Actually I take it back, you have to watch this video. Riotously funny from start to finish. Highlight is that at no point does the phone turn on. https://t.co/ISiWsSuE6M
— David Neary (@DeusExCinema) July 14, 2021
Spoilsport Will Sommer, at the Daily Beast:
… Despite being lauded by some of the right-wing media’s leading figures, though, the Freedom Phone’s buyers could be getting less than they expect for its $500 price tag. That’s because the Freedom Phone appears to be merely a more expensive rebranding of a budget Chinese phone available elsewhere for a fraction of the Freedom Phone’s price…
In fact, Freedom Phone appears to be a simple rebranding of a budget phone called the “Umidigi A9 Pro,” made by the Chinese tech company Umidigi. In an interview with The Daily Beast, Finman confirmed that the Freedom Phone was manufactured by Umidigi, but couldn’t say immediately which Umidigi phone it was based on.
The Freedom Phone’s $500 price tag would represent a substantial markup on the Umidigi A9 Pro. That phone is available on Chinese retail giant AliExpress for $120 — less than one quarter of the price of a Freedom Phone.
Asked to justify the Freedom Phone’s notable price increase over the Umidigi model, Finman claimed vaguely that the Freedom Phone features customized hardware and improved memory. He committed Wednesday to publishing the phone’s technical specifications — basic details any company selling a phone should be able to provide. As of Thursday afternoon, however, no technical specifications had been provided to The Daily Beast or added to the Freedom Phone’s website…
The Freedom Phone also comes preloaded with an array of free apps for social media networks Parler and MeWe, would-be YouTube competitor Rumble, and media networks One America News and Newsmax. Popular battle royale shooter Fortnite is also preinstalled on the Freedom Phone — a fact that confused more than one conservative influencer who promoted the product.
It’s not clear why a handful of free apps, all of which are currently available in the Google Play app store for other Android devices, would justify the price increase over the Umidigi. Even if the apps were ultimately banned from Google’s store in the future, users could still install them on non-Freedom Phone Android phones through a process called “sideloading.”…
While Freedom Phone’s founder has failed to include basic details about its device, he did line up a massive ad campaign among conservative influencers. Along with Owens, Stone, D’Souza, and Alexander, the Freedom Phone has also been backed by a number of other figures popular on the right, including Pizzagate conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec, journalist John Solomon, and Students for Trump cofounder Ryan Fournier.
Many of the Freedom Phone’s prominent endorsers urged their followers to use a promo code to buy the phone, suggesting that the influencers will receive a cut when their fans buy the phone. Each referred sale results in a $50 payment to the influencer who endorsed the phone, according to a website explaining Freedom Phone’s “promoters” program…
the second funniest part is that the build quality on this phone looks like absolute trash. pic.twitter.com/p1mN8AYxr8
— ANTI-HUSTLE MACHINE (@golikehellmachi) July 14, 2021
lest you think i'm being unfair, you literally cannot find any details about the hardware OEM, software specifics or feature/accessory details *anywhere on the website*.
— ANTI-HUSTLE MACHINE (@golikehellmachi) July 14, 2021
remember a few years ago when samsung batteries kept blowing up? i'd bet these end up being way funnier and/or worse
— ANTI-HUSTLE MACHINE (@golikehellmachi) July 14, 2021
Everyone just accepts that the Freedom Phone comes with hardware level Chinese spyware right? Like that's obviously implicit?
— Graham Marbles (@gWinbags) July 16, 2021
Candace Owens promotes “the new Freedom Phone” as “a SOLUTION against Apple and Google,” but forgets she’s still posting from **checks notes** “Twitter for iPhone.” pic.twitter.com/FnhwqBRl4Z
— Resist Programming ? (@RzstProgramming) July 15, 2021
Wyatt Salamanca
File under Good News:
Trump’s Arena Tour With Bill O’Reilly Struggling to Sell Tickets — With Thousands of Seats Available
h/t https://www.mediaite.com/trump/trumps-arena-tour-with-bill-oreilly-struggling-to-sell-tickets-with-thousands-of-seats-available/
Brantl
As long as these hucksters prey on the lower food chain morons, I only begrudge that these a-holes are getting rich by lying to people. But it may be giving them too much credit for any kind of wisdom or knowledge, they might think these phones are the greatest thing since buttered bread……
Eunicecycle
@Brantl: PT Barnum was right.
Baud
Why doesn’t Balloon Juice have its own phone?
Raoul Paste
Say Umidigi three times fast.
Mike in NC
@Wyatt Salamanca: People have little interest in hearing from a couple of elderly sexual predators? I’m shocked!
Baud
To the extent there are any moral Republican officials left, they should create a Freedom Vaccine and charge for it. It just might work.
Mike in NC
If you buy one of these crappy phones, do you get a free MyPillow too?
Jess
I see all this as a tragic yet hilarious experiment in how long and how thoroughly people can be scammed before they wake up. We should be doing regular interviews with these folks to track this and study what finally woke them up (many, of course, never will awaken). This has been going on in an informal and haphazard way since the rise of trump, but it would be interesting to compile all the info at some point.
Brantl
As long as these hucksters prey on the lower food chain morons, I only begrudge that these a-holes are getting rich by lying to people. But it may be giving them too much credit for any kind of wisdom or knowledge, they might think these phones are the greatest thing since buttered bread……
@Eunicecycle: I can’t wait to see their new TV, or their smart speaker replacement, the ArgleBargle. “ArgleBargle, how do you spell freedumb? Don’t forget the B.”
Mary G
A fool and his money are soon parted. If you don’t stand for something, you stand for nothing. There’s a new sucker born every minute.
Mike R
Truly amazing how many ways there are to make money if you are a sleazy sack of shit.
Joe Falco
These freedom-loving patriots will have to skip a gun purchase to buy the phone, but their sacrifice will not be in vain (yes, it will).
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Baud: More importantly why doesn’t Baud 2024 have it’s own phone? “Why the hell not?” is a catchy motto.
Baud
This particular scam is based on politics, but I have come across similar scams in a non-political context, where the scammer will upcharge a totally ordinary product and sell it to gullible people.
germy
Good news so far for the Hubble space telescope:
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/operations-underway-to-restore-payload-computer-on-nasas-hubble-space-telescope
This has nothing to do with the freedom phone, other than as contrast for when smart and honest people work together for a worthwhile goal.
NotMax
“Comes in three colors: Supreme White, Vanilla and Albino.”
Elizabelle
They’re branding their stupidity.
Some of these morons can walk around with their Freedom Phones and their Ron DeSantis “Don’t Fauci My Florida” gear and moronware.
Baud
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Hmm. Ma Baud does have a nice ring to it.
Baud
Very interesting. If you’re in David’s post on Dominated Defaults and you click previous post, it’ll skip this post and take you straight to the Chick FIL A post.
zhena gogolia
germy
MisterForkbeard
I’ve seen this get a lot of coverage on other tech and security blogs. Basically: overpriced, underpowered hardware with lots of security holes. Like, literally something used in the DPRK because governments can break into it easily.
What’s interesting is that the security blogs initially aren’t against the idea – a phone with a lot of security features and apps built it and that isn’t directly run by Apple or Google is a big things for them. Except this isn’t it, and it’s mostly a phone by a young right-wing cryptocurrency millionaire to scam lots of money from conservatives with a “freedom” branded phone while giving kickbacks to promoters.
Estimate are that he’s basically buying these phones for $140 or so, and then reselling them at 3x the prices with a few added apps and some new logos.
Brachiator
I thought that phones and other devices had to have their technical specs on file with the FCC.
In any case, it is amazing how these people want to be angry but gullible right wing stooges.
Martin
How does it strike back at Google? It’s a standard Android phone. Well, AOSP. It’s going to have exactly the same app marketplace that Android phones do.
And add MAGACoin to the pile of stupidity and grifting here.
soapdish
@Baud: Ma Baud, he’s got the ill communications
dr. bloor
@Eunicecycle: Them Real Murkin Baby-Birthin’ Moms in the Heartland aren’t going to be able to turn out neonatal rubes fast enough for this one.
Martin
@Baud: Shit, I struggle to even call it a scam. A decent bit of US capitalism is just this.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Wyatt Salamanca: Huh, I was genuinely surprised to see that, and I wondered what they’re charging. Looks like they overreached, they should’ve started at $50. Still surprised he can’t sell out Orlando
Loved this detail
Martin
@MisterForkbeard: The problem is that almost all real security requires a symmetric approach – both on the client (phone) and on the server (service, network) side, and only the big players can pull that off.
In order for ApplePay to achieve the security it does, Apple had to help rewrite the EMV standards and then rewire the entire credit card interchange system. Only then could the client-side bits work, and even they required custom silicon.
Proper security is a coordinated effort. Building the standards is a good place for the open folks (there’s nothing proprietary in Apple’s implementation apart from the hardware, which can be substituted), but they simply cannot do the implementation.
germy
Steve in the ATL
@Baud: I bought my Balloon Juice subscription and poster nym at Nordstrom. Bet I could have gotten it cheaper on Amazon!
@Mike in NC: free? LOL. Not from any of these scammers!
Martin
Of course you sheeple would want them to let the deep state spy on the patriots! They have a first amendment right!
sdhays
@Mike in NC: People have little interest in paying to hear from a couple of elderly sexual prayers.
Craig
@Baud: I clicked on the comments link for this post and it took me to the Chick Fil A post. Hmm.
Steve in the ATL
@Craig: that’s because the Balloon Juice algorithm knew that you needed more fundamentalist churchin’ in your life
Kathleen
@Baud: I think the Baud-A-Phone would be a great campaign gimmick.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Kathleen: Mama don’t take by Baud-a-phone away
Kathleen
@Baud: Or you could go retro with Baud Bell. Bring back the Princess Phone with the extra long cord and Lily Tomlin as Ernestine (one Ringy Dingy). The kids would love to make analog cool!
NotMax
Pre-programmed with a choice of three – count ’em, three! – ring tones*!
Let the Eagle Soar
Proud to Be an American
Horst-Wessel-Lied
.
*
installing other ring tones voids warranty
Delk
Hmmm… thinking different.
Spanky
Damn! I’m so old I remember when “Freedom” was a Yang holy word.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Delk:
Sounds like something a tech company would come up with.
Alison Rose
“If they censor a president, they will censor anyone. Imagine if Mark Zuckerberg censored MLK or Abraham Lincoln.”
I’m sorry, I’m trying to come up with something witty in response to this but I’m fucking laughing too hard.
Martin
Enjoying all of the attempts at Baud phone names desperately avoiding the meaning of the word ‘baud’.
Kent
They already did that. It’s called hydroxychloroquine. And if it doesn’t work it is because you didn’t properly combine it with zinc as per fringe advice on YouTube.
NotMax
@Kent
In suppository form, Preparation Q.
//
trollhattan
That video is…something. His stage directions consisted of “Point at the camera, Erik. Lots.” Mission accomplished.
Do you have to live in Silicon Valley to be a “Bitcoin millionaire?” Guess it puts you closer to the tech monsters you’re about to pwn.
“We don’t ban apps, period.” = “Hello, fraudsters, we LOVE you.”
Mark Zuckerberg censoring Abe Lincoln is a movie I demand be made.
trollhattan
@Spanky:
Say the E Plebnistas.
Steve in the ATL
@Kent: zinc? I was told vitamin D just two days ago by an otherwise highly intelligent person.
Brachiator
@Martin:
Ha! So true.
But is it also that FCC Part B or whatever compliance is to make sure that devices are built safely and will not blow up in their faces?
opiejeanne
@Baud: Peg Bracken described trying to give away baby gerbils at a lively garage sale, and that when she put a price tag of 25 cents on the cage, they were gone in half an hour.
People are weird. I used to double my price for my costume services when I knew a customer was going to be awful (the SF Bay Area was like a small-town gossip chain). Unfortunately that made them demand my services and turned into lambs. It made me question humanity, and whether I was really charging enough to design their kids’ dance or skating costumes
This was not up-charging as a scam, it was a “go away, leave me alone” price, and it never worked.
Martin
@Kent: It’s Ivermectin now. They even got a preprint up for a bit before it had to be retracted for being absolute garbage science.
hueyplong
@Kent: Getting kind of curious about the level of hydroxy use by the anti-vaxxers. Is anyone attempting to quantify that?
It’s probably in the interest of Red state governments to make sure data is not compiled at all.
Martin
@Brachiator:
Let the free market decide, you fucking marxist! If I want to store my converted auto AR-15 with a disabled safety in my kids crib, that’s my right as a parent, and if I want to use a phone powered by depleted fuel rods (radiating the warming embrace of Jesus) that too is my right.
NotMax
@Brachiator
“In reviewing you submission, we find “sekrit electronical stuff” falls somewhat short of our acceptance criteria.”
Just Chuck
@NotMax:
Warranty? ?
Blithershout
@Alison Rose: Beat me to it… Things -would- have been different if Lincoln had been banned from Facebook!
Just Chuck
The history books do not mention a single tweet or FB post from Lincoln, so obviously he was not only banned from social media, they erased his accounts!
Immanentize
@Spanky: E Plebnista, baby!
Immanentize
@trollhattan: you beat me because I didn’t read it all.
“I do not fully understand, one named Kirk.”
The Yangs Endure an Overacting Shatner
Jay
hueyplong
@Jay: Read with satisfaction. Better late than never.
Spanky
Of course “freedom” is also a word for “nothing left to lose”, which is true if you decide to do your banking on this phone.
Nutmeg again
hahaha. Didn’t play the ad, but “think different” is such a give-a-way. I believe that’s “think differently” you ignorant douchenozzles.
trollhattan
@Immanentize:
I’m thinking the absence of an overacting Shatner is why Andrew Yang got no traction in New York.
You.
Need.
Abasicminimum…wage.
M31
@opiejeanne:
like the story of someone unsuccessfully trying to give away an old fridge, so they put it on the curb with a sign that said “for sale $100” and someone stole it
Steve in the ATL
@Nutmeg again: see also it’s versus its
@trollhattan: well played
Origuy
@Jay: Who inherited his money? If the article said, I missed it. Probably doesn’t matter if the whole family shares his views, but we could hope for a daughter who donates to Planned Parenthood.
Mike in NC
@Jay: Another Floriduh Man bites the dust!
Citizen_X
Hey dummy, MLK and Lincoln did get cancelled, by two armed racist assholes, and it did change history forever.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Both those guys were murdered for their political positions. Seriously, how can these nimrods be this out of touch with reality?
germy
“When all the old boomers die out, we’ll usher in a liberal paradise…”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Indeed, along with The Big Bad Baud.
trollhattan
More action for more Freedom®, blowing shit up edition.
Experts agree the conspirators were ultimately stymied in finding a “democrat building” to target.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@germy: Matt Gaetz is dumb as gift box of fossilized coprolites, as creepy as Episten in a Junior High shower and as vicious as group of 1930’s German right wing street thugs in the middle of a meth bing and The Base loves that. Don’t rule out Gaetz on a Full Retard ticket for 2024.
NotMax
@Enhanced Voting Techniques
“Politics had nothing to do with it. My new book once and for all proves that John Wilkes Booth hated all men with beards and really shouted ‘Sic semper barbarus!'”
//
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: Well, you were there, so I believe you.
Mary G
I’m proud to report that Matt Gaetz and MTG were unable to get a venue to host tomorrow’s “America First” rally anywhere in the home of the John Birch Society i.e. newly blue Orange County. Now they say it will be in Riverside, but refused to say where. I didn’t want to use a click on the OC Register to get more details, but this cracked me up.
OK, found the deets on The Press-Enterprise
and
Advance staffing hasn’t been stellar:
Hope the city gets its money in advance. Riverside has turned solidly blue and there will be protestors; as bad as this has been handled they might outnumber the MAGAts. Admission is free, but if you pay $250 you get to sit in front and have a chance to have a photo with the idiots.
Alison Rose
@Blithershout: “But other than that, how did you enjoy the video, Mrs Lincoln?”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@NotMax: There was a conspiracy theory in the 70s that claimed Sec of War Edwin “ten times more cumegeny than Rumsfeld ever hoped to be” Stanton had Lincoln assassinated for reasons. I suppose that conspiracy is popular with that crowd.
Alison Rose
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Literally the only thing they think about these men are “Lincoln freed the slaves” and “MLK gave some speeches and said you can’t be mean to white people”
Enhanced Voting Techniques
So did they imagined there was some highrise in downtown San Francisco that had a sign on it “George Soros Democratic Party Critical Race Community Center” that if blown up, the entire state wide liberal movement would implode instantly like The Empire did when the Death Star blew up at the end of Return of the Jedi?
trollhattan
@Mary G: Haven’t the people of Riverside suffered enough already? (Beginning with living in Riverside.)
The various MAGATs have consumed so much kool-ade they’re not capable of (nor interested in) recognizing how their act plays to normal people. Feature, not bug of course.
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
Not quite, but Sam Seymour was.
(Video cuts out just before showing he was also awarded a carton of Winstons.)
;)
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@germy: I’ve heard them called Wehrbros (as in the wehrmarcht) and they have this amazingly simplitics view of the world totally based on computer games and anime cartoons. They are an example of dangerously stupid.
trollhattan
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Heh, at the very least, only with a hammer-and-sickle motif for added oppression.
This one dude they arrested is a true menace. Here’s his firearm cache (in addition to the very Christmasy five pipe bombs) :
One MG-42 belt fed, open-bolt machine gun
One AKM-style machine gun with an under-fold stock
One AKM-style machine gun marked “Hesse Model 47” with a side-fold stock
One .45-caliber Aldo Uberti 1873 revolver
One One .4570-caliber Aldo Uberti Sharps single-shot rifle
One .223-caliber Armalite AR-10 A2 rifle
One Benelli Urbino 12 gauge shotgun
One Beretta 92FS Briga 9mm pistol
One Winchester rifle
One .40-caliber Browning Hi Power MK pistol
One flare pistol
One 7.62 x 51mm FN rifle
One Gecado Luger 9mm pistol
One Glock 17 9mm pistol
One Glock 19 9mm pistol
One .45-caliber Glock 21 pistol
One .556-caliber Harrington & Richardson M16A1 rifle
One .45-caliber HAS Streamlight TLR-1 pistol
One .40-caliber Heckler & Koch USP 40 pistol
One .45-caliber Heckler & Koch USP 45 pistol
One Heckler & Koch P2000SK 9mm pistol
One .308-caliber International M1 Garand rifle
One Kel-Tech 12 gauge shotgun
One .45-caliber Kimber Raptor II pistol
One .44- or .50-caliber Magnum Research Desert Eagle pistol
One Mauser C96 7.63mm pistol
One Mossberg 590 pump-action 12 gauge shotgun
One Mossberg pump action 12 gauge shotgun
One Remington 870 Tactical 12 gauge shotgun
One .308-caliber rifle
One .454-caliber Ruger 871 revolver
One Ruger 556 rifle
One Ruger M77 7mm rifle
One Ruger 7.62 x 39mm rifle
One .45-caliber Sig Sauer 1911 pistol
One .45-caliber Sig Sauer Exeter 1911 pistol
One .45-caliber Sig Sauer P220R pistol
One .44-caliber Smith & Wesson 629DX revolver
One Springfield M1A 7.62 x 51 mm rifle
One .45-caliber Springfield PX9628L pistol
One .45-caliber Springfield PC9105LCA pistol
One .45-caliber Springfield 1911 pistol
One 45-caliber Springfield PC9105LCA pistol
One .223-caliber Steyr Aug A3 rifle
One Walther P38 9mm pistol
One .22-caliber Walther P22 pistol
One .357-caliber Winchester 1873 lever-action rifle
One Anderson Manufacturing AR-15 type lower receiver
One polymer 80 PF 940C 9mm pistol without a serial number
One unknown caliber polymer 80 P45 pistol without a serial number
One .45-caliber Kimber Eclipse Custom II pistol
One Hi-Point C9 9mm pistol
One .22-caliber Marlin 60 rifle
.
Jay
NotMax
@Jay
“I said we’d send a plane. Didn’t say nuthin’ about fueling it up for the return trip.”
NotMax
@trolhattan
“Tonight, on a very special episode of Hoarders….”
//
Another Scott
@trollhattan: I saw a fancy imported car parked at a neighborhood pool a couple of weeks ago with a bumper sticker smack dab in the center of the back bumper.
Giant “G”, smaller “lock”.
G-lock? What’s that??
Ohh…
:-/
I wonder how often his house has been broken into when he’s away… :-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@trollhattan: And more about this poor oppressed lad from the article.
I am sensing serious levels of Walter Mitty here.
Jay
@Another Scott:
Glock sticker?
Jay
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
British Auto Repair along with Italian Auto Repair is an actual perpetual motion machine.
Alison Rose
@trollhattan: Or as my friends who live there call it, Rivertucky.
Jay
Gravenstone
@trollhattan: The .22s are just gilding the lily.
Jay
they are just another LA Gang,…..
https://knock-la.com/tradition-of-violence-lasd-gang-history/
Another Scott
@Jay:
Yup.
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
It looks like the phone has a “MediaTek” processor, at least as of a year or so ago. There was a security issue with it…
(Of course, there are security issues with anything, but getting US support for Chinese phones is not for the faint of heart.)
Cheers,
Scott.
NotMax
@Another Scott
Yeah, but will it fit in your vest pocket?
:)
apocalipstick
@opiejeanne: Larry Carlton (the great guitarist) did something similar with his studio work in the 80s. He was fielding way too many calls so, with his manager, he tripled his rates. They figured this would drive out the non-serious projects. His calendar stayed full. It led to the idea of the “triple-scale” musician: guys who were just so good in the studio that certain projects were more than willing to pay their fee.
J R in WV
@Jay:
I see from another fascist quoted by the SPLC who knew Regnery that he suffered from cancer for quite some time in his old age. Imagine that!
What goes around comes around, Mr Regnery.
NotMax
Botched linky. Fix.
@Another Scott
Yeah, but will it fit in your vest pocket?
:)
J R in WV
@trollhattan:
A few remarks about these items on the fascist’s armory inventory.
The .4570-caliber Sharps rifle is probably actually a .45-70 buffalo rifle, and a modern reproduction of an antique. The .45 is the calliber and the -70 is for 70 grains of black powder — or 4.56 grams. These modern copies cost in the range of $2,500 per!
The .556-caliber H&R M16A1 is actually 5.56 mm rather than a fraction of an inch caliber, this is a NATO round nearly the same as a .223 caliber round.
Same for the Ruger 556, should be 5.56 mm.
The Walther P22 pistol might have been intended for close up murder, they are relatively quiet compared to larger rounds, and commonly used by mob hits.
The weapons without serial numbers are probably especially illegal, as are the machine guns if they didn’t have the special license for those fully automatic guns.
Goin’ up the creek, boys! All the way up the creek, without a paddle.
Brian
@opiejeanne: In the 1980s session bassist Will Lee was getting overworked. Not wanting to actually turn down work, he upped his rates to triple scale, which resulted in (you guessed it) more calls.
Robert Sneddon
@Brian: A friend of mine with a deep but very narrow skillset in computer networking got a call once at the weekend to deal with a problem for a new client. It was local to where he was located but he didn’t want to do it so he quoted a thousand quid an hour, eight hour minimum. The client said yes. Oops.
The problem was tricky and it took him several hours to sort it out (a routing screwup plus bad configurations that had propagated to remote switches which needed hunting down and killing at a distance). The client was losing, he said, over a million quid an hour while the triply-redundant financial transactions comms network was borked so paying him what he asked was actually worth it for them and then some.
That call paid for his boat’s engine and gearbox rebuild plus he got a few more jobs out of it, less lucrative but good for career-building.
sab
@Robert Sneddon: God knows what his client wanted to do once he got back up. No jobs are innocent any more.
Starfish
The number of apps that cannot work at all without location permissions is a lot.
Another Scott
@NotMax: Zooks!
That video is a time sink! (And probably explains why there’s an ongoing shortage of semiconductor electronics. ;-)
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@trollhattan: [ snort! ]
Cheers,
Scott.
lowtechcyclist
At the end of C.S. Lewis’ That Hideous Strength, the bad guys basically lose the capacity for intelligible speech.
These bozos are damned sure working hard on heading in the same direction.