Tag Archives: Mac OS

[MacOS] Psystar Accounces OEM Licensing Program

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As of yesterday the Miami based company Psystar, which is still in legal trouble with Apple, announced to license their virtualization technology to third party manufacturers.

Computers preloaded with Psystar’s DUBL (Darwin Universal Boot Loader) would allow to make

“systems Mac OS X compatible. Psystar’s virtualization technology, specifically engineered for Snow Leopard, allows for seamless operation of the Mac OS on generic Intel Hardware and would be offered on all Psystar Certified machines.”

Find more information about this step in Psystar’s official press statement.

[MacOS] Is EFI-X illegally using 3rd Party Program Code?

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About a year ago a company called ASEM released a device called EFI-X. This device has been claimed to be capable of booting several Microsoft Windows versions and Mac OS X Leopard.

Legal concerns

From the beginning there were question regarding the legal status of the device. But ASEM claimed the device is legal, although it circumvents Apple’s binary protection using Apple’s copyrighted secret operating system keys (OSK1 and OSK2).

Technical issues

Anyway EFI-X devices had some issues. Many forums reported about problems with Bonjour and sharing in general. In the meantime articles from the official EFI-X support forums have been suddenly disappeared. Customers reporting issues or solutions and workaround to severe bugs have been banned from EFI-X support forums – our own help article to recover almost lost data was removed aswell and one of our members has been officially banned from their forums (the reason was this article in october 2008).

Examining EFI-X in deep

Now some frustrated customers who are on the other hand technologically very familiar have examined the EFI-X device in deep. One of the main points AsereBln found: in contrast to what EFI-X is stating: “Our approach is entirely different, (..) all our code and development is our own only” – they seem to be using program code that has been developed by the OSX86 community though. They seem to be using “Disabler.kext“. Moreover another user (RezRov) found out the EFI-X Windows update software seems to be violating the LGPL as it incorporates a modified USB device library (libusb-win32).

Use of possibly unlicensed 3rd party program code, possibly illegal use of Apple security keys, and customer support below grade for a 170€ (250US$) commercial product that seems to be the summary about a year after product launch.

Lessons learnt

We suppose end users should be aware of this possible hassle. Only an original Apple Mac is really hassle free and 100% compatible to a Mac. But if you are technologically interested and have the time and motivation search the OSX86 communities for setups. The OSX86 forums are full of knowledge and willing to help. But remember a PC won’t ever be 100% compatible to a real Mac.

[Windows] Recommended Apps: Really Slick Screensavers

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Abtract

Have you also been trying to find a really nice screensaver for your Windows machine. There are so many nice screensavers for the Mac, but for the Windows world you can’t find them.

What we found

While searching for nice screensavers we came accross this collection of free of charge and open source screensavers called “Really Slick Screensavers”. Check them out. The screensavers included are named:

  • Cyclone
  • Euphoria
  • FieldLines
  • Flocks
  • Flux
  • Helios (YouTube video below)
  • Hyperspace
  • Lattice
  • Plasma (YouTube video below)
  • Skyrocket
  • SolarWinds (YouTube video below)

Download

» Really Slick Screensavers…

By the way: some of the screensavers have also been ported to Mac OS and Linux.

Demo Videos

[MacOS] PearC Clone Supplier admonishs German Blogger

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According to the MacNews.de, the Germany based PearC, besides Psystar the second supplier of Mac clones, admonished the operator of the german blog Caf’é Digital. Café Digital reported about legal concerns of selling ready made Mac clone hardware with pre-installed Mac OS.

For their report, Café Digital used a modified PearC logo and told certain facts, PearC obviously did not want to read in the public. Sadly there is no information about the now censored parts of the Café Digital article about PearC.

We strongly recommend not to use any ready made clone hardware. As all these clone manufacturers are using solutions developed by the InsanelyMac and Hackint0sh community. You may check our EPOS I. installation script – which is provided for educational and for solely non commercial purposes.

If you can not set up a clone Mac yourself, get yourself an original Mac. For most of our every day life’s purposes a (refurbished) Mac Book should be sufficient.

» PearC Germany…
» Café Digital…

» Apple Store Germany (refurbished units)…
» Apple Store U.S. (refurbished units)…
» Apple Store U.S. (clearance units)…
» Apple Store U.K. (refurbished units)…

[MacOS] BluRay eventually coming to the Mac?

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Together with the newly seeded iPhone OS 3.0 a new iTunes 8.2 has been seeded to developers aswell. MacRumors now posted a screenshot that includes reference to BluRay support.

As Apple currently does not support BluRay this step is overdue anyway as Microsoft Windows user can play BluRay movies on their computers for the last three years.

If this is true this is good news. We dual booters won’t need to start Windows when willing to play an HD movie.

The picture is courtesy of MacRumors…

itunes_bluray.png

[MacOS] Switcher’s Hints 1001: Most Helpful Shortcuts

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Mac OS is much more depending on mouse commands than Microsoft Windows. Anyway there are some shortcuts that make your switcher’s lives easier.

Key
 Meaning
Cmd-Tab change between programs (not between windows)
Fn-F9 thumbnail overview of all windows
Alt-Cmd-Esc kill programs instantly
Shift-Cmd-3 screenshot of whole screen (saves on desktop)
Shift-Cmd-4 select part of the screen for screenshot (saves on desktop)
Shift-Cmd-4 + Space select active window for screenshot (saves on desktop)
Esc (in textfields) auto complete
Cmd-PageDown execute program/open subfolder (like return-key in MS-Windows)
Alt-Eject instantly eject CD/DVD
Alt-Cmd-Eject instantly go to sleep mode

Cmd-Key = Apple-Key

[MultiPlatform] TrueCrypt 6.1 Released

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The open source encryption program TrueCrypt 6.1 has been released. It now features:

  • Encrypt a non-system partion without losing existing data (Windows)
  • Support for security tokens and smart cards
  • TrueCrypt bootloader can be configured to not show texts
  • Encrypted Windows system partitions can now be mounted by Linux or MacOS X

» Download TrueCrypt 6.1 here…