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February 16th through 23rd Archives

Friday, February 23rd 2001 00:01 CST

Titanium G4 Dissection

A reader was kind enough to contribute a very detailed analysis of the internals of the PowerBook G4. Check out the dissection for more details.

Titanium G4 Deal?

A reader sent this possible good deal in:

Not sure if you've heard about this one already, but MacConnection has several unadvertised deals that if you call in, all the sales representatives will do without a hitch. Here are the details:

Ti G4 400 or 500 MHz + free 256 MB RAM (no install fee) ($80-130 value)
Ti G4 400 or 500 MHz + free USB-powered 250 MB Zip Drive ($179 value)
Ti G4 400 or 500 MHz + free AC adapter and battery (over $200 value)

You can also use your favorite link (ebates, etc.), order online, then call in and change the order to one of the bundles above.I did this last night without any problems.

Just a note. They have no ETA for their next shipment. (Although I don't think any of the resellers do anymore, anything reliable anyway.)

1991 Vs. 2001

PowerBook 170 - Motorola 68030 25 MHz processor, 2MB RAM std (8MB max), 40MB hard drive (80MB max), 640x400 10" active matrix monochrome screen, built-in 1.44MB floppy drive, 6.8lbs.

PowerBook G4/500 - Motorola G4 500 MHz processor, 256MB RAM std (1GB max), 20GB hard drive (32GB max), 1152x768 15.2" 24 bit active matrix screen, built-in 6x DVD/CD drive, 5.3lbs.

PowerBook 170 - US$4,600
PowerBook G4/500 - US$3,500 Any predictions for PowerBooks in 2011? Post them on MacDebate.com.

Titanium G4 Shipping Reports (A lot of them)

Here's the latest:

I ordered my standard config 500 MHZ PB G4 from the Apple store on January 22 and it shipped on Feb 22. I'd say that's exactly on schedule. Great job Apple on a hot product introduction.

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My custom G4 arrived yesterday. 500mhz, 30gig and 512 ram. I began tracking it last Sunday--Taiwan, Anchorage, Indianapolis, Fairfax. If I read the coding on the box correctly, mine was number #47.

Rather than go through a difficult install, I followed advice from another site and just swapped drives with my Firewire Powerbook. Up and running in about 40 minutes.

One caution when doing this. It is VERY important to follow the directions for removing the bottom casing on the new G4. You MUST slide it forward about 1/8 inch and then lift up. Otherwise, you risk breaking the small plastic retaining clips
[Editors Note: That "swapping the drive" thing is a very bad idea]

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Hi, my T-G4 arrived 2 weeks ago form the Apple store. They were also kind enough to offer me a $200.00 substitution credit as they were not able to send me a Pismo 500. They thought they had one in stock and called back to tell me it was gone. In addition, they were great to deal with! I doubt Steve and company like Taiwan being slow.

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Just to let you know. My order of a custom G4/500MHz, 384MB RAM, 30GB that I ordered on January 16th has shipped today.

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I thought you might like to know this little tidbit as I hope it is true and is helpful in alleviating some of the stress of the G4 PB purchasers.

After sending a long letter of lament to the Apple Customer Service people, amazingly (coincidentally?) I had my PowerBook shipped within a half hour (6:30 p.m. PST). I got tracking numbers and all that, and the order status page reads shipped. The interesting thing is that my PowerBook appears not to be shipping from Taiwan, rather it had its first scan in Rancho Cordova, CA, a suburb of Sacramento. Hopefully, this means that I'll be getting my 'Book in the next day or so, as I live in Souther California. As well, I hope this means that the silly delays for PowerBooks may be letting up.

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We ordered a PowerBook G4/400 from Outpost.com on February 1, 2001 and we received it today, February 22, 2001.

We were quoted a Feb 28th date as well, so this was a nice surprise this morning. We have one other BTO PB G4/400 on order at Apple, not supposed to arrive until March 10 or so.

The one here looks and runs great! No DVD eject problem yet.

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FYI, I ordered on Jan. 10. I called Outpost this morning and they said they got 7 (seven) of them in, but she did not know if I was getting one. They have another order due on 28 Feb 2001. I checked an hour or two later on their website and it is still listed as backordered. Grrr.

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I'd just like to note that I received my TiBook 400 mhz (non-BTO) this Monday morning. It was ordered on January 17th. A note about a case for the TiBook as well. I purchased the "IPO Laptop" case from Jam Bags (www.jambags.com) with my G4 Powerbook, and am happy to report that it fits quite well. I may not be an expert on the subject since this is my first PB purchase, but I think it fits perfectly, and I really do recommend the bag! Oh, and the TiBook is simply stunning. WOAH. Doesn't help me pick up chicks like I'd hoped though... :)

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I received my bto g4 500 this morning. I ordered it less than an hour after the keynote and the only change I made was to reduce the memory.

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I was told yesterday by MacZone that the "new" shipping date is "sometime" in March. That was from their Apple rep(s). Apple Specialists have been getting them sporadically over the last 2 weeks or so. I canceled my "first-in-line" order with MacZone and should be able to pick up a unit within a few days, locally.

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Just wanted to let you know that Apple and FedEx tell me that my PBg4/500/256/20gig (not a BTO -- A stock AppleStore model) is on its way from Taiwan. I ordered on January 24th and I must thank you for giving me a site with something to look at while I've waited.

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My BTO 500MHz Titanium (128MB RAM / 30GB HD), which was ordered on the 12th of January, has finally shipped from Taiwan today (2/21/01) - Earlier than the "ship by March 3rd" estimate that I recently received.

Thursday, February 22nd 2001 00:01 CST

First on Mac! Apple Introduces World's Fastest Graphics Processor on PowerMacs

While it's was not mentioned by Apple other than Steve Jobs' keynote, nVidia's fastest graphics processor ever is now available as a Build-to-Order option for PowerMac G4 customers.

The nVidia GeForce3 is a $450 option, according to the Apple Store. The card has 57 million transistors, can calculate 800 million operations per second, and 76 billion floating point operations per second. It incorporates nVidia nfiniteFX engine and LightSpeed memory architecture. It's got a whopping 64 MB of DDR SDRAM. To put this into perspective, that's the same amount as the shipping iBooks use for system memory. It supports 32 bit color at resolutions up to 2048X1536.

However, the card is listed as "coming in April" on the Build-to-Order page, and the standalone card ($600) on the accessories page is listed as "late April" as well.

Apple is the first computer maker to be allowed to announce the use of the GeForce3. Considering that it's the fastest graphics processor available, this is quite a coup for the company. While it's pricey, there are people that want nothing but the best, and this graphics board is for those people.

Apple's Other Announcements

We'll just let Apple's press releases do the talking on the other announcements at Macworld Tokyo, the straight-from-the-horse's-mouth method is best:

• Apple Unveils New iMacs With CD-RW Drives & iTunes Software
• Apple Announces iTunes 1.1 With Support for Over 25 Third-Party CD Burners
• Apple Introduces New Power Mac G4 Cube With CD-RW & iTunes

For the record, we think the iMacs are....how shall we put this?....unattractive. But that's just our opinion...we've started this thread at MacDebate.com to solicit your feedback.

Wednesday, February 21st 2001 00:01 CST

Site Notes

We'll cover any Macworld Tokyo news tonight (The show begins at 7 PM Central Time, but news probably will be dependent on Apple press releases, not any webcast archive). Stay tuned later tonight...

While we like to have your readership here, why not head over to MacDebate.com's PowerBook forum and see what there is to see.

Other than that, pretty slow news day until later tonight, there's a bunch of Titanium PowerBook shipping reports and reader responses to one of our questions yesterday.

Titanium PowerBook G4 Shipping Reports

The situation still isn't good, nearing one month of promised shipping time (Steve said "end of January), but things are looking up. Here's the latest:

Just another update: I called Outpost a few times yesterday, and was quoted the 20th (today) for the shipment of my PowerBook G4. Today I called at 10:00 AM Eastern, and was told it would ship out TODAY, as planned. (AWESOME)

At 3:00 PM Eastern, I called back, and was told it had been pushed back to the 28th! After hearing this, I called back one more time they confirmed the date of the 28th. At 5:00 PM Eastern, I was told it would ship between the 20th and the 23rd. I donıt know who to believe. :( Who knows how long this will go on for...

PS-I was the 8th person to place my order through Outpost, and because I ordered it so early, they refuse to include the extra 128 megs of RAM! I guess theyıll hear more about that after I get the machine.

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Well we heard Steve Jobs tell us (in person-we were there) that the G4 Titanium's were already in production and would be "in channels" by the end of Jan. Well the end of Jan. came and went and the ship date became the 15th of Feb. Shortly before the 15th we heard a rumor that the date was going to slip until the 20th. They were real confident in this date! Guess what, it's the 20th. . . I called Outpost this morning, they indicated that they were getting them in and would be able to ship it this eve. for 2/21 delivery. I followed up at 5pm, when they hit me with the bad news. Apple did NOT ship them any G4's, thus you will not be getting your laptop. How about the 28th????

I am sorry, but the word "liar" seems to come to mind when I think of Steve Jobs. Outpost said I was one of the first orders they received, I placed the order from MacWorld! Give me a break Apple and do not make promises you cannot live up to.

So that is the latest, and yet another good reason why Apple is losing the battle, they cannot make good on their promises.

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I ordered my BTO G4 on January 9th. I previously sent you an email from apple that pushed the date back to February 24th. I just checked the order status page and it looks like it shipped yesterday from TW. I never received an email from apple though.

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The words had but left Steve Jobs lips when I pushed the button to order my TiPB G4/500/512/30gb configured system on the morning of Jan 9th. Apple just notified me the system is shipping today 2/20/01. I'm still holding my breath!

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With the new ship estimate, I not only assumed that Apple would once again push my order back... People in my office were betting on it (the next delivery date in the office pool is 3/7).

Imagine my pure ecstasy and glee when I checked my order status this morning (the 20th) to find that MY POWERBOOK HAS SHIPPED!!!!!!!

I'll let you know when I get it... But I have a tracking number right now!

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I am a departmental educational customer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I had one 400 and one 500 TiBook on order. The 400 arrived on Friday and the 500 is "on its way" according to the campus technology store. They also said that all of the backorders they have would not be filled by Apple until mid-March, but to expect units to trickle in. The tech store has 18 TiBook 400s and 24 TiBook 500s on order, all have been sold out and all were ordered by the tech store from Apple before the TiBooks were even announced (don't ask how, this is just what they told me). The original shipping dates for them were February 9th and 16th. The very first shipment of two 400s arrived on Friday the 16th.

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Yesterday the first TiG4, a single 400Mhz was shipped to my local dealer in Berlin. He was very surprised since his last info was that the orders (all non-BTO, ordered January 10) would be delivered mid march. This may be of general interest to other European customers since the German machines are equipped with German character sets, that is, they have a non-standard a keyboard. I believe this is the case for most European countries. I can only confirm that the machine was awesome and then some!

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RCEeshop in NYC has a ton!!! I'm sure your viewers would love to know.

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My build-to-order powerbook g4 left Taiwan today after I received confirmation of shipment from them on Monday. I don't know when I will get it however, since FedEx cannot guarantee a delivery time from Taiwan!!

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Just thought I'd let people know that I changed my existing order at Club Mac for a G4 Powerbook by adding an Airport card without changing my place in line. My rep there is terrific.

Reader Email Response

Yesterday a reader asked for leads on velcro fasteners to keep his stray cables in order. Other readers overwhelmingly responded, over 40 emails were received on that subject alone. Here's a sampling:

I've been buying velcro straps at Home Depot which are likely exactly what your reader is looking for. They are manufactured by Velcro USA, and are labeled as "GET-A-GRIP 5 Multi-use straps #90346". They're 8" long, and each of the five is a different color. They are tapered at one end, and the other end has a slot for the tapered end. I don't remember the cost; probably about $5. They are located with other velcro products.

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Black Box (and many others, I presume) sell nice velcro cable wraps. I swear by Black Box, so that's who I'd recommend.

Check out their website http://www.blackbox.com/ and look for part number FT270. 

Or, just click this link.

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Here are two companies. I know Rip-Ties are often available at theatrical equipment dealers. Like Barbizon -

http://shop.barbizon.com/olc/group.cfm?category=99&group=99&searching=1&prod search=Rip-tie

Two manufacturers -
http://www.bardsco.com/
http://www.riptie.com/

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According to my mom, who gets these for me, they are available at stores like Cloth World, Hancock Fabrics, etc. She buys the multi colored ones. Your reader is right - these things are great for keeping cables neat. I looked all over for them, and at Christmas (when my supply was increased), mom said that she gets them from Cloth World.

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Rip-Tie is the "name brand" in my opinion for these types of straps, thus they are a little more expensive than others that do the same thing.

One place to buy them from: http://www.markertek.com/MTStore/Store.cfm?Search=rip+tie (then click on one of the results in the left frame)

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Those velcro-backed cable ties your reader is asking about may be the ones I use from Case Logic.

Have a look at this link for more details.

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I use thin, 1/2" x 6" multicolor velcro strips that are marketed as cable ties by CaseLogic. You can "roll" them into as tight a holder as you need, never exceeding the 1/2" width . I found them at CompUSA and they were not expensive. They are sturdy and will last forever, as opposed to rubber bands that are always breaking at exactly the WRONG time.

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Tom Bihn has a product like you need here.

Tuesday, February 20th 2001 00:54 CST

Site Notes

Many thanks to everyone who participated in Reader Appreciation day yesterday. Thanks to the sponsors of the event as well. They were all one day deals, so they're over for now. Based on feedback, we plan on doing similar events in the future. The price on the FireBox 2500 enclosures is back to $119 as well. (We've got plenty, we bought out the rest of the Taiwanese firm's stock of the unit.)

Also, our pals over at XAppeal.org have continued their recent rampage of feature writin' with their interview of the guys at Panic Software, makers of Audion and Transmit. They discuss their thoughts on the future of the Mac OS and their applications, particularly the impact of Mac OS X

We put the MadsonLine article from yesterday on a seperate page and added some information about their G4 bag here. It's a neoprene "wetsuit" like case that fits the new Titanium G4 very well.

Other than that, news is pretty slow today. Please send in your Titanium shipping reports, as many people are still interested in the progress of the shipping status of the machines.

Readers Ask

If you have the answers to these questions, let us know:

Do you know who makes special straps which can be attached to a cable (like a firewire cable) that has velcro to quickly secure the cables in their folded position? Easier than rubber bands to keep things tidy in my carrying case.

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I was wondering if anyone was familiar with or knew anything regarding the fit/quality of the Patagonia Valise. It's dimensions are 16"x12"x4". I know the quality of Patagonia is excellent, but in comparison to some of the other bags you've reviewed how does it par? If someone could get me some feedback on this I would greatly appreciate it, as I think other users might too, but if you can't it's understandable.

Laptop Links

We noticed a few relevant articles out there today:

• Tom's Hardware-A shootout between the nVidia GeForce 2Go and ATI Mobility Radeon, which adds details to our article not too long ago about the pair of portable graphics chips.
• XLR8Yourmac.com-PowerBook G4/400 First Impressions/Performance Tests, conducted by Mike Breeden, probably the most knowledgable Mac hardware guy outside of Apple's engineers themselves. A pretty insane amount of commentary.

Monday, February 19th 2001 00:01 CST

The PowerBook Zone Presents Special Deals for Reader Appreciation Day

To show our appreciation for our readers these past three years, we've organized several one-day-only special deals on Macintosh-related merchandise for PowerBook Zone readers only. We went out to the resellers we knew we could ask a favor from and we thank them for participating today.

Again, all of these deals are open to PBZone.com readers only. They'll only be valid for Monday, February 19th until Midnight. While we've done our best to nail down the details of these deals over the weekend, any number of unforseen problems could arise, so of course, no guarantees on their continued validity throughout the day and all are subject to availability.

Here they are, in alphabetical order:

FireWire Depot

FireWire Depot has carved out a niche in the growing FireWire accessories market, which is growing by leaps and bounds as more Macs ship with FW standard. They're offering two deals today:

• AVL 2-port cardbus card w/external power supply - normally $99.99 - reader participation day special (limited quantities) - 10% off
  
• 3 port mini-hub - Sale price $62.99 - reader participation day price 10% off (limited quantities)

So that's 10% off the CardBus FireWire card's $99.99 price and then 10% off the already-on-sale $62.99 price off the 3 port FireWire mini-hub, both the A and B models. To receive your 10% off, purchase the products normally, then forward a copy of your invoice email to pbzonereader@fwdepot.com and your final charge will be adjusted. As noted, these are in limited quantity, first come, first served.

Mobility Electronics

Mobility Electronics makes PCI breakout boxes for professionals that need more expansion space. They have a model, the T-35 (Product Code UN0704-10, for PowerMacs, and a model, the T-35 PowerBook (Product Code UN0704-15), for PowerBooks.

Both are specially priced at $359, a whopping $40 off for PBZone.com customers. Use coupon code "pbzone" when ordering and your final cost will reflect the special price. The T35 product family's page is here.

PowerBook Parts

PowerBook Parts (www.pbparts.com) has shown up just recently on the Mac reseller/vendor radar. They offer cheaper repairs for PowerBooks as well as replacement parts for PowerBooks, as the name suggests. Especially popular has been their Wallstreet hinge upgrade.

They're offering $10 off all of their hard drives that are available, via this special PBZone.com-only URL, http://www.pbparts.com/store/agora.cgi?keywords=pbzone.com. As a side note, they'll be taking a Spring Break from February 23rd to March 10th. Your orders placed today (they're only good today) should ship before this break, however.

The PowerBook Zone

We thought we'd jump in with a little deal of our own today. We've again been able to receive another quantity of FireWire enclosures at a good price. We've changed shipping from the US Postal Service to trackable UPS service, doubling the shipping price. However, today only, we'll waive all shipping costs, selling the FireBox 2500 2.5" IDE Hard Drive enclosures for $115 total.

The information on the enclosure page is adjusted to reflect this one-day-only deal, but all the other information is the same. These units will ship on Thursday or Friday of this week.

Small Dog Electronics

Small Dog Electronics is our oldest and most consistent advertiser. They've made quite a business out of a little Vermont charm mixed in with solid business principles (plus you get free small dogs with every order). They've offered two deals for us today:

• iBook Blueberry G3/300 64/6gb/CD/56k w/ FREE BackPack - $1049
• Powerlogix Blue Chip G3/500/1mb for Wallstreet and 128mb SO DIMM - $629

Spire USA

Spire is our bag maker of choice here at the PBZone, between all the staff we have two Endos and an Atom pack from the company. All of their products are hand-crafted in Boulder, Colorado. All of their bags are of high quality and they're offering a special on one of their lines for us today. Their Zoom and Zoom XL bags are discounted for PBZone readers.

The Zoom and Zoom XL are their most popular bag and both "will fit" the G4 PowerBook and are an "excellent fit" for all G3 PowerBooks, according to Spire's fit guide. There's no coupon necessary, so click this link for the Zoom XL and this link for the Zoom, and grab these deals, available only today.

Anyway, Apple has identified this problem as something that's affecting many machines and will be glad to fix it, according to Apple tech support representatives. If your PowerBook G4 Titanium (if and when you get it, for some buyers) does not respond to the following methods of ejecting your DVD, as outlined in this TIL article, you will have to call Apple, arrange for them to ship you the shipping carton, and you should have your machine back, fully fixed, in about three business days. Like any other Titanium repairs, the PowerBook cannot be serviced at your local Apple-Authorized Service Provider given the delicate and complex internals of the machine.
What do you think? Sound off in the PBZone.com Forum.

PowerBooks Prove Their Worth at -34 Degrees on Polar Expedition

Apple Computer supplied PowerBooks to the expedition of the first two women to cross Antartica on skis.

Ann Bancroft and Liv Arnesen, just now completing their 2400 mile trek this weekend, have been communicating via satellite with the website yourexpedition.com, using PowerBooks donated by Apple, according to this CNN report.

The journey began on the opposite end of the landmass from the McMurdo Research Station, where it ended some 94 days later. At least one PowerBook was a part of their 500 pounds of gear, and its hardiness given the extreme elements in that remote part of the globe surprised the explorers. The latest PowerBook G4 Titanium, which has similar performance characteristics of the last few series of PowerBooks, is rated to operate at 50 degrees to 95 degrees Fahrenheit. It's rated to be stored at a greater range, -40 to 116 degrees Fahrenheit. The explorers reported that the machines functioned at -34 degrees.

Many questions come to mind when you think about using a PowerBook on a 94 day expedition, especially an uncountable number of miles away from any conventional power source. The equipment list on the expedition site helps explain some things. Here's their tech supply list:

Navigation, safety and communications equipment: global positioning satellite (GPS) satellite navigation sets, photovoltaic solar collector, compasses, maps, EPIRB (Emergency Position Indication Rescue Beacon), an Apple G3 Powerbook, two-way radio, high-frequency radio, cameras including digital and video, film and a satellite global text messaging unit.

MadsonLine Gives Sneak Peek at G4 Prototype Power Accessories 

Our friends at MadsonLine gave us the scoop on their G4 PowerBook power accessory plans. This information will be officially announced at Macworld Tokyo in three days. The two pictures below are the G4 versions of their flagship products, the Micro-Adapter and Auto/Air Adapter.

These are only prototypes, shipping versions will differ slightly. They'll both have MadsonLine's trademark space-saving right angle plug. The G4 Micro-Adapter will have a different hue, probably graphite.

Furthermore, MadsonLine is also preparing to offer a conversion plug for any AC adapter that worked with the PowerBook 1400 through the latest G3 machines that will allow those power sources to plug into the G4 Titanium PowerBook. Expected retail price on this converter will be about one third the price of a new adapter.. Again, all of this information is pre-release. They expect to give more details on Wednesday in Japan. They plan to begin accepting pre-orders in March.
What do you think? Sound off in the PBZone.com Forum.

Our Macworld Tokyo Thoughts

A lot of people thought our teasers for the above information regarding Reader Appreciation Day was referring to any information we had on Macworld Tokyo rumors.

We're posting less and less rumors these days. While we post the occasional tidbit that we're able to confirm (and we believe we've done quite well in the past), we're certainly hesitant to post anything in the current atmosphere; the cold hard truth is that most Apple employees respect their NDAs, like their jobs, and truly hate to see rumors leak that hurt the company, particularly in the form of people always waiting for the next product in the pipeline rather than buying the current offerings.

That said, we do have a few ideas/predictions about the show on Wednesday, none of which are based on anything more than our few years of experience. For one, new iMacs will most likely be there and they'll be in totally new enclosures if they do show up. Extrapolating from San Francisco, you can bet there'll be CDRWs in at least some of the new iMac models, though there are currently no slot-load CDRW drives out there, so maybe Apple has another never-before-seen SuperDrive type mechanism out there.

As for new iBooks, we don't have information one way or the other. Today's Monday and none of the "mainstream" rumors sites have a shred of information either. Keep in mind the iBook line ramps up to 466 MHz, 33 MHz shy of the top-of-the-line, just-introduced PowerBook G4s. While of course the G4 is generally regarded as more powerful than the G3, it wouldn't look so good in what we call the "CompUSA Test." Someone walks into CompUSA, sees a candy colored cheaper iBook outpacing the $3500 PowerBook and decides Apple's got everything backwards.

Lastly, Steve Jobs will probably either mention "incredible demand" or an exact number of G4 Titanium sales, half as a boast, and half as an apology for the still-constrained shipping status of these machines. We'll be covering the show to the best of our ability (the webcast looks to be cancelled, Apple pulled the page detailing it down) and we'll have any information for you as soon as possible. For now, we suggest sitting back, relaxing, and letting Steve Jobs hold court once again.
What do you think? Sound off in the PBZone.com Forum.