Compiled by Charles Moore
and edited by
Dan Knight
- 2003.09.12
Except as noted, prices are in US dollars.
Optimizing Your PowerBook or iBook Battery
Charge Life
A new Apple
Knowledge Base article outlines some easy steps to prolong
the charge of your Apple iBook or PowerBook battery.
Optimize your battery settings in Energy Saver preferences.
- Choose Apple menu > System Preferences.
- Choose View > Energy Saver.
- Click Show Details.
- Choose Battery Power from the "Settings for" popup menu.
- Choose Longest Battery Life from the Optimize Energy Settings
popup menu.
These settings will put the hard disk to sleep whenever possible
and reduce the computer's microprocessor performance in order to
maximize its battery life. If you are using processor-intensive
applications, you may wish to change these settings so the
microprocessor performance is no longer reduced.
Set your screen brightness to the lowest comfortable level.
- Press the F1 (dimmer) and F2 (brighter) keys to dim the screen
until the brightness is as low as possible and the screen is still
comfortable to look at.
Turn off unused features and technologies. Just as you would
turn off the lights in an unoccupied room, turning off unused
features and technologies can help maximize your battery life. Here
are a few suggestions:
Trans Intl. Introduces 2 GB Memory Upgrades for
17" 1 GHz iMac
Trans Intl. has announced worldwide availability of a 2 GB
DDR266 (Double Data Rate) memory upgrade for the iMac G4
17" flat panel model, which expands the system's main memory up to
2 GB.
Trans Intl's 2 GB memory upgrade consists of a 1 GB DDR memory
module for the user slot and a 1 GB DDR memory module for the
factory slot.
The 17" 1 GHz iMac has two memory expansion slots for main
memory expansion. Trans Intl's memory upgrade doubles the memory
density of the expansion slots [user and factory] to 1 GB.
Before the Trans Intl. upgrade, each expansion slot of the 17" iMac
was limited to only 512 MB each.
Trans Intl. memory modules conform to Apple's stringent
electrical and mechanical design guide lines. The 1 GB DDR266
memory module operates at a clock rate of 133 MHz and transmits
data at 266 Mbps.
TransIntl also recently introduced 1 GB Memory Modules for 17"
and 12" PowerBooks.
Willow Kemano 17" PowerBook Carry Case
Willow's new Kemano 17" PowerBook
Carry Case has been specifically designed to maximize the
protection of the 
17" PowerBook and to compactly carry the accessories
that are a part of your working system - all in a stylish, clean
looking parcel.
Kemano 17" PowerBook Case Features:
- Clean, flexible, and extremely protective design at a
reasonable weight.
- Excellent protection for 17" PowerBook afforded by 1.2 cm
(0.5") foam reinforced by corrugated plastic on the back, high
density polyethylene reinforcement on the handle side, and 4 mm
(1/8") hardboard on the bottom.
- Extra protection for the upper 17" screen provided by an outer
foam padded pocket plus inner soft foam corner spacers to isolate
the PowerBook from outer shocks.
- Exterior 600 denier polyester and interior 200 denier nylon,
both of which are urethane coated for waterproofedness. The fabrics
give an excellent balance between superb protection and durability
and light weight.
- Excellent shoulder carrying comfort insured by a wide,
contoured, thickly padded shoulder strap.
- Heavy duty mountain bike style briefcase handle double rivet
reinforced (on each side) through the wrap handle to insure the
safety of your laptop.
- Convenient DVD, CD-ROM, and cable pockets located in the laptop
section for easy access, plus extra room for manuals or other
letter sized paperwork on lower accessory level.
- Simple outer front organizer panel with pockets business cards,
pens, pencils, etc.
- Outside flat, outer pocket for airline tickets, thin paperwork,
etc.
- Flat external rear pocket especially handy for maps, magazines,
or newspapers.
- Easily removable horizontal divider for the 17" PowerBook that
doubles as a comfortable and convenient laptop work surface with
special foam spacer to maximize airflow cooling.
- Extra protection for the display screen afforded by corrugated
plastic layer and extra 1.2 cm (1/2") protective space between the
PowerBook and laptop lid level.
- Three separate velcroed elastic straps to lockdown 17"
PowerBook, adapter, accessories, and extra items.
- Handy mesh pocket in lid for safe and convenient storage of
cables or other thin items.
- Luggage feet riveted through the hardboard bottom of the case
which actually keep it up and off the ground when you want to set
the case down.
- Lifetime guarantee against defects in materials or
craftsmanship.
Available colors: black, charcoal, navy, taupe, burgundy
Pricing: $200 Cdn, $145 US
New ZeroShock Notebook Sleeves and Mobile
Accessory Cases Offer Improved Impact Protection
Shinza.com has announced
the immediate availability of the ZeroShock line of notebook
sleeves and mobile accessory cases.
The ZeroShock line of notebook sleeves and mobile accessory
cases are composed of a high-resistance polyurethane foam that
provides superior absorption of external impact force. By
compressing slowly and expanding slowly, high-resistance
polyurethane is particularly adept at absorbing impact energy. Due
to these properties, this material is most often used in medical
devices, car seats, acoustic devices, and aerospace development
applications. Applying this technology to notebook cases results in
an unparalleled shock-absorption/weight ratio. Translation? Better
protection for digital devices with less weight to lug around.
Available in blue, red, black, and grey, the new ZeroShock 12"
Notebook Sleeves are perfect for small laptops. Innovative designs
have a way of complementing each other, and thus this sleeve is a
particularly good match with the 12" versions of Apple's PowerBook
G4 and iBook notebook computers.
The ZeroShock 15" Notebook Sleeves are designed for larger
notebooks with 14" and 15" displays and are available in blue,
black, and grey.
Designed to protect digital cameras, portable music players,
PDAs, and other mobile digital devices, the ZeroShock Mobile
Accessory Case is available in three different sizes and two colors
(black and grey).
The ZeroShock 12" Notebook Sleeve, 15" Notebook Sleeve, and
Mobile Accessory Case are available now at Shinza.com for $24.95,
$26.95, and $14.95, respectively (US).
Sonnet Announces New Aria Extreme for Wireless
Notebook Networking
Sonnet Technologies has announced the new Aria
Extreme, a CardBus wireless network adapter that 
provides 802.11g wireless networking for
certain PowerBooks and Windows notebooks. The Aria Extreme installs
into any CardBus slot and instantly adds wireless connectivity with
data transfer speeds up to 54 Mbps, nearly five times faster than
the previous 802.11b standard.
The Aria Extreme is compatible with Apple's Airport Extreme Base
Station as well as other 802.11g base stations. It is also
backwards-compatible with previous 802.11b WiFi network devices,
and supports both 64-bit and 128-bit Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP)
encryption.
Features
- Wireless data transfer rates up to 54 Mbps
- Compatible with Apple AirPort Extreme and other 802.11g
wireless hubs
- Backward-compatible with 802.11b devices
- Requires Macintosh OS X 10.2.6 or later and AirPort Extreme
driver 3.1 or later
- Supports Windows 98 SE, Me, 2000, XP
Security
- Hardware 64/128-bit WEP engine; WEP weak-key avoidance, TKIP,
hardware AES engine supporting CCM and OCB, 802.1x, SSN Output
Power
- Maximum 15.5 dBm
Data Rates
- 802.11b: Maximum 11 Mbps. Auto-ranging: 1, 2, 5.5, and 11
Mbps
- 802.11g: Maximum 54 Mbps. Auto-ranging: 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36,
48, and 54 Mbps Coverage Area (typical)
- 802.11b: Indoor up to 50 M at 11 Mbps, outdoor up to 130 M at
11 Mbps
- 802.11g: Indoor up to 20 M at 54 Mbps, outdoor up to 50 M at 54
Mbps Receiver Sensitivity
- -80dBm at 6 Mbps
The Aria extreme is compatible with the following Macintosh and
Windows configurations:
Macintosh
- Macintosh G3 PowerBooks with CardBus slot*
- Macintosh G4 PowerBooks with 15" screen*
* Requires Mac OS 10.2.6 or later and Airport Drivers v. 3.1 or
later
Windows
- Windows notebooks running 98, 98 SE, Me, 2000, XP with
available CardBus slot (Requires drivers to be downloaded from
Sonnet web site)
The Aria extreme for CardBus has an MSRP of $79.95 and will be
available mid-September 2003.
Apple Products Get "Cool" Thumbs-up from
Teens
Wired's Leander Kahney reports
that:
"During the summer, Apple became one of the coolest companies in
America. At least that's what youth marketing experts who follow
the tastes of teenagers say.
"Thanks to the iPod, the iTunes Music Store and the PowerMac G5,
Apple is one of the hottest companies in youth culture, say
so-called 'cool hunters,' researchers who track buying trends among
young people....
"Asked recently what company they would most like to endorse (if
they were a celebrity), [Look-Look poll] correspondents nominated
Apple the most popular choice, followed by Coca-Cola, Levi's and
Nike."
However, there's a downside to being the "cool" computer
company. One analyst quoted by Kahney notes that: "There will
always be a correlation between a product's coolness and niche
market share. By definition, being cool is the opposite of being
mainstream, and as long as a brand has a cool cachet, it will
remain small."
The Dawn of the Laptop Era?
Steve Jobs has declared 2003 "the year of the laptop." PC
World's Carla
Thornton notes:
"Once considered poor choices for serious computing, notebooks
are earning new respect from hard-core fans of desktop PCs.
"Why the change of heart? Today's notebooks offer powerful
processors, dazzling large LCD screens, improved upgradability, and
features as potent as those you'd get on many desktops - all at
attractive prices. Couple that with the siren song of ubiquitous
wireless connectivity, and more buyers are seriously considering a
notebook for their next business or home PC.
"This spring, according to NPD Group, retailers for the first
time made more money selling laptops than desktops: Portables
accounted for 54 percent of May's nearly $500 million in PC sales .
. . in 1999 one in ten home computer buys worldwide was a laptop,
these days it's one in five...."
Monitor Sales Suffering From Laptop
Popularity
Macworld UK's Jonny
Evans reports:
"Strong notebook sales have hit monitor manufacturers, who have
seen less-than-expected market growth in the second quarter
2003.
"Demand for 15-inch screens &endash; as used in many
notebooks &endash; has also exceeded supply, as manufacturers
move production to more profitable larger-sized screens ."
Hmmm, wonder if that's part of what's holding up the release of
Apple's new 15" replacement for the TiBook?
Bargain 'Books
There are two different versions of WallStreet running at 233
MHz, the cacheless MainStreet
version and the later Series II
with a level 2 cache. It's not always possible to determine from
the vendor's listing which is being offered, so we've included
links within this paragraph to the two models. The same goes for
the PowerBook G4/667 (Gigabit
Ethernet/2001) and G4/667
(DVI).
- MacZone has one open-box return 12" iBook 900 Combo available for $999.97.
Look for item number 00184125.
- refurb 17" PowerBook G4/1 GHz,
512/60/SuperDrive, leather case, screen protector, AirPort Extreme
Base Station, $3,399
- refurb 17" PowerBook G4/1 GHz,
512/60/SuperDrive, AirPort, $3,099
For more deals on current or recently discontinued models, see
our Best PowerBook G4 Deals
and Best iBook Deals.
