IContain announces Amiga branded TVs, cell phones and computers (Update)

When a certain Todd Kleperis contacted the Aminet team two days ago to "discuss your library of Amiga titles" and ask for "guidance as to how to work with the existing fan base", the initial reaction over at Aminet was confusion. According to Kleperis, his company IContain is operating from China and about to revive the Amiga line of electronics. Why he choose to use Aminet as his first contact with the actual Amiga scene was not explained though.

At icontainprotects.com, Kleperis' company is indeed advertising cell phones, tablet PCs, various types of TV screens aswell as all-in-one PCs with integrated monitors - all of them sporting prominent Amiga logos. Obviously these devices are third-party products which have been rebranded as Amiga products by IContain.

You can't actually buy these products from IContain though: The company is mainly operating in the socalled Rent-to-own business. Using devices developed by IContain, furniture or consumer electronics devices leased to end users by Rent-to-own providers can be tracked or even remotely disabled should the customer stop paying its fees in time.

Asked about the reason for introducing a line of Amiga products, Kleperis told us that he was approached by a Rent-to-own provider that intended to buy not only the tracking technology from his company but also the actual consumer electronics - provided IContain could offer a "branded solution". As Amiga "used to be all about innovation in the past" (Kleperis) and other businesses like Lenovo or Sony were not interested in cooperation, Kleperis decided to offer Amiga branded devices.

We were told that the licensing deal was "cut just recently by the executor of an estate", that product just started shipping and that we should expect "worldwide press" soon. The IContain president would neither give any further information nor comment our hints that another company has already announced various Amiga products.

Interestingly, while Leo Nigro, Chief Technology Officer of Commodore USA, states in public that his company obtained a license from Bill McEwen and is free "to do with [the Amiga brand] as we please" - Kleperis mentions the executor of an estate as his business partner. The estate in question would likely be that of former Amiga Inc. investor Pentti Kouri, who deceased in 2009.

The story of Void on the amiga started way back in the summer of 1995, myself (Powerslave) and Griz (member from 1995 - 1999) were in a uk group called Ultima, my role was swapper and musician, and Griz's was gfx. Originally my handle was DT214 taken from my 11m CB radio days, ( I now still use the radio with Alpha Tango call and HAM radio also, many handle swaps over the years and finally settled with Powerslave. After about 8 months in Ultima, we both decided to leave and start are own group. It was September 1995 and we both went to Blackpool for a day trip. Various names where flying around, like Mirage, Escape etc, then Griz shouted out "Void". Well that was it, it sounded cool and void was born.


The members started to join, Rabl from Ultima joined and then changed his handle to the famous Gone. Other members joined, some from Ultima others from other uk groups around that time. One thing Void wanted to do was discover new uk sceners, so a lot of members joined from being "Indys" Independants as they were known as.


Names like Snoopy, Jay, Skinner, Hurricane, Raptor, Killit, Furrball, soon joined and this brought countries like Norway and Poland and Holland into the Void group. By the beginning of 1996, void had many members in 4 countries.



Later in 1996, the dutch group S2 joined void as a sub group, which had only two members, Styles and Scandal. With there help they released the Macron BBS intro on the 22/07/96.

The memberlist at this stage consisted of:



DT214 - Organiser, Musician & Swapper (England)
Griz - Organiser, Gfx (England)
Jay - Organiser, Coder & Swapper (England)
Snoopy - Coder & Swapper (England)
Killit - Coder & Swapper (England)
Furrball - Gfx & Swapper (England)
Rabl - Organiser, Gfx & Swapper (Holland)
Styles - Musician & Swapper (Holland)
Scadal - Coder, Gfx & Swapper (Holland)
Zany - Musician & Swapper (Norway)
Hurricane - Swapper (Norway)
Raptor - Coder & Swapper (Poland)

Over the years we grew from strength to strength and released many good intro's and demo's at the Breakpoint and the Gathering demo parties. Punisher/Gods and many old-school groups joined and brought the music from Maze with him to enhance the demo musics.



Soon, I discovered a new coder, a learner who has turned out to be a good friend also, His name was Rumrunner and mainly coding with his A500, he showed the big groups in early 2000 that it was still possible to make routines without the AGA chipset.


Void members work was found in various packs and mags over the years, LSD's Grapevine returned and so Gone had articles within this, as well as Jurrasic Park, I was honoured to be with the hitpack series from Gods for my music and the early Kickdown packs from a group now RIP called Syndrome.