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After only 3 weeks of operation, a new Mac clone company is putting itself up for sale, according to this notice. Open Tech has opened the company up for offers, and is willing to part with everything including branding and trade secrets. How much will it cost you? Try a paltry $50,000. The mac clone business really must not be worth it.

Open Tech set itself apart from its legally troubled rival Psystar (a few of their offerings are pictured above) by promising not to install Mac OS X Leopard directly to any of their PC’s. Doing so would violate Apple’s licensing agreement. Open Tech instead provided a kit which would allow the installation of any major operating system…which would therefore put the customers in violation of Apple’s licensing agreement if they installed OS X. What a brilliant plan.

[via MacNN]

Seems that some just don’t get it. If you asking for a fight, your going to get a fight.

Yet another company is trying to sell Intel based PC’s that run Mac OS X. No it is not Psystar, a Florida clone maker that’s being sued by Apple. Open Tech is seeing PC’s that will run Mac OS X but aren’t being shipped pre-installed with Mac OS X. They say this is their way around Apple’s license agreement.

“We definitely would defend this,” said Open Tech’s spokesman Tom. “The only possible case that Apple can make, the only one that has any chance, would be based on the end-user licensing agreement.”

Open Tech is selling two computers which should easily run OS X.

Open Tech Home which includes; An Intel dual-core Pentium processor, 3GB of memory, an nVidia GeForce 8600 CT video card and a 500GB hard drive and the Open Tech XT which includes; An Intel Core 2 quad-core CPU, 4GB of RAM, an nVidia GeForce 8800 video card and a 640GB drive.

I would say go check out their website, but as of this moment its unavailable. Has Apple already gotten to Open Tech before they had the time to flourish?

Psystar has uploaded a new video to YouTube, showing their Open Computers in action. One running Ubuntu, a second running Windows XP, and a third running OS X Leopard. A comment at the end of the video claims that the video was edited and created in Final Cut Studio, from a Leopard-enabled Open Computer.

At the very least this proves that Psystar can deliver on their claims… and the video does show some shots of the front of their office. One thing to note… On the front doors, note the words ‘not open to the public’. Ha! I guess not! Enjoy the video below.

[via MacNN]

The mac blogosphere has torn into Psystar over the past week or so over their two models of ‘OpenComputers’ that come pre-installed with Leopard OS X. But can you blame us? Sketchy details, multiple address changes, a halt to new orders… It seemed like each day there was a new questionable detail that was cause for concern.

The latest news today on this one is that Brian Caufield of Forbes.com managed to get a short phone interview with Psystar founder, (and no doubt stressed-out) president Rudy Pedraza. Pedraza insisted that the company is the real deal and they will make good on all of their orders.

When asked to comment on Psystar’s payment gateway mysteriously disappearing last week Pedraza commented:

“It’s not that we can’t provide the product or [that] Apple can stop us from providing the product. The truth is, we can’t process your credit card.”

It appears as though they can process orders now however, as they have a new high-volume payment processor. From the Psystar website:

“It is our pleasure to inform you that our store is up and running thanks to our new high volume payment processor. To all, we challenge you, let’s see if we can max this one out. Regarding shipping, orders placed the week of April 7th are currently being shipped. We will be shipping units out of our new facility starting Monday, April 21st, including those orders placed the week of April 14th. Orders are being shipped in the order that they were received, don’t worry, you’ll get yours soon. Upon shipment an email notification including tracking information will be sent to you, no need to ask.”

If anyone out there has already received their ‘OpenComputer’ I would really love to hear about it. If they are going to make good on their word, computers should be arriving on the doorsteps of customers very soon. Email me at mayor AT mactropolis.com with the details.

This all still seems very sketchy to me… What’s your take?

[via Forbes.com]

Seems that as time goes by, Psystar is becoming more and more elusive when it comes to responding to allegations that they are violating Apple’s license agreement. Their new mac clone has raised a buzz in our world, and it seems as though Psystar are becoming shadier by the minute.

Psystar has now changed their physical address (or so they say). Not only have they done that, but now they are also refusing to take orders. There is a message on their homepage (at least there is as I write this) stating that “We’re in the process of moving to a new location which is now listed on our contact page.” Ok… what now Psystar?

It doesn’t look like things are going to get any better for them. New information has revealed that the company is not only breaching Apple’s license agreement, but also that of the EFI firmware emulation utility. This is the utility they use to fool Leopard into installing on their boxes. Mac User UK has reported that Psystar is using EFI version 8 emulator withour permission of the author.

That’s two strikes Psystar. I think it’s time to take a swing for the fences… But chances are you won’t be able to catch up to the heater Apple’s legal team are bound to be winding up for you.

[via MacNN]

You might have read a report from us earlier about the mac clone maker Psystar and their new, very cheap $399 mac clone. Well, things are getting interesting now and the story is developing.Psystar says that Apple’s restrictive licensing terms violate US antitrust laws… and they want fight them by taking them to court. Shortly after they launched their $399 ‘OpenMac’ their site went down (as I suspected) due to heavy blogging reports and interest around the mac community. I know I certainly wanted to click in to check out what this fuss was all about.

Apple will hold Psystar in violation of their end-user license agreement, which strictly forbids any third-party installations of Leopard. On the other side of the coin a Psystar employee commented that they believe Apple’s terms violate U.S. monopoly laws.

“What if Microsoft said you could only install Windows on Dell computers?” the employee said.

Psystar is going to continue to sell the ‘OpenMac’ system for now. Lets see how long Apple’s lawyers let this drag on for. I would suspect not very long if they can help it.

For more info on Psystar and ‘OpenMac’, it looks like their website is back online. Check it out for yourself. Click here for the finer details and to order ‘OpenMac’.

[via MacNN]

Psystar, a little company down in Miami, Florida is selling OpenMac, a Mac clone that comes with Leopard pre-installed for $554. For the price you also get:

• 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU
• 250 GB Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
• 2 GB DDR2 667 RAM
• Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics
• DVD+/-R Optical Drive
• 4 USB ports

Add another $110 and you get an NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT. For another $50 you can have FireWire added. The prices they are selling for are a little higher compared to other OEM PC’s… but hey… Lets chalk that up to the extra cash they’re going to need in their legal fund.
OpenMac is supposed to work with all Mac hardware.

Psystar on OpenMac: 

“OpenMac is a configuration of PC hardware capable of running unmodified OS X Leopard kernels.”

When asked if you can run updates on OpenMac:

“The answer is yes and no. No because there are some updates that are decidedly non-safe. Yes because most updates are not non-safe. It’s best to check on InsanelyMac for this information but when in doubt don’t update it. You may have to reinstall your OS X if it is a non-safe update.”

Lets see how long it takes for Apple to notify their legal team. My guess is they are already on it. In fact, this morning while trying to check their website, it appears to be down. Either they are getting hammered with traffic, or Apple legal has already bitten into them.

[via arstechnica]