14 DAY TRIAL // You know your product is really popular when the rip-offs hit the market. We're not talking about also-rans and similar devices that 'borrow' some features, but about the actual rip-offs that are so blatant it's funny. In some rare instances, the knock-offs actually manage to hit the market before the actual product, this is the case of the tPhone.
Unsurprisingly, the tPhone comes from China, and it does its best to look and feel like an iPhone. It features a 2 Megapixel camera for photos and movies in MPEG4 format; 2 SIM-Cards, which you can switch on the fly; WAP browser; 64MB of built-in memory; 256 MB micro SD Card in an expansion slot; Stereo speakers on the front face and two additional speakers on the back that boast "3D Sound"; USB-connector; and a removable battery.
Though the device fails to come close to what the iPhone offers in terms of features, it more than makes up for it in humorous value. Beginning with the startup chime from Windows, when the phone is first turned on, and to the flipped Apple logo on the splash screen, attention has been paid to every detail. The icons on the prone are also a nice mix of OS X and Windows icons, and the little pencil stub stylus is just too cute. However, the icing on the cake is Apple's copyright notice on the back of the device which looks to have been copied word for word from the actual iPhone one.
Sadly enough, this blatant knock-off is just a few steps behind the real iPhone also-rans. This won't fool anybody, but then neither will devices from any of the major phone manufacturers. Real Multi Touch, real Internet, real iPod and iTunes, it all stands out and everyone can spot the fakes from a mile away, even without the flipped Apple logo.
You can see the tPhone in all its glory on YouTube: