While browsing Apple’s App Store this weekend, you may have been surprised to see an iconic game sitting among the most popular iPhone apps. When a Pokemon Yellow app appeared in the App Store for $0.99, many unsuspecting users quickly jumped at the chance to finally have the highly-additive Nintendo RPG on their mobile devices. Those people would end up disappointed because the app was plagued by crashes, making it completely unplayable. What’s more, it was an unauthorized copy created by “...

Authorities with China’s Administration for Industry and Commerce have uncovered 22 additional fake Apple Store outlets in Kunming, the largest city in the Yunnan Province, Reuters reported on Thursday. Kunming is where a blog named BirdAbroad first revealed the existence of unofficial Apple Stores that posed as the real deal. In late July Chinese officials closed down two of the stores for lacking business licenses, but allowed others to remain open because they have licenses to trade and sell genuine ...

Chinese trade officials have raided and shut down two of five fake Apple Stores in Kunming, BBC News reported on Monday. The two stores weren’t closed for impersonating an Apple Store, instead both were shuttered for lacking business licenses. Travel blog BirdAbroad brought attention to the fake stores last week when it detailed one convincing shop in Kunming that sold real Apple products. That shop has not been closed because it “has a license to trade and is selling genuine Apple products,”...

A tech enthusiast site called TechHog recently leaked an image of what it says is the upcoming third Nexus-branded smartphone from Google. Though the site’s post has since been pulled, the photo shows a phone with a buttonless design built by HTC and a form factor that slightly resembles that of the iPhone 3GS. If Google wants to ditch the Android menu keys on its next Nexus device — which would presumably run Ice Cream Sandwich, likely eliminating the need for the typical Android menu keys — weR...

 I obviously wanted to be 100% sure about this before I posted a follow up post, but before I go into the details, I’d like you all to know about how we operate over here…Yes, BGR runs rumors and information that is not always completely confirmed. That is part of the game we are in. What we and other quality sites do is research, confirm, and make our best editorial judgements before running information that is not yet confirmed. Over the past 5 years, I’ve had more exclusives in the mobil...

According to Engadget, the site that scooped the pics, this prototype was “found on the floor of a San Jose bar inside of an iPhone 3G case” and supposedly features a front-facing camera and 80GB of internal memory. Here’s what we’re betting on… we do think this unit is actually real and not a fake, clone or anything else. But, we’re guessing it’s very — and we mean very — early along in the prototype phase. Not to say the final design isn’t all read...

Take this as you will, but we’ve been told the images floating around of “BlackBerry OS 6.0″ are nothing more than concept mockups that were originally made for RIM’s MWC presentation. (more…)

Nary a day after its announcement, a hastily made, WordPress.com-hosted blog claims to have the first ever pictures of the new Google Chrome OS. The OS was purportedly installed on an aging dual core Acer Extensa 4620Z as part of a demonstration given to the Acer team at company that supplies parts for Acer. The screenshots show a very minimal OS with a docking bar, reportedly called the Chrome bar, and Google Talk as the only available application. The leaker claims to have seen a quick run through of the OS...

We try to avoid covering the unending waterfall of handset copies that flows out of China, but this one is so bad it’s good. Behold, the Nokia N97i. The “i“, by the way, apparently stands for “it doesn’t even have a QWERTY keypad”. Found lounging about in a shop in China, the N97i kiiiiind of, sort of, almost looks like an N97 until you turn it on… or flip it over and see the 3.2 megapixel camera… or try to slide the display up to reveal the keypad of course. In...

Next time when you post a photoshopped image of a BlackBerry, make sure you don’t leave the mic hole from a BlackBerry 8800 on the bottom. It’s a dead giveaway. So is it 100% photoshopped? No. But we’d go as far as 99.99% since we made this in about 8 minutes and the original picture just doesn’t feel right. Who knows.

If you see a listing for an iPhone nano on eBay, don’t freak out and spend your life savings to be the first to own this hotly rumored device. Chances are quite good that the phone you receive will not be a genuine Apple product but a cheap knockoff from Thailand – and by “chances are quite good,” we mean it’s fake. iPhone knockoffs appear to be a dime a dozen in Thailand with some designed to fool the casual shopper by bearing an authentic-looking Apple logo and iPhone branding ...

Yeah, we’ve heard it all before. “How many different ways can you present a phone on video?” “No, it’s not copying the iPhone commercials and video walkthroughs.” “You’re an Apple fanboy!” Blah, blah, blah. But we’re sure we’re not the only ones a bit surprised to see RIM offering a video sneak peak at the BlackBerry Bold. As nice as that is, there are a couple things that really get under our skin. First off, RIM has never done this before. Th...