-A user found an identical device on a chinese website: https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/2j8kyo/tor_rout...
-Updated thread with a lot of info/links: https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/2j9caq/anonabox_to...
-The infamous AMA from the "developer": https://www.reddit.com/r/anonabox/comments/2ja22g/hi_im_augu...
Edit: formatting
This product is neither great nor original, but the claims that they somehow lied about what they were doing just ring hollow to me.
Our first prototypes were pretty clunky, and cost between $200-$400 just for the parts, but they worked well and proved the concept. We knew that the device had to be small enough to easily conceal, built with quality components, and rock solid. But we also wanted to make it inexpensive. We wanted to make it available to as many people as possible.
By our fourth round of prototypes we had created a model with 64mb memory and a 580mhz CPU. This not only runs the software well, it flies!
At last happy with the board, we designed a simple, minimalist case in plain white to house it. The end result is our current model. We decided to name it the anonabox.
I see nothing here indicating claims that the electronics are designed and/or built by them. It looks like they are very inexperienced at this and it took them a long time to find the parts necessary to build what they wanted. Again, it may be a crappy, unoriginal product. But I just don't see anything to be outraged about.
When you are looking at a product designed for security, you want complete, up-front honesty. The campaign had claimed (or perhaps strongly insinuated) that it had effectively designed four prototypes. This turned out not to be true (well, allegedly at this point -- it's really not clear). That raises other questions about what they might not be forthcoming about.
In short: I expect a security product to be proactively disclosing things like this. That's how you build trust.
They likely designed four prototypes. That says nothing about creating them from scratch, and they would be idiotic to even attempt to do so. They certainly couldn't do that on $600K.