Do this idiots realize that they’ll still need to have an ISP? They’re not getting “freedom” from anything except their wallets.
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Cheap box with a built-in Tor browser, maybe?
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Oh good, make it easier for them to watch the illegal porn they’re always projecting that others watch.
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Yeah, the “dietary supplements” biz has long been a big driver of right-wing media (so, so many of them - e.g. Ben Shapiro, Rudy Giuliani…), although the same products are re-branded for Gwyneth Paltrow’s snake oil catalog, too. The right-wing move to selling overpriced electronics is interesting as it’s not just targeting fearful/insecure, gullible rubes with worthless products, there’s also this overt political dimension of selling “freedom” as well.
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No need to ship water across the world. Just sell them a water stirrer device that generates special FreedomWater blessed by the Goddess of Liberty! (See bogus #kangenwater)
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Freedom phones. Private wall. True the vote. Colloidal silver. Gold. Fucking pillows.
The game on the right is to gin up fear, anger, and a sense of “we’re being attacked,” all to build a loyal constituency that will happily part with its money for any hokey, half baked, dipshit, numb as a fence post flood of snake oil. And the pushers of this poison pill which is eating away at America walk away with millions and a smile.
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Huh. I always use the version with two "u"s. I never realised it was preceded in the canonical order of precedence by a single-u version.
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The buyers are the real qux, obviously.
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Let’s just call them marks.
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It really needs a US Flag sticker on the top to suck them in.
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I’m thinking maybe “Qux” is to be read as “kooks.”
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Must be heading to the BoingBoing store.
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That has strong odds of being part of the fun in this case: the demographic that uses ‘wuflu’ or ‘chinese virus’ unironically paying top dollar for what will probably be a bottom-of-barrel Chinese mystery BSP that has received no verification of anything important but has a thin smear of 'Murica on top.
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What might be happening is the price is used to substitute for a subscription fee. I didn’t go to the product page to investigate but I didn’t see other related comments here so not all of us might be aware of this business model. To wit: Companies offer a cheap OTT (over the top) set-top box to stream free content. This is often cultural or national programming not available everywhere (think: “How do I as an expat watch Eritrian TV when I now live in France?”) that’s available via satellite or the web. The vendor sets up some servers to multicast IPTV sourced from sat or elsewhere, and sells some inexpensive hardware pre-programmed with all the channels in one place. Users can pay a monthly or one-time fee to pay for the head-end hardware & server time and ease-of-use. There are tons of these for sale all over with niche content audiences.
Not saying that’s what’s happening here.
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They appear to be pronouncing it as “quicks”. Also, on the YouTube product introduction page, I found this little gem from Wince in his reply to concerns about Android apps and privacy, in which Wince describes the device as an “universal media box”:
“JAKE FROM STATEFARM
JAKE FROM STATEFARM
2 months ago
How can you stay private if use Android apps. Won’t you have the possibility of being data mine threw the apps
3
gavinwince
gavinwince
2 months ago
The device doesn’t come with Android apps in it; however some people want the option to side load. Some people don’t want their data collected; some don’t care. Qux® is a “universal media box” so you can choose to do with it what you want. Qux® doesn’t collect people’s data, but if you put apps in it that do, the apps can while using the apps; not the Qux® application - that’s a private encrypted network.”
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That sounds like a relatively sane business model selling a helpful niche product. So this thing is definitely something else
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There is also a really long YouTube video titled “QUX Launches Test Pilot Program” hosted by somebody called Millennial Millie where Gavin presents the Qux is new technology that is virtually unhackable, saying, “Is Qux an app? Is Qux a website? Is Qux a platform? It’s none of those things, but has aspects of all of them … The only way you can get into our network is through a login and password, and physically having in your possession a Qux device. [31:45]” The video seems purposely very vague on what Qux is exactly, beyond trying to build up Qux as the solution to a massive amount of fear based on big tech. Also, originally the Qux was supposed to include “quantum technology [33:15]”, whatever that means, which Gavin hints will be included over the next 12-18 months. At [35:00] Gavin claims that they cannot legally say what Qux does due to nondisclosure agreements, saying further that test program recipients will at that time be “read onto what Qux is actually going to be able to do.” This is just bizarre. What tech company purposefully hides what a new, exciting tech can do?
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This is a very standard scam in the crowdfunding world: take something that already exists, often on Alibaba or something similar, and mark it up heavily, either pretending that you invented it yourself or that you’ve somehow added value to it. The subreddit /r/shittykickstarters has many examples.
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TechMoan talked about much this thing on a recent episode concerning portable cassette tape players being little more than cheap Alibaba mechanisms with added social media woo.
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