News Roundup for December the 5th

Yesterday’s big revelation appears to be that the unthinkable — but widely speculated — is about to happen, with a $99 iPhone slated to appear in Wal*Mart stores (just) before the end of the month. The phone is likely to be the 4Gb model, which I guess explains it all. Apple obviously found a couple of unopened boxes of the ancient model lying around in Cupertino, so it was either going to be Wal*Mart or eBay. But if you’re still sceptical, check out the dodgy ‘Shopping on the training material pictured in this Cult of Mac article. I mean, the logos don’t even line up. Would Apple really produce so shoddy a document? Oh, it’s an AT&T / Wal*Mart co-production? Ah. Well, that makes it look authentic, then.

With all the great iPhone news sloshing around, I’m starting to loose track of what I’ve written about. Have we mention that Apple is now now the #3 smartphone OS provider, behind Nokia and RIM but ahead of Microsoft? No? Okay, we’ll have to do that then.

Now, time to be honest: are you one of those people who love the Mac but hate Apple? Don’t want to get a Psystar because its EULA is too restrictive? (Wow. You couldn’t make this stuff up. Although we are trying.) Do you live in Argentina, or at the very least hablar the old español? Then the OpeniMac — pictured above — may be just the thing for you. Wow. It looks just like the Psystar — and coincidentally nothing like an iMac — doesn’t it? It’ll be interesting to see who sues them first: Apple or the boys from Miami. Click through to the full 9-to-5 Mac story to see how this bad boy hands the ‘real’ iMac its backside.

Meanwhile, in legitimate Mac clone news — although I guess technically they’re more mutants than clones — Axiotron has announced a new version of its ModBook. But don’t get too excited: they haven’t switched to the aluminium MacBook bodies yet.

Borrowing a page from such grown-up sites as TechCrunch, it’s time to wallow in layoff news. (But unlike those sites I’m going to treat it like it’s bad news, and not a necessary part of being a Web 2.0 a—hole.) So our best wishes go out to those made redundant by AT&T and Adobe. We’re also told that this means next year’s MacWorld Expo is going to be a little quieter, with fewer exhibitors and smaller stands. If it’s any consolation, I feeling less bad about not being able to attend.

We’ll try and end on a high. Boxee — the Mac media centre software from the people who still haven’t sent me my invite — has got even better, adding support for NetFlix, Hulu, and a bunch of other US-only services I can’t access. Okay, I now feel less bad about not having my invite.