There's blatant knockoffs, and then there's blatant knockoffs. As you can probably tell, this is most certainly a case of the latter, as the so-called creators of the MA-727 didn't even bother to take their own photo. Instead, it looks pretty clear that they simply doctored Samsung's own snapshot of the T9B, threw a pink miniSD card down beneath, and called it original. Sure, it can supposedly handle just about every format under the sun and touts a 2.4-inch display, built-in speaker, FM tuner, voice recorder, rechargeable Li-ion, and anywhere between 128MB and 2GB of internal storage, but we wouldn't recommend pulling the trigger on this one unless you've got more money than sense.

[Via PMPToday]

Tegic might not be a household name, but it's a solid bet you've used their software -- the company is responsible for the T9 predictive-text input system that's installed in virtually every cellphone out there. That makes Tegic worth about $265 million, apparently, because that's how much voice-recognition firm Nuance just dished out to Time Warner for the company. (Disclosure: Time Warner is our parent company's parent company.) Nuance is on a buying spree lately, having bought VoiceSignal, BeVocal, and Dictaphone in the past year -- the goal is apparently to control much of how users interact with their phones, be it voice, touch, or text. Here's hoping Nuance doesn't make any sweeping changes while they chase that rainbow -- at this point we're so hard-wired for T9 that it's difficult to imagine that it's licensed software and not, say, a fundamental property of mathematics. 4663 5825, 4897.

[Via RCRWireless News]

Various flavors of Samsung's T9 music player have been floating around for a good while now, but the Yepp T9+ version packs a little something extra for those not content with just listening to jams. Design wise, not much has changed, as users will still notice a 1.8-inch 220 x 176 resolution display and capacities up to 8GB in size, but this rendition reportedly includes multi-player gaming via built-in Bluetooth. It looks like a good five or so titles will be included, and while we've no doubt that Korean users will find one without issue, getting one over here in North America probably won't be as easy as it should be.

[Via Electronista]

Here's another V-day gadgety-gift idea for that special effeminate friend or iPod-less dictator with a taste for big red balls -- the Samsung Yepp T9, now in pink. That rose-colored bladder comes filled with Kenzo perfume which, presumably, is applied by hurling it at your mate like a water balloon... but that's us, and we date robots. This 2GB model comes blue in the tooth and festooned with plenty of doilies to show just how much of a sap you really are. Hitting South Korea on February 5th for 215,000KRW (about $228) just in time for their favorite Hallmark holiday -- who knew?

With the (official) launch of Samsung's Yepp K3 presumably just weeks away, who could blame you for taking your eyes off the T9? Until January's CES, the T9 reigns supreme in Samsung's lineup of flash media players. It even sports its own "series" of third party accessories like the big boys... albeit, from just a single vendor so far. So today, Sammy announced an 8GB capacity bump to keep the Yepp competitive with all the other 8 giggers out there. The T9, however, delivers one notable exception: stereo Bluetooth. No details, but you can expect it to be priced to compete.