Apple shuts down iPhone clone

Hot on the heels of the iPhone 4's first thrust into the Chinese app market, Apple has forced the imitator Meizu to stop making and selling its M8 handset, writes ThinQ.

The identikit phone - which ThinQ hack Paul Taylor described as "so atrociously slow and useless, it ended up in the recycling bin after a week" when he got his hands on one earlier this year - has now been axed after the Chinese Intellectual Property Office bowed to demands from the Cupertino company.

The Chinese outfit's outspoken CEO, Jack Wong, who once threatened to counter-sue Apple's legal eagles suggesting the iPhone maker had stolen his ideas, is still defying the authorities saying that, although he will stop production of the 'wannabe' gadget, he will continue to sell existing inventory.

Samsung has unveiled three new Wave smartphones running its own Bada operating system, aimed at the social networking generation, reports eWeek.

The new phones are the Wave525, the Wave533 and the Wave575, which all include 3.2-inch touch-screen displays, 100MB of internal memory and 3.2MP cameras. The 525 and the 575 have 11.9mm bodies and come in black, white or pink, while the 533 has a slide-out qwerty keyboard.

The phones all offer access to Samsung's integrated messaging platform, which includes SMS, e-mail, SNS, and instant messaging. This was also one of the major selling points of Samsung's first Wave smartphone, released in February.

Authorities in the UAE have withdrawn proposals to bar certain functions from BlackBerry handsets used in the country, says Breaking Travel News.

Following discussions with maker Research In Motion, the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority confirmed the ban - which was due to come into effect later this week - would not go ahead.

In a statement the body said: “All BlackBerry services in the UAE will continue to operate as normal and no suspension of service will occur on 11 October”.