“An outfit called ‘HacBook’ is channeling Psystar, offering Mac OS laptops for US$329,” Simon Sharwood reports for The Register.
“The laptops are actually refurbished HP EliteBooks, with a 14-inch, 1600×900 display, Sandy Bridge i5 CPU, 802.11 a/b/g/n, up to 1TB of disk and 8GB of RAM. That’s a spec Apple could have sold you in about 2013,” Sharwood reports “‘Looks like a Mac. Feels like a Mac,’ says HacBook’s blurb, which describes the ‘HacBook Elite sports’ as offering ‘a gorgeous full-aluminium body that looks and feels extremely polished.'”
“The machines ship with no operating system but do include an installer its makers say ‘shouldn’t take you more than 15 minutes to set up.’ Jack Kim, one of the people behind the project, suggests you buy an OS X licence from Apple,” Sharwood reports. “We therefore asked Kim if he’s lawyered up. He told us ‘“We’re merely selling kits that users can then do whatever they want with afterwards. It’s optimized to run OS X, but you can install Linux or Windows on it and use it however you want – that’s completely up to the user. If Apple contacts us with concerns we’ll work together to solve them.'”
MacDailyNews Take: How do “you buy an OS X licence from Apple?” The OS X license agreement explicitly states, “…You are granted a limited, non-exclusive license to install, use and run one (1) copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-branded computer at any one time.”
“Apple-branded computer” = Mac. Not some POS HP laptop.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The cheapskates’ quest for cheap Macs never ends.
BTW, you can get plenty of real, very inexpensive Macs from Amazon with actual Mac keyboards, Apple logos, and everything.
SEE ALSO:
U.S. Supreme Court denies Psystar’s appeal in Mac clone case – May 15, 2012
Apple denied attempt to keep info secret in Psystar case – January 4, 2012
Would-be Mac cloner Psystar may escalate fight with Apple to Supreme Court – October 3, 2011
Judge hammers final nail in Psystar’s coffin, awards Apple key win against Psystar over Mac clones – September 29, 2011
Psystar files legal reply brief in response to Apple – July 29, 2010
Apple v. Psystar: Psystar files opening brief in appeal – May 18, 2010
Psystar files appeal against Apple win – January 18, 2010
Erstwhile ‘Mac cloner’ Psystar halts sales of Rebel EFI Mac cloning tool, will peddle Linux PCs – December 28, 2009
Lawyer: Erstwhile ‘Mac cloner’ Psystar not shutting down – December 20, 2009
Erstwhile ‘Mac cloner’ Psystar pulls plug; ‘shutting things down immediately’ – December 18, 2009
Apple wins permanent injunction against would-be ‘Mac cloner’ Psystar – December 15, 2009
With authorized Mac clones dead, Apple looks to kill off Psystar’s ‘Rebel EFI’ – December 03, 2009
BusinessWeek’s Burrows: Psystar shouldn’t have messed with Apple – December 02, 2009
Psystar agrees to pay Apple $2.7 million settlement over unauthorized Mac cloning – December 01, 2009
Apple, Psystar reach partial settlement to cease sales of unauthorized Mac clones – December 01, 2009
Apple moves to kill second Psystar lawsuit – November 30, 2009
Failure to launch: Would-be ‘Mac cloner’ Psystar sold just 768 PCs with Apple’s Mac OS X installed – November 26, 2009
Apple seeks to grind illegal Mac cloner Psystar into fine silicon dust – November 25, 2009
Apple files motion for permanent injunction to block Psystar from building and selling ‘Mac clones’ – November 24, 2009
Apple wins sweeping victory, crushes would-be ‘Mac cloner’ Psystar in court – November 14, 2009
Meet the Pedraza brothers, the men behind would-be ‘Mac cloner’ Psystar – November 11, 2009
Would-be ‘Mac cloner’ Psystar up to its old tricks, claims it simply bundles software with Mac OS X – November 05, 2009
Would-be ‘Mac cloner’ Psystar asks judge to declare it legitimate – November 02, 2009
Psystar’s Rebel EFI allegedly contains OSS Code covered under Apple Public Source License – October 29, 2009
Psystar expands into selling ‘Mac clone’ software (Rebel EFI) – October 23, 2009
Is Psystar’s real mission to publicize that running Apple’s Mac OS X on generic PCs is possible? – October 17, 2009
Psystar and Apple dispute whether Mac OS X security measures should be kept confidential – October 17, 2009
Would-be ‘Mac cloner’ Psystar ‘happily’ agrees to Mac OS X injunction – October 16, 2009
Apple and would-be ‘Mac cloner’ Psystar file summary judgement requests – October 12, 2009
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