“Mac OS X 10.6.2, the forthcoming update for Apple’s Snow Leopard operating system, is reported to disable support for the Intel Atom processor, preventing unauthorized PC netbooks from running the operating system,” Sam Oliver reports for AppleInsider.
“Users at OS X Daily claim that Mac OS X 10.6.2 prevents Snow Leopard from running on systems with Atom processors. No official Apple products use the low-cost, low-power chip from Intel. For now, users on unauthorized Atom machines are recommended to stay with Mac OS X 10.6.1,” Oliver reports.
“‘You can’t help but suspect this move is Apple’s attempt at shutting down the growing and popular Hackintosh Netbook community, since Apple has no product line that runs the Atom itself,’ the report said,” Oliver reports.
More in the full article here.
Apple is NOT doing a “netbook” but is preparing for the next greatest thing that will blow that market out of the water…
iTablet which will have its own version of Mac OSX on it.
@Tt
“… damn bastards, I don’t care what anyone says they need to make cheaper laptops!!!”
Apple’s success so far shows that they do not need to make cheaper laptops.
And if they did, they’d still be getting complaints from cheap, Wal-Mart-trolling ingrates like you, who think they deserve to underpay for Apple’s superior technology.
Tt, you should check out Dollarama for all your computer needs. While you’re there, say Hi to the Laptop Hunters
Not sure I could deal with a netbook screen size- for a laptop. Apple has no qualm doing a small screen for the iphone or touch, but those are different devices. What are netbooks but minimimalist laptops. The get you one the net where you can do minimal computer functions – which is what most of us do most of the time: check Email, surf the web, pay bills. After that, they start to loose their effectivness, Photos, invoicing, writing, spreadsheet stuff….. now you do want at minimum a 12 – 13″ screen… and the 5-7hr battery life is a big plus (particularly the air at 3 lbs – netbooks with add on batteries add bulk wieight and have a smaller screen so they loose their appeal quickly.
So lets all see what the slate will do. Maybe it will be a kindle, or Nook or whatever on steroids with input/output cabablities. We know it will have Itunes, What about Iworks on the cloud kinda like google docs? Slip in the SD card, and you can back up and store anything you do on the road in addition to what you put in the cloud. a mini time machine back up if you will…..
It’s fun speculatiing isn’t it?
First of all I own 3 REAL Macs, A Dual core Mini, a Macbook Air, and an Early 07 iMac 20′. I would have NEVER bought them if it weren’t by accident that I came upon a You-tube video of a Hackintosh. I thought that was awesome so I built one. I now have an MSI wind dual booting Windows 7 and Snow Leopard. Reason, I prefer OSX. This Wind is my work computer. I am a service tech and I’m dragging my computer in and out of my truck every day. I be damed if I want to bang up a real Macbook. There are real reasons to have one and I have one. $300 vs $1000. No contest…..And BTW Windows 7 is a much better
OS than I and you guys want to give it credit. I and many others can easily switch back. I am due for a new PC next year. Do I really want to spent the $$$ for a real Mac? I think Apple should protect their Intellectual property. But these Hackintosh’s are just your plain piracy issue. It is back alley, not for the masses. The Pystar thing is different. If they win it opens all manufacturers to making OSX machines and selling them in major stores, etc.. That I don’t want. Hackintosh is just a niche. It isn’t for most people as it is involved. Hackintoshes might have sold more Macs than done anything that really hurt Apple. I bought 3….
If netbooks are such an overrated useless fad, then why might Apple feel the need to cut support for it? This is a threat to Apple, which is the only reason (if it is true) that they feel a need to act against it.
Nevermind about what they have the right to do. It’s their SW so they can do what they want. But please don’t pretend that Apple isn’t trying to protect it’s bottom line.
I’m not saying Apple must offer a $299 netbook, but why not offer a $799 priced netbook? I’d buy it in an instance instead of buying a $299 netbook that I’ll have to spend a lot of time and effort installing OSX on. I have an iMac, and a Mac netbook would be a perfect companion for it since I’d only be using it for internet and doing Keynote presentations when I’m on the road. I don’t need it to be fast. I don’t need it to have a full sized screen. Apple doesn’t offer a choice, so therefore people are going to find an alternative. More power to them.
@Ting
I don’t think Apple is afraid at all. They are just smart enough to compete while not competing. They have defined their market sweet spot and serve it very well without competition which explains why “Once you go Mac, You never go back.”
Ting,
When I said that Apple was ‘afraid,’ I didn’t mean it in a cowardly way, but instead that Apple has fused their hardware and software together in order to ensure proper drivers and compatibility between the two. This has always been one of Microsoft’s weak spots, and often their operating system was blamed for the poor performance of third-party OEM drivers.
I am a scientist and professor at a major university, and have many Macs in my office, laboratory and at home (despite the official “no Macs” policy at my institution). My main computer these days is a 17″ MacPro, which I lug back and forth from home to work every day. It is a great machine, but it is big and heavy and, unless I somehow score an upgrade to first class (extremely rare), there is just no way I can open it up to use it on an airplane, especially if the person in front of me puts their seat back. I have thought about getting a MacBook or an Air, but even at educational prices, that would cost at least $1,000.
I really would like a little, cheap Mac that I could open and use on the plane, that wouldn’t cost me $1,000 or more. I need to do lots of writing and editing, and the plane is a good place to think – several hours without email, telephone or other interruptions. I have been thinking about a Hackintosh netbook for a while, but had decided against it, until I heard that Apple was going to disable support for them, which I find infuriating. So today I ordered a Dell Mini 10v on ebay so I can put together my own Hackintosh netbook before the 10.6.2 upgrade comes out.
All I want is a little, inexpensive Mac that I can type on while on the plane, and maybe carry around to a couple of meetings. There is no way that the netbook will replace the Macs that I use and love, but it will supplement all the other Macs I have purchased. My iPhone is great. A tablet sounds cool. But unless there is a way to do real typing, these Apple products are not going to suffice and will not fill the specialized niche I need to fill. Unfortunately, many of us Mac users have to fly in coach, and the seats just keep getting closer and closer together.
So Apple: please give us an inexpensive netbook, or give us all upgrades to first class. Either will do.
@needfirstclass
“So Apple: please give us an inexpensive netbook, or give us all upgrades to first class. Either will do.”
Translation:
<b>”Give me! Give me! Give me! WAAAH!”<b>
Pathetic.
I guess I was raised better than you.
And you’re teaching kids? Wow.
I hope the students arrive at your school with enough inherent character to overcome your ‘teachings’.
@ Noodle-Armed Choir Boy
Translation:
<b>”Give me! Give me! Give me! WAAAH!”<b>
Wow! You are saying the customer has no right to request what they want to BUY! No such thing as good customer service for you. Just take what Apple haas to offer and play by Apple’s rules. I think you would fit right into the old Soviet mentality.
@Noodle-Armed Choir Boy
Thanks so much for the reasoned and rational response. But I am afraid you got the translation all wrong.
I am not sure why asking Apple to sell me yet another Mac in a different configuration, to supplement the 18 others that I already have and maintain, and to fulfill a specific need, should generate such a reply.
It must be because you were raised better than me, after all.
Auramac says…
“You want cheap, go to the dollar store. Or e-Bay. Or Apple Store refurbished. We don’t need no stinkin’ netbooks when we have the iPhone and iPhone touch. Might as well get last generation’s Macbook, or iBook, even. Netbooks are for Snow White and the Seven Dwarves”
This comment struck me as particularly false – hardly dealing with the question at hand, and I’d like to address it.
First of all, there’s nothing wrong with wanting an inexpensive computer. Not everyone needs high-powered performance machines. For many people, surfing the web and writing word documents fits the bill. For many people, netbooks are just the thing. They’re small, they perform moderately well and they’re inexpensive. Nothing wrong with that formula, from the consumer’s point of view. And if someone can get Mac OS X to run well on it, more power to them.
As for the comment about the iPhone and iPod…I’m almost speechless. Comparing an MP3 player and a telephone to a notebook computer is reaching, at best. Netbooks, despite being low-powered computers, are FAR different than iPhones. I feel like it’s stupid that this even needs to be addressed… Keyboard, 10″ screen, hard drives, etc. Netbooks give users functionality that the iphone is unable to do…such as word document editing, spreadsheet editing, etc.
iPhones are wonderful and fit in one’s pocket beautifully, but they’re simply not in the same category.
I’ve come back to this story after a few days and am encourage that there there are so many that feel the way I do about a low cost Macbook air
r4
‘m typing this on my late 2006 mac book (actually on my lap no less) and see a lot of white trim around the scree. What if Mr. Ives could figure out a way t increase the screen size to the absolute edge of the macbook but make it one inch smaller all around. Bigger screen smaller package. MBA – LC all for $699. Not all that cheap if you buy an external DVD Drive more memory and Applecare – Still be just under a $1,000.
I have to say I played around with a HP netbook at Coscto, and the keyboard reduced down to what 92% of normal was fine – even for my fat fingers. Can’t say the same for the iphone Keyboard though,
Apple wouuld well to offer something in this category…Wh would anyone want to do a Hackinosh then? No need……
@Yakov
Thanks for elaborating on your point. Happy to say we’re agreed especially since the new word you’ve introduced, “fused”, strikes a positive chord with me. As makers of the ‘whole widget’, Apple are in full control of the user’s experience of the product through fusing the hardware to the software.
And while I am repeating a post I put up in response to Why should Apple cut Mac prices 25 percent? it is worth noting that according to Michael Porter, the guru on strategy:
Strategy is the creation of a unique and valuable position, involving a different set of activities from those of competitors.
It requires the making of trade-offs in competing, in choosing what to do and what not to do.
It also involves creating “fit” among a company’s activities.
Apple has achieved this:
For the first point, Apple created (with great finesse) and markets the whole ‘widget’ which is ‘fused’ every which way they can with less than a micron tolerance. The M$/PC rabble can’t even get their products to work out of the box without assistance from a local hero (the kid next door or the IT support guy in the cupboard).
For the second point, it has decided that one of the things it will not do is drop to a lower price point with a netbook product because competitors are in that space lacerating each other over diminishing margins.
And for the third point there is the Apple eco-system of products and services that seamlessly integrate in a valuable and meaningful manner in the hands of the enlightened few… (I’m a MacUser since ’84)
Apple is not there to serve every person in the World!
Just those that fit their sweet spot.