Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Why merely steal the entirety of your product’s industrial design and user interface when you can gank so much more? Philip Warner of Lithium Picnic studios dropped us a line to let us know that the wallpaper being used on the latest rendering of Meizu’s M8 MiniOne is his own work — and surprise, surprise, Meizu hasn’t licensed it, which ironically only serves to rip off Apple’s own ripping off of artists. Yeah, you’ve gotta have stones to survive in this industry, but Meizu’s chutzpah takes it to a whole new level, particularly if they makes good on their apparent intention to debut the M8 stateside at CES in a few weeks. Then again, when they said “CES,” maybe they meant some knockoff tradeshow held in a vacant lot somewhere.

[Image via CNMO]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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For those who still have an old iMac lying around, why not turn it into a place for fish to stay? Dubbed the iMacQuarium, this hobby (if you can call it so) definitely ought to make iMacs fall under the good graces of the folks at Greenpeace, unlike the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii. Unfortunately, you can’t exactly store huge fish in such a small space, so tiny Nemos would have to do for the moment.

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Filed under: News

Do you love the earth? How about the PSP and PS3? Good, because your loves are one and the same. Sony is called the most green games manufacturer by environmental group Greenpeace. Sony scored an impressive 7.3 from the organization, making it the third most green company in the list. Compare that to Microsoft at 2.7 and Nintendo at a shocking 0. Sony fans certainly can be proud of their company’s efforts to truly go green.

Read the full report here.

[Via Joystiq]

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Yes I do hate coloring in the lines.

Well, responses seemed encouraging to the idea. I’ve never done a webcomic before, and am in fact horrible at drawing and have amiddling sense of humor when I’m allowed to ramble and a very strange one when I must condense.

So, comic experiment number 1. Good feedback, and I’ll try again. Negative and…well, that’ll be the end.

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Filed under: Industry, Consumer experience, Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), China, China Mobile Limited (CHL)

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is not making the kind of headway it would like to in China. It still runs far behind local search engine Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) in market share. Reuters thinks it has the road-map for the US company and it involves Google “linking up with local partners, navigating draconian regulations and understanding Chinese tastes.”

Easily said.

Google is not allowed to bring in its Google News product and use it to any effect due to censorship regulations. In the meantime, Baidu has been allowed to start its own news service. Local copyright rules do not allow the US company to offer its free music search function.

Companies like China Mobile (NYSE: CHL) are controlled by government regulators and the large cellular provider can pick which search functions it allows on its handsets. It can also set fees for software providers like Google and set them very high.

Reuters points out that the Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) MSN product in China is part of a joint venture that is run by the son of a former Chinese president.

All of this seems a bit sordid, and perhaps it is. Google, however, has to decide if it is willing to go to extraordinary lengths to move into the big market, or keep some of its dignity and take what market share it can get through normal business practices.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

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Filed under: Audio/Video, Video Games, Celebrities

Do you remember The Romantics? The group had a hit in 1980 with “What I Like About You.” Of course, now you remember. Is there anything else you remember this foursome for? No, we didn’t think so.

It turns out you can now also remember them as the one-hit-wonders that sued Activision because the cover version of “What I Like About You” included in the last version of ‘Guitar Hero’ was simply too good.

Activision, Red Octane, Harmonix, and Wave Group Sound are named in a suit that alleges that the cover version included in the game is so good (read: realistic), fans can’t tell the difference between the original and the cover.

The most absurd part is that the Romantics are trying to get the game pulled from store shelves, several months after its release!

From USA Today

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Filed under: Dessert, Recipes, Fruit, Baking, Sugar, Holidays

Did you know that fruitcake is considered a holiday dessert to this day because of a law that was passed in England in the 18th century? The law restricted fruitcake consumption to the holiday season because it was considered far too rich for regular eating. These days, whether people think of fruitcake kindly or with deep suspicion, it is something to make, consume and share around the holidays.

One of the tricky things about fruitcake is that it has to cure (preferably while sipping generous amounts of rum or brandy) for at least a month after it is baked. Luckily, this means that if you are interested in baking one for this year’s Christmas or New Year’s celebration, you have just enough to do it and let it get better over the next month. There are lots of different recipes out there for fruitcake. After the jump you’ll find the one that I used just this afternoon. In the interest of full disclosure, I must say that this was the first time I used this recipe, so I can’t testify to its goodness, as the cake is currently swathed in cheesecloth and sucking down half a cup of rum. However, it smelled pretty darn good while baking and didn’t call for any suspect neon fruit so I am hoping for success. If you have your own family recipe, I recommend going with that. If you flat out don’t like fruitcake, well, I just can’t help you there.

Continue reading Make your holiday fruitcake now!

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Filed under: PlayStation Network

ThreeSpeech is reporting that the Home Beta is updated. One of our beta sources can confirm that this update applies to all members of the beta, both American and European. Here are some of the updates that ThreeSpeech is providing:

• There’s a new building in the world, although it’s currently one that can’t be entered
• You are finally able to enter your Home Space’s patio
• You can now use your own pictures in your Home Space
• A game launching option has been added, though it is not functioning completely at the present time
• The cinema’s movie theatres have transferred from the second floor to the first floor
• America, Japan, and Europe each have their own server now

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