Apple Demands Recall Of Psystar Mac Clones -- Apple -- InformationWeek

pple is asking a court to order Miami-based Psystar to stop making unauthorized Mac clones and to recall all of the systems it has sold to customers since it began offering them for public sale in April.

In a lawsuit filed against Psystar in federal court, Apple is seeking an order "requiring Psystar to recall all such products sold to the public as a result of Psystar's infringement of Apple's copyrights."

It's not immediately clear whether Psystar could legally compel its customers to return their systems. But the clones may not be of much use for long if Psystar is forced out of business and is unable to support them.

Psystar's Web site was offline as of Wednesday morning.

It's also not clear if customers would get their money back -- Apple is also seeking unspecified, but potentially significant, monetary damages from Psystar.

The suit was filed July 3 in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco before Magistrate Judge James Larson, according to court records. The parties are scheduled to meet for a case management conference on October 22.

Psystar has yet to file a formal response to Apple's allegations.

Psystar, apparently in open violation of Apple licensing rules that forbid installation of its operating systems -- including the Leopard OS -- on third-party hardware, has been selling Mac clones through its Web site since April.

In June, Psystar launched a line of Apple server clones.

Apple is charging Psystar with violating its copyrights and weakening its brand image. "By misappropriating Apple's proprietary software and intellectual property for its own use, Psystar's actions harm consumers by selling them a poor product that is advertised and promoted in a manner that falsely and unfairly implies an affiliation with Apple," the company said in its complaint.

Apple also charged Psystar with illegally copying, modifying, and redistributing some of its products. The 18-page complaint outlines a total of 10 charges against Psystar. Psystar officials did not return a call seeking comment.

Psystar in the past has claimed that its Mac clones cost about one-quarter to half of what Apple-branded systems sell for. In defense of its clones, the company has charged that Apple marks up the cost of the hardware on which its operating systems ride by as much as 80%.

One version of Psystar's Open Computer Mac clone features Apple's Leopard OS X 10.5 operating system ported onto generic PC hardware that includes an Intel (NSDQ: INTC) Core2Duo processor at 2.66 GHz, a 250-GB hard drive, and an Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT graphics card.

The system is priced at $805. A similar, Apple-branded computer would cost at least $1,500.

The problem: Apple's end user license agreement expressly forbids installation or sales of its operating systems on third-party hardware.

Psystar was launched earlier this year by Rudy and Robert Pedraza of Miami.

In a previous interview with InformationWeek, a Psystar employee who identified himself as Robert vowed that the company would challenge Apple's ban on Mac clones and said he believed it won't stand up in court.

"What if Honda said that, after you buy their car, you could only drive it on the roads they said you could?," said Robert.

Apple is now asking a court to decide the issue.

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Wrapup: What Nintendo Announced at E3 - News and Analysis by PC Magazine

Nintendo's E3 press conference is over, and if you were following it on our live stream (and you were, right?), consider this wrap-up a refresher. While Microsoft focused plenty of time on new interfaces and functionality options on Monday, Nintendo was unsurprisingly all about the games: Animal Crossing: City Folk, Wii Music, and Wii Sports Resort are their big announcements for the Wii, and the DS gets another dose of Guitar Hero: On Tour along with -- maybe the biggest surprise of the conference -- Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars.

But this isn't exactly a staggering litany of new game announcements -- in fact, Nintendo deliberately kept the list of game demos short while assuring that it would be "impossible" to fit in showings for all of the games currently in the works for Wii and DS. Still, even with the short list of games on the schedule, they are mostly games we've already heard of or seen before -- including the two most exciting Wii games shown, Animal Crossing and Wii Music.

Animal Crossing was shown first, with a video of gameplay footage accompanied by series producer Katsuya Eguchi outlining some of the new features. The biggest addition also accounts for the new subtitle -- unlike previous versions of Animal Crossing, City Folk lets you venture out from your tranquil village and visit a (relatively) bustling city, where you'll find an auction house, clothing store, academy, and a beauty salon (which lets you transform your character into a Mii). The game also features online play, which seems to be similar to the online play in the DS version and pretty short of the "Animal Crossing MMO" rumor that has circulated for a while. Nintendo also showed off a new "WiiSpeak" peripheral, which is a community microphone that lets anyone in the same room speak into it.

Wii Music closed the show, with Shigeru Miaymoto himself appearing on stage and playing the saxophone with a Wii Remote. Wii Music, of course, was first revealed at E3 2006 as a mere tech demo, but today's showing is a fully formed game, with over 50 instruments including drums, sax, piano, violin, guitar, marimba, and various percussion instruments. You use the Wiimote, Nunchuk and Balance Board to play them, and apparently, success is based more on simply mimicking the motions of playing instruments rather than any musical talent. We should have more impressions of Wii Music soon, so stay tuned.

Also demoed was Wii Sports Resort, a sequel to the Wii pack-in and the first game to use the Motion Plus add-on (which comes with the game). Wii Sports Resort's activities are beach-themed, with onstage demonstrations including playing Frisbee with a dog, riding a Jet Ski, and, um, sword fighting. Maybe that's not a typical beach activity, but with the help of the Motion Plus add-on, it's the direct, 1-to-1 motion-controlled sword-fighting game everyone's been waiting for since the Wii was first announced. The game is due for release next spring.

The DS got an equal amount of time devoted to it, and easily the biggest announcement is Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, set for release this holiday season. It may not be as fancy as GTA4, but it'll be great to see the überviolent GTA series sharing shelf space with Nintendogs.

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MAJORLY SAVAGE LOSS FOR MEN - FOXNews.com - Jessica Alba Shows Off 'Miracle' Baby Honor - Celebrity Gossip | Entertainment News | Arts And Entertainment

Giving birth to daughter Honor Marie Warren last month "was more like meditation," actress Jessica Alba tells OK! magazine, in which she reveals the first photo of the baby.

"I did yoga breathing. I was focused," says Alba, who opted for a natural birth.

Click here to see Honor and to read more from OK! magazine

Having a newborn still "hasn't totally sunk in," the "Love Guru" star says.

"She dreams, she smiles, and coos and does all these things, but she hasn't seen enough of the world yet to understand any of that stuff. So I still feel like she's connected to the other world, or something. There's no other way to explain it. It's a miracle."

As for getting back into her pre-pregnancy body, Alba says she's taking it slow.

"I started working out last Thursday, but for 20 minutes. I do cardio on my own. I'm doing it slow," she said.

"Now I'm starting to eat more healthy. Because after working out, having fried chicken and mashed potatoes is a little counteractive."

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FX Bids Farewell to 'Nip/Tuck' in 2011 - Savage Loss

FX president John Landgraf made multiple programming and casting announcements about some of the network's critically acclaimed series at the Tuesday's Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour, including some news about the dark medical drama Nip/Tuck.

The network announced that the series that follows the lives of two plastic surgeons, Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) and Christian Troy (Julian McMahon), will bow out after 100 episodes.  On the other hand, fans will have enough time to come to terms with that since the final episode isn't slated to air until early 2011.

"It's really hard to be [commercially] successful and creatively excellent, especially when you have serialized shows.  I believe they have a diminishing return.  If you had 150 episodes of The Sopranos or The Shield, you diminish the caliber of those shows," explained Landgraf, who felt it that Nip/Tuck would lose a lot of its creative steam if it continues past the 100-episode mark.  "We have unique challenges as an ad-supported network. Our creative competitors are Showtime, HBO and now AMC.  Commercially, it's networks like USA and TNT. The bar is high."

Nip/Tuck, which won a Golden Globe for best drama series in 2005 and earned show creator Ryan Murphy an Emmy nomination for directing the pilot episode in 2004, has been a controversy magnet and has consistently drawn strong ratings for FX, ranking among the top series on ad-supported cable among adults 18-49 throughout its run.

According to Landgraf, Nip/Tuck recently finished production on the final eight episodes of its fifth season, which were originally schedule for air this spring. But because of the writers' strike, the new episodes have been pushed back and are now slated to debut in January 2009.

Additionally, the network has also ordered 19 more episodes of Nip/Tuck, besides the 22 in production, which will bring the show's total to an even 100 episodes.  The final season is expected to be divided into two batches, which will air in 2010 and 2011.

Meanwhile, creator and executive producer Ryan Murphy, who had been previously attached to the FX pilot Pretty Handsome, will remain with Nip/Tuck until the run ends.

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IS THIS A STUPID IDEA OR IS IT JUST ME? Miley Cyrus seeks ‘Sex and the City’ for the young - The Money Times

Miley Cyrus, the ‘Hannah Montana’ star has expressed a desire to work in ‘Sex and the City,’ which is made for her age. "I'd love to do a younger, cleaner version of Sex and the City," the 15-year-ols told the new issue of ‘TV Guide.’

Seeking a kid-friendly version of the show, does not come plausibly to someone who recently made news for some raunchy pictures under a shower.

Also, ‘the cleaner version’ wish raised some eyebrows as only a few months ago Cyrus had sparked outrage among concerned parents, after she appeared with a mere blanket on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine.

And now we know, the teen is a huge fan of ‘Sex and the City,’ which should probably be classified as risqué for her age. Quite clearly, her generation is watching and thoroughly enjoying the adult-show, so who needs a separate version for the minors.

However, irrespective of what she watches or how she poses, the teenaged daughter of country singer Billy Ray Cyrus asserts she is a virgin and will not indulge in sex anytime soon.

"I like to think of myself as the girl that no one can get, that no one can keep in their hand," she said.

And as a testament to her virginity, Cyrus sports a purity ring like her friends the Jonas Brothers. “Even at my age, a lot of girls are starting to fall,” she says, “and I think if [abstaining] is a commitment girls make, that’s great.”

Cyrus had previously admitted that her bold pictures on the magazine’s cover were a mistake. She wants to dump the issue now. "I want to be a positive role model, so we just try to keep [that stuff] as much not talked about as possible," she says. "I don't dwell on the negativity."

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TG Daily - Redmond, we have a problem: Sony just cut the price of the PS3

Los Angeles (CA) – The game console market is getting more interesting: Following Microsoft’s time-limited price cut of the Xbox 360 Premium, Sony has announced a permanent price cut of its 80 GB flagship console, which will also replace the 40 GB version of the Playstation 3. The decision between an Xbox 360 and a PS3 is now much less a question of cost, but a question of how much the Xbox’ entertainment features or the PS3’s Blu-ray drive are worth to you.  

Sony has seen its PS3 gain traction in recent months and the company now seems to be determined to pull further ahead of Microsoft, which lately seemed to be struggling in European and Asian markets. Sony said that it will drop the 40 GB version of the PS3 and replace it with the 80 GB version, which will now retail for $399, down from $499.

$399 is still a steep price tag for a game console, but Sony is now approaching Xbox territory. The PS3 is now right in the middle between the $449 Xbox Elite with a 120 GB hard drive and the $349 60 GB Xbox Pro. Count in the fact that the PS3 comes with a Blu-ray drive and the Xbox stays with an upscaling DVD player and some could see for the very first time a price advantage for the PS3. Microsoft has recently upgraded its Xbox 360 with new entertainment features and is driving the console much more to become an entertainment center, it will be interesting to see whether Microsoft’s or Sony’s console will be collecting the dollars down the road.

The downside of this cutthroat competition, of course are shrinking margins or increasing losses. The PS3 and especially the Xbox 360 are in a time of their life-cycles where both should be starting to actually make a profit. While Microsoft actually may be making a profit (at least its gaming and entertainment division already does), Sony’s latest price cuts raises further doubts, if the PS3 can ever become a profitable business. As part of a recently filed financial report, the company said that it has lost $3.3 billion on the PS3 so far and analysts actually doubt whether the companies will ever be able to recoup those losses.  However, the Microsoft’s balance sheet looks even worse: Combined losses of the Xbox and Xbox 360 between 2002 and 2007 exceeded more than $7 billion, according to SEC filings.

However, it is not difficult to see that Sony just made a very aggressive move and Microsoft’s temporary price cut seems even more half-baked now. The $299 20 GB Xbox 360 will only be available until supplies last and the new 60 GB almost seems expensive. Another price cut in the near future may me inevitable for Microsoft.

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Salmonella Sickness Toll Climbs to 1,148 - washingtonpost.com

TUESDAY, July 15 (HealthDay News) -- The salmonella toll continues to mount in what has become the largest foodborne outbreak in the United States in more than a decade.

With the latest cases reported as of July 4, the nationwide toll fromSalmonellaSaintpaul now stands at 1,148 people in 42 states, the District of Columbia and Canada, according to the latest figures posted on the Web site of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At least 220 people have been hospitalized.

Statistically speaking, the patients range in age from under 1 to 99 years old; 50 percent are female. The rate of illness is highest among those 20 to 29 years old; it is lowest among adolescents 10 to 19 years old and people over 80.

Officials, meanwhile, appear no closer to zeroing in on the cause. Last week, they broadened the search, which had focused on certain types of tomatoes, to include jalapeno and serrano peppers and fresh cilantro.

While health investigators are hard at work, the CDC said on its Web site, "people often have difficulty remembering exactly what foods they ate, and remembering specific ingredients in those foods is even more difficult.

"When food items are mixed together and consumed in the same dish, all the items may be statistically linked to illness. In that case, determining by statistical means which item caused the illness can be difficult or impossible. Tracing suspect produce items back to processors and growers is an integral part of the effort to identify a single source and a possible means of contamination," the agency added.

Meanwhile, a team of Mexican health and agriculture officials is scheduled to meet with U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials in Washington to demand that Mexican tomatoes be cleared of any suspicion in the outbreak, according to theAssociated Press.

Mexico said last week that its own tests found no salmonella in Mexican tomatoes. The FDA has not released the results of tests it conducted in Mexico, theAPreported.

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