What do you when you want a low-cost OS X notebook? Install OS X on a netbook of course! That’s what the folks at Wired.com’s Gadget Lab did with an MSI Wind netbook. They took a distribution of OS X (containing the necessary drivers for the MSI Wind) and installed the OS right on the netbook itself. Sure some components failed to work but overall, you’ve got yourself an inexpensive OS X based system as a result. Pretty nifty! So who else will try this out?

[Check it out via NetbookTech.com, Ubergizmo]

Technorati Tags: OS X, MSI Wind

Think Apple’s business is being driven by the iPod and iPhone? Guess again - Apple’s Mac business is alive and well as they’ve announced that 2.4 million Macs were shipped during the third quarter ending June 28th. That represents a 41 percent unit growth and a whopping 43 percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. In total, Apple posted amazing revenues of 7.46 billion with a net quarterly profit of $1.07 billion (or $1.19 per diluted share). Compare those numbers to the year-ago quarter which were 5.41 billion and a net quarterly profit of $818 million. Gross profits dipped somewhat - from 36.9 percent to 34.8 percent.

Here are other stats of interest:

• 11 million iPods were sold during the quarter - 12 percent unit growth and seven percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter
• 717,000 iPhones were sold during the quarter compared to 270K in year ago quarter (of course the iPhone had just started sales during the third quarter of last year)

Now here’s where things get interesting. Apple’s CFO, Peter Oppenheimer, decided to warn analysts that 4th quarter gross margins will be negatively affected by a “product transition.” So as News.com points out - let the guessing games begin. What exactly does this product transition mean exactly? Does this lend credence that new notebooks are coming out from Apple? Does this mean product prices are coming down? Does it mean things getting more expensive to manufacture? It’s really anyone’s guess right now (but you can be sure that people will be coming out with their own theories now). For the record though, News.com thinks that Apple will do two things during the fourth quarter: Introduce new Centrino 2 based MacBooks and reduce price for the iPod touch.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: Apple, Third Quarter, 2008, Fourth Quarter, Apple iPhone, Mac, iPod Touch

Think Linux and Windows XP are the only viable OS’s for the MSI Wind notebook (which isn’t available yet of course… at least not easily)? Well if you know what you’re doing and you know where to look, you can have a third alternative thanks to OS X. A adventurous fellow over at the InsanelyMac Forum managed to get Kalyway 10.5.2 installed on the MSI Wind. As you can see in the picture above, the OS thinks it’s running on a Mac Pro system powered by an Intel Core Solo processor (of course the actual processor is a 1.6GHz Intel Atom). Pretty nifty stuff! I’ve played with Kalyway before and I must say - when it works, it’s awesome.

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: MSI Wind, OS X, Kalyway 10.5.2

Just a head’s up to all you OS X users out there - Apple has released the 10.5.3 update of OS X which you can download by running Software Update on your desktop or download from the Apple website directly. There’s a lot of things in 10.5.3. You can see the complete list after the jump or you can check out the support knowledge base here:

(more…)

Technorati Tags: Apple, OS X, 10.5.3

CNET published a review of the controversial Psystar Open Computer here on their website. In case you’ve been under a rock for the last few weeks and you’re not familiar with the Psystar Open Computer, it’s basically the first computer to be sold with a version of OS X that’s not from Apple.  The Open Computer has the following basic specs:

• Intel Core 2 Duo processor
• Up to 4GB of RAM
• 250GB 7200 RPM HDD
• DVD burner
• Gigabit Ethernet

Psystar essentially installed a version of OS X that’s been modified to run on non-Apple hardware. Yes.. the legality of such a move is dubious at best but at least the company is shipping hardware (and software) to people buying the product. CNET has an unboxing video of the system which I’ve embedded here on Krunker:  

Its hardware isn’t made by Apple’s design team, it will likely never work as a full member of the greater Apple ecosystem, and one ill-intended software update could turn it into a $750 brick. Get past all of that, and you’ll find Psystar’s OS X-based Open Computer a fast and otherwise compelling lower midrange desktop.

Technorati Tags: Psystar Open Computer, CNET, Review, OS X

Apple is admitting that the inclusion of Boot Camp on Intel-based Mac systems may cause some developers to not develop applications for the Mac OS. Apple released this warning in a report to investors last week stating Boot Camp “may deter developers from creating software applications for Mac OS X if such applications are already available for the Windows platform.” Well.. my only thought to that was the same as the folks at CrunchGear - “NO DUH!!”.

In actuality, while this is certainly a threat, the real problem isn’t so much Boot Camp but applications like Parallels which allows Windows applications to run simultaneously under OS X. Boot Camp only allows you to choose one OS over the other while a program like Parallels will allow you to run Windows within a VM under OS X. Plus - thanks to Intel Virtualization technologies, you will get pretty darn good Windows application speeds out of Parallels. So .. why purchase say Office for Mac when you can run Office for Windows on a Mac OS X platform?

At the end of the day, I believe giving consumers the opportunity to run Windows applications actually will help spur the sales of Mac systems - primarily because consumers can opt to have the best of both worlds - something not quite possibly with a Windows only solution.

[Check it out via CrunchGear]

Technorati Tags: Apple, Boot Camp, Windows, Parallels

Now here’s an amusing hack story for ya. A guy named Dan has taken his ASUS Eee PC and installed a version of Mac OS X on it. Now there’s a thought eh? Take a fairly inexpensive, ultra-portable notebook, and install OS X on it. Of course, the Eee PC isn’t exactly the most powerful notebook around but at $399, you do get an interesting piece of hardware. Consider the specs..

• 7 inch display
• Full QWERTY keyboard
• 900 MHz Intel Mobile CPU
• 4GB flash memory drive
• 512MB RAM
• 10/100 Fast Ethernet
• Wi-Fi
• Three USB 2.0 ports
• VGA output
• microphone, headphone, and SD card reader

Replace the pre-installed Linux OS with Mac OS X and you’ve got one tiny portable Mac system!

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: ASUS, Eee PC, Mac OS X

Apple Mac owners have a new way to capture television broadcasts on their computers thanks to the newly announced ATI TV Wonder 650 Combo USB for Mac. The TV Wonder 650 Combo USB features two TV tuners capable of receiving over-the-air ATSC/HDTV broadcasts as well as analog television programming. Using the included ATI tvPORTAL TV application, users get full DVR functionality right on their Mac - including the ability to watch, pause, or record high definition television. Features of the ATI TV Wonder 650 Combo USB for Mac include:

• Two built in tuners offering combo tuning for ATSC and NTSC
• ATI Theater Video Processing Technology with Hardware MPEG-2 Compression, Motion Adaptive 3D Comb Filter, Automatic Color Control, Automatic Gain Control, Noise Reduction, and Edge Enhancement
• ATI tvPORTAL application with ability to watch TV and DTV on your Mac, full PVR and time shifting functionaloty, fast forward, rewind, or pause live analog TV and DTV, record MPEG-2 videos with ease to your hard drive, and built in electronic programming guide (EPG)
• USB 2.0 support
• Input connectors include F-Type Coax input for analog TV, F-Type coax input for ATSC(HDTV), S-Video input, Stereo audio input, Composite video input
• Requires Mac OS X 10.4.10 or higher

The ATI TV Wonder 650 Combo USB for Mac has an MSRP of $149 and is scheduled to be available later this month. The product will be distributed by VisionTek

[Check it out]

Technorati Tags: ATI TV Wonder 650 Combo USB for Mac, Mac OS X, TV Tuner, ATI

As most of you already know by now, Apple launched OS X 10.5, code named Leopard, last night at 6pm. I dropped by the Apple Store at the Third Street Promenade here in Santa Monica and snapped up some pictures of the event. I actually didn’t make it out there till about 7:30pm and there was still a sizable line in front of the store. Ironically enough, most of the folks on line were tourists who simply wanted to get into the store. Most actually didn’t even realize a new OS version was being launched. Oh yes… they were giving out free t-shirts and yes.. I got one

Here are some snapshots of the line and the front of the store taken with my iPhone.

Once inside, I took a walk around and guess what? I actually picked up my first Mac in about 6 years! Yes.. my last Mac system was the very cool iMac from 2001. This time around, I decided to pick up a Mac mini which came with the 10.5 DVD inside.

I’ve yet to set things up but hopefully you’ll hear more about it here at Krunker over the next few days. I still have to get my systems back up and running here in the office.. so that’s why news has been somewhat irratic.

That’s it for now.. I’m off to a Halloween Party! Stay safe everyone!

Technorati Tags: Apple, Apple Store, Third Street Promenade, OS X Leopard