04/16/2007, 4:40pm, EDT
Monday, April 16thBrevisys plans direct iPhone copy
IP communications firm Brevisys today generated controversy with news of its upcoming deeda handhelds. Each of the company's three new devices not only shares the same philosophy of an exclusively touchscreen-based interface but shares similar features and clear visual cues inspired by the Apple phone's interface.[digg this] The most obvious parallel is the Pi, according to even the company's own claims. A 3.6-inch, 800x480 touchscreen controls both a phone as well as Wi-Fi Internet access, music, and video on 8GB of flash storage.
Unique to the handset is the option of a 30GB or 60GB hard drive, ultra wideband (UWB) for nearby peripherals, and a VGA front camera for video chats to complement the 2-megapixel camera at the back. Battery life is rated at 5 hours for active talking and 4 hours for Internet browsing.
Controversially, however, the company claims that its design is original and will be less restrictive to end users.
"Our multimedia players began their design and development process over a year before the recently unveiled Apple iPhone® and LG Prada Phone," the company writes. "As a result we have our own patents pending for our device designs and interfaces. However, unlike certain corporations we believe in individual creativity, not just a company's internal creativity and their ideas."
To support this, the handset maker touts that its deeda handhelds will embrace an open-source philosophy with a Linux-based OS that can freely install programs or receive code changes from outsiders to expose new features. An optimized version of Mozilla's Firefox 2 browser will come preinstalled along with social networking tools and a dedicated media jukebox interface.
The company also hopes to preempt similarly-inspired dedicated media players. Arriving at roughly the same time is the Menx, which shares the dimensions of the Pi without the cellphone or video calling functions, as well as the 3-inch Kiku. Either player will have the option of 4GB or 8GB of flash.
Surprisingly, the company purports that it will ship all three deeda systems in summer, shortly after the iPhone's launch. The Pi specifically will be available as an unlocked phone that should support either AT&T or T-Mobile networks in the US. Prices are unknown.
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"However, unlike certain corporations we believe in individual creativity, not just a company's internal creativity and their ideas."
Surprised they didn't put a "neener-neener" at the end.
I think the tone of the "creativity" statement was to divert attention away from the previous one. Very sneaky. It might even work on the casual reader/listener.
If there a worse SP in the US in terms of coverage and dropped calls?
I doubt AT&T will support it as I'm sure apple has a clause protecting it from copycats.
And to all the Apple fanboys (of which I'm one), if the iPhone doesn't support custom applications, then this phone has something very serious that it can compete with. A fully programmable Linux operating system is infinitely more powerful than an uncustomizable, locked OS X.
Another point, this 'thing' is so thin that it doesn't even have a battery!
It doesn't seem to bother anyone that this phone literally does EVERYTHING. Not just "a little of this and that", but EVERYTHING. It even runs FireFox, is thinner than the iPhone, runs Linux, allows people to install Windows, MacOSX, or any other OS... even Palm.
On one screenshot on the Brevisys site, it even had a fingerprint scanner on the back. I'll say this though... The DEMOs on the site were nice... when they were up (I think the bandwidth killed them). Very iPhone-like demos. Other REAL manufacturers should take note how Deeda and Apple pulled this off. Had I slightly more foresight (and free time) I would have YouTubed these Flash-demos earlier this weekend.
This is really really funny. Gizmodo was not amused however. Engadget seemed to fall for it... amongst other sites. (looks around...)
I'm proud to list the first iPhone competitor HOAX on my iPhoneWar site. I'm tempted to stick it into the competitor line-up for shucks and giggles.
I long time ago I got into an argument on CompuServe, with some guy claiming to draw pictures of "photo-realistic" superheroes. They were bodybuilders painted over in Photoshop. He kept insisting they weren't and I finally had to give up arguing. It's amazing how a lot of determination can appeal to the sucker in us all.
DEEDA (Dynamic End-to-End Data Aggregation) refers to the companies P2P technology.
Deeda.com' site is a joke, not much else