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We've got MadsonLine MicroAdapters for all models of PowerBooks and iBooks, available for the lowest price on the 'net, plus free shipping! Click here.

Labor Day Mailbag

Reader Don asks:

I guess the subject line says it all. My Pismo 500 has started flashing a pinkish red color on the screen on startup. Is this a bad sign? Any clues would be greatly appreciated.

Reader Jason sent in a suggestion for all toasty PowerBook owners:

Hello, I am emailing about a cheap PowerBook (or other portable) cooling solution that might be of interest to PB Zone. What I did was buy two heat sinks from a computer parts store, which cost me less than the equivalent of $10 US. I just put my PowerBook on the heatsinks... My PowerBook doesn't get nearly as hot as it used to get, and it's rare that the fan turns on now. He also attached an image: It's not a bad idea if you don't want to pay more for similar manufactured accessories.

Reader Dave writes:

I'm in the market for a G4, and recently checked out what was available via eBay. Aside from the omnipresent "beware of seller fraud" that comes with any eBay transaction, are there any problems you can think of that are unique to buying a Powerbook this way? Does Apple honor warranties from second-party sales? Can you, after purchase, upgrade to the 3-year protection package? Should most of these "too-good-to-be-true" prices be ignored?

Thanks for your time and consideration.

As usual, if something (on the Internet especially) is "too good to be true," it probably is, or the shipping price is way too high ;). As far as eBay is concerned, there are good deals to be had. There are just a few things you should be aware of if you're interested in a certain machine on there.

First, read the entire auction very carefully. If you want to know something further, email the seller. Look and see if it's out of warranty. If it is, know that Apple won't help you out in the least. If it is under warranty, ask when it was purchased so you can get a copy of the receipt if possible and purchase AppleCare extended warranty protection (if you so desire).

Note all the features listed very carefully. Ask if it has any cosmetic damage, if it's missing the rubber feet on the bottom, if it comes with any (licensed) software, if the screen has any abnormal amount of broken pixels, if the hinges are okay, and most of all, if anything's been poured in the keyboard by accident, like coffee etc.

We wouldn't buy a machine that's had multiple users or the owner cannot guarantee any of the above mentioned questions. There are lots of machines on eBay, so don't be limited to any one auction.

To answer your questions more specifically, Apple honors the one year warranty and it is transferable, but you need documentation of the purchase regardless. Apple knows when each PowerBook was originally purchased, but you still need a receipt or other proof of purchase. You must buy an extended Apple Care Protection Plan within the first year of coverage. It is transferable as well. You can upgrade to it after buying easily if the PowerBook is less than a year old.

Most auctions are won in the last 2 or 3 minutes on a high priced item like a PowerBook. If you intend to win one, you need to be there, but don't go overboard, remember that a new PowerBook G4 400 MHz is $2059 at ClubMac right now and Pismo machines are depreciating rapidly.

Speaking of eBay, we're selling a ton of stuff right now, mostly Macintosh and PowerBook related. Items of note are an ADS Pyro external FW case, a Lapdog laptop workstation, a blueberry iBook Bag, some iMac shirts, a SmartMedia reader, and an Port acoustic coupler. All the items can be found listed here.

And here's a note on additional rolling bag options:

I saw the comment section on the home page regarding rolling packs.

I have a 'Port' brand, rolling briefcase/pack that holds my Pismo perfectly. It has foam rubber shock protectors on the inside to protect the computer from jarations. It also has nice zipper packs on the rear section to hold battery packs, cables, disks, or a small CD drive/Zip drive, etc. I got it at Best Buy about 6 months ago. Cost was about $120.

Port's selection of rolling bags is here.

Friday, August 31st 2001 12:34 CDT

More on 128 Bit Cards

A reader sent in more details...it seems it's safe to order from the Apple Store:

I saw the note on your site today about the AirPort cards. I bought two of these through the Apple Store. They show the part number on the final form before you commit the purchase, and to me that would appear to be a commitment to ship the /C part rather than any old inventory. In the event, my two cards were FedEx'd from a factory in Taiwan even through I paid extra for priority handling, which argues that they don't have any old inventory.

The card comes with a one-page sheet entitled "how to join 128-bit networks" and the card itself has "128 bit" printed on the label. They work fine with our Lucent Gold 128-bit RC4 network at work. I haven't tried them for compatibility with a 40-bit AirPort, but I've read reports elsewhere from people who have successfully used them. The difference is in how you enter the encryption key (password). If you use quotes (or a dollar sign for hex), it's a 128-bit literal key, without them it's hashed to make a 40-bit key compatible with AirPort. The instructions are very clear.

The only downside is the the signal level through the built-in antenna on my TiBook is lower than the signal level I got from the old Lucent Gold PCMCIA card I used to use (as measured by Lucent's base station software). It's not substantial, but if your office is in a marginal location it would be a problem.

Notes

It's a slow news day. In fact, it's been a slow news week, though we expect that to pick up with the pending release of a new PowerBook in late September at Seybold or Apple Expo Paris. If a PowerBook's not released by then, Apple's professional portable offerings are in a huge world of hurt.

Anyway, the only news out there of note is PBCentral's article on hooking up Apple LCDs to PowerBooks. The solution sure isn't pretty at $580, but it's the best option possible since the Apple Display Connector PC Card from VillageTronic hasn't shipped yet.

Thursday, August 30th 2001 03:20 CDT

How to Score a 128 Bit AirPort Card

We've had lots of emailed questions about the difference between the 40 and 128 bit "WEP" encryption AirPort cards. We haven't had a definitive source for the "/c" revision cards that are 128bit-enabled until reader "spiderman" sent in this information:

One of the things that has stopped our "large company" from purchasing more of the new ibooks is the fact that airport cards aren't 128 bit secure. We've been "desperately" searching for a solution. Well here's big news:

Apple is now distributing Airport cards that are 128 bit encryption capable. Here's the catch, they aren't offically stating that all there cards are 128 bit capable. If you order an airport card from apple you are not garanteed to get the 128 bit version. There appears to be a difference in model numbers /b is 40 bit and /c is 128 bit but after speaking with apple they couldn't confirm the model number difference. However macmall appears to have both models and you can specify which model number you would like. The full model number for the 128 bit card is m7600ll/c. Good news for our iBook customers.

Rolling Backpack Answer

Last week we had a request for "rolling backpacks" that could handle a PowerBook. Here's the only response we got, so it'll have to do:

Regarding the request for help from CJ on Wednesday: The Wall Street Journal had a comparison article on rolling backpack bookbags just today. The REI Class Act (http://www.rei.com/cgi-bin/ ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prrfnbr=10656630&prmenbr=8000) came out on top. It's about $80 including shipping. Note that you will need some kind of sleeve to protect the laptop. I prefer Willow Design's myself.

It seems there are no purpose-built options for rolling PowerBook cases. The solution of a padded "sleeve" inside a good rolling backpack may be the best option available.

More Travel Tips

A straggler on last week's travel tips roundup:

Travel tip - I recently purchased a pair of sound deadening headphones from AIWA.com for less than $50. Bose makes a pair for $300, Sony makes a pair for $99 . The AIWAs' are great! My son & I discovered that The Sharper Image sells a pair for $39.95. I bought a pair of from Sharper Image but I find the AIWAs' to be a bit superior.

Tuesday, August 28th 2001 13:04 CDT

Nasty Rumor About ATI and PowerBooks and the new ATI Mobile Radeon

We heard a rumor from a single source, so take it for what it's worth (about nothing). The rumor was that Apple signed a deal with ATI that they would use ATI graphics chips in their portables until an unspecified date which could be as late as sometime in 2002. Given that Apple has switched mainly to nVidia chips in its professional products, it's curious that the Titanium G4 still has an anemic ATI chipset, the same that was in the Pismo PowerBooks, introduced early in 2000.

If Apple was somehow forced to use ATI products instead of the nVidia GeForce2GO, that may not be a tragedy, especially since ATI rolled out the Mobility Radeon 7500 yesterday. The link is for a MacCentral interview with ATI's marketing director and is quite informative. The Radeon seems to be a much better chip than the nVidia GeForce2GO performance-wise, all while adding better battery life as an added bonus.

With the recent PowerBook price cuts and the end of the CDRW promotion, it's pretty clear that a new PowerBook is on the way. It'll be interesting to see which graphics chip is aboard the new portable.