A superquick recap: Psystar releases the OpenMac, a $400 desktop Mac clone; people debate if this is possible, technically or legally, and if Psystar is a scam; the hackintoshes turn out to be real; they ship; Apple gets upset; Psystar grandstands; Apple continues to be upset; Psystar gets murdered. To death.

That was the story a few weeks ago, at least. Now Psystar is basically acting like nothing happened, releasing a fresh bootloader, a new computer—the $1500, i7-based Open(7) desktop—and revisiting their old, defiant tone in an email newsletter:

As you all may already be aware in late May, Psystar filed for bankruptcy protection. Although this was critical to our continued daily operations, we are now ready to emerge and again battle Goliath.

The whole thing is reproduced below, and definitely worth reading.

Psystar's been subject to all manner or canonization, criticism, popular support and backlash, but now I don't know what to think. On the one hand, all their talk about monopolies, freedom and victimization always stuck me as a little hollow. (David and Goliath? So you're going to kill Apple?) On the other, it now appears as though the guys who run Psystar are either clinically insane, extremely persistent, unusually ballsy or just poorly advised to an extreme. Or all of the above. As Mark said on the story, "they wont stop unless Apple cuts off their hands. And even then, who knows." That spirit alone has got to be worth something, right? [TUAW via Neowin via Slashgear]

Computerworld guesses that it's for 581 copies of Leopard that Psytar ordered but didn't get a chance to install on machines, but my guess is that it's one giant copy of Leopard that they custom ordered for the world's largest fake Mac. [Computerworld]

Under Federal bankruptcy protection laws, all cases against the company should be put on hold. This means that Apple will have to wait on their case against Psystar. The first bankruptcy hearing will be held in Florida next June 5. At that time, we may find who the hell are the financial backers behind the company.

But while all this happens, the keep selling machines on their site. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't get near these guys even while wearing a biochemical war suit. [Mac Observer]

The company has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy—the kind of bankruptcy that's most like a tremendous meteor—and fired all of its workers. This is sad news for Pleo fans and horrible news for the now-ex-employees, but one part of the report was surprising: Over 100,000 Pleos, which retail at $350, were sold in the last year alone.

Existing Pleos will be left to act out a sad, allegorical version of The Land Before Time, in which, having seen their mother (Ugobe) killed by a T-Rex (bankruptcy proceedings), they will, uhh, sit unused in a closet until their batteries start leaking. The later sequels were kind of weird, OK? [Idaho Statesman]

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy back in February, but these 300 liquidations are the first serious manifestation of its decline. This is terrible news all around, but could have been predicted; film developing is a dead business, and the increasingly homogeneous nature of point-and-shoot cameras and the spec-centric marketing of DSLRs favors impersonal, cheap and convenient retailers like Best Buy and Walmart

And that's not to mention online retailers, bolstered by the magisterial advice of sites like DPReview—a sort of digital equivalent to the archetypal old Grizzled Local Camera Store Vet. That said, for the average consumer this is a loss—good luck asking the kid at your local Target which of their cameras has the best high-ISO noise reduction. [MarketWatch]

On Tuesday, shoppers looking for some cheap printers, fax machines, furniture, televisions and other electronics gathered at the CC headquarters looking for a deal, but—until they approach the end of the sale sometime in April—liquidation manager Jerry Strong firmly states that all sales on the used electronics are non-negotiable. [RichmondBizSense via BBG]

Even though service would have likely continued uninterrupted had the freshly-merged company actually filed for bankruptcy, Sirius XM's days of luring in top radio jock talent on big contracts would have likely been over. Now, thankfully, we can carry on without skimping on the Howard Stern. [NY Times]

• January 2008: Increases a credit agreement from $500 to $1.3 billion.
• May 2008: Circuit City tries to sell itself to Blockbuster Inc., after the latter makes an offer that is later withdrawn. At this time, they fire employees with higher salaries and opens smallest stores.
• September 2008: Reports loss of $239.2 million, after sales fell for the sixth straight quarter.
• November 3: Last week they closed a fifth of their US stores, firing twenty percent of their 43,000-people workforce.
• November 10: Files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Lists $3.4 billion in assets and $2.32 billion in liabilities, owes HP $119 million and Samsung $116 million. It lost $5 billion in stock market value in just two years.

Circuit City has said that their intention is to keep normal operations in their current stores. In theory, under a Chapter 11 reorganization, companies get a chance to avoid closing, reorganize debt and survive. According to Gary Merson from HD Guru, a local store representative has said that they will even keep honoring and selling gift cards during this period. [Bloomberg — Thanks Gary]

When we called up Helio stores, their people sounded like they were reading off a script, or that they've gotten a memo, and were trying to convince us that they shouldn't worry if Virgin takes them over. So in essence, Helio customers won't be plan-less if Virgin does take over their customers—you'll just be making out your checks to Virgin instead of Helio.

One of the commenters (centerpeace) last time pointed out that their strategy was to open up right next to a CompUSA and staff their stores with people who actually knew something about computers. Come to think of it, our PC Club was right next to a CompUSA too, which was weird since they were both out in the middle of nowhere. Guess when CompUSA took a dive and got resurreted by Tiger Direct, PC Club just had to follow. [Club IT - Image Credit]

In an interview in the Gizmondo forums, Freer claimed that, "There is still incredible value in the Gizmondo. And with the enhancements we're adding... we feel it's only the beginning of where we can go with the product."

Gizmondo version 2.0 will include a new graphics chip, Windows CE 6.0 (which comes with "a lot of 'new' goodies," Freer says), and a bunch of original content to be downloaded off the gizmondo.com website. It'll be ready by Winter 2008, and the developer community can expect more announcements soon.

Left unanswered by the interview was why Freer thinks anybody is going to trust him with anything a second time around. Maybe he hasn't heard the adage: "Fool me once, your CEO gets sent to jail for three years and your company gets liquidated. Fool me twice... well, you ain't ever gonna fool me twice." [Gizmondo Forum]