And you thought that Apple finally drove the front running clone maker off of a cliff. Nope. Psystar successfully navigated the bankruptcy courts and is back at its old game of annoying Apple. The ongoing lawsuit is still in play, but bankruptcy no doubt allowed the company to shed some debt and reorganize under Chapter 11 guidelines. Now the company is back and just released a new Core i7 clone.
Psystar
by Matt Burns on July 2, 2009
by Devin Coldewey on June 12, 2009
Picking apart the bankrupt Psystar corpse has revealed a debt of $75,000 to Apple for “Unsecured Nonpriority Claims,” whatever thoseare. Nobody knows what exactly that might be for, although some savvy mathemagicians have decided it might be for 581 (and a half) copies of Leopard. Not knowing Psystar’s actual sales volume, that number means practically nothing. Did they maybe order all those copies and never pay? Or was that just the unsold ones left over after Apple caught them up in the ongoing legal tiff?
by Matt Burns on May 26, 2009
Psystar put up good fight. The small company first released a $399 Mac clone little over a year ago followed by rackmount servers a little later. The company was eventually sued by Apple for using OS X on clone machines. But Psystar showed some backbone and sued Apple back . But even if Psystar had secret financial backing, the company just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
by Matt Burns on May 20, 2009
Maybe RussianMac is thinking that Apple’s legal team will not notice as they’re too busy with the suing Psystar. Oh, perhaps, the Mac clone maker thinks that they are legally immune being located in the wild west that is Mother Russia. Whatever the case, a full range of Mac clones, including a pro and notebook models, are now available from another maker. Interestingly enough, RussianMac may have beat Psystar to a Mac Netbook.
by Matt Burns on May 7, 2009
Psystar, the crazy folks that have stood up to Apple’s legal behemoth and continue to produce Mac clones, might be working on a netbook according to MacRumors. Apple has been very quite on the netbook front, and seems to not want anything to do with the niche market — although rumors state otherwise. But there is nothing stopping Psystar from producing its own OS X-running netbook. Chances are it would be very similar to the hackintosh netbook mods that have become somewhat popular.
by Devin Coldewey on April 16, 2009
It seems like just yesterday when we were unboxing our very own Psystar system, and apart from some build quality issues, were surprised at how well it worked.
The Open(3) system they announced last month was expected by some to be a no-show, what with the ongoing dispute with Apple, but it looks like at least one person with a camera has gotten his delivered.
by Doug Aamoth on March 18, 2009
In a move that’s sure to make Apple shake its fist and gnash its teeth, everybody’s favorite underdog, Psystar, has thrown legal caution to the wind and released the Open(3) Computer, starting at $599 without monitor, keyboard, or mouse.
by Devin Coldewey on February 20, 2009
The long-running Psystar dispute may be settling down as the controversial PC-maker runs out of steam, but don’t think that’s the end of… the Clone Wars. (sorry)
German PC company HyperMegaNet UG has started selling its own line of cloned Apples. But good heavens, you say, aren’t they scared of Apple? Won’t they see the smoking ruins of Psystar and fear the same fate may be in store for them? Ah yes, but you forget: they’re German.
by Matt Burns on December 23, 2008
by Matt Burns on December 10, 2008
Psystar is kind of turning into an annoying step-brother by “respectfully disagreeing” with the courts latest findings, but by adding other charges to take the place of the dismissed ones. This whole case seems like it’s going to continue on OJ style, - the first one - never-ending and just wasting taxpayers dollars.
Maybe there is a silent backer, secretly funding Psystar’s lawyers whore funds and praying for Apple’s demise. The latest filings allege that Apple is violating sections of the DMCA by preventing competition. Still, at this point, even the most die-hard Apple haters have to start getting annoyed with the whole process. Finish him!
by Matt Burns on December 5, 2008
You would think that these Argentineans would know about Psystar’s legal ‘issues’ with Apple before they decided to release an unofficial OS X machine, but whatever. The company is selling two Mac Clones for a reasonable amount of cake. The OpeniMac is only $990 and ships with 2GB of memory, 320GB HDD, and a 256MB ATI Radeon HD Pro. The OpeniMacPRO will run ya, $1,710 but is a 3.0GHz machine with 4GB of ram and a 20-inch widescreen LCD. Legal concerns aside, if you’re jones’n for a Mac but don’t want to pay the Steve Jobs’ Tax - and can speak Spanish - this might be an option.
by Devin Coldewey on December 3, 2008
Oh dear, I think Apple’s legal department is getting paranoid. After suggesting that people taking their ad literally were irrational, they’re now suggesting that a shadowy unknown may be behind the whole Psystar drama. The suits and countersuits have been going on for months and months now (all I care about is that it works), and in an amendment to their suit today, Apple added the following language:
On information and belief, persons other than Psystar are involved in Psystar’s unlawful and improper activities described in this Amended Complaint. The true names or capacities, whether individual, corporate, or otherwise, of these persons are unknown to Apple. Consequently they are referred to herein as John Does 1 through 10 (collectively the “John Doe Defendants”).
Good lord, how mysterious! Can they really think that someone like Dell for example, jealous of Apple’s increasing market share, would set up a shell company to sell pieced-together Frankenmacs? I think Apple needs a drink.
[via MacRumors]
by Matt Burns on December 2, 2008
The court proceedings between Apple and Psystar are still dragging on with the latest charges being filed by Apple the day before Thanksgiving. Allegedly, Psystar is violating the Digital Mellennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by circumventing the OS X copy-protection.
Through this motion, Apple seeks leave to file its Amended Complaint pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(a) and this Court’s November 7, 2008 Case Management Order. Apple’s Amended Complaint, attached hereto as Exhibit A, adds a Digital Millennium Copyright Act claim, additional factual allegations relating to Apple’s previously asserted claims and Doe defendants. The DMCA claim is based on new information that Apple has learned since the filing of its original complaint.
It’s just a matter of time before Apple steamrolls the clone computer maker.
by Matt Burns on November 19, 2008
The never ending saga of David vs Goliath just got a little tougher for the little guy. Unless Psystar strengthens its counterclaims against Apple, it will be thrown out of court. The counterclaim indicates that OS X is not reasonably interchangeable with other operating systems, such as Windows, and therefore compromises its own niche market. So unless Psystar can come up with something better, Apple’s original lawsuit till continue against the Mac clone manufacturer and we all kind of know how that is going to turn out. Probably something like when Bill Gates visited Homer Simpson…
by John Biggs on October 28, 2008
Psystar is still beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men aka Apple but now they’re shipping “OS X-compatible” machines with Blu-ray installed. Sadly, there is no built-in Blu-Ray support which means you’re stuck using Toast 9 to do anything at all.
In our experience, Psystar is basically selling bare bones PCs with a little tweaking - nothing you or I couldn’t do at home. The sheer fact that a small IT company is getting this much press out of doing something anyone with an Internet connection can do is disheartening, but it will be fascinating once these kids get hosed by Apple legal.
by Matt Burns on October 1, 2008
The latest chapter in the David vs Golitha battle has just unfolded in the Northern District of California with a dismissal filing by Apple.
Jobs & Co. state in the claim,
Defendant Psystar Corporation is knowingly infringing Apple’s copyrights and trademarks, and inducing others to do the same. Psystar makes and sells personal computers that use, without permission, Apple’s proprietary operating system software. In an obvious attempt to divert attention from its unlawful actions, Psystar asserts deeply flawed antitrust counterclaims designed to have this Court force Apple to license its software to Psystar, a direct competitor. The Court should reject Psystar’s efforts to excuse its copyright infringement, and dismiss these Counterclaims with prejudice
So to catch you up to speed, Psystar started selling Mac clones, Biggs buys one, Apple sues the company, Psystar countersues, and now this. Maybe a big group hug would help.
by Jason Mosley on August 26, 2008
Psystar is suing Apple under the Sherman Antitrust Act saying that the EULA is a form of illicit tying and restrains trade.
Psystar’s attorneys are calling Apple’s allegations of Psystar’s copyright infringement “misinformed and mischaracterized.” Psystar argues that its OpenComputer product is shipped with a fully licensed, unmodified copy of Mac OS X, and that the company has simply “leveraged open source-licensed code including Apple’s OS” to enable a PC to run the Mac operating system.
Good luck getting it to stick, boys. Don Quixote might start taking pointers from you.
Apple will have 30 days to respond to this new development. Pedraza feels his company is doing nothing wrong and they’re only offering an alternative to Apples high-priced hardware. I don’t think Pedraza understands that the hardware is where Apple makes most of its money. So they’re not going to give up that part of the business without a long, drawn-out fight.
This is probably going to end up being a test of who has the most stamina (money). Since Apple has the most to lose, I can’t see them letting this one go to long. I smell a fat settlement in Psystar’s future.
by Matt Burns on August 14, 2008
Despite Apple’s end user licensing agreement expressly forbidding the installation or sales of its operating systems on third-party hardware, Psystar is ‘still shipping‘ the computers. And don’t forget they now come with a restore disk.
via Information Week
by Matt Burns on August 12, 2008
Pretty cut and dry. Persons that purchased one of Psystar’s OS X-equiped computers will receive a restore disk thus removing one of the large critizems of the companies systems. Previously, customers had to ship their Mac clones back to the company for OS re-installs.
Oh, and the disks are free. Just fill out a form and either fax or snail-mail it back to Psystar.
by Jason Mosley on August 4, 2008
Last week I reported that Psystar retained Carr & Ferrell, the law firm that stood up to Apple and won. This week Colby Springer, one of the lawyers working on the case, hinted at their legal strategies during an interview on Thursday.
Springer told reporters:
“They came to us, I think, because this is a much bigger issue than just copyright,”
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