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June 16th through 23rd Archives

Monday, June 23rd 2003 12:07 CDT

UPDATE: 14:42: Stream Posted

You can watch for yourself here!

WWDC Keynote Live Notes

• 1,000,000th iPod shipping today
• iTunes Music Store-sold 5 million songs as of last Saturday
• Played an Osama Bin Laden parody of an iTMS ad
• 5M downloads of Safari
• Safari 1.0 released today
• Safari SDK announced; embeds web functionality in apps
• 7 million active users; 6,000 native applications, "we've got a kick ass OS"
• "Today, Jaguar is over...because we're previewing Panther 10.3"
• Over 100 major new features
• New Finder that's "user centric"
• "Fast searching added," labels added, "dynamic network browsing."
• Contextual "action button" that shows all available actions for an item.
• iDisk is updated--major changes include keeping the files locally for easy access and regular sychronization to Apple's servers.
• New feature called "Expose," which minimizes all open windows into little tiles so you can see everything that's going on and select which one you'd like.
• FireVault: automatic on-the-fly encryption of the home directory
• Mail's improved with better speed, Safari rendering built in, Faxing built into every print dialog box
• Pixlet-a new QuickTime code with HD-quality and amazing compression.
• Preview-fastest PDF reader in the world
• Faster user switching is now available. Steve called it the "one feature where Windows beat us"
• Pro Font Management called "FontBook", effectively replaces FontReserve or Suitcase
• iChat has audio and video chat now, video works with any FireWire camera, any built-in or USB mic. Demoed the videoconferencing with Phil Schiller and a guy in France.
• Showed demo of an incoming call--it's Apple's newest board member, Al Gore. Free beta of iChat AV available today and it's standards based. Works on Panther or Jag.
• Developer preview of Panther available today, will be shipping by the end of the year for $129.
• iSight FW camera made for use with iChat AV with 640x480 resolution, auto exposure, and a built in mic for $149.
• Powerful new developer tool called XCode included free with Panther.
• And "one more thing": "some of you noticed a funny thing on our website"
• Reaction fell into three camps: "too good to be true", "great, if it is true," and "brilliant marketing." It was a mistake, but it is true. "We are delivering today the world's fastest personal computer."
• PowerPC G5, 64 bit processor, world's first for the desktop, runs all 32 bit apps natively, runs at up to 2 GHz today, 1 GHz frontside bus, fastest FSB ever, built for full SMP.
• 400 Mhz 128bit DDR memory, AGP 8x graphics, 133 MHz PCI-X, Serial ATA storage, FW 800, FW 400, USB 2, gig ethernet, optical and analog audio in/out, 4X SuperDrive on all models.
• All aluminum enclosure, FW and USB on the front. 4 thermal zones (power supply, processor bay, in/out cards, storage area) 9 fans. All fans are speed controlled independently, used precisely where they're needed.
• Twice as quiet as current G4.
• 3 models: 1.6 Ghz/256MB/80GB/$1999, 1.8GHz/512MB/160GB/$2399, dual 2GHz/512MB/160GB/$2999. All models shipping in August.
• "Within 12 months" a 3 GHz model will be shipping
• And that's it!

Wednesday, June 18th 2003 14:13 CDT
Days to WWDC: 5

PBZone Finally Announces UJDA710 Combo Drive Availability

At long last, we've finally found a supplier that was able to send us a small batch of Matsushita UJDA710 "Combo" DVD/CDRW drives. You might recall we had two previous attempts that went basically nowhere after searching for some time.

The price for the bare drive is $220 if you're comfortable with taking the caddy off your Lombard or Pismo's current DVD drive and putting it on the new Combo unit. If you'd like us to do it, the price is just bumped up to $250. All the details, specifications, ordering information, etc. are available on the page here. If you have any questions about compatibility or ordering, please send a note to info@pbozne.com.

Bag Sale Continues

We have four bags left in our charity bag sale and four have been sold so far. Check out the ones left here. We've picked the charity--it'll be to Heifer International. Details on this charity can be found here.

Tuesday, June 17th 2003 14:13 CDT
Days to WWDC: 6

MacMice Releases iBreeze

We received this PR this morning about MacMice's latest product:

Today, MacMice announces the release of its iBreeze acrylic cooling stand for Apple Powerbook computers.

The iBreeze is designed to address the heat issue experienced by many Powerbook owners, and to do so with a product that nicely complements the Apple silver/gray appearance. It is crafted from clear acrylic, has to low-speed, very quiet fans, and is powered by the Powerbook's USB port... so no AC adapter is required.

The iBreeze is available for US$24.99 today at the MacMice Workspace Products Co. web site. ( http://www.macmice.com/ibreeze.html )

Got $250? Want to Spend That on Upgrading Your AirPort?

We also received this press release, which advertises a $250 service to upgrade the antenna on your existing Snow or Graphite AirPort Base Station:

WICHITA, Kan. --6/16/03-- QuickerTek Inc. has announced the availability of a new external antenna upgrade for Apple Airport wireless Base Stations. This new product adds significant range and speed to Apple wireless networks ­ ideal for those network installations with needs that exceed the standard wireless capability. This antenna upgrades the customer's existing Airport Base Station.

QuickerTek receives the customer's Airport Base Station and then adds a 5Dbi omni antenna that increases the effective line-of-sight range to 500 yards. The QuikerTek Omni Antenna upgrade is intended for the Snow and Graphite Base Stations.

QuickerTek modifies the customer's Base Station, adding the Omni antenna while guaranteeing a 24 hour "receive to ship" turnaround, so the impact to customer productivity is minimized.

Rick Estes, president of QuickerTek, said, " This Base Station Antenna System smokes the competiton and provides Apple's wireless networking with increased range and speed - the two things our customers want most."

This upgrade works with both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X and requires no special software upgrades or drivers.

Pricing
The Airport Base Station Antenna has a list price is $250. (There is an advance exchange option that costs $350 and then provides a $100 rebate paid after the customer sends in a working base station, for a net cost of $250).

Monday, June 16th 2003 13:36 CDT
Days to WWDC: 7

Send Your Kids to Apple Camp!

Apple's retail stores have a new program this summer for kids in grades 1-9 called Apple Camp. All the details can be found here. It's free of charge--to those who buy a new Mac this Summer.

Maine iBook Program a Success

This article describes the progress of Maine's program to give an iBook to each public school student. The state plans to expand the program from the current 17,000 iBooks to 33,000 units next year, adding 8th grade students to the current 7th grade student program.

Friday, June 13th 2003 13:28 CDT

Dr.Bott and TEN Technology Introduce Innovative naviPod Wireless Remote for iPod

We thought this product was pretty cool and somewhat reasonably priced at $50:

naviPod is the first wireless remote for the iPod consisting of a receiver that plugs into the top of the iPod and a 5-button infrared remote control that produces the same functions as the Apple iPod wired remote.

"naviPod is all about accessing your music how and where you want it." said Eric Prentice, CEO of Dr. Bott LLC, "This product is innovative, elegant, and intuitive. It is always a pleasure to bring a great product like NaviPod to market!"

"naviPod is really going to foster a change in the idea of stereo systems. With the naviPod and a pair of speakers, the iPod becomes a true alternative to the conventional stereo system," said John Lin, CEO and founder of TEN Technology. P> naviPod was specifically designed to allow the Apple iPod user to control audio functions from across the room. Just plug in a pair of self-powered speakers, or connect to a stereo receiver/amplifier, and the iPod becomes the centerpiece of a digital entertainment system. Play/Pause, Next, Previous and Volume, are all right at your fingertips.

Orange Micro Debuts Bluetooth Adapter

Another choice in Bluetooth adapters has reached the market. Orange Micro has announced their Blue2 adapter which retails for $40. It requires Mac OS X 10.2 or newer.