EFiX arrives in the USA
September 17th 2008
Previously available only overseas, EFiX USA has brought their Mac OS X installation product here to the land of milk and honey-nut cherios, and the first review (Gizmodo) is quite positive, though caveats do exist.
"If you've got the hardware, the whole process is simple, so that even if you've never cracked your desktop before, you could still get this done with a quick search online for the requisite know-how," says Gizmodo hack Matt Buchanan. "One thing to keep in mind is that EFiX has to interlope every time you want to boot to Leopard, so a cold boot takes at least two minutes, between booting to EFiX, picking Leopard, then loading it up." [Continue Reading]
Features of the EFiX USB dongle include:
• Install and boot OS X and Windows on the same (relatively) generic PC hardware
• Download and install Apple software updates without modification
• Regular online firmware updates
• EMI & RFI protection
• Interactive graphical boot selector, supporting all popular partition formats
• Working power management features, such as Shutdown, Reset, Speedstep, etc
EFiX is selling both the USB V1 and USB V2 Developers Unit versions of their dongle for $155, though the full retail price is listed as $195 for either.
Editor's note: At $155 and eventually $195 (one supposes), there's quite a bit of motivation for people make their own "open-source" version of the dongle. Also, it's widely reported that doing a 100% roll-your-own Hackintosh isn't that challenging.
Also, what will Apple's response to this latest "attack" on its proprietary hardware cul-de-sac be? They're going after PsyStar, but do they have a legal leg to stand on with EFiX?
Inquiring minds want to know...
