Portable News
 PB Zone

 iMac News
 Daily iMac

 Forum
 MacDebate.com

 Gaming News
 Mac 3D Dot Com

 Mac OS X
 X Appeal

 
 Quotes

 
 

April 8th through 15th Archives

Tuesday, April 14th 2003 21:02 PDT

Safari Public Beta 2 Released

Apple today released the second version of Safari for public consumption. The major features are the long-awaited tabbed browsing, along with auto-fill forms. To go along with these high profile additions are the usual bunch of bug fixes and increased support for webpages.

Safari can be downloaded from Apple here.

Adobe Announces Roadmap for Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign

eWeek is reporting that Adobe has announced plans for three major products: Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. By the fourth quarter of this year there will be major new versions of each product. That will bring Photoshop to version 8, Illustrator to version 11, and InDesign to version 3. For more information on the updates, check out the article.

Monday, April 14th 2003 10:49 CDT

PowerBook Stands Safe?

Reader Daniel asks:

I'm considering buying a stand for my Powerbook (12"). One like you have mentioned on your site. But I find myself asking the question, of whether such a stand will shorten the life of my PBooks HD or/and SuperDrive.

Why? Well, remember when Steve introduced the new iMacs? I can remember him saying, that they had experimented with different designs and, although they would have liked to, putting the HD right behind Monitor and it thus being on an angle, the performance (or was it life?) of the HD was dramatically reduced. (I'm not sure anymore, whether he was talking about HD's or opticals) See what I'm getting at?

I'm hoping you might have more info on the subject... if the HD's and/or optical drives life/performance of iBooks/PowerBooks is negatively affected by use of one of these stands, then I think people should be warned about them. If not, maybe that's worth a mention too. I may not be the only one with doubts.

I would ask a vendor of one of these stands, but I sincerely doubt that I would get an objective answer.

The 20th Anniversary Macintosh used a slower CD-ROM drive than was available at the time because the company wanted to use it vertically.

Stands are okay for PowerBooks and iBooks because the machines are engineered to be operated at any angle.

17" Noise Followup

We've only received this corroborating report of 17" PowerBook noise so far:

If you are talking about the horrible scraping pulsing fan noise that you hear when you hit the graphic card hard, my 17 has it, and nobody at apple seems to have anything to say about it. I was actually getting ready to return it until I saw these posts.

Other than that, the thing is amazingly quiet

Apple+Vivendi+Everyone Other Record Company+Rumor=Links

MacNN rounds up the mass media news articles about Apple's apparent plans to launch a music service with all five major labels on board and possibly buy an interest in Vivendi's Universal music group.

Friday, April 11th 2003 03:28 CDT

Variable Temp Control Missing on 12" PowerBook?

Reader Adrian notes:

Did you see in the dev notes for the newer powerbooks that the 12 inch model seems to lack the temperature control circuitry?

p28 of the 17" powerbook dev note says: The PowerBook G4 17-inch computer has a variable speed fan control circuit and a thermal circuit that will force the unit into reduce-processor mode at 72 degrees Celsius and into sleep mode if the processor temperature exceeds 79 degrees Celsius.

p30 of the G4 15-inch (nov 2002) dev note says The PowerBook G4 computer has a new variable speed fan control circuit and a new thermal circuit that will force the unit to sleep if the processor temperature exceeds 85 degrees Celsius. The circuit remains active during sleep so that it can continue to poll the temperature.

but on p25 of the 12-inch dev note, under power control IC, there is no-comment about temp control circuit. going by the number of complaints about the 12-inch model and heat, it could be a significant omission.

We continue to receive reports that the 12" PowerBook is extremely hot to the touch. We assume that because the "problem" is widespread, that it's not really a problem at all in the technical sense--your PowerBook will continue to function correctly--but it can be uncomfortable to the touch.

WWDC Preview Video Posted

Apple has posted a "teaser" type video previewing what's expected at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference June 23-27 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco.

C|Net Reviews 17" PowerBook

Check out C|Net's review of the PowerBook G4 17".

17" "Static Noise" Emitting From Keyboard

We've received more reports that the 17" PowerBook makes a "static noise" seeming to come from "under the keyboard." We mention this to ask our readers whether anyone's found a fix for this noise on their 17" PowerBook. We'd love to share a solution with everyone. If you have noticed anything that makes it better or worse or go away completely, drop an email to info@pbzone.com.

OWC Clearance Sale

If you're lucky enough to need any of this stuff, you could score a deal at Other World Computing's clearance sale. There's all kinds of random things from 75 cents to almost $300, so you'll have to check it out to see what's available.

Wednesday, April 9th 2003 14:42 CDT

QuickerTek Announces PBG4 and Pismo AirPort Antenna Upgrades

We think many users might be interested in these innovative new products:

WICHITA, Kan. --04/08/03-- QuickerTek has just announced two new antennas that boost wireless connectivity up to 50% for all [APPL] Apple PowerBook Titanium G4 users and PowerBook G3 'Pismo' portables with Airport cards. These new antennas are shipping now for a retail price of $79.95 for the Ti Whip and $39.95 for the Ti Antenna.

Wireless reception for PowerBook Titanium users in particular has been a sore spot since first implemented. Insufficient range and inconsistent network connections are common complaints. These new QuickerTek antennas work with the Airport card by extending the antenna outside of the PowerBook case, boosting range and connection stability.

Both antennas are compatible with Mac OS X and 9.x and require no drivers or software installation. A CD of relevant software is included for convenience.

Installation Users open the PowerBook, exposing the Airport card, remove the cable connection to the internal antennas, connect the new antenna wire, thread this wire through the PCMCIA slot opening and then attach the cable to the external antenna stub of the Ti Antenna which resides in the PCMCIA slot opening or to the Ti Whip antenna velcro'd to the top half of the PowerBook case. Use of either of these new antennas prevent the use of the PCMCIA slot for other purposes. Removing the Airport card from its original slot and placing it in the PCMCIA slot is not an option due to the engineering of the Airport card.

The Ti Antenna is only as wide as the PCMCIA slot and less than 1/2 inch thick, extending out from the PowerBook. This antenna is ideal for those who use their PowerBook as more of a desktop replacement. The Ti Whip antenna is more convenient and can be oriented so that reception is optimized for varying environments - ideal for those who are mobile a majority of the time. A small patch of Velcro(r) fixes the taller antenna to the top of the PowerBook clamshell. This provides the flexibility to reposition the antenna for optimum wireless reception.

These new QuickerTek wireless antennas can be purchased from TechnoWarehouse at http://www.technowarehousellc.com or http://www.quickertek.com for complete details and for product information.

Tuesday, April 8th 2003 14:27 CDT

Battery Life Tips

Reader Dan has put together a site here that lists ways you can improve your PowerBook's battery life.

17" Fan Issue

We assume this is a single-unit problem, but we'll throw it out there anyway to see if anyone else has experienced this with a new 17" PowerBook:

received my 17" powerbook today from a reseller here in Singapore. Wonderful machine that had me really awestruck right up to the point when after a while the fan started kicking in. Obviously a manufacturing error because the really loud noise sounds like the fan is constantly hitting against something. Also quite audible is a constant static sound emitted from under the keyboard. Did you have any reports on that so far ?

A Cheaper Way

Reader Chris noticed something about a press release we posted last week:

I noticed MacMice's "iTilt" display stand on your site Tuesday. At first, I thought this might be an April Fools joke, but it's still out there, so I thought I'd drop you a note.

Having worked at a bookstore through most of my high school years, I'm ridiculously familiar with these things...you might want to check out http://www.shopbrodart.com/shop/cb/Product.asp?pgID=253 before you encourage anyone to buy these for $12.99. ;)

Have a good one,
-Chris

Note: Notice they come in a box of 12 ;)