Keepin' it real... WTF?!

Dude, that's what you get when you buy your devices -- a wireless adapter in this case -- on the street in Beijing. Actually, we ran this by our Chinese bureau, and they said it was probably a hoax -- which somehow makes it all the more appropriate for a keepin' it real fake, hmm?

[Via GameAxis]

[StuBee @ Aug 11th 2006 1:20PM]

Hmm...recall seeing this picture several months ago.

[RC @ Aug 11th 2006 1:24PM]

HAhahaha.

OWNED!

[StevO @ Aug 11th 2006 1:26PM]

Can't expect much for US $.50

Bootleg dvds, folexes, fake handbags are all fine
Real computer components have real costs

[Sheniferous @ Aug 11th 2006 1:44PM]

According to the article this was given out free with the purchase of a computer... and you can see why it's free...

[Rodrigo @ Aug 11th 2006 1:44PM]

WTF?!?! Damn, that's nasty.

[phatmuther @ Aug 11th 2006 1:46PM]

haha thats awesome, im gonna do that to my mates stuff

[Don Wilson @ Aug 11th 2006 1:46PM]

hahahahaha

[shon @ Aug 11th 2006 1:50PM]

LOL, thats awesome. i guess it goes to show you should know your seller!

[Ken @ Aug 11th 2006 1:53PM]

It's a hoax.

[Lounging Sound @ Aug 11th 2006 1:53PM]

I wonder how many of these shorted out their customers "new computer" USB drives. Doesn't look like the end of that cord is isolated from the other wires in it; looks like it's just cut. Hmm...

Maybe that's what they wanted. Cool-points for giving something away for free, and job-security for all the "mysterious" shorted-out USB drives :D

[asfd @ Aug 11th 2006 1:54PM]

Ha o crap, that a D-link. I have that one for my comp!

[Ken @ Aug 11th 2006 1:57PM]

As for real computer components having real costs..that doesn't take into account "overuns" on someone elses raw materials.

You have a factory that produces whatever. Local management are (in this hypothetical example) corrupt.

Your contract is to produce 100,000 whatevers. You have your factory produce until it's out of material for that order. Deliver the 100,000 units and get paid. Then the remaining units go out the back door to your associates. They, in turn distribute/wholesale out to street vendors.

It's making money off the scraps, as it were.

Even our record industry had(or has) that problem with records/dvds.

[Jonny Nutsack @ Aug 11th 2006 2:00PM]

It's clearly a hoax. Why else would they feel the need to redact the image and obscure the serial number and mac address of a fake device they bought on the street?

[Todd @ Aug 11th 2006 2:06PM]

The reason for the redaction is that this is a picture of Microsoft's secret "Zune adapter" designed to connect a Zune to any Mac.

[Gustad Mody @ Aug 11th 2006 2:06PM]

I like how the guy who whiped out the SN and all those other numbers, but didnt do it on the bar codes. you can print that out and scan to get the bar code

[Antipodeanist @ Aug 11th 2006 2:12PM]

And if any of you click on the link, the numbers are not blocked out...

[Excuse me for my terrible grammar @ Aug 11th 2006 2:17PM]

Bender: *gasp* It been transsexual!

[Andy @ Aug 11th 2006 2:27PM]

Wow! Its truly amazing the way they can fit an entire wireless adapter into that tiny wire! I love technology!

Thats pretty hilarious though. Next time I'd try a real computer store =P.

[Matt W. @ Aug 11th 2006 2:35PM]

You've got to be kidding me. No, I'm not referencing the obviously flawed wireless adapter. I'm referencing the post. When did "--" become a nearly reasonable punctuation?

I honestly don't think I've seen a run on statement that ended in a question "hyphenated" with "--" in my life -- how does that work -- is this how -- holy grammar batman.??! [RPN punctuation]

[David @ Aug 11th 2006 3:07PM]

This image is old as dirt.. plus why is this even censored?

[tekdemon @ Aug 11th 2006 3:09PM]

Matt W., well technically the double hypen is just a stand-in for a real dash. But yes, the sentence is gramatically...not optimal. However you'll notice that right before the "hmm?" there is a comma, which sort of makes it less horrifying lol.

[Jnetty @ Aug 11th 2006 3:27PM]

We get that here at work with returns. USB device was open and they put a fake USB head and playdoh inside to make it heavy.
It came back from CompUSA. Since CompUSA didnt check it, we don't give them credit.

[Afterthought @ Aug 11th 2006 3:36PM]

I'm not sure what you people mean when you say "hoax"...hoax as in, photoshopped pic, or hoax as in a fake USB drive?

Well from my POV, it's kinda obvious that this thing doesn't work at all.

[dave @ Aug 11th 2006 3:41PM]

"wireless" heh

[Me @ Aug 11th 2006 4:13PM]

Nice it has an internal antenna. :)

[Wael @ Aug 11th 2006 4:41PM]

Hopefully the person didnt buy that crap in bulk qauntities ai!

[matt @ Aug 11th 2006 4:43PM]

haha i like the comments more

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.sina.com.cn%2Fu%2F53a2dcd6010004al&langpair=zh-CN%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools

they are saying its clever and might do it themselves LOL

[danj3ris @ Aug 11th 2006 4:52PM]

Im having problems determining whether this is a good idea or not.

Dont get me wrong, I realize this device is non-functional, yet I still wonder...

Oh ok, I just figured it out. And Airlines should start banning these too now.

[Vance @ Aug 11th 2006 6:26PM]

What is in this image is fraud, that is a case of misrepresentation and the cost is that people loose faith in the industry. Those of you who are thinking this is funny are likely thinking that no-one was harmed by the misrepresentation of a product.

The people who sell a similarly manufactured product are loosing business because this makes what could be an inexpensive product unusable and unsold, just because of it's notoriety.

[TIMMAH! @ Aug 11th 2006 6:30PM]

"HW Version B1" --- That's what you get when you buy beta hardware...

Well I do think this would be a datasafe flash memory stick that could be used in high security areas...

[Ben @ Aug 11th 2006 6:55PM]

this pic's been around for a while.

not sure if it's real though :P

[Larry The Cable Guy @ Aug 11th 2006 7:24PM]

100% sure this is not for real, I think this is some joke the reader did on the other site where the pic was first posted.

[javaflash @ Aug 11th 2006 7:55PM]

They don't have return policy over there...

[hellobai @ Aug 11th 2006 8:13PM]

it's all fun and games until it happens to you.

shen zhen, china.

vendors there are notorius for rebadging should we say "128MB" SD/MMC with a sticker that shows it as a 2GB.

just saying. You should test it out then and there when you buy it.

Embarassing i know, but it could happen to you.

[STEVE @ Aug 11th 2006 8:20PM]

notice near the end of the connector it kinda looks like a broken condom. now thats keeping it real. half the kids today are illegitmate.

[steve-o @ Aug 11th 2006 11:13PM]

People who think this is a hoax need to know "keeping it real" series did not start out of thin air. There has been articles written about public executions of people who made fake baby formula that caused many infant deaths, fake eggs so real in consistency and looks when cracked open, cars, cellphones, mp3 players... you name it and China has a fake counterpart. The situation there has been improving, only because many companies recently started to sue these guys and win then court battle.

[Ypoknons @ Aug 12th 2006 10:51AM]

It's not really all that different from the time the guy bought the paper Powerbook on the street in NYC, just in China. People seem to think the China part matters, though.

[SP Leung @ Aug 12th 2006 5:43PM]

Check this out.

http://viralblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/thumb-usb-drive-bought-in-china.html

[Tsubasa Kato @ Aug 12th 2006 7:49PM]

Chinese joke?? not funny.

[RaveGamer @ Aug 12th 2006 8:12PM]

"It's not really all that different from the time the guy bought the paper Powerbook on the street in NYC, just in China. People seem to think the China part matters, though."

I remember that, stupid stuff

[Simon @ Aug 14th 2006 8:29AM]

I can believe this is true. I was in Beijing last year and bought an 8Gb USB key for $20. I did it more for a laugh since I didn't believe it was true. In the shop the owner took it out of the packet and plugged it into a PC to show it had 8Gb capacity (so it wasn't quite as bad as this). Windows duly showed 7.9-something Gb free space. Take it home and try writing to it and, low and behold, it stops working. From what I can figure there is a 1Gb chipset in there, but is no longer working. No idea how they managed to fudge it to make the PC think it was that big, unless it was the PC that was rigged...

[Sergio @ Aug 14th 2006 1:31PM]

Do you really think it is not real?? This is because you don`t know Argentina. This is very common here. My father bougth a deco for cable-tv and it was a real fake. Inside of the little box there was a broken piece of PCB circuit and the cables from outside were paste to the circuit with some kind of glue.... unless, they put a circuit inside....

Sorry for my english, it's no so good.