FireWire and the MacBook Air
From Scott Cook:
Hey Dan,
I've been reading the complaints about the new MacBook Air. The thing that
bothers me the most is the lack of FireWire. I sure hope this isn't a
sign of things to come. Apple has a disturbing history of dropping
their unique hardware in favor of standard PC hardware. If Apple drops
FireWire in favor of USB, performance will be cut in half. I for one
like the option of a fast external hard drive and other daisy chained
FireWire devices. USB is slooow by comparison and requires a hub for
more than one device. How come nobody is complaining about this?
FireWire ROCKS! (laugh)
Scott Cook
Scott,
I sincerely hope that FireWire isn't going to
disappear - and I honestly doubt it's going to happen. With the MacBook
Air, it's a matter of power. One FireWire port is supposed to provide
as much power as three standard USB ports, and I think Apple figured
that the battery would have to be too big or battery life too short if
they included FireWire.
FireWire is apparently going to be a big part of
digital TV going forward, so it may end up becoming more common in PCs.
I doubt it's going to disappear from the rest of the Mac line.
Dan
Can't Afford the MacBook Air, but It's Worth
It!
From Josh Rutherford:
Dear Dan,
Thank you so much for the unbiased, open-minded coverage of the
Macworld Expo and Apple's refreshed product lineup. I wanted to say a
few words about the MacBook Air controversy.
First of all, I was a little disappointed too. I really wanted to
see a 12.1" widescreen MacBook Pro as well, and it just didn't happen.
However, the MacBook Air is definitely a beautiful piece of kit, and I
think we should embrace it for exactly what it is: a complementary
"field computer". For salesmen that have to travel to give
presentations or need a lightweight computer with very little
expandability, it would be a great machine.
I work as a computer service technician, and my job takes me all
over the city repairing equipment. The Dell laptop that I've been
issued, while a nice machine overall, is not a field computer.
It's heavy, bulky, the wireless eats the battery alive, and it's not
made for working in tight spaces. I would love to have something
smaller and lighter to carry and still have the flexibility to pop in
accessories when I need them. Of course, the Dell probably cost a
quarter of the MacBook Air's price. Compromises, compromises.
I was really disappointed about not seeing a 12" MBP because typing
on the MacBook's chiclet keyboard hurts my hands after even a short
while. I really do not have a problem with the MacBook's size as many
others claim they do. It would be a great upgrade to my 12" iBook G3.
What I don't have is room on my lap for an external keyboard. I use my
iBook a lot while away from my desk, and although its keyboard is no
IBM Model M or Apple Extended II, it is quite tolerable.
Just my two dollars and ninety-six cents.
Regards,
Josh Rutherford
Josh,
Thanks for sharing your perceptions. I think the
MacBook Air will be a wonderful machine for those who know its
limitations and know how it will work for them. I hope those on the
sales floor make it very clear to customers what the pros and cons are,
as it will not be the right computer for a lot of users.
Dan
Crippled by iTunes 7.6
From Dan Skehan:
Ever since I updated to iTunes 7.6 I can no longer drag files into
my music library, I drag and drop them and nothing happens. I can still
import songs from CDs fine, but this doesn't work very well when I
simply want to add one song to any of my three Macs. I also tried
adding music through the file/import feature, still nothing happens. Do
you know of a fix short of going back to 7.5, which requires using the
Time Machine backup of all my songs (in 7.5, apparently when you
upgrade it updates your library making it incompatible to go backwards)
which is probably a month or more old. This has completely crippled me.
I would advise anyone to not upgrade to 7.6 as well, movie rentals can
wait. Hopefully you or someone can help, apple's forums just have
people with questions no one I can find has provided an answer.
Dan Skehan
Dan,
I haven't added tracks to my iTunes collection other
than from CD or the iTunes Store in years, so I haven't run into this
problem. Perhaps a Mailbag reader can write in with a solution.
Dan
Problems with Gain$aver
From Ryan Kelly:
Hi Dan,
I've been frequenting your site for several years now, and it is
always the first place I go for info concerning any of my low-end Macs
(I have quite a few). It's also the first place I check when I need a
new computer, and though I've bought several from private sellers, a
few have also come directly off of your "deals" lists.
So recently when my sister's boyfriend asked for help looking for a
used PowerBook for her (so she can quit stealing mine all the time), I
took him to LEM, told him what I thought was the best deal, and he
promptly bought a reconditioned Al G4 from Gain$aver.
While I am generally a very prudent Internet shopper, I did not look
into Gain$aver's reputation at all, for the simple reason (and I really
mean this) that they are listed on your site which I trust very much.
However, I wish I had done even a smidgen of research, because I
would have found a wealth of horrible company reviews on Gain$aver, and
I never would have suggested gambling with them.
The first computer they sent my sister looked fairly okay, but was
behaving erratically from the start - unexpectedly freezing and failing
to boot and the like. I advised her to send it back for a replacement,
because even though it was still fairly usable, it seemed a little
lousy for a "certified preowned" machine. To their credit: they were
very easy about replacing the computer with no restock fee (though my
sister paid return shipping). Unfortunately: the replacement arrived
(after a long delay), and it has obviously been dropped very hard, the
optical drive sounds like it is on its last leg, the screen sticks open
and will only shut if you push quite hard and force it to make a
horrible creaking noise (that's not going to last long), and the case
is very poorly put back together after being opened, I presume, to
replace the hard drive that didn't survive the fall. It works, to be
fair, but seriously . . . you can't sell a beat-up computer
without mentioning that it's beat up. So she's sending that one back
too, and hopefully she can just get her money back and be done with
it.
My real point is to just let you know, in case you haven't heard (in
which case I recommend this thread: http://forums.macrumors.com/search.php?searchid=9064550),
that there are whole slew of Mac lovers who have had similar or worse
experiences with Gain$aver, and since your site has always led me to
think of you as a pretty standup guy, I'm not sure if you really want
their ads on your pages.
Sorry if I got a little ranty up there . . . I'm kind of
vicariously annoyed with the whole situation. And I really do love your
site. Keep up the good work.
Cheers,
Ryan
Ryan,
I've had no dealings with Gain$aver personally. We
began listing them after someone wrote to suggest them as a good
low-cost source for used Macs. I have since learned that in many cases
they remove standard components, such as SuperDrives and AirPort
Express cards, and charge customers to put them back in. They also
charge a $25 fee if you want them to actually verify that the machine
you're buying works, and they charge an extra $75-100 for a 90 day
warranty (30 days is standard for them, while most of the industry give
90 days on used Macs).
We have received emails about their policies, and
we've been sure to note them with the Gain$aver listings in our price
trackers. Yours if the first complaint about the equipment they sell.
It doesn't sound like they're really testing and refurbishing these old
Macs. If we receive enough negative feedback, we'll stop listing
them.
Dan
Who's on First?
From Paul Allen:
Dan,
With all the talk of MS customer service issues of late, I am
reminded of the old bit that was forward to me by an friend who manages
IT issues at work. Maybe you've seen it before? If not, enjoy.
You have to be old enough to remember Abbott and Costello, and too
old to really understand computers, to fully appreciate this.
For those of us who sometimes get flustered by our computers, please
read on....
If Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were alive today, their infamous
sketch, 'Who's on First?' might have turned out something like
this:
COSTELLO CALLS TO BUY A COMPUTER FROM ABBOTT
ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?
COSTELLO: Thanks. I'm setting up an office in my den, and I'm
thinking about buying a computer.
ABBOTT: Mac?
COSTELLO: No, the name's Lou.
ABBOTT: Your computer?
COSTELLO: I don't own a computer. I want to buy one.
ABBOTT: Mac?
COSTELLO: I told you, my name's Lou.
ABBOTT: What about Windows?
COSTELLO: Why? Will it get stuffy in here?
ABBOTT: Do you want a computer with Windows?
COSTELLO: I don't know. What will I see when I look at the
windows?
ABBOTT: Wallpaper.
COSTELLO: Never mind the windows. I need a computer and
software.
ABBOTT: Software for Windows?
COSTELLO: No. On the computer! I need something I can use to
write proposals, track expenses, and run my business. What do you
have?
ABBOTT: Office.
COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend
anything?
ABBOTT: I just did.
COSTELLO: You just did what?
ABBOTT: Recommend something.
COSTELLO: You recommended something?
ABBOTT: Yes.
COSTELLO: For my office?
ABBOTT: Yes
COSTELLO: Okay, what did you recommend for my office?
ABBOTT: Office.
COSTELLO: Yes, for my office!
ABBOTT: I recommend Office with Windows.
COSTELLO: I already have an office with windows! Okay, let's
just say I'm sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What
do I need?
ABBOTT: Word.
COSTELLO: What word?
ABBOTT: Word in Office.
COSTELLO: The only word in office is office.
ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.
COSTELLO: Which word in office for windows?
ABBOTT: The Word you get when you click the blue 'W'.
COSTELLO: I'm going to click your blue 'w' if you don't start
with some straight answers. What about financial bookkeeping? You have
anything I can track my money with?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: That's right What do you have?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: I need money to track my money?
ABBOTT: It comes bundled with your computer.
COSTELLO: What's bundled with my computer?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: Money comes with my computer?
ABBOTT: Yes. No extra charge.
COSTELLO: I get a bundle of money with my computer? How
much?
ABBOTT: One copy.
COSTELLO: Isn't it illegal to copy money?
ABBOTT: Microsoft gave us a license to copy Money.
COSTELLO: They can give you a license to copy money?
ABBOTT: Why not? They own it!
(A few days later)
ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?
COSTELLO: How do I turn my computer off?
ABBOTT: Click on 'START'....
Paul Allen
Paul,
That is priceless! Thanks for sharing it.
Dan
Panther Purring on Power Mac 8600
From Jonathan Haack:
I was close to getting Panther to install on my Power Mac 8600 with a Sonnet G3
500 when it suddenly crashed. I reinstalled Jaguar and waited. I
theorized that Panther needed more RAM to install correctly. I
contacted my father, who decided to pitch in for the project and bought
two 128 MB modules for the 8600. Now, with the 8600 at 340 MB, I
reinstalled Classic and overwrote the Jaguar system, updated Classic,
then downloaded XPostFacto, and
installed Panther from Classic. It took about eight hours from the
start until everything was installed and updated 10.3.9, Photoshop, and
more.
It runs much better than it did with Jaguar, plus it has the fast 70
GB SCSI drive my father also pitched in, in addition to the native
2 GB SCSI and another 20 GB SCSI. The Zip drive works, the
[floppy] drive does not, the audio out is working for both RCA and for
stereo. The 70 GB SCSI drive we have spins slowly, so when I power down
or after a failure, it tends to boot into Classic from time to time on
the 2 GB native drive. I can either go to Startup Disk X and
restart in to X, or often, I can simply apple-control-restart, and it
will start into to the now spinning OS X volume.
It works great, but a friend just gave me a Snow iMac that is even
quieter and plenty strong at 500 MHz native. The 8600 needs a wireless
USB adapter, if anyone wants to pitch in. As for the Snow iMac - anyone
know if I can hack Leopard onto it?
Jonathan Haack
Jonathan,
Congratulations on getting Panther running on your
legacy Power Mac. It was a very nice version of OS X, and I stuck
with it for a short while after Tiger started shipping. Now that I'm
used to Tiger, though, it's hard to go back.
There is no way to run Leopard without a G4 CPU, and
FastMac appears to be the
only company offering a G4 upgrade for slot-loading iMacs. It's only
compatible with some 500 MHz iMacs, and it costs $200, so it may not be
an economically sensible upgrade.
Dan
Inflated Mystic Benchmarks
From Ronald Escano:
I am a real fan of your website. I have a question about your new
article on the G4
dual 450. Why are the Xbench values so high? The submitted
benchmarks on the Xbench website for this machine run in the 27 range
not in the 80s. These values more closely reflect G5 benchmarks? Do you
have some secret turbo charger hooked up to this machine?
Ron Escano
Ron,
I just went to the Xbench website, downloaded Xbench
1.3, and discovered that it reports very different numbers than Xbench
1.1.3, which is what I've been using for years. On my G4/1 GHz dual,
the CPU scores just under 120 on 1.1.3, just over 53 with version 1.3.
I have no idea why the folks behind Xbench would make scores so
different. To my mind, that's just confusing things.
I'll run Xbench 1.3 on the Mystic again after I remove
the 1.8 GHz single processor upgrade I'm testing (it has an Xbench
1.1.3 score of 142, nearly twice as high as the dual 450 MHz stock
configuration). Look for a review on the upgrade later this week, along
with Xbench 1.3 scores for the Mystic.
Dan
Leopard Installed on 800 MHz G4 iBook
From Henry Harrison:
Hi Dan
Just thought I'd let you know of a successful install on an iBook 12" with only 384 MB of RAM
- What unsupported Mac(s) have you installed it on? iBook
12"
- How much RAM? 384 MB
- How fast a CPU, and what brand, if it's an upgrade? 800
MHz
- What video card does your Mac have? stock
- Which installation method did you use, a modified installer or
installing from a supported Mac? If so, what Mac did you use to run the
installer? Installed from PB G4 12" 1.5 MHz using FireWire Target
Disk Mode
- What doesn't work? Especially check out Time Machine (which
requires a second hard drive at least as big as your main one), DVD
Player, Front Row, and VLC. Only has a CD-ROM drive
(non-stock)
- How does performance compare with Tiger subjectively and
objectively? Just as good, until I use an emulator, where the emulator
crashes more frequently than it does in Tiger.
Henry Harrison
Henry,
Thanks for the data.
Dan
Dan Knight has been publishing Low
End Mac since April 1997. Mailbag columns come from email responses to his Mac Musings, Mac Daniel, Online Tech Journal, and other columns on the site.
