New Mac Clones?

Maybe.....

[travelin cat]

Psystar Corporation maintains that they have developed a $400 Mac system and further claim they will fight Apple over its Mac OS X licensing terms.

Apple's end-user license agreement prohibits the use of Mac OS X on any hardware not made by Apple, so how can they do this?

[your_store]

It looks like this was at best an amazingly linkbait job. Engadget sent some people to Psystar's address and the people there had never heard of Psystar.

[jimbeetle]

What they're selling is a bit more than link bait.

psystar.com/open_computer_the_smart_alternative_to_an_apple.html

[travelin cat]

I'm not sure if this is an elaborate scam involving a fake web site or not... it could be like sending money to a "barrister" in Nigeria.

I can't imagine some small company thinking they can take on one of the world's largest corporations that most certainly has top notch legal talent and unlimited funds.

This configuration is going for $604.99 as of today:

Case Color: White
Intel Processor: Core2Duo/2.2GHz E4500
Hard Drive: 250GB 7200RPM SATA
Graphics Processor: Intel GMA 950
Firewire: 3 x IEEE 1394 (+ $50.00)
Installed OS: OS X 10.5 Leopard (+ $155.00)
Memory: 2GB DDR2

Plus whatever shipping is (I wasn't about to place an order to find out).

This company will not take phone orders, just internet orders.

And of course no support from Apple and no video (fake or not) showing OSX running on the machine.

Pass

[timster]

Yes, I'd be surprised if they ever ship a single machine. I don't believe they even have them -- linkbait or a weird joke is more my feeling.

[travelin cat]

I just saw this: the payment-processing merchant for them abruptly ended their relationship after it discovered what was for sale on their site.

So now they are selling through PayPal.... I guess until they find out.

[travelin cat]

Today at Forbes.com:

Get Psystar President Rudy Pedraza on the phone, however, and he insists Psystar is for real. "That's just completely wrong--we're not out to steal anyone's money, we want to earn it," Pedraza says.

His explanation? The company has been overwhelmed by demand. He says his credit card processor, PowerPay, locked down his account for processing too many credit cards. When he turned to PayPal, Pedraza says Psystar's account with the online payments specialist was quickly overloaded, too.

Pedraza explains the address changes by saying he had to move the company into a 40,000-square-foot warehouse. "We have thousands of machines we have to build and ship out," Pedraza says.

"It's not that we can't provide the product or [that] Apple can stop us from providing the product," Pedraza says, adding he'll be able to start taking orders again soon. "The truth is, we can't process your credit card."

[forbes.com...]

[your_store]

Will be interesting to see how this pans out. Jobs certainly didn't like the last batch of clones, and they were sanctioned.

I for one would rather just have a Mini for the price.