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Thursday, March 6th 2003 08:17 CDT

More Than You Ever Wanted to Know About Airport Base Stations

This site, which we linked in part last week, has all the information you could ever want about Apple Airport base stations. Specifically, it has the antenna options for the Extreme base station as well as pull-apart pictures, an analysis of whether you should upgrade to the Extreme unit from 11 Mbit wireless, and more. It's worth a bookmark for any Airport user.

Mitsumi Joins Bluetooth Ranks

Mitsumi has added its USB-based Bluetooth products to the growing list of companies offering basically the same thing at the same price. However, there are a couple of things to note about their offerings. First, there are two "classes" of Bluetooth range, apparently, and Mitsumi offers a 100 meter range "Class 1" unit for $64 and a 10 meter range "Class 2" unit for $40.

The 100 meter unit features a "hinge up" design seen below that makes it less likely that these units would damage your USB port when accidental pressure was applied to them.

The 100 meter unit is available in "4-6 weeks" and the 10 meter unit is shipping now.

Apple Posts Scripts for Bluetooth Clicker App

Getting in on the "control your Mac with your cell phone" craze, Apple itself has posted a host of AppleScripts that work along with the $10 SonyEricsson Clicker application. They've added scripts for iTunes, Keynote, iPhoto, DVD player, QuickTime Broadcaster, "System Scripts," and Sound Studio Scripts all on this page.

Wednesday, March 5th 2003 01:02 CDT

PBMedic Rejoins Advertisers, Updates Website, Offers PBZone Deal

PowerBook Medic has rejoined the ranks of PBZone.com advertisers. If you need parts for your PowerBook, a repair for an ailing machine, or any of their other services, we hope you check them out because they've been very supportive of the site.

Their new advertising campaign comes in conjunction with a revamped website that includes 136 products and services along with a new design, from like-new full PowerBooks to the smallest part for a repair.

To celebrate the re-opening of their online store, PB Medic is offering a $5 discount off a $100 purchase. To get the deal during the month of March only, use coupon code PBZONE while checking out. Thanks to PB Medic for the PBZone reader-only deal.

Amazon Sponsorship

We've added an affiliate link to Amazon in the rotating banner ads on the site. We get a cut of all purchases made through the link, so if you're buying from them anyway, be sure to go through us. Back when Outpost.com offered a similar affiliates program, we did quite well on a few particular products such as AppleCare (Which Amazon offers), so we hope for the same success with Amazon. You can use the static image to the right at any time to click through to credit us.

Acme Made Introduces PowerBook Bag, Keyboard Cover

Acme Made, another of what seems to be a rapidly growing group of small firms making neat and stylish bags to meet the tastes of any Mac customer out there has introduced two new Mac-specific products:

San Francisco ­ Acme Made Inc. has recently introduced two new designs for the Apple G4 PowerBooks, a sleek new carrying case called, ³The Slim² and the PowerBook iCover.

The ³Slim² is Acme Madeıs new hybrid sleeve/carrying case designed specifically for Appleıs new PowerBooks but also fits Appleıs 12² iBook and the small models of the Sony Vaio. The thinly designed Slim easily fits within a larger bag or, using itıs detachable strap, carried on itıs own as a lightweight travel case. Geared towards a more discerning audience, the $85 Slim combines hi-tech materials such as rubberized, splash-proof zippers, high density foam and ballistic nylon with traditional leather handles and a stylish quilted satin lining. ³We wanted to do something a little different that looks and functions a little better than your typical computer bag,² cites Acme Madeıs Mark Loncar. Additionally, the ³Designer² Slims are limited editions featuring textiles by such notable architect/designers as Charles and Ray Eames and Verner Panton.

The PowerBook iCover is a thin sleeve designed to easily slip over the PowerBookıs display and protect it from indentations the keyboard leaves when the unit is closed. The iCover is constructed from a synthetic micro-suede that is very durable, washable, and looks great. It retails on the Acme Made site for $19.99 and comes in 12, 15 and 17² sizes.

Anyone Tried iPodCleaner?

A reader sent a link to the iPod cleaning product at, you guessed it, iPodCleaner.com. The product is cheap and claims to work. Our question is: has anyone tried it? How were your results? We think the product is likely a lot like CD scratch remover but we'd like to hear some reader results if possible. Send in your comments to info@pbzone.com.

Last Word on Tingling PowerBooks

Reader David has one final suggestion for readers who may experience a "tingling" sensation when plugged into AC power with their PowerBook:

Just a note re your "tingling" article. Electricians *do* make mistakes in wiring houses, and some of them are subtle...and dangerous. One thing I highly recommend is buying a small receptacle test device at the hardware store...it looks like a little plug with three LEDs on it and a switch. The card that comes with the device explains how to read the LEDs. The switch is a pushbutton to test GFI receptacles. I used it to track down a swapped hot/neutral problem in one of our home circuits.

Bluetooth PDA GPS Application

Reader Winsor wrote in with a Bluetooth tidbit:

The Bluetooth PDA [Palm Tungsten] you synched with your Mac now has a BlueTooth GPS available to it manufactured by Emtac. It works with Palm or Pocket PC and can be had as a package with downloadable maps from Mapopolis.

<P> http://store.palm.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1213046

Tuesday, March 4th 2003 13:20 CDT

Other Bluetooth Uses?

We've all seen how iSync allows your Mac to wirelessly communicate with Bluetooth-enabled cell phones and PDAs to screen incoming calls, synchronize data, and perform other tasks. So far, this is the only widespread use of the technology. Reader Will wants to know if printing is too far away on the Mac:

All this talk about Bluetooth phones and whatnot is great, but a very valuable application of BT for me would be wireless printing. My questions are A) does the current Apple BT implementation support this? And B) are any of the many PC-oriented BT print adapters (basically a BT card with a parallel port on it) even vaguely compatible with OSX? HP makes a BT printer, the 995c, but the specs donıt mention OSX, and the thing is $400. Snapping a $99 print adapter onto my Epson 1280 is a much more attractive idea...

Win an iPod

One of the guys working on the Wired Nomad site sent in this notice:

I thought I would pass along some news that might be of interest to your audience. Currently on wirednomad.com we are having an iPod giveaway.

You can find more information here: http://www.wirednomad.com/giveaway/index.php

Monday, March 3rd 2003 15:32 CDT

Belkin Looking for Mac Developer

A reader sent an email he received from a Product Manager at Belkin regarding that company's Bluetooth development plans, especially in regards to the Macintosh:

I've been in contact with Carlos DeToro, who is the Product Manager for KVM, Bluetooth and Peripherals at Belkin, about BT PC cards as Mac OS support. Below is our transcript of emails about this subject and his inquiry for a Mac BT Guru. I really can't help him because my geographical location (extreme Northwest California - Crescent City) doesn't support phones like the T68i and such. So I told if I can't help him, I would forward on this info to someone who could. Thanks for your help.

Ron

From: Carlos DelToro
CarlosD@belkin.com

Subject: RE: Apple Bluetooth Guru wanted

For now, It would only be products in my product line. I urgently need someone who know Apple Bluetooth.

For Instance, I would like to know which Bluetooth Profiles does Apple support and what are the next profiles for Apple that are upcoming?

Product testing would include Bluetooth (primarily), and some KVMs and Peripheral USB sharing.

Thanks

Carlos del Toro
Product Manager

Still no plans for the immediate future. We dont sell too many of the PC Cards. USB out sells every other adapter solution by a large margin. Currently we are focused on USB since it is also lower cost and more popular

Sorry for this, but writing takes a lot of development. For mac we would have to do 2 separate dev to support OS 9x and 10x