I just purchased the new Quicken Essentials for mac to run on my MSI Wind Macbook Nano only to find out that the icon is marked with an strikeout.

When you double click the icon your told
“You cannot use this version of the application Quicken Essentials.app with this version of Mac OS X.

The Quicken Essentials requirements say Leopard or Snow Leopard. So is it possible Intuit has actually hard coded “Atom=False” to prevent Atom users from running the app?

FIX

I’ve found the issue and the fix.The minimum requirements are 10.5.8 and I’m running to 10.5.7.  So here’s the fix:

1. Right click Quicken Essentials.app
2. Click “Show Package Contents”
3. Open the “Contents” folder
4. Open the info.plist
5. Look for “Minimum system version”
6. It will have a value of “10.5.8″.  Change that to “10.5.7″.

That’s it.  The icon still has the slash across it, but it opens and works fine on my 10.5.7 Macbook Wind.  You could probably change it to 1o.5.6 or whatever, but I havn’t tested that.

Quicken Essentials on a Macbook Nano originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on March 9, 2010.

To defend its position against Apple, Psystar claims that terms of use in Mac OS X licensing are restrictive and block competitors by preventing anyone to install Mac OS X on a non-Apple hardware. So, as a consequence, Psystar is not violating any law by selling PC running pre-installed and legally purchased Mac OS X. The company received support from many users who would be interested in running the famous Mac OS X on their own hardware without requiring to by a Apple-branded model. In other words, Psystar was playing the white knight fighting against the giant to help poor customers. Well, this picture might dramatically changed and could even be fully reversed by a recent discovery.

On its website, Netkas, one of the most active members of the Hackintosh community accuses Psystar of violating the APSL (open Source) licensing agreement. He discovered that Psystar DUBL/RebelEFI is based on Open Source boot-132. RebelEFI is sold by Psystar and allow users to install Mac OS X on many PC hardware. Netkas contacted Psystar as according to the APSL licensing agreement, Psystar should have uploaded its code. No official answer yet.

In summary, Psystar is selling for 50 USD a code they did not even developed, without respecting the licensing agreement linked to its usage. So, as if the current legal action against Apple would not be enough, Psystar has now opened a second front against the Open Source community (maybe their worst decision), and for sure they will sue Psystar as they are currently suing the company who claimed to have developed the EFI-X USB key.

This could well be a perfect proof for Apple and it could help its lawyers to demonstrate that Psystar is not the white knight that they pretend to be, and might even be the black sheep that no one would like to see…

Go to Source

Psystar Violates Open Source APSL Licensing Agreement originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 12, 2009.

Filed under: OS Updates, Hardware, Apple

According to OSXDaily, Apple’s next scheduled update to Snow Leopard, OS X 10.6.2, doesn’t support Intel Atom processors. This is no problem for anyone on Apple hardware, because no Mac product runs an Atom. If you’re on a hacked netbook, though, it looks like this is the end of the line for your OS X updates.

Although it’s not confirmed, rumor has it that next update to Apple’s previous Leopard OS (10.5.9) will also knock out Atom support. Until a workaround pops up from netbook hacker circles, Atom machines running 10.6.1 and 10.5.8 should probably avoid upgrading. Is Apple sending a message to users running its software on third-party machines? It seems likely, but it also doesn’t seem like it will do much to stop determined netbook enthusiasts.

Apple breaks Atom Hackintoshes with upcoming OS X 10.6.2 update originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 02 Nov 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Apple – Operating system – Mac OS X – Intel Atom – Download Squad

Go to Source

Apple breaks Atom Hackintoshes with upcoming OS X 10.6.2 update originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on November 5, 2009.

Last year we have spoken about what seemed to be the future eldorado of Hackintosh, the USB key EFI-X. 

It made it possible to the owners of PCs (with the specifications close to the Mac) to easily create Hackintosh. It was enough to connect the key before installing completely the standardl Mac OS X. 
A little time ago, the company announced that version 1.0 of its key would not function with Snow Leopard and that a new version, 1.1, would be needed.
Tom’s Hardware UK reports the story of the administrator of the blog AsereBLN who was irritated by this news and decided to see what this key contained.

After having removed the black epoxy resin that protected the components from inquisitive eyes, he was surprised to see that it did not have much more than in a banal USB key and than this product should not cost more than 10€ to manufacture; however it is sold for more than 200€. 

One may have thought that the price was justified by the software development, but he also decided to decipher the firmware of the key and  found there… open source code developed by OSx86 group and hardly any attempt to hide it.
He thus decided to shout about this in a high voice on his blog, and to even propose an open source clone of EFI-X, the EXI-X.

It was learned that the manufacturers of the EFI-X key decided to prosecute him. We will keep you informed of the current situation during this process and we ask you to moderate your remarks in the reactions to this information. We have made some efforts during the drafting of this so that no-one can reproach us, since we have only reported the facts without making any assessment. Make of this as much as you like.

Go to Source

A squabble over EFI-X originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on September 16, 2009.

Two years ago, I detailed how to build a Hackintosh for under $800—then covered how to do the same with less hacking. Now that Snow Leopard’s out, we’re revisiting the Hackintosh, building a Hack Pro from scratch for roughly $900.

For folks eager to try a Mac but never wanted to plunk down the high price tag to get it, the Hackintosh—that is, a regular PC tweaked to run OS X—has always been an attractive option. That said, it’s not something you should take on lightly unless you’re willing—even enthusiastic—to build and maintain a PC entirely from scratch. I can’t guarantee it’ll be easy, but if you follow this guide step-for-step (it’s exhaustive) and stick with the same (or at least roughly the same) hardware as I am, I can vouch for a rock solid system that also happens to cost a good deal less than you’d pay for a comparable Mac.

Price Comparisons

Most Hackintosh enthusiasts will say you shouldn’t build a Hackintosh primarily to save money, as it’s more than just an insert-disc-and-click install. Still, I always enjoy looking at the price differences between my Hackintosh and Apple’s current offerings. At the moment, the cheapest Mac in the Apple store is a Mac mini sporting a 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 120GB hard drive. For $300 more, I’m running a 3.0GHz Quad-Core processor, 8GB of RAM, a 1TB hard drive, and a damn saucy video card. I could have made this build much cheaper by skimping on hardware and still ended up with a great little machine, but I liked aiming for around the $800 price point from my last build—plus I really wanted to make it fly.

The most expensive iMac, by comparison, has only a 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo with 4GB of memory for $2,200 ($1,300 more than my build, but it is built into a monitor), while the cheapest Mac Pro has a single 2.66GHz Quad-Core processor, 3GB of RAM, and a 640GB hard drive—and it costs $2,500 ($1,600 more than mine, though it’s a different and better processor and DDR3 rather than DDR2 RAM). In short, my $900 “Hack Pro” sports nearly as good or better hardware than any Mac that Apple sells short of the $3,300 8-Core Mac Pro (which can, incidentally, get more expensive, but it won’t get much better).

The Hardware

You can find plenty of hardware capable of supporting OS X on a Hackintosh—there’s no definitive build—but we’re not going to go into that here. I’ve put together a list of hardware that I’m using and that I can guarantee will (or at least has) run Snow Leopard like a dream.

Here’s a link to everything I bought over at Newegg:

• Antec Sonata III 500 Black ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply
• GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
• Intel Core 2 Quad 3.0GHz LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor
• GeForce 9800 GTX+ 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
• Patriot Extreme Performance 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory x 2 (for a total of 8GB)
• Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Internal Hard Drive
• Pioneer CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model
• 10/ 100/ 1000/ 2000Mbps PCI Copper Gigabit Network Adapter (The motherboard has onboard Ethernet, naturally, but this particular board has some problems with onboard in the Hackintosh world. Luckily, Ethernet cards are extremely cheap.)

The Build

Rather than detail every step necessary to put the actual pieces of your new computer together (this guide already reads like the Bible as is), I’m just going to point you to our first-timer’s guide to building a PC from scratch. Do your building, make sure everything’s booting up as it should be (i.e., you can boot the computer to the point where it does nothing, because you have nothing installed on it), then let’s move on.

What Else You’ll Need

Assuming you’ve purchased all the necessary parts for your build (linked above), you’ll still need a few other things before you get started:

• A USB thumb drive that’s at least 8GB in size (I’m using this 16GB Corsair drive, but obviously any sufficiently sized thumb drive should do just fine.)
• A copy of the Snow Leopard Install DVD. You can use the $29 “Upgrade” disc to install, even though this is a fresh installation. Note: If you feel like being completely honest, go ahead and buy the Mac Box Set—though, honestly, Apple’s practically made it hard *not* to buy the fully functional install disc.
• Another Mac to do some Terminal work on. (You’ll only need this other Mac for a few steps. I used my MacBook Pro, but you could also borrow a friends for an hour or so, too.)

Step One: Prepare Your Thumb Drive

We’re going to be installing Snow Leopard to your Hackintosh from your thumb drive rather than from the Snow Leopard install DVD, since in order to run the installer on your PC to begin with, you’ll need to slightly customize the way the installer is loaded. (More specifically, we’ll be loading a custom bootloader onto the thumb drive that will make booting into the install work like a charm.*)

So first things first: You need to format your thumb drive and then turn your Snow Leopard install disc into a disk image on your desktop. Here’s how to do it:

1. Launch the Disk Utility application on your borrowed Mac (located at /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility)
2. Format and partition your thumb drive: Insert your thumb drive; after a second, it should show up in the Disk Utility Sidebar. When it does, (1) click on it, then (2) click on Partition. (3) Choose 1 Partition from the Volume Scheme, (4) give it a name (I called my HackintoshInstall) and select Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) from the Format drop-down. Now—and this is important—(5) hit the Options button and make sure GUID Partition Table is selected as the partition scheme. Once you’ve made sure to set all the appropriate settings, just (6) click Apply and Disk Utility will get to partitioning your thumb drive.
3. Copy the Snow Leopard Install DVD image to your hard drive: In the following step we’ll be turning your thumb drive into a Snow Leopard Install drive, but before we do that, we need to get the installer off your DVD and onto your hard drive. To achieve this, insert the Snow Leopard DVD. When it shows up in the Disk Utility sidebar, (1) click on it, then (2) click New Image in the Disk Utility toolbar. Choose where you want to save it (for the sake of convenience, I put it on my Desktop), then click the Save button. Now go grab yourself a cold drink. This will take some time. When it finishes, move on to the next step.
4. Restore the Snow Leopard Install disk image to your thumb drive: Now, in Disk Utility, (1) click on HackintoshInstall (or whatever you called your partitioned thumb drive) and (2) click on Restore. (3) Drag and drop Mac OS X Install DVD.dmg from the sidebar to the Source field, then (4) drag and drop your thumb drive from the sidebar to the Destination field. Now simply (5) click on Restore and enter your password when prompted. Disk Utility will take everything on the Snow Leopard Install DVD and restore that image to your thumb drive—since, like I said above, we’ll be installing Snow Leopard from our thumb drive instead of the DVD. Again, go grab yourself another drink; this will take a few minutes. When it finishes, your thumb drive has basically been turned into a Snow Leopard installation drive.

As I said earlier, the thumb drive needs a little finesse before you can boot the Snow Leopard installer on your PC hardware; let’s apply that finesse now.

Warning: Semi-heavy Terminal work ahead. It’s not that difficult, and I’ve gone into a lot of detail to make it as easy to follow along as possible, but if you’re not at least a little comfortable with the command line, it may make you pretty uncomfortable. Beg or borrow a command line geek for an afternoon, if needed.

1. Make sure your thumb drive is still plugged in, open Terminal (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal) and type in:
   diskutil list

   
   We’re interested in two pieces of information here. The first is the root identifier for your thumb drive (mine looks like disk2, as you can see in the screenshot). The second is the specific identifier for the portion of the thumb drive that contains the Snow Leopard installer. (Again, see the screenshot.) In my case, the first is disk2 and the second is disk2s2. Yours may vary depending on how many disks are on your system. Copy your identifiers down somewhere. We’ll need them later.

2. Head to the Chameleon homepage, find the Latest Releases section of the site’s sidebar, and download the latest version of Chameleon. (As of this writing, it’s Chameleon-2.0-RC2-r640.) Uncompress the download and move the Chameleon folder to someplace that’s easy to access. I’m putting it on my Desktop.
3. Now, in Terminal, cd to the i386 folder of the Chameleon folder. On my Mac, the command looks like this:

   
   (1)

   cd /Users/adam/Desktop/Chameleon-2.0-RC2-r640-bin/i386/

   Yours should look similar if the Chameleon folder is on your Desktop, except your username should replace mine. (Quick shortcut: In Terminal, type cd , then drag and drop i386 folder inside Chameleon-2.0-RC2-r640 to Terminal.) Hit Enter.

4. You’re going to be running a couple of Terminal commands that will use Chameleon to make your thumb drive friendly to booting up the OS X installer. They are, as follows:

   (2)

   sudo fdisk -f boot0 -u -y /dev/rdisk2

   IMPORTANT: On your computer, replace rdisk2 with whatever you copied down above. In my case, the thumb drive’s root identifier was disk2, so /dev/rdisk2 is as it should be.

   After you type in that command and hit Enter, you’ll need to enter your user password to execute it. Do so, then execute the following command, again paying special attention to the disk identifier we took note of above:

   (3)

   sudo dd if=boot1h of=/dev/rdisk2s2

   IMPORTANT: As I noted, my Snow Leopard partition was disk2s2, so that command is right for me. You should replace the disk2s2 portion of the command with whatever you noted as the portion of your thumb drive that contains the Snow Leopard installer.

5. Now we’re going to place an awesome, custom EFI bootloader on your thumb drive that lets us load into the installer (and into Snow Leopard in general). So first, head over to netkas.org and download the bootloader from the bootloader link. Make sure you download it somewhere convenient. (Again, I’ve just downloaded it to my Desktop.)

   Now head back into Terminal, where we’re going to copy the boot file to your thumb drive. (One might think that you could just do this using Finder via drag-and-drop, but in this case, doing it via Terminal is necessary.) So, in Terminal, your command should look similar to this:

   sudo cp /Users/adam/Desktop/boot /Volumes/HackintoshInstall

   The easiest way to do this is simply type in sudo cp , (1) drag and drop the boot file into Terminal, then (2) drag and drop your mounted thumb drive from the desktop into Terminal. (The drag-and-drop method is a quick Terminal trick that pastes the full path to each file or directory.) After that, simply hit Enter. (Enter your password if necessary.)

6. I know it seems like we’ve already run a marathon, but you’ve got one last step and then it’s relatively smooth sailing from here on. Download Extra.zip, unzip the file, and then drag and drop the Extra folder into your thumb drive. Nothing fancy, a simple drag and drop with your trusty old mouse will do. Once you’ve done that, open up your thumb drive and verify that it looks something like the screenshot below. (Notice the Extra folder, the boot file, and the OS X installer.)

Take a deep breath. By this time, you’ve completed all the hard work. Now it’s time to boot up your machine, tweak your BIOS settings so they’re ready for your OS X install, and then it’s smooth sailing.

Step 2: Set Your BIOS

Before you can boot into or install OS X on your Hackintosh, you’ve got to make some small adjustments to your BIOS. Rather than taking you step by step through every change you need to make, I’ve simply snapped a picture of the relevant BIOS screens and added some notes. Just click through these images and make sure your BIOS settings match up.

Step 3: Install Snow Leopard

If you’ve made it this far, the hard part is over. Now it’s time to install Snow Leopard, which—unlike what we’ve done so far—is extremely easy.

Make sure you’ve set the boot priority in your BIOS to boot from your thumb drive (you can see how in this pic), then simply plug your prepared thumb drive into your Hackintosh and power it up. Since screenshots aren’t really an option—and since it’s a fairly easy process—my install instructions come in video format:

The quick version goes like this: Boot into the Snow Leopard installer, format the hard drive you want to install Snow Leopard to (go to Utilities -> Disk Utility, then click on the drive, select 1 Partition, Mac OS X Journaled (Case-Sensitive Update: Several readers have suggested that case-sensitive formatting can cause problems with some applications, like Adobe’s Creative Suite, so you may be better off sticking with plain old Mac OS X Journaled.), give it a name, and make sure GUID Partition Table is set in the Options. After you Apply the new partition, go back to the installer and install like normal to that drive. When you reboot after the install completes, press the arrow keys at the graphical boot menu and select the drive you just installed Snow Leopard to.

A Few Final Tweaks

You’ll notice that, the first time Snow Leopard boots up, you’re not enjoying any sound along with that snazzy intro video. We’ve got one small, but very simple tweak to make to get sound up and running. Here’s how it works:

1. Download the Kext Utility, then download this audio kext (a kext is kind of the Mac equivalent of a driver) and unzip it to your Desktop. Once you’ve got both in front of you, drag and drop the ALC889.Fix.kext file onto the Kext Utility. You’ll be prompted to enter your password, so go ahead and do that when you’re prompted.
2. Once the Kext Utility finishes running, open up Disk Utility (/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app). Once it loads up, (1) click on your Snow Leopard drive (mine’s called Hack Leopard), then (2) click Repair Disk Permissions.
3. Once Disk Utility finishes repairing your disk permissions, just restart. After your computer reboots, your audio should be working like a charm. (If not, open up Sound in your System Preferences and try changing the Output device.)

As things stand on your system right now, you need to have your thumb drive plugged in every time you reboot in order to load the bootloader that allows your Hackintosh to load OS X. There are certain benefits to this (for example, right now you could quite likely unplug this hard drive from your Hackintosh, plug it into a Mac Pro, and it would work just fine), but it can also be a bit of a hassle. At this point, though, you can load the bootloader and other necessary components onto the Snow Leopard hard drive and change that drive to your primary boot drive in your BIOS. All you’ve got to do is head back to the step-by-step bootloader guide above and repeat every step, except this time you’re applying each step to your hard drive rather than your thumb drive.

Congratulations! You’ve Got a Fully Functional Hackintosh

“But for realz,” you ask, “does it actually work well?”

I’ve been using one or another Hackintosh as my main computer for two years now, and while I’ve run into the occasional bump in the road, they’ve generally run extremely well. In fact, things just seem to keep on getting better and better, and the current build I’m running (the one I walked you through above) feels like the fastest, most stable build to date.

That’s not to say that you won’t experience an occasional kernel panic—you may very well. But I get crashes on my MacBook Pro, too, and I’ve never felt that my current Hack Pro has any more problems than any other proper Mac I’ve used on a regular basis. That may seem a bit crazy, but it’s true.

As for upgrading—often, you’ll be able to upgrade your Hack Pro without any problems. That said, it’s something you normally need to check on beforehand, and you should take all of the upgrade precautions before giving it a go.

I’m planning on letting readers know how my Hack Pro handles various 10.6.x updates shortly after they happen, though, and if it requires a little extra work, I’ll show you how to handle it.

Let’s hear your thoughts—whether you’ve dabbled in the world of Hackintosh, are interested in doing so, or just think it’s plain crazy—in the comments.

Adam Pash is the editor of Lifehacker; he loves a good hack, cherishes his Macintosh, and craves a Mac Pro, so building a Hack Pro was a perfect fit. His special feature Hack Attack appears on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Hack Attack RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

* OS X boots in a different way than, say, Windows, using a boot tool called EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface). On store-bought Macs, EFI is loaded on the hardware by default (in fact, in place of the standard BIOS most of us are used to). In order to boot OS X on our non-factory Macs, we need to create our own custom path to EFI.

Huge thanks to stellarola, Onetrack, and weaksauce12 for all their help in getting me up to speed on installing Snow Leopard on a Hackintosh PC. The Hackintosh community is large and active, and they are awesome.

Go to Source

How to Build a Hackintosh with Snow Leopard, Start to Finish [How To] originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on September 7, 2009.

Personal issues have kept me from writing as regularly on my favourite case as I would like, but hopefully that has ended or at least been minimized. Many interesting things have happened recently, particularly regarding discovery, and I have only just began to digest the information and do not write on a subject until I am fairly sure that I have the facts down and some solid defensible opinions. However, this is a perfect opportunity to step back and take a look into the discovery between the parties prior to Psystar filing and then just as suddenly, fleeing, bankruptcy. As far as I have seen, this information has not been reviewed elsewhere on the Apple web.

Typically, in Federal Court, discovery requests and answers are not filed with the Court unless there is some dispute, and even then, they are often heavily redacted as we have already seen with the Letter Brief filed by Apple on April 29, 2009. In fact, the parties had earlier requested, and had been granted, a Protective Order allowing the redaction (or filing under seal) of certain areas of inquiry in any discovery which must be used as an attachment in support of any filing. Due to these circumstances, we know precious little about precisely what types of inquiries were propounded by both parties. However, attached to Rudy Pedraza’s Declaration filed with the Bankruptcy Court were copies of Apple’s Answers to Psystar’s First, Second, and Third Requests for Admission (comprising 181 separate Requests).

General Information on Requests for Admission

 
Before discussing the contents of the filings uncovered, I will give a short primer for the layperson on the nature and purpose of the discovery avenue of “Requests for Admission.”

Requests for Admission are covered under Rule 26 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The interested reader can go to the link to read the rule and its technicalities in full. But to put it simply, Requests for Admissions are used to determine what items that the parties can agree are true or false and thus will not need to be proven at trial. For example, in an auto accident case, one party may ask the other to admit that it was not raining at the location of the accident at the time of the accident. This would obviate the need to obtain official weather records in order to prove that particular fact. Another common use of Requests for Admissions are to establish the authenticity of documents so that the original author or records custodian of the documents is not required to come into Court at trial simply to tell the jury that the document is genuine and kept in the ordinary course of business. My general philosophy is that attorneys should not ask stupid Requests for Admissions (with stupid being my subjective standard—the Rules are pretty lenient so that worthwhile requests are not chilled, and the responding party has the protection of objecting in detail). My personal opinion of an example of such would be asking the other party to admit that the basis for their case is entirely without merit (which Psystar did in fact do in their requests). That is just inane, and well, insulting to the intelligence of the recipient and contributes to the public perception that a great deal of law practice is silly showboating. Unfortunately, that is the nature of the beast at times in American jurisprudence.

In my particular job as a legal assistant, some cases tend to be very document-intensive. In such situations, Requests for Admissions are very helpful to both sides to get document authentication out of the way which will shorten the trial and spare the jury from strictly pro forma testimony.

Now however boring all of that might seem, one can glean a great deal of a party’s trial strategy and case theories from the Requests made.

Rudy Pedraza’s Representations Regarding Apple’s Responses to Psystar’s Requests for Admissions Numbered 1 through 181

 
Here are the discovery documents that Pedraza provided.

Apple Inc.’s Responses to Psystar Corporation’s First Set of Requests for Admission (Nos. 1–53)
Apple Inc.’s Responses to Psystar Corporation’s Second Set of Requests for Admission (Nos. 54–84)
Apple Inc.’s Responses to Psystar Corporation’s First Set of Requests for Admission (Nos. 85–181)

First, I wonder if Pedraza obtained the permission of Apple of make these publicly available considering that the parties had agreed to keep certain discovery private. In fact, in Apple’s request to the Bankruptcy Court for relief from the automatic stay, its main exhibit was filed under seal to maintain the privacy of the discovery process. I found it difficult to imagine that Apple agreed to this publication.

Here is what Pedraza stated in his sworn Declaration to the Bankruptcy Court:

Notice that Pedraza alleged that Apple failed to answer and instead has objected to all Interrogatories and/or Requests for Admissions in an attempt to further bury Psystar in legal bills without providing any information, and as example, he provides the Bankruptcy Court with Psystar’s 181 REQUESTS FOR ADMISSION! Hello Mr. Pot, there is a kettle over here that suspects you and he share a colour. In examining these Requests we can get a good glimpse into Psystar’s thought processes as to their discovery and litigation strategy. I will extract some broad areas for examination in this article (not intending to cover every minutiae).

Is it TRUE that Apple “failed to answer and instead has objected to all Interrogatories and/or Requests for Admissions”?

 
Short Answer: No, it is not true.

Long Answer: For those with no experience in the legal field, a review of Apple’s responses may appear to support Pedraza’s assertions. However, Apple’s responses are typical form and practice in the legal industry. Lawyers are paid and trained to advocate zealously for their clients to the best of their abilities within the bounds of professional ethics. As such, they look for even the slightest advantage or phrase that they can use to help their client. Therefore, in written discovery, unless a question/request is very straightforward, nearly every answer will be prefaced by certain objections so that they are preserved, and then, the answer will say something to the effect of “however, without waiving said objections, Plaintiff/Defendant responds XYZ.” Pedraza is correct in that Apple provided objections to all the Requests for Admissions (and as I will show, some of Psystar’s requests are just plain ridiculous and tiresome), he is absolutely duplicitous in his claim that Apple failed in toto to answer. Pedraza is not some innocent illiterate from the boondocks who “gosh golly gee” didn’t know that prefacing answers with objections are typical legal pracitce. In fact, I would LOVE to know if Psystar did the exact same thing. Here is a typical Request and Answer from the very first Request propounded (the General Objections referred to are typical prefaces to all discovery responses that form the first few pages):

Apple responded as is typical in legal proceedings. It protected itself as best as possible from any vulnerabilities in poor wording or ambiguity in the Request and then answers to what it represents is the best of its ability. Nearly every single Request and Answer follows this pattern. There are only few that were objected to in full without a denial or admission. In fact, I had to read all the way to Request Number 47 to find the first example. Did Apple use invisible magic ink so that Pedraza could swear to the Court that Apple failed to answer and only objected to ALL Requests for Admissions? Truth has not been Psystar’s trademark. It is not surprising that they conjure up fake facts considering that they make fake Macs.

In fact, the only Requests that were objected to in full were Requests numbered 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, and 53. That is 6 out of 181. Mr. Pedraza appears to have a bit of an exaggeration problem. In my review, Apple readily admitted to numerous issues of fact. In my own job, I have seen Responses come back in which every (or nearly every) Request is denied. However, all that being said, stepping back from my perspective of being accustomed to such filings, I can understand how Pedraza would be frustrated though I find it difficult to have any sympathy since he answered “I don’t know” over 80 times to questions about the finances of his “very small company” (his representation as he loves to continually whinge in order to represent Apple as the fat bully in the sandbox).

While we are talking about Pedraza’s internal reality distortion field, let’s compare these two statements.

First, from Psystar’s response to Apple’s request to the Bankruptcy Court to lift the automatic stay:

Okay, so Apple has not filed a motion for injunctive relief though it is requested in its Amended Complaint. Now notice what Pedraza says:

It seems that in Rudy-land “has not” is equivalent to “unable to” and evidences that Apple’s case is not clear. Interesting. Why? Because Psystar asked for injunctive relief as well in its Amended Counterclaims but also has not filed a motion for same. Will Pedraza apply the same standard to Psystar? Long live Janus.

And let us not forget this zinger:

Is it true that Psystar ”made every effort to provide them all the documents in our possession”? Well only if you believe not even bothering to print out email attachments and giving potentially contradictory statements as to whether they even still exist comprises making every effort. In my world, the sky is blue, and that is not making every effort.

Moving on…

What can we glean about Psystar’s case strategy from these Requests for Admissions?

 
Obviously I cannot bore you to death by going through all 181 requests individually. Well, technically I could, but I won’t. I have grouped what seems to be the most important and interesting categories for brief discussion with selected example Request(s) and Answer(s) for examples.

Category: Vendors other than Apple sell the “Mac OS.”

Apparently Psystar believes that it is somehow pertinent that users may obtain OS X from entities other than Apple. How that is relevant is beyond me. The consumer does not buy Windows directly from Microsoft; does that somehow denigrate Microsoft’s interest in controlling their intellectual property? The consumer does not generally buy books directly from the authors; does that mean they can produce unauthorized derivative works at will? I would conjecture that Psystar is attempting to piggy-back a case that since the OS is available outside of Apple that Apple has no right to dictate how it can be used. This seems even more likely to be the goal when considering the next category.

Category: Consumers can buy a retail box of the “Mac OS” without purchasing any other Apple product.

Once again, the relevance fails me. A person may buy a copy of Leopard and use it for kindling if they wish. A person can be given a Macintosh upon which they install the product. This is inanity. My guess, again, is that Psystar is attempting to show that although Apple has placed restrictions on the use of the product; it has not required any proof or point of sale proof of being able to actually enforce the restrictions.

Category: It is possible to install and run the “Mac OS” without modifying the “Mac OS” on machines manufactured by vendors other than Apple.

And

Okay, this category is more substantive and appears to be geared towards defeating Apple’s claim of violation of the DMCA which requires anti-circumvention technology. Yet, and interestingly separated by over thirty Requests, Psystar appears to pursue a completely different admission as follows (for example):

I have noted this contradictory tension in prior articles here and here. I must note, however, it is not unusual in Requests for Admissions for a party to ask for two contradictory admissions in order to pin the opposing party to commit one way or the other.

Category: Apple has no copyright rights on any code which is licensed to Apple under an open source license.

I think that is a very valid and interesting point raised by Psystar. I know basically nothing about code and programming so I can only comment on the issues it may pose in this case taking what Psystar is alleging as true. Is Apple’s code a derivative work? and if so, how does that affect the intellectual property rights? My gut reaction is that this argument is NOT good for the open source community or organizations pushing for open standards. Why would a company want to risk losing its intellectual property rights simply because it mixed open source code with its proprietary code? This is just one of the many points that irritates me about some Psystar supporters. Get this straight: Psystar is NO friend of the open source community and “open-ness.” They are just a couple of guys looking to make a buck without much care of how it affects anyone or anything else. There is a reason why the osx86 Project creator is no fan.

Category: Ahhh, we’re right! Just admit it!

 
I am sorry, but I found these next Requests hilarious along the lines of “when did you stop beating your wife?” These are allowable under the Rules as far as I can see, but in my personal opinion this is the type of nonsense that causes people to think poorly of the law and attorneys.

Category: Lack of Real Damages

Basically Psystar wants to establish that even if there were some violation of copyrights or other intellectual property rights; Apple suffered no quantifiable damages from Psystar, presumably because Psystar paid full retail price for each of its copies of Leopard (allegedly) and that its customer base wouldn’t have purchased an Apple-labeled computer due to the higher cost. This of course ignores other intangible losses such as brand dilution and the like (though Psystar did address those in separate Requests).

Category: The Clone program was profitable. Or was it?

Eh? So if Apple made money, then the big, bad corporation wants to make more money (as if that is inherently wrong), and if they didn’t, well that is why they want to persecute poor little Psystar. Tails Psystar wins, Heads Apple loses. Ahem.

Category: Go ahead Apple, admit you want to make money.

Apple is not a charity and wants to make the most money possible. Shocking I know. Somehow I suspect that Psystar would also like to make as much money as possible. In fact, I have it through the grapevine that Rudy has bragged about his own ambitions to be filthy rich.

Category: Ignorant Consumers

Shall Apple waterboard them until they do? Seriously, if anyone states that they have read and agree to certain terms and conditions, the other party has every legal reason to rely upon that declaration (assuming mental competence, age, etc.) I admit it; I have never read any EULA. But I also would never claim that my agreement to something I didn’t read is anyone’s problem but my own. Further, its not as if the end-users are agreeing to something that is a well-kept secret or outlandish.

Category: Apple is the exclusive licensor of “Mac OS,” and has in the past licensed it to other entities who then sold Macintosh “clones” to the public.

It seems, Psystar wants to establish the foundation that Apple as a company had no issue with a business model that included third-party licensing. The inference that Psystar might want to draw from this is that Apple should not have an issue with it today; and it was a viable business model in the past. My response: So? Businesses can change their models for whatever legal reason they choose. Psystar puts some distance between these Requests and the following:

Category: It’s all Steve’s fault (and he’s a hypocrite).

The video linked to above has since been removed, but here is another copy of it (light profanity warning).

Last year my best friend said she would give me a thousand dollars and has since changed her position after figuring out that she was better off keeping it. That basically is what their argument amounts to. It is so vapid I am almost without words. Will Psystar be suing Apple when they eventually include the Bag ‘O Hurt also known as Blu Ray? Psystar has changed its positions faster than Linda Blair has spun her head so I find this beyond chutzpah or the Dunning Syndrome on their part.

Category: All Steve Jobs stated that Apple wanted from its licensees was that they pair their “fair share” for the licensing rights and that said “fair share” would be the retail cost.

Psystar seems poised to argue that it is fulfilling what Steve Jobs wanted prior cloners to do: pay full retail price. Yes, this is hopelessly naive and simplistic, but that appears to be their point. And I hate to give them a much needed reality-check: the technology world is not the same as it was a decade ago.

Category: Apple is picking on us!!! Or put another way, Apple is aware of other third parties who are violating the EULA, such as the osx86 project, but has not sought to enforce the EULA against them.

That sound you hear is Psystar attempting to throw the Hackintosh hobbyist community under the bus so that they can make a buck off of someone else’s work. In legal strategy, they seem to be claiming selective enforcement and waiver. However, I think this will be a tough row to hoe since Rudy was well aware that they were purposefully spitting in Apple’s pie and didn’t really care if they got sued.

Category: Apple informs the public that a purchaser owns the actual physical media which contains the software. Further, Apple has never requested the return of the physical media.

I feel dumber just reading and writing that. Let’s move on.

Category: Installing the software creates a copy on the user’s machine and in the RAM each time the software is executed.

I didn’t think it could get worse. It did. It has already been decided in a case cited earlier (I could get the case if someone really, really wants it) that the machine loading a “copy” into RAM isn’t a license violation and basically is a useless argument against licenses.

Category: Licensing rather than sale is done to circumvent 17 U.S.C. §109, §117

 
and

Category: Apple’s EULA defining the software as licensed and not sold is intended to keep the software from being installed on machines made by other vendors.

This right now is their best argument, but unfortunately for them; the District in which this suit is filed has not been persuaded by this line of reasoning in the past.

Category: Apple hardware is not covered by any Apple copyrights, and Apple-labeled hardware is not expressly defined in Apple’s filings.

and

Category:Apple has alleged that Psystar has violated multiple sections of U.S.C. 17 and one or more licenses attached to Apple’s filings.

This line of argumentation was discussed pretty thoroughly here for the interested reader. Again, this is part of their stronger points (the word “stronger” being used in a very loose manner).

Category: Apple distributes labels that resemble the Apple logo with the “Mac OS” and that people can put those stickers on any computer.

Oh come on!!! You’ve have GOT to be kidding me. That is almost as bad as this:

Category: Apple-labeled computers may be purchased from Apple’s websites.

Okay……

Category: Exhibits 13 through 15 from the March 19, 2009 deposition of Rudy Pedraza cannot by authenticated or verified by Apple.

Without knowing what these documents are, it is difficult to comment. Apparently there are documents that Psystar doesn’t like and wishes to put as much distance between it and them as possible.

Category: Apple purchased computers from Psystar both before and after July 3, 2008.

Okay….. so now we know who bought the ones that were sold to entities other than Engadget and the like.

Category: Apple dissembled, decompiled, and reverse-engineered a Psystar restore disc.

Okay…..

Category: Any two or more copies of the “Mac OS” install disk are the same for all intents and purposes.

I am not at all sure what they are driving it besides a colossal tribute to Captain Obvious. Well this look into their prior discovery will assist in my upcoming articles on the newest bizarre twists that this case has taken over the past week. Be on the lookout for more! Oh goody!

Remember, I am NOT an attorney and any legal opinions would have to be determined by a properly licensed and qualified attorney.

In addition to her position as Assistant Editor at World of Apple, dizzle runs idrankthekoolaid, an Apple fangrl satire blog, and is an Administrator and Hostess at MyAppleSpace and their vidcast MASTv.

Go to Source

Apple v. Psystar: An Unexpected Opportunity to Examine Contents of Past Discovery originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on August 24, 2009.

Download the Silverlight  plugin for Mac OSX.
Mount the .dmg file
Drag the Silverlight.3.0.pkg file to your desktop
Unmount the .dmg – not required now
Right click on “Silverlight3.0.pkg” and choose the “Show Package Contents” menu item.
Double click on the “Contents” folder.
Double click on the “Resources” folder.
Drag and drop the file “InstallationCheck” to the trash.
Close out the folder you’re working in.
Finally double click on the “Silverlight3.0.pkg” package, and it should install fine now.

VIA Msi Wind Forums • View topic – Installing Microsoft Silverlight v2 on OSX (Advent 4211).

Installing Microsoft Silverlight v3 on OSX originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on July 14, 2009.

In what is probably the most surprising non-celebrity-death story in weeks, recently bankrupt Psystar—surly maker of all things hackintosh—is now claiming to be ready for a comeback, with a new product in tow. This makes very little sense.

A superquick recap: Psystar releases the OpenMac, a $400 desktop Mac clone; people debate if this is possible, technically or legally, and if Psystar is a scam; the hackintoshes turn out to be real; they ship; Apple gets upset; Psystar grandstands; Apple continues to be upset; Psystar gets murdered. To death.

That was the story a few weeks ago, at least. Now Psystar is basically acting like nothing happened, releasing a fresh bootloader, a new computer—the $1500, i7-based Open(7) desktop—and revisiting their old, defiant tone in an email newsletter:

As you all may already be aware in late May, Psystar filed for bankruptcy protection. Although this was critical to our continued daily operations, we are now ready to emerge and again battle Goliath.

The whole thing is reproduced below, and definitely worth reading.

Psystar’s been subject to all manner or canonization, criticism, popular support and backlash, but now I don’t know what to think. On the one hand, all their talk about monopolies, freedom and victimization always stuck me as a little hollow. (David and Goliath? So you’re going to kill Apple?) On the other, it now appears as though the guys who run Psystar are either clinically insane, extremely persistent, unusually ballsy or just poorly advised to an extreme. Or all of the above. As Mark said on the story, “they wont stop unless Apple cuts off their hands. And even then, who knows.” That spirit alone has got to be worth something, right? [TUAW via Neowin via Slashgear]

Go to Source

Psystar Emerges From Bankruptcy With New Product, Same Insane Resolve [Psystar] originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on July 2, 2009.

Following the posts @ Mac Rumors I removed each service one by one, added Airport, restarted, and it works!

Remember to hit apply after removing the services. Then add Airport. Hit apply again. Restart the computer. And it should work.

I noticed that I have to have the hard wifi switch set to on when the computer is starting. Not sure if this maters, but just a note.

Wind U100 Hackintosh w/ 407159-001 native Airport originally appeared on Shai Perednik.com on May 8, 2009.