WEBVTT - What are Mac clones? 0:00:00.320 --> 0:00:02.880 Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. 0:00:03.240 --> 0:00:08.760 It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:13.240 tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. This podcast 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:15.760 is brought to you by Verizon Hub, the home phone 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:23.440 reinvented exclusively from Verizon Wireless. Hello everyone, and welcome again 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:25.759 to tex Stuff. My name is Chris Polette. I'm an 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:28.400 editor at how stuff Works dot com and sitting next 0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:31.680 to me as always a senior writer, Jonathan Strickland Dog 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:39.080 the Gates. No, pretty good. Yeah, I've already extinguished. I 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:42.279 could have said, uh, ish fistin is holds a bit, 0:00:43.000 --> 0:00:44.720 which is pretty much the only other German I know. 0:00:45.000 --> 0:00:47.760 Okay then, which unfortunately will just have people speak to 0:00:47.760 --> 0:00:51.159 me in German more. Yeah, yeah, you never want to 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:54.440 do that, speaking of foreign languages and things that aren't 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:57.760 what they seem. Yes, I think. Weren't we gonna talk 0:00:57.800 --> 0:01:01.000 about some cloons. We are going to talk about some clones, 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:03.720 but we're not going to talk about cloning people or 0:01:03.720 --> 0:01:06.320 anything like that. No, and nor are we going to 0:01:06.360 --> 0:01:12.480 talk about the Star Wars prequels. Please less said the better. No, No, 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:15.479 we're talking about Macintosh clones. I'm sorry, I'm still stuck 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:17.399 on the prequels. All right, do we need to give 0:01:17.400 --> 0:01:19.720 you a second? I'm good. All right, So we're gonna 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:22.560 talk about Mac clones. And the reason why this is 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:25.480 such a big deal in the first place is if you, 0:01:25.640 --> 0:01:28.640 if you're a PC user, you might be wondering, Okay, 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:31.240 so what's the deal with the Mac? I mean, what 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:34.560 what's so important about it? What's so cool? Um? You know, 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:37.600 because PCs they come in a variety of different flavors 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:40.160 from a variety of different manufacturers. Right, yeah, I mean 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:43.440 you could you could walk into your local uh gigantoid 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:46.840 computer electronics stores, assuming that it's still in business, and 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:52.560 pick from two dozen manufacturers Dell, Gateway. I mean, you've 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:54.960 got all these different asir, You've got all these different 0:01:55.400 --> 0:01:58.480 companies that make these different PCs. Um, they're all running 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:03.280 you know of either usually either Windows or LINEX I 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:07.320 mean mostly Windows. Uh so, but but they're coming from 0:02:07.360 --> 0:02:10.919 all these different manufacturers, and um, you know, an HP 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:14.760 may be less powerful than Dell that's in the same 0:02:14.800 --> 0:02:18.520 price range or whatever. Uh but when you when you're 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:22.760 started looking around at Max, there's only one source for 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:30.960 Max that's Apple sort of Yeah, but uh one official 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:34.600 official Jobs would have it, Steve Jobs would have it 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:37.560 where there's only one source for MAX, and that would 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:41.959 be Apple. So you wouldn't find a Dell computer running 0:02:42.000 --> 0:02:46.959 the Mac operating system. No, well not today, not usually. 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:50.280 Good Lord Pete. You know there is such a thing 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:52.760 called a hack intosh. Yes, there is such a thing. 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:56.240 Isn't gonna this is off topic, but I'll just point 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:58.200 out that, Um, for you, those of you who are 0:02:58.320 --> 0:03:02.280 less Mac interested, I won't say MAX SAVY, that's that's different. Um. 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:03.920 If you're not really interested in the MAX and you're going, 0:03:03.919 --> 0:03:05.280 what are you what are you talking about? A Dell 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:08.760 can run the macOS. It could theoretically, but you kind 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:10.400 of have to take her with it a little bit 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:13.720 because now that MAX run on the Intel processor. If 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:16.679 you have a Dell with an Intel process and you 0:03:16.720 --> 0:03:21.040 want to violate lots of warranties, and you could, Yeah, 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:24.560 you could fiddle with it. And the thing is, the 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:27.200 mac OS is generally designed to work with the parts 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:29.120 that Apple puts in the maccatas. That's one with the 0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:31.720 reasons why it works so well. It's because it says, okay, well, 0:03:31.760 --> 0:03:33.600 you're looking for a or B it's like, oh, well 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:35.160 I found b Well, there you go. You don't have 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:37.720 to worry about whether or not you have a video 0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:40.360 graphics card or an A T I or you know 0:03:40.400 --> 0:03:43.400 whomever else because you know, that's that's sort of what 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:45.400 the Windows clones are all about. So in order to 0:03:45.520 --> 0:03:47.760 in order to run it on a PC, you have 0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:50.600 to create essentially what's called an emulator. Yeah, we've talked 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:53.600 about emulators before when we were talking about multiple arcade 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:57.839 machine emulators. Um, So, an emulator is just really it's 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:00.680 it's usually software, but it can be software and hardware 0:04:00.760 --> 0:04:05.960 working together that mimics the way another piece of hardware 0:04:06.080 --> 0:04:10.000 and or software works. Um, it's not a copy. It's 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:13.720 just trying to copy what that other piece of equipment does. 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:17.200 And people who do this generally have a varying level 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:19.440 of success with it, depending on the kind of hardware 0:04:19.480 --> 0:04:22.000 and the age of the hardware that they're familiar they 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:25.120 are with it, right, So, um, you know that's that's 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:27.600 different when we we're talking clones, and that would be 0:04:27.640 --> 0:04:30.200 like you go into the store and buy an HP 0:04:30.480 --> 0:04:33.000 right out of the box, it works with Windows, and 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:35.200 it's going to work with Windows because that's you know, 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:38.320 it's authorized. It's a clone of the IBM PC from 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:42.120 back in the day. So but mac clones, well that's 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:45.000 a little different, you know, but it wasn't. Let's let's 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:49.640 take a little walk down memory lane. Well all right, 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:51.560 we both were going to do that at the same time. 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:54.239 It's just pathetic that we both thought of that. So anyway, 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:56.360 we're gonna go all the way back to the Apple 0:04:56.400 --> 0:04:58.919 two days. Yeah, that was when cloning was cool for Apple. 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:04.839 They were happy with it. Yeah, well sometimes the laws 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:09.120 was not so happy when they weren't. There were official 0:05:09.320 --> 0:05:12.800 licensed cloner there were, there were, but but the very 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:16.279 the first one I'm thinking of is the Franklin Ace. 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:20.359 Did go back. Yeah, I'm talking about way back to 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:25.400 the Apple too. Yeah. Well, you know when dinosaurs ruled 0:05:25.400 --> 0:05:28.919 the computer world. So Franklin Ace. The Franklin Ace was 0:05:29.560 --> 0:05:32.000 a computer that came out of the Franklin Computer Corporation. 0:05:32.200 --> 0:05:36.960 And uh that was a clone of the Apple too. 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:42.320 And um, it was not licensed. It was not It 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:45.600 was not authorized in any way, shape or formed by Apple. 0:05:46.360 --> 0:05:50.919 And it actually became the the first success It became 0:05:50.960 --> 0:05:54.240 the the subject of the first successful attempt in a 0:05:54.360 --> 0:05:58.240 US court of law to prove that computer software could 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:02.000 be protected by copyright. Thank you Joshua Coventry, who are 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:05.840 a great article about this. UM. But yeah, so so 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:08.279 way back and this is back in Uh it was 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:13.560 nineteen eighty three that um, that ruling came down where 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:15.919 they said, okay, you know what an operating system can 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:19.840 be under copyright, can be protected under copyright, which was 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:22.919 a big, big deal. I mean, you know, it sounds 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:26.000 you know, of course, it sounds like it's it's common 0:06:26.040 --> 0:06:28.400 sense now, but this was back in the very early 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:31.279 days of personal computing. Yeah, they had to decide whether 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:35.640 it was basically an original work. And you know, because 0:06:35.880 --> 0:06:40.000 even recordings were not covered by copyright forever and ever. 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:44.080 You know, once the recording industry came online, if you will. Uh, 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:46.520 the courts had to wrestle with that and try to 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:49.880 figure out how to incorporate copyright law in for music. 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:52.600 So every time there's some new technology like this, and 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:55.520 you know, these authors are writing software, they're not writing 0:06:55.560 --> 0:06:57.720 a book, so they have to say, well, you know, 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:01.640 does this protection extend And they ultimately decided it did. 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:05.080 And uh so nineteen three, the the court makes the 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:09.200 ruling and it's not until nine that Apple is able 0:07:09.360 --> 0:07:13.240 to uh to force Franklin to withdraw its clones from 0:07:13.280 --> 0:07:18.560 the market. But yeah, that's the earliest UM example. But 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:21.360 if you if you move forward a few years, you 0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:27.000 start to see licensed Apple software and ending up on 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:30.280 non Apple computers. So you want to talk about this 0:07:30.320 --> 0:07:33.360 a little bit, Well, UM, I just know that when 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:36.000 I was in junior high and high school, the Apple 0:07:36.040 --> 0:07:39.200 two was the dominant computer and education. So when my 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:43.360 friends had computers at home, they had one of two machines, UM, 0:07:43.360 --> 0:07:47.440 the Apple two, which was more popular and in educational circles, 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:51.280 or the Commodore sixty four, which was more popular with 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:53.760 I don't know people who write today's video games, because 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:56.160 they were the kind of computers that people were writing 0:07:56.560 --> 0:07:59.000 programs for. And an Apple two was considered, at least 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:02.640 by my friends, something of a word processing machine or 0:08:02.680 --> 0:08:05.880 something that you played Oregon Trail on. UM. So you know, 0:08:05.920 --> 0:08:08.480 I first started seeing those machines back in the day, 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:11.000 and I think the ones that I remember seeing we're 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:15.160 very similar to the Apple to see UM, you know, 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:17.680 and uh, I don't. I don't remember much about that 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:19.760 time because I was just getting my first Commonore Amiga 0:08:19.800 --> 0:08:21.320 at that point, and you know, at that point, I'm 0:08:21.360 --> 0:08:23.360 kind of blown off the Apple. We can't go off 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:24.920 of that. I'm not going off at the dangent. I'm 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:28.080 just saying, all right, so let's pull it back. Let's 0:08:28.080 --> 0:08:29.920 skip ahead a few years. We're gonna go all the 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:31.800 way to the Mac years. Actually we don't have to 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:35.440 go that far, to tell you the truth, because I 0:08:35.440 --> 0:08:39.160 remember the the the healcyon clone days of the nineties. 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:42.160 But as I started doing research, I u site that 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:45.160 I visit every so often called low End Mac dot 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:49.600 com Um. They generally worked with older Macintosh computers, hence 0:08:49.679 --> 0:08:51.640 the low end name. You know, you're, oh, well, this 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:52.959 thing is five years old. What am I gonna do 0:08:52.960 --> 0:08:54.520 with it now? Well, they have a lot of options 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:55.920 for that. And they also had a bit of a 0:08:56.040 --> 0:08:58.800 history of the Mac cloning world. And one of the 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:01.200 this is a good segue from our previous topic, because 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:04.720 one of the very first cloners was a Brazilian company 0:09:04.760 --> 0:09:08.760 called Unitron, and they were licensed to make Apple two 0:09:08.880 --> 0:09:13.600 clones in Brazil. That's because at the time Brazilian law 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:17.240 didn't allow the importation of computers, so they wanted to 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:19.679 make maclanes. When the matt came on the market in 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:24.600 four and around UM, they basically talked to Apple, found 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:29.600 out that Apple was going to one stake in the operation. UM, 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:33.679 and uh, basically Untron said yeah, I don't think so. 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:39.320 So they essentially reverse engineered the thing hardware and software. UM. 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:41.680 They got ten million dollar alone from the from the 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:46.920 Brazilian government and unfortunately applectt winded their scheme. They actually 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:48.880 got hold of a prototype that had a mac rom 0:09:48.880 --> 0:09:51.160 in it rom chip in it and as soon as 0:09:51.200 --> 0:09:52.800 they did that, they were able to prove, look, these 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:56.160 guys are hacking off our stuff. We've got to uh, 0:09:56.200 --> 0:09:58.480 we've got to stop this. This is our intellectual property. 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:01.880 And basically A pressured the Brazilian government to make him stop. 0:10:02.320 --> 0:10:05.400 You know, they already had a few hundred built. UM. 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:09.439 So they essentially sold their steak, all their their plans 0:10:09.480 --> 0:10:12.480 to another company in Taiwan, backed out and there they 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:16.640 still exist actually apparently today, but they're um, they're no 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:20.920 longer in the Apple business by any means that so 0:10:20.960 --> 0:10:23.000 that was it really goes back that far. That's true. 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:25.319 But if you if you think about it, jobs one 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:27.559 of the things he was really famous for is that 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:30.640 he wants. He wants lots of control. Oh yeah, he 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:37.560 demands the best possible product. Um. He also is famous 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:40.800 for supposedly knowing what the consumer wants, even at the 0:10:40.840 --> 0:10:43.920 consumer doesn't know, and that he skates to where the 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:47.520 puck is going to be right exactly, he he Whatever 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:49.839 it is that he offers you is what you want, 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:53.440 whether you know it or not. But Apple decided it 0:10:53.480 --> 0:10:57.560 didn't want jobs around, and new jobs was kind of 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:00.680 pushed aside for a while, and eventually he left the 0:11:00.679 --> 0:11:04.200 company to go found another company. We don't need to 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:06.000 get into that because we did a whole podcast about 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:09.960 Steve Jobs. But in the meantime, Apple that made a decision. 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:13.880 First of all, they formed an alliance with IBM and Motorola. 0:11:13.960 --> 0:11:16.480 So then you've got Apple, IBM, and Motorola. They called 0:11:16.480 --> 0:11:20.880 the alliance aim A I M. Yeah, it's got a 0:11:20.880 --> 0:11:25.040 message on that and not wrong. That's all instant messenger. 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:28.040 So anyway, they decided to create this new computing standard 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:31.800 based on the power PC architecture. UM skip ahead a 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:34.080 few more years. Okay, so they're working on this. This 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:36.200 thing doesn't really I mean, it doesn't take off the 0:11:36.200 --> 0:11:40.280 way they wanted to. In n the summer of that year, 0:11:40.360 --> 0:11:45.080 Apple starts to license the Mac operating system to other manufacturers, 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:51.160 hardware manufacturers. Yes, and then um, things kind of fall 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:53.920 apart for Apple a little bit. Actually, it got it 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:57.319 got a little crazy because when I started comparing timelines, 0:11:57.960 --> 0:12:01.280 not only were the author Ris Matt Clooners at work, 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:05.320 other people were taking apart Apple machines and building new 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:10.640 max like the Mick Mobile, which was a plexiglass portable 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:14.679 Mac and UH an outbound laptop Bound was named the company. 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:17.720 And these were all you know in the early two 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:21.480 mid eighties, but they started to overlap into the late eighties. 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:23.360 And that's right about the time that had started getting 0:12:24.440 --> 0:12:26.680 crunch time for Apple because they were starting to lose 0:12:26.720 --> 0:12:29.560 some money. Yeah, the Apple was really in bad shape. 0:12:29.600 --> 0:12:33.480 And they ended up purchasing the company that Jobs had founded. 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:36.240 That and we should go ahead and say that that company, 0:12:36.320 --> 0:12:39.440 the next computing company that just that was that was 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:42.880 not doing so well either. But they bought the company. 0:12:42.960 --> 0:12:44.960 Jobs was brought on sort of as a consultant. He 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:50.000 ended up essentially taking taking over again, becoming the interim 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:53.920 CEO and eventually the CEO of Apple and UH and 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:58.839 so in September. Um they you know, the power PC 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:02.200 processors process us, I get CENTRADID by Motorola and then 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:06.720 Apple says, you know what, we're done with this licensing thing, 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:10.360 and they buy back the licenses. Yeah. See there they 0:13:10.360 --> 0:13:14.880 were a handful of very popular clones, uh with from 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:17.719 names like day Star. Motorola had the Star Max. Of 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:19.559 course they were making the power PC chips, so it 0:13:19.679 --> 0:13:21.720 was certainly easy for them to get ahold of them. 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:27.120 Power Computing which had a very seriou very favorable opinion 0:13:27.160 --> 0:13:29.880 because they had all these you know, fight back ads 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:32.000 that were just very popular in the at the time, 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:34.960 and U Max who made the super Mac and the 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:37.400 EU Max and and power Computing were sort of the 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:40.840 last hold overs. They really pushed back against Apple saying 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:42.760 you know, hey, look we're building a business here, We're 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:45.680 adding to your market here. What are you crazy? But 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:48.400 Jobs was saying, you know what, this is not the 0:13:48.400 --> 0:13:51.720 way I envisioned computing, um and I if I can't 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:53.800 do it my way, it's not gonna get done at all. 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:56.440 And so he was very much adamant on getting back 0:13:56.480 --> 0:14:00.720 all those licenses and and really dictating why it means 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:03.360 to you know what a Mac product really means in 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:05.520 the marketplace. He he wanted to make sure that that 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:09.520 was his vision and not someone else's. And by his vision, 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:11.280 we should go ahead and say, of course that he's 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:14.920 not necessarily the one who designed all the really pretty 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:18.719 Mac features, but he certainly um is the one who 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:22.640 champions them well, and and he is um. He is 0:14:22.760 --> 0:14:26.160 the was the founder of next and next step was 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:28.960 the operating system ran on those boxes, and that basically 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:31.320 provides the underpinnings, or at least it did when he 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:34.160 first came out with OS ten or OS X as 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:37.320 it appears on boxes UM or all sex as I 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:41.120 call it, right, UM, So you know it's it's not 0:14:41.160 --> 0:14:43.720 like they they had him come back just so they 0:14:43.720 --> 0:14:45.400 could have him back. I mean, they actually got some 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:48.480 very valuable technology out of it and essentially changed the 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:52.440 way McIntosh computers operate completely, you know, once they incorporated 0:14:52.440 --> 0:14:55.760 those changes. So let's skip ahead now pretty much to 0:14:55.840 --> 0:14:58.680 present day, really to last year, UM, and they're gaining 0:14:58.680 --> 0:15:01.000 market share back and they have beautiful products that people 0:15:01.040 --> 0:15:05.560 like to spend money for. Yeah, so now you get 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:08.400 to a point where Jobs has has pretty much proven 0:15:08.480 --> 0:15:10.880 his worth to the company once again. I mean, he 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:14.520 brought it from the brink of bankruptcy back to I 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:18.280 guess it's most profitable ever really, UM and people are 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:21.160 more people were buying MAX. I think at one point 0:15:21.000 --> 0:15:24.080 it reached it about a ten percent share in the market, 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:27.040 which is pretty phenomenal really when you consider they were 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:30.120 down below five at the time at the low point. 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:32.880 So that's that's a lot of computers. That's millions and 0:15:32.920 --> 0:15:34.840 millions of computers. So now we're at a point where 0:15:34.880 --> 0:15:37.880 all the max are again coming only from Apple, all 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:40.520 the authorized max are coming only from Apple. And now 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:43.480 we have this other company that popped out of seemingly 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:48.360 nowhere called side Star p s y s T A 0:15:48.720 --> 0:15:52.560 r UM. This is a Florida based company that claimed 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:55.360 that what they were going to do was sell a 0:15:55.480 --> 0:16:00.400 low end, a low price computer UM that is going 0:16:00.480 --> 0:16:04.840 to run the Mac OS ten operating system. It was 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:06.680 not going to be a Mac You were not going 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:10.440 to buy a Mac computer that was just marked down. 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:11.720 It was going to be made out of off the 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:16.080 shelf computer parts but running the Mac OS and UM. Again, 0:16:16.200 --> 0:16:17.600 this is one of those things where you have to 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:21.320 make sure that your equipment is going to run this 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:26.120 OS properly because it's designed for a very specific hardware 0:16:26.160 --> 0:16:29.240 set up, and um, you know, without the Apple ROMs, 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:33.160 you're gonna have sort of a limited experience where you're 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:37.000 definitely gonna you're definitely gonna have to do some workarounds 0:16:37.160 --> 0:16:39.680 to to be able to get the operating system to 0:16:39.680 --> 0:16:44.800 to perform correctly. Um. And one of the big drawbacks 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:47.280 to the side Star approach is that they have said 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:52.200 that they are not able to guarantee products support that 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:54.720 everything's gonna work exactly the way it's supposed to. What 0:16:54.760 --> 0:16:58.640 they're guaranteeing is that you can buy a much cheaper 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:01.800 computer running the Mac operating system then you would if 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:05.440 you were to go to Apple directly. And I mean 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:08.000 that might be true. And for for a while people 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:10.720 were wondering if this was even a real company at all. 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:15.480 Um I read, uh, I read a report from Charles 0:17:15.560 --> 0:17:19.560 Arthur from The Guardian, and he did some investigative reporting 0:17:20.080 --> 0:17:23.560 and it was it was very uh interesting. He first 0:17:24.359 --> 0:17:26.520 was looking to see where this company was located and 0:17:26.560 --> 0:17:29.879 discovered that the address had changed while he was looking 0:17:30.000 --> 0:17:33.600 for it. The original address was apparently in the middle 0:17:33.640 --> 0:17:36.880 of this suburban area in Florida, and the second address 0:17:36.880 --> 0:17:41.400 was in a more industrial area. So there's that question. Um, 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:45.399 there's a question of are there other entities behind size 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:49.679 Star that are really interested in just taking Apple down, 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:54.679 taking the whole Mac computer down a few notches, um, 0:17:54.760 --> 0:17:57.760 and opening it up to make it to make it 0:17:58.320 --> 0:18:01.919 a more open environment, because as Mac Apple is very 0:18:01.960 --> 0:18:05.440 famous for being a very closed environment. Um, it's part 0:18:05.440 --> 0:18:09.320 of what makes them Apple side Star argues that Apple 0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:12.359 has created a monopoly because it's the only you know, 0:18:12.400 --> 0:18:15.159 they're the only ones who offer any equipment that can 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:18.399 run the Mac os, and therefore it's, uh, it's you know, 0:18:18.440 --> 0:18:23.600 a monopoly on that operating system. UM. Apple for its part, 0:18:23.720 --> 0:18:27.359 argues that it holds the copyright and therefore anyone trying 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:30.840 to to put this software on an unauthorized computer is 0:18:30.920 --> 0:18:34.240 violating their copyright as well as their end user license agreement. 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:39.960 But here's the thing. End user license agreements aren't law. Well, 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:43.080 it depends on whom you ask. Well, I guess we're 0:18:43.119 --> 0:18:47.719 gonna find out because they're not law. Right now. It's 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:50.280 funny because when I made that point about copyright earlier 0:18:50.320 --> 0:18:52.840 and how they have to make these decisions based on 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:56.919 emerging material like this, This really is going to force 0:18:57.800 --> 0:19:01.200 the hand of judges. And I'm suing plural because it's 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:03.400 going to keep going. You know, as soon as one 0:19:03.400 --> 0:19:06.000 side loses, they're gonna appeal. So this probably is going 0:19:06.040 --> 0:19:08.840 to go high up in the courts, and it's not 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:12.200 a schedule to go to court until November two thousand nine. 0:19:12.359 --> 0:19:15.480 For their part, I I know that size Star claims, hey, 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:18.959 we bought the OS off the shelf, therefore we are 0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:21.840 allowed to use it. Apple doesn't seem to find that 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:25.440 hold much water. No, there end user license agreement specifically 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:28.719 states that you can only use the Mac operating system 0:19:28.840 --> 0:19:31.760 on and on Apple hardware. Well, there you go. So, 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:35.360 but the question is does is the end user license agreement? 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:38.679 Is that actually binding? UM? I thought it would be 0:19:38.720 --> 0:19:42.680 interesting to kind of run down a comparison of the 0:19:42.680 --> 0:19:46.800 the product that size Star offers versus a basic iMac 0:19:46.920 --> 0:19:50.240 oh by all means, So here we go. For five 0:19:50.680 --> 0:19:53.280 and ninety nine and nine cents you can buy from 0:19:53.320 --> 0:19:57.040 side Star. The Open three, which runs the Mac OS 0:19:57.119 --> 0:19:59.880 ten Leopard version ten point five, has a two point 0:19:59.880 --> 0:20:04.640 eight giga hurts do duo or dual core processor. Um 0:20:04.680 --> 0:20:07.040 it's got two gigabytes of d d R to eight 0:20:07.080 --> 0:20:10.760 hundred memory. It's got a five hundred gigabyte hard drive. UM, 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:13.600 it's got a DVD burner, it's got the g E 0:20:13.680 --> 0:20:17.800 Force eight four hundred graphics card. But you don't get 0:20:17.840 --> 0:20:20.200 a keyboard, you don't get a mouse, you don't get 0:20:20.200 --> 0:20:24.080 a monitor. There's no Bluetooth support, there's no FireWire support, 0:20:24.160 --> 0:20:28.000 and there's no wireless support. So those are things you 0:20:28.080 --> 0:20:31.119 do not get with that. Now with an iMac. The 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:34.160 iMac comes with a two point six six giga Hurts processor. 0:20:34.240 --> 0:20:37.439 It's not as powerful. It comes with two gigabytes of 0:20:37.520 --> 0:20:40.919 d d R three rams, so pretty pretty comparable to 0:20:40.960 --> 0:20:44.399 the Open three three gigabyte hard drives and not as 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:47.880 much space. UM it's got a DVD burner, but it's 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:51.480 not as fast as the other DVD burner, the one 0:20:51.480 --> 0:20:53.879 in the Open three. UM, it's gonna it's gonna the 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:57.960 video g E Force graphics processor, which technically is better 0:20:58.040 --> 0:21:00.720 than the other one. But it also comes with a mouse, keyboard, 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:03.439 It has the twenty monitor because that's built into the 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:06.680 I mean, that's the iMac UM. And it has wireless 0:21:06.720 --> 0:21:11.280 and a webcam and come with some software and right. 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:16.000 That one costs twelve hundred dollars, so it's twice as much. 0:21:16.680 --> 0:21:19.920 So the question is if you throw in the monitor, 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:26.159 the keyboard, the mouse, a webcam, a wireless uh you 0:21:26.200 --> 0:21:29.840 know card, things like that, how much more would the 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:32.920 Open three be. It'd be a little bit more, and 0:21:33.040 --> 0:21:35.760 it still wouldn't be as expensive as the as the 0:21:35.760 --> 0:21:39.800 the iMac. My question is is it worth trying to 0:21:39.880 --> 0:21:42.320 save a couple hundred bucks when you know you're not 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:44.520 going to have the support that you would get from Apple. 0:21:45.000 --> 0:21:47.080 There's no guarantee that you will be able to keep 0:21:47.119 --> 0:21:49.320 that machine because there may be a recall in the future. 0:21:49.359 --> 0:21:51.719 I mean, does it make sense to buy one? In 0:21:51.760 --> 0:21:54.840 my opinion, the answer to that is no, thank you 0:21:54.880 --> 0:21:58.280 for listening. No, No, I totally agree with you because, 0:21:58.640 --> 0:22:01.960 I mean, okay, so you don't want to spend an iMac, 0:22:02.440 --> 0:22:05.480 but you do want an excellent, you know machine that's 0:22:05.520 --> 0:22:08.560 going to be reliable. Well, then by a PC clone 0:22:09.080 --> 0:22:11.600 that comes from a reliable source as an authorized copy 0:22:11.600 --> 0:22:13.440 of Windows on there. That way you can be assured 0:22:13.560 --> 0:22:15.600 that you're going to be okay. I mean, people who 0:22:15.640 --> 0:22:19.360 switched to lennox Um there's some support, but it's not 0:22:20.040 --> 0:22:22.919 you're not paying for support. Um, of course there's a 0:22:23.000 --> 0:22:25.400