We were naturally overjoyed to see another "clone" manufacturer crop up, peddling OS X "compatibility" with none of the actual pre-installed-ness that made Psystar notable, so it's with a heavy heart that we bid adieu to Open Tech. The company has put itself up for sale, including its considerable "trade secrets," and can be yours for the low-low-price of 50 grand. Almost as bad a deal as its computers.

[Via Gadget Lab]

We don't suppose there's any friendlier way to put this: Open Tech Inc. is setting itself up for an Apple lawsuit, without any of the nice "product people will want to buy" stuff to balance out the equation. See, Open Tech thinks you're an idiot, and that you'll buy one of their "open computers" that can run (gasp!) OS X, XP, Vista or Ubuntu -- just like almost every other PC on the market today. We're guessing they figure that as long as they aren't loading OS X onto the computer themselves, they won't have any trouble from Apple, but that's where they go wrong. In addition to the EULA and copyright allegations, Apple's complaint against Psystar has claims for inducing copyright infringement and infringing on Apple trademarks by advertising non-Apple machines as compatible with OS X which is exactly Open Tech's ploy here. Mix that in with some crappy specs, an August-ish launch timeframe and no pricepoints to speak of, and you have one of the least desirable computers known to man. And hopefully a fun lawsuit for us to enjoy.

C'mon now -- you saw this one coming down the road, didn't you? Apple has officially taken legal action against Mac clone-maker Psystar, according to court documents. On July 3rd, the Cupertino giant filed suit in the federal district court of northern California alleging violations against its shrink wrap license, trademarks, and copyright infringement. Clearly this doesn't look real promising for the Florida-based cloner, but we're confident they'll handle this situation with the tact and aplomb we've come to expect from them. Which is none.

Read - Confirmed: Apple files suit against Psystar
Read - Apple goes after clone maker Psystar

[Thanks, ginger.al]

It's been a pretty hectic few days for wannabe Mac cloner Psystar -- its former credit card processor shut off its account when it learned what it was trying to sell, no one could figure out the company's true address, and company president Rudy Pedraza still has the disconcerting habit of not answering any questions and promising to call everyone back with a formal statement that's never arrived. Still, the company posted up a blurb today saying it's gotten a new credit card processor and that Open Computers are now being shipped in the order purchases were made. Of course, Rudy's been promising us a test machine since day one, so we're curious to see if he follows through -- has anyone gotten a tracking number? Anyone have their credit cards charged? Let us know.

Read - Psystar: "Store up and running"
Read - News.com article about Psystar's former credit card processor
Read - ZDNet article on Psystar's address