HacBook Elite is a fully-functional Mac running OS X. For 1/3 the price | Hacker News Reader

HacBook Elite is a fully-functional Mac running OS X. For 1/3 the price

hacbook.com

43 pointsrakibtg33 comments

Ignoring the many, many reasons this is going to be taken down very shortly, the specifications are a joke.

The "HacBook":

    1600x900 display
    "Up to" 8 GB RAM
    Sandy Bridge i5
    "Up to" 1 TB HDD

My factory 2013 MBP, to which this is supposed to be equivalent:

    2800x1800 display
    16 GB RAM
    Sandy Bridge i7
    512 GB SSD

Come on [whoever is behind this]. If you're going to distribute hardware prepare a really nice laptop running Ubuntu or Linux Mint and sell it to geeks with hardware support.

Looks like this is intended mostly for macOS developers on a budget.

And at ~$350, if you expect it to match your $2500 mbp spec for spec, you're crazy.

I would still never buy one in a million years, though.

I wouldn't expect it to match my MBP for that price, but the webpage specifically says it does.

> HacBook Elite has the same hardware specs as a 2013 MacBook Pro, for 1/3 the price.

It probably matches one of the lower tiers—note the indefinite article.

Maybe they are comparing it to the non-retina MacBook Pro, as described here: http://www.geek.com/apple/psa-non-retina-macbook-pro-13-inch... (which does have an i5, regular HDD, and 4GB of memory)

The last non-retina Macbook Pro is from 2012 though. http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#MacBook_Pro

"Looks like a Mac."

Come on now, no it doesn't. Looks like the HP computer remoted into a Mac, maybe.

Haven't people tried this before and Apple shut them down for infringement?

Yes. Psystar tried this shit 8 years ago, and lasted all of 18 months: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psystar_Corporation

Edit: did some digging on what they're actually aiming to sell.

Also, regardless of their copyright/ip infractions against Apple, their marketing staff are taking pretty decent liberties:

> Looks like a Mac. Feels like a Mac.

From the images shown, it's a HP EliteBook 14". So, it's vaguely silver coloured.

From the FAQ:

> It's a like-new refurbished HP EliteBook

Given that, and matching the specs against what I can find online, it appears to be an 8460p, which from what I can tell, is at least 4 years old.

Power Computing did it legally 20 years ago, licensing Mac OS, and Apple shut them down too:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Computing_Corporation

That could hardly be more different than TFA and Psystar though, it was the official clone program which Jobs terminated, and Apple did not PCC down in the Psystar sense of legally killing them, it bought them out.

Especially since they're using Apple's trademarks ("A fully-functional Mac"). These folks don't have a snowball's chance in hell.

Looks like HP might have something to say as well.

They're refurbished HP EliteBook's - the HP badging is legit.

Up to 8gb of RAM? Sandy Bridge? It's the same specs as 2012 MBP, except it allowed up to 16GB of RAM.

No, the 2012 MBP allowed up to 8Gb of RAM, the fact that too many people ignored the specs and installed 16Gb is a different story.

The hardware "allows" 16GB, but Apple officially support only 8GB.

I've had my 2011 MBP (also officially 8GB max) with 16GB aftermarket RAM go through the GPU-failure replacement TWICE, and the only question about the memory has ever been "this has upgraded RAM right? Yes, so please make sure I get the same RAM back with the new board. OK"

Sorry, I should have said MBP Retina.

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012) 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

This isn't modded, since it's not possible to easily swap the RAM.

From what I can tell, it's a 2012 HP EliteBook, hence the 2012 specs.

Aren't they about to get lawyered into oblivion?

I always understood Apple turned a semi-blind eye to hackintoshing as it's a small and highly nerdy pastime (my Thinkpad dual-boots Linux and macOS beautifully). But as soon as someone tries to make money off it they're in for it big time.

This lot will disappear extremely quickly.

Place your bets people,

how many nanoseconds till this gets a C&D from apple?

HacBook isn't a new computer, but a service that takes the HP EliteBook line and loads Hackintosh onto them before resale.

Claiming equivalent specs as a MacBook Pro is obviously compelling, but that's more of an issue for Apple underspeccing its products per dollar than legitimizing macOS alternatives.

It's not compelling at all because it's not true.

I encountered this Hacbook earlier today. I don't have the URL handy (/r/hackintosh maybe), but it was apparently a website put up by a teenaged Redditor who's in no position to actually execute this.

I would suggest flagging this submission and moving on.

The people building these must know that Apple will not stand for this, so I wonder if this is simply a way to point out the large price disparity between a MacBook and a reasonably specced laptop?

For the record, I don't think MacBook pros are as overpriced as some people do. They usually only create a large price difference by ignoring features they deem unnecessary (high dpi display, weight, and battery life come to mind)

I like how the design of the website (non-retina images, etc) mirrors the rough look of the laptop itself. Gives off the proper "something's not quite right here" vibe that I assume the product itself has :)

Isn't nearly impossible to update these darn things? I mean it might work fine when it ships, but will it not become useless once an update is needed?

If they put the amount of effort into their box as their website, I'm afraid I'll have to pass.

We used to call this a "Hackintosh" back in the day. Is that not a thing any more?

The "product" is a refurbished HP EliteBook, so this name is a play on that name.

They use the term Hackintosh in their FAQ.

Maybe they refer to hacbook to make it seem more like a brand of laptop/machine rather then just the general term hacintosh.

Wouldn't it be nicer to just load it with Linux?

cue the lawyers in 3...2...1....

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