Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?  Well, Apple's gotta being feeling awful flattered by the prototype handset iRiver announced this week.  Best known for their portable media players, iRiver's been showing off a tiny, tiny ultraportable PC prototype this week, and now they've gone and added a Linux-based smartphone to the mix as well.  And it looks and acts more than a little like an iPhone, right down to the slide and swipe UI, "Slide to Unlock" home screen, and lone "home button" hardware design.

According to PC Magazine the "iRiver GSM Phone" (that's the name right now) features a 480 x 372 hi-res LCD touchscreen, a two-megapixel camera with video capture, GPS, and Adobe Flash Player and mobile TV support.  The phone will be sold in the US as an unlocked GSM handset and will feature 3G support that should work with AT&T here in the States.

While pricing and ship date details weren't announced, PCMag got an iRiver spokesperson on record as saying that the phone will be "more affordable" than iPhone.

You can check out some video of the handset in action over at Just Another Mobile Phone Blog from here.