Exclusive Report: EFI-X Mac Booter, A Scam?

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Great article! Thanks for keeping us up-to-date on this entire EFi-X™ debacle. I've been waiting to get me one of these modules but I don't have to worry about this anymore.

Also Aman of TeknoJunkie is actually my Friend and he hasn't left EFi-X™ forums, he's still moderating them and hoping to have all of this deal calm back down.
 
[citation][nom]cliffro[/nom]And spend an extra $1000+? If I were even remotely interested in Mac(I'm not), I'd try the Software based one, and maybe even pay for OSX. Not waste over a grand just to have a "legit" version of OSX.Besides my neighborhood is smug-free, I have no interest in breaking that tradition.[/citation]Epic fail! There has never been a $1000 difference between a Mac and a comparable PC. The most extreme cases have been around $700, with under $300 for the typical case, and these EFI-X buyers were spending over $400 to convert their PC's into Mac compatible machines.

And, seems you just stated you think pirating Mac OS X is a valid option. You probably justify pirating all your software because it's too expensive. Have fun explaining that to the judge.
 
"[citation][nom]geoffs[/nom]Epic fail! There has never been a $1000 difference between a Mac and a comparable PC. The most extreme cases have been around $700, with under $300 for the typical case, and these EFI-X buyers were spending over $400 to convert their PC's into Mac compatible machines.And, seems you just stated you think pirating Mac OS X is a valid option. You probably justify pirating all your software because it's too expensive. Have fun explaining that to the judge.[/citation]

Erm, find me a new quad core 'official' mac (ANY quad) for under $2400...even a new psystar quadcore (if you didnt want to build your own Hackintosh with iatkos, kalyway, ideneb, whatever) only costs $700.

Now, granted a Mac Pro would be superior to that Psystar in some areas, but $1700 better?

And its not really pirating Apple if you buy a standalone copy of Leopard/SL, when you build your hackintosh IMHO, although Apple has its lawyers trying to prove otherwise.
 
This is a nice piece ... i would love to read more pieces like this on tom's.
You know how people including whine from time to time about the decline of TH?
Well just because i tend to whine i guess its no more then fair to let Tuan know when i actually like a piece i read!
 
And ohw yeah did i mention i was drunk when i wrote the thing above ?
Drunk people Irish people and kids never lie !
And no since the recession Irish and drunk are not the same!, Ask Jane if needed 😛
 
basically I spent $300 on a $10 piece of shit? I GOT RIPPED OFF! 😡
Go ahead ASEM go sue AsereBLN. You're gonna lose the battle!
Many upsetted customers including me!
 
[citation][nom]blppt[/nom]"Erm, find me a new quad core 'official' mac (ANY quad) for under $2400...even a new psystar quadcore (if you didnt want to build your own Hackintosh with iatkos, kalyway, ideneb, whatever) only costs $700.Now, granted a Mac Pro would be superior to that Psystar in some areas, but $1700 better?[/citation]Comprehension fail. Go back and read my post stating comparable Mac and PC.

And its not really pirating Apple if you buy a standalone copy of Leopard/SL, when you build your hackintosh IMHO, although Apple has its lawyers trying to prove otherwise.
Click to expand...
Comprehension fail #2. The reader to who I was responding (and quoted) stated I'd try the Software based one, and maybe even pay for OSX., implying that he thinks it's acceptable to use Mac OS X without paying for it, which is clearly piracy.
 
This is the biggest scam ever! I mean it should have been obvious that it was just a flash drive cause of the way you set it up to work... you plug it into a usb port and set usb to be bootable, it couldn't be anything else! you can't make some type of hardware that changes the way the whole mobo works by plugging it into USB.

still, I can't see why paying a massive markup for simple hardware that has software that was stolen from the open source community is any different from buying a Mac :)
 
Maybe everyone thinks that spending a year and a half development time comes for free. To say that ASEM stole source community code is debatable as they only needed to give credit to the community and if the code was modified give it back. They created the extensive hardware compatibility lists and worked through numerous problems which any start-up company goes through. It is true that they have shakey customer service, what came across as a poor attitude, and sometimes slow firmware updates, but their product did work as advertised (how many modules eventually failed was another matter that no one except ASEM can put a number on, again poor customer service.)

As far as the markup goes, whatever the market will bear. Did you know that it costs under a nickle to make contact lenses (guess what the cheapest contacts cost?)

For me, paying a company $230 bucks for doing all the stability testing and updates to keep an equivalent MAC Pro system(for half the price) was worth it (I would have never needed to go this route if Apple had offered a beefed up iMac, without the display.)

I am mad that that SL support has not yet come, their has been no announcement about customer concerns and the poor folks that recently purchased V1.0 being left out in the cold.

They still could make it if SL support came out and they made it right buy the people would purchased V1.0 recently (if they still have the man power.) But this seems less and less likely given the companies current actions.
 
Dear user comms1.

Don't try to make excuses for these guys. It is a scam. period. It doesn't matter how you look at it. It is a scam. I don't have to review the whole article to tell you it is a fraud. The worst thing is not the customer support, those devices started failing within a time frame and they tell you that you should buy the 1.1 version. In one of the links, there's the evidence of GPL violation and it Can be seen that the code strings are the SAME. And on top of it al, they make you believe they have an uber-powerful processor inside that small little roach.
 
[citation][nom]geoffs[/nom]Comprehension fail. Go back and read my post stating comparable Mac and PC.n [/citation]

Ok, lets play the fail game.

Memory Fail.

[citation][nom]geoffs[/nom]Epic fail! There has never been a $1000 difference between a Mac and a comparable PC. The most extreme cases have been around $700, with under $300 for the typical case, and these EFI-X buyers were spending over $400 to convert their PC's into Mac compatible machines.[/citation]

Remember saying that? Even IF you factor in $400 extra (assuming this person was building a NEW system from scratch), you still are likely to come out $1400+ cheaper for comparable hardware. EFI-X pre-built systems are considered overpriced for what they give you:

http://www.expresshd.com/p137/Express-PC-Q9550/product_info.html?osCsid=74uvo6f3juvijgip931fmr3ao7

BUT, that system is arguably *overall* the equal of a new Mac Pro. And only $1200.

http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/mac_pro?mco=NzcwNjc4MA

Or even build your own system from scratch with superior components than what is available in a baseline Mac Pro currently.

Basically, if you want a quad core computer from Apple, your bottom line, through apple, is $2400. Go into any local Beast Buy and find the $700 Windows system with quad cores all over the place. And Apple can no longer hide behind their "specialized" hardware now that they use x86/64 cpus and comparable Intel chipsets.

Finally, you can get a psystar quad core that will pretty much smoke any new Mac under that $2400 Mac Pro for $700. Or, build yourself a system, buy Snow Leopard, download a osx86 distro like iatkos, ideneb, kalyway, whatever. This is why hackintoshes are so interesting.
 
I like the way the CEO said:"I never had sufficient involvement in the hardware and software development to agree or disagree with the claims being made...". Also good article.
 
Comms1 does have a valid point. Many would pay to have all of the work done for them. And I agree that companies would have expenses, However, in this case I believe all of the work was done by the community and stolen to use in the EFIX. That and the false claims of an onboard cpu/ gigs of memory. Very shady.. I feel sorry for the people who never knew better.
 
I have great respect for Tom's Hardware for publishing this story! Its about time that someone from the online-media stepped up and got the word out about ASEM/EFi-X's problems. I bought a module 7 months ago, but have never gotten what was promised. I've had nothing but problems, one firmware update after another. I recently switched to PC EFI / Chameleon, and my computer now works PERFECTLY with SNOW LEOPARD. Wilhelm von Vnukov hasn't been able to steal open source code yet to get the EFi-X V1.1 module working.. he's probably too busy banning angry customers from his forum, or possibly fighting behind-the-scenes legal battles.

EFi-X customers are going to be the big losers here. This company is going no where but down.
 
[citation][nom]blppt[/nom]And its not really pirating Apple if you buy a standalone copy of Leopard/SL, when you build your hackintosh IMHO, although Apple has its lawyers trying to prove otherwise.[/citation]

Apple might make the claim that the overcharging of their hardware makes up some of the extra R&D costs for the ongoing development of OSX, though, which if you choose to install it on non-apple hardware could still be considered partially piracy, I suppose, since you are not overpaying on the hardware, only partially paying what Apple expects to make in developing OSX.

guess thats for the lawyers to figure out
 
I am deeply offended at the journalistic initiative being demonstrated by TOMSHARDWARE in the case of the phony mactel bootware.

It really is rather déclassé for THW to show up the lazy cheerleading of the mainstream mac media with a flashy stunt line this (um, if the New York Times is wondering what they are missing by letting David Pogue have it both ways, then maybe this case will be a wake-up call).

In the future, it would be appreciated if THW would stick to it's knitting (specs & benchmarks) and leave the news reporting to mainstream tech media where it belongs, like the New York Times ... oh, yeah, I forgot, they aren't really in the news business any more.

Never mind.
 
Everyone should google the Chameleon bootlarder. It is EFI-X but on USB and free (not $250), but you use the EFI-X drivers which are free on their website for now.

Both products are great because they force you to use an unpatched retail OS X disc, and can use the OS X builtin software updater without seizing the installation.
 
I cant believe anyone bought this, it takes less than a half day to read a walkthrough on how to install a prebuilt version of osx on a custom pc. I mean even this company required you to follow certain hardware. It sucks but thats what you get for being lazy.
 
[citation][nom]blppt[/nom]Ok, lets play the fail game. Memory Fail.Remember saying that? Even IF you factor in $400 extra (assuming this person was building a NEW system from scratch), you still are likely to come out $1400+ cheaper for comparable hardware.

BUT, that system is arguably *overall* the equal of a new Mac Pro. And only $1200.

Or even build your own system from scratch with superior components than what is available in a baseline Mac Pro currently. Basically, if you want a quad core computer from Apple, your bottom line, through apple, is $2400.[/citation]By no measure is a machine with a Core 2 Quad Q9550 and Intel P45 chipset comparable to a Mac Pro with a (Nehalem based) Xeon X5550 and P58 chipset. Nor does the clone you linked include ANY OS or other software, while the Mac includes Mac OS X, iLife, and a variety of other software. You could have linked to a Core i7 machine on BB, that would have at least been close (still not the same, but for most purposes, close enough).

Go into any local Beast Buy and find the $700 Windows system with quad cores all over the place.
Click to expand...
Yes, with no VT support and a much smaller L2 cache. Again, not comparable machines.

I have never said that you can't get a PC for less, only that a comparable PC isn't significantly less. With an Apple, you are going to pay more in most cases, that pays for their industrial design, the included software, their support, integration, seamless setup, and Apple's markup. But you'll pay about the same price for comparable equipment from Dell, HP/CPQ, or any other major PC vendor, and you still won't get Mac OS. No one is forcing you to buy one, so stop complaining.

Cisco's routers and firewalls are too expensive, and the lower end ones are based on an x86 CPU. Can I just go buy Cisco IOS for one of their routers and hack it to run on a PC? I can save at least $300 doing that. How is that any different than a running Mac OS X on a Hackintosh?

Finally, if you want to see the likely outcome of the Psystar case (and all hackintoshes), check out the ruling in the Davidson Associates, Inc. (Blizzard Entertainment) vs. Internet Gateway case. There is a direct correlation of each point in that case to the Psystar case and to hackintoshes in general.
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2009090111072988

There is one significant difference for Psystar, because they are pre-installing Mac OS X and then selling the machines, they're modifying and then distributing (for profit too) Mac OS X, and that's a clear violation of copyright (17 USC 102, 106, and 117). Copyright does allow some adaptation of software, but you can't distribute the adapted software to others without written permission from the copyright holder (Apple). Bad news for Psystar, their shareholders, and their customers.
 
There could be reasons why they are trying to protect their products:

1) from apple, last thing they want is for apple to disable their hardware

2) chinese copy cats

3) people from fiding out the truth


Everything can be products in china for cheap?

Do you really think your $1000 - $3000 computer cost a lot to make? well try $10-$15 for the motherboard..... LCD screen, hard drive, and intel cpu is probably the most expensive parts in the computer but still they are < $100 for each of those parts to produce.


So all Electronics are cheap to produce, companies make millions off hardware (As their brand name helps increase markup), no names and chinese brands get sold for next to nothing.

R&D costs money, so even if hardware is cheap to producte, R&D isn't.
But luvckily r&d only has to be done once(first costs/fixed cost), so the more hardware is sold, the cheaper things can be sold for.

I suspect, the devices (EFI-X) were not cheap becuase they were the only ones with hardare and it was a cool idea to address the problem.

Also they are capitalizing on Apple products, anything for apple costs more then it should. (example: ELGATO TV VIDEO RECORDER costed my cousin $300 and came in a big clunky box, where the pc equivelent costs $50-$110). Apple people are more likely to spend more on products, and allow companies selling apple products to get away with it. This is why its good to say away from apple (its a money trap)


If EFI-X was a mod for the pc and had nothing to do with apple products, then it would probably be sold for under < $150.00.


in my opinion anyone that wants apply stuff rips themself off (if the product works or doesn't work), as apple products are associated with huge make ups. (as its the company that products the p[roduct that makes this markup, not the retailer, as their is next to nothing left to markup for the retailer)





So if you feel ripped off from this product, remember (1) you wated an apple product, and any apple related product is a rip off already. (2) you were paying for overprice hardware(everything is cheap to product in china), but you are paying for the cool unique idea... (3) a product that makes it easy to use apple osx on an unauthorized machine (You will find that when you buy something to mod anything that it will cost you $$$. Essentially you bought an over glorified mod chip)






 
[citation][nom]hallubalooza[/nom]I cant believe anyone bought this, it takes less than a half day to read a walkthrough on how to install a prebuilt version of osx on a custom pc. I mean even this company required you to follow certain hardware. It sucks but thats what you get for being lazy.[/citation]For some people, half a day worth a lot more than $280.
 
Tuan Nguyen, you are my new hero. Great article and I'm glad you had a statement from the former CEO. The points you raised in this article match my own experiences as owner of a V1 unit. Mine still works with OS10.5 for the moment, but the frustrations of dealing with EFI-X and its erstwhile "leader", Wilhelm von Vnukov, aka "White Dragon" on the forums, are dreadful. Free software efforts like Firefox have update servers that are up most of the time, but a company that charges $240 for its product can't keep their update server running more than 1 percent of the time? Not to mention that fact that the unit was promised not to need continual firmware updates whenever Apple released updates of 10.5--yet it does need new firmware with every update. And those firmware updates are buggy as hell.

Now Vnukov is suing the brave man who publicly exposed the units for not containing the promised parts inside them. I hope Tom's Hardware will keep close tabs on this story and let us know often what is going on in the various investigations, including their own.

Finally, enough with the elitists crowing how better they are than anyone else because they like to spend days at a time messing around with the guts of a PC instead of getting actual work done or enjoying spending time with other human beings. I don't see high-skilled labor like plumbers, carpenters, mechanics, and surgeons bragging about how smart they are and how anyone could do it and anyone who pays to have plumbing, carpentry, car repair, or sugery done by someone else is stupid. Skilled disciplines require enough background knowledge to apply complex procedures. It's the same with programming. Get a life, morons. Or at least respect those of us who do have one.
That being said, the folks at efixusers.com are so pleasantly supportive that I will try installing Snow Leopard this fall once there's not enough daylight after work to do anything.
 
Von Vnukov apparently has made good on his threat to sue. Nothing like stifling the truth with a nuisance law suit, and a great marketing idea, "Buy the New and Improved Efix Version 1.1 and you too can LEGALLY hack OS X!!! But wait, there is more!!! If you order within the next 30 minutes, your Efix will come with it's very own lawsuit and the inability to run Snow Leopard despite what we said earlier!!!" Geez...at least they could wear uniforms, so you could see them coming... like before.
 
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