The rebranded DigiCube Z8 MID phone aka the EKING S515 MID phone is ready to hit the market later this month in China. It runs on an Intel Atom 1.2GHz processor and packs a 16GB SSD, 1GB RAM and a 5″ WVGA touchscreen display. It will be available from Amazon China and will retail for $669. It ships starting tomorrow.

It’s said to be compatible with three of the country’s 3G networks, but only the China Telecom-flavored device is currently available at Amazon China.

We’ve seen our share of Apple clones and rip-offs, but on this one, they’ve taken the Apple name way too literally. I mean, it’s shaped like an apple, has buttons in the shape of apples, flips open like a sliced apple and so on and so on.

It’s from Apple, we get it. Only it’s not. Some of the craptastic specs include: quadband GSM support, a 2″ display, dual SIM, integrated FM radio, TXT file reader, a digital camera and support for a maximum of 10 languages.

Seems like China is the land of Android lately. And here’s the LG GW880, the company’s first Android phone. To clarify, in this case “Android” means China Mobile’s custom WiFi-less OPhone platform, so we won’t be seeing this one outside of China.

It gives you a good idea of what LG’s handset designers have in mind for Android sets though. This one sports the following specs: A stunning 3.5-inch WVGA touchscreen, 256MB RAM, GPS, and a five megapixel camera.

A Chinese company showed what it’s calling the world’s first mobile phone to run Windows XP at Computex on Friday. The xpPhone wakes Windows from standby mode to receive calls and text messages and has a battery life of seven hours when not in standby. With a larger battery it’s capable of running for 12 hours.

The device is powered by a customized chip from Advanced Micro Devices made by In Technology. It also features a pull-out QWERTY keypad, 120GB hard disk and a 4.8 inch LCD touchscreen with a resolution of 800 by 480 pixels.

A few weeks ago HP recalled 70,000 laptop batteries, but they aren’t done yet. They are recalling another 15,000 batteries sold in China. There aren’t any reports of actual fire or flames this time, but the batteries are prone to overheating, and can pose a fire hazard.

At the moment, details about the models affected are scarce, but the batteries were used in laptops manufactured between late 2007 and early 2008, and include models sold under the HP Pavilion and Compaq Presario brands.

Knockoff phones must be pretty profitable for those who knock them off. After all, they just keep coming. This one is an oddball because there is no such thing as a Vertu Lamborghini phone, making this clone something of an “original”.

Thing is, it isn’t an authentic Vertu, and they don’t have the support of Lamborghini. But hey, some people just have to try to look classy with fake stuff.

When you have several prototypes rejected by carriers here in America, it might be time to try China. And that’s just what Michael Dell is doing. Reuters is reporting that Dell is aiming to launch multiple smartphones in the Chinese market before 2010.

A pair of analysts are saying that the firm is working with Chi Mei Communications for the hardware, while China-based Red Office is engineering the OS. Apparently if the China rollout goes good, the US and Europe are on Dell’s list of next-up launch markets.

The Cube B52HD is a new HD PMP from Cube that comes with a 5 inch (480 x 272pixel) touchscreen display and lets you enjoy 720p videos when you connect it to an HDTV. Sadly, you won’t be getting HD on its 5 inch screen.

The player supports RM, RMVB, MPEG, AVI, FLV video files and MP3, WMA, WAV, APE, FLAC, OGG audio files. Some other features include an FM tuner, and 8GB of storage space. The Cube B52HD HD PMP is currently available in China for $80.

Oh China, why do you hurt us so with your unlicensed cheap knock-off products? This one really hurts my eyes. The phone is bad enough, but the packaging also shows a scene from the worst Spiderman movie ever. Spider Man 3. That’s the one where he went all emo and girlly.

The Spider-Phone has a 2 Megapixel camera, a swivel color display, a microSD card slot and dual SIM card slots. It supports GSM 800/900/1800/1900 networks and is priced at HK$1180 (US$152). What are the odds that we’ll see a Goblin phone to accompany this?

Lenovo is going to launch a new portable media player, the MRT800. The PMP has a 4.3-inch 480×272 LCD touchscreen display. It supports RM/RMVB, AVI, ASF, MP4, FLV video; MP3, WMA, OGG, APE, FLAC, WAV audio as well as JPEG, BMP images.

Other than internal memory, the Lenovo MRT800 also features a microSD card slot and includes an FM tuner and voice recording function. It looks nice, but there’s not much else going on with the device.

Lenovo unveiled its new mobile phone, named the X1. The X1 is a 3.2-inch WQVGA display, slide-out phone which uses Tri-Band and EDGE networks. Some other features are built-in GPS and a MicroSD slot for memory expansion.

As far as dimensions, the phone is a close match for the iPhone. The new X1 has a sleek look with a feather touch interface on the front panel and smooth edges. It’s a shame this phone will only be available in China for the moment.

Chuwi of China has come up with a new portable media player that manages to stand out from the rest. In screen size at least. Their latest offering, the M20, is a pretty decent PMP, with a 4.3″ display.

Sadly, the resolution is a disappointing 480 x 272 pixels. It does sport 720p in case you want to carry around your high definition video files. No word on pricing, availability or other details. What you see above is a render.

Lenovo does more then just laptops with an extra screen. In fact, they’ve just introduced a couple of handsets dubbed the i60 and i60s. The i60 will sport a 3″ display, while the i60s offers a smaller display and uses the additional space for more buttons. To support that larger screen, the i60 has a 1250mAh battery.

Some other features include: Dual-band (900/1800 MHz) GSM radio, Integrated media player, Built-in FM radio, microSDHC memory card slot, WQVGA resolution at 240 x 400 pixels. Apart from that, we don’t have many other details. Both handsets look like they will see a China release.

We don’t know what to make of this, but here’s the deal. A “Shining” phone (No, no pictures of Jack Nicholson on it saying HERE’S JOHNNY.) that looks almost exactly like the original version of the Kogan Agora Android phone just showed up on Alibaba with a three-day delivery time and a 100-unit wholesale price of $240.

Of course, the Agora was just delayed indefinitely or aborted depending on your point of view, so this could be nothing. It could just be contracting design and development out to Chinese manufacturers. Those are renders on the site, not actual pictures. Asian copies or no, it’s still a damn cool phone.

Macworld just ended and already we have more iPhone Nano rumors. The Chinese trade paper Economic Daily News is now reporting that Taiwan Semiconductor Company (TSMC) will be handling chip manufacturing for a low-cost device being referred to as…cue music…The iPhone nano. The paper has a pretty good reputation, but take it with an iPhone sized grain of salt.

The source is citing a June launch of the handset, just after an order for the components in March. Apple does like to intro iPhones in the Summer, so if history is any indication, the timing fits. China has no deal for the iPhone, so a lower-cost version may be perfect for Asian markets. The nano could have a bunch of ready users.