market, Nokia is doing with the Ovi Store and Microsoft is doing with SkyMarket, and Palm will do with the Pre. Apple has again changed the game, and if the other players can't out-innovate, to keep up they must at least replicate.

So, anyone going trade in their iPhone Apps and run back to RIM come launch time?

Smartphone Experts' always-on-the-go editor-in-chief Dieter Bohn is in Spain and on the floor, ready to send us back any and all news from Mobile World Congress this week. Of course, Apple isn't there, and most general-purpose smartphone shows are pretty happy to pretend the iPhone doesn't exist, so while we won't see anything in the way of new hardware or firmware, we have heard some rumors about pretty big software announcements. (Hint: rhymes with socs2go).

For those interested in what the competition is iCloning doing, keep an eye on these Mobile World Congress sections of PreCentral (including GSM Pre!), WMExperts (including the Touch Diamond 2 and Pro 2), Android Central (pending), and Nokia Experts (pending).

See anything that should make Apple nervous?

Yep, they're not just iClone'ing phones anymore. The App Store is on everyone's must rip list, and what else? It rhymes with iPhone and works a lot like MobileMe...

According to WMExperts, it's Microsoft's new My Phone (née SkyBox).

Okay, so the name re-un-de-breaks Microsoft's usually mind-boggling branding -- we're guessing it harkens back to My Computer and My Documents of yore -- and including not only PIM data but text messages, photos, videos, and device backup, is something we'd really like to see in the next version of MobileMe.

Our own editor-in-chief, Dieter Bohn, will be live and on location in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress, so we expect he'll send back all the details, but with everyone at Microsoft already using Exchange (heck, even Apple licenses it!) we have to wonder where My Phone fits in, what if any similar features ActiveSync might get as a result, and why it is exactly Microsoft insists on producing so many products with more overlap than a hair weave?

Welcome to 2009, where Microsoft will -- at some point later this year or next -- release versions of what Apple released in 2008!

Our frenemies over at WMExperts have the details, and we have the snide remarks:

• SkyMarket looks to be the App Store done Microsoft's way. Does that mean each app will ship in Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Really Professional, Ultimate, and 8 more server SKU's?

• SkyBox, which if MobileMe is "Exchange for the rest of us", makes SkyBox "MobileMe for the same of you?". We can only guess it's a repackaging of Hosted Exchange and Live! services, so join in on the Sync Toy/Live Sync/Live Mesh/Azuze MPD-brandfusion. It will, reportedly, run on non-WinMo devices (which is actually a Very Nice Thing).

• SkyLine, either a business version of SkyBox(!) or a Mobile clone of iDisk, depending on who's reading the tea leaves.

Microsoft, like RIM, Google, and Palm have to go in this direction. Apple opened a floodgate with the AppStore, no doubt about it, so while we poke some friendly fun, we also hope this gives Apple more competition, like the new Palm Pre, so that Apple has to up their game and give us iPhone faithful more functionality faster than we might otherwise get.

Anyone racing to pick up an HTC FUZE and try it out?

Android Central (via Gizmodo) brings us the latest in a long -- long -- line of... er... iPhone inspired smartphones. This one, however, will be running the Google mobile OS:

The OPhone is 1mm bigger than the original iPhone, has a dedicated camera button, 5MP camera, flash, microSD slot and 3.5mm headphone jack. Yeah. Sounds pretty flippin’ sweet to us too.

TiPb will reserve judgement until it launches, but it will be interesting to see Android on hardware other than the slider-trackball-touch G1. Won't it?

Stephen Fry, the British comedian and technology commentator who was once partner to TV's Dr. House, Hugh Laurie, recently annihilated RIM's BlackBerry Storm on Twitter, and now is back to give an even grander beat down to the mobile industry in general, a 4 star Bold review, a 1 star Storm review, and an iPhone OS 3.0 wish... er... demand list. Daring Fireball, however, points us a couple paragraphs of particular interest:

Apple have shown that there is a huge demand for exciting, innovative, lovable and imaginative consumer devices. All the rivals have to do is to … is to what? To produce cut price lookalikes or truly to pioneer and innovate? Well, the latter is what they should do, but the former is what most of them will do of course, because these dumb firms never ever learn. They are afraid to be good. They will blame stockholders, consumers, anyone but themselves.

Don’t you sometimes long to be CEO of a company like Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Nokia or Microsoft? So that you can say to your coders, your designers, your development teams and your software architects: “Not [redacted] Good Enough. I haven’t said ‘Wow’ yet. I haven’t gasped with pleasure, amusement or admiration once. Start again. Not [redacted] Good Enough.”

Can't say I'd do any different were I blessed/cursed with being such a CEO. How about you? Any advice for our iCompetitors?

Moments after Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone at Macworld 2007, Nokia showed off the "Tube", an iClone so convincing some thought they'd simply managed to score a demo unit. While the "Tube" eventually faded into a "comes with music" device, and Nokia has now zigged instead of zagged with the N97, BGR has just come across a slide that shows Nokia's iClone plans may still be alive and unwell.

What is it? When will we see it? Since the N97 isn't even shipping until June-ish 2009 (likely just in time for a WWDC launch of the iPhone 3.0 -- iPhone HD?), who knows when we'll see this new device. All we can hope for is that is doesn't cosign itself to mindlessly cloning iPhones past, but actually tried to innovate something more for the future.

If they do, what you want to see on the Nokia next-gen touch?

No, it's not Deja Vu. No one has reset the Matrix (we think...) It's just another Apple follow-along. To paraphrase Bertrand Serlet: Waterloo, start your photocopiers!

Not content with merely iCloning the iPhone look with the Bold or touchscreen with the Storm, during the Blackberry Developer Conference today, RIM basically repeated Apple's iPhone SDK Roadmap Event announcements from back in March, note for note.

App Store? Check. Push Notification Service? Gotcha. Integrated Development Environment? Why not! iFund? App-solutely!

Scott Forstall, was that just the sound of you flinging your iPhone 4G through the screen of your 30" DisplayPort Cinema Display? I think it was.

Check out the live blog now at Crackberry.com, and if you miss it, they're sure to have all the news and roundups shortly thereafter.

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We're never going to let Crackberry Kevin, editor of our sibling site Crackberry.com live this down. Never EVER.

And if you think that's bad, wait until Steve Jobs gets finished giving the WuShi finger to the advertising geniuses over at Vodafone and RIM. We're talking the greatest mellow harshening "Skidoosh!" in the history of the tech industry, no doubt.

Whyzat? Said genii decided to advertise the iClonic Blackberry Storm as an actual iPhone, complete with Home screen and Mobile Safari browser.

Was this the last, desperate surrender to iPhone envy? Were the guilt-laden strings of Marimba playing over and over again in their psyche, forcing them to confess themselves to the world?

Sadly, once the images get yanked, the cronies blamed, and the incident swept under the blogs, we'll never know for sure. But they'll still be hearing endless Marimba in their dreams...

Meanwhile, Engadget and Gizmodo got their hands on the little whole-screen-is-a-button-and-has-cut-and-paste-but-no-WiFi monsters, and they seem pretty happy with the solid Blackberry foundation gaining a little iPhone inspired tech. Our view? Anything that forces Apple, and the industry, to stay competitive and keep on innovating is a boon for all of us.

Right?

WMExperts just relayed the following: looks like HTC won't be releasing the Touch HD in the US. What kind of illogical, inexplicable, incomprehensible BS is this?

sad news, US. we looked into it- by the time we could bring Touch HD to the states, it would be old news. we do have other cool stuff coming

Shenanigans, we call! They have like 37 other Touch sub-brands landing on earth (and who knows what other planets!), and this was the one device we hoped would really push Apple -- in its biggest market -- to ramp up the screen size and media playback abilities of the iPhone for rev 3.

Memo to HTC brain-trust: next time build a world phone from the get go, b'okay?

Now excuse us as we go talk Dieter out of burning his Diamond in protest...

Reader Reptile writes in with the tip, and the pithy title inspiration. Seems like our friends to the frozen north (no, not Canada, Nokia-land!) finally released their iClone... er... Tube... er... Xpress Music.

The device, which started life as a complete rip-off proof of concept roughly 3 minutes after Steve Jobs revealed the iPhone live on the Macworld 2007 stage has taken a long -- looooooooong -- time to come to market. Was it worth the wait?

Well, in targeting the iPhone, it's already placed itself squarely in the "follower" camp, and not the "leader" position Nokia should not only enjoy, but command. Strike one. Also, if as Reptile suggests, no one (outside the gadget blogsphere and -- maybe -- Europe) noticed, can it even really be considered launched? Strike two.

As long as there's the iPhone, every other "me too!" device will be an iClone, simple as that. Want a real iPhone Killer? Do what Apple did and drop a device no one sees coming, and revolutionize the industry in your own, innovative way. That's how you'll kill the iPhone.

Absent that. Strike three.

Video link via Engadget

Confession: My secret, innermost desire for the iPhone 3G was a 420p display. I knew Apple wouldn't do it yet -- there was nothing in their simultaneously released SDK to support any other resolutions -- but still... I wants-ded it!

Imagine my fanboy chagrin, then, when HTC goes and not only makes a device in exactly the same dimensions as the iPhone 3G (obvious much?), but slaps a monstrous 800x480 display on the beast! (Not to mention a 5(!) megapixel camera)

The HTC Touch HD (which we're pretty sure means "Hi Dieter!" -- see the afore-linked WMExperts for why...) represents the next expansion of HTC's Touch brand -- something spread so thin Asus' Eee marketeers are wincing. It may seem questionable to show the HD off this early (it's not expected to land until 2009, and doesn't even seem to support US 3G frequencies yet) since, frankly, who's not gonna put off Osbourne-ing a Touch, Touch Duo, Touch Diamond, Touch Pro, etc. when this baby's around the bend, but we're guessing the announcement was aimed more at Apple's gut than any potential customers' wallet.

And in that regard -- ouch!

Sure, it doesn't have the Apple/iPod ecosystem behind it and it's still using TouchFLo 3D to try to hide the UE (user exasperation) that is Windows Mobile 6.1, and multiple layers of OS are never a Good Thing, but this is the first iClone that's actually got us worried.

Apple, you've got almost four months until Macworld 09, and we've got three newly urgent words for you: iPhone HD, b'okay?

The iPhone shook up a very complacent smartphone world, but if we think it exists in a vacuum, if we think the other big players won't respond (no matter how embarrassingly long it might take them), and if we don't hope that they do -- hardcore style -- to prevent Apple from one day getting just as complacent, then we're not doing our jobs as bloggers or consumers.

With that, splinter-like, in mind, witness RIM launching the Blackberry Thunder, their first touch screen device. If you ever wondered how brilliantly Apple handled the release of the iPhone, from Steve pulling it from his pocket to the first videos and commercials, wonder no more. RIM's shows us by way of terrible -- near Microsoft'ian -- example, how badly that could have gone... (Though Mike Lanman certainly makes a convincing Doby to Lazaridis' Gollum...). Couldn't have hired them Virgin folks again?

We're still not sure about the whole-screen's-a-button approach. And the newly launched GDGT podcast is right on when they say RIM needs new software and they need it now (and tell a very funny story about how RIM's co-CEO really doesn't get that... scary...)

Head on over to Crackberry.com to watch the full video.

The. Whole. Screen. Is. A. Flipping. Tic. Tac. Tile. Button.

Seriously. We kid you not (though RIM could be kidding us all?). Sister-site Crackberry.com has all the deets, but...

Seriously? Who's the usability wizard who came up with this one? Who came up with the single-click point of failure concept? The one mechanism to break it all?

We get that haptics are hard, but the iPhone pretty much showed the industry how to do Touch, and rather than just add the Blackberry messaging powerhouse to that buttery goodness, RIM went and grafted on an mechanic straight out of every 1980s playschool game?

Bravo for challenging Apple (they certainly need it). And kudos for being brave enough to push the metaphor, to take the next step, to propel technology forward. But -- seriously? -- we hope the feel is light-years beyond the look on this one, and not just for Crackberry Kevin's sake... Otherwise most annoying gadget innovation of the decade awards beckon...

We guess a certain internet dead-pan funny man was right on the "button" when he said:

THERE’S a reason that R.I.M. is averse to the iPhone’s glass pad. “I couldn’t type on it and I still can’t type on it, and a lot of my friends can’t type on it,” says Mike Lazaridis, R.I.M.’s co-chief executive and technological visionary. “It’s hard to type on a piece of glass.”

Presuming he was really talking about the ThunderStorm...

By now I'm sure you are all tired of seeing other companies try to follow in the footsteps of Apple's success. Well Meizu has been working on the M8, eh... ok it's a iClone, for some time now. The following video was posted by the founder of Meizu, J. Wong, showing it off running a highly customized version of Windows Embedded CE 6.0 (the underlying core beneath Windows Mobile 7.)

Still with no firm release date, it does sport a 3 megapixel camera along with 8 gigs of storage. I suppose it does not look too bad for a WinCE device. Does this peak anyone's interest or are we all sick of these clones?

[Via Electronista]

Sure, the iPhone 3G launch is tomorrow. Consider this an amuse bouche. Or the opposite of that, an annoy bouche. Whatever. Something salty to make Friday taste all the more sweet!

The subject of today's battle royal? Nope, not iPhone vs. Blackberry. That's old. This time it's Blackberry vs. Blackberry, Blog vs. Blog, over the iClone to end all iClones: the touchscreen Blackberry Thunder!

Says our sister site Crackberry.com, 10th degree Blackberry belts and reigning world champions:

Touchscreen BlackBerry Thunder Keyboard To Utilize Haptic Technology... AMAZING Implementation! [...] Leave it to RIM to CRACK the touchscreen keyboard nut.

Says Boy Genius Report, craftiest of all mobile blogsphere Ninja:

The keyboard is incredibly annoying to type on, and the screen actually shows ripples even when pressed ever-so-lightly. [...] Most of the people who have handled it thinks it’s a joke.

Read on for round 2!

Of course, Crackberry.com ain't going down without a NERD FIGHT:

Screen is glass. YEP, It's Multi-touch!!! [... RIM has] apparently been caught flat-footed by the 3G iPhone and its native support for Exchange and the whole Apple 'aura of goodness', in the sense that they don't have the Bold yet ready for comparisons and show'n'tell sessions, media comparisons, etc, so both as a platform-to-platform and device-to-device stakes RIM is feeling the heat from Apple's iPhone wave, thus they're putting serious effort into accelerating the Thunder.

But it's a quick tag to Mike Lazaridis for the RIM CEOh-Snap 180 turn-around KO:

THERE’S a reason that R.I.M. is averse to the iPhone’s glass pad. “I couldn’t type on it and I still can’t type on it, and a lot of my friends can’t type on it,” says Mike Lazaridis, R.I.M.’s co-chief executive and technological visionary. “It’s hard to type on a piece of glass.”

D'oh! Guess he had no idea about the Thunder at that point either...

Softball sarcasm aside, what's my take?

Technology is hard. It took Apple a reported 2.5 years to get an iPhone ready to ship (and then, arguably, just barely with firmware that was soon updated), and that's on top of its rumored prior iTablet development efforts. So, my guess is that the truth lies somewhere in between the hype and the hate: RIM's working their apps off to get this thing tasty as soon as possible, but that soon won't be that soon.

Either way, all us smartphone lovers benefit. RIM is making the Thunder precisely because the iPhone has put the pressure on, and if the Thunder is a home run, that pressure shifts to Apple to make something even more astounding for the iPhone v3.

Prior to the iPhone, the industry was complacent. Now its moving again. And that's a good thing. (Even if it would be a better thing to see less iCloning and more differentiation and innovation from the other manufacturers, b'okay RIM?)

We've already told you that the Instinct is a sad, pale, wannabe version of the iPhone. That's not just because we're fanboys (we are), even old Walt Mossberg agrees. Sprint apparently saw the writing on the wall too after Uncle Walt's "review" of their device, so they've decided to drop the price down to $129. Actually, it might be cheaper overall, too, given that Sprint will give you that price after a contract of around $70 total per month for unlimited data and 450 minutes. Oh, yeah, and the Instinct will go on sale tomorrow, giving it a huge jump on the iPhone. Or Not.

Honestly - is anybody out there seriously considering an Instinct over an iPhone? We'll grant that there are some people who prefer to pick their carrier first, phone second -- but still, is it possible to even pick up the clean end of a piece of ...Instinct?

Ouch. Seems Samsung and Sprint tried to bring an Instinct to an iPhone fight. At least that's how venerable Wall Street Journal columnist and "D" All Things Digital tech yoda Walt Mossberg made it sound in his iClonic "review" (to be fair, the still unreleased iPhone 3G gets more attention -- and love -- than the unfortunately release-timed Instinct).

How does Mossberg sum up his feelings, some several paragraphs and umpteen iPhone mentions, references, and comparisons down?

If you're a devoted Sprint customer, or want to avoid AT&T, the Instinct is an OK choice. But it's no iPhone.

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Pop Quiz: You're the brain trust up at RIM and Samsung. You know that Apple might just be dropping something hawt today, and last time they did that they set your profitable if complacent industry on its ear, and your execs scrambling to clone catch up. So, your on the precipice of the WWDC 2008 Steve Jobs Keynote -- the only thing anyone has been talking about of late -- what do you do?

If you answered stay quiet and wait for the hype to pass, you're now officially smarter than either RIM or Samsung. Absent something innovative and decidedly non-Apple of their own to announce, better not to announce anything at all.

Which, of course, is why the RIM all Touch-screen, all the time Blackberry Thunder iClone "leaked" via Boy Genius and and the Samsung's i900 iClone is all over Engadget.

Nice try, but buying a cheap knock-off of the prom queen's dress and showing up before her at the dance won't hide the fact that you're hairy dudes with three-piece clone-suits on underneath.

Overly harsh? Maybe, but it's an iPhone blog on Jobsnote day. They shoulda know betta. In fact, they shoulda saved their energy for their soon-to-be-launched iClone 2.0 initiatives...

(Though they did get some press, eh?)

Confession: The real reason I can't wait for the iPhone 3G to drop? So that at long last the rest of the smartphone industry will have something new to copy!

Today's offender is the Samsung SGH-i900, and boy does it run the iClone checklist: rounded rectangular slab? Check. Glossy black facade? Check. Silvered trim? Check. Job dropping interface or any sense of pride in innovation? D'oh! Not even close.

Sister site WMExperts.com offers up the usual suspects specs:

[O]ne of the upcoming batch of über-Windows Mobile phones - 6.1 Pro, 240x400 (weird) screen, 1500mAh battery, FM Radio, TV out.

Way to stand out from the crowd!

Ladies and gentlemen, we give you the first ever live demo of Google's new Android platform... and it's on the iPhone!

[Er... That's the HTC Dream.]

What? Sigh. Okay.

Maybe it's me. Maybe it's a proof of concept. Maybe it's because of the Diamond. Maybe it's just a hormone thing. But does all the innovation have to lead back to Cupertino these days? Does it?

So, another week, another iClone, and more specifically another HTC iClone. (At least they're giving RIM a run for their Bold, Thunder, Storm money for the official iClone volume title...)

Still, it's nice to see Android. As I mentioned in the Top 5 Things the iPhone Could Learn From the Competition, the cloud looks to be the future, and Google currently owns the cloud. Never mind their CEO is on Apple's board of directors (he reportedly recuses himself from iPhone discussions to avoid a conflict of interest), the industry needs the drive Google can provide, even if they wrap it up in a horribly derivative package for now.

Check out the video after after the break!

More videos and images:

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Another day, another iClone! This one comes courtesy of the fine folks at Philips, and Gizmodo shares the duplicative details:

PC World China is saying that the upcoming Xenium x800 will have an "e2e" screen— that's an edge-to-edge touchscreen, apparently. From the photos it looks like it's got an orientation sensor, Wi-Fi, a browser, a curved design and a bevelled metal edge. Sounds a little familiar?

It sure does. It sounds just like the Samsung Instinct, Nokia Tube, RIM (and RIM), and HTC Touch Diamond, and every other device trying to be the iPhone in imitative form rather than revolutionary spirit.

How about iCloning that?

Either Gizmodo is pulling a CES-TV-Blackout caliber gag, or Sprint has done lost their iCloning minds:

Starting May 9th, Sprint will begin a massive, $100 million marketing campaign aimed straight at the iPhone's nether regions. Stacking its 3G Instinct against the iPhone, Sprint hopes to show that EVDO and GPS make their product way better than anything coming out of Cupertino.

Wha-wha-wha-what?!

What will $100 million buy the Samsung Instinct? Ads. Ads that compare them spec-for-spec with last year's iPhone...

Daring Fireball's John Gruber sums it up well:

[I]t boggles the mind that Sprint is hanging a $100 million dollar advertising campaign on two features — GPS and EVDO networking — that the iPhone is widely-rumored to be picking up in its next-generation hardware. Worse, side-by-side, even in commercials commissioned by Sprint, the Instinct looks like crap next to an iPhone — the screen is way smaller and way less bright. What’s clear is that Sprint is run by MBA-trained executives who see everything as a general “business” problem. In their minds, the same things apply to selling phones as toothpaste. How about this idea: Take $100 million and use it to design a better phone?

What do you think?

Let's see, another day, another trade show, another shameless iPhone knockoff...

We've covered (and recovered) the disappointing iPhone-esque stylings of the new Blackberry, and the interwebs have pretty much beaten the Meizu into a sparking, frying pulp, yet it seems the mobile design world just can't get enough of Poppa Jobs' little industry revolutionizer.

It's been over a year since Macworld 2007, and what has Samsung been cooking up? Something totally unique, original, and game changing all their own? Something to keep pushing the industry forward? Er... not so much. Gizmodo brings us a quick look at the "new" Instinct, set to rock the Sprint network, in all its iPhone "homage" glory:

Samsung's Instinct may be the best stab at the coveted title of iPhone killah this CTIA.

Oh, really? Stalwart Apple pundit site Daring Fireball retorts:

I enjoy how in this initial report, based on a press release and press screenshots, Gizmodo dubs it a “decent iPhone competitor”, but then when they actually got to see one firsthand it ends up — surprise surprise — that it’s buggy as hell. Plus the web browser, despite the magic bullet of 3G networking, is “painfully slow”.

And provides a Twitter post from Macworld editorial director Jason Snell, both pithy and profound, to sum things up:

Dear writers, announcing an iPhone knockoff is not "upping the ante." It's not even calling. It's putting your watch into the pot.

So, is imitation the sincerest form of flattery or just a sign that no one else in the industry has any of their own Big Ideas anymore? Are you sticking with your iPhone, or just dying to rush out and snap up an iClone? What do you think?