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Journalists Cover Microsoft, Using Macs

It’s not an easy time for Microsoft — with Steve Ballmer having to field questions about being “buffoons” and an “evil empire” at the shareholder’s meeting (.doc) — so when they get together “the world’s most influential technology pundits and online writers” (nb: we weren’t invited) for Mobius to discuss super-secret mobile tech you’d think [...]

Guide To Black Friday Apple Bargains: Cheap MacBooks, iPods and Accessories Galore

Here’s a guide for finding the best bargains on Apple-related gear during the infamous Black Friday sales on November 27. We’ve compiled a comprehensive list of gear from leaked photos of sales flyers and descriptions of sales.
The bargains include a 2.26 GHz MacBook + $150 gift card at Best Buy for $999.99 ; a 32GB [...]

Review: Voices Is Today’s Best Thing Ever, Grab It Now While It’s Cheap

New on the App Store is Voices from the clever folk at Tap Tap Tap. You can guess what it does.

Open it up, pick a silly voice. Helium is pretty silly. A microphone appears and the app even clears your throat for you (try it, you’ll see what I mean). Now speak your brains, and [...]

Review: Sony Walkman S540 Series Video MP3 Player

Press releases, you will hardly be surprised to hear, are rarely very interesting. But one arrived in my inbox a couple of weeks ago that made me double-take.
“Sony’s S Series Walkman,” it chattered, “is a serious challenger to the iPod Nano.” Gosh, really? Perhaps the Cult had better have a look at one, then, despite [...]

Hackers Re-Enable Atom Processor For Mac OS X 10.6.2

(Credit: steve-chippy/Flickr)

(Credit: steve-chippy/Flickr)

Hackers have bypassed Apple’s desire to remove support for Intel’s Atom processor from Mac OS X 10.6.2, allowing the increasingly popular netbooks to run Cupertino’s latest operating system. The complicated hack replaces the Mac OS X kernal, according to reports.

The low-powered Atom processor from Intel is often used by low-cost netbooks. Apple currently offers no hardware officially supporting the Atom chip.

The move is the latest in a back-and-forth between hackers and the company. Earlier this month, blogs reported a build of the update to 10.6 “Snow Leopard” removed support for the Atom processor, suggesting those wanting to build netbook “hackintoshes” would be required to use the older operating system. Days later, another version of 10.6.2 sent to developers reportedly re-enabled Atom support. When Apple officially released the update, Atom support was again missing.

The hack re-enabling Mac OS X 10.6.2 to run on Atom-based netbooks requires changes described as not for the weak-of-heart. The hack reportedly involves steps in the Terminal, replacing the kernal (the core of Mac OS X) — all available from a Russian-language blog, according to MacWorld.

This here-today, gone-tomorrow relationship between Apple and Atom recalls that between the Cupertino, Calif. company and Palm, when that company’s Pre (a rival of the iPhone) introduced support for iTunes. Apple would introduce incremental upgrades breaking the Pre bond.

[Via MacWorld and AppleInsider]

About the author

Ed Sutherland

Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

Email the author | Read more posts by Ed Sutherland.

3 comments

    Thanks for the article!

    I have been waiting to put Mac on my netbook. I like the stability and using something not made by Microsoft.

    I wrote a review of the ASUS 1005HA that provides some processor performance numbers so you can determine if Mac OS X 10.6.2 is right for you.
    http://www.epinions.com/review/ASUS_Eee_PC_1005HA_VU1X_BK_10_1_Inch_Black_Netbook_8_5_Hour_Battery_Life/content_485480107652

    Kernel not Kernal

    I’ll try to contain my surprise! LOL!

    Good luck to them!

    I think almost every Hackintosh on a laptop or netbook is a great ad for how superperb OS-X is.

    You’re so desperate to use OS-X, you would break the terms of usage, spend hours faffing about with bizarre hardware combos and finally fight to get it to do stuff the manufacturer has actively tried to block you from doing?

    You must really think OS-X is truly worthy of all that hard work!

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