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November 8th through 15th Archives

Thursday, November 15th 2001 02:06 PST

Don't Let Your Love of Wireless Internet Fry Your Brain

We don't know how the average user would come within 20 centimeters of an AirPort base station on a daily basis (perhaps wearing it as a hat?). But, Apple, ever concerned about your safety, has published a KBase article that notes you should stay 20 cm away from the ABS at all times. Want more info? Cisco has posted a document on RF safety.

Apple AC Adapter Disappoints International Users

A French reader sent in a commentary and link to a picture of how the new model of AC adapter has been somewhat jury-rigged for use in other countries requiring different configuration of prongs, not the elegant and refined solution for those in North America:

I read your article on the non-US users' complains. I agree that the price is rather excessive in Europe and in many countries. I also agree that we need an Apple Store outside the US soon.

But this is not what bothers me. The truth is that we pay a lot more than anyone in the US but we still managed to stay faithful to Apple until now. Despite all this, we get some complete ignorance from Apple. Recently, I purchased a Titanium 667Mhz which costs around 27,000FF(3,600USD). And do you know what I get?

A very stupid adapter. I know that we can't have the same adapter due to the power prongs. But what the hell? At least, they could have made an adequate cable that would not destroy the square esthetic of it. This just shows how Apple is committed in the market outside US: not alot if you ask me. It can't be that difficult to produce the cable. Even if it is, when I am paying $3,600 for a machine, I want something that is made with care. I feel like getting a dough-nut that has a bite missing... plus, it looks like one too.

I am really sick of it. I am not asking alot. I am not asking Steve Jobs to come to Europe every month to show his gratitude. I am only asking Apple to treat us, users outside US with some respect. I am sure that many other European fellows agree with me.

More PB/Audio Gear Interaction Tips

Reader David recommended this page which has a table of PB audio solutions. It's a nice basic introduction and then a pretty exhaustive list of solutions out there.

Apple Asks Developer to Reconsider Name Change

Not strictly PowerBook news, but this story over at MacCentral.com is quite interesting. Seems Apple has headed off a developer before they change the name of their application from "FaceSpan" to "Visual AppleScripter." As evil as Apple Legal can be, our (purely editorial) opinion on this is that the company has a point..."Visual AppleScripter" could confuse people into thinking it's published by Apple. Although...unless it was called iSomething, true Mac fans would not be befuddled.

Scams are Bad, Kids

A post on PowerBook Central alerted to us to what seems to be a scam at a site called J.C. Morris & Company. Here at the PBZone, we have a hard time putting faith in a company that is taking "preorders" via PayPal for around a hundred seperate big-ticket items for shipment "in December." As usual, if it sounds too good to be true (i.e., a price significantly below the minimum advertised price (MAP) policy that Apple enforces on its authorizes sellers), it probably is.

Doing a little research, we have found out that the company's PayPal account has received payments from over 200 verified customers and the company is a 'verified business member.' They're certified by SquareTrade. They have only run two auctions recently on eBay, this one which supposedly was to benefit the Red Cross disaster relief fund, but did not use eBay's automatic 'Auction for America' that does not leave it up to the seller to actually donate the funds. The company is no longer registered under the name it used to sell on eBay, which is also the user name it used to get a SquareTrade certification.

For some more investigative work and discussion, read this and this MacNN forum threads. These people are bogus.

Wednesday, November 14th 2001 12:25 PST

OSX 10.1.1 Fixes Oxford911 Issues with X

Before Mac OS X 10.1.1 was released, some Oxford911 based FireWire enclosures (including those that we have available) needed a firmware update of the enclosure itself to work properly with Mac OS 10.1 (OS 9 was unaffected). Before deciding whether to offer this update, we checked with Apple first about why the incompatibility exists.

We were told when we inquired to "wait two weeks" and the problem would be solved on the Mac OS X end of the equation. We were told it wasn't the FireWire device's fault, but rather an issue within the operating system.

Sure enough, Mac OS X 10.1.1 released yesterday fixes all incompatibilities with all Oxford 911-based FireWire devices, according to information posted today on Accelerate Your Mac!

According to Jeff Chasick of FW Depot, the firmware update that some vendors made available actually was a older version of the firmware, rather than a newer version. Going back in time was a temporary fix for the 10.1 compatibility issues, it seems. We're glad to see Apple fixed this issue.

Other than that, if you're a X user, 10.1.1 seems to fix a host of other issues, so the update is greatly recommended.

Wednesday Tidbits

• MacCentral interviews the AirPort product manager today.
• Mediafour is working on 'xpod,' a Windows-compatibility package for the iPod. Interesting.
• David Wegener wrote to say his shop does attempt backlight repairs on PowerBooks, but success is not guaranteed. They do guarantee full screen replacement for the relatively cheap price of $520 on a Pismo. Fixing the backlight costs $279, but you're only charged $65 if they're unsuccessful in fixing the backlight, which happens in about 50% of the current machines out there. If you're interested in this service, contact David at davidwedge@aol.com or call his shop at 803.808.4362.

Tuesday, November 13th 2001 00:35 PST

UPDATE: 11:27 PST--Apple Releases AirPort 2.0 Software, New Basestation

Today Apple released its first wholly new AirPort software package since the system was introduced in July of 1999. AirPort 2.0 software adds the capacity for 50 users, firewall protection and AOL users can now use AirPort. The new base station adds 128 bit encryption support (previous base stations only did 40 bit) and an extra ethernet port in the back for more ease of use in some network configurations. For example, you'd plug your Cable/DSL modem into the 10BaseT port and the rest of your network to the 10/100BaseT port. Then you'd use the AirPort base station as a firewall.

And for that reason (the 2nd port) and other hardware improvements in the base station, old base station owners will not be able to partake in many of the features of the 2.0 software package.

All in all, this is a nice upgrade to the entire package, but nothing significant. The prices have not changed, the form factor of the base station has not been improved to increase signal range, and things like AOL access, FireWall support, and 128 bit encryption are all long overdue.

Site Notes

Apologies to those readers outside of the U.S. and who weren't observing Veteran's Day yesterday. But we're back...

MacDebate.com has a new 'patron membership' program being instituted to raise funds for a new bulletin board system upgrade. More details can be found here for MD fans.

PBZ Mailbag

And we'll take a look at the backlog of email and take care of a few...

im just taking time off during work to rant about the situation of apple in malaysia. im not exactly sure whats apple's marketing stratergy here in asia but ive not seen a lot of consumer level promotions done here.Retail presence of apple is now more significant (almost 1.5 yrs now) but yet, i dont see any real aggresive marketing and promotions being undertaken by apple or even their resellers here.I guess they are content with selling apple at the intended list price. As a pc user trying to convert to mac, im just being discouraged with the high price of apple laptops over here and im always hoping that the msian apple resellers will become more aggresive such as those in UK,AUST and USA (you know, free rams, free shipping, lower price). Maybe im wrong but im sure apple is trying to appeal to a wider audience and not just the rich ?

There's a 802.11b compliant wireless PC Card listed at Outpost, for just under 80 dollars that seems a great choice for a PC laptop. The thing is : it seems only too good to be true. What's the catch ? Wouldn't it work with Apple's AirPort base ?

Here's the Outpost reference : Outpost #: 61270

I was wondering what options were available for the PowerBook G4, specifically connecting music devices such as a synthesizer or other devices using audio I/O ports? Are there any USB/Firewire solutions to this for the PowerBook, and if so, can you recommend any?

Will a 12.5mm drive fit in the new TiBook (Gigabit) or is 9.5 the largest I can use? The manual tells me the specs on RAM but doesn't mention sizes on hard drives...

Travelstar Prices

The IBM Travelstar hard drive prices we posted on Friday, first published by MacNN, are wholesale numbers, not the retail prices--that's why they were so low. Retail prices are forthcoming and we'll post those when we receive them.

Friday, November 9th 2001 00:01 PST

Friday TidBits

• A PBZone favorite, Right on Mac!'s usual Friday feature, Overheard! Mac Quotes in the News has been posted.
• According to MacGeneration.com, the PowerBook G4 won a prestigious "Swiss Design" award in the consumer goods industrial design category. A translation reveals that there were 333 items in competition from 13 distinct countries. The Apple Cinema Display also won an award of distinction.
• MacNN revealed that the pricing on yesterday's new IBM drives is quite surprising: the 60 GB unit will retail for around $250, while the 40, 30, 20, and 10 GB units retail for $225, $200, $140, and $110 respectively. We're waiting for confirmation because the previous-best capacity drive, the IBM 48GH 48 GB unit, can only be found for $362 currently--so $250 would be quite the reduction for a drive with 20 more GB of space.

Revision B PBG4 Noise Feedback

A few readers wrote in with their take on the PBG4's fans:

I had a pbg4 500 and the fan is not as loud as the pb667 at high speed. at it's low speed i think the pb667 is more quiet than the pb500. the fan does come on more often but at low speed unless cpu is at 100% for a long time (like when ie goes nuts). this set does make the new books less hot, still hot though.

it's funny cause the people complaining about the new pbs being too loud are also the ones complaining about the old ones being to hot. those people won't be happy either way, but i'm with the new tibooks!

---

I was reading in your headline news about the complaints about the loud fan(s) in the revision B PBG4's. Moving up from my Wallstreet G3 it does seem the fan is quite a bit louder, it's sometimes difficult when watching DVD's. Overall, it seems that this may be the price we pay for ferociously fast mobile computing power. Personally, I'm ok with it, considering my other fanatical interest is motorcycles;-)

One thing that helps me is wearing earplugs. My office isn't very quiet, and considering the building is on a downtown mall it gets pretty annoying with sirens, traffic, car alarms and street preachers. I wear earplugs when working on a regular basis, it helps a great deal. I'm sure most people will balk at the idea of wearing them simply because the fan in their Powerbook is too loud, but it works.

BTW, at 70fps in Quake3 with all the options on full, I'm ok with a little fan noise;-)

---

Yep - I had the new 550 Powerbook G4 and I had the same fan problem as reported - it seemed to be always on - I had the 400 previously to that and it was never like that.

I took it back for an instant change as it had 3 bad pixels and the DVD drive didnąt work! yep the phrase " thatąs one bad apple" was invented for this machine!

The 2nd 550 now is nowhere near as prone to the fan going of so easily - I suggest to all you UK readers to complain like I did and I got it swopped - you need to complain and report it within the first 7 days as it is termed dead on arrival.

I bought it from the John Lewis department store in the UK and they asked no questions - just swopped it straight over!

Thursday, November 8th 2001 00:01 PST

IBM Demolishes Laptop Hard Drive Record with Whopping 60 GB Travelstar

Yesterday, IBM released several new 2.5" laptop hard drive products to replace their high end Travelstar 48GH 48 GB drive and the lower-capacity "GN" family.

Grabbing the most attention is the new Travelstar 60GH which boasts an amazing 60 GB capacity, replacing the previous-best 48 GB model. The drive runs at 5400 RPM. IBM calls it the highest-capacity and highest-performing laptop drive available. Here's what IBM's press release had to say about the new 60GH drive and the 40GN family, which replace all previous Travelstar models available:

In the mobile/notebook hard drive category, the IBM Travelstar family includes the 60GH and the 40GN. At 15 GB per disk and a top capacity of 60 GB, the 60GH represents a 25% capacity increase over the previous generation Travelstar, but without additional power consumption. IBM enables low power consumption on the new line of Travelstar with its enhanced Adaptive Battery Life Extender (ABLE) technology, offering notebook customers the longest battery life of leading notebook hard drive on the market.

These new developments, combined with advanced areal density, noise suppression and operational shock protection technologies, give customers the highest value when compared to other notebook drives. In addition, the Travelstar 60GH and 40GN are able to provide industry-leading technology at a value price by the efficient use of components -- heads and disks -- to accommodate desired capacity points.

With a top capacity of 60 GB, the new Travelstar drive can store up to 60,000 high resolution photos, 92 musical CDs, 60,000 paperback novels or 15 DVD movies.4 The 60GH and 40GN are currently shipping to customers. IBM's award-winning ThinkPad notebooks will use the new Travelstar family of high-performance, high-capacity drives.

The Travelstar 40GN family of drives, available at 40, 30, 20, and 10 GB capacities, run at 4200 rpm and are designed to replace the current 30, 20 and 10 GB "GN" IBM Travelstars. The following are the tech specs of the two new families of drives:

Travelstar 60GH 60 GB 12.5 mm in height 5,400 rpm 28 billion bits per square inch maximum areal density 4 glass platters 8 GMR recording heads 700 Gs (1ms) nonoperating shock, 150 Gs (2 ms) operating shock 5.5 ms average latency 12 ms average seek time ATA-5 100 MB/sec Ultra DMA mode-5 maximum interface transfer rate 155 grams in weight 2.5 Bels typical idle acoustics 3.5 Bels typical operating acoustics

Travelstar 40GN 40/30/20/10 GB 9.5 mm in height 4,200 rpm 34 billion bits per square inch maximum areal density 2/2/1/1 glass disk platter(s) 4/3/2/1 GMR recording head(s) 800 Gs (1ms) nonoperating shock, 200 Gs (2 ms) operating shock 7.1 ms average latency 12 ms average seek time ATA-5 100 MB/sec Ultra DMA mode-5 maximum interface transfer rate 99/99/95/95 grams in weight 2.4/2.4/2.1/2.1 Bels typical idle acoustics 3.1/3.1/2.7/2.7 Bels typical operating acoustics

PB 550 Increases Fan Noise?

Reader Brad writes:

I've had a new Ti 550 for five days. No airport, 512 Mb RAM. Like the machine overall, love the screen, but the fan is driving me nuts. A little fan noise I can deal with, but this is ridiculous. The fan (or is that "fans") seems to have a couple of speeds. At low speed it doesn't bother me, but when it ramps up to high speed, it's just too loud. I have no idea why the Apple engineers have done this. If I'd have known this before I bought it, I'm not sure if I'd have done the deal. I've only been doing some surfing in IE 5, with Entourage open in the background, and the fan has been running at high speed for over a half an hour. And at high speed it's loud.

At least as loud, if not louder, than a lot of desktops. At least that's the way it seems. Very disappointing in a machine that's supposed to be a top of the line laptop. The noise is quite distracting in a quiet environment. Is it possible the thermostat isn't working? I'm going to keep the machine on, just to see how long it keeps up. I'd be interested to hear about other readers' experiences.

Backlight Repair Experiences?

Patrick writes with a question:

Ok, maybe I'm just crazy, but the backlight on my PowerBook (Firewire) seems to be getting darker by the minute.

What are my options for replacing the backlight? Can this only be done by an Apple service center? Or can the technically minded do it themselves?

Also--is it possible to get a stronger backlight than the original one that came with this machine?

We're told that it's "pretty damn difficult" to change the backlight on a Pismo. However, we know there are service professionals that read this website. If you've got any tips, experiences, prices for this job done professionally, etc, please send email to us.

Kusuma Introduces MacCases

We received the following from the guys at Kusuma:

Kusuma Enterprises, Inc. follows the trend of Apple portables by releasing new cases for the new iBook and titanium PowerBook. They come in three styles for each ­ MacCase sleeve, binder and carrying case. MacCase for iBook is black in color with a white band in the middle across the cases, while MacCase for PowerBook takes the famous titanium color of the computer itself. All of these new lines are fully padded on every side, made out of waterproof fabric, and have soft velvet interior. They are all designed to well fit the iBook or the G4 PowerBook, taking away the unnecessary bulk. On the other hand, the choice among sleeve, binder and carrying case can serve your need well depending on how much storage space you need. MacCase sleeves are to be used in conjunction with a carrying case, and they are zipperless, so they wonąt scratch your computer. The binders can be carried in a briefcase or backpack, as well as used as a stand-alone case. The carrying cases have more storage for your power cord, zip drive, software and personal items.

We'll be reviewing one of these cases shortly as part of a comprehensive case review.

Moore Chimes in on.....Pismo

Charles W. Moore...who writes for about 5 dozen different websites, chronicles his first week with a Pismo PowerBook over at MacOpinion.com. Having spent three years with a Wallstreet 233 MHz, he's decided to finally upgrade to a 500 MHz Pismo.

Deals of the Day

Macs4all.com has the Sonnet Crescendo WS 500 MHz G3 500 upgrade for Wallstreet machines for $378. We're working on getting a review of this unit shortly.

newegg.com offers the "Mr. Flash" brand Compact Flash/Smart Media reader for $28.

Early edition...more later