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August 24th thru 31st Archives

Thursday, August 29th 2002 06:52 CDT

Exclusive, Special, Fantastic Offer Especially for PBZone.com Readers

Because we love our readers so much, we've gotten a few friends of the site to kick in some special deals for you only! So far, there's a deal for this week and at least one more waiting in the wings. Here are the details on this week's special PBZone-exclusive deal:

Spire USA, a longtime supporter/advertiser/friend of the site, has generously offered15% off any order for PBZone.com readers until September 15th. Just enter coupon code "PBZONE" in the proper box on the second checkout step and you instantly receive the savings. You could use it to purchase one of their Zoom (left) or Icon (right) daypacks, seen below:

Spire'll be coming back on board as an advertiser as of Sept. 1st, so head on over, support them because they support us, and save 15% in the process. Stay tuned for next week's deal...Also, if you're a "decision maker" at a Mac firm that wants to offer a deal to the teeming hordes of PBZone readers, all you have to do is send an email to info@pbzone.com with the details. 

10.2 Report Follow-Up

We received a few more 10.2-on-PowerBook reports:

One of your Jaguar reports says:

'Strangely, however, I've noticed a bizarre change to all of the words in my drop-down menus. The letters "i" and "L" are not black, like the other letters. Instead, they're brown. I have no idea why this would be so. It's most noticeable in menu items like "Select All," where the two "L's" in "All" stand out as completely different in color from the "A." Any idea what could be causing this?'

I don't have Jaguar yet, but IIRC it adds support for sub-pixel anti-aliasing on LCD screens. Microsoft calls this ClearType and thinks they invented it even though it was used in the Apple II.

For all MS's faults their web site explains the technology well:

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/

Maybe the anti-aliasing setting you've got in Jaguar is causing the colour artifacts. Try changing your anti-aliasing settings.

---

I installed 10.2 on my Wallstreet II / Bluechip 500 Mhz upgrade / 512 MB Ram / 48 GB Monday evening. I have yet to get it to recognize the internal modem. I have tried every setting I can find. The modem works fine with a restart in 9.2.2 so I know it works. I have a Best Data 33.6 external modem that works using the printer port in 10.2 which tells me that the PPP settings are correct when using the printer port. Everything else works great in 10.2. No printer problems (USB PCM/CIA Card) and no heat issues. But this modem thing has got me baffled.

---

TI book rev b 667 768mg ram. Like the other readers my fan also seems to run almost constantly on low. This is not good and will consume more battery.

the LCD settings for text hasn't made my text any clearer, not only that but my text isn't pure black it has faint multi colors mixed in with it, the middle of my m's are blue. I've tried the other settings as well. 

There are some speed improvements but the Quartzes extreme doesn't tweak it too much with the 16mg video ram. The finder is more responsive but this something that should have been fixed with 10.1.5. That was my main reason to upgrade, and to support apple

There is know way to reinstall Quicktime 5 so if you're a pro user that's another $30 on top of the $130 upgrade.

the death of the happy Mac is a bad idea, and the spinning beach ball is too large. Also I wish I had the option to bring back the transparent drop down menus.

Sherlock is great, but these are all things that are free on the net, but the interface is great, also the mail is better and more responsive, I wish I had the option to put spell check in my tool bar

In my opinion this upgrade was not intended for TI book users in mind. If I had a chance to do it over again I would hold out. There are a few things I like but not enough to justify $130 plus $30 for Quicktime pro. I am actually thinking about reinstalling 10.1.5. Maybe they will fix these things hopefully for free.

Between my paint flaking on my PB and pricey upgrades I am slowly becoming a disgruntle apple user after 8 years of loyalty. But what other option is there.

Solar Power Experiences?

An adventurous reader asks:

I am heading into a place without electricity and I will be gone for a long time. Does any body have any experiences with solar power battery chargers for the Apple Power Book G4...do they work and would any one know of the model nu, company etc from where I could get these...

Wednesday, August 28th 2002 02:41 CDT

Jaguar on PowerBooks Report

We received quite a few responses and we thank everyone who wrote in so far. We've posted all of the reports we got verbatim so you can get a feel for the total response to the upgrade. Please keep reports comin' in...especially if you see a problem encountered by a reader below that you can corroborate with your own experiences. Thanks again to all those who send in their report. Non-Jaguar news returns tomorrow.

Since installing jaguar my battery lasts about an hour during continuous use, this is at least half of what it was on 10.1.5. I'm using "Longest Battery Life" settings.

I think it's also running hotter. It seems to run the fan on low speed almost all the time.

Can this have anything to do with Quartz Extreem? I know when I used to run opengl applications in the past my computer would get very hot very fast and turn the fan on high.

---

I don't know a lot about the temperature guys, but the Fan use in my opinion has increased tremendously. I remember when I first got my TiBook 500, also my first ever Mac, and the fan never came on even though the thing was smoking hot. I even called Apple about it, but they said it was normal. Now the thing seems to run a lot.

---

No noticeable difference in temp or fan use, yet. Will keep you posted.

Strangely, however, I've noticed a bizarre change to all of the words in my drop-down menus. The letters "i" and "L" are not black, like the other letters. Instead, they're brown. I have no idea why this would be so. It's most noticeable in menu items like "Select All," where the two "L's" in "All" stand out as completely different in color from the "A." Any idea what could be causing this?

---

I have a 30G drive in my WallStreet. 8G for OS X and remaining 19.9 for OS 9. 10.1.5 runs fine but 10.2 won't install. Says the X partition is bigger than 8G. I've seen many reports of similar problems. I haven't gotten around to repartitioning the drive yet to be able to install.

On a side note, my 15" FP iMac is also having problems with Jag. When I installed Jag, my alternate user disappeared. When I try to re-add, it says it is already there. I restored the entire HD, re-added the user then put Jag on again and the same thing happened again. I did setup sharing with PC's and that worked fine (both ways). I also enabled AirPort base software (I don't own a base station) and that works great with my son's iBook.

---

Got Jagar here in Amsterdam before even you guys did.

Definately noticably faster on pbg3500(pismo), especially with internet apps.

No changes in fan/heat activity.

---

What I have noticed on my PB 800 (DVI) since the upgrade to Jaguar:

a) Screen performance increased slightly (Quartz Extreme?). The "open folder animation" seems to persuade a user thinking that double clicking a folder is quicker. The fact is: it is not!

b) Networking: In short: A pain in the ass! Dave needs to be removed (not compatible with 10.2) but Jaguar's smb browsing fails to show all the Windows boxes that Dave listed nicely. Bad, REALLY bad!

c) I seem to get the (new and really cute) beach ball more often than under 10.1.5. Instead of being quicker with 10.2 I feel like some things have sped up, indeed, whereas others have been slowed down. Overall judgement: no improvement at all.

d) The Finder is still not multitasking! When waking up after moving to a different AirPort network everything seems to be fine. You'll still find all mounted volumes on the desktop but don't dare to throw one of them away (because you might realize that they are not reachable): you'll get a stuck Finder for minutes! What a bad, bad joke!

e) This one I can't really trace - it never, ever happened to my preceding PBs: Sometimes the Book does not wake up from sleep (even though there's plenty of battery power left). Instead, when you open the display, everything stays black (and silent) until you push the power button and hear the familiar "StartUp" sound. VERY strange, indeed!

---

Jaguar is running great on my PB 500. The most noticeable change is that my battery has a lot more life to it. No scientific tests, but it seems to be running down about 1/3 slower.

I set up the new Windows networking and CUPS printing to an HP Laserjet attached to an XP machine. After creating a symbolic link to the smb printer spooling module (thanks MacInTouch), printing works perfectly. It is a huge relief to be able to print.

Wireless networking worked as expected, except passwords needed to be re-entered on the two networks I use.

I like the search field for finder windows, but I like to have two windows side-by-side and it's hard to fit all of the widgets and shortcut icons in the available space. We need the small icon option in the finder that's now available in cocoa apps.

Overall, enjoying an increase in speed throughout the system. I like it!

That's all for now...

---

I have a Wallstreet SE, there were a few, 466 mhz, 25 gig hard drive, 382 meg of Ram.

Jaguar is noticeably and quite visibly faster, as for the fan noise, I don't notice it. I have the full compliment of graphic programs, etc., etc., little or no Microsoft products, and the machine flies, literally, even for its speed and age. <P> I adore my Wallstreet and adore even more Jaguar. It's quite a successful release.

There were a few programs it didn't like, and it definitely didn't like a lot of the haxies from unsanity.com, which I had to remove, but once that was gone, it was stellar, absolutely stellar.

Good show, Steve Jobs.

when i updated my jaguar to 10.2, my screen goes dark, as in sleep or what...

i tried changing display«s settings to powerbook g3 series... it kinda work, but in the restart it goes dark again.

i reformatted my machine, so it cannot be possibly just my case...

if you have other ppl having the same problem, plz let me know. i was using jaguar beta version (10.1) and i had no problem like that.

---

Insalled 10.2 on My Powerbook G4 400 Mhz over the weekend. Took the opportunity to upgrade the ram to 512 MB and, since I was going to reformat my drive and start from scratch anyway, install a new IBM Travelstar 40 GB GNX drive. Install went fine, and performance was noticeably better. Boot and launch times, scrolling, searching, window resizing all better. Not as good as can be given the built-in graphics cards on the first generation Powerbook G4's don't support Quartz Extreme, but still much better than 10.1.5.

However, I have seen an old bug that was mostly squashed with 10.1, blank screens and crashing when waking from sleep. If I put the Powerbook to sleep by closing the lid, then disconnect my usb devices and power, then open the powerbook lid, one of two things often happens a) a white text box appears stating I have to restart my computer (looks like Apple now has this box come up instead of kernel traps) b) the computer hard drive spins up, but the screen remains powered off. I have also seen the blank screen problem if, while disconnected from power and usb devices, I put the computer to sleep by closing the lid, then connect to power and usb devices and open the lid.

Overall, 10.2 is definitely worth the upgrade, but these sleeping issues are a pain. 3 steps forward, 1 step back.

---

10.2 blows. It is buggier than a Florida swamp. Certainly not faster than 10.1.5 and possibly slower. Sound is ultra buggy. Lots of spinning beach balls. I was stunned after using it for about 15 minutes.

On a better note, 10.2.1 (6D42) is awesome. Still not as fast as 9.2.2 but very close and certainly workable now. Screen draws and all system performances much brisker or snappier. Window dragging and opening and closing are ultra smooth and fast. Although window resizing is still very choppy--how hard can it be to write sufficient code to resize a window? Most sound problems fixed. Overall system performance slows down significantly when Classic is running even when you are using an OSX program. But overall I am pretty happy with it and look forward to 10.2.2 when some more bugs can be squashed. This time I will stay with OSX on my PowerBook. When 10.1 and 10.1.5 came I out, I tried to use them but both times went running back to 9.2.2.

Apple should have waited until the 6D42 update before releasing Jaguar. I know they wanted to get it out sooner than later. But if I was a potential "Switch" customer and walked into an Apple store to try Jaguar, I probably would have walked right out the door thinking that the Mac was an inferior and slower platform than Windows. Although Apple did sell over 100,000 Jaguar units over the first weekend, I have a feeling they were to die hard fans that fell for Mr. Jobs' hype over the system. Good thing 10.2.1 is coming fast.

---

Jaguar works great, much faster then 10.1.5, Finder is just flying, Office applications work without problems, at least I did not find any incompatibility with 10.2.

SnapZ Pro that came in bundle with PowerBook needs an upgrade which is $19. Mozilla1.1 is slower to start up but much faster in browsing then IE. Much faster. Bye-bye M$.

Classics starts up in 12-15 sec, restarts in about 7-10 sec. Connecting to server over AppleTalk or IP is at least two-three times faster compare to 10.1.5, maybe as fast as 9.2.2 on PB 800, same thing with browsing. Makes life so much easier.

Definitely worse $129... Well, actually I got it for $69, student, you know.....

Tuesday, August 27th 2002 00:01 CDT

Jaguar Reports Needed!

How's the new update? Does it perform well/not-so-well on your PowerBook? We want to know about it! Send in your Jaguar experience to info@pbzone.com. Specifically, we're looking for reports of increased/decreased temperature or fan use with 10.2

Audion 3.0.2 Explodes Onto the Scene; Adds Jag Support

Since their press releases are so much fun to read, we'll publish the entire thing:

Dear AudionPeople,

Getting Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar)? Still using 9? Either way, get Audion 3.0.2!

Yes, it's been a couple of weeks, so it's time for another gentle bug fix for Audion 3! Audion 3, as you recall, is the major new version of our popular Macintosh audio app which brought iPod management, transitions, broadcasting, recording, and more.

What's new in 3.0.2? First, some Mac OS X 10.2 fixes, including a problem with 'sticky' dragging of the control window. Second, a lot of Mac OS 9 fixes, including crashes with the LAME encoder and improved transition stability. And third, a fix for a humorous/annoying problem with mono MP3 files playing at double ("Chipmunk") speed. All this and much more!

This update is highly recommended for ALL users.

On a side note, like most Macintosh users, we're extremely excited about this weekend's release of Mac OS X 10.2. We've been using it for a while now, and we can safely say that it's the best Mac OS we've ever used, period.

Anyhow, grab this new version of Audion when you get the chance! And pick up Jaguar, too!

++ Links

Audion 3.0.2 is available for free download now at:
http://www.panic.com/audion/download.html

Check out our new home page for all sorts of A3 information:
http://www.panic.com/index.html

++ Cost

As usual, Audion 3.0.2 is a FREE upgrade for any Audion 3 registered user! Just download and use it, you'll be set.

What? You're STILL not an Audion 3 registered user yet? Sweet lord!

If you haven't upgraded from Audion 2 to Audion 3 yet, now's as good a time as any! Did you know it's only $17.95 to upgrade? You'll be supporting our future products, and you can feel real good about yourself! Oh yes.

Buy Audion right now, instantly!
https://www.panic.com/audion/buy.html

Lap Protector Question

Reader Tony asks:

I have a question that I'm hoping you can help me with. I saw a powerbook lap protector (I thought I saw it on your site awhile ago, but I havent been able to locate it since). It's a clear piece of plastic (possibly acrylic) - with about the same footprint size as the pb, and it props up the back of the pb by an inch or so. I know you guys are busy (great site btw, I'm a loyal reader) - any help would be greatly appreciated.