Report waves caution at shadiness of would-be Mac clone maker [u x2]

A brief investigation into Psystar Corporation reveals the self-proclaimed Mac cloner maker to have no operating history prior to this week, and further suggests the company may be little more than one-man basement operation.

Given the company's claims of a $400 Mac system and a vow to battle Apple over its Mac OS X licensing terms, the Guardian's Charles Arthur decided to do some digging on the integrity of the much talked about Miami-based solutions reseller.

The results? Not promising. Although the Psystar.com website was registered back in 2000, Google and other search engines turn up absolutely no references to the company prior to this week's news that it would offer an unauthorized Mac system.

"I called the Miami Chamber of Commerces and its Better Business Bureau," Arthur wrote. "They've never heard of it."

What's more, Psystar appears to have hastily relocated on Tuesday to an industrial park within Miami's north-west side, according to an address change posted to its website. On Monday, the company's address was listed as 10645 SW 112 Street — a three bedroom home built in 1957 along a row of suburban houses (below).

As part of his investigation, Arthur also put in calls to phone numbers listed on Psystar's website. After a dead end at "Human Resources," he was able to get an unnamed individual on the phone by selecting the option for "Customer Support."

That individual, however, referred all of the reporter's questions to Psystar's press email, from which replies have not been forthcoming. When asked if there were many individuals like himself working in the company's support division, the individual then claimed that he was not a support representative and was instead "just answering the phones."

"But you know what's most interesting?," Arthur added. "Apple's complete silence on this. It hasn't said a word. I suspect that it's waiting to see if anything emerges from this."

Update: The most recent industrial park address for Psystar belongs to a packing supply firm called USA KOEN PACK whose manager has never heard of Psystar.

A new address listed on Psystar's website Tuesday points to this shipping company.

Update 2: AppleInsider reader Shane writes in to let us know that quick glance of the source code for Psystar.com reveals the company's webpages was slapped together with help from this web template.