$150 Linux Laptop for the Masses

Xemu writes "Inspired by Negroponte's laptop for children, the Swedish company Medison is now taking orders for their US$150 Linux laptop, the Medison Celebrity. The laptop is a 1.5 GHz Celeron M 370 with 14 inch screen, wireless network and it comes with Fedora Red Hat pre-installed." Update 2035 GMT by SM: As many readers have pointed out, the more you dig into the details of this company the more fishy it starts to seem. I would suggest any potential buyers be wary on this one.

Comments

Fedora Red Hat

[spiritraveller]

That's nothing special.

On my laptop, I am running Fedora Red Hat CentOS.

Re:Fedora Red Hat

[spiritraveller]

"Aren't Fedora and Centos two totally different things?"

Yes, as are Fedora Red Hat and Fedora Red Hat CentOS.

Fedora Red Hat CentOS is my special creation. I mix the artwork of Fedora, Red Hat AND CentOS.

In this way, I can have the stability of Red Hat, the currentness of Fedora, and the lack of mandatory expensive support contracts which makes CentOS such a great option.

All of this in one distribution. You should try it. It's the next big thing. Honest.

Re:Fedora Red Hat

[Fred_A]

Not to be confused wth Red Hat CentOS Fedora or CentOS Fedora Red Hat, what a bunch of wankers...

Sure...

[Shadow Wrought]

But will it run Li- Oh. Right. Never mind.

laptop for children truly !!

[middlemen]

Among all available distributions, the company has installed Fedora, which by default does not come with installations of mplayer and other music software and libraries. This is a truly educational laptop where children will have to learn to use Linux and install software just to reach the end goal of watching porn. Finally, someone is not thinking of but thinking for the children.

Fedora Red Hat?

[Anonymous Coward]

Fedora Red Hat

Oh that's too cute! Is that a new Linux distro or something?

I use "OpenSolaris Sun" on my laptop.

For the Masses? right....

[Anonymous Coward]

$150 Linux Laptop for the Masses Should read $150 Linux Laptop for the Linux users who can't load Linux on a laptop

Sure...Vigilante OS.

[Anonymous Coward]

At least you didn't say "But does it run Windows?". You'd never get out of this forum alive.

Medison?

[ciaohound]

That's tough to swallow.

Re:Medison?

[Kamineko]

Here:

*offers spoonful of sugar*

That should help it go down.

Re:Medison?

[Eudial]

You're doing it wrong...

First salt, then Medison, then lemon. Then you wake up in a shopping cart in a stranger's bathroom with a pounding headache, no memory of last night and no idea where your clothes are.

Re:Medison?

[lottameez]

And all along I thought I was the only one that ever happened to.

Wish it had more details

[WrongMonkey]

It's a neat looking laptop, but info on the website is pretty scarce. For instance, what kind of battery life can I expect? Is it as upgradeable as normal laptop (eg. HDD and RAM)?

Re:Wish it had more details

[metlin]

Quite obviously, you read the website, didn't you?

Q: Do you have other products or can I add more memory to this laptop?

A: Yes, we have other models coming up next month and if you want to expand with more memory on your laptop you can go to our 'Accessories' page and buy extra memory.

Re:Wish it had more details

[fifedrum]

I'm having a hard time believing it's a real product, just seems to good to be true

summary: seems like a decent box, upgrade ram to 1 gb and you got a deal. pricewatch says the 200 pin sodimm is going for $80ish

begin copy/paste from their specs page:

        * CPU - Intel® Celeron® M Processor 370 (1.5 GHz, 90nm, FSB400, 1 MB L2 cache, uPGA478)
        * DISPLAY - 14.0" WXGA (1280x768) TFT
        * HARD DRIVE - 40 GB
        * DIMENSION - 333(W) x 243(D) x 24/33.(H)mm (front/back), 2.2Kg with 6 cells Lithium-lion battery

        * MEMORY - 64-bit wide DDR data channel, One 200-pin SODIMM socket, supporting DDR 333/400, 256 MB Expandable up to 1GB, based on SODIMM Modules
        * STORAGE - One changeable 2.5" 9.5mm(H) HDD, Supporting Master mode IDE ATA-33/66/100/133 (Ultra DMA), One changeable 12.7mm(H) CD/DVD Combo
        * VIDEO CONTROLLER - VIA PN800 integration, Shared Memory Architecture up to 64MB, 128 bit 3D graphic engine, Support analog monitor pixel resolution up to 1920x1400, Support two displays dual view
        * KEYBOARD - A4 size keyboard, Built-in Touchpad with scrolling function

        * SOUND SYSTEM - AC'97 2.2 Compliant Interface, 3D stereo enhanced sound system, Sound-Blaster PROTM Compatible, S/PDIF Digital output (5.1 CH), 1x Built-in Microphone, 2x Built-in Speakers
        * I/O PORTS - 3x USB 2.0 ports, 1x External CRT monitor output, 1x Headphone jack, 1x Microphone jack, 1x S/PDIF output jack, 1x RJ-45 port for LAN, 1x Line-in jack, 1x DC-In jack
        * PCMCIA - 1x Type II PCMCIA socket
        * COMMUNICATION - 10/100BASE-TX Fast Ethernet on board, 802.11g MiniPCI Wireless LAN
        * POWER - Full Range 65W AC adapter - AC input 100~240V, 47~63Hz, DC output 20V, 3.25A, Removable 6-cell Smart Li-ion battery pack, 4000/4400mAh
        * SECURITY - Kensington® Lock

Re:Wish it had more details

[orkysoft]

Look at what the advertisers appear to pay:

Our Member programs:

- First program: U$ 15,000

- Special program: U$ 200,000

- Top program: U$ 2 million

Total number of hits on our website since April 2007: 438 576
Number of hits Per month since April 2007: 109 644

Of course, this doesn't make it true, the ads could be fake, and not paid for by those companies at all, just to make it look genuine. In fact, now that I look at it, all five ad images are hosted on the website itself, with simple URLs, not on some other site, or with a really long URL, like usual with ads.

This business smells.

Re:Wish it had more details

[C0y0t3]

Wi nøt trei a høliday in Sweden this yër?

Re:Wish it had more details

[GiMP]

Uh... from the website:

POWER - Full Range 65W AC adapter - AC input 100~240V, 47~63Hz, DC output 20V, 3.25A, Removable 6-cell Smart Li-ion battery pack, 4000/4400mAh

It may be fraud

[amorsen]

There is a lot of speculation currently about whether this is fraud. They may be intending to run away with the money and not send out any laptops.

Re:It may be fraud

[WrongMonkey]

Now that you mention it, one thing that should set off the fraud alarm is the 4-6 weeks delivery time. That's a eon in terms of modern service, but a long enough time to collect a lot of orders before anyone expects to receive their product.

Re:It may be fraud

[MontyApollo]

Fraud was my first thought, especially with their pay method. The configuration is similar to a Dell I bought 5 years ago for $1600.

Re:It may be fraud

[albalbo]

The content is a complete rip-off of:

http://www.clevo.com.tw/products/M540V.asp

They say that they manufacture in Sweden, but that's a Taiwanese firm. Definitely stinky, and I wouldn't buy one.

Re:It may be fraud

[theelectron]

I like how on the order page, the verified by Visa and Mastercard mastercode logos (which should have links from them to verify their authenticity) are just pictures on the site. Very fishy indeed.

Re:It may be fraud

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, this is way too good to be true, it's never going to happen.

Links from Engadget that people posted:
http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/02f0dac25c029c53 8688518e70982ba3/compdetails
http://www.ukdata.com/company-credit-reports/NORDI C-MULTIMEDIA-DISTRIBUTION-LIMITED.html
http://www.companiesgate.co.uk/KEN-ERIK+LIMITED.as px
http://www.companiesgate.co.uk/HG+SHIPREPAIR+LIMIT ED.aspx

Check the address of the companies in question. Is there any doubt that this is a scam? Nope.

Re:It may be fraud

[dmitrygr]

But feel free to call the main guy behind all this, and ask. His mobile number is "+47 98 60 56 60", as seen on his personal website: http://www.ken-erik.com/

Re:It may be fraud

[hendridm]

Plus, they are using 2checkout to process credit cards, which I would consider odd for a decent size company supposedly selling revolutionary laptops. It's pretty obviously a scam, but they got our attention!

Re:It may be fraud

[sumdumass]

Sure, in an ideal world. My understanding is that these are going to be made and shipped from Brazil, Maybe they aren't current in their abilities? Any ways, I ordered some parts for a motorcycle that took three weeks to get in. I wrote letters of disappointment ot everyone involved and it turns out, the supplier I ordered from (a licensed deal for the brand) held the order until they got a certain amount because they didn't have to pay for shipping. I have had situations where I could get parts cheaper is I purchased 10 or 20 of them at a time instead of just one.

Now, knowing all that, looking at the price compared to the shipping times, I guessing that they are waiting until they get the order, waiting until thy get enough orders to get the discounts and then placing them all at once. And probably because of the discounts, they probably have to take delivery, customize them and then ship the stuff to their final destination. And they probably are a small startup with limited funds and cannot afford to sit in unsold merchandise for long periods of time.

Now, if this is unexceptionable to you or not, is a decision you will have to make. But it doesn't automatically mean fraud. There are logical reasons for the time frame of 4 to 6 weeks. Even if you don't find it acceptable for a company you are willing to do business with. I won't buy parts from that dealership any more, but these guys tell you from the beginning how long it will take.

Re:It may be fraud

[orkysoft]

The Visa and Mastercard logos and popup windows are fake. I'm not sure I should post the details on how they are fake, because the scammers might be reading this too, and I don't want to explain to them the weaknesses of their website.

Unless they send me one of those laptops (1 gig please, kthx) ;-)

Re:It may be fraud

[jointm1k]

There is a lot of speculation currently about whether this is fraud. They may be intending to run away with the money and not send out any laptops.

I doubt this is a fraud. They accept credit cards, like Visa.

Re:It may be fraud

[Njovich]

The privacy policy is a copy of Apples privacy policy with their name and some filler added.

http://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/
vs
http://www.medisoncelebrity.com/legal/privacy/

(for instance, check the 'kids' sections)

Re:It may be fraud

[alexgieg]

Sure, in an ideal world. My understanding is that these are going to be made and shipped from Brazil, Maybe they aren't current in their abilities?

I'm not sure whether this is generalized or not, but I live in Brazil and work at a small company that resells data acquisition and process control systems imported from USA and Europe to other Brazilian companies, and these delivery times are pretty standard for us. Now, admittedly we don't sell directly to end users (prices for these systems are too high), only to other companies, but it's really common for we to take up to 90 days to deliver a system. And the reason is simple: we rarely maintain goods in stock, only importing what has already been purchased (and paid) by our customers, and as such, to minimize shipping costs we must include in a single shipment as many purchase orders as possible.

Is perfectly possible that this company is scamming, yes. However, as you pointed out, if they aren't scammers, there are in fact good reasons for them to have these long delivery times. Not all countries, much less all companies, meet the conditions required for almost instantaneous delivery times as are common in USA nowadays.

Simply put, it's not that such delivery times are "a thing of the past", as many other posts say. It's more that the USA are years ahead of everyone else in this regards.

Re:It may be fraud

[networkBoy]

Yes, but then 2CO would likely be eating it via chargebacks from Visa.
They either have a lot of faith that this is real (or likely they don't yet realize it's a scam). I'm going to e-mail my CSR when I get home and ask them if this is a scam using them as a gateway. That should alert them enough to check it out closely, or possibly put a hold on some of the funds.
-nB

Re:It may be fraud

[uglyduckling]

Check this out from his blog:

Mr Bill MacCall from USA asked for a meeting with me in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He introduced me to the "Phage-virus" which is a virus that exists in our waters. A research lab in Georgia (ex-Soviet state) has found that the virus is healing people, animals and plants from bakteria and infections. It is definately something I am going to look into and, if possible, help spreading out for the benefits of the Brazilian grovers.

That's one amazing virus! Maybe he found another virus that can manufacture laptops from manure?

Re:It may be fraud

[master0ne]

and also when cost is considerd, most products with lightning fast delivery times are high dollar or high volume items... a laptop generally is high dollar, in this case its neither.... it would be impossible to sell this laptop at this cost if they had to pay for blazing fast shipping in (for the parts) and then back out to the customer, it would undoubtly raise the cost significantly.... now my only remaning question is who works in their assembly plant? orphens and widows? at these prices id be weary of supporting a "sweat shop" although they are in a country with laws aganst it, doesnt mean their assembly plant is too....

Re:It may be fraud

[Eivind]

• Because it's a domain registered in april, for one year.
• Because same guy has 5 earlier "Medison something" companies registered, 2 of which are bankrupt, rest of which are "dissolved"
• Because the privacy-notice is cut-n-pasted from Apple (and poorly done at that)
• Because the images of the laptops are photoshopped variants of a Taiwanese laptop. (and these claim to manufacture in Brazil)
• Because they claim to charge ridicolous amounts for advertising on the site ($15K - $2 million) for a site with (if you believe their own claims!) 10K hits/month or thereabout.
• Because the only way to contact them is a -hotmail- adress to what appears to be a private individual.
• Because even their phone is "temporarily disconnected"
• Because they have no adress, no contact-info whatsoever in any of the countries they claim to operate in ?
• Because they (claim to) sell at about half the price of the nearest competitor.
• Because they claim it's cheap becaus they "see it from a democratic point of view" which is crap.
• Because there's around 20 other fishy-smelling things, but I'm tired of listing them. :-)

If, after all of this, you still want to order one. Go for it. Oh, and I have a bridge to sell ! Send small unmarked notes :-)

Smells fishy...

[Da_Biz]

See comments from Engadget:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/25/medison-celebri ty-150-of-linux-laptop-for-the-people

This one looks particularly concerning:

Johan Löfgren @ Jul 25th 2007 12:02PM

Hello fellas. I came across this site, when searching for information about this computer. With that pricetag, it would be a brilliant surf & chat computer for me.

I'm a swedish student, and I found an article in a larger web-newspaper in sweden and was amazed..

Sadly though, when reading comments all over, at swedish sites, this thing starts to smell very very rotten..

The speculation is about this beeing a scam, in the same way that you've mentioned above.

There's bankrupcy issues, lies at the homepage, weird and incomplete messages from the people behind this "madison" company. The screenshots of the computer, has been found at other manufacturers. Companies, that Madison claim to work with, hasn't heard of the connection..

The things above, has been discovered by many people, at different swedish sites. Even more than that.

The 4-6 week delivery time, sounds perfect to grab as much cash as possible and run.

No-one can find anyone with an example of this computer. People doesn't believe this thing even exist.

I recommend all of you, to wait and see how everything turns out here in sweden, before you buy this. As most swedes do right now.. Wait and see if the first computers arrive at all.

I hope that this isn't a scam. I'd love to buy one. I'd love if the promised "future generation" will arrive.

But this thing doesn't feel safe.

Cincearly
-Johan Löfgren. Orebro, Sweden

Re:Smells fishy...

[LWATCDR]

Well there is an old saying.
If it sounds too good to be true...

But running a scam like this out of Sweden seems like a big risk to me. But then I have no idea how good the Swedish legal system is. I thought they had some very strong consumer protection laws. It is probably safer to buy this if you live in Sweden than the US.

Re:Smells fishy...

[RAMMS EIN]

Damn. It sounded so good.

Come to think of it, maybe that should have been the first warning.

Re:Smells fishy...

[RAMMS EIN]

If this is indeed a scam...we have been trolled. Badly. I would feel they deserve kudos for getting their fake product featured on /..

On the other hand, the fact that, within minutes of the story going live, you pointed out the scammy smell and got modded up so as to be prominently near the top of the page shows the major strength of community-driven reporting: near-instantaneous corrections and additions.

Re:Smells fishy...

[thethibs]

How do you know it's run out of Sweden?

Re:Smells fishy...

[boldie]

Well the founder of Medison Valdi Ivancic lives in Brazil according to IDG.se. If the company is registered in Brasil as well the Swedes are smoked too. The legal info on their page is a rip off from apples. Well they could just be lazy...I don't know.

Mmmm FISH!

Re:Smells fishy...

[kisrael]

The thing is, it didn't sound SO good as to be absolutely implausible...

Re:Smells fishy...

[jmorris42]

> The thing is, it didn't sound SO good as to be absolutely implausible...

Yes it did. I clinked to thier website and read the spec and instantly posted Scam.

Negroponte & co can't hit $150 selling much simpler machines by the million lot and as a non-profit operation to boot. This machine is supposed to have a 14" TFT HD res screen vs the oddball cheap screen on the OLPC. This machine has both a hard drive and DVD drive while the OLPC has a dinky flash drive. The OLPC is coming out of the most lowball Chinese factory in the contract manufacturing business so there are NO more efficiencies to wring out of the price to give these unknown guys a way to offer more for less.

Do the math people. When somebody offers you a new laptop for less than the display and drives cost when delivered by the shipping container while they give every indication of being a showstring operation that can't build a decent webpage or do their own e-commerce it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out. Scam.

Like all good scams though, it preys upon a weakness in the victim. They might be crooks but they are good con artists. FAQ question #1 was where a good percentage of /. people started WANTING TO BELIEVE so much their common sense switched off.

"#1. Q: Why is the laptop much cheaper than other laptops?
A: We see this from a democratic point of view where we believe everyone should be able to afford to have a laptop. The other reason is that we have our own plants where we assemble our laptops."

And you guys were all like; "Yea, everyone should be able to afford a laptop man, like it's a Right or something. The Man is just ripping us off to feed insane Corporate salaries and fat cat shareholders. These are just some hoopy froods sticking it to the System!"

Re:The fine print

[cryingpoet]

The FAQ says that it will take more like 4-6 weeks to ship your laptop. I doubt that they are in production yet.

I think I will wait to see if any laptops ship before laying down any of my money.

Laptop specs

[AncientPC]

* CPU - Intel® Celeron® M Processor 370 (1.5 GHz, 90nm, FSB400, 1 MB L2 cache, uPGA478)
* DISPLAY - 14.0" WXGA (1280x768) TFT
* HARD DRIVE - 40 GB
* DIMENSION - 333(W) x 243(D) x 24/33.(H)mm (front/back), 2.2Kg with 6 cells Lithium-lion battery

* MEMORY - 64-bit wide DDR data channel, One 200-pin SODIMM socket, supporting DDR 333/400, 256 MB Expandable up to 1GB, based on SODIMM Modules
* STORAGE - One changeable 2.5" 9.5mm(H) HDD, Supporting Master mode IDE ATA-33/66/100/133 (Ultra DMA), One changeable 12.7mm(H) CD/DVD Combo
* VIDEO CONTROLLER - VIA PN800 integration, Shared Memory Architecture up to 64MB, 128 bit 3D graphic engine, Support analog monitor pixel resolution up to 1920x1400, Support two displays dual view
* KEYBOARD - A4 size keyboard, Built-in Touchpad with scrolling function

* SOUND SYSTEM - AC'97 2.2 Compliant Interface, 3D stereo enhanced sound system, Sound-Blaster PROTM Compatible, S/PDIF Digital output (5.1 CH), 1x Built-in Microphone, 2x Built-in Speakers
* I/O PORTS - 3x USB 2.0 ports, 1x External CRT monitor output, 1x Headphone jack, 1x Microphone jack, 1x S/PDIF output jack, 1x RJ-45 port for LAN, 1x Line-in jack, 1x DC-In jack
* PCMCIA - 1x Type II PCMCIA socket
* COMMUNICATION - 10/100BASE-TX Fast Ethernet on board, 802.11g MiniPCI Wireless LAN
* POWER - Full Range 65W AC adapter - AC input 100~240V, 47~63Hz, DC output 20V, 3.25A, Removable 6-cell Smart Li-ion battery pack, 4000/4400mAh
* SECURITY - Kensington® Lock

Good idea

[thebonafortuna]

The specifications on this seem pretty impressive for a laptop only costing $150:

From the website:

*Intel® Celeron® M Processor 370 (1.5 GHz, 90nm, FSB400, 1 MB L2 cache, uPGA478)
*14.0" WXGA (1280x768) TFT
*40 GB hard drive
*6 cell lithium ion battery
*64-bit wide DDR data channel, One 200-pin SODIMM socket, supporting DDR 333/400, 256 MB Expandable up to 1GB, based on SODIMM Modules
*One changeable 2.5" 9.5mm(H) HDD, Supporting Master mode IDE ATA-33/66/100/133 (Ultra DMA), One changeable 12.7mm(H) CD/DVD Combo
*VIA PN800 integration, Shared Memory Architecture up to 64MB, 128 bit 3D graphic engine, Support analog monitor pixel resolution up to 1920x1400, Support two displays dual view
*A4 size keyboard, Built-in Touchpad with scrolling function
*AC'97 2.2 Compliant Interface, 3D stereo enhanced sound system, Sound-Blaster PROTM Compatible, S/PDIF Digital output (5.1 CH), 1x Built-in Microphone, 2x Built-in Speakers
*3x USB 2.0 ports, 1x External CRT monitor output, 1x Headphone jack, 1x Microphone jack, 1x S/PDIF output jack, 1x RJ-45 port for LAN, 1x Line-in jack, 1x DC-In jack
*1x Type II PCMCIA socket
*10/100BASE-TX Fast Ethernet on board, 802.11g MiniPCI Wireless LAN
*Full Range 65W AC adapter - AC input 100~240V, 47~63Hz, DC output 20V, 3.25A, Removable 6-cell Smart Li-ion battery pack, 4000/4400mAh
*Kensington® Lock

Those specs are actually pretty close to what my OEM ThinkPad A31 was, when it was shipped. Although I upgraded the RAM, those specs are otherwise still pretty close, and that laptop still runs XP incredibly smoothly. While I'm not saying people should put XP on this thing, using a Windows product as a benchmark for smooth performance is generally a good way to determine how well linux will run on a machine. Considering the integrated wireless card, "pre-installed office and multimedia applications", and the DVD player, this thing seems like an ideal machine for someone on the go who doesn't want to worry about their equipment too much.

It's also a perfect way to learn linux, if you don't already have an old(er) computer lying around you can toss the OS onto. I will probably buy it for that exact reason. Now if somebody would just do something about that website so I don't worry I'm getting ripped off by some scam artist with poor web writing skills...

Limit on RAM upgrades - 1GB

[billstewart]

The specs say it can support up to 1GB of RAM. That's enough for most people, but some people will find it limiting. (It comes with 256MB, so you'll need to spend some cash to make it more useful.)

Shouldn't be any reason there's a problem with upgrading disks. I don't know if there's any antique 137-GB limitation in the BIOS - if there is, then you might be limited to 120GB.

1 PCMCIA slot, 3 USB, built-in 802.11g, S/PDIF sound. Because it's 802.11g, you won't need to burn the PCMCIA slot immediately for wireless, though if you're doing .11n you may want to.

Re:Battery life and other points...

[Dr. Smoove]

Battery life is infinite on the Madison VaporTop! Just send us 150$ USD in unmarked bills, actually, mark the bills with your SSN, and send them to our PO Box in China.

IKEA?

[KeepQuiet]

So I guess IKEA finally got into computer business:)

No phone number!

[ipjohnson]

To quote the website "The phone lines are temporarly closed" all they give is an email address. You can't even call to complain if you don't get it.

If they are legit they are working really hard to seem like a scam.

Re:No phone number!

[Hemogoblin]

On the company webpage, the ONLY contact information provided appears to be for a residential house in Kent.

Medison Europe Limited
27 Ruffets Wood
Gravesend, Kent
DA12 5JQ England

Heres the google maps link.

For a company that claims "... from Brazil to California" and doesn't even have an office in Sweden... it has to be a fake.

Re:No phone number!

[blackest_k]

investigate that address and there are a number of registered companies at that address, ok if it was a solicitors office not that unusual, however I couldn't find 1 which had filed accounts.

it has to be a con

Re:I'm highly suspicious

[ookabooka]

I don't think half of a DVD constitutes a laptop.

Perfect

[tttonyyy]

Sounds like the perfect new product for this company...

http://www.anuslaptops.com/

take this off slashdot

[b4thyme]

shouldn't this be taken off of slashdot to reduce free advertising for a potential scam?

Re:Battery life and other points...

[RiffRafff]

No, you should buy it. Then report back, so the rest of us can know if it's above board. But I've never heard of this Medison company, and although it appears to be Swedish, googling "Valdi Ivancic" (the name in the whois data) shows a LinkedIn account in San Francisco. Couple that with the 4-6 week delivery time and the "phone lines are temporarly closed" of their webpage...nah, it's a scam.

Re:The fine print

[jmorris42]

> It might take one or two weeks longer to get the laptop.

No, it might take that long (it says elsewhere 4-6 weeks plus they can shine people on for another week or two) for them to get cash from the credit card clearing house before they disappear. Add up the BOM on that machine and they can't buy those parts in 100,000 lots for $150USD. Scam.

Re:Looks fake.

[conares]

its times like these we need the image-zooming software from CSI:whereever

livna, of course.

[Anonymous Coward]

I use fedora/livna. The media apps are in livna, but it is seamless.

When I upgraded from FC4 to FC5 to FC6 to FC7, the drill is:

rpm -U fedora-release*rpm livna-release*rpm
yum update

Fedora/Livna is often more current than Ubuntu.

Don't buy or leave your credit card data. Scam.

[Qbertino]

It's a scam. Editors, please extend the story accordingly.

Working on talking to them live

[CaptainTux]

I just sent an email to their people asking if they would be willing to do a live interview to clear some of the fraud questions up. We'll see how it goes I suppose. If they agree, I will get the interview up and posted on YouTube and UStream asap.

It comes with a very powerful battery

[Pap22]

2.2Kg with 6 cells Lithium-lion battery

ROOOOAAAAARR!!!

Scam

[steveoc]

Almost sucked me in .. until I started reading the website of the parent company.

Mind you thats just my opinion. Please feel free to read all about their other 'achievements', such as the Medison line of designer clothing (which doesnt appear on google anywhere), the awesome words of wisdom of their founder in his own blog, the un-attributed quotes, random photos of capital cities, the slightly-dithered-like-ive-been-put-through-a-scan ner-and-photoshopped company logo, and other quiet achievements such as designing the color iMac.

I love their accesories page - whats with the link to clk.atdmt.com to download a copy of 'Windows Live Messenger'. WTF ?

Anyway, in Australia, the big mining company BHP used to have a TV ad with the motto:
"BHP - The quiet achiever"

But if half of their un-gogglable claims are valid, then this Medison crowd really have earned that label.

Scam, IMHO.

On the upside, if it wasnt for Medison, I wouldnt have learned that I have a new word in my diminishing vocabulary - "ungooglable".

ungooglable:
A product, or a claim, a thing, or a statement of supposed fact, that when searched for on google, produces zero relevant supporting results, to the extent where serious doubts are then cast upon those same claims or facts. eg: "Johnny made several ungooglable claims about an alleged series of concerts that he supposedly performed with the El Mariachi Trio whilst on his recent holiday 'South of the Border'". Ant. un- . eg "Natalie Portman's naked butt may well be one of the most unungooglable butts never really photographed for real".

Just got a text from the owner/ceo/whatever

[CaptainTux]

As his website says, he is on vacation in Thailand but he will consider doing an interview when he returns. He claims he knows nothing about the rampant fraud/vaporware suspicions all over the internet about this.

Almost certainly a scam

[unicron02]

Medison Europe United was incorporated less than 2 weeks ago: http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/02f0dac25c029c53 8688518e70982ba3/compdetails

Also, take a look at the address provided

27 RUFFETS WOOD
GRAVESEND
KENT
DA12 5JQ

My my, Nordic Multimedia Distribution Limited is listed as having the same address: http://www.ukdata.com/company-credit-reports/NORDI C-MULTIMEDIA-DISTRIBUTION-LIMITED.html
GI Finance Limited is located here as well: http://www.simplycreditreports.com/company-number/ 05905858.html
La Vida Art Limited: http://www.companiesgate.co.uk/LA+VIDA+ART+LIMITED .aspx
BYGG Invest Limited: http://www.ukdata.com/company-credit-reports/BYGG- INVEST-LIMITED.html
HG Shiprepair Limited: http://www.companiesgate.co.uk/HG+SHIPREPAIR+LIMIT ED.aspx
Also, Ken-Erik Limited is listed as having the same address: http://www.companiesgate.co.uk/KEN-ERIK+LIMITED.as px

I checked google maps to see if I could locate the address: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=2 7+ruffets+wood,+gravesend,+kent+england&sll=37.062 5,-95.677068&sspn=49.71116,81.738281&ie=UTF8&t=k&z =16&iwloc=addr&om=1

Looks a lot like a residential area, either house/condo/apartment, definatley not a corporate or even industrial location.

Re:Almost certainly a scam

[norfolkboy]

Actually, it's "Limited" not "united"

I have a subscription to Companies House Directors lists. The officers of that company are:

(for non-Bits - you can obtain the home addresses of any Company Secretary or Director of any company registered in the England and Wales or Scotland - it is a criminal offence to give an incorrect address or mailing address unless you have obtained a confidentiality order, which is barely possible to do, even for Directors of very large companies)

BATH, HARPREET SECRETARY
HOUSE 3038
SECTOR 19D
CHANDIGARH
CH00018
INDIA
CH00018 Appointed: 13/07/2007
Nationality: INDIAN
Date of Birth: 10/12/1970
Company Appointments: 336

IVANCIC, VALDI DIRECTOR
LUNDENVAGEN 24
HUSKVARNA
SWEDEN
56134 Appointed: 13/07/2007
Nationality: SWEDISH
Date of Birth: 26/03/1970
Company Appointments: 1

Obvious Scam (Price)

[evilviper]

It's obviously a scam. You don't need to do a whois look-up or anything else. Just look at the specs.

There's no way in hell they're going to offer a 1.6GHz CPU, 40GB HDD, 14" LCD, 256MB DDR, etc., for $150... Even at twice that price ($300) it would be a stretch, but just possible. At $150, it's laughable.

You could make a $150 laptop... If you went with a tiny screen, no backlight, no CD/DVD, tiny HDD, no battery, ancient CPU, etc., etc. But with fairly modern specs as this has, there isn't a snowball's chance in hell that it's real.

Nothing adds up.

[kd5ujz]

On their contact information, they list their address as:

Medison Europe Limited
27 Ruffets Wood
Gravesend, Kent
DA12 5JQ England

But this looks to be a residential area.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=2 7+RUFFETS+WOOD,+GRAVESEND,+KENT,+DA12+5JQ&sll=37.0 625,-95.677068&sspn=32.66491,59.238281&ie=UTF8&ll= 51.411728,0.377553&spn=0.000785,0.001808&t=k&z=19& om=1

This Business Credit Report site ( http://www.ukdata.com/company-listings/No-27.html) has that Address for several companys, Including:
NORDIC SALES GROUP NORGE LIMITED
NORDIC MARKETING GROUP LIMITED
NORDIC MULTIMEDIA DISTRIBUTION LIMITED
NORDIC PICTURES LIMITED

There are possibly others, but those are the ones I found with a quick search.

$189 Asus Laptop

[gshakhn]

Does anyone know how this laptop compares to Asus's 3ePC? The latter is supposed to be out in August, but i haven't heard anything since the initial announcement...

Re:$189 Asus Laptop

[DLG]

I suspect the difference in performance will be that the ASUS laptop will be a computer, and the Medison machine will be a sad memory of 150 dollars you once had.

SLASHDOT IS ENABLING SCAMMERS

[glindsey]

Change the article to note that this is a scam.

Yes, this is redundant, but I don't care. Every minute that Slashdot keeps this "story" up on the web page is another minute that they are providing free advertising for scam artists.

I'm sure that Slashdot's sponsors would love to know that they are accomplices to fraud.

Change the article, or take it down.

Mr. Ivancic

[Daniel K. Attling]

After some light diggin thru public registers this is what I've found out about the owner of Medison.

Valdi Ivancic, born 1970-03-26, has a filed residens on Holmgatan 16F, 37138 Karlskrona. However he is also listed as living on Lundenvägen 24, 56134 Huskvarna. The Huskvarna listing also has a cell phone number for MR Ivancic, +46-76-3384142.

Whois information for medisoncelebrity.com refers to the Huskvarna address but lists another cell phone number +46-70-7572858 and also states the mans email address to be valdi_ivancic@hotmail.com.

Also residing at the Huskvarna address is one Ljubo Ivancic, born 1947-08-14, listed with a land line number of +46-36-131524 and a cell phone number of +46-70-4326089.

Neither Medison or Medison Consulting seem to be registered trademarks in Sweden.

medison.se was registered 2007-02-09 and medisoncelebrity.com was registered 2007-04-11.

Re:The fine print

[TClevenger]

That's okay. Their credit card merchant account provider has to cover any chargebacks, even if they don't get a dime from the merchant.

The other laptops are made by communists

[suv4x4]

I'm posting some excerpts from their FAQ:

Q: Why is the laptop much cheaper than other laptops?
A: We see this from a democratic point of view where we believe everyone should be able to afford to have a laptop.

That's a great explanation of how they managed to reach so low prices. Democracy, people! I'll never buy another communist laptop from DELL.

Q: When can you deliver my laptop?
A: We try to deliver as fast as possible, but the normal time is between 4 and 6 weeks.

Bummer, why the long time? No explanation.

Q: Do you have other products or can I add more memory to this laptop?
A: Yes, we have other models coming up next month and if you want to expand with more memory on your laptop you can go to our 'Accessories' page and buy extra memory.

Support disaster: you can't just buy a laptop and then "buy some memory" as accessorie.

Q: How does Linux work?
A:The Linux version that comes with the laptop is Fedora from RedHat and is not too much different from using Windows or MacOS

Support disaster: you don't tell people Linux runs just like Windows, or you get drowned in calls about "my game CD doesn't install". Apparently they never planned to support the thing (anything).

Q: Is your laptop a quality product?
A: Yes it is, and it comes with 1 year warranty.

Shit, I'm convinced...

Re:The other laptops are made by communists

[FunWithKnives]

Democracy, people! I'll never buy another communist laptop from DELL.

You do realize that communism is an economic system and not a governmental one? Coincidentally, however, if communistic ideals are applied to a political system, you end up with democracy.

Further, communism can be thought of as economic democracy. It can only be properly practiced in a politically democratic environment. If the means of production are supposedly in the hands of the workers, but in reality are in the hands of a totalitarian regime (ie "the state"), it is not communism. It is state-capitalism.

It never ceases to amaze me how brainwashed everyone in the US is when it comes to this type of thing. Use common sense: correlation != causation. I'm sorry for being off topic, and I realize that the OP was just trying to be funny, but this happens to be one of my pet peeves, and it drives me fucking insane.

Re:The other laptops are made by communists

[FunWithKnives]

I was not "whining." I make it a point to respond to any post that references communism or socialism as totalitarian with a bit of education. I also find it hard to believe that you are a communist if you "don't buy the state-capitalism cop-out." It isn't a cop-out. It is exactly what the Soviet bloc was. True communism is democratic, with the means of production directly in the hands of the workers. In state-capitalism, the government acts like one giant business, using the workers to create surplus value which is then appropriated by the bureaucracy for its own benefit, instead of being distributed equally among the people. The traditional role of the capitalists is simply taken over by the state.

I am not trolling for "converts." Rather, I am just letting people know the truth of the matter. I have no other agenda, and I do not care at all if I am irritating some. In my opinion, it was the perfect context for a quick correction and explanation. What better time could there be than when the fallacious interpretation is staring everyone in the face?

Re:The fine print

[harrkev]

Fees taken by our authorized partner 2CO are U$6.45 + 5,5% and extra on the price. Some smaller fees might be taken by your bank and varies on what bank and card you have.

I will state that 2Checkout (the service that they use) is definately on the level. They are based out of Ohio, and if you buy the laptop, you are buying from them. They are a "reseller" of products sold by other people.

My wife uses 2Checkout for her business (see signature) and has used them for over a year. They provide credit card transactions, shopping carts, and take care of the whole "https" thing. They might cost a little bit more per transaction, but I feel better knowing that my wife's store never gets a credit card number or customer name. Since there is no customer database, the worst thing a hacker can do to my site than to deface it. You also do not have to set up the whole "HTTPS" thing. This is perfect for small-time do-it-yourselfers.

On the other hand, a larger outfit could easily affort to get a security certificate, set up with a real credit card gateway, install shopping cart software, and take responsibility for their own site security. If your volume becomes large enough, this makes sense. So why didn't they do than rather than 2Checkout?

2Checkout definately strives to take care of the customer. I imagine that if somebody got ripped off, it would be 2Checkout, and the customers could eventually get their money back through usual credit card complaints. After all, the company getting your money is in the USA. But at the same time, I wonder why they bothered with 2Checkout since they probably will gross $100,000 per month, if (bit "if") this is legit.

Comments?

Slashdot needs a professional editor.

[Picass0]

Glad I read the comments. My kneejerk reaction was to go to the site and read the specs. For a moment I thought "it's on Slashdot so it's OK." I was about to call my wife and tell her she can have the laptop she wanted, and I hit the back button on my browser and started reading all the posts about this being a scam.

So the readers of Slashdot, often characterized as the great unwashed, saved me from a scam brought to me by the editors of Slashdot.

Re:Sure looks like a scam. Pull up a whois on it

[mazanoid]

Registration Service Provided By: Surftown Domains
Contact: dns@surf-town.net
Visit: http://www.support.surftown.com/
Of course if you're too lazy, I've already pulled one up.
The three key points:
1) Domain name registered in april 07, for a term of ONE YEAR, how many hardware companies do you know who put up a domain for 1 year? Obviously only the companies that don't expect to be in business for a second year.
2) The contacts are at hotmail. Okay, that's not good. Usually a hardware company would register itself with a DBA company name instead of a "Valdi Ivancic valdi_ivancic@hotmail.com", leaving
human name contacts for administrative and technical contacts.
3) The site hoster.... Surf-net charges .99# / year....with low setup fee, smells fishy....someone's going the cheap route about their corporate site.
4) company can't afford a fax? Interesting.
at least the scammer hasn't used anonymity services during registration.

My two trollish cents.

Domain name: medisoncelebrity.com

Registrant Contact:

      Valdi Ivancic (valdi_ivancic@hotmail.com)
      +46.707572858
      Fax:
      Lundenvagen 24
      Huskvarna, 561 34
      SE

Administrative Contact:

      Valdi Ivancic (valdi_ivancic@hotmail.com)
      +46.707572858
      Fax:
      Lundenvagen 24
      Huskvarna, 561 34
      SE

Technical Contact:
      Surftown A/S
      DNS Administrator (dns@surf-town.net)
      +45.70200776
      Fax: +45.70200776
      Lautrupsgade 9, 1
      KÿFFFFF8benhavn ÿFFFFD8, 2100
      DK

Status: Active

Name Servers:
      ns1.surf-town.net
      ns2.surf-town.net
      ns3.surf-town.net

Creation date: 11 Apr 2007 19:04:10
Expiration date: 11 Apr 2008 19:04:10

Okay, I'll bite...

[Skewray]

I put in for two of these puppies on a fraud-protected single-use credit card number. If they don't show up in eight weeks and I can't contact the company at that point, then I will reverse the charge. Of course, by that time no one on Slashdot will care any more.

Question & Answers (kind of?)

[ja]

Some people are really doing their best to research this scam-look-alike. From a swedish website:

----8http://www.cint.se/debatt//ShowPostFlat.aspx? PostID=62603 or http://www.sweclockers.com/forum/showthread.php?s= &threadid=696980 where these letters and answers are mirrored.

"1&2. How could you lower the price so much compared to the price of
3000 SEK that you mentioned in http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.100914 ?
1000 SEK is quite a bit lower. Why did you change the idea from not selling directly to customers as you staded in http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.100914

1&2) It is true that we went out in the first article on IDG.se telling
that the price for the end consumer would be around 3000 SEK. That is
because the companies we were discussing with wanted to have a big
profit on each laptop sold to the end consumer. Since we at Medison
believe it is better to offer a laptop so that everyone can afford to
buy a laptop, we decided to offer our Medison Celebrity to a very good
price where we have very, very low margin so that everyone can buy a
laptop rather than giving too high profits to other companies and have
less computers sold to the end consumers."

So the involved companies would just suddenly agree on not making any or have an extremely small margin?

----

"3. Why is this last change and sell-start rushed is such a way? I.E
companys started in just a few days, contracts created in so such
short notice that most of the companies you mention on your site
doesn't know anything about you?

3) There has not been any 'rush', but actually has been carefully
planned over some time. Any kind of registration of company name or
domain does not show wether a strategy is planned or not in a company.
This kind of information can instead be done on purpose to not reveal
to competitors what is going on. But then again, Medison has no
obligations to answer what its strategy is and therefore any kind of
interpretations made by people outside the company."

I would call it either a rush or a failure that the companies listed on your website dodn't know anything about you at first. Which one do you prefer?

----

"4. Why is your company adress sharing the exact same address as
several hundred others?

4) Medison is registered, as many other companies both in UK, USA or
any other European country on an address shared by many companies.
This is quite normal. Let me give you an example. In a high sky scrape
building with 41 floors, all of the people living there have the same
address. We do not see our common shared addres as something strange,
but rather normal."

I wasn't asking about why A company would have it like that. I was asking why YOUR company had it like this. Let me ask the question in another way: Would I correctly assume that your address stated on your site is just a forward or P.O Box like address, and that you don't really have any office in UK at all? If that is the case, do you have any office at all, and what would the visiting address be?

----

"5. Why do a serious company use a hotmail adress to register their
domain? Why is the phone number in the same registration going to
some random person in Malmö and not the registrar?

5) In USA it is VERY common that business people use a hotmail address
or yahoo address together with their business e-mail addresses. It is
common to do so as an insurance to not miss any important e-mails in
case a mail server would crash. Since the companies offering Domain
names have no rules that say a person or a company cannot use a
hotmail address when they register, then we don't see what relevance
your questions has. If the domain company has not updated their client

Some background

[erixtark]

Here's a link to an email conversation with the founder:
http://www.sweclockers.com/forum/showthread.php?s= e0a49aad6aaa76aa2abfe67cb4d4ec44&postid=7539927#po st7539927

The founder also has a column in a small Swedish paper:
http://www.jnytt.se/Read__7981.aspx (Swedish.)
He writes about life in Sao Paulo.

Here's an interview with the largest Swedish business paper, Dagens Industri:
http://tinyurl.com/38ju9l (Swedish.)

A couple of months ago they launched a laptop for 3000SEK (~$450), the same model now being sold for $150:
http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.100914 (Swedish.)

Could be fraud, could be simply bad business, could be an attempt to gain market share by calculated loss. No matter what, it could definitely have been launched in a more professional way. Bad karma on the founder. I'm waiting (at least) 6 weeks to put in my order.

Re:lacks the crank

[Slashcrap]

I suspect that any money you spend on this scam will go towards buying crank and high class prostitutes for the CEO.

Re:Sure looks like a scam. Pull up a whois on it

[nnm.one]

Organisationsnr: Företagsnamn(firma): Företagsform: Firmatyp: Län: Status:
19 700326-2016 1 Medison Consulting E Firma 10
556525-1096 Medison Data AB AB Firma 10 Konkurs avslutad
916575-3832 MEDISON Handelsbolag HB Firma 04 Avregistrerad
969622-6852 Medison Handelsbolag HB Firma 06 Avregistrerad
969627-7657 Medison Inlärning Handelsbolag HB Firma 06 Avregistrerad
969628-2749 Medison Media Handelsbolag HB Firma 06 Avregistrerad

-----------------

Let me translate that:

Organisation Number: Company Name(firma): Företagsform: Firmatyp: State: Status:
19 700326-2016 1 Medison Consulting E Firma 10
556525-1096 Medison Data AB AB Firma 10 Bankrupt
916575-3832 MEDISON Handelsbolag HB Firma 04 De-registered
969622-6852 Medison Handelsbolag HB Firma 06 De-registered
969627-7657 Medison Inlärning Handelsbolag HB Firma 06 De-registered
969628-2749 Medison Media Handelsbolag HB Firma 06 De-registered
--
https://snr3.bolagsverket.se/snrgate/default.jsp
(Search for 'medison')
--

http://www.mufjonkoping.se/medisonVSclevo.JPG

Pictures stolen from a company named "Clevo" that is based in Taiwan. Yet they claim that they are assembled in Brazil and that they
will continue to do that until they have their manufactoring facility ready there.

--

It's a scam, nothing more to see here, move along now.

P.S
Their demand that they are/will be getting (as pointed out by a member of some other forum) will surpass the ones on Apples MacBooks, it is highly unlikely that this company from out of nowhere will be able to supply.