Psystar presses forward with another Mac clone
Despite ongoing litigation, Mac cloner Psystar has introduced a new slimline tower also capable of running Apple's Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system, starting at $600.
With the trial months away, scheduled for November, Florida-based Psystar has unveiled the oddly-named Open(3) computer along with some updates to other products in its lineup. According to the cloner's website, the Open(3) is in stock now.
For $599.99 customers receive a slimline tower with a 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of DDR2 memory, a 500GB hard drive, and NVIDIA's GeForce 8400 GS graphics card with 256MB of video memory. FireWire does not come standard, instead requiring $79, and 802.11n wireless is another $99. A USB Bluetooth adapter costs $40 more.
Upgrade options include a 2.53 GHz Core2Quad ($180), 4GB of memory ($50), 1TB hard drive ($100), additional hard drives ($99 to $199), and a Blu-ray burner. Graphics can be bumped up to the GeForce 9500GT 512MB for $119.
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, of course, comes installed. Psystar also sells an optional copy of iLife and iWork together for $59.99.
Meanwhile, the company has refreshed its Open Pro flagship to offer a rackmount version for servers ($1,155) that comes with a 3.16 GHz Core 2 Duo and 4GB of memory. The base tower (also $1,155) gets updated parts, including 8GB of RAM, a 1TB hard drive, and NVIDIA's GeForce9500 GT video card. Upgrades are available as well.
Apple finally sued Psystar in July 2008, and the months since have seen Psystar's counterarguments get modified and the two sides agree on a protective order.
Psystar maintains Apple is misusing its copyrights by ensuring kernel panics and infinite loops on unauthorized hardware attempting to run Mac OS X. Apple contends Psystar's circumvention of its code in order to sell the machines without Apple's permission constitutes copyright violation and is seeking an order to halt Psystar's behavior.
With the trial months away, scheduled for November, Florida-based Psystar has unveiled the oddly-named Open(3) computer along with some updates to other products in its lineup. According to the cloner's website, the Open(3) is in stock now.
For $599.99 customers receive a slimline tower with a 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of DDR2 memory, a 500GB hard drive, and NVIDIA's GeForce 8400 GS graphics card with 256MB of video memory. FireWire does not come standard, instead requiring $79, and 802.11n wireless is another $99. A USB Bluetooth adapter costs $40 more.
Upgrade options include a 2.53 GHz Core2Quad ($180), 4GB of memory ($50), 1TB hard drive ($100), additional hard drives ($99 to $199), and a Blu-ray burner. Graphics can be bumped up to the GeForce 9500GT 512MB for $119.
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, of course, comes installed. Psystar also sells an optional copy of iLife and iWork together for $59.99.
Meanwhile, the company has refreshed its Open Pro flagship to offer a rackmount version for servers ($1,155) that comes with a 3.16 GHz Core 2 Duo and 4GB of memory. The base tower (also $1,155) gets updated parts, including 8GB of RAM, a 1TB hard drive, and NVIDIA's GeForce9500 GT video card. Upgrades are available as well.
Apple finally sued Psystar in July 2008, and the months since have seen Psystar's counterarguments get modified and the two sides agree on a protective order.
Psystar maintains Apple is misusing its copyrights by ensuring kernel panics and infinite loops on unauthorized hardware attempting to run Mac OS X. Apple contends Psystar's circumvention of its code in order to sell the machines without Apple's permission constitutes copyright violation and is seeking an order to halt Psystar's behavior.
Comments
Having said that you can only poke a stick at a Leopard for so long before before it bites your arm off.
I can't wait for them to disappear (this is coming from someone that builds hacks for a hobby). They are bad for apple and bad for the community. The sad thing is they didn't even innovate getting OS X to work on intel machines! LOL
They must be feeling confident and i guess life goes on and they have a business to run.
Bernie Madoff had a business to run.
Just curious, has anyone here bought anything from Psystar yet?
Hell no!
These types of companies will push the boundaries until they die, and then reorganize under another name.
They can can go ahead and churn out this cheap shit as much as they like, because the show's over soon, anyway. Best thing to do is milk the clone-cow while it lasts.
It's a shame that this fly-by-night operation won't get closed down sooner, but such is life. November should be fun.
Goes to show you how much of a premium you pay for Apple products lol.
Bernie Madoff had a business to run.
LOL He sure did. Although i wonder on who's behalf he ran that business.
Brings a whole new meaning to the word Philanthropy.
Is this clone make really any threat to Apple's hardware sales?
Not by themselves, no.
But if Apple does not press the issue with Psytar as a commercial entity (not Joe 6-pack doing a Hackintosh), then Dell (or someone else) could easily step in and make clones and Apple would not have a leg to stand on since they did not try to enforce their copyright or intellectual property (or whatever).
Not by themselves, no.
But if Apple does not press the issue with Psytar as a commercial entity (not Joe 6-pack doing a Hackintosh), then Dell (or someone else) could easily step in and make clones and Apple would not have a leg to stand on since they did not try to enforce their copyright or intellectual property (or whatever).
see the rest of post.
Although, you can pickup a Firewire 800 Texas Instruments chipped card for 20 bucks. Works well in my computer. Bluetooth is another 10. Wifi on a desktop does seem a bit silly to me, though I understand that there are those who need it.
Though, I built a Quad core, 8600 gt, 2gb ram, 250gb HD, Firewire 800, DVD burners (2x) and case all for under what they are asking for the new offering. (And for less than the white macbook you can add a netbook to the quad machine!) I swear, if you want to take a bite out of Apple, do it with undercutting prices, not offering the same price, lower computer specs.
Other than the higher end 2.8Ghz processor this is absolute
garbage.
Sure nickel and dime me to death for Wifi, FW and Bluetooth and I
bet each "add on" comes with driver conflicts.
The sooner these hack jobs get the boot the better. If I want an unstable
mess i'll build my own Hackintosh.
every hardware company would rush to release compatible drivers for OSX. people building hackintosh has only proved one thing. you can develop software for OSX that works with almost any hardware. it's just restrictions, nothing more.
they would make so much money on OSX purchases alone. it's not like we want to use their hardware, or have them make it available to everyone. we just want their software.
As a PC user, I wouldn't mind using OS X if given the chance. That being said, I would never buy a Hackintosh, especially from Psystar. I would only buy OS X if it legitimately came from Apple, but the chance of them releasing OS X into the wild is pretty slim.
So get a Mac. Seriously, just do it!
I was saying the same thing over 3 years ago. Yeah, I shelled out a bit more, but the experience since then has been all for the better. Totally worth it.
More competition is great.
Goes to show you how much of a premium you pay for Apple products lol.
Tell me who did all the R&D, wrote all the OS code, updates the OS code, writes all the drivers, writes all the included applications, provide support for it all, etc, etc.
Surely you don't think that is all just free. No, they roll that cost into the price of the hardware.
More competition is great.
Goes to show you how much of a premium you pay for Apple products lol.
Competition?
A company that steals Apple's property, modifies it illegally, and then repackages it on junk is not competition. It's theft.