Only hours after Lenovo got off with what amounted to a warning and a promise to not do illegal stuff going forward, the tech company has agreed to pay a total of $3.5 million to a coalition of 32 states to settle allegations that Lenovo knowingly sold laptops that came with ad-injection software that put all of their online data at risk. [More]
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Lenovo Gets Slap On Wrist From Feds Over Pre-Installed Ad Software With Gaping Security Hole
By 9.5.17
Remember that time that Lenovo sold all those laptops with crappy ad-injection software built in, leaving users at risk for both bottom-of-the-barrel advertising and cyber attacks? Today, the tech company settled a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, promising not to do this all again and not paying a penalty for its alleged transgressions. [More]
10 Chinese Companies You Should Probably Know About
By 6.27.16
Many of the most common household brand names in America are not American companies, and that’s been true for decades. When it comes to technological innovation especially — from cars to phones and every appliance in between — we’ve become used to huge numbers of goods coming from countries in Asia. [More]
Motorola Heading To That Cellphone Store In The Sky As Parent Company Lenovo Starts Phasing Out Brand Name
By 1.8.16
Clutch your Razr tight and give the StarTAC under your pillow a pat — the Motorola name will soon be a thing of the past. [More]
June Recall Roundup: Melting Mason Jars And Phantom Ovens
By 6.3.15
In this month’s Recall Roundup for consumer goods, a laptop battery recall expands, mason jar night lights melt, and a friendly toy policeman is not as friendly as he initially appears to be. [More]
Here’s How To Get Rid Of That Nasty Superfish Vulnerability On Your New Lenovo Laptop
By 2.20.15
Computer manufacturer Lenovo rightly caught heat far and wide from every corner of the internet this week after security researchers discovered a massive security flaw that shipped pre-installed as advertising software. Lenovo should never have put the intrusive software on their computers in the first place, but there is some good news today, as the company is now sharing a list of what computers were affected, and how owners of their machines can remove this junk crap from their systems. [More]
Lenovo Laptops Come Pre-Installed With Giant Security Hole
By 2.19.15
It’s not uncommon for a new PC to come with some pre-installed crap on it you don’t want. From proprietary hard drive management tools to antivirus trials, software bundling is sadly common. But the junk shipping on new Lenovo laptops goes one troublesome step further: the bloatware present on several models is not only annoying, but dangerous, with a vulnerability that could let someone easily access users’ private, nominally secure data. [More]
Sale Of Motorola Mobility From Google To Lenovo Is Finalized
By 10.30.14
Earlier this year, Google sold Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for $2.91 billion in cash and stock. Just three years ago, Google bought the company for $12.5 billion, but this isn’t as terrible a business deal as it might appear: while Lenovo gets the phone business, Google gets to keep the company’s valuable library of patents. [More]
Lenovo Is The “Moneyball” Of Consumer Electronics
By 5.8.14
We have an ongoing joke at Consumerist that Chinese consumer electronics company Lenovo is a massive anti-capitalist prank, not wanting to actually sell gadgets to consumers. Customer service issues aside, this week Bloomberg Businessweek speculates that Lenovo is more savvy than any of us might have thought, assembling a dream team out of cast-off brands and companies that no one else wants. [More]
Sony May Be Getting Out Of The PC Business
By 2.5.14
Sony may be one of the world’s largest electronics companies, but it’s Vaio computers have never grown to be the market leader Sony intended them to be and has recently resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. Thus, for the second time in a year, the company is attempting to find a buyer for Vaio. [More]
Lenovo Agrees To Buy Motorola From Google For $3 Billion
By 1.29.14
Not even three years after Google bought wireless device biggie Motorola for $12.5 billion comes news that it’s made a deal with Lenovo to take the manufacturer off Google’s hands for a fraction of that amount. [More]
My Computer Has Been Trapped In Lenovo’s Anti-Repair Depot For 6 Weeks
By 8.15.13
Reader Chris now says that he should have known better than to buy a Lenovo computer. He wishes that he had realized this months ago. Life is about learning from your mistakes and all, but his computer has been stranded in Lenovo’s anti-repair depot for six weeks on “billable hold” and awaiting additional parts. [More]
Lenovo Is Confused About How Buying And Selling Works Again
By 3.28.13
After Alex ordered his laptop from Lenovo, he received an e-mail telling him that, oh yeah, there was a delay and it would ship out within a month. He bought another laptop instead. Because that’s the way the world works, Lenovo shipped out his new computer later that same day. He and Lenovo arranged things so that UPS just “sent the package back,” even though their tracking system said that it had never left the dock at Lenovo. A few days after that, they charged his credit card. Then things really got annoying. [More]
Lenovo Keeps Canceling Your Thinkpad Order, Forgets To Tell You
By 1.17.13
Alejandro wants to buy a Lenovo Thinkpad, but Lenovo doesn’t think he should have one. Well, that’s not quite fair: maybe it’s nothing personal about Alejandro. All he knows is that he’s tried to order a computer twice in the last three weeks, and twice the order has been canceled. He contacts Lenovo, and no one will give him a reason for the cancelation. [More]
Lenovo Cancels My Entire Computer Order, Forgets To Tell Me
By 11.27.12 — Updated: 12.4.12
In theory, Lenovo is a company based in China that sells computers. Most of the time, this seems to be true: they make computers, and customers ship or bring the computers to their homes and are pleased. What happens alarmingly often, though, is that the whole process falls apart. It’s as if some people aren’t worthy of owning a Lenovo machine, and the company makes the process difficult deliberately to stand in their way. That’s what happened to Alex. Lenovo pushed back his computer’s ship date repeatedly: annoying, but it happens. Then they canceled his entire order, but forgot to notify him. [More]
Lenovo CEO Turns Fairy Godmother, Hands Over Bonus To Employees
By 7.23.12
Yes, both CEOs and Lenovo are frequent targets of our posts. We generally mock CEOs for lavish pay even with dubious accomplishments, and Lenovo for a general inability to sell and support products that consumers seem to really like. Despite our branding them an anti-capitalist prank, the China-based electronics company has had a record year, and CEO Yang Yuanqing received a pretty nice bonus of $5.2 million. So he did something crazy that most of his counterparts in the US would probably never consider: he divided $3 million of that bonus up among 10,000 employees. [More]
Lenovo Not In Any Particular Hurry To Replace Defective Computer
By 7.20.12
Lenovo’s marketing for the last few years has been built on the slogan “For those who do.” Who do what? You know, stuff. Stuff that you need computers for. Computer-needing stuff. Brad’s experience with purchasing a laptop from the company has led him to the conclusion that no one there doesmuch of anything. Which makes sense. The marketing material says that their computers are for those who do. Not from them. [More]
Lenovo Sees Imaginary Address Discrepancy, Won’t Sell Me Computer
By 7.17.12
Lenovo’s ordering system is set up to combat fraud. It’s a little too good at its job, though, and is currently combating John’s perfectly legit order of a new Thinkpad. What’s wrong with his address? Nothing, according to his bank. But Lenovo insists that his information is wrong and they can’t sell him a computer. [More]
