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July 16th through 23rd Archives

Tuesday, July 23rd 2002 10:30 CDT

PowerBook Processor Upgrade Responses

Before Macworld, we sent out a call for reader experiences with PowerBook processor upgrades. The responses were a little long to fit on the front page, so we collected them on a dedicated page here.

MS Pulls Entourage Conduit--Reader Experiences

Continuing in the vein of things-we-asked-readers-to-comment-on-before-MWNY: readers responded with their thoughts on the MS Entourage "conduit" for Palm Desktop released about a week and a half ago and since pulled by MS for investigation of "technical issues."

We installed the Entourage Conduit in all our Macs and Powerbooks without a hitch. The installer even moves the Palm Conduits to a disabled conduit folder and replaces them with the Entourage conduit.

We crossed our fingers when we hit the Hotsync button. Again, the entire process went flawlessly. The only issues were in the form of some duplicate entries and contacts resulting from months of not being to sync.

Being able to Hotsync eliminates a major hassle that has lasted since upgrading to Office X after its release. It's the price one must pay to have the latest stuff.

---

I've downloaded and installed the conduit yesterday and it works OK with my Visor Edge. The conduit has issue with syncing calendar items that are in the past and it seems from posts in the Entourage newsgroup it is a common problem. Not just for Visor only. Apart from that everything works fine and the syncing is pretty quick after the first initial one. I guess I am the lucky one as there are lots of story of sync hanging in the middle of updating Date Book, etc.

Monday, July 22nd 2002 12:57 CDT

Final MWNY 02 Gallery Posted

Our last gallery from Friday's show is posted here.

We'll be back to our normal news schedule tomorrow. Enjoy the gallery!

Friday, July 19th 2002 12:53 EDT

MacWorld NY 2002 Gallery Two Posted

Our second gallery has been posted today.

There is precious little PowerBook news at this show. Despite its relatively small installed base, many exhibitors have chosen the iPod as a focus of their product offerings. For example, BookEndz produces the only docking stations for iBooks and PowerBooks, but have chosen to also market several iPod docking stations and iPod "skins" at the show, without focusing on their PB/iBook offerings.

Hoodman USA is showing their usual collection of sun-shields for LCD displays.

Both Sonnet and PowerLogix are showing their respective PowerBook processor upgrades, but it seems the new NewerTech was put back together again too recently to score a booth at the show.

We're headed back out to the show floor now to see if there's anything else for PowerBook fans...

Thursday, July 18th 2002 13:38 EDT

MacWorld NY 2002 Gallery One Posted

Be sure to check out our picture gallery from the keynote and show floor yesterday which is posted here. Most pictures are self-explantory, but check out the forearm of Bob LeVitus in the second image--he's got a (temporary?) blue Mac OS X tattoo on his forearm. The last picture is the best detailed shot we could get of the Pixar-rendered "fur" OS X 10.2 "Jaguar" logo.

Wednesday, July 17th 2002 11:05 EDT

Macworld NY Keynote Report

The keynote began not immediately with Steve Jobs, but with three new "switch" ads which featured two students and former Saturday Night Live alum Will Ferrell who told viewers that he was a "porn star."

Then Steve Jobs came on stage and let on that 1.7 million people had visited Apple's "Switch" website since June 10th and a company named Detto is announcing a product today named "Move2Mac" that eases the transition to Macintosh.

Visitors to Apple Stores equal the attendance of 2 Macworlds per week, or 100 Macworlds. Apple's New York SoHo store opens tomorrow, its 32nd. At the Corner of Prince and Green St. It's really beautiful with a interesting glass staircase.

On to Mac OS X. 2.5 active users today, according to 'very accurate' data. They plan on 5 million users by January. 77% of new Mac buyers keep Mac OS X as their boot system. 20% of Apple's entire installed base has transitioned in 24 months, the fastest in history.

Steve invited Rob Glaser, CEO of Real Networks to introduce their new Real player for Mac os X.

On to Jaguar, officially announced today, version 10.2. The CD has a jaguar-striped "X" on it, "Pixar rendered the fur, by the way," Jobs said, drawing laughs from the crowd.

150 new features:

• New Unix features, better Windows integration
• Springloaded folders in the Finder, and integrated search.
• Better desktop picture support, featuring Phil Schiller's gimpy-looking children.
• "Universal access" for the disabled,
• QuickTime 6 is built-in. Over 1,000,000 downloads in 1.5 days.
• "everyone's jumping on the MPEG-4 standard, except for Microsoft." Wow.
• QuickTime 6 is cool. Instant-on streaming, nice quality video and audio.
• Sherlock 3 has new "channels" that provide all sorts of neat "internet services." Stocks, movie listings, eBay listings, yellow pages, etc. It's really cool.
• Handwriting recognition is integrated into the text system of Jaguar.
• Rendezvous technology allows devices to find each other over IP networks with zero configuration. Epson, HP, and Lexmark are all building it into their printers.
• Mail is improved, all mailbox searching, sophisticated rules, and "junk mail" prevention using "adaptive semantic latent analysis." It removes junk mail quite accurately.
• Jaguar has a system-wide address book to be used by any application. It automatically finds maps of addresses, dials phones via BlueTooth, get cell phone caller ID via BlueTooth...it's very neat.
• IChat. AIM-compatible with their 140 million customers. You can use your AIM screenname or your Mac.com screenname. Quite a few new features.
• Costs $129, available August 24th.

On to iTools. It's going away September 30th, to be replaced by ".mac" which is a direct jab at Microsoft's own ".net." .mac will include POP/IMAP/Web mail, 100 MB of storage via iDisk, iPhoto hosting, new backup software, and anti-virus software. These features are priced at $99, but $49 for existing Mac.com subscribers.

iCal, a new Apple-produced calendaring program that uses the iTunes-style single window look. You can share calendars online on .Mac or other webshosting.

Digital hub roundup. 4 million copies of iPhoto downloaded. iTunes 3 is new today. It includes song rating, a playcount field, audible.com support, "soundcheck" which regulates playback volume, and intelligent playlists. Only runs on Mac OS X and is free today on Apple.com. iPod has been a "giant hit." The 5 GB version is now $299. The 10 GB version is now $399. The 10 GB comes at 10% thinner, a remote control, a carrying case, a door over the FireWire port. There's a 20 GB iPod today that's a hair thicker than the old 5 GB version for $499. The iPod includes all the playcount, "soundcheck" and smart playlist technology that's also found today on iTunes. The new iPod software includes iCal calendars and a new clock feature. The new accessories are $39 for current owners of iPods.

Apple today announces iPods for Windows. Same models at the same prices. They sync up with MusicMatch on Windows and will ve available in late August.

A new "landmark" app called iSync, which syncronizes all the iApp data with Palm devices, the iPod, and newer cell phones. iSync also syncs up your home and work computers via .Mac. The app will be available for free in September.

And of course, one more thing. Half of the iMacs sold are the SuperDrive model. That model is now $1799, down $100. Also introduced today is a 17" landscape display LCD iMac, the same viewing area as a 19" CRT. 1440x900 resolution. It now includes nVidia GeForce 4, 800 MHz G4, 256 MB memory, 80 GB storage for $1999. They'll be available in two weeks.

Tuesday, July 16th 2002 8:00 CDT

Panic Rolls Out Audion 3

Panic Software has introduced a major upgrade to its alternative to iTunes, Audion. Audion 3 adds iPod support and a host of other goodies. Check out the details below:

It's here! We're proud to announce the arrival of Audion 3, a major upgrade to your favorite stylish and trend-setting digital audio player/encoder. We got all your e-mails, even the crazy ones, and you gave us a lot of really good ideas about keeping Audion fresh -- Audion 3 is the result.

[Cue trumpet fanfare!]

++ Audion 3

In addition to bringing the new, swanky mp3PRO audio format to the Macintosh, this new version features complete iPod support, song transitions such as crossfading and seamless, internet stream recording, live stream broadcasting, a batch CD encoder, a sleep timer, inline tag editing, an improved stream guide, a fully rebuilt Mac OS X interface including dock integration, and much, much more. 

Of course, all of Audion's standard features are there -- the multi-window Finder-like interface, low-CPU MP3, CD, and network audio playback, full-featured encoding, visualizers, advanced ID3 tag editing, linked playlists, manual cross-fading, a built-in stream guide for finding network streams, and then some.

Leather Bag Answer

About two weeks ago, a reader wrote in asking to find a leather bag "skin" for his PowerBook G4. Another kind PBZone patron wrote in with a disappointing answer:

I think what the gentleman is looking for is made by the company eLeather.it, but they are no longer in business. They made leather "skins" (for lack of a better word) for iBooks and TiBooks. I know about this because I bought one for my Key Lime iBook about 18 months ago. I hope this helps.

Entourage Conduit for Palm Released

Reader Ramin of California writes:

ter several months of apparently "tireless" work on the extremely complicated conduit, Microsoft has finally released a Entourage X conduit for Palm. Apparently, it takes half a year longer to write the conduit than it does to write the Palm Desktop software itself. :)

http://www.microsoft.com/Mac/DOWNLOAD/officex/palmsync.asp.

Gefen ADC Switcher Debuts

Gefen sent us this press release this morning:

WOODLAND HILLS, CA [July 16, 2002] Just in time for Macworld, Gefen has released its ex-tend-it ADC Switcher, specially designed to switch operations between two computers using a single Apple Cinema Display.

Because Apple Cinema Displays require an ADC connection in order to operate, which only recently became available on new Macintosh computers, Gefen's ADC Switcher performs a complex DVI to ADC conversion within the Switcher itself in order to accommodate most cross-platform computers, provided they are equipped with a DVI output for the monitor. With the ADC Switcher, no additional DVI adapter or hardware is needed.

Free LCD Tester Software

Last week we mentioned some shareware LCD "test" software that can help you find dead pixels. Reader Ross wrote in to offer a more economical option:

There have been several of these in the past, usually freeware. One that's still available for free is LCDTest (not Carbonised - runs in Classic); see: <http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=2416&db=mac>. Why pay for shareware when you can have freeware?

G4 Upgrade Reader Reports Needed

Have you taken the plunge and extended the life of your Wallstreet, Lombard, or Pismo with a G4 upgrade from either the new Newer Tech or PowerLogix? We need you! Send in your impressions of the upgrade process itself and the performance of the installed upgrade to us here.

Dr. Bott Updates iPod Auto Charger

This is way old news, but they did send us a press release, and we like to post each PR we get for fairness:

Dr. Bott was the first to ship an auto charger for the iPod exactly one month after Apple started shipping the iPod. Today, Dr. Bott announced they have updated their Auto Charger in white and a transparent silver coiled cord. "Our idea behind the iPod Connection Kits was to provide everything an iPod user might need to connect the iPod anywhere at a price that even if they only needed a few items out of the kit it would be a good value. We've been really happy with the response from users to the update." said Eric Prentice, CEO of Dr. Bott LLC "The new design makes it the perfect companion to the iPod." Dr. Bott's iPod Auto Charger allows you to always arrive with your iPod fully charged via the 12 volt DC socket available in automobiles and other places. Dr. Bott's iPod Auto Charger is available separately and as a part of their iPod Connection Kits.