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[This is a past news page, the current news page is at www.xlr8yourmac.com/]
Barney Buoy sent another mega-list of software updates, Apple TILs & other net news links.
= 4:20PM Update Follows =
Bootable CompactFlash Feedback: Bob Friede responded to today's earlier post with info on his bootable OS 8.6 compactflash card:
"Mike -
I remember fitting a minumum OS 8.6 plus Norton Utilities and DiskWarrior
into a regular PC card in under 60K sometime last year. I wrote you about
it at that time. And yes, it was bootable in the Wallstreet. So it would
seem to me that a compactflash card would also boot but I don't really
know for sure.
Bob Friede"
Anyone 'Upgraded' the HD inside a VST Portable Firewire Drive? Have any readers opened up a VST portable firewire (bus powered) case and upgraded the drive? I assume the rubber feet hide the screws used to secure the drive. If you've opened the case on a VST portable firewire drive please let me know.
OWC BTO Legacy Macs: Only 2 S900's Left/PowerCurve's Now $85: George Cole of sponsor OWC wrote they have only 2 S900 systems left and have reduced prices on their PowerCurve systems:
"I dropped the price on the Power Curve PCC systems that we have
available for BTO options to $85.00 down from $155.00. Also, I only
have 2 of the UMAX S900 systems left (out of about 50). They are in
excellent condition.
PowerComputing PowerCurve PowerMac Desktop Base System:
Average Cosmetic Condition (Office Use)
40Mhz System Bus
256k L2 Cache
Internal SCSI Bus
3 PCI Slots
0MB RAM; 4 Empty 168-Pin DIMM Slots
25-Pin SCSI Port, Modem And Printer Port
Built-In AAUI And 10Base-T Ethernet Connection
Single ADB Port
1MB VRAM DIMM (Expandable To 4MB)
Floppy Drive Included
Starting At $85.00.
Click to Configure a PowerCurve to Your Needs!
"
= 2:10 PM Update Follows =
Plextor 12X/10X/32X CDRW: It's not listed on their USA web site, but the front page on Plextor's European web site is touting their new CDRW with 10X rewrite speeds (model #PX-W1210TA). The drive will feature Sanyo's 'burn-proof' (Buffer UnderRunN proof) technology that claims to ensure you won't be making coasters.
Beige G3 & Ricoh DVD/CDRW Combo Report: One of today's updates to the Drive Compatibility database
included this report from an owner of the Ricoh combination DVD/CDRW drive:
"Ricoh MP9060a
Beige G3 System
OS 8.6
Using Toast Reader Extension
I have the Ricoh 1.60 firmware installed. The drive will boot my G3 if their are no other bootable drives available. I am not sure why. DVD plays fine with the cracked drivers. The cdrw with toast deluxe 4.1 burns at 4x and 2x reliably 6x makes a lot of coasters. I have the oem cd slave and the cdrw master on ide 1 a maxtor 20 gig on ide 0 [and] the oem 9gig SCSI."
There are other reports on Combo DVD/CDRW drives in the searchable database and in the FAQ's DVD and CDRW topic areas. To date, Toshiba and Ricoh are the only current makers of combo drives that I know of
More Tips on PCI IDE Card vs. Onboard IDE Formatted Disks: In a follow-up to yesterday's comments on moving hard drives formatted with onboard IDE to a PCI IDE card (or vice-versa) a reader sent note that he was able to mount an onboard IDE formatted (Apple Drive Setup) HD connected to a PCI IDE card using Atto's Tools utility (Adaptec's SCSI Probe may also be able to do this). This allowed him to copy the data over before reformatting the drive. The PCI IDE card is seen as SCSI and therefore Apple Drive Setup installs a SCSI Driver (this is why onboard IDE formatted drives don't mount when moved to a PCI IDE card and vice/versa. I wonder if Apple drive setup would allow updating the driver after it was mounted by ATTO Tools - probably not, as the disk may be using a temporary ATTO driver.
Also, in addition to Intech HDTool's ability to update drivers from SCSI to IDE, Prosoft wrote their Radialogic drivers are composite ATA/SCSI versions. (Iomega's ZIP drivers uses a similar scheme I think.)
"Mike,
I wanted to let you know that Radialogic Storage Master by default creates
drives that can work on both ATA and SCSI; no reformat or even update is
necessary. (We have a composite driver that supports both busses.)
Peter Commons
Vice President, Engineering
PROSOFT engineering, Inc.
"
Note: I have never able to use anyone's drivers on a SoftRaid prepped drive without reformatting it. Intech and Radialogic say their drivers can be installed over Apple's drivers without a reformat, but in my tests with OEM Radialogic on a Apple Drive Setup (OS 9.04) Maxtor IDE drive connected to a Acard ATA/66 controller, Radialogic's util reported it had to resize the partition to install the driver due to driver size. Had there been data on the drive, I'm not sure how this would have affected it.
Canon ZR10 Firewire Camcorder Raves/Discounted Price: Matthew Culmore wrote the other day raving about Canon's new ZR10 camcorder after seeing a demo and playing with it. The ZR10 lists for $899. After Matthew's raves about it, I noticed that Bottom Line has the ZR10 at the lowest price I've seen - $769.97. It's currently backordered (due Friday) but Matthew said he ordered anyway since he was unable to get anyone to come close to matching that price. For more info on the ZR10, see Canon's product page.
Creative Mac SoundBlaster Live Info: I must have missed this went it was first released,
but a Yahoo press release dated May 14th on Creative's Mac SoundBlaster Live! card indicates 3D/4-channel audio will not be supported in the current MacOS which only supports 2-channel audio. The article mentions Creative is pushing for adoption of an open 3D standard called OpenAL. OpenAL is a proposed cross-platform API designed to enable four-channel sound effects. The article says if game developers and Apple were to adopt the standard it would ease porting audio effects from PCs to the Mac. The standard SBLive! card features 4 speaker outputs but on the PC at least, can simulate 3D audio with only 2 speakers. I'm eager to grab one of these as soon as they are available. No release date is set for the card which should retail at about $100 (same as the PC retail box models). Developing for OS X was cited as one reason for the delayed availability.
Booting from CompactFlash Devices: A reader asked about booting Powerbooks from Compactflash cards which is noted as possible in this Apple PCMCIA FAQ. With the current costs of large CompactFlash cards this is not a really attractive option of course (since you'd need a large card to hold even a trimmed system folder). Although there are many tips and comments on the IBM Microdrive feedback page here (340MB/$399 list w/PCCard adapter) none note if the drive is bootable. If anyone has tried booting from an IBM Microdrive or other CompactFlash card, please let me know.
MoniSwitch Pro LDI w/Formac DVI Card Bundle: Dr. Bott LLC is bundling Formac ProFormance 3 video cards with MoniSwitch Pro LDI which allows
sharing SGI's 1600SW flat panel display and USB peripherals between up to 4 computers.
"MoniSwitch Pro LDI represents a unique product that exploits the best
features of our ProFormance 3 line and the Silicon Graphics 1600SW." said
Oliver Bergmann, president and CEO, Formac Electronic Inc. "All Formac
ProFormance 3 cards offer exclusive LCD temperature control capability and
unique acceleration features such as font caching. Fomac's video cards and
Dr. Bott's MoniSwitch allow you to use your Silicon Graphics SuperWide
1600SW on all your PCI Macintosh computers.
Pricing & Availability:
MoniSwitch Pro LDI with ProFormance 3 video cards with SGI LVDS module are
shipping today.
MoniSwitch Pro LDI $399.00 (retail)
ProFormance 3 16MB $289.00 (retail)
ProFormance 3 Plus 16MB $359.00 (retail)
ProFormance 3 Plus 32MB $449.00 (retail)
"
Voodoo5 AGP vs GeForce2: For those interested in the 3dfx vs nVidia card battles (almost moot for us but we will have the Voodoo5 soon), Gamer's Depot had some interesting comments on the Voodoo5 5500 AGP "The Voodoo5's biggest saving grace is of course what 3dfx keeps pumping up the most, FSAA. Not only does it have better image quality than the GeForce 2 in FSAA, it also does so with better frame rates". This is despite the fact one web site noted the Voodoo5 5500 runs at 1X AGP. Gamer's Depot has reviews of both the V5 5500 AGP and 3D Prophet II GTS cards.
BTO Petition Status: As of this morning there are about 4,500 entries in the 3Dfx BTO Petition. We need many more to make an impact, so spread the word to anyone that wants more choices at BTO.
Remember these cards will have full OpenGL (32Bit), large texture support, RAVE hardware acceleration, up to 64MB of RAM and dual processors, Quicktime acceleration and the fastest 2D performance on the Mac to date. This is not just a petition for a gaming card. More BTO graphics card options will attract more sales/more developer support, which benefits all Mac owners.
Review/Ratings Databases Updated: The searchable Rate Your CPU Upgrade, Mac Game/Video card framerates and
Drive Compatibility databases were updated this morning with new entries from this weekend.
Software Updates/TILs/Other Net News: (Thanks to Barney Buoy)
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.
Tuesday's News Summary
- Firewire Direct Portable Drive First Impressions
- G4/500 Review by PC Magazine
- F/A 18 Korea Gold Demo
- Note on Mac Voodoo5 Preorders
- Kodak Licenses Apple's QuickTime
- Reader Article Compares iMovie to Film Process
- 10X Audio CDR Burns Fine w/Sony Firewire Drive
- Building Portable Firewire Drive Kit Today
- More Proformance 3 Gaming Feedback
- Apple Ethernet 1.0 Update Feedback
- Reminder on Beige G3 Drive Mounting
- Beige G3 ROM Update Dimm Sources
- IDE Drive Formats - Onboard vs PCI Card
- OWC Reader Specials
- Details on OrangeMicro Firewire/U2 SCSI Combo Card
- (PC) Voodoo5 Cards Shipping
- BTO Petition Status
- Rate Your CPU Upgrade, Drive Compatibility and Mac Game Framerates databases updated.
- Software Updates Listing
- Other Net News (TILs/hardware/general news)
Monday's News Summary
- OrangeMicro Firewire/U2 SCSI Combo Card
- Apple Ethernet 1.0 Update
- IBM Making Copper Alpha CPUs for Compaq
- Bottom Line's weekly specials & OWC's weekly specials
- DirectCD 1.05 Comments
- Beige G3 ROM Update & IDE Slave Drives
- Sony Firewire 10X CDRW Audio CDR Feedback
- Powerbook Screen Sun Shades
- USB ORB Drive Also Has SCSI Connections
- Portable Firewire Drive Kit
- (Rare) Perfect 7600/TurboMax IDE Movie Playback Report
- Fourteen 15" LCD Monitors Reviewed
- IBM Shipping SOI CPU Based Systems
- Low-Budget Mac Film on SCI-FI Channel
- BTO Petition Status
- Rate Your CPU Upgrade, Drive Compatibility and Mac Game Framerates databases updated.
- Software Updates Listing
- Other Net News (TILs/hardware/general news)
Friday's News Summary
- Free Softraid w/Adaptec 39160
- DivX for Mac
- Formac Trade-Up Program
- Interview 2.0 Shipping
- Acard ATA/66 & Promax Firmware Identical?:
- Adaptec 39160 Ultra160 SCSI Low Write Performance Discovery
- Proformance 3 Update Problem Report
- $268.91 Toshiba 4X CDRW/DVD Combo Drive
- Radialogic/Apple/Softraid Driver Tests
- JoeCard Eval Arrives
- Portable Firewire Drive Kit
- BTO Petition Status
- Rate Your CPU Upgrade, Drive Compatibility and Mac Game Framerates databases updated.
- Software Updates Listing
- Other Net News (TILs/hardware/general news)
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 3,700+ reports and growing.
Make a Difference: Be the Difference
Randy Mita, Brad Lau and I came up with a new slogan and theme for Mac advocacy - "Make a Difference: Be the Difference". We're asking that all Mac owners take advantage of every opportunity to let others know the Mac advantage. It's a grass-roots approach that will surely help. You might save someone from a lifetime of Windows in the bargain.
Thanks to my wife Kay, the ultimate computer widow
for putting up with all the time I spend with the site work, tests and email.= Top of Page =
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