800 MHz PowerBook Expected, Zip Module for Lombard and Pismo, Refurb iPods, and More

Compiled by Charles Moore and edited by Dan Knight - April 26, 2002

Except as noted, prices are in US dollars.

• 800 MHz PowerBook G4 Coming on Tuesday?
• 100 MB VST Zip Drive Module for Lombard and Pismo at $19.95
• MCE Xcarét Announces 16x10x24 PowerBook Expansion Bay CD-RW Drives
• Willow 14" iBook Carry Case
• Refurbished iPods Available from Apple
• Ratoc Ultra SCSI CardBus PC Cards for PowerBook
• Ratoc 100Base-TX/10Base-T Network CardBus PC Card
• Bargain 'Books

800 MHz PowerBook G4 Coming On Tuesday?

Both PowerPage's Jason O'Grady and Macworld UK are predicting that Apple will release 800 MHz TiBooks next week.

O'Grady says, "PowerPage has confirmed that Apple will announce two new PowerBook configurations on Tuesday, 30 April 2002."

According to MacUser UK, "Reports indicate that two new models will debut on 30 April. The entry-level specification is expected to feature a 667 MHz processor and a 20 GB hard disk, while the top-end machine will use an 800 MHz chip and have a 40 GB hard disk."

100 MB VST Zip Drive Module For Lombard and Pismo at $19.95

Add 100 MB of Zip storage to your G3 PowerBook. MacZone is offering VST Zip 100 MB f/Lombard/Pismo G3 PowerBooks for the clearance price of $19.99

I have one of these for my Pismo. It's cool.

• Larger, more secure data storage that's fast, easy to use, and hot-swappable with other expansion bay devices
• Seamless user interface: behaves just like a floppy drive, but with 70 times the capacity
• Includes Iomega Tools
• Bootable Mac OS 8 boot disk provided
• System Requirements: Open PowerBook G3 expansion bay. Zip Drive is compatible with both 1999 (Lombard) and 2000 (Pismo) G3 PowerBooks

The VST Zip 100 SmartDisk Zip Drive is hot swappable, so there's no need to sleep, restart or shut down, and it has a seamless user interface, behaving just like a floppy drive.

MCE Xcarét Announces 16x10x24 PowerBook Expansion Bay CD-RW Drives

The MCE Xcarét Pro 2000 Expansion Bay CD-RW and the MCE Xcarét Pro Expansion Bay CD-RW are CD-RW drives designed to fit into the right-side expansion bay slot of your PowerBook. Now you can write data to standard recordable (CD-R) and rewritable (CD-RW) CDs at up to 16x speed anywhere you can use your PowerBook - double the speed of the current top-end PowerBook G4 model. In addition, the devices will read prerecorded CD-ROMs at up to 24x.

The MCE Xcarét Pro 2000 Expansion Bay DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive allows you to burn CDs and read DVD-ROM discs on your PowerBook G3 1999 (Lombard, Bronze) or PowerBook G3 2000 (FireWire) with a single expansion bay drive. The MCE Xcarét Pro Expansion Bay DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive works with the PowerBook G3 1998 (Wall Street).

Included with the drive is the Roxio Toast Lite CD-recording software which allows you to create audio CDs, bootable CDs, and general backup CDs, as well as a host of other CD formats. As with all MCE PowerBook expansion bay devices, all of the Xcarét Pro Expansion Bay CD-RW drives, and Xcarét Pro Expansion Bay DVD/CD-RW Combo drives are all hot-swappable, meaning that you don't need to shut down or put your PowerBook to sleep to insert and use the drive; and they are truly portable in that they require no external power supply since power is supplied by the PowerBook itself. As an added bonus, MCE also includes the MCE Xbay Expansion Bay Device Carrying Case, a protective carrying case for your CD-RW or for any of your other expansion bay devices.

The MCE Xcarét Pro and Xcarét Pro 2000 Expansion Bay CD-RW drives are the only expansion bay CD-RW drives on the market capable of booting your PowerBook. This means you can leave your original CD-ROM/DVD drive at home without worry should you need to boot from a CD.

Features and Specifications:

• Access Time: 150 ms
• Cache Size (Buffer): 2 MB
• Device Supported Formats: CD-ROM (Mode 1, Mode 2 Form 1), CD-DA (Audio CD, Red Book), Photo CD, CD-ROM XA (Mode 2, Form 2), CD-I (movie), Video CD (VCD), CD Extra, CD Text, CD-R (Orange Book Part 2), CD-RW (Orange Book Part 3), ISO 9660
• Device Supported Writing Methods: Track at once, Multisession, Disc at once, Session at once, Packet writing
• Supported Recording Media: 74 Min/650 MB; 80 Min/700 MB; 63 Min/553 MB CD-R and CD-RW Discs
• Power Consumption: 9W (max)
• Weight 13.1 oz, 370g
• 4x4x20 CD-RW drives and DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive compatible with Apple's iTunes and Disc Burner software. Forthcoming compatibility with Apple's iTunes and Disc Burner software for 8x8x24 CD-RW drives.
• Activity LED for instant user feedback on drive status
• The only Expansion Bay CD-RW available on the market today that can boot your PowerBook.
• Requires Mac OS 8.6 or later
• 1 Year Warranty

Package Includes:

• MCE Expansion Bay CD-RW (or DVD/CD-RW) Drive
• Roxio Toast Lite v5.0 (or higher) CD-Recording Software
• One blank CD-R disc; one blank CD-RW disc
• User's Guide
• MCE Xbay Protective Carrying Case

The drives sell for $399.

Willow 14" iBook Carry Case

The Willow 14" iBook 14 carry case is a lightweight, economical solution for safely transporting your 14" iBook. The case will also accommodate the PowerBook G3 Pismo. The case design offers protection for your iBook plus a convenient outer organizer pocket in a compact, functional case.

Willow 14" iBook case features:

• excellent protection for your iBook afforded by 1.2 cm (0.5") foam reinforced by corrugated plastic on the front and back, high density polyethylene reinforcement on the handle side and 4 mm (1/8") hardboard on the bottom.
• clean, lightweight and flexible design.
• great comfort insured by a mountain bike grip handle, quadruple riveted through high density polyethylene in case front to insure the security of your iBook.
• shoulder comfort provided by a wide, contoured, thickly padded shoulder strap.
• convenient DVD, CD-ROM, and cable pockets located in the laptop section for easy access.
• outer front organizer panel with elasticized pockets for business cards, pens, the Apple power supply plus room for the power cord and an ethernet cable.
• outside flat, outer pocket for airline tickets, thin paperwork, etc.
• flat external rear pocket especially handy for maps, magazines or newspapers.
• a hook and loop secured elastic strap to lockdown your iBook and 1.2 cm ( 0.5") of paperwork for further protection.
• handy mesh pocket in the 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 .
• lifetime guarantee against defects in materials or craftsmanship.

Available Colours: Black, Charcoal, Navy, Teal, Purple

Price: $115 Cdn./$ 75 U.S. plus shipping.

Refurbished iPods Available From Apple

The Apple Store's Special Deals page is featuring refurbished iPods (5 GB) for $339.

Also available are Select Year 2001 iBooks: 600 MHz, 128/15 GB/DVD/VGA-out/ethernet/56K/12.1" TFT for $1,399.

Ratoc Ultra SCSI CardBus PC Cards for PowerBook

Users wishing to run SCSI devices off their G3 PowerBooks and TiBooks running Mac OS X 10.1.4 will be interested in Ratoc Systems' Ultra SCSI CardBus PC Cards. Either the CB31U (Wintel version) and CB31 Pismo (PowerBook G3 Pismo and PowerBook G4 version) work after downloading the January 2002 beta OS X drivers from Ratoc's Web site.

CB31 Pismo

Features

• Add Ultra-SCSI port to your PowerBook G3 (Wallstreet 1988, Lombard 1999), PowerBook 500/400 (Pismo 2000) and PowerBook G4 (Titanium).
• Get desktop performance and Ultra-SCSI speed up to 20 MB/sec.
• Supports Ultra-SCSI device and legacy SCSI devices such as hard disk, CD-R/W, scanner, film scanner, ORB, Jaz, and MO.
• Includes SCSI-2 Hi-Density 50P cable and HD50-C50 adapter.
• Includes Disk formatter and Auto Mounter utility.
• Includes SCSI configuration Utility.
• Supports SoftRAID (SoftRAID, LLC)
• 32-bit databus and 33 MHz operation
• Supports bus mastering data transfer
• Ready for Power Management
• Low power consumption
• Supports scatter/gather and tagged queuing

CB31 Pismo includes high-density 50-pin cable and 50F to Centronics 50M adapter.

System requirements

• PowerBook G3/G4 with CardBus ready PC Card Slot.
• PowerBook G4 (Titanium)
• PowerBook 500, 400 (2000 Pismo)
• PowerBook G3/400, G3/333 (1999 Lombard)
• PowerBook G3/300, G3/292, G3/266, G3/250, G3/233 (1998 Wallstreet)
• Mac OS 8.6, 9., 9.0.2, 9.0.4, 9.1, 9.2.x, X 10.1.x

Ultra Wide SCSI CardBus PC Card for PowerBook CB32PB

Features

• Supports Ultra Wide SCSI rate up to 40 MB/sec.
• Support for true multitasking.
• Supports scatter/gather and tagged queuing.
• Ready for ACPI.
• RISC core reduces CPU utilization.
• Supports Ultra Wide SCSI, Ultra SCSI, Fast SCSI, and SCSI-1 devices.

System Requirements

• PowerBook G4 (Titanium),
• PowerBook G3/G4 with CardBus ready PC Card Slot.
• PowerBook 500, 400 (2000 Pismo)
• PowerBook G3/400, G3/333 (1999 Lombard)
• PowerBook G3/300, G3/292, G3/266, G3/250, G3/233 (1998 Wallstreet)
• Mac OS 8.6, 9., 9.0.2, 9.0.4, 9.1, 9.2.x, X 10.1.x

Specifications

• Bus interface CardBus (PC Card Standard)
• Bus rate 132 MB/sec
• SCSI data transfer rates 40 MB/sec with Ultra Wide SCSI devices (synchronous)
• 20 MB/sec with Ultra SCSI devices (synchronous)
• 10 MB/sec with FAST SCSI devices (synchronous)

Ratoc 100Base-TX/10Base-T Network CardBus PC Card

Ratoc CB81PB for Macintosh Features

• Complies to 10Base-T and 100Base-TX
• Auto-Negotiation of 10/100 Mbps
• Configures the PC Card for 10 or 100 Mbps automatically
• ACPI support (CB81U)

Specifications:

• Bus interface CardBus (PC Card Standard)
• Interface type 100Base-TX, 10Base-T
• Data transfer rates 100 Mbps, 10 Mbps

System requirements PC with CardBus-enabled PC Card slot

• Apple Macintosh PowerBook G3/233, G3/250, G3/292, G3/266, G3/300, G3/333, G3/400
• MacOS 8.1, 8.5, 8.5.1, 8.6, 9, 9.0.2, 9.0.4, 9.1, 9.2.x

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.

Baucom Computers

• PowerBook G3/400 Pismo, 192/6 GB/DVD/56K/USB/FireWire/14.1", $965
• PowerBook G3/400 Lombard, 128/6 GB/DVD/56K/USB/14.1", $799
• PowerBook G3/333 Lombard, 128/4 GB/CD/56K/USB/14.1", $650
• PowerBook G3/266 WallStreet, 160/4 GB/CD/56K/14.1", $538 (add floppy for $37)
• PowerBook G3/250 Kanga, 160/5 GB/CD/56K/12.1", $410 (add extra battery for $20)

MacResQ

• PowerBook G3/400 Lombard, 64/6 GB/DVD/SCSI/56k/14.1" with free Macally CardBus to FireWire PCMCIA Card, $979.99

PowerBook Guy

• PowerBook 3400c/200, 16/2 GB/CD/floppy/33.6, $489.95

ExperCom

• iBook 300, 64 /3.2 GB/CD, blueberry, $799.97

PowerMax

• iBook SE 366, 128/6 GB/CD/ethernet/56K, graphite, $878
• PowerBook 5300c/100, 16 /500 MB/floppy, $359