MacBook Airs ship; Psystar plans Mac notebook, Blu-ray desktop
Apple is making good on a promise to have its new MacBook Airs in the hands of customers early next week. Meanwhile, unofficial Mac clone maker Psystar has announced a Blu-ray-enabled Mac desktop and says its also working on a Mac notebook.
MacBook Air ships
Readers in the market for one of Apple's new NVIDIA-powered MacBook Airs should expect broad availability of the ultra-thin systems shortly.
Overnight, several readers reported that their online order status for the new notebooks now indicates that those orders are either being prepared for shipment, or have already shipped.
"I received an invoice last night for the expedited shipping charge for my new MacBook Air. I ordered the 128GB SSD version on the day of the launch," said one reader. "The status on the Apple Store now shows "Prepared for Shipment" but still gives the same Ship Nov 5, Deliver by Nov 6."
However, several other readers reported that their MacBook Airs are already in transit to the United States and should arrive no later than Monday, November 3rd.
In addition to gaining NVIDIA's new GeForce 9400M integrated graphics system and industry standard Mini DisplayPort, the new MacBook Airs also run on a new version of Intel's special-run 'small form factor' mobile processors introduced in August.
The new 45-nanometer chips run at nearly the same clock speeds as the processors used in the first-generation MacBook Air, but support a faster 1.06GHz system bus (up from 800MHz) and a larger 6MB Level 2 onboard memory cache.
Psystar shipping Blu-ray Mac
While Apple and Psystar may have entered into mediation over their legal dispute (1, 2, 3), that hasn't stopped the unauthorized Mac clone maker from pressing forth with plans to become "the leading manufacturer of OS X-compatible PCs."
On Tuesday, the Florida-based company announced in a press release that it has begun shipping a Mac clone with Blu-ray optical disc drives and the NVIDIA 9800GT graphics card.
Psystar president Rudy Pedraza used the release to publicly criticize Apple for delaying support for Blu-ray, noting that chief executive Steve Jobs recently categorized the technology as "a bag of hurt" for consumers.
"Blu-ray has already won the format war. Not only is there fully functional and mature support for Blu-ray in other operating systems but you can now rent Blu-ray discs from almost any rental chain," he said. "Blu-ray has become pervasive technology that is being widely adopted by consumers everywhere," says Pedraza."
That said, Psystar clearly notes in a frequently asked questions document that a lack of Blu-ray software support from Apple means that its Blu-ray Mac clones will only support reading and writing data to and from discs formatted in the high-definition format, but cannot play back Blu-ray video.
Psystar plans Mac notebook
Separately, a spokesperson for Psystar told one AppleInsider reader in an email that the company is hard at work on its first Mac notebook clone, which it plans to price aggressively. A copy of the email follows:
Thank you for your interest in Open Computing. Although there is no mobile open computer at the moment, I can tell you that it is something that is in development. Once we release a final product, it will be posted on our website along with an automatic notification for all Open Computing newsletter subscribers.
No release day or price has been set for any potential mobile product line. However I can assure you that at release it will be very competitively priced.
Thank you for your inquiry.
MacBook Air ships
Readers in the market for one of Apple's new NVIDIA-powered MacBook Airs should expect broad availability of the ultra-thin systems shortly.
Overnight, several readers reported that their online order status for the new notebooks now indicates that those orders are either being prepared for shipment, or have already shipped.
"I received an invoice last night for the expedited shipping charge for my new MacBook Air. I ordered the 128GB SSD version on the day of the launch," said one reader. "The status on the Apple Store now shows "Prepared for Shipment" but still gives the same Ship Nov 5, Deliver by Nov 6."
However, several other readers reported that their MacBook Airs are already in transit to the United States and should arrive no later than Monday, November 3rd.
In addition to gaining NVIDIA's new GeForce 9400M integrated graphics system and industry standard Mini DisplayPort, the new MacBook Airs also run on a new version of Intel's special-run 'small form factor' mobile processors introduced in August.
The new 45-nanometer chips run at nearly the same clock speeds as the processors used in the first-generation MacBook Air, but support a faster 1.06GHz system bus (up from 800MHz) and a larger 6MB Level 2 onboard memory cache.
Psystar shipping Blu-ray Mac
While Apple and Psystar may have entered into mediation over their legal dispute (1, 2, 3), that hasn't stopped the unauthorized Mac clone maker from pressing forth with plans to become "the leading manufacturer of OS X-compatible PCs."
On Tuesday, the Florida-based company announced in a press release that it has begun shipping a Mac clone with Blu-ray optical disc drives and the NVIDIA 9800GT graphics card.
Psystar president Rudy Pedraza used the release to publicly criticize Apple for delaying support for Blu-ray, noting that chief executive Steve Jobs recently categorized the technology as "a bag of hurt" for consumers.
"Blu-ray has already won the format war. Not only is there fully functional and mature support for Blu-ray in other operating systems but you can now rent Blu-ray discs from almost any rental chain," he said. "Blu-ray has become pervasive technology that is being widely adopted by consumers everywhere," says Pedraza."
That said, Psystar clearly notes in a frequently asked questions document that a lack of Blu-ray software support from Apple means that its Blu-ray Mac clones will only support reading and writing data to and from discs formatted in the high-definition format, but cannot play back Blu-ray video.
Psystar plans Mac notebook
Separately, a spokesperson for Psystar told one AppleInsider reader in an email that the company is hard at work on its first Mac notebook clone, which it plans to price aggressively. A copy of the email follows:
Thank you for your interest in Open Computing. Although there is no mobile open computer at the moment, I can tell you that it is something that is in development. Once we release a final product, it will be posted on our website along with an automatic notification for all Open Computing newsletter subscribers.
No release day or price has been set for any potential mobile product line. However I can assure you that at release it will be very competitively priced.
Thank you for your inquiry.
Comments
Adding Blu-Ray drives and support for everything but movies has me laughing on the floor.... at them!
Those dudes will go out of business soon so all is good.
Actually I know of a few people who bought Psystar desktops, and they are generally very happy with the quality for the price.
If Psystar makes a compact laptop, they will be sold out. I plan on buying a compact laptop if they release one.
Actually I know of a few people who bought Psystar desktops, and they are generally very happy with the quality for the price.
If Psystar makes a compact laptop, they will be sold out. I plan on buying a compact laptop if they release one.
Good for you, hopefully they'll be around by then.
Actually I know of a few people who bought Psystar desktops, and they are generally very happy with the quality for the price.
If Psystar makes a compact laptop, they will be sold out. I plan on buying a compact laptop if they release one.
But that doesn't actually change the fact that they will be out of business soon however.
The case is a slam dunk, Psystar's argument is no doubt an interesting exercise for their lawyer, but the odd's of them winning it are many thousands to one (at best) and everyone knows it.
But that doesn't actually change the fact that they will be out of business soon however.
The case is a slam dunk, Psystar's argument is no doubt an interesting exercise for their lawyer, but the odd's of them winning it are many thousands to one (at best) and everyone knows it.
i'm totally ignorant to the alleged laws being errr "broken"
but can you please explain why (if it was so obviously a slam dunk)
Apple went into mediation and didn't just take them to the cleaners ?
Actually I know of a few people who bought Psystar desktops, and they are generally very happy with the quality for the price.
If Psystar makes a compact laptop, they will be sold out. I plan on buying a compact laptop if they release one.
And those people will be left out in the cold with a computer with a non-upgradeable OS when Apple wins the lawsuit with Psystar. Remember, Psystar, is the one providing modified updates to the OS for those machines.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=365&tag=nl.e539
If Psystar is the catalyst needed to make Steve drop a Blu-Ray drive into the Mac and have OS X fully support it, I'll applaud Psystar for the nudge Apple needed.
Actually I know of a few people who bought Psystar desktops, and they are generally very happy with the quality for the price.
If Psystar makes a compact laptop, they will be sold out. I plan on buying a compact laptop if they release one.
Well bully for them, lets see how happy they are when they need support or updates for leopard after Psystar goes tits up.
i'm totally ignorant to the alleged laws being errr "broken"
but can you please explain why (if it was so obviously a slam dunk)
Apple went into mediation and didn't just take them to the cleaners ?
Apple wanted to avoid a trial for two reasons. a) A public trial would be longer and more expensive than mediation b) Apple wants to avoid any sort of mainstream press (ie the Wall Street Journal, NY Times, etc. Apple Insider doesn't count as mainstream
Why would Psystar go into mediation? a) A public trial would be longer and more expensive than mediation of which if they lose could end up costing them millions of $$$ b) there is an outside chance they might actually reach a deal with Apple and if they don't, Apple may just let them off with a slap on the wrist because the proceedings are confidential. If the proceedings were public Apple would bring down the hammer to make an example of them.
Psystar is not helping themselves by thumbing their noses at Apple with this press release. Apple and Jobs do not like people upstaging or disrespecting them in public. Just ask the people over at Sling Media and their stupid stunt before the Apple developers conference. The Sling player may never get on the iPhone (that pisses me off to no end, BTW). I only see bad things for Psystar.
Great take on Blu-Ray:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=365&tag=nl.e539
I respectfully agree with the points provided in your link. That said, what storage medium for HD video will we have beyond DVD for movies? At this rate I'll have an external hard drive that I save my 1080p footage to and just send that to the people I want to see the footage in HD. If the internet providers would speed up deploying Fiber, I could just stream it all. That's still a dream that won't be realized until 2010 for my area. I guess folks like me will just have to stick with MPEG2 for a few more years.
I can understand Apple going into mediation with Psystar. It must be totally puzzling to them this idea that a computer supplier should actually even bother giving customers what they want.
The Apple executives and lawyers are completely stumped, how do they tackle such a strange mindset and alien business model?
Great take on Blu-Ray:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=365&tag=nl.e539
Bad take on Blu-Ray. Who the hell is Robin Harris but one opinion. The real bag of hurt is Apple TV - where are the sales figures for that lemon?
And Disney is one of the biggest chearleaders of Blu-Ray at that. Bad link.
Bad take on Blu-Ray. Who the hell is Robin Harris but one opinion. The real bag of hurt is Apple TV - where are the sales figures for that lemon?
I don't think the AppleTV is a lemon. I bought one for my girlfriend and she really likes it. She can listen to her iTunes music, rent movies online (which will be *really* great during the cold winter, so she won't have to go outside or even out of bed to rent a movie), and browse YouTube clips and Podcasts.
There are several things that it needs to add however:
1) More movies that you can rent. There are far too many movies that you can only buy.
2) More content altogether.
3) A better remote. Entering text on that thing is really painful. Hopefully they can add a scaled-down version of the iTouch as a more sophisticated remote.
4) News and weather applications, as well as other simple applications.
5) An SDK for third party developers to create software.
6) Bigger harddrive. 40 Gb on the basic model is really not much.