clone

Supreme Court denies Psystar's appeal in Mac clone case

The U.S. Supreme Court today denied Psystar's request to review a lower court decision that keeps it from selling computers that run Apple's OS X but that are not made by Apple.

The decision not to hear the case (PDF) upholds a ruling made by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit last September that Psystar's Mac clones violate Apple's copyrights.

Apple took Psystar to court in 2008 on claims of copyright-infringement after the company made a business out of purchasing copies of OS X and selling them on hardware it put … Read more

Q&A: MacFixIt Answers

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week people wrote in with questions about the best way to move data from an old user account to a new one, the purpose for the key given to you when you enable FileVault, and how to add new menu extras to the menu bar. Others asked how to manage exceptionally large virtual memory used by programs, and how best to move an OS installation to a new partition. We welcome alternative approaches and views from readers, so if you have any suggestions, post … Read more

Migrating to SSD: Get yourself a new computer without getting one

You've had your computer for a few years. Recently things have started to get slow, and you're thinking of getting a new one. I have nothing against a new computer, but what if you could greatly improve your current machine's performance without much hassle?

You actually can with a standard SATA solid-state drive (SSD).

(An SSD looks very much like a traditional 2.5-inch laptop hard drive, but it's much faster. You can find out more about the difference between these two types of storage devices here.)

In this post, I'll walk you through how … Read more

Boot Camp cloning utility Winclone returns to OS X

Apple's move to Intel processors for its Mac systems in 2006 opened up many opportunities for Mac users, one of which was the ability to install and boot Windows directly on the Mac hardware without any emulation. To facilitate this for those who needed it, Apple introduced Boot Camp to easily partition the hard drive and supply drivers to the Windows OS for various features like iSight cameras and multitouch trackpads.

Boot Camp is a great option to have on the Mac, but unfortunately its support from Apple is rather limited, especially if you need to migrate from your … Read more

Stamp out photo blemishes with Free Clone Stamp Tool

In graphics apps, the Clone Stamp Tool "clones" (copies) a small area of an image and "stamps" (pastes) it over another area, such as a blemish you want to hide. It's also called the Rubber Stamp Tool, but it's the Clone Stamp Tool in Photoshop. Photoshop is the Godzilla of graphics, so tools like LifeSniffer's Free Clone Stamp Tool follow the leader. And that should give you a good idea of what Free Clone Stamp Tool does: It provides a basic, serviceable clone stamp tool for touching up digital photos, especially photos of … Read more

Get BDlot DVD Clone Ultimate for free

Think DVDs are on the way out? Maybe so, but DVD collections will likely live on for quite some time. All the more reason to make backup copies of your movies, as a scratched disc is a ruined disc.

Until tomorrow, you can get BDlot DVD Clone Ultimate free of charge. Use license code BU-TUUXTGUJ-FBIFHU to register the program, which normally sells for $29.95.

Update: Some users are reporting that the activation code doesn't work. I'm not sure why, as it worked fine for me. Make sure you don't have any spaces before or after the … Read more

Q&A: MacFixIt Answers

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week people wrote in with questions about missing Recovery HD partitions after cloning a Lion installation, upgrading the processor on Mac systems, and the requirements for running permissions repair routines when updating the system. We continually answer e-mail questions, and though we present answers here, we welcome alternative approaches and views from readers and encourage you to post your suggestions in the comments.

NOTE: The "contact us" box on the MacFixIt page is now available for you to use when e-mailing questions. … Read more

The 404 956: Where the files are IN the computer? (podcast)

Leaked from 404 Podcast 956:

The future of airport security: thermal lie detectors and cloned sniffer dogs. Facebook's most-shared articles of 2011 list shows babies, banks, and brats. Fios is coming to an Xbox 360 near you. Could your printer be a Trojan horse? Researchers say yes!… Read more

Jobs reportedly wanted Compaq to license Mac OS

Steve Jobs was still interested in licensing Mac OS even after terminating the Mac clone contracts, according to recollections shared yesterday by a veteran Silicon Valley executive.

Ben Rosen, former chairman and chief executive officer of Compaq, said in a blog post that Jobs approached him in 1999 about licensing the Mac operating system. He recounts how he agreed to meet Jobs at a Menlo Park, Calif., restaurant after Jobs called him and suggested they meet to discuss an "important matter:"

After we finished with the amenities and reminiscences, we got to the purpose of the meeting. Steve … Read more

Q&A: MacFixIt Answers

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed by our readers.

This week people wrote in with questions on proper battery usage habits, PowerPC applications showing up when checking for compatibility with Lion, cloning hard-drive upgrades, and transferring files from Windows to Lion systems. We continually answer e-mail questions, and though we present answers here, we welcome alternative approaches and views from readers and encourage you to post your suggestions in the comments.

Question: Proper battery usage habits MacFixIt reader Alice asks:

Answer: It is good to regularly use your battery and not always keep it in … Read more