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.

by MacNN Staff