nVidia Mac Video Card Due By End of the Year? Paul Avers sent a note about a Zdnet article titled Apple makes play for gamers that quotes nVidia spokesman Rick Black as saying they were definately looking at the Mac market and would will have a Mac product by the end of the year (see page 2 of the article for nVidia's comments). Page 2 also mentions the 3Dfx Voodoo4 and Voodoo5 cards for Macs demo'd at the show that will be available at retail this spring.

More on Pismo TV Out: A reader adds to the earlier post on using a new Powerbook Firewire's S-Video out to TV:

"adding to your recent post:
When you have a TV hooked up to the Video out on a pismo, start up the machine and then quickly close the lid after you hear the bong. The Mac starts up on the TV only. Open the lid, and the LCD stays off, but you have use of the keyboard!

DVDs play much too bright on the TV compared to my standard sony DVD player, and the Gamma settings in Colorsync in the Monitors control panel are independent of the DVD player. I just had to lower the brightness on the TV. The Surround Sound works, but its of course no match for Digital!
/Bill "

Barney Buoy sent an large update to today's list of Other net news/TILs/Software Updates.

Beige G3 in PC ATX Case: Timothy Seufert sent a detailed description of the steps involved in adapting a Beige G3 to a PC ATX Case.

Palm in Apple Case: [ Several readers wrote to say the image was from a japanese site several weeks ago, reportedly a palm in a custom case.] Thanks to David Lawson for the image (given to him by a friend he said). No mention of the image's source was made in the mail but another reader later sent a note on the source:

"Hey Mike,
Just in case you wanted to know where those cool clear palm pictures came from, here is the address: http://www.powerbook.org/mobiledog/gurentai/museum/museum.html. Look under the palm links. Unfotunately this morning the site seems to be down. While you are at the site, check out the site for the really hep powerbooks...
Zen Yieh"

Ing How of Singapore noted the link to the Palm Museum is http://www.powerbook.org/mobiledog/palm_museum/index.html (the iBook Palm links are identical to the above image).

Acer 8X IDE CDRW in B&W G3 Report: A reader sends an update on his experience with the IDE Acer 8X CDRW drive in his B&W G3:

"Hey Mike,
You might remember some of my earlier emails regarding this subject, but I have finally found a CDR that works in my revB B&W G3.

It's the Acer 8x4x32 CD-RW drive, the one with the 8MB buffer. I had tried this drive before, and everything seem to work except the burn speed was not 8x. (It would burn at 6x, even though I had selected to burn at 8x). When I say everything worked, I mean that it booted OS 9 by holding the C key, mounted data CDs, mounted and played audio CDs, and also worked correctly with SoundJam for MP3 extraction. The only problem with this drive is that the buttons are not completely happy with apple's bezel. I have actually removed the door, since the Acer tray mechanism has a problem opening because it gets stock on the apple bezel. It looks a little funny but I don't mind since the drive works.

I decided to buy this drive and try it again on a whim. It turns out that this drive that I purchased from Microcenter in Tustin, CA. on Wednesday is a newer revision than the previous drive I purchased. The ROM version of this drive is 5.E, and the drive was manufactured in Feb 2000, according to the label on the drive. This drive does all that the earlier version did, and now burns at a perfect 8x. It's great!

If your readers want to try this drive, I suggest buying from a local store, since you might have to return the thing. Here are the specs off of the label:

Stock No.: 8432A-002
Part No.: 99.B2012.002

I am pretty sure that the "-002" indicates this is a second revision drive. There is also a sticker on the front saying that two CD-R and one CD-RW disk are included, which was not present on the first drive that I purchased late last year.

I think this drive is a definite winner, since now I am able to burn CDs and retain all the functionality of a stock apple CD-ROM drive. The price has also come down from $300 to $250.
-- Hunter Murfee

PS. I used Toast 4.0 on the older drive and this newer drive. Everything works great now."

The Acer 8X CDRW has been on sale here locally in the last week or so for $239 I believe (a Staples or Office Depot sale, can't remember which). The FAQ's CDR section has previous reports on this drive and other IDE CDRs in Macs.

Pismo TV Out Comments: A reader comments on using the new Powerbook with a projection TV:

"Mike,
Thought it would be of interest to tell you (and others),

We won a 51" Pioneer big screen T.V. (yes, we're bragging) a couple months ago from a local furniture store. It has svideo inputs. Well, I couldn't resist hooking up the Pismo 400 to it and running virtual game station! It works, you just go to the monitor's control panel and more the menu bar and happy face over to the external video, and voila! Now I have the world's most expensive play-station... unless someone bought a Pismo 500!

The manual says that if you hook up an external keyboard and mouse, you can close the 'book and use only the external video. This would be great for Parsec and other programs that won't run without all 8 megs of video ram.

I got just about everything to run on the big screen, with only a few exceptions. Some programs would just not work, some ran on the 'book screen no matter what.

Also, the resolutions on the big screen worked up to 1024X768. Sure, it's blurry as hell, but hey, it makes the games look great. I suspect stuff like powerpoint presentations would also kick but on a big screen.
Rich "

Starmax 6000 CHRP Prototype at Ebay: [Note: the link to the eBay auction will not be valid over time.] Joe LeBlanc sent a note that a prototype Motorola Starmax 6000 is on the auction block at ebay. As of 4:30AM today, the high bid was $800 (reserve price not met). The 6000 prototype shown at Macworld a few years back was a G3 CPU I think but the ebay page notes this one has a 604e (soldered in) CPU. Also beware that it may not run later OS versions (OS 7.6 is installed on it currently according to the auction page). The linked page of photos are interesting to look at however. I also remember talk of Motorola's prototype CHRP G3 based notebook that was to sell for appx. $3500 sources said (back when the Powerbook 3400 was top of the line at $5000+). Both these systems were axed when Apple shut down the clones.

Promax/Matrox Real-Time FCP Card: A reader sent a comment on a real-time RT-Max card from Promax/Matrox. He comments on concerns for the lack of DVI/Apple Cinema display support:

"Mike,
Thanks for your great reviews of the ACD. I just read an announcement by Promax about the new RT Max card with will soon allow real time rendering on a MAC/Final Cut Pro setup. The bad news is they said you must get rid of your AGP card with the DVI port and replace it with a Matrox card. This Matrox board does have a DVI but apparently it is used to bridge to the sister Real Time card in the next PCI slot. I emailed Promax and they believe that you WILL NOT be able to use the ACD with Real Time using RTMAX. Doesn't this seem dead wrong. A lot of us bought the ACD to do video and now we may have to get rid of the display to buy a normal setup if we plan on doing FCP real time (which is not an option given how slow rendering is). Any thoughts on other solutions for real time FCP that can still use the ACD (and I do know that Apple must first write their software to be real time for any of this to work). Are there other cards for real time that might work in the future without throwing away the coolest display I have ever used.
Thanks.
Tim"

The only RT-Max info I could find at Promax's web site was a comment on showing it at MWSF 2000.

CompUSA's Sunday ads has what appears to be the high density plus40 design (10GB/platter) "Maxtor 30.0GB 7200RPM Ultra 66 ATA Hard Drive SKU # 272567 COMP PRICE: $199.99". It should be comparable in performance to the Plus40 40GB drive I reviewed.

Although it's at list price and as noted in the Wednesday's news last week, there are some issues in the Mac - they have the Ricoh combo DVD/CDRW drive in stock:

"6x4x24 Internal Erasable/Rewritable CD-RW/4X DVD-ROM Drive^* Make your own CDs and watch your favorite DVDs with one internal drive.
SKU # 273096 COMP PRICE: $399.99
* Up to 24X max CD, 4X max DVD. "

The brand is not mentioned but I assume it's a Ricoh, as I have not heard of any other company with a retail model yet. See the FAQ's CDR or DVD section for owner reports on the Ricoh DVD/CDRW Combo drive in Macs.

The Owner's CPU Upgrade Reviews, Mac Game Reviews and Mac Game/Video card performance searchable databases were updated at midnight last night. Included were more Pismo owner game performance results (search for Powerbook G3 2000 as the mac model) and iMaxPowr CPU upgrade ratings (search for iMac/Newer Tech to see the entries).

Other Net News:

News:
• Mobile phone techs for Macs 'soon', says Apple (Macworld UK)
• Digital Origin announces EditDV 2.0 (DO)
• FireWire Vs. USB 2.0: The Jury Is Out (FWworld)
• Mitsubishi Announces Low-Cost 17" CRT Monitor With Patented Natural Flat Technology (Yahoo)
• Connectix Corporation Ships Connectix Virtual PC With Red Hat Linux (Yahoo)
• Playing VCD's with Quicktime (MovieMac)
• VCD Movie Player Comparisons (MovieMac)
• EveryMac.com is giving away a new Power Macintosh G4 and a matching 17" Apple Studio Display! The contest ends *this wednesday*, so enter today for your chance to win!

  Software Updates:

• Gerry's ICQ d42.1 (bug fix)
• Real Player 7

  TIL Updates:

• Mac OS 9: Temporary Items Not Deleted at Startup
• Power Macintosh G3 and G4: Differentiating Between Available SCSI Cards
• Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics): Helping Correct DVD Audio Sync
• FireWire: Remove FireWire Lynx Enabler
• FireWire Card Tester: Compatible Only With Original Apple FireWire PCI Card

The recent features page also lists articles posted (most recent first) as does the sidebar links here. The site topics pages (systems, cpu upgrades, etc. - see top and sidebar links on this page) also are places to check as well as the FAQ.

Weekend's News Summary

• Pismo PC100 SODIMM Reports
• More Reports on Low-Cost Generic PC100 Dimms
• More Info on PC100 Dimms in Beige G3s
• Airport Performance Tips/Comments
• OS X DP3/Jackhammer SCSI Card Feedback
• 19" Rack Mounts for Mac Systems
• Bottom Line's latest weekly specials
• Reader comments on $5M grant to local school from Intel
• Owner's CPU Upgrade Reviews and Mac Game/Video card Performance searchable databases updated.
• Other Net News/TILs/Software Updates

Friday's News Summary

• Cheap Generic PC100 RAM Fails in Beige G3
• G4/AGP w/EditDV Unplugged Report
• Techworks 256MB Dimm Sale
• Cnet previews OS X, reviews Airport (slow performance)
• $109 Zforce/$105.75 Miles UW SCSI w/Softraid
• OWC weekly specials include $119 128MB SODIMM for Pismo, $379 8X Firewire CDRW
• Pismo vs Sony Vio
• EditDV/MotoDV & Apple G4/AGP Compatibility
• List of OS X DP3 SCSI Card Support
• PPC Checker 2.0
• VGA to DVI Adapters
• Control Strip CPU Usage
• More Pioneer 10x DVD Drive Reports
• Hard Times for Disk Drive Mfrs
• Stella900 review revised for pricing
• Owner's CPU Upgrade Reviews and Mac Game/Video card Performance searchable databases updated.
• Other Net News/TILs/Software Updates

Thursday's News Summary

• PB G3/500 DVD playback comments
• More on OS X Retail SCSI Card Support
• RedHat Linux Install Guide for VPC
• Final Cut Pro/Pismo Firewire Capture Issues
• MaxPowr Beta/RamDoubler 9 Tip
• OS X DP3 hangs at boot w/Retail SCSI 2940UW Adaptec card
• Reminder on Sony Spressa USB/iLink CDR Patch
• New Mac OS ROM Versions
• Mac N64 Emulator Gets New Name/Features
• Stella900 review revised for pricing
• Reminder on $99/128MB SDRAM sales
• Owner's CPU Upgrade Reviews and Mac Game/Video card Performance searchable databases updated.
• Other Net News/TILs/Software Updates

For links to older news pages see the Archives page.

The recent features page has a lists reviews/articles you may have missed.

For a guide to finding answers to questions - see my Site Guide page.

Considering a CPU Upgrade? Search the CPU Upgrade Owner's Survey results and search for owner reports by Mac model and/or card brand. The current database has more than 3,300+ reports and growing.