Mac

The more we learn about Mac clone maker Psystar, the more questions arise.

For those of you who missed it, the interest of the Mac world this week swung from 3G iPhone rumor-mongering to South Florida, where a company called Psystar has put up a Web site selling a product called an Open Computer. The product is essentially a white-box Mac with Mac OS X Leopard preinstalled, and a violation of Apple's licensing agreement for Mac OS X.

The Guardian did a little digging Tuesday into some of the basics around Psystar, such as its exact location and ownership. … Read more

Apple and Nvidia are finally shipping a graphics card for owners of older Mac Pros who felt left out in the cold in January.

When Apple introduced the newest version of the Mac Pro in January, it offered Nvidia's GeForce 8800 GT graphics card as an upgrade option on those systems. Owners of older Mac Pros, however, were miffed that Apple said the cards would only work with the latest Mac Pro generation, because firmware in the card could only support the PCI Express 2.0 standard unveiled with the new Mac Pros.

The thing is, those cards were … Read more

Psystar is back online selling "white box" Macs with a few subtle changes, and one employee has already played the monopoly card.

As you might recall, Psystar's Web site was overwhelmed Monday after it was found to be selling cheap computers with Mac OS X Leopard preinstalled. This caused quite the commotion, as Apple does not license its operating system to other hardware makers, and specifically prohibits (PDF) end users from installing Mac OS X on anything other than an "Apple labeled" computer.

Ars Technica noted that Psystar made several changes to its Web site … Read more

Apple has acknowledged video problems with the latest shipment of MacBooks and MacBook Pros.

Early customers of the Penryn refresh of the Apple notebooks had complained of flickering images during a QuickTime video playback on MacBooks and MacBook Pros shipping with the latest version of Mac OS X Leopard, according to our colleagues over at MacFixIt. Several discussion threads have sprung up over on Apple's user forums, and some customers report that Apple has now acknowledged the problem and is working on a fix.

MacFixIt reports that fix should come with Mac OS X 10.5.3, currently in … Read more

An entrepreneurial Mac vendor has gone offline just hours after it was discovered selling Mac OS X Leopard desktops from a company not named Apple.

MacRumors.com, along with many others, noted one of those too-good-to-be-true deals from a company called Psystar on Sunday night and Monday morning. Psystar, until just now, had been offering $554 "Open Mac" desktops on its Web site with Intel processors, 2GB of memory, a DVD drive, and a copy of Mac OS X Leopard.

The thing is, Apple's software license for Leopard, and any version of Mac OS X, requires that … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Politicians like to joke that Social Security reform is considered the "third rail" of politics. In Apple's world, that rail belongs to security.

It's been a while since we examined the "state of Mac security," and with this week's RSA Conference in San Francisco, and last month's CanSecWest conference fresh in everyone's mind, it seemed like a decent time.

The topic is always a heated one, and it tends to bring out the usual Mac vs. PC bashing. But according to people I talked to this week here at RSA, … Read more

Updated October 16, 2008: Apple has announced new MacBooks. Get all the details of the new lineup here.

Apple might be set to overhaul the design of its flagship notebooks later this year, according to a report.

AppleInsider believes that the MacBook and the MacBook Pro are due for a face-lift, but doesn't provide specific timing for the new rollout. If Apple follows through, the MacBook will get the most significant overhaul, moving from a plastic chassis to an aluminum one that's already in place on the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and iMac computers.

It would make sense … Read more

Updated 8:05 AM PDT with additional details on how the plug-ins work.

Apple has added image-editing plug-ins for its Aperture photo editing software as part of a new release of the product.

Aperture 2.1 is a free download for those already running Aperture 2.0, which was released in February. The addition of support for third-party plug-ins gives Aperture users a way to use specialized editing tools not supported by Apple inside the application.

The new release is basically a software development kit for Aperture developers, and has been expected since the release of Aperture 2.0. It … Read more

A team of security researchers has won $10,000 for hacking a MacBook Air in two minutes using an undisclosed Safari vulnerability.

IDG News Service is camped out at CanSecWest in lovely Vancouver, Canada, and has chronicled the exploits (gotta love security puns) of Charlie Miller, Jake Honoroff, and Mark Daniel of Independent Security Evaluators during the Pwn to Own contest sponsored by TippingPoint. The team was able to gain control of a MacBook Air on the second day of the hacking competition, which pitted the Air against Windows Vista and Ubuntu machines.

No one was able to execute code … Read more