Calling shenanigans on the Coby $100 Midget PC

As I noted in my post yesterday about the Coby $100 “Midget PC”, there are a number of strange aspects about the story that broke the news, including

• Lifting a quote about Coby from a New York Times story I was interviewed for two years ago
• Quoting Robert Gee, whom I understand left Coby Electronics months ago
• Including a picture of the device that looks like an Everex Cloudbook
• Citing “insiders” intermingled with company representatives
• The strange fixation on Moore’s Law in the story
• Use of the name “PoqetMate.” Poqet Corporation was a manufacturer of small MS-DOS PCs that was acquired by Fujitsu.

In addition, I’ve never seen a tech story broken by the Arkansas IndyMedia before in my career. Why would Coby approach them with an apparent exclusive? And why would it be in the “Local News” section unless perhaps Walmart was going to be the exclusive distributor? Update: The site seems to be a community content site where anyone can upload any article they create without oversight.

So I contacted Coby this morning and, sure enough, its PR representative told me that “this story, or any announcement regarding a netbook, was not (emphasis theirs) initiated, condoned or approved by Coby Electronics” and referred to the information in the story as “erroneous.”

It looks like someone has been engaging in a different kind of fabrication than that which would have produced the Midget PC’s Longsoon processor.