Charles Arthur, reporting for Guardian Unlimited, has dug around for info regarding Psystar, the company that claims it’ll sell non-Apple PCs loaded with Mac OS X Leopard.
“The Psystar site talks a lot. OK. The site was registered in 2000, according to whois, but what’s odd is that searches on Google and on Live.com don’t turn up anything about the company before this week. Zip. Zero. Nada,” Arthur reports. “I called the Miami Chamber of Commerces and its Better Business Bureau. They’ve never heard of it.”
“We thought we’d look closer at the location they’re in. And that’s where things got really strange,” Arthur reports. “The address had changed completely.“
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Predrag” for the heads up.]
This whole Psystar thing is just a big fat load of hork.
Thanks for putting this up, MDN! One of the posters in the feedback part of the article dug a bit further and looked up the original address in the ‘Intelius’ database. It turned up to be a three-bedroom home, built in 1957.
Another looked up the current occupant at the new Psystar address: it’s a T-Shirt company.
Yet another looked up Psystar’s filing in Florida Dept. of State Division for Corporations. It is all there, for everyone to see.
Definitely worth checking out the entire article.
In other words, one Rodolfo Pedraza from Miami, FL, still living with his parents, decided to make some extra money (in addition to the pizza delivery day job) and decided to put together some cheap PCs, install OSX86 (Hacked Leopard) and sell them as Mac clones to the unsuspecting sheep. He registered his business with his home address, then when the things got hot (this past Monday), quickly changed the address to an office building not far away (perhaps his mom told him how stupid it was to put a home address on a public web-site).
What’s amazing is that there was already a torrent of press coverage in the mainstream IT media about this company, with reputable commentators (journalists) discussing implications and legality of this. Meanwhile, a journalist from an English newspaper did the unthinkable – picked up the phone and did some most basic research on this company.
This is just the most amusing development in quite some time.
Sounds like Psystar is a bit Psycho.
I checked out the site last night for sh!ts and giggles and found that he had a comparison of his base model and the Macmini. Problem is you can’t configure their machine with OSX and that video card for $499 that they list in the comparison. I sent them an email to complain about false advertising.
America’s news media is so worthless. It takes a British newspaper to research whether this company really exists. Another sad commentary on our country.
Several people seem to be bringing up the same “two people starting a computer business in their parents’ garage” argument. They keep forgetting, we are not in 1976. To say that things are not the same in the IT industry (or in the world) would be an ignorant understatement.
The “two guys who started a computer business” in 1976 had incredible vision when nobody knew what a personal computer was, could do or even that they were ever going to need one. CEO of Digital Equipment Corporation even stated authoritatively in 1977 that “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.”
I don’t think, judging by the turn of events ad the way things are evolving that Mr. Rodolfo Pedraza has a vision and is about to unveil an amazing product that would become the next thing. Comparing Mr. Pedraza with Apple’s co-founders is somewhat irresponsible and pointless.
Obviously, we’ll have to see where this goes, but to most people here, it is pretty much clear.
Checked out the site and these computers look pretty nice. Do they run Vista?
Your potential. Our passion.™
I noticed the Mac Addict site is down. Are they bankrupt?
http://www.macaddict.com/
Mac Addict (the magazine) has changed its name almost two years ago to Mac Life (http://www.maclife.com). It looks like the domain registration for macaddict.com has expired and they just didn’t bother renewing.
Zunewank, “Checked out the site and these computers look pretty nice. Do they run Vista?”
Your potential. Our poison.™
Yes, they look just as good as all Windows thingies.
BTW. Vista doesn’t run – it crawls.
Have You Noticed This
Psystar Has A Ring To It
Sounds Much Like Shyster
Sounds like this guys office is in a van, parked in front of these addresses. Won’t be long until it is located “down by the river”.
“hork?”
You know, this company could just be a scam.
They put these up for sale, draws attention to there other products, they make some money and bail out, leaving most people without products. In turn they get a bunch of CC numbers that they can then use to charge up other things with.
Are there any reader’s of this site, who actually live in Miami? If they had said Colorado Springs, CO I would have driven by there the same day.
To Mark:
“hork?”
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hork
It’s PSYOP (look it up).
Learn about PSYOP, how it’s used in commercial products/media. eBay feedback is PSYOP, that’s why so many rogues have 100%.
Look up Edward Bernays (nephew of Sigmund Freud).
@ ron
“BTW. Vista doesn’t run – it crawls.”
Not on a Mac Pro.
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The best of the comments on the article:
Curiously, when Woz and Jobs built the Apple I, they also sold it out of a garage. Their phone number, like Psystar, also ended in 66666 (the unit also sold for $666.66!).
My theory: Psystar is actually Wozniak having a laugh!
The hacker who wrote the EFI V8 emulator has also slammed Psystar:
“They forgot to mention author of emulator, so it’s looks like they made EFI V8. So, this is violation of my authorship rights on PC EFI V8.”
http://go.theregister.com/feed/www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/04/16/hacker_slams_mac_cloner/
Predrag said: What’s amazing is that there was already a torrent of press coverage in the mainstream IT media about this company, with reputable commentators (journalists) discussing implications and legality of this. Meanwhile, a journalist from an English newspaper did the unthinkable – picked up the phone and did some most basic research on this company.
This is just the most amusing development in quite some time.
So right! LMAO!!!
I think it’s a ploy by Apple to see exactly how much interest there is on a headless iMac between the Macmini and the MacPro
“This whole Psystar thing is just a big fat load of hork.”
Interesting. I’ve only used hork as a verb and not a noun.
Example: Last weekend I horked up a shitload of blow.
Personally, I hope apple releases a consumer tower. Something around the same specs and price as this open mac. A sub 1000 dollar notebook would be nice too. I think we’re gonna see more computer companies come out with efi support to run osx (everyone is supposed to be switching to efi anyway).
I personally think that apple would benefit from cheaper and more expandable machines. But everyone else seems to think that Apple should remain a premium product only. So I guess that means people who don’t have a lot of cash don’t get to use a Mac?
If you can’t afford a macbook that makes you a bad person, and you have to get a vista laptop?
Say what you will about this Open Mac, but it’s cheaper than even the macmini and more powerful as well. This is giving MS and Pc manufacturers a big advantage. If it’s well established that Macs are superior then what seems to have always limited their adoption is price. It’s the fact that you can buy a cheaper system even if it doesn’t have uber powerful specs.