Been thinking about trying to install OS X on your non-Macintosh PC, but don't feel like hacking a bunch of configuration files to get the system up and running? In another week or two, you may not have to. EFiX plans to release a bootable USB stick that is purported to have software that will let you install OS X on any PC with an Intel CPU, as long as you have a retail installation DVD.
Keep in mind, even though you will need to buy a legal copy of OS X to use this method, installing OS X on a non-Apple machine is still a violation of Apple's terms of use.
It's not entirely clear how the EFiX USB stick works, but it does appear to work -- under some circumstances at least. OSx86 contributor netkas got his hands on an early version and shot the video above showing what happens when he used the stick with an OS X restore disc and his Macbook. You won't be able to get your hands on one until the developers begin selling the USB sticks on June 23rd.
There is a subculture among the Download Squad bloggers (and you thought you couldn't get any further sub-anything) of ultraportable computer users. We love the little things. They're teeny, have the right amount of power to do their designated tasks well and with little fuss, and they're fairly inexpensive.
But sometimes we're not real enamored of the default operating systems. The Eee users among us love the machine, but the verdict is out on Xandros in either simple or advanced mode. We've used eeeXubuntu, and it works well, but it seems as though the project is stuck on the Gutsy release and has no plan to move forward.
In a Guardian interview, Mark Shuttleworth of Ubuntu dropped the intriguing news that there is a Netbook Remix version of Ubuntu in the pipeline. Details are scant, but it seems there is some work being done with Intel to support the custom chips it manufactures for this market (no word on whether this release could leave VIA-powered machines out of the loop). There is a Launchpad account up and running, but there's not too much to see there (yet).
Ubuntu is fairly easy to tailor to ultraportables, but we're expecting that the Netbook Remix project is going to offer a bit more than resized windows and applications altered to make the most of screen real estate.
Personally, we'd most like to see tweaks made to software to extend battery life, special repositories set up for applications optimized for ultraportables, and perhaps some utilities to better support those of us who use both the internal hard drive and a supplement memory card to house the operating system.
Fellow ultraportable users, what would be on your wishlist for Netbook Remix version of Ubuntu?
Sure Google added a flight simulator to Google Earth last year. But what fun is a flight simulator if you have to use your mouse and keyboard to navigate? Well, some. But not as much fun as flying through Google Earth while riding a bicycle, E.T.-style.
Want to build your own bike-powered Google Earth flight sim? Here's what you need:
A bike or other unit that you want to use for navigation/exercise
Way too much free time on your hands
The flight simulator lets you know what it would be like to pedal your bike through the sky. Or you could just take your bike outside and figure out what it's like to pedal through your neighborhood.
Joomla!, the open-source content-management system has reached a major milestone today with the release of Joomla! 1.5. Like similar projects WordPress and Drupal can be used to drive a blog or full website. Joomla!, which formed in 2005 as a fork of Mambo has a strong developer community and focuses on being simple, elegant and flexible.
The API has received significant updates in Joomla! 1.5, for both the interface and the structural framework. The administrative interface is now more streamlined and easier to use. It is now easy to add and manage media items directly into posts. There are also improved pagination controls and search-engine friendly URLs.
Designers now have greater control over how their layouts, and can automatically override a custom solution over the table-heavy output from Joomla! of old. This model is being adopted into third-party extensions. Additionally designers can now create custom modules to have greater control over how their sites look.
For developers, significant changes to the API are aimed to make Joomla! easily workable with future enhancements. The Joomla! 1.5 API is object oriented and pattern based, while also offering compatibility with both PHP 4.3 and PHP 5.
All in all, the enhancements look pretty impressive and we cannot wait to try out the new Joomla!. Stay tuned to DownloadSquad as we compare other content-management systems later this week.
Sure the BBC's iPlayer service is great if you want to catch up on TV shows you've missed, live in the UK, don't mind DRM, and like watching TV on your PC. But what if you want to watch TV on, you know, your TV?
BBC Future Media and Technology Director Ashley Highfield writes on his blog that the BBC is looking into ways to bring iPlayer content to set top boxes. He says he's particularly encouraged by Apple's announcement that you can now download online video directly to the Apple TV instead of relying on a PC. Although nothing is anywhere near concrete yes, we think it's safe to say that means the BBC will be in touch with Apple about adding its software to the box.
If this collaboration actually happens, we're pretty sure it will be available for free to UK viewers. We can only hope that the BBC decides to let users outside of the UK access the same content for a fee. Highfield indicates that the company is already looking into other methods to get iPlayer on the TV including the Xbox 360 and Neuros OSD.
So you're an early adopter and you've run out to buy yourself Asus's $400 Eee PC because it seemed like a great price for a fully functional 2 pound computer that's about the size of a typical hardcover book (and far smaller than Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows).
But the innovative easy to use interface might get old pretty quickly if you want to do more than surf the web and create letters, spreadsheets, and PowerPoint style presentations for your friends telling them how cool you are because you have an Eee PC while they don't.
Asus includes instructions for loading Windows XP onto the Eee PC, but it requires an external DVD drive, some drive compression, and you know, a copy of Windows XP. Curiously, Asus does not include any instructions for unlocking the built-in potential of Xandros Linux, the operating system that ships with the Eee PC. But as we mentioned in this week's Squadcast, it just takes a little bit of work to unlock this machine's potential.
If you've got a bit of Linux experience under your belt, it's pretty simple to add some programs, enable an advanced desktop, and tweak the Eee PC to your heart's content. But it turns out that even if you're a Linux noob, the learning curve isn't that steep. Here are some of the most useful Eee hacks/tweaks we've discovered in our first half week of playing with it. Thanks to the Eee User community for helping inspire our hacking.
Asus is set to launch the tiny Eee PC in the US this week. While the US version will cost about twice the $199 price that Asus teased us with this summer, the Eee PC is a full fledged computer in a 2 pound package for under $400, and that's pretty impressive.
What's also impressive is the custom Linux interface Asus threw together to make the Eee PC as useful as possible. Since the machine has a 900MHz celeron processor, 512MB of RAM, and 4GB of solid state memory, it's capable of running Windows, Linux, or pretty much any other operating system you'd care to install. But out of the box, the Eee PC includes a custom version of Xandros Linux that's meant to take the pain out of Linux for novice users.
In fact, it's probable that many customers will never know that the Eee PC runs Linux at all. EeeUser has put together a thorough review of the operating system. In a nutshell:
The Eee PC starts up and shuts down faster than almost any other computer you've ever used.
Programs are grouped into tabbed categories: Internet, Work, Learn, Play, Settings, Favorites, and Help.
The Internet tab lets you open the Firefox Web browser, connect to your web mail service of choice, use Pidgin for chatting, and Skype for VoIP calls.
The Work tab lets you use Open Office, Kcalc, Adobe Reader, KDE Personal Information manager, and Thunderbird.
The Play tab includes a few games like Solitare, Soduku, and Penguin Race, as well as SMPlayer media player, a music jukebox, Photo Manager, and Video Manager application
There's also an add/remove programs feature, but there aren't a ton of extra applications available at the moment. Since the Eee PC interface is built on top of Xandros, you could probably add some repositories and install a whole slew of applications on the computer. But part of the beauty of this $400 laptop is that it works out of the box. While it certainly presents a lot of tinkering potential, it's designed for ease of use. And installing unsupported applications can lead to all sorts of problems if you're not already a Linux guru.
Update: jkOnTheRun turned us onto a great website showing off the Eee PC user interface. It's really just a series of interactive screenshots, not an emulator. But it should give you a sense of the EeePC layout.
Apple has decided to stop accepting cash payments for iPhones purchased from retail Apple stores. Instead, they're only taking credit and debit card payments, ostensibly in an effort to keep track of everybody who buys them. But why would Apple do such a thing? After all, isn't cash legal tender for all debts public and private?
Apparently not when the item being tendered is an Apple iPhone. It seems Apple is trying to cut down on unlocking and bricking, practices which, when employed together, allow the phone to be used more or less permanently with carriers other than AT&T, the firm with the exclusive (restrictive) distribution deal for the vaunted device. AT&T requires a two-year commitment just to purchase the iPhone, and unlocking/bricking lets customers out of that deal. So Apple has upped the ante on iPhone purchasers by making sure that they know each customer's identity.
Apple estimates that about 250,000 iPhone have been sold to non-AT&T customers. This means people are either unlocking them and then activating them personally on other carriers, or they're simply selling the unlocked units to folks who want to use them on another carrier. Apple is claiming 4.5 million bucks in lost revenue as a result of unlocking. Of course, we don't think the majority of iPhone purchasers were using cash to begin with, so the likelihood of this debit/credit thing having a negative impact on legitimate iPhone sales is pretty slim. Still, one wonders if there's a precedent for retailers not accepting cash for a sale. Don't think we've heard of that one before.
Last time we took a look at the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet, we showed how to do some fun, if easy, stuff with it--like setting up custom RSS news sources, placing VoIP calls, and even playing a little Quake 2. Now, we've assembled a new video demonstrating one of the most quirky hacks you can pull off with Nokia's little handheld computer: assembling a functional GPS tracking system using a Bluetooth GPS receiver and freely-available software.
In this feature, we'll show you how to set up Maemo Mapper, the open-source navigation software, and how to obtain and install the map tile images you'll need to equip your N800 with both street maps and satellite imagery. We'll also see how the N800 compares to Nokia's N95 smart phone, which carries onboard GPS hardware and mapping software.
While Apple has yet to authorize third party development on the Apple TV, hackers have been adding applications to the box pretty much since the day it was released.
The Apple TV is a $300 box designed to let you watch iTunes content on your TV set without plugging your computer directly into your TV. It streams content from your Mac and the internet over your home network.
Hackers have added RSS feeds, support for non-iTunes videos, and the ability to upgrade your hard drive. Now Jaman has released a commercial plugin for renting movies from the Jaman service. You'll need to hack your Apple TV in order to install the plugin, and you'll need to have the Jaman Player installed on both your computer and your Apple TV.
If we've learned anything recently, it's that these hacks might wind up causing more trouble than they're worth. Apparently Jaman is more than aware of this fact, because the company won't even support its own software hack.
It's an unwritten law of technology: Each subsequent generation of electronic equipment will shrink in direct proportion to how long it's been on the market. Back in the day, mobile phones had to be carted around in bags large enough to fit Paris Hilton's Pomeranian. Now they're so small you could accidentally ingest one if you're not careful.
Memory cards are a great example of this, too. CompactFlash and memory sticks have given way to postage stamp-sized SD cards, and its little brother, the mini-SD. All these variations on portable memory had to start somewhere though, right? Taking the laws of shrinking gadgetry into account, how much bigger do you suppose 1 GB of memory was 20 years ago than it is today? Now go find out if your guess was accurate.
Time use to be that you needed to carry a thick book in your back pocket when traveling if you wanted to find the nearest bus station, restroom or brothel hotel.
But these days the quickest way to translate something from Japanese to English and back again is by typing it into an online service. There are dozens of online translators out there, letting you read complete websites or translate snippets of text.
But once your tools move online, they're not limited to a certain type of device. You can translate items with pretty much any web browser or operating system. Heck, it turns out you don't even need a computer. Fuji Xerox is showing off a prototype copy machine that can translate documents as it copies.
Insert a Japanese document and the copier will access an internet service to translate the text into Chinese, English or Korean. The printer access a dedicated server, which we expect is about as good as any other machine-based translator out there. In other words, expect the copier to spit out a few nonsense sentences.
It's a neat idea, but at least when you try to translate a web page online you're not wasting any paper when you wind up with a completely garbled machine translation.
This weekend we discovered that Apple had killed Linux compatibility in its newest iPods. The song database on the new iPod Classic, Touch, and Nano includes a new security measure that prevents users from synchronizing their portable media players with anything other than Apple's iTunes software. Today, it looks like some enterprising Linux developers have figured out how to circumvent those security measures. The website with information on how to perform the new hack is down after receiving a ton of traffic frm Digg, Engadget, and other sites. So we can't give you too many details right now, but given the way these things work, expect the solution to be rather complicated today. We're pretty confident someone will develop a more user-friendly version within a matter of days, or weeks at the most.
Part of what makes the iPod so popular is the way it seamless integrates with iTunes. You can rip your CD collection or download movies and music onto your PC and quickly synchronize them with your iPod for when you're on the go. But while the iPod is certainly the most popular portable media player on the market, not everyone is a huge fan of iTunes. And some folks, like say, Linux users, couldn't use the software if they wanted to.
In the past, those clever Linux developers figured out a way around this and managed to get open source software like Amarok and gtkpod to synchronize with iPods.
But it turns out that Apple has locked down the song database file on its latest generation of iPods including the iPod Nano, Classic, and touch. The change means that there's no way to transfer music between a new iPod and a Linux PC.
Given enough time, we suspect Linux developers will find a way around this limitation. But what made Apple lock down the new devices in the first place? Conspiracy theorists (who may very well be right) will surely suggest that Apple wants to lock people into using just their hardware and software. But seriously, what Linux user is going to switch to OS X or Windows just to use an iPod? Essentially Apple is just convincing open source advocates to stop buying iPods. We're betting Steve Jobs isn't that dumb, so we wonder if there might be some other advantage to adding security measures to the song database.
From giant machines with virtually no RAM or Hard Drive space, to little Mac Mini's and touch screens, computers and operating systems have changed so much since they were first brought to market. We often get so caught up in the next release that it's sometimes hard to take a step back and remember the journey they have taken in order to get where they are today.
How would you like to take a trip to a magical barn filled with computers from the past? Deep in the Redwood forests of Northern California and Silicon Valley, a barn sits, right beside a few pigs, which houses an enormous collection tracking the technological evolution. The DigiBarn museum shows everything from a giant storage disk that was used on the Xerox Alto, an Altair 8800 (signed by the Woz), 1914 adding machine, Apple II's, a computer that resembles a time traveling station, and even a working version of Microsoft Windows version 1.0.
Magical journey and step back in time indeed, most of these machines are operational! But please, somebody throw these guys some money, this stuff should really be housed in a proper museum. You can check out the gallery online, or stop in and visit if you are in the area. And please, if you do, send us some pics.
DLS asks, what was your favorite computer from yesteryear?
So you're an early adopter and you've run out to buy yourself Asus's $400 
