Wednesday, April 7th 1999 01:43 CDT @363UPDATE: 12:42 CDT UPDATE: 22:01

"OffTopic" Debuts

Cruise on over to our new section, titled OffTopic, a place for news that just isn't about the PowerBook, but we want to cover. Send in some comments!

Richochet Expands Network

Richochet, the high-speed wireless Internet service that previously only had coverage in the San Francisco Bay area, Seattle and Washington D.C., has expanded its service to large parts of New York according to MacCentral. The service requires purchasing a modem that connects to the serial port of your PowerBook. The service costs $29.95 a month for 28.8Kbps speeds currently, but plans for higher speeds on up to 128Kbps are in the works.

Site Notes

Well, InterNIC is just slow. So, if all goes right, the DNS records for pbzone.com should switch to pair.com today. Then you'll have the privelege of viewing a site from one of pair's two Pentium III 500 MHz machines out of their total 118 machines. Don't fear, all of pair's boxes are running FreeBSD and Apache. If you want to go ahead and access the site there, use the IP address of 216.92.39.123. And during this period of transition, send any correspondence to info@macmedianetwork.com. Also, as a side note, The 'Zone's email has been malfuctioning for about three weeks now, so if you didn't get a reply from us in an email you sent during this period, and we reply to all letters, please resend your message to info@macmedianetwork.com. Lastly, as noted yesterday, the hompage of the Mac Media Network has moved to its own space at www.macmedianetwork.com. It's certainly been a busy few days here and we again would like to thank you for your patience during this time of growth.

Late yesterday we received hot new information on the IEEE 1394 (FireWire) card for all CardBus-compliant PowerBooks. Read our report on this product.

We'll certainly have an update of the site later today, so make a note of the IP address above as they site may not be available at www.pbzone.com for the day.

Tuesday, April 6th 1999 02:02 CDT @376UPDATE: 12:45UPDATE: 14:00UPDATE: 17:16

FireWire Card Report

In this fourth and final update to the site today, we've received some brand spanking new information on Apple's CardBus FireWire PC Card. Read all about it. And remember, you read it here first!

"The Future" Posted

A new section of the site, called "The Future" has been posted. It lists all the upcoming events Apple will be doing something or participating in something. It'll be updated regularly.

Wrong Rumors on New iMacs

This is mainly a PowerBook site, but we couldn't resist posting this information we've had for about two weeks now. You've seen the rumors propagate of 333 MHz iMacs that are about to be released (Apple doesn't "introduce" speed bumps). Well, our sources peg this update as a 300 MHz bump, and the machines will have larger hard drives, something that hasn't been mentioned in the other places. You might ask, "Well...so many other places say 333 MHz." Well, if one person at News.com is fed bad information and then the usual suspects of Mac sites take that article as gospel, you arrive at the current situation. However, I encourage you to wait and see. It's a rumor business, and we're betting on our source: 300 MHz, bigger hard drive, same price.

UPDATE:

Okay, rule number one of Mac Media: check with your sources often. This above post was the information as of two weeks ago. However, with Apple's famously finicky product specficiations, they've changed. Yes, indeed, they will be 333 MHz. The hard drive will remain at 6 GB. It seems logical that they spent the extra money that the larger hard drive would cost on a faster chip. So, we're betting on our up-to-date source, 333 MHz, same hard drive, same price.

Site Notes

Depending on the famously lethargic InterNIC, PB Zone should be moving to new digs at pair.com during the day today. Faithful readers will remember that we were supposed to move just over a month ago. Well, to make a short story shorter, we didn't move. So during this time of potential outage and upheaval here at the 'Zone, we do ask you to bear with us. All email to us is replied to, so if you don't get a response and you fear your message has been lost, wait a day and send it again. All should be normal by Wednesday at the latest.

Wireless standards are like excuses, there's so many of them to choose from. However, another step has been taken on the road to a worldwide global wireless communications standard, as Qualcomm and Ericcson, two big players in the wireless field, have settled a lawsuit and agreed to a worldwide CDMA standard. CDMA, which stands for Code Division Multiple Access, is a technology that allows multiple conversations or data streams on the same frequency. It's all digitized, but talk is cheap, the transmission of data over these wireless protocols is what we're after. This agreement between Qualcomm and Ericsson brings closer the reality of one worldwide standard for wireless transfer of information.

Besides the great content at the member sites of the new Mac Media Network, there are two great articles at PowerBook Central and the other from Laptop Guide. PowerBook Central covers upgrades for PowerBooks "From the 100 to the G3", and the Laptop Guide has a great review of the VST Zip expansion bay drive.

Every now and then we still get feedback on our PowerBook bags section, and this particular email was particularly useful:

Hi, I use a not-quite-bag that is great! It is a neoprene enclosing type case which is specially made for macs. The company, named Courierware, http://www.courierwareusa.com, makes different sizes for all sorts of different Macs, including the PowerBook G3 Series 14.1". The bag is fairly no frills, but is great for switching my computer between innocuous looking non-computer bags, especially my courier bag from the same company. The price is about $50, and so far has been worth it. Plus, the company is tiny based in Cambridge, MA, and I love supporting them. This bag is a great choice for economy and keeping your PB inconspicuous. Thanks for having a great site!

This company truly is cool, having started out in 1985 when they couldn't find a good bag to use for their bicycle courier business. A similar company is Spire, which makes highly durable, attractive bags.

Don Bell, a special education teacher in Ohio, has been attempting to salvage a classroom full of PowerBooks for his kids to use. He's almost there with most of his machines working. He has one last request from the generous PowerBook community:

Hello again; I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that has helped me reach this point. I now have 8 1xx's up and running one 2xx and one 5xx. The only problem now is that I do not have enough power cords for all of them. I need five 1xx power cords and one for the 5xx ( I borrowed a friends to test it ). Once I find these items I think that my class will have enough powerbooks for now. I am also still looking for one colored screen for either 180c, 270c or 520c. If I get one colored one running that will be enough, just want them to see the different things they can do with a colored powerbook. Again thank you to all of you that have helped me reach this point. I can't say enough about your generosity.

If you can help Don out, let us know.

Monday, April 5th 1999 15:30 CDT @400

PB G3 Upgrades

Again, reiterating what The PB Zone has been saying since Wallstreet, then PDQ's (Wallstreet II) introduction, Apple and third party processor upgrades for the machine are highly unlikely. MOSR covers this today, but doesn't bring any new information to the table in regards to Wallstreet, but does mention that 101/Lombard will have a more standard motherboard architecture that will possibly allow third party upgrades to be more easy.

Of course, you know that since the Macintosh ROMs that are necessary for the machine to run are located on the processor daughtercard itself, and since any upgrade manufacturer would have to license the ROMs from a reluctant Apple, upgrades for the Wallstreet/PDQ line of machines are not on the top of the list for upgrade manufacturers. They'd rather manufacture upgrades for the desktop Macintoshes that are cheaper and more profitable. However, Mac OS X is a ray of hope, as it does not require the full complement of ROMs that Mac OS 8.x does to start up and function. While it does require a "Boot ROM," there is the possibility that Mac OS X will allow upgrades to be manufactured for the Wallstreet/PDQ line of PBs.

The PowerBook Zone Joins Mac Media Network

The PowerBook Zone is proud to be a charter member of the Mac Media Network, an association of six Mac-oriented websites dedicated to bringing you the best news and information every day. To see all the members of the network, you need only look to the right. The PB Zone is excited about this opportunity for all involved and encourages everyone to visit each of the member sites. Some may be familiar to you and some are sure to be new as two of the sites launched within the last three weeks. Lastly, if you have a site and want to join the network, send email to any of the network members.

The Mac Media Network has taken much work to get off the ground and there truly is no PowerBook news early today, so look out for an update later today.

Sunday, April 4th 1999 --:-- CST @---

No Update

Saturday, April 3rd 1999 --:-- CST @---

No Update

Friday, April 2nd 1999 17:00 CST @999

April Fools Fallout

Whoooo, man, sure got a lot of you guys on that one! Not to say that it can't work the other way around. Having read the joke on the site, one reader wrote in saying there were new "PowerBook price drops at the Apple Store." That reader promptly received an email from The PowerBook Zone saying "I looked all over, where are they?" The reply to that email was "Gotcha." Here's one humorous reader email about the joke:

I wan a phlet you know I blit lyour -- esbluse me -- OK - now that I have removed the hook, line and sinker I wanted to let you know how successful your April Fool's Joke was. -- at least in my case!!! I read as far the price and immediately picked up the phone to let a friend know about the great new release and unbelievable price. Right as he answered the phone my eyes finally got to the part about April Fool's. Good One Guys!!!!!!

Think about what's on your hard drive. Is any of that information important? It could be gone in an instant. The risk of disk failure, damage, or theft is especially high with a portable computer. One reader wrote in with his recent experience:

I just had my powerbook stolen from my car this Monday. The stinking bastard broke the window and grabbed the computer bag (I thought it was stuffed far enough under the seat, apparently not). The worst part is that the bag containing my old, decrepit PowerBook 5300c (which since being knocked off my table by my cat, was flaky anyway) also contained 3 years of research notes for my thesis. I will recover, but this is certainly a setback.

The only good news out of this has been my insurance company, their auto insurance covered the car window for free (not surprising), and my renter's insurance covered the computer, I should be getting a new PowerBook G3 sometime soon to replace the stolen machine. Nice, but I would still rather have my research notes back.

So, in the future I will NEVER leave my computer in the car, and I will always make sure to have homeowners/renters insurance.

The moral of the story? Have insurance and back up your hard drive.

While it's not really an PowerBook issue, the MS GUID identifier in all MS Office 98 files is still something everyone would like to have removed. Here's one reader's feedback on his experiences with the remover patch MS has posted:

Got the patch and d/l'd it and started playing around. It seems to work as advertised - using the "Word Count" now eliminates the GUID in older documents, but with one caveat: DO NOT DO A SAVE AS and then simply click Replace. It WON'T WORK! You need to save it as SOMETHING ELSE and then go into the Finder, delete the original, and rename the newly saved document to the old name. A real PITA if you ask me...

Word no longer embeds a GUID in new files once it's been patched. That's a good thing. However, there are a couple things you should be aware of still. Even WITH THE PATCH, Word still inserts a LOT of extraneous Eudora-related information on my machine IF WORD DOCUMENTS ARE CREATED WITH EUDORA OPEN. So the easy workaround here is quit Eudora before you use Word. Another big PITA...thanks a lot, M$. How about you just give me the 3rd degree and record everything about the interview? Oh, and tap my phone line and read all my mail while you're at it.

Incidentally, does anyone know of a way to manually edit out the GUID without messing up the document? I've tried to delete it and change it (from within BBEdit) to something else. Both caused the document to be unopenable from within Word. There must be a checksum somewhere for the GUID.

Apparently, the patch also prevents Excel 98 from embedding a GUID as well. I created a new Excel document and it doesn't have the GUID either. I did find the GUID in older, pre-patch Excel documents.

All documents were viewed in BBEdit 4.5 and created with a Microsoft-officially-patched copy of Office 98.

The reader brings up some interesting issues with extraneous information still being put into documents, as well as how to manually edit out the GUID. If you can add to this discussion, please do.

Thursday, April 1st 1999 02:30 CST @365

Apple Announces Consumer Laptop, to be called Performa Portable

Today is Apple's birthday, having been founded 22 years ago in the famous garage story. Thus, it does not surprise anyone that Steve Jobs, known for his keen sense of drama and hype, chose today to introduce one of the most important products in Apple's history.

In a surprise early announcement at the Flint Center on Apple's Cupertino headquarters, Steve Jobs unveiled the Consumer Portable, which will oddly revive the Performa product line, as it is named the "Performa Portable." The machine has the same specs as expected, with a 300 MHz processor, 64 MB of RAM, 20X CD ROM drive, 6 GB HD, 11.4" TFT display, 56K modem, and touchpad. However, besides its case being available in all five colors of the most recent iMac, there are no special features for this machine that were hoped for. No handwriting recognition, no wireless Internet, no flip screen, and no hand crank. This machine is truly geared towards the consumer in its no-frills style, and will be priced at $1299 for consumers, $1199 for education. You can order one at the Apple Store now, where they have pictures of the smallish machine.

True, today is Apple Computer's birthday, having been founded 22 years ago in the famous garage, on April 1st, 1977. April Fool's Day. Thus, you have figured out by now that Apple is not about to release anything named the "Performa Portable," and that it's only a joke. If you like the name "Performa Portable," the staff of The PowerBook Zone would like you to end your life, quietly Again, this IS a joke, and we wouldn't like it if 20 readers all call the Apple Store wondering where their Blueberry Performa Portable is. Thanks for reading!

Either this reader knows, or is guessing what the White House really uses for its computer platform:

While there are a few Mac systems at the White House, most critical systems are running on a flavor of UNIX. They need the security, and power that UNIX can provide. OSX anyone?

But they do use some Windows 95, that's how they lost those FBI files...

Many of you wrote in with explanations for the "DVD Video Jaggies" that were noted yesterday. The issue is caused by a combination of the nature of the LCD screen and the resolution you have it set at, as well as the size of the DVD window itself. There will be a full report on this today or tomorrow.

Written/Edited/Published by Doug B. Landry
Logo by Jon Iverson
Apple, Mac, Macintosh, Mac OS,The Apple Store, and Powerbook are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.
©1998 Doug B. Landry. All rights reserved. All or part may not be reproduced or distributed without written permission.