Software updates & other net news listing has been updated (thanks to Barney Buoy)

iMovie Download Installer Notes: A reader indicated the free download iMovie version must have no machine id checks in the installer, saying it installed fine on his G3 All-In-One Mac running OS 8.6. The machine id checks in the original iMovie installer apparently have been completely removed (not just revised to add PB Firewire and G4 systems). Thanks to Apple for making this software free. Here's a great comment on iMovie from a reader who worked at a CompUSA during demo days:

"...I can't even count how many people I "converted" to the Mac when doing demo days just by iMovie alone. I would be doing a demo of how easy it was, and people would be absolutely shocked. One day we must have sold 20 iMacs just for the DV alone. It wasn't a very big CompUSA either, just a high traffic one in the Chicago Area. "

Now even more people will have this 'conversion tool'.

Download iMovie Free: Several readers wrote to say that Apple is giving away copies of iMovie for PB 2000 and G4 owners. (Of course everyone is going to download it :-) See http://www.apple.com/imovie/ and http://www.apple.com/imovie/download/. A CD version is also available for US $19.99 by calling 800-293-6617. System requirements are a Power Mac G4 or PowerBook with built-in FireWire, OS 9.0.4, QuickTime 4.1 and 64 MB of RAM. Apple has a press release with more info.

PowerBook Firewire Overclocking Page: A reader sent a note the Japanese overclocking site has added a page on overclocking the new PowerBook Firewire models:

"Hi Mike,
Takashi Imai has a new page on overclocking the PowerBook 2000 series (Pismo) on his website! However, it isn't mentioned in the Macintosh TuneUp section. Very interesting!

The correct URL's are:

PowerBook G3 2000 (FireWire)
http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/~t-imai/pbg3e3.html

PowerBook G3 1999 (Bronze Keyboard)
http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/~t-imai/pbg3e2.html

PowerBook G3 Series (Wallstreet)
http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/~t-imai/pbg3e1.html

Original PowerBook G3
http://www.bekkoame.ne.jp/~t-imai/g3be1.html

Regards,
Ronald "

I wonder how much 'headroom' is in the G3/500 model. Last year the G3/500 CPU chips didn't seem to have a lot of margin, often not running even 10% over. His page does note a 600MHz Macbench score however. Remember overclocking voids the warranty, may not be reliable, you could damage the module soldering the resistors, etc. etc... I will add the new guide to my Links page.

Reminder on Turbomax Firmware Update Benefits: Although the Turbomax v1.7.4 update was covered here a few months back, Rod Paine of Astec sent a performance comparison of the Turbomax card with firmware v1.5 versus 1.7.4 in a Beige G3 with Maxtor 40GB drive. I've added this graph to the previous page on Beige G3 Maxtor 40GB performance.

Most TurboMax cards shipped from Promax since last November should have the v1.7.4 firmware, but as noted here previously, Bottom Line has the 1.7.4 update at their FTP site (also noted in the FAQ's HD section for future reference). Since some dealers could have had older stock, it's possible cards bought from other than Promax may not have the latest firmware. My card from the spring 1999 review had v1.5 firmware. After updating to 1.7.4 I also noted increased performance, mentioned in an update to the IDE RAID performance article. (I obtained the firmware update after posting of the original article's test results.)

Raves for Prosoft's Radialogic Drivers: A beta tester of the Prosoft's Radialogic storage drivers/utilities package notes some unique features like functional eject buttons:

"I was a beta-tester for Radialogic, and now that it's been finally released, I just used Radialogic with the following devices:

A Microtech SCSI PC Card reader (that was having TONS of trouble with the Microtech drivers and even Software Architect's DOS Mounter 98 under OS 9.0.4), an ATAPI Zip 100 drive, a Kenwood 52X True-X ATAPI CD-ROM Drive, a Toshiba SD-M1302 ATAPI DVD-ROM drive, and both a SCSI and an ATAPI Orb drive.

All performed flawlessly (I'm shocked that the SCSI PC Card reader worked, because I was expecting it not to!) and there's some cool things that Prosoft didn't mention:

- The driver allows the Eject button on the front of all CD drives to function. It sends an eject command to the Mac OS. It works beautifully! This >may< work on ALL removable media drives (Zips, Orbs) but I didn't try on those...

- The CD driver supports full digital audio (just like the Apple driver), and it works perfectly with SoundJam and the like (Digital Audio fully supported)

- The DVD drive worked perfectly with DVD-Videos and DVD-ROMs.

For under $70 for the entire suite of ATA, SCSI, USB, and FireWire drivers, it's a steal.

It's definitely the suite of drivers to own, in my opinion. They are super fast, stable and they work like they should. I honestly have no complaints with them. By the way, they didn't pay me to say this. I just really like it this much!
Mike."

My Toshiba 6X DVD drive works perfectly with Apple drivers BTW, but Radialogic's total package of features and utilities does sound interesting.

ORB Tools v.1.42b1 Update: Edmond Lai sent a note the update is available at ft p.castlewood.com/orbtools/mac/mot_142b1_english.hqx

Portable Firewire Drive Reviews: PCMag has a review of two bus-powered Firewire drives - the Evergreen 20GB and the VST ultra-slim 6GB. They reported very low file copy transfer rates with the VST drive, appx. 1.5MB/sec in their file copy tests using a PC. The Evergreen drive, although larger in size, was nearly twice as fast they said. A VST 6GB drive owner with a Mac wrote to say he's getting much better performance with his drive:

"Having owned a VST 6GB FireWire HD for a couple months I was surprised by the poor performance noted in PC Magazine. I tried to duplicate their test using three files of total size 162 MB (I didn't have two 80 MB files handy). Timing by the highly unscientific stopwatch method, I copied those files from my G4 450 to the VST in 27 seconds (6 MB/s) and back in about 23.5 seconds (6.9 MB/s). Much more impressive, I thought. Just for kicks, I tried the same test on my Pismo 400 and the test took 28 seconds (5.8 MB/sec) each way.
Cheers,
Nate "

Feedback on Pulsar Audio Card PCI Errors: There were several replies to yesterday's reader request for help with Pulsar audio card PCI bus errors in his Beige G3.

"Mike,
Regarding the post from Steve D on the Pulsar problems, I noticed his posting a while ago and I'm not suprised he's had no luck with support from Creamware. The current response seems to be that the next version (2) of the software which will be out mid May will fix a whole load of problems. I'm on a B&W G3 400 and I get the same error but my bus is full of cards (ATI, 2930 and 2940 SCSI and the Pulsar) and it only happens if my project window is really full. It runs out of bus before it runs out of DSP power, mostly if I have a lot of samplers (4 or more).

I was especially annoyed as it doesn't do a few things the PC version does and you have to dig deep and hard on various non Creamware sites to find any notes on this. To be fair I didn't mail support as I found out about not only the new software, but a new version of the card the week after I bought mine (ouch!).

I'm prepared to wait for V2 and then go crazy if we Mac users don't get the support we deserve, maybe the PC guys will feel as strongly if 2 doesn't fix some PC bugs.

I'm now keeping a lower profile until I can check out 2 in a couple of weeks but I'm tempted to rally the Mac troops on this one...
Cheers
Stuart "

One other reply offered personal assistance and another mentioned that the Beige G3 may be more prone to the problem than later Macs.

Macsense UKB-600 extended keyboards in all 6 iMac colors are available now for $49.99.

Today is the day Mac Fly! 2K is supposed to be available according to EBworld.

Ratings Databases Updated: The searchable Rate Your CPU Upgrade and Mac Game/Video card Performance databases were updated with new entries.

Sponsor OWC sent a note they've updated their page of mail list specials.

Software Updates/Other Net News:

Recent Software Updates:
• Adobe PS Printer 8.7
• Vicomsoft Internet Gateway 6.6.2, Softrouter 6.6.2, & SurfDoubler 6.6.2
• Logic Audio 4.2.2
• Connectix Virtual Game Station 1.4
• VPC 3.0.3A
• Quit CSM 2.0
• StyleScript^TM 5.0

Hardware Related News:
• Macs Benefit From Add-Ons Even new models don't come with everything for editing (SF Gate)
• Cloudy patent picture may slow 1394's ascent (EE Times)
• 1394 support threatened by encryption IP confusion - MS exec (the register)
• Newton upgrade program to end in June (Maccentral)
• Warning To iBook Owners: Watch Out For Your Speaker System--2 (macosplanet)
• AMD now a virtual gorilla - Sanders (the register)
• Olympus Unveils Dual-Duty Camera (PCworld)

General News
• Sherlock: Apple's Top-Flight Hard-Drive Detective (business week)
• Boffins crack hard drive data destruction limit (the register)
• Fishpc: 'We're not trying to copy the iMac' (macuser UK)
• More headaches for Corel (Macweek)
• 4D announces first-ever WebSTAR Summit
• Diablo II for Mac in Q3, says Blizzard (Maccentral)
• Avid Technology Reports First Quarter Results (avid)

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.

Thursday's News Summary

• Virtual Game Station v1.4 Update
• Virtual PC 3.03A Updater Posted
• OWC Zforce/ZIF bundle sale
• MS Office VB Extension Freeze
• IntelliMouse Setup for Unreal Tournament
• PowerBook 1400/Sonnet G3 Upgrade report
• More VPC 3.03 Feedback
• Audio Extraction w/SimpleText
• Uswest DSL user on QT 4.12 and Streaming Media
• Reader Request: Help w/Pulsar Audio Card Errors
• SIIG Firewire PCI Card Report
• Voodoo5 6000 Pics
• Opera Browser for Macs in development
• Rate Your CPU Upgrade, Mac Game Ratings and Mac Game Framerates databases updated.
• Software Updates Listing
• Other Net News

Wednesday's News Summary

• Quicktime 4.12 Update
• MacZone 10% off sale
• Performance Comparison: Apple Drivers vs HDT 4.0
• VirtualPC 3.03 Update w/Altivec Support
• Native PowerPC Code Disk Drivers page updated w/FWB's Reply
• HDT 4.0 Performance Feedback
• Freeware Mac CD Audio Extraction Util
• Intech CD Driver Notes
• PCI Timing Update Solves 6500 USB Card Problems?
• Rate Your CPU Upgrade, Mac Game Ratings and Mac Game Framerates databases updated.
• Software Updates Listing
• Other Net News

Tuesday's News Summary

• Prosoft's Drivers also Native PowerPC
• SoftRaid Disputes FWB Driver Claim
• Intech Comments on Native PowerPC Code Disk Drivers
• Radeon Previews Listing: ATI To Become a Power Player Again?
• ATI Product Manager comments on Radeon on Mac
• Hard Disk Toolkit 4.0 released
• ADS Firewire Case + TrueX 72X CDROM Report
• Velo CDRW in a Mac/Is the Velo a Plextor Drive?
• Another PowerCenter Pro/1MB L3 Cache Benefit Report
• OWC Out of G3/450s
• Rate Your CPU Upgrade, and Mac Game Framerates databases updated.
• Software Updates/Other Net 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.