Speaking of the new Powerbook G4s - a reader sent a note the battery marking indicates the new batteries are lower capacity than the older models:

"Hi Mike, Just thought I'd mention if no-one else has that the new 15" PBs have a 46WH battery where as the older ones Ti-400 had 65's (the prev. PB G4 15in model had a 61Watt-Hour battery per the dev. docs.)
I wonder if the new chip is that much more power efficient . We have not compared on ours yet.
George S
I asked where he saw the wattage figure, since the apple PB G4 specs section, the "learn more" apple store page on the batteries didn't note capacity but I later found it in the "new features" section of the Developer docs linked here earlier today.-Mike)
On the batteries themselves is where we saw it. My coworker says it's also in the developer note that he is looking at right now on Apples website. "

Almost forgot to say a reader said the new Powerbook battery is locked in with a large coin slot screw vs the sliding switch of previous models.

"Hi Mike, Just a qwikee, the developer docs for the 15" and 17" powerbooks have been revised to reflect the changes in the models announced yesterday:
The docs for the 12" model haven't been updated yet. Cheers,
ben"

"Hello, Don't know if this information is relevant to XLR8YOURMAC, but I feel that the information would be quite useful to many Powerbook owners.
I just picked up "PCMCIA slot Cooler" from 2cooltek.com for, get this, $12.00 + shipping. I've been researching alot of Notebook cooling options for my Powerbook Pismo 500mhz. I am, somewhat, worried about what excess temperatures can cause for Powerbook's in the long run. True my internal fan never comes on, but I've seen temperatures rise up to 64 degress Celcius (147 Farenheit) when doing heavy video compression/rendering on my Pismo, still without the fan kicking on.
http://2cooltek.safeshopper.com/64/430.htm?58

So, this fan has been around for a while, but It hasn't really got much attention. This is mainly due to the fact that PC Laptops running a Windows OS later that Windows 98 cannot use the card, some OS problem relating to non-constant powering of the PCMCIA slots. The unit has a fan on a Cardbus/PCMCIA card, and blows air into the laptop case. Power is drawn from the PCMCIA slot. Well, good news for Powerbook owners, this card works with both Mac OS 9.2.2 & Mac OS X 10.2.6. I'm not dead certain it will work on all Powerbooks, but it definetley works alright on my Pismo. The fan, while not mouse whisper quiet, is definetley low noise....a hell of a lot quieter than the inbuilt fan in the Pismo. When inserted in OSX, an icon actually appears in the finder menu, with an option to turn the Power off to the card (unfortunetley not an option to turn it back on, u must reinsert it to start the fan again).

Heres some solid temperature benchmarks i conducted. Temperature measure with OSX dock program "ThermoInDock". I am doing video compression on a full length DVD movie. The operation takes 1hour 10minutes. This is something that normally drives my Pismo temperature up to 64 degrees celcius. Starting with the fan inserted, for 25 minutes into the task the CPU temp remains rock solid at 44 degress celcius (111.2 Farenheit). At this point I remove the fan while continuing the task. Within 15 minutes, the CPU temp rose to 60 degrees celcius (140 Farenheit). To test the reverse, I resinserted the PCMCIA fan for the remainder of the task. By the end of the task, the CPU temperature had fallen back down to 44 degress celcius (111.2). General use of the Pismo, like right now web browsing, is at 32 degress celcius (89.6 Farenheit).

Shaving 16 degress celcius (28.8 Farenheit) from the Powerbook (during intensive CPU tasks) is quite a mean feat. Apart from keeping the CPU cool, I sure many other components benefit from the reduced heat (Ram/Hardrive/GPU). Perhaps Powerbook G3 owners who've had troubles with the reliability of upgraded CPU's might find this to help there issues. Longevity in general as well, a cooler Powerbook will last longer through the years. I just wanted to share my positive experiences with the unit.

Oh, apart from the obvious issue of losing a PCMCIA slot......installing an Airport card in the Pismo above the internal PCMCIA slot may hinder the air circulation with this product as it sits on the PCMCIA cage. I don't use one in mine, so I can't say how much this would affect it's cooling performance. Even if general use of your Powerbook doesn't warrant the use of this fan, it's nice to just pop in when your gonna be driving her hard (Games, Video, Audio, Graphics).
Seeya, Ryan"

"Mike, On the wake of Apple's release of Bluetooth enabled input devices, my interest was re-kindled in writing Bluetooth drivers for OS 9. I had spent some spare time in the past on this project, but now I think I'll move it to the front burner. For those interested, you can view the details and track the status at www.os9forever.com/Bluetooth.html
-Ben Ralston
Lead Developer
www.os9forever.com"

"I bought the stub model for my 1GHz TiBook and have found any improvement to be miniscule unless line-of-sight is taken literally, i.e., the ABS should somehow face the left side of the 'Book! YMMV but that's my 2 cents worth.
Another point: The stub is not as wide as the PC slot and thus doesn't lock into place, so it needs to be tended to from time to time to prevent it from withdrawing wholly into the slot. I bet the Whip model would work better...
Bob F."

If anyone else has tried these antennas, let me know your experience.

" Mike, I downloaded the Patchburn app and used it on my Samsung SN-324B combo, which is in my Pismo 500, OS 10.2.6. Works! The app immediately recognized my drive, then offered to patch its driver from a list of supported drives: oddly, there was a Samsung SN-324 DVD-R/CDRW (I've never heard of this drive), but I selected it and applied the patch.
Upon reboot, I opened iTunes 4.0 (not 4.0.1) and my drive was, for the first time ever, recognized by iTunes. I'd tried, unsuccessfully, to hack the plugin, but never got it to work.
I just finished burning a couple of albums I'd converted to MP3. I used 12x and burned them to a CD-RW, which I used in my car stereo. Works great! Wow. Nice little app and is much easier than trying to hack the plugin (at least for me).
Thanks,Chris"

Another reader wrote:

" I used it with an old Yamaha CDR-4260 (4x2x6) on my Beige G3 with 10.2.6 installed. It took me a few tries, but seems to work like a charm. I set mine to a 4416 (4x4x16) - the closest model in the list of drives.
It would _really_ help if it had had an English translation. I think I did it correctly, but I don't know German.
Brian F. "

(a previous reader report from earlier this week follows)

" Hy Mike, I found a nice freeware app called Patchburn, which I think could be worth a post:
http://www.macwelt.de/magazin/0310/PatchBurn1.1.sit
Patchburn is made for adding DVD/CD-burner native support to iTunes/OSX. Just select the burner and a driver-support file of a similar drive, and then patch it. That's it!
Worked for me perfectly to add native support for the Plextor PW-1210S SCSI-Drive in OSX 10.2.6 by using the PW-1210A file! It's just great!
greets Dominique "

A week or two ago another reader noted using it with a Liteon DVD burner, saying iTunes allowed burning but noted a problem burning DVDs (but that may or may not have been due to patchburn.) The FAQ's CDROM/CDR and DVD sections have many modified device-plugin files for some specific unsupported drives, although I welcome other reports on Patchburn. (include drive model, os version, mac model etc. in reports. Thanks)

" Hi again mike, Having recently picked up a used Dual USB iBook, I need some replacement Plastic feet for it.
I found some at a reasonable price here http://microdocusa.com

Plastic Feet for the Dual USB iBooks. http://microdocusa.com/InfoFiles/7205.htm
Original replacement "snap in" plastic feet for the white iBooks.
Supplied as a package of 6.
for $5 + shipping
Regards, Christian "

• Giga Designs G4/800 (no L3) in G4/AGP (didn't select a rating)
• Other World Computing G4/1.25GHz in G4/AGP (rated 10)
• Other World Computing G4/1.25GHz in (Gigabit) G4/AGP (rated 10)
• Powerlogix Bluechip G4/500 in Powerbook G3 Lombard (rated 1)
• Sonnet G4/800 in 8600/300 (rated 8)
  (includes notes on fixes for extension/freezes - using a combo of Sonnet extension + PL's cpu director software)
• Sonnet
  (My full reviews of G4 and G3 upgrades w/apps/game tests, install info, etc. are linked here.)
• Apple Beige G3/300 OC report

(Warning - Overclocking may not be reliable and could lead to hardware failure or corrupted data.) You can find the full reports by searching the database selecting the indicated Mac model and upgrade card brand/type. If you've upgraded the CPU on your Mac, please post an entry in the database. Search the database for entries from most every upgradable Mac model *before* you buy. (Searchable by mac model/upgrade brand). For detailed reviews with performance tests and install tips, see the CPU Upgrades page.)

CDRW Drives:
• IDE Liteon LTR-52237S (52x32x52x) in Dual G4 DDR (OS X)
  (using burn support plugin from FAQ for 10.2.6)
• Firewire Lacie Pocket CDWR 8/10 (?) used with iBook 2002 (OS X)
  (no itunes burn support, didn't note drive speed rating)
  
  Combo DVD+CDR Drives:
• IDE Toshiba SD-R1102 (8x8x32x +8x DVD-ROM) in eMac (OS X)
• IDE LG GCC-4520B (52x24x52x + 16x DVD-ROM) in G4/AGP (OS X)
  (no itunes burn support)
  (Illustrated CD drive install guide here covers G4 towers up to the Digital Audio Model, Beige G3 MT, and B&W G3 Macs)
  
  DVD+R/RW + DVD-R/RW Drives:
• IDE Pioneer DVR-106D in G4/AGP (OS X)
  (noted no DVD burn proof support even in Toast 6.
  
  DVD+RW Drives:
• IDE HP DVD200i / DVD200j in G4/AGP (OS X)
  (using modified burn support file - still no iDVD support though as iDVD does not currently allow burning to DVD+R/+RW.)
  
  Hard Drives:
• IDE IBM 60GB in B&W G3 (OS X)
  (used IBM drive software to disable UDMA mode to solve rev 1 B&W G3 IDE chip data corruption issue.)
  (Illustrated guide to adding a 2nd HD here in B&W G3 rev2 and G4 towers up to the QuickSilver models.
  IDE articles page RAID section has an illustrated guide for adding 2 more drives in the side bays.)
• IDE Maxtor 160GB in iMac slot-loading (OS X)
  (limited to appx 128GB formatted size due to no 48bit addr. support)
• IDE Western Digital WD2000 200GB in iMac slot-loading (OS X)
  (noted drive sleep problems. drive would be limited to appx 128GB if used in older macs like this w/o 48bit addressing. iMac G4s are reported to have big drive support but not the previous G3 iMacs)

You can find full owner reports (latest shown first) by searching the database by drive/brand/interface/mac models (the latest reports are shown first in searches). For guides to installing CD/CDRW/DVD drives or Hard drives in many mac models, see the IDE Articles page. The Firewire articles page also has guides on case kits, installing drives, etc.
If you've added a IDE, SCSI, Firewire or USB hard drive, CDRW, tape drive, etc. make sure you add a report to the database. (If you post an updated entry - make sure you use the same name, etc. as you did before so I can find your past entry. Thanks.)
(Incomplete entries are deleted. Do not post questions in the database, it's for drive reports not questions on what drive to buy - for that try searching the database for reports from owners of your mac model on the drive type/brand/interface, etc. you're interested in.)

• 1 year ago today
• 2 years ago today
• 3 years ago today