iPod touch clone selling at large Canadian retailer
updated 02:50 pm EST, Fri December 26, 2008
Visual Land iPod clone
Southern California-based Visual Land's V-Touch VL-875 multimedia player is being sold on Boxing day, Friday, at Future Shop, a major Canadian electronics chain store owned by Best Buy. The 8GB gadget, which bears a striking resemblance to Apple's iPhone and iPod touch, sports a 2.8-inch, 240x320 resolution resistive touchscreen and is part of Visual Land's VL-805-series of personal multimedia players, which are differentiated by their onboard memory capacities, ranging from 1GB through to the current 8GB example.
Like the iPod touch, the VL-875 sports a built-in speaker but the specs similarities end there. Unlike the iPod touch, the VL-875 has a 2.0-megapixel camera capable of capturing still images and videos. Supported video files include AVI, MP4 and 3GP, while MP3, WMA and WAV audio formats can be played back. BMP and JPG images can be viewed on the VL-875. External memory can be added to the device in the form of a miniSD card slot and the gadget can be used as a flash drive when connected to a computer via its USB connection.
A digital FM tuner is integrated into the iPod touch lookalike, and users can save 20 of their favorite stations. A voice recorder function is also part of the phone's feature-set. A stylus and earphones are included with the VL-875.
The V-Touch 8GB is priced at nearly $80 CAD ($65), or $150 CAD less than a second-generation 8GB iPod touch. Apple has not responded to the presence of the device on the retailer's shelves.
Better features indeed!
12/26, 03:25pm (1 reply) reply
This thing comes nowhere close aesthetically to the Touch however does blow it out of the water on features; especiallly the penultimate: (from Futureshop blurb)
FEATURES:
Colour TFT touch screen
2MP digital camera for stills, video and webcam use
Expandable MiniSD card slot for up to 4GB of storage
AVI, MP4, 3GP video playback
MP3, WMA, WAV audio playback
JPG, BMP image viewer
Built-in speaker
FM radio with up to 20 presets
Voice recorder
Works as USB flash drive
Rechargeable battery
Included In Box: Mac or Win98SE/2000/XP/Vista , 30MB Free HD Space, USB Port
Included In Box: Stylus, Carrying Pouch, Headphones, USB Cable, Wall Charger, Instruction Manual
Guest
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 1999
Rip off
12/26, 04:02pm reply
How can these people rip off other products so blatantly. The look and feel is all Apple and the icons are direct rip offs. They should be ashamed!!
Parky
Mac Elite
Joined: Oct 1999
No browser/mail?
12/26, 04:18pm reply
...it would seem quite a different animal - much more a convergence media than a 'crippled' connectivity device... Maybe Apple should take note? Maybe they have (iPhone nano?)
bobolicious
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2002
re: no browser/ mail
12/26, 04:32pm reply
It would be really funny to see browser and mail client on this device. What would be its purpose? How would it connect? There is no WiFi!!!
Perhaps someone here believes this is a phone. It isn't. It is a lame attempt at an iPod rip-off. If anything, one could compare it with the Nano (and it still fails miserably).
vasic
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: May 2005
No app store
12/26, 05:14pm reply
Enough said :-)
Guest
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 1999
No app store
12/26, 05:14pm reply
Enough said :-)
Guest
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 1999
microcenter
12/27, 04:41pm (1 reply) reply
has it too, I was shocked to see them carry rip-off products.
bloggerblog
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2007
Microcenter
12/29, 11:41am reply
has ALWAYS carried D-list knockoffs. At least the one by me always has.
If there's no Wifi, wi bother? Web surfing is the ONLY reason I'd ever buy a Touch -- OR a variation of it.
Monstermind
Junior Member
Joined: May 2000
So last century...
12/30, 12:32pm reply
BMP, WAV, WMA, AVI... WTF? Sounds like a perfect companion to your Windoze 95 machine...
unscriptable
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: May 2008