back to article Hong Kong supplier punts Mac-alike netbook

If Apple won't make a Mac-style netbook, someone else will. And if you can't face waiting for the Asus Eee PC 1008HA, how about this fine piece of trademark infringement from Hong Kong? Yu Guan 'Apple' netbook Yu Guan's 'Apple' netbook: chip off the old unibody? Excitingly dubbed the WF188 - we'd suggest renaming it WTF188 …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    Welll ...

    Seems like a top-notch outfit, their website's responding with "Service Unavailable" ... I guess somebody somewhere hit the BOFH alert already ...

    Black Helicopters, they're sure to hover over Hong Kong soon ...

  2. Lol Whibley

    possibly

    the fastest cease/desist in the east? site reads :Service Unavailable

    gone so fast it left a small popping sound where it wasn't

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    What do you expect???

    If a corporation has it's assembling in a Communist country then there will be knock offs. Sadly, what happens is the government will go in and remove top engineers and project managers and "assign" them to new positions at competing companies. Cause hell, we need to distribute it all fairly amongst the people right????

    ** Posted anonymously because I don't want to be taken away from my child for publicly stating the truth **

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    Service unavailable

    Unfortunately... Steve's dogs are it the way?

  5. bygjohn
    Pirate

    Well that didn't last long...

    Website now says "Service not available" :-)

  6. Tony Smith, Editor, Reg Hardware (Written by Reg staff)

    @All

    Some pages work on the Yu Guan site, others don't. Try this one:

    http://www.tct.hk/products.htm

  7. Michael Habel
    Coat

    Yes but, a bigger question...

    Will it run Snow Leopard??

    Or I guess it would still be Leopard though wouldn't it??

    The One with the working EeePC w/OSX x86 installed in the pockets pls.

  8. Simon McGarry

    Web Site Does Work

    The web site linked is working it's just very congested, it took 3 attempts for me. It looks like a lot of rip-offs as mentioned in the article.

  9. Hayden Clark Silver badge
    Unhappy

    Defintely taken down

    The english page is still up

    http://www.tct.hk/en/WF188.html

    but all the images are gone.

  10. TrixyB
    Dead Vulture

    @Tony

    Nope, that link is unavailable too!

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    Works fine for me

    Even the English version of the site. I've perused it and it is indeed an IP lawyers wet dream. I know the Chinese government is generally lax about IP enforcement. However if this company and it's products gets any more attention than just here at El Reg then I predict they will shortly crumble under the sheer volume of law suites filed against them, as every product on their site is an obvious and direct rip off of something from a major manufacturer.

  12. David Gosnell

    Monumentally ugly

    It's monumentally ugly anyway. Apple could sue even on grounds of assault to eyes.

    Ten inches AND a huge bezel? That really will be the size of my Toshiba P3 clunker.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    website

    Where do i buy one of those girls at the top of the page?

    Is she a knock off too ?

  14. Ken Hagan Gold badge

    Definitely *not* taken down.

    The link in the article worked fine for me just now. I expect they are just overwhelmed by interest, having been publicised by this fine site!

  15. CC

    A Blast from the Past

    Reminds me of the days of Apple and the Emachine's look alike and all the others that Apple stopped deading in their tracks with the "Trade Dress" argument, it worked then and will now.

  16. rasputinsDog
    Linux

    Try this site

    http://www.tct.hk/3G.htm. Seems OSX is not an option only Ubuntu or XP Home. I don't see a price anywhere, but then the site is not in English so I may have missed it.

  17. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

    Should have used a penguin

    I have been looking for a Via Nano laptop. A pity some berk put an i-logo on it.

    A web search for WF188 just shows an ARM based pda/phone. That would have been interesting too if it were not infected with wince.

  18. Pierre

    site up

    Interestingly, site works perfectly fine when I proxy my connection, but is unavailable directly (Canada here).

    (not so) clever way to avoid legal problems maybe?

  19. Pierre

    Correction

    Ooops disregard my previous post. Just refresh until it works. Seems to just be an intermittently-working website. Or something.

    The page you want is this one:

    http://www.tct.hk/3G.htm

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    @ AC Tuesday 17th March 2009 15:09 GMT

    "If a corporation has it's assembling in a Communist country then there will be knock offs."

    Yeah, shure. Because there are no Chanel or Gucci knock-offs. And 90% of "American" goods are not assembled in China. Shure. Yeah.

    Also, you absolutely NEED to steal engineers, project managers and designers to horizontally flip a logo. You wouldn't believe how many people and how much competence is actually needed to flip these.

    Anon, as I wouldn't want to be taken away from my pr0n collection for not needlessly bashing so-called communist countries.

  21. PunkTiger

    Shopping Trip

    I'd really like to spend three months in Hong Kong if only to check out the examples of counterfeiting and knock-offs that are available there; that almost-Apple branded notebook, for example. Could you imagine what could be flying under the radar there that we'd never hear of? From the laughable to the ingenious, and all of it inexpensive.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Re: What do you expect???

    Some people really have been brainwashed by the far right wing. However, if what you say is true then why don't you get your big fat US ass back on it's high horse and mention the US government passing on trade secrets to Boeing. Or maybe you're ashamed that your government is not as efficient at industrial espionage or the recipients not suitably equipped in the brain department to take advantage of the information as other more advanced countries/companies respectively.

    I usually like to be subtle and understanding in my comments but somehow I don't think that approach would have worked here.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    @ AC Tuesday 17th March 2009 15:09 GMT

    "If a corporation has it's assembling in a Communist country then there will be knock offs."

    It's not a knock off as it's not part of Apples' product line. If Apple eventually do make one then it will be a copy of this.

  24. EvilGav

    @Shopping Trip

    I can thoroughly recommend Hong Kong, fantastic place, lovely people (admittedly a large number of ex-pats) and yes, the cheap knock-offs are very good and very cheap - for example, rugby tops for around £4 (I was over for the 7's both times) and far more durable than half the full-price stuff in the UK.

    Although, the cheap prices in Hong Kong pale into insignificance when compared with the cheap prices in main-land China. 5 years ago a knock-off Game-boy Colour was around £20 and the games were around £1, knock-off DVD's cost less than £1 and the quality was high (nothing like the quality FACT would have you believe in their adverts).

    Basically, Hong Kong and China both get a big thumbs-up from me as places to visit.

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