Keepin' it real fake, part LXXXI: New iPod nano clones unveiled, thanks China

The first third-gen iPod nano fake we spotted was kind of low on details, so we're glad to see YJL giving it to us straight here with the new U2-C player. Innovative features include MP4, MP3 and WMA playback, mass storage support (what a novel idea!), voice recording, "A-B repeat" and an FM tuner. Clearly the iPod nano can never hope to compete, but good try Apple, you'll lick 'em next time. No word on capacities or price, but these things can't be far from eBayability.

[Via The Gadget Site]

[Detox @ Sep 23rd 2007 8:10PM]

It's kinda sad that a cheap fake like this has more features than the real thing.

[john @ Sep 23rd 2007 8:12PM]

Sad, but true.
Someone make a better ipod touch please.. Shouldn't be too difficult.

[JDizzle @ Sep 24th 2007 5:43PM]

It's because these Chinese manufacturers don't discriminate. They'll let their product play any format that's out there. You're not gonna see iPods playing WMAs anytime soon.

[jay-t @ Sep 23rd 2007 8:26PM]

What is sad are companies that steel intelectual properties without beeing called to account for by courts AND consumers as they encourages them to produce such fakes!!

[DAZA @ Sep 23rd 2007 8:41PM]

What is sad are people who don't know how to spell "steal" correctly :/

[Owen V @ Sep 23rd 2007 9:15PM]

@jay-t
in this case, I really dont think they are hurting apple's bottom line. pursuing them for an award would almost certainly cost more than it would bring in.

[Zed @ Sep 23rd 2007 9:33PM]

@john

meizu is coming out with an m7. a ipod touch rip-off.

I cant wait :D

[John @ Sep 23rd 2007 10:33PM]

@ DAZA

People like you, criticizing misspellings and off topic, are really sad! Are you a teacher? Have you never mistyped a word?

[MastaWu @ Sep 23rd 2007 11:13PM]

I could tell DAZA or anyone else defending fake (such as its features etc) are chinese. Stop changing the subject. What China needs to do = quit copying, make your own. @Detox= more features? yea maybe such as FM, or recording. But in crappy quality(FM,rec), crappy UI, crap material.

[ShamelessChinese @ Sep 24th 2007 12:20AM]

Here's what's happening in China: 1) Japanese and Korean gadget, phone
and car makers release sleek, innovative new devices or vehicles
domestically in Japan and Korea. 2) Chinese rip-off companies buy
one, and return to China where the whole thing is copied.3) The
Chinese companies sell the fake version domestically in China. 4)
when the original is finally sold in China, Chinese consumers think
the original is a counterfeit of a Chinese original, since the
Chinese phone was sold first, and are OUTRAGED at the copyright
violation. Counterfeiters cost legit companies about $600 billion per
year and growing fast, and the overwhelming majority of it happens in
China.

[ShamelessChinese @ Sep 24th 2007 12:22AM]

For information on "Chinese piracy" (and the scope of its impact on
the global economy), check the following links
out:http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200701/200701150004.htmlhttp://www.engadget.com/2006/11/24/keepin-it-real-fake-part-xxxvii-china-car-makers-strike-again/http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200611/200611240009.htmlhttp://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200701/200701160009.htmlI
have TONS more of these!

[ShamelessChinese @ Sep 24th 2007 12:31AM]

Here's a video clip on the "rampant chinese piracy" from the Japanese news: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSBMc9Z5od8Highlights
(for those who can't speak Japanese):
- A copy of a car tail light: the original says KOREA on it, while the Chinese copy says KOBEA. The other major difference between them is that the Chinese-made light is not properly sealed and can fill up with rain water.
- Korean consumers tell reporters that it is very difficult for them to tell if brand bags being sold in shops are the real thing. - A Chinese company is selling copies of a Korean beer brand. Six months after a South
Korean company started selling a new motorbike, a Chinese company suddenly began selling an copy of the vehicle. While the outside appearance is similar, the Chinese-made bike's engine apparently breaks down within its first year of use.
- A Korean employee of a major golf goods brand states that he is concerned that Chinese/Taiwanese copies are having a negative influence on the image of his brand.

Sources:
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200701/200701150004.html
http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/24/keepin-it-real-fake-part-xxxvii-china-car-makers-strike-again/
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200611/200611240009.html
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200701/200701160009.html

[Jonathan Keim @ Sep 23rd 2007 8:11PM]

Wow, that was fast.

[Grant @ Sep 23rd 2007 8:21PM]

I'm surprised it took them this long.
I'm sure they just ripped the guts from their previous knockoff and shoved it in new casing.
i'm suprised those wiley chinese took nearly 3 weeks to get this puppy out.

[Derry Quinn @ Sep 23rd 2007 8:45PM]

Yeah kids can work much faster than that! Whip 'em every once in a while and starve 'em and you get 5 nano-fakes a minute!

[Thomas @ Sep 24th 2007 12:43AM]

Actually, we contacted them and they are NOT available now and they DO NOT even have samples - they will be available for around the same price as the 2nd Gen Nano clones w/ FM, etc - ($8 Bucks more/pc) they are only advetising and you can tell that those are not even their own pictures LOL .... I am sure http://www.pmptoday.com/2007/09/22/ipod-nano-video-clone-officially-available will let us all know when they are officially for sale online :)

BR

http://www.ChinaGrabber.com

[ark_v2 @ Sep 24th 2007 12:44AM]

Fast? I expected one of those when the phatty was leaked.

[Steve @ Sep 23rd 2007 8:19PM]

Not a big surprise here! I have seen in the past some chinese made nano (previous generation)... The look was similar, the packaging was similar, but the device itself was a different story. A lot of extra stuff that were not available on the real iPod but the user interface and how to use that beast was just really a good laugh !

Steve
http://inewsonly.com
The first ZUI news aggregator for iPhone and iPod touch

[Jeff @ Sep 23rd 2007 8:19PM]

As a retailer of these things...these probably also have the same 1.5 hour battery life as their previous gen models.

[dj-kenpo @ Sep 23rd 2007 9:33PM]

ya, my buddy ben went through 4 of those things before he finally gave up (he kept exchanging after the headphone jacks kept breaking) he finally got the real thing.

they're interesting, and a good price. but not built of quality, that's for sure.

[blackeagle @ Sep 23rd 2007 8:20PM]

wow go china

[Ignacio @ Sep 23rd 2007 8:24PM]

lol, they even stole the picture used in their site straight from apple.com:
http://www.yjl.net.cn/en/articleshow.asp?articleid=151

[carl @ Sep 23rd 2007 9:42PM]

yeah, and they spelled building "buidling" at the bottom of the page

[LEXX911 @ Sep 23rd 2007 8:25PM]

It's so weird that Apple isn't doing anything about stopping this and the other knockoff that's coming out of China. Is this part of Steve Jobs' masterplan that we don't know about?

[John Doe @ Sep 23rd 2007 9:20PM]

If the state department and the FBI can't stop this shit what makes you think Apple can? Contrary to popular belief Jobs is not God.

[why not the LS2LS7? @ Sep 23rd 2007 9:22PM]

It's not illegal in China to make "look-alikes". So as long as it isn't exactly the same, they don't call it an "iPod" and they don't use "Apple" or the Apple logo, there's nothing Apple can do about this in China.

They're not legal to sell in many other countries, due to stronger anti-knockoff legislation. This is why you usually find them on eBay, where enforcement (preventing sale) is very difficult to to the huge number of sellers.

[Josh @ Sep 23rd 2007 9:39PM]

Good to know that there is really no intellectual property in china.

[shrek79 @ Sep 24th 2007 12:02AM]

This is what Apple get's for having the lowest bidder, China, build it's products. Next the batteries will start exploding.

[tehpyro @ Sep 23rd 2007 8:26PM]

hot damn! more features adn better colours! Seriously apple... you F*cked up the colours on this generation of nano's ... I was kind of hoping for an ipod mini return too... in place of the "classic"

[Wolfticket @ Sep 23rd 2007 8:36PM]

The only surprise is that this didn't beat the real one to the shops after the leaked photos came out.

[painty @ Sep 23rd 2007 8:47PM]

sinserely Mike

[rTwelve @ Sep 23rd 2007 9:26PM]

What is A-B repeat anyway?

[Paul Fehr @ Sep 23rd 2007 9:41PM]

I believe it works like this:

Song is playing. At 1:05 into the song, you hit a button, and that saves it at A. Then at 1:35 you hit another button, and it saves it as B)

After the second time pressing a button, it makes a loop. From 1:05 to 1:35, once it hits 1:35 it starts at 1:05 again.

I think its mainly only useful for learning parts of the song on instruments (guitars, drums, keyboards, etc) or making annoying things, like 1 second loops would get terribly annoying.

[Jeff @ Sep 24th 2007 1:48AM]

It's also for language learning - popular function for those flash based mp3 players in Asia. You can use it when you want the word "apple" to loop over and over while you listen to DaVinci Code.

[Jacob @ Sep 23rd 2007 9:27PM]

lol... check out their iphone...

http://www.yjl.net.cn/en/articleshow.asp?articleid=146

[Rick @ Sep 23rd 2007 9:37PM]

Funny, the only ones here that are pissed are the Apple fanboys. Who the fuck cares if I or anybody else buys a ripoff that is likely to be more superior. What your mad at the the fact that half the U.S. tomorrow will be sporting these things at half the cost and your precious expensive Apple shit won't be so novel and trendy anymore. Get over it suckers.

[Michael @ Sep 23rd 2007 10:38PM]

People buy Apple products not because they are cheap or have all the bells and whistles. People buy them because they are quality made, logically thought out in design and interface, good looking and well supported. You can walk into an Apple store with a broken iPod in your first year and get a new one.

That being said I don't have anything against people buying these ripoffs. But you do get what you pay for. Personally I'd rather throw down the money for the real thing then waste my time dealing with some faulty device that has a completely screwy interface.

The bright side is, so long as these Chinese factories continue to just be copy cats and not innovators, we in the US will still have something to contribute to the world economy.

[yoshi @ Sep 24th 2007 1:36AM]

One day you may grow up and figure this out. I have my doubts, but miracles do happen.

It’s called intellectual property. That means that if I have an idea and I bust my butt to develop that idea into a product, I get certain rights associated with that idea. Actually, I don’t even have to make it into a product to get rights, but for the sake of your comment, let’s say I do make it into a product.

It took me a LOT of time and a LOT of effort and a LOT of money to turn my idea into a product. If someone else then copies my product, slaps their label on it, and undercuts my price, I’m out of business. They have basically stolen my time, my effort, and my money in developing the product.

Now, judging from your comment, you’re likely to say, “ZOMG, so what? Better for ME, ME, ME, the consumer!!!!!!”. And you couldn’t be more wrong, wrong, wrong. Because the NEXT time I have an idea, I’m just not going to bother. Why should I? If people like you are just going to steal it, I’ll save myself the headaches and loss on income and just spend my time traveling around the world instead.

The result is that all the people with the best ideas will tell you to go take a hike. All you will be left with is your ripoff friends who rarely, if ever, come up with a worthwhile and unique idea all on their own.

[FMcamaroZ28 @ Sep 23rd 2007 9:52PM]

.... except they are junk, like 90% of what comes out of chinas ports

[James Wood @ Sep 23rd 2007 10:18PM]

FMcamaroZ28. The stuff from China is completely different from that quality, precision engineered piece of junk that you call a car :)

I guess you don't own a computer, game console, cell phone, or anything from the last five years of recent technology. If you knew how to read, you'd notice many were made in China and other countries you've never heard of.

Seeing as how you can't spell and properly punctuate, it's fair to say this is all way above your head.

[Twitchy @ Sep 23rd 2007 10:48PM]

@FMcamaroZ28: Generalisations are always wrong. Think about it.

@ James Wood: Take a closer look at all the gadgets you mentioned and you'll find that most are ASSEMBLED in China, not manufactured. The parts (quite often only the technical bits iside, but sometimes such as in the case of the PSP all bits) are manufactured outside of China and sent there to be put together.
As such, China is not as great a producer of technology as often implied, but often only simply inserts 'Tab A into Slot B'.

[James Wood @ Sep 23rd 2007 10:10PM]

I'm sick of the RACISTS who work at Engadget.

How is it that when there is a problem product like this one, they need to generalize and lump it in as something from China/India/Korea?

It's not like when some crappy product comes from another country, say, England, that they say "Thanks, England" or "More garbage from the English" Totally biased crap.

Burn in hell, guys.

[Twitchy @ Sep 23rd 2007 10:31PM]

Once a product with dangerous levels of lead, containing less original innovation than it does quality, and having little to no customer service to back it up comes from the UK, then you'll hear Engadget say it. Or when Chinese manufacturers stop making a quick buck off idiot consumers and start making truly competitive products with their own ideas, then attitudes will change. Look at the Japanese - they managed to do it, when will China?

[John @ Sep 23rd 2007 11:30PM]

It's not biased if it's true. The point is that China's laws allow this. It's not that there are unscrupulous bastards in China who make blatant knockoffs - we have a more than adequate supply of those here in the States, believe me - but that they are allowed to do it and keep doing it.

[ShamelessChinese @ Sep 24th 2007 12:13AM]

Actually, the "Chinese/Taiwanese Piracy crisis" costs the legit Korean/Japanese/American companies such as Samsung, Sony, LG and Apple more than $650 billion every year.

BTW, @James Wood, hey you dumb-dimwit, don't lump the Koreans in with the Chinese here. As everyone knows, the Koreans have always lead the world when it comes to digital convergence, mobile and robotics.

Sources:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aSm8mwwFMr8k&refer=home
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Digital-Korea-Convergence-Multiplayer-E-Government/dp/095560690X

[Natedog @ Sep 23rd 2007 10:20PM]

"Innovative features include: ..." I'm not condoning the blatant ripping off that they're pulling here, but I don't understand why Engadget is sarcastically listing the features to prove the device is inferior. Which of those "innovative features" does the iPod actually have?

[Jim @ Sep 23rd 2007 10:48PM]

I hear that the scroll wheel leaks lead paint all over you when you use it. Sheesh!

[IndiaTech @ Sep 23rd 2007 10:56PM]

There might be lots of reasons as to why Steve Jobs is not going after these guys, like:
a) Chinese Laws may not be favorable.
b) He doesn't know where Mr. YJL lives or works, seriously.
c) Legal costs.
d) Sad to say, Steve Jobs needs China as much as China needs Apple. He need to keep his manu. units in China to keep the costs down. I mean he can't shift his base from China to Pakistan / Bangaladesh (Political Stability), India (Cheep for Services but still costly for manu. Not to say no Infra.), Cambodia / Thailand / VietNam (Cost and /or Political Reasons)

What I don't get here is, has Mr. Jobs ever realised that Mr. Yu from YJL might have 4th cousin twice removed call Mr. Chen who works for Apple's Unit in Shanghai and passing on, you know, "one more thing" info during their family reunion? Even though the new nanos were official released 3 weeks back, they were not shipped till 2 weeks ago. And I dont think they were available so soon in SE Asian / Chinese markets.

So to reverse engineer these beauties and to create their clones, either you need internal docs / design before hand or you need Ben Affleck working for you...

BTW Mr. Chen might be also working for 9to5.com :)

[john @ Sep 23rd 2007 11:02PM]

C'mon, the only reason nobody can stop China from copying is cuz ninja's will cut they're freak'n head off!

[IndiaTech @ Sep 24th 2007 3:48AM]

@John... Ninjas are Japs no Chinese... :)