Compiled by Charles Moore
and edited
by Dan Knight
- 2006.07.14
This Week's MacBook, PowerBook, and iBook News
All prices are in US dollars unless otherwise noted.
General Apple and Mac desktop news is covered in The Mac News Review. News about Apple's
transition to Intel CPUs and other Intel developments is covered in
The Macintel Report.
News & Opinion
Products and Services
Software
Tech Trends
News & Opinion
Summer of the Exploding Laptop?
CBC News's John Bowman says:
"To hear some talk about it, you'd think laptops around the
world were exploding left and right.
"In April, an 11-year-old's unattended Apple iBook in Solon,
Iowa, melted the carpet it was sitting on and subsequently caught
fire.
"Last month, a Dell laptop exploded into flames at a conference
in Japan.
"And Wednesday there was a front-page article in the Globe
and Mail about the perils of exploding laptops, featuring these
two incidents.
"But, as mentioned in the Globe article, the U.S.
Consumer Product Safety Commission has reported only 43 laptop
fires in the United States since 2001, or about 10 every year.
"That's the same number of fires caused every year by
nightlights."
Link: Summer
of the Exploding Laptop!
Analyst Calls for More Stringent Laptop
Safety
Laptop Logic says:
"After the Dell exploding battery fiasco, some are calling for
improved quality control and safety tests among laptop
manufacturers.
"After a recent battery explosion at a conference, some are
worried about laptop safety.
"CIO reports that Carmi Levy, a senior analyst at Info-Tech
Research Group, is making an appeal to regulatory bodies for more
stringent battery and AC adapter testing procedures before the
devices are sold to the public. Levy warns of further potential
tragedies due to laptop power problems, including airline
disasters...."
Link: Analyst Calls
for More Stringent Laptop Safety
ExpressCard 34 Roll-out Begins
Macworld UK reports:
"MacBook Pro users should soon be able to buy expansion products
designed to fit the new ExpressCard 34 slot in Apple's pro
portables.
"A listing of a range of new ExpressCard products has appeared
on an industry
standard website."
Link:
Roll-out Begins for ExpressCard 34 Devices
Daystar G4 1.75 GHz CPU Upgrade for PowerBook
G4 Reviewed
An Accelerate Your Mac reader reports:
"My PowerBook was one of the
first Aluminum PowerBooks shipped. It has been the best machine
I have ever worked with or owned. However, after 3 great years, it
was beginning to feel a bit pokey and Virtual PC (which I sometime
need) was never a top performer. Time to buy a new MacBook Pro?
Love to, but based on my current needs, $2K+ was just a bit
much.
"The Daystar upgrade at $400 to $500 would give me the
performance I wanted and extend the useful life several years. Now,
which upgrade - 1.75, 1.83 or 1.92 GHz?"
Link: Reader
Review of Daystar G4 1.75 GHz CPU Upgrade for PowerBook G4
MacBook Excels, Can Even Run Windows
The position of Associated Press (AP) is that you may
not quote more than 5 words from any of its copyrighted articles
without paying $12.50 or more for a "quotation license". Rather than
pay this fee or risk the wrath of AP, we are removing all AP quotes
from the site along with links to those articles.
We regret any inconvenience to our readers, but we will never pay
for what is considered Fair Use under copyright law. We consider brief
quotations in our news roundups to be Fair Use and a benefit to the
site that we quoted from and linked to. (We adhere to the Open Link policy, and our Fair
Use policy specifically allows quoting up to 50% or 300 words of
our original content, whichever is less.)
Problems Using Disk Images to Set Up MacBooks
for Windows
RoughlyDrafted's Daniel Eran says:
"I introduced an experimental project to replace a fleet of PC
laptops with MacBooks in
Do MacBooks Make Business Sense as PC Laptops? It turns out
that MacBooks do make pretty decent Windows laptops at a good
price. The fatal flaw I ran into wasn't a limitation in the MacBook
however; it related to the partition map used in Intel's new EFI
firmware.
"The following information applies to all of Apple's Intel based
Macs, and is important in understanding the issues involved with
using Boot Camp, or in moving drives between PCs and Intel Macs. It
also helps to explain why Apple beat all the other PC makers in
widely releasing EFI based computers."
Link:
Imaging MacBooks: Understanding MBR, APM, & GPT
Laptop Notebook Review Looks at Black
MacBook
Laptop Notebook Review reports:
"If you held off buying an older Apple iBook with one of the G4
processors, give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back for
making a shrewd tech-buying move. The new Apple MacBook ($1,699 direct) is the
latest successor to the iBook 12-inch and is loaded with many of
the same cool features found in its MacBook Pro brethren, the
MacBook Pro 15-inch and
MacBook Pro 17-inch. You'll
be happy to find such treats as the latest Intel components, a
glossy widescreen display, and even a new matte-black finish.
"The new MacBook comes in three configurations, all available in
the familiar Apple-white design. But you can also get, as I did,
the high-end configuration in a very un-Apple-like black design.
(Funny how the black version looks like a typical Microsoft Windows
laptop.) Personally, I think the white MacBooks are better-looking,
and they don't clash with Apple's white-colored AC adapter (60W,
not the 84W found on the MacBook Pro) and Apple Remote
accessories."
Link:
Apple MacBook Black
Nylon vs. Leather: Picking the Right Notebook
Bag
The Apple Core's Jason D. O'Grady says:
"Let me start off by saying that I have a bag fetish. I live for
bags and love all the different options for carrying around my
MacBook in style. Whether it's a shoulder bag, messenger bag or
backpack, each has its application and place. A bag is a part of
your wardrobe and should be treated as such.
"Nothing is worse than seeing a sharply dressed business man or
woman schlepping an ugly-ass computer bag (usually in black) that
SCREAMS 'there's an equally ugly computer in here!'"
Link: Nylon vs.
Leather: Picking the Right Notebook Bag
Products and Services
MCE 160 GB 5400 RPM Hard Drive for MacBook,
MacBook Pro
PR: For use with the Intel-based MacBook and MacBook
Pro.
MobileStor 160GXS
- MCE Certified for: MacBook, MacBook Pro
- Unformatted Capacity: 160 GB (1 KB=1000 bytes)
- Average Seek Time: 11ms
- Data Buffer (Cache): 8 MB
- Rotational Speed: 5,400 RPM
- Interface: Serial ATA-150
- Sustained Media Transfer Rate (max): 67.5 MB/sec
- Burst Interface Transfer Rate (max): 150 MB/sec
- Power (max): 5W
- Height: 9.5 mm
- Weight: 3.52 oz, 102 g
- Warranty: 3 year
Installation Kit Contents: Torx screwdriver, miniature Phillips
and flathead screwdriver, antistatic wrist strap
Link:
MCE 160 GB 5400 RPM MobileStor Hard Drive for MacBook/MacBook Pro
with Installation Kit
Software
SeisMac: Seismograph Software for 'Books with
Motion Sensor
PR: SeisMac is a Mac OS X Cocoa application that makes
your MacBook or MacBook Pro
(or SMS-equipped PowerBook or iBook) into a seismograph. It
accesses your laptop's Sudden Motion Sensor in order to display
real-time, three-axis acceleration graphs.
The resizable,
real-time scrolling display shows an enormous amount of
acceleration information. Place your laptop on a table and see the
seismic waves from tapping your toe on the floor. Lay your laptop
on your chest and see your heartbeat. And of course, if there is a
real earthquake, SeisMac will be displaying full seismic
information while you drop, cover and hold-on.
When running on the MacBook or MacBook Pro, SeisMac has a range
of plus or minus two gravities of acceleration, displaying 256
values per gravity, sampled two hundred times per second for each
axis. SeisMac is also compatible with older Sudden Motion
Sensor-equipped iBooks and PowerBooks
New in version 1.1: stability, compatibility, performance
improvements
System requirements: Mac OS X 10.4 or later
SeisMac is freeware.
Link: SeisMac
Tech Trends
PC Makers Hope Laptop Size Matters
USA Today's Michelle Kessler reports:
"Tiny laptop computers - and huge, heavy ones - are hitting
store shelves as PC makers struggle to grow in a mature market.
"Sony
Friday launched a laptop that's just 6 inches across and weighs
just over a pound. Called the Vaio UX Micro PC, it's designed for
business travelers and others on the go.
"Dell introduced the other extreme in May, a hulking, 18.3-pound
laptop with a leather handle called the XPS M2010, built with video
gamers in mind. In June, Acer introduced a 17-pound laptop also
designed for gamers. Samsung in May came out with an "ultra mobile"
PC that weighs less than 2 pounds....
"In developed nations, most people who want a desktop PC already
have one. The growth of wireless Internet has sparked U.S. laptop
sales, which are now slightly higher than desktops. That helped
overall U.S. PC sales grow 8% from the year before, says researcher
Gartner. But that's still short of the worldwide increase of 15%,
Gartner says. And U.S. growth rates could slow as laptops become
commonplace."
Link:
PC Makers Hope Laptop Size Matters
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.
PowerBook, iBook, and MacBook profiles linked in our Portable Mac Index.
- refurb 12" iBook G4/1.33 GHz, 512/40/Combo, APX, BT 2.0,
$799
- refurb 12" PowerBook G4/1.5 GHz, 512/60/Combo, APX, BT 2.0,
$1,099
- refurb 12" PowerBook G4/1.5 GHz, 512/80/SuperDrive, APX, BT
2.0, $1,199
- refurb MacBook 1.83 GHz, 512/60/Combo, $949
- refurb MacBook 2.0 GHz white, 512/60/SuperDrive, $1,099
- refurb MacBook 2.0 GHz black, 512/80/SuperDrive, $1,299
TechRestore is offering a $25 discount to 'Book Review readers
off any PowerBook or iBook in stock. Just enter the code CWM during
checkout when ordering online. The coupon code is valid from now
through 2007.12.31.
- used 12" PowerBook G4/1 GHz, 512/60/SuperDrive, $799.99
- used 15" PowerBook G4/1.25 GHz, 512/80/SuperDrive,
$1,099.99
- used 12" iBook G3/700, 256/20/CD, $335
- used 15" PowerBook G4/667, 256/20/Combo, $529
- Add Airport for $99
- used 12" iBook G3/366, graphite, 192/6/CD, $279.95
- PowerBook WallStreet G3/300, 128/6/CD, $279.95
- PowerBook Pismo G3/500, 256/20/DVD, $429.95
- used 15" PowerBook G4/667 DVI, 256/30/Combo, $619.99
- used 15" PowerBook G4/867, 256/30/Combo, $719.99
- used 15" Titanium PowerBook G4/1 GHz, 256/60/Combo,
$699.99
For more deals on current or recently discontinued models, see
our best 15" MacBook Pro deals,
our best 17" MacBook Pro deals,
12" PowerBook G4 deals, 15" aluminum PowerBook G4 deals, 17" PowerBook G4 deals, titanium PowerBook G4 deals, iBook G4 deals, PowerBook G3 deals, and iBook G3 deals.
