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9/5/08 Friday's News: Last Updated: 11:51 AM ET
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Macs | CPU Upgrades | Video | Storage | Audio | Apps/OS/Network | FAQ | Contact
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See the previous 3 days' news summary or the Archives.
= Recent Articles and Reviews =
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| More V8 Browser Benchmarks (OS X and WinXP under VM and VPC) - After yesterday's post, I received a lot of reader mails with their benchmark results with a wide range of browsers (Mac and PC) running under OS X (with nightly Apple Webkit builds that significantly boosted scores) and Windows XP. Included are some Google Chrome (beta) results running Win XP native (bootcamp) and also running WinXP/Chrome under VirtualPC 7 (PPC mac), VMware Fusion and Parallels (although under Parallels, Chrome results were too high to be accurate). See the page here of Google V8 Browser Benchmark results. |
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The $40 Hitachi rebate on the 7K320 7200RPM 16MB Cache SATA Notebook drive is slated to end on Wednesday, September 10th. ($127.99 after $40 Hitachi Rebate.) Orders placed by 7PM on Wednesday are eligible for this rebate on up to 5 of the drive ($200 total) per customer/household/location. The nice thing too is it's an easy rebate to claim - just a COPY of the invoice + the UPC & PN Label that you cut off the hard drive bag. No hoops to hop through, original invoices to worry about, etc. :)
Also available, from $159.99 after rebate, are On-the-Go Portable solutions w/FW 800, FireWire 400, and/or USB 2.0 Interface options. The external rebate offer is separate from the bare internal drive and is also valid for up to 5 units per customer/household/location.
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| Other News/Articles, Mac Software Updates -
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= Thursday's News Follows =
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| Google V8 Benchmark results w/Mac Browsers (PB G4/Tiger user comparison) - (from a reader mail last night - he used a PPC Mac running OS X Tiger.)
"
While us Mac users can't use Chome yet, we can test out current Mac browsers on Google's own JavaScript suite that's linked to in one of the Chrome articles you had linked on the news page (yesterday). (V8 Benchmark Suite v1 and also some (windows) Browser speed comparisons with Chrome-Mike)
Tests run are:
Richards (OS kernel simulation benchmark. 539 lines)
DeltaBlue (One-way constraint solver. 880 lines)
Crypto (Encryption/decryption benchmark. 1689 lines)
RayTrace (Ray tracer benchmark. 3418 lines)
EarleyBoyer (Classic Scheme benchmarks. 4682 lines)
Here are my results from a 1.67GHz G4 Powerbook running 10.4.11 with Better Performance energy setting. (Minefield 3.1b1pre was latest from Mozilla as of yesterday) (I asked if he enabled javascript.options.jit.content in the About:config of FF 3.1beta. They promised improved JS performance with FF 3.1, but his results showed a lower overall score with the 3.1beta vs FF 3.0.1.-Mike)
Higher scores are better:
... I'm now really curious how the Chrome beta, Safari 4.0, and Firefox 3.1 will do. If I can get access to my sister's dual core Vista notebook, I will try out the Chrome beta and Firefox 3.0.1 and maybe Safari with the suite.
Regards, Lars
"
I've gotten some other reader results that I'll be adding to a separate page including Chrome running under VirtualPC (PPC macs) and Fusion (Intel-based macs), tests using nightly Apple webkit builds, etc.
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Also available are On-the-Go drive enclosure Kits ("add your own 2.5in drive") from $29.95
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MacBook Pro Express34 card reports page updated - I've added a Lacie FW800 user's (problem) report to the previous page of MacBook Pro owner reports on Express34 Cards . (Please include info requested in red on that page - i.e. MBP model, OS version used and link to vendor's card product page. Saves a lot of back and forth mails. Thanks.)
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| Mac Drive Upgrades/Compatibility Database Updated - The Mac Drive/Storage Upgrades Database had 4 more reports added. Current total - 16,481. (Searching by drive type, brand, mac model etc. listed below will show full reports, most recent first)
DVD+R/RW + DVD-R/RW Drives:
- USB LG GSA-E60L used w/Mac Mini (Intel-CPU) OS X 10.5.4
Hard Drives:
- SATA (onboard) Samsung F1 1TB in (white) iMac Intel-CPU (OS X 10.5.4)
(another white imac owner report on problems w/F1 running OS X on that model)
- SATA (onboard) Seagate 1TB in Mac Pro (OS X 10.5.x)
- SATA (onboard) Seagate 1TB in G5 Tower (OS X 10.5.x)
You can read full reports (latest shown first) by searching the database by drive/brand/interface/mac models (the latest reports are shown first in searches). The database includes reports on Optical Drives (Blu-Ray, DVD, CD/CDR, etc.), Hard Drives, Tape drives, Removable media (ORB, ZIP, MO drives), NAS (Network Attached Storage), in all interface types (IDE, SATA, Firewire, SCSI, USB, adapters).
If you've added/upgraded a drive in your Mac send me the details (drive info/speed rating/mac model/OS version used, etc.). Note: Please use the drive for at least a week before reporting on it and test for booting from Disc with Optical Drives (as well as burning discs). Thanks.
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| Mac CPU Upgrade Reports Database Updated - The Rate Your CPU Upgrade database has another report added this morning. Total to date: 10,356. Here's a summary of the latest addition (search database by upgrade brand, mac model, etc. for a complete list/comments of all user reports on matching criteria - latest reports first).
- Wegener Media G4/550 in PowerBook G3 2000 (aka Pismo)
(Listed under "Other Brand")
(Full reviews of G4 and G3 upgrades compared to stock CPUs, including real world apps/game tests, install info, etc. are linked at the G4 upgrade reviews and G3 upgrade reviews pages. Intel-CPU chip swaps (i.e socketed Mac Mini) and OC/CPU module articles are on the Systems page.)
If you've upgraded the CPU on your Mac, send a review with your experience (performance/stability/installation, etc.), Mac Model/Upgrade brand info and overall rating (1= worst to 10=best). If you can, please run some tests with the original CPU vs the upgrade (for example time some tests with your favorite app, game, etc. - see full reviews here for example tests with common apps/games/benchmarks.)
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| Other News/Articles, Mac Software Updates -
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Recent Articles and Reviews - Listing/links to recent articles and reviews you may have missed.
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| Previous News Page Summaries: |
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| In Case you missed it:
Thursday Sept. 4, 2008
Wednesday Sept. 3, 2008
Tuesday Sept. 2, 2008
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