Compiled by Charles Moore
and edited by
Dan Knight
- 2002.01.25
Except as noted, prices are in US dollars.
Great PowerBook Hard Drive Upgrade
Tutorial
Insanely Great Mac's Remy Davison has posted an
excellent tutorial on how to do PowerBook hard drive upgrades,
covering everything from the latest TiBooks back to the old 100
series machines.
Remy notes that IBM, Toshiba, Fujitsu, and Hitachi are the main
2.5" notebook hard drive manufacturers, and that most Apple OEM
hard drives supplied in PowerBooks and iBooks have been IBMs and
Fujitsus, with IBMs being the preferred drive.
There is a ton of useful information and many links to more in
this article. If you're contemplating a hard drive upgrade, it's
well worth reading.
TiBook Touchup Paint
Samuel Hotchkiss has paint for touching up scratched Titanium
PowerBooks.
Samuel's packs of grey paint for TiBooks are ready to ship. To
order transfer $11.50 to his PayPal account (hotch@hotch.org) and
he says he will ship within 24 hours.
For more information, email hotch@hotch.org
And a tip of the hat to
The PowerBook Zone for bringing this item to our
attention.
MCE Announces Lucid-16, 16x Portable FireWire
CD-RW Drive
MCE Technologies,
LLC has announced a 16x version of their Lucid Portable
FireWire CD-RW drive. The Lucid-16 CD-RW drive sports the slimmest
dimensions and lightest weight of any FireWire CD-RW drive on the
market today, as well as a sleek industrial design intended to
complement all of Apple's current system lineup, particularly the
Apple PowerBook G4 Titanium.
The Lucid-16 16x10x24x Portable FireWire CD-RW Drive burns
recordable CD-R discs at 16x speed (2400 KB/Sec) and rewritable
CD-RW discs at 10x speed (1500 KB/Sec), while reading CD-ROM discs
at 24x speed (3600 KB/Sec). It does so while weighing in at less
than a pound and measuring 5.5 inches in width, 6.5 inches in
length, and only 0.8 inches in height. The Lucid-16 also features
JustLink buffer underrun protection to prevent the creation of
defective CDs from interruptions in the flow of data to the
drive.
Since the Lucid-16 CD-RW drive is bus-powered, it does not
require an AC adapter for operation, drawing all required power
from any FireWire port which supplies bus power. The Lucid-16 drive
supports all Power Macs, iMacs, PowerBooks, and iBooks with
built-in FireWire ports as well as those with PCI FireWire cards
which supply power to the FireWire bus. An AC adapter which is
available separately is required when using the Lucid-16 drive with
a system that has FireWire ports that do not supply power to the
FireWire bus, such as with some CardBus-based and PCI-based
FireWire cards. The Lucid is compatible with both Finder burning
and Apple's iTunes under Mac OS 9.1 through Mac OS X.
The Lucid 16x10x24x Portable FireWire CD-RW Drive is bundled
with Roxio Toast CD-recording software, a FireWire cable, and a
user's guide. The Lucid-16 CD-RW Drive will retail for $399.00 The
optional universal AC adapter is listed at $14.99. MCE will begin
shipments on February 1, 2002.
Computer Sleeves and Computer Transporter Bags
from eBags
eBags' Business Express Computer Sleeve is an
inexpensive padded sleeve that protects your laptop computer.
Price: $24.99. On sale for $19.99
eBags' Jelly Computer Sleeve 
comes in three colors, and also is on
sale now for $19.99.
Computer Sleeve features:
- Diamond Poly Ripstop
- Size: 13.5" x 11" x 1.5"
- Interior computer dimensions: 12.25" x 10.5" x 1.5"
- Weight: 5.5 oz.
- Warranty: Lifetime
eBags' Computer Transporter features:
- High density poly ripstop
- Size: 13" x 11.5" x 2.5"
- Interior dimensions: 13" x 11" x 2.5"
- Weight: 1.3 lbs
- Warranty: Lifetime
Regular price: $44.99; Sale price: $35.99 (20% off)
Another Computer Sleeve and iPod Case
SFBags' sleek,
minimalist SleeveCase keeps your laptop out of harms way without
taking up much 
valuable space, and is available in custom-fit models for
the TiBook and iBook. A plush layer of high grade neoprene wrapped
in a Ballistic shell surrounds and protects your computer. The
ultra smooth neoprene skin makes sliding your laptop in and out a
snap.
Available in Black Ballistic nylon with Lead Indium trim.
Sizes:
- Small $35
- Medium $37
- Large $39
- X-Large $42
- Titanium G4 $39
- New iBook $38
Optional custom features
- D-rings, Shoulder Strap & Shoulder Pad +$25
- Ballistic flap +$15
The SFBags Super Dooper iPod Case is protective and extremely
functional. Once in the case, you can instantly access everything
on your iPod. The padded top slot allows any iPod compatible
headphone, and the removable belt clip securely grabs on to
anything. A padded front flap protects you iPod and serves as a
pocket for the ear bud storage.
Shipping third week of February
Do-It-Yourself iPod Sleeve
Norbert Scully has posted a PDF
file containing a pattern that anyone can use to make their own
vinyl sleeve costing less than a dollar for their iPod with about
20 minutes work.
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.
- PowerBook G4/400, 128 MB with an
additional 512 MB (640 MB total)/10 GB/DVD-ROM/56K modem,
refurbished, one year Apple warranty, Brenthaven Titanium 1 case,
$1,699
- PowerBook G4/400, 128/10 GB/DVD,
new, $1,569
- PowerBook G4/400, 128/10 GB/DVD,
refurb, $1,499
That's right - a TiBook for under $1,500!
- PowerBook G3/250 WallStreet,
32/4 GB/CD/FD/13.3", refurbished, $799
- PowerBook G3/500 Pismo, 128/12
GB/DVD, $1,588
- PowerBook G3/233 WallStreet, 32/2 GB/CD/13.3", $599
- PowerBook G3/292 WallStreet,
96/2 GB/CD/14.1", $859
