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June 8th through 15th Archives

Thursday, June 12th 2003 12:28 CDT

Apple 867 PBG4 Refurb for $1699

Apple's offering the 867 MHz Combo drive PowerBook G4 for $1699 with free shipping. According to DealMac, that's the best price available by $250, but sales tax is charged in some areas.

Wednesday, June 11th 2003 11:34 CDT

Acme Made Sponsors PBZone, Increases Reader-only Discount

We'd like to welcome Acme Made to the stable of PBZone sponsors. You might recall our review of one of their bags a couple weeks back and the readers-only discount they offered.

They've bumped the discount to 10% and it will run through at least August 1st. To score the discount, use code "PBZ513" on their online ordering page. It's the only discount available anywhere on their products. Right now they offer the "Slim" bag for PowerBooks from the 12" through the 17" and a line of protective "iCovers" for the top case and LCD portion of your PowerBook, and they expect to be introducing new products soon. Check everything out here.

Readers' PowerBook News

Our challenge to send news--any news--about PowerBooks in yesterday netted a few reader emails:

Apparently; Kirk Nugent, a spoken word artist and motivational speaker, has a new video out. page has a couple of shots of a TIPB that was used on the road.

http://www.innervisionsproductions.com/news/Kirk/kirk-road.html

While it is very likely that the PowerPC 970 will be announced at the WWDC, keep in mind that this came out a week ago...

"Speculation that Motorola may soon cease to be a supplier of processors to Apple may be premature. The chip maker yesterday said it had successfully implemented low-k dielectric materials in its 0.18 micron silicon-on-insulator (SOI) processors, bringing an estimated 20 per cent speed bump to the PowerPC line. Motorola expects to roll out the process on its 0.13 micron chips this month..."

What do I think this means? I am really not sure what will happen to the iBook as I am fairly sure they want to keep it a G3 computer. However, I bet these will go into the powerbooks to ramp up speeds and get rid of the heat problems users are talking about, especailly with their 12" books. The 970 will probably eventually make it to the laptop, but Apple isn't half as far behind in the laptop scene as they are w/ desktops...

And last, a question from a reader:

I would like to ask questions on rumors that I keep hearing about it. That there will be a new update for 15inch powerbook! Is this true? How long this rumors would last? I can't wait!!!

So now it's 12 days to WWDC and we'll have to wait and see.

Tuesday, June 10th 2003 13:24 CDT

PowerBook Medic Signs on as Advertiser, Offers PBZone Discount

We're pleased to welcome PowerBook Medic back as a PBZone advertiser. They offer parts, repair guides, repair services, and PowerBook accessories for sale. They've recently revamped their website, so take a look if you haven't been there lately.

They'd also like to offer $5 off any order to PBZone readers only, with no minimum purchase price. Use coupon code PBZONE when ordering and you'll automatically be given the discount.

Fast Forward to WWDC....Please

There's just really zero news regarding PowerBooks. We challenge our readership to send us an interesting news item anywhere about our portable Macintoshes, because we couldn't find any. Send it in to info@pbzone.com. Other than pricing news at PB Central, there's zero happening. It's worse than the usual doldrums heading into a summer trade show.

With the demise of MWNY, it seems that WWDC will take on a greater role as far as product introductions go. This eWeek article claims the PPC 970 will debut at the show inside new PowerMacs. Here's hoping a new 15" PowerBook shows up alongside those new desktops....only thirteen days to WWDC.

Monday, June 9th 2003 06:42 CDT

Bag Recommendations

Reader Robert writes:

I just returned from my local staples store, where I found (and purchased) a nice PB case - its brushed aluminum briefcase style and is made by Vanguard. But its really nice and small - 2.25 X 11 X 16.5 inches. Holds my 15" PB GHz with an adjustable partition and a hold-down strap, and has room for a spare battery, AC brick ( I carry the iGoJuice AC/12v Auto/Aircraft plug), micro mouse, a few cables, etc. Might even hold the 17" - it's 15.25 inches wide inside. It has an aluminum handle with rubber pad and comes with D-rings on both sides for the includes shoulder strap.

And it cost me $48.95!

here's the link to the cases that staples has:

http://vanguardusa.com/cart/businesscases/classics.cfm

the brushed aluminum case previously mentioned is, unfortunately, just shy of being exactly the right size to snugly fit the 17" powerbook. if you tore out some of the padding, it would fit, but this would defeat the purpose of having it in the case, wouldn't it? also, even if you could fit the 17" in this case, there would be absolutely no room for anything else, except for perhaps a few sheets of paper. i am surprised that Robert was able to fit as much as he did into this case, because when i tried it with a 15" pb i couldn't fit anything else into it. for the 12" pb, though, this would probably be a perfect match.

i purchased the vga-7616 from staples for the 17 inch pb. it fits great, and i have room for plenty of accessories as well. it has a nice, military/industrial looking finish and doesn't get marked up as quickly as the brushed aluminum case (the slimline aluminum case is pretty, but is usually marked up just from people taking it down from the shelf at staples, so it would get trashed with just a little regular use). its also very inexpensive (i think 50-60 bucks, but i don't remember exactly).

for anyone that is looking for a quality hard case for their pb and a bunch of accessories, i highly recommend the vga-7616. i was uncomfortable with the possibility of my pb getting squeezed/cracked from being in a soft pack during travel, so this ends up being the best solution, even if not the most elegant.

Then reader Matthew sent in another suggestion:

I saw that you list a lot of laptop bags on your site. I didn't see any mention of bags from the K2 snowboard company. I personally have their Jiver urban pack, and I saw some other nice-looking bags on their site. I love my Jiver backpack which easily fits my laptop (padded area), iPod, and all sorts of cables and accessories in the "CD player" pouch as well as my checkbook, passport, pencils, pens in another pouch. It also has a semi-hard area with CD sleeves, and then the main area which can fit lots of books.

K2's packs are here.

Illustrated PB12" HD Upgrade Guide

Over at Accelerate Your Mac!, they've published an illustrated guide to upgrading your 12" PowerBook G4's hard drive.

Wednesday, June 4th 2003 17:08 CDT

Apple Updates Keynote, iMovie, and Bluetooth

Keynote's ability to import and export PowerPoint presentations has been improved, along with increased performance and optimizations, among other enhancements.

iMovie 3.0.3 takes advantage of the recent QuickTime update, providing greater performance and stability.

And finally, Bluetooth 1.2.1 is recommended for the recent iSync 1.1 update and includes and provides increased stability and support for numerous Symbian OS-based phones.