Compiled by Charles Moore
and edited by
Dan Knight
- 2005.10.17
This Week's PowerBook, iBook, and Notebook News
General Apple and Mac desktop news is covered in The Mac News Review. iPod news is covered
in The iNews Review. News about
Apple's transition to Intel CPUs and other Intel developments is
covered in The Macintel Report.
All prices are in US dollars unless otherwise noted.
News & Opinion
Products and Services
Software
News & Opinion
Maine School Laptop Update
Maine Today's Giselle Goodman reports:
"This week's story came to us via an e-mail that asked us to
catch up on the Maine's One-to-One Laptop Program.
"The program began in January of 2002 when Maine signed a
four-year, $37.2 million contract with Apple Computer, Inc., to
provide iBook laptops to every seventh and eight grade student, and
their teachers, in the state. In 2006, the contract is up and the
state must decide whether to keep the program or not.
"With 38,000 laptops in circulation at 243 schools, one reader
asked this: 'So . . . how are they doing nearly four
years later? How many laptops have been lost? Stolen? Broken?'
"We've tried to answer those questions in this report."
Laptops Displays: The Big Picture
BusinessWeek Online reports:
"If you have cruised the laptop aisle of an electronics store
lately, you've probably noticed that nearly all the models on
display sport wide screens like those on large-screen televisions.
But if you work for a corporation or in government, you're not
likely to see a widescreen model around the office. Do consumers
know something corporations don't?
"They sure do. Over the past couple of years widescreen displays
ranging from 14 in. to 17 in. have come to account for the great
majority of laptops sold in the retail market, which includes
consumers and many small businesses. But when it comes to the
enterprise, the three big makers of business laptops, Dell,
Hewlett-Packard, and Lenovo, say that most information technology
buyers won't even consider widescreen designs.
"The reasons are murky. Part of it seems to be the resistance to
change that corporate IT managers show in all sorts of decisions.
Part seems to be based on the assumption that the only thing wide
screens are good for is playing DVDs - and corporate laptops are
for work, not fun.
"I was converted to the virtues of wide screens when I began
using Apple PowerBooks. These
were among the first popular models with screens whose width is 1.6
times their height, versus 1.25 times for a conventional
display."
Flash Chips in Notebooks
BusinessWeek reports:
"When on Sept. 7 Apple Computer Inc. introduced the world to its
new music player, the iPod nano, no one cheered louder than Hwang
Chang Gyu. Hwang, who runs the chip division of Samsung
Electronics, heartily agreed with Apple Chief Executive Steven P.
Jobs when he described the nano as 'the biggest revolution since
the original iPod.'
"Hwang, however, had a different revolution in mind - the
revolution in data storage through NAND flash-memory chips. The
nano uses flash chips rather than a hard-disk drive to store its
1,000 songs, and Samsung, the world's biggest maker of flash chips,
has a contract to supply most of them. Using the less bulky flash
chips - which don't run on mechanical parts and retain data even
when a device's power is cut off - made the nano's ultra-thin shape
possible. It will replace the bigger, hard-drive-driven iPod
mini.
"The nano is just one of dozens of digital devices that are
expected to switch over to NAND memory....
"One potential future market is in notebook PCs. On Sept. 12,
Samsung unveiled a prototype notebook that contains a 32-gigabyte
flash drive...."
Products and Services
Samsung's New 2.5" Serial ATA Hard Drives
PR: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. brings to market new
2.5" high-end Serial ATA hard disk drives targeted for notebook and
enterprise computing applications. Samsung's latest drives, the
M40S Series, are offered in three capacities including the 40 GB
HM040HI ($80 estimated street price), the 60 GB HM060II ($100), and
the 80 GB HM080JI ($140). All three new drives are currently
shipping.
"Samsung prides itself on being a technology leader and as one
of the first major manufacturers to offer Serial ATA technology in
the 2.5" hard drive format. Samsung continues to up the ante and
provide consumers with a wide variety of high-end storage
solutions," states Albert Kim, National Sales Manager, Storage
Systems for Samsung SSI. "The new M40S series gives enterprise and
home users alike the ability to use best-of-breed Samsung
technology for their corporate or mobile computing needs."
Ideal for notebook PCs and for enterprise applications such as
blade servers that require small form factors with the benefits of
Serial ATA technology, the M40S Series drives feature 8 MB of
onboard data cache and high performance 5,400 rpm spindle speed.
All mobile drives offer outstanding throughput performance and
competitive power consumption rates. The new drives provide
outstanding reliability and industry-leading shock protection
capability through an advanced mechanical platform and robust cover
design engineered to minimize the intensity of external shock
transmitted to the most critical components of the drive.
The M40S Series features outstanding quality. Samsung invented a
revolutionary new latch mechanism that eliminates the unpleasant
rattling noise of traditional 2.5" drives and significantly reduces
the clicking noise generated when a drive moves its heads on and
off the disk according to the operating modes. The drives use a
Fluid Dynamic Bearing motor to achieve industry-leading operating
acoustic noise levels.
Samsung's latest 2.5" hard drive offerings feature Fluid Dynamic
Bearing Spindle Motor Technology, ATA S.M.A.R.T. compliance, ATA
Automatic Acoustic Management and ATA Streaming. To ensure the
quietest drives in the industry, the M40S series utilizes Samsung's
patented NoiseGuard and SilentSeek next generation technology.
Put Long Distance Wireless Capability in Hands
of PowerBook Users
PR: Combining the long distance and high speed capability
of the QuickerTek Transceiver with a PC Card offers PowerBook users
real value. Especially attractive for titanium PowerBook users who
have an older AirPort card, any PowerBook user who wants to step up
to 802.11g speeds also gets improved wireless performance. This
250mW QuickerTek Transceiver and the 802.11g Buffalo PC Card 54g is
$250 from QuickerTek dealers.
This small Transceiver is not much larger than an antenna, clips
temporarily onto the PowerBook case, and is easy to travel with and
easy to pop on and use where ever mobile Mac users go. It connects
to the PowerBook through the Buffalo PC Card - just like an
antenna. It's ideal to use a full-speed connection at large public
areas such as airports, college dorms, expansive offices, hotels,
outdoor commons, and can't seem to connect at any tolerable
wireless speed.
The Transceiver offers 250 milliwatts of RF power. For
comparison, the titanium PowerBook has 30 milliwatts of RF power.
It's easy to see why the Transceiver can not only connect to
distant wireless networks, but also get a full-speed
connection.
Specifically, this Transceiver/PC Card Bundle works with the
following Apple computers:
- 15" titanium PowerBook
- 15" aluminum PowerBook
- 17" aluminum PowerBook
This Transceiver/PC Card Bundle is not designed for iBooks or
the 12" aluminum PowerBook. Like most QuickerTek products, it's
backed with a one-year warranty on parts and labor.
Rick Estes, president QuickerTek, Inc. stated, "The Transceiver
PC Card Bundle is perfect for PowerBook users who seem to always be
in one of those places where you can see a network, but the signal
strength is always frustratingly slow. If you have have one of the
older PowerBooks with a slower AirPort card then this Bundle will
give you the latest 802.11g speed and long distance wireless you
lust for," said Rick Estes, president, QuickerTek, Inc.
QuickerTek is a recognized leading innovator of antennas and RF
products for Apple desktop and portable computers. QuickerTek
products can be purchased at Mac dealers such as Small Dog
Electronics, TechnoWarehouse, PowerBook Medic, DayStar Technologies
domestically, as well as a growing number of dealers in Europe.
Picture Porter Digital Photo Album/MP3
Player
PR: Digital Foci's Picture Porter portable digital
photo album with hard drive and card reader lets you instantly and
securely save and view digital photos and video on a hard drive
wherever you go, so you can keep snapping away and not worry about
running out of memory card space.
Especially valuable for vacations, trade shows, special events,
parties, and for pro photographers who take and show a large number
of photos, Picture Porter saves photos on its compact portable hard
drive, so you don't have to bring heavy laptops on the road.
Picture Porter takes the worry out of losing precious photos stored
on easily damaged memory cards. Its built-in memory card slots let
you copy and archive photos directly from any digital camera card,
without the need of cumbersome cabling. With Picture Porters'
compact 20 GB and 40 GB hard drive versions, you'll virtually never
run out of memory card space on the road again.
With
USB 2.0 High-speed computer connection, Picture Porter lets you
transfer files to and from your computer with ease. Use Picture
Porter to back up and archive digital images, digital music, and
important files from you computer.
Portable Digital Photo Album
With its high-capacity hard drive, you can now carry your
collection of digital photos and video with you all the time right
in your pocket and view them anywhere you go on Picture Porter's
bright 2" color LCD screen. With Picture Porter, you can rotate,
zoom, pan your pictures, view EXIF information, and play picture
slideshows for friends. You can even connect Picture Porter to a TV
and share your photos and music with family and friends on a big
screen in the comfort of your living room.
Works with All Media Formats
Picture Porter works with all media card formats, including CF
I/II, MD, SM, MMC, SD Card, miniSD, xD-Picture Card, Memory Stick,
MS PRO, MS Duo, and MS PRO Duo, so you can copy and save your
precious pictures directly from any digital camera memory card. You
can also make yourself copies of photos taken from friend's and
family member's digital cameras by quickly inserting their cards
into Picture Porter for instant archival of special picture
moments.
MP3 Player & Data Bridge
Picture Porter is also perfect as a portable MP3 and video
player - keep your entire content collection in one place for easy
access. Bi-directional data transfer lets you copy files directly
from any memory card to the Picture Porter hard drive and vice
versa. In addition, you can easily transfer files to and from your
computer and between computers with different operating systems
through its high-speed USB 2 connection.
Picture Porter features:
- Photo and video player
- MP3 music player
- Archives files
- Color LCD screen for viewing pictures and videos
- Bi-directional data transfer that allows direct transfer to and
from memory cards
- Output to TV
- Directly reads & writes from memory cards
- Memory card format support of CF I/II, MD, SM, MMC, SD Card,
miniSD, Memory Stick, MS PRO, MS Duo, and MS PRO Duo, and
xD-Picture Card
- Image format support of JPEG, Tiff, BMP, RAW
- Music format support of MP3, WMA, AAC, WAV
- Video format support of MPEG1, MPEG4, and DivX 5.x
- Includes Ulead Video Toolbox 2 to edit video clips, create
slideshows and convert video files
- Transfers files between multiple computers running different
operating systems
High-capacity Lithium-Ion battery allows 3.5 hours of continuous
video and 7.5 hours of continuous music.
Compatible with Windows and Mac operating systems, Picture
Porter is compact and lightweight weighing only 8.6 oz (with hard
drive and battery included) with dimensions of 5.2" (L) x 2.8" (W)
x 1.2" (H). It comes in 2 stylish colors: frosted white and
graphite and 2 storage capacities: 20 GB and 40 GB. Picture Porter
comes complete with Ulead management software (normally a $70
value), USB cable, video/audio cable, earphones, AC adapter,
Lithium-Ion battery for 3.5 hours of video and 7.5 hours of music,
remote control, carrying case, and user's guide.
Picture Porter is backward compatible with USB 1.1. There is no
software driver installation required for Windows XP, Windows ME,
Windows 2000 (SP3 or later) and Mac OS 9.x or later. Simply connect
Picture Porter to your computer using the USB cable included in the
package. Once connected, Picture Porter will show up as a removable
hard drive. You can use it just like you use the hard drive on your
computer.
It is available immediately at Digital Foci's online store
$399.
Software
Adjust CPU Speed on the Fly with
FastAndSlow
PR: Giuseppe Tribulato's MenuExtra addition FastAndSlow
adds the ability to switch PowerBook, iBook, and iMac G5 processor
performance (in the Energy Saver settings) from the menubar.
You can select between "fast", "slow", and "Automatic" (if your
computer supports this setting). It is useful for example when your
Mac becomes too hot and the fan starts. Using the slow setting it
doesn't happen.
New in Version 1.3.1:
- Added French localization.
- Added "Read me first - français" documentation.
- Fixed a bug on Tiger 10.4 that used to prevent the FastAndSlow
menu extra from displaying the current settings correctly when
switching to a default power profile using the Energy Saver
preference pane.
(Thanks to Byron Shaheen with MacPRO for software testing and
for the French localization and documentation).
New in Version 1.3: Now it is iMac G5 compatible
System requirements: Mac OS X 10.1 or later, PowerBook,iBook or
iMac G5.
FastAndSlow is freeware.
Bargain 'Books
Bargain 'Books are used unless otherwise indicated. New and
refurbished units have a one-year Apple warranty and are eligible
for AppleCare.
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 (VGA) and
G4/667 (DVI), the titanium vs.
aluminum 15" PowerBook G4 at 1 GHz, and 1.25 GHz to 1.5 GHz
15" PowerBooks.
- refurb 12" iBook G4/1.2 GHz, 256/30/CD-ROM, $699
- refurb 12" PowerBook G4/1.33 GHz, 256/60/SuperDrive, AirPort
Extreme, $1,299
- refurb 15" aluminum PowerBook G4/1 GHz, 256/60/Combo,
$1,299
- refurb 15" PowerBook G4/1.25 GHz, 512/80/SuperDrive, AirPort
Extreme, $1,599.
- refurb 15" PowerBook G4/1.33 GHz, 256/60/Combo, AirPort
Extreme, $1,449
- refurb PowerBook 15"/1.67 GHz, /512 MB / 80/SuperDrive, AirPort
Extreme, Bluetooth, $1,899
- 14" iBook G3/700 MHz, 256/30/Combo, $549.99
- 15" PowerBook G4/667 MHz (VGA), 256/30/Combo, $799.99
- 17" PowerBook G4/1 GHz, 512/60/SuperDrive, AirPort Extreme,
$1,499.99
- 12" G3 iBook G3/800 MHz, 256 MB/30/CD-ROM, $399.95
- 12" G3 iBook G3/600 MHz, 256 MB/20/Combo, $479.95
- 12" G4 iBook G4/1 GHz, 256 MB/30/CD-ROM, $649.95
- 15" PowerBook G4/867 MHz, 256/40/Combo, $899
- extra 512 MB, add $89
For more deals on current or recently discontinued models, see
our best aluminum PowerBook G4
deals, best titanium PowerBook G4
deals, best iBook G4 deals,
best PowerBook G3 deals, and best iBook G3 deals.
