My iPhone has survived a number of things that should have killed it dead (getting thrown to the pavement, getting put through a washing machine, getting knocked off an 8′ loft by my cat, etc.), but it’s never been anything other than perfectly functioning. Until now.

This past week, in the midst of the launch of the new 3G iPhone, it is all of the sudden going to shit. It won’t let me take pictures. Sure it says it takes them, but they show up is white squares on the preview screen and then the contraption freezes when i try to view the. It also won’t let me do anything while a phone call is in progress. It’ll go back to the home screen but then completely freeze except for a continuing call time counter. If I try to force it off, it won’t let me move the “slide to turn off” slider.

Conspiracy?

Psystar, the company behind the OpenComputer, started taking orders today for a higher-end version of their hackintosh. Dubbed the OpenPro, the computer is configurable with specs that rival a real MacPro at a significant discount. Ars Technica reports that a maxed-out OpenPro will cost you less that a low end MacPro.

They also mention that Paul McDougal managed to speak to a Psystar employee who’s response to the apparent issue with Apple’s EULA was something like, “it is unfair.” Unfair it is, and I imagine more unfairness will be coming in the form of an Apple-issued cease-and-desist nasty-gram. I wonder what is taking them so long…

The highly extensible OpenMac is a configuration of PC hardware capable of running unmodified OS X Leopard kernels. If you purchase Leopard with your OpenMac we will not only include the actual Leopard retail package with genuine installation disc, but we also include a Psystar restore disc for your OpenMac and we will preinstall Leopard for free so you can begin to use your computer right out of the box.

The full product listing. I really wish Apple would produce something like this: a mid-range, expandable desktop. Too bad this will be sued out of existense in short order. As Wired points out, this flies in the face of Apple’s EULA, which says OS X on non-Apple hardware is a no-no.

… Apple’s End User License Agreement is pretty clear about where it’s OS can appear: that would be Apple-branded hardware exclusively. And while it’s one thing to do a little tinkering on your own, I suppose it’s quite another for a company to do it for you — and potentially make a profit off of it.

Engadget points out that ending this sort of thing is something Steve Jobs took on immediatly when he returned to Apple (by eliminating the clone liscences allowed by his predicesor.) Aside from that the usual concerns apply: update compatibility, stability, etc. I do wonder how they got Leopard to run unpatched on a non-Apple PC. To date I have not heard this was possible. Thanks Chris for the link!

Update: It seems this is made possible by running an emulator in the firmware that presents the machine as Apple hardware to an unmodified OS X. Old news I suppose…

Update: After some downtime, the Psystar site is back up and the OpenMac has been conspicuously renamed OpenComputer. I’m betting it won’t be long before this is all over.