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• Tuan: May I play devil’s advocate with you for a second? Davide: You’re welcomed to! Tuan: Say I am Apple. I come to you and say: "we understand your business model. However, the fact that you enable users that don’t own Mac hardware to run our operating system, hurts our own hardware Mac sales — It negates the necessity of owning Mac hardware to use an Apple operating system. How would you respond to that? Davide: I can respond to that with another question. How many people with a limited edition motherboard, a liquid cooling setup and a hand picked processor for overclocking and low latency DDR2 memory do you know that would buy a Mac? Tuan: Regardless of the number of those people, you cannot guarantee that those users would NOT buy or consider buying Mac. Davide: Then we encourage those people to buy a Mac, but our main target is not the typical Mac user. Our target is who would not buy a Mac for a series of reasons. Tuan: I see. That we can understand. But therein lies some ambiguity because since you cannot fully guarantee that your target audience would never buy a Mac, they then still remain as potential hardware sales losses. Correct? Davide: That’s what the hardware compatibility list is there for. The EFiX will work only on what we want it to work. This is to limit the users to exactly those that we want to use the module. I’m telling you that our module will as a matter of fact boost [Apple’s] sales too. Because the kind of people we address the product to will not mind buying Apple accessories, software and such, or why not a MacBook Air to compliment their Frankenstein at home on the desk. Tuan: And you avoid the EULA that prevents Leopard being installed on a PC because then that falls on the hands of the end user. Davide: We do more than that. We take to court whoever sells our modules bundled with a PC — and we are very aggressive about it. Our distributors sign a contract that prohibits them from selling PCs bundled with our modules. Tuan: Right, because then they’d be selling a hackintosh of sorts, going the route of Psystar. Davide: Not only that, they are taking away from Apple, its rightful piece of the market. Apple must have what belongs to them. We want to be for Apple what Iomega or Lacie is to them; someone that goes in their same direction, not someone who challenges or damages them. Tuan: Okay, back to being myself now. So you’re saying that those who are interested in the EFiX are already interested in buying a legal copy of Leopard. Davide: Bingo. But they don’t want to spend money on a desktop not addressed to them. Tuan: This is primarily a concern for many Tom’s Hardware readers. They want to try Leopard but the cost of entry is a barrier that makes no sense to them. Davide: That’s why we want to go alongside with Apple. It’s not really the amount of cash that is scary. It’s the meaning of it. Tuan: Explain. Davide: To one of Tom’s Hardware’s readers for example, an overclocker, modder, spending money for an iMac or Mac Pro is a waste. Tuan: And the fact is, Apple doesn’t have enough hardware choices for them. Davide: Exactly.

• Apple iMac Display Problems Reported

  Apple M9177LLA Silver 20" Cinema LCD... (10 offers) Online shop Price See more products Over the last month, questionable upgrade pricing (Apple OSX Leopard: More Angry Customers), censorship (Mac OSX Cracked for PCs/More Update Woes (Is Apple Now Censoring Tom's Hardware?), and a bug-ridden operating system (Update: More Leopard Problems Plague Apple) have plagued Apple. While they represent problems for Apple, they are certainly surmountable for a mega corporation. But a new development may not be so easy to repair: Multiple sources indicate that at least some 20 and 24 inch iMacs sold since their debut August 7, 2007 may have shipped with defective displays. The 20 and 24" iMacs, with the Mac OSX Tiger default desktop. A Closer Look At The 20" Display Issue Originally, there was some hope that the 20" issue may be dependant on the video card. Two video cards are available for the 20" iMac: ATI's 128 MB Radeon HD 2400 XT and 256 MB Radeon HD 2600 Pro. However, user reports have confirmed that the problem occurs regardless of the video card Compare Prices on Mac 20" Computers. The problem shows as a change in the display of colors from the top to the bottom of the iMac screen. When looking at the display from a typical front viewing angle a solid colored background appears normal at the top of the screen and gradually changes color as your eye approaches the bottom of the screen. At the bottom of the display, the color appears faded or washed out. Medium blue becomes light blue, and light colors become white. A You Tube video, posted by a Mac owner whose retailer refuses to accept a return of his iMac, illustrates the problem: (iMac screen washed out). Note that the issue is inherent to the display; it occurs regardless of whether you are using the Tiger or Leopard operating system. For that matter, you could be running Windows or Linux on the iMac, and the malfunction would still be there. Although this type of problem may not be serious to someone who uses their Mac for sending emails and browsing the Web, it is likely to be a serious issue to anyone who uses their Mac for such tasks as photo editing or graphic design. And keep in mind that the Mac is marketed primarily as a multimedia platform. As someone who spends a great deal of time using his computer for multimedia work, I would find a display in this condition unusable. You may wonder why users don't notice the problem before buying their iMacs. First, many iMacs are purchased from the Apple website. However, even when looking at an iMac display in a retail store, the issue is not immediately obvious, because iMacs are displayed with colorful desktop graphics. Until you become suspicious that something isn't right and confirm it by using a solid colored desktop, you won't notice that there's anything wrong. And that usually doesn't happen until your iMac is at home or in your office. Both OSX Tiger (previous image) and OSX Leopard (above) have default desktops that make the screen defect hard to detect. Bright retail store lighting may further complicate in-store detection. Join our discussion on this article!

• We Interview EFiX Creators: OS X on PC

  It’s no secret that enthusiasts have been trying (with some success) to get Apple’s operating systems to run on standard PCs. With Apple’s switch to Intel processors, the attempts to get Mac OS X running on non-Apple branded hardware became even more popular — and there was no more need to have an emulator running. In the last year, several attempts at getting OS X to run on standard PC hardware were being tackled by two companies that offered to sell Mac clones. The first was Psystar, which is now in a legal battle with Apple. Psystar actually claims that it has the upper hand in the case, although we doubt that it would walk away from the court room hands free. The other company, which launched in Europe, was Open System. This company however, didn’t last very long, looked shady, and offered to sell itself in whole for a measly $50,000. Obviously the intent was to create hype for a lost cause and then sell off the idea, make a quick buck, and disappear. The unfortunate problem with both these companies — one of them obviously questionable — is that they both attempt to circumvent the Apple EULA. Both companies tried to sell fully built systems that bundled with hacked versions of OS X Leopard, essentially selling Mac clones, and as we all know, there aren’t any licensed makers of Mac clones. Then a small company came along and introduced something called the EFiX. A small USB-based device, the EFiX connects to a motherboard’s internal USB header, and transforms it into a nearly authentic Mac system. By nearly, we mean the EFiX actually tricks a retail copy of Leopard into thinking that it’s been installed on a real Mac. With this setup, users don’t have to patch their operating systems nor do they have to worry about crippling their setup due to a system update from Apple. The simple installation process accompanied with the reassurance that everything runs as it does on real Mac hardware, makes things really attractive for those who want to avoid the costs of buying Apple hardware but want to run Leopard. I had the chance to sit down with Davide Rutigliano, CEO of Art Studios Entertainment, the company behind the EFiX device. I questioned him on the legality of the product as well as many technical aspects on just how the device works. Read on.