" Powerboost for iChat AV
Have any of your readers tried this on a G4? I have a 1.5Ghz Powerbook G4. It would help me to know. Thanks.
-SCB "

I've not used this personally but if anyone has let me know the details (your mac model/speed, performance notes, camera used, etc.)
Here's a clip on this software from their page:

" PowerBoost is an add-on for iChat AV 3 that makes multi-party conferences possible from any Mac.
Have you ever wondered if your iBook, PowerBook, iMac G4, eMac or G4 tower has what it takes to host or participate in a multi-person conference? Harness and focus the power of your G4 processor to bring your family and friends together. Invite up to 10 iChat users to an audio conference. Host a 3-way or 4-way video chat.
Install PowerBoost and start experiencing multi-party audio and videoconferences right away. We offer a free demo so that you can try PowerBoost for 7 days.
(from the system requirements page)

System Requirements:

• iChat AV 3.0 (requires OS X 10.4 or higher)
• PowerPC G4 or higher processor is recommended (see notes below from their FAQ on G3 Macs)
• Video/audio conferencing capabilities:
• A broadband internet connection
• For videoconferencing, an iSight camera, a DV camera, or a USB camera (USB support requires iChatUSBCam)

(Note on G3 Macs from their FAQ. There's an old page here from 2003 on iChatUSBCam as a workaround for iChat AV's CPU requirements back when it was a beta-Mike)
Q: Will PowerBoost allow me to multi-party conference from my old G3, PowerBook or iBook?
A: Yes, it will. However, initiating (hosting) a multi-party video chat requires a lot of CPU power and conferences intiated from machines below 800 Mhz may not work properly. The participant with the fastest CPU should be the one to initiate the conference, and can then invite people with slower machines.
Also note that G3 machines below 600 Mhz are not recognized by iChat as supporting video conferencing at all. You can get around this limitation by installing iChatUSBCam. "

Update - See Tuesday's news for initial feedback on Powerboost.

" Hi Mike, just want to let you (and the readers of xlr8yourmac.com) know that the ASUS WL-138G V2 also works perfect as an Airport card (Broadcom chip)!
(most broadcom chip based cards have native airport 3.x/10.2.6 or later support) Just plugged the card in, Airport was up, set up the encryption for my network, that was all.
(If you have your base setup for MAC address/access control remember to enter the new card's address also. And again if you have an Apple airport card in the mac, remove it when using a natively supported PCI card.)
The card runs at 801.11g/54 MBit, supports WEP/WPA, is low-profile, cheap (22 Euro in Germany) and one of the best solutions for older Macs (I own a G4 Sawtooth, a G3 blue/white (will get the same card too) and tried before other things like 3COM USB Wlan stick (Zydas drivers), D-Link Wlan bridge, everything was a nightmare...)
I run OS X 10.3.9.
Attached is a picture from the box.
Best regards, Yasmin "

There are several broadcom chip/Airport 3.x compatible PCI cards (see FAQ's networking section) although some vendors have changed chipsets over time. (Many years ago before the broadcom 54G cards were released, I used a Belkin USB 801.11b adapter with a B&W G3 using their OS 9.x and OS X (10.2 at the time) drivers, but I'd much prefer a 54G PCI card over a USB adapter but I still keep it around for OS 9.x use.) I've used several PCI adapters since then including an early rev. Motorola model, even a Microsoft card (but that one required editing a plist to work and I returned it as every Airport update would overwrite the edited file).
While on the subject, over the weekend another reader replied he'd used the Buffalo 54G PCI card mentioned several times here previously (most recently in Friday's news - typically bought at Bestbuy)

" I, too, picked up a Buffalo WLI2-PCI-G54S wireless card with the Broadcom chip and put it into an MDD G4 Dual 1.25MHz. Works perfectly natively. No sleep problems due to the card.
-Ken M. "

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