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Barney Buoy sent a few net links of interest:
= 3:00PM Update Follows =
New PowerBook DVD Feedback: A reader replies to today's earlier post asking how well the
new models software decoding worked:
"hi mike!
we've received a couple of G4's bundled with Mac OS 9.0.2 and DVD
Player 2.1. first thing i checked everytime when updates were
released was the DVD-lipsync problem. i can say that with these new
versions, the issue is definitely gone! perfect now (used region 2
dvd's, PAL)
tried it also on iMac DV SE, also: perfect!
regards,
Mike
"
He later reported he's played Disclosure and Mars Attacks from beginning to end. Virtual Memory off, full screen. He said he didn't have 'The Matrix' to test.
= 3:00PM Update Follows =
Roger Wilco Alpha Download: A reader responds to the earlier post today:
"Mike,
just thought i'd let you know a little about Roger Wilco for the Mac.
Our Myth II clan has been testing the alphas of RW for about 2 months now,
and its great. Still very unstable (crashes on transmit quite often) but
when it works, its great. Use from 56k to 56k yeilded very poor quality,
but when hosted on a dedicated T1 server, its quality is about that of a
cell phone, even when logged in with a 56k. If everyone gets a chance i
encourage them to download the alpha at
www.rogerwilco.com/products/downloads/rw_mac_dload.html This is gonna change the way of gaming on the Mac.
Sincerely
A Fellow Mac Gamer
"
USB Microphones: Kevin wrote in response to an earlier post to say he's tried the Texel 561 USB Mic with his iBook and G4 but that it only allowed recording using sound manager. He said programs would crash if USB audio was selected. He also expressed frustration that he could not find Griffin's iMic available, although the Griffin store page allows ordering it.
Bootable Firewire Info: Kevin also sent a link to an Apple Developer page that notes the requirements of bootable firewire drives:
"The Power Mac G4 computer can boot from a FireWire storage device that implements SBP-2 (Serial Bus Protocol) with the RBC (reduced block commands) command set"
Apple also has a TIL update today titled FireWire Booting: What Computers Support It and How To .
Western Digital Firewire Drives: [Update: Mike Mihalik of Lacie wrote to say the WD Firewire drives are adapted IDE devices as I suspected.] Igor van Oostveen sent a note about a WD Press Release on their new line of Firewire external HDs. (The fact they are external only makes me wonder if the cases use a Firewire/IDE adapter.) He intends to check them out at the CeBit show and report back.
= 12:45PM Update Follows =
Ricoh DVD/CDR Combo Drive in B&W G3: The first report of the new DVD/CDR combo drive in a Mac sounds promising:
"
Hi,
I wrote to you earlier today about the RICOH Combo CD/CDRW/DVD drive
being available at the local COSTCO store in Torrance, CA. I have since
purchased the drive and installed it in my BW G3. I have not done
exhaustive testing but the drive appears to work in all modes. The
Apple CD/DVD driver recognizes the drive, Toast 4.01 does also. I
viewed parts of several DVDs including the Matrix. Was able to erase a
CDRW disk and rewrite successfully. No problems reading CD Roms. It's
nice to have everything in one package.
So far so good.
Tom
"
I've asked him to tests MP3 extraction, booting and burning CDRs.
More Info on Mac SoundBlaster Live Driver Release: A reader sent a note with more info
on the Mac driver release:
"Regarding the news about a special Mac version of the SoundBlaster card, I
got this e-mail from Creative Labs which contradicts what the other reader
said (in yesterday's news):
The target date is June or July 2000. The drivers will be available on the
web site: www.creative.com at first with a later re-SKU of the PC product to
be both Mac & PC in the same box. Retail at this point is looking like
$99.99 US like the current PC version. You will be able to purchase a PC
version of the card and download the drivers if you can't wait for the
re-SKU of the product. The last I heard - the ship date had not changed.
Brian Souder
Creative Labs
I hope this is useful info.
Jan Lunddal Larsen"
Firewire/IDE CDR Info: I asked an owner of a Firewire CDR to see what the actual IDE drive model was inside the case. (He noted it was using the same drivers as supplied with the Clubmac Firewire/IDE case):
"
it's a panasonic/Matsushita CW-7585 2 MB buffer. it is a very new
mechanism, I believe.
Other interesting bits:
It is ALMOST bootable in my G4/AGP:
Putting a bootable CD in it, then holding option @ startup, the mac shows it
as a startup volume. if you select it, it tries to boot (i.e. grey screen)
then nothing. And the drive busy light on the CD-R blinks. Neet...
-Sean
"
I didn't think any drives are bootable via Firewire with the current software but
thought there was an Apple TIL on this recently regarding the new Powerbooks.
BTW - the Maxtor Plus40 drive in the Clubmac Firewire/IDE case worked fine with the iMac DV last night. I've not tried to boot from the drive as I assumed that was not possible. I've updated the Firewire/IDE case article with comments from yesterday's news.
iMaxPowr G3/466 w/iMac Game Wizard Quake3/Quake2 Performance: As noted in yesterday's news, Kelly Freebairn reported the NewerTech iMaxPowr G3/466 upgrade worked fine with his mezzanine slot iMac Game Wizard Voodoo2 card. He later sent some performance scores from Quake3:
"Amount of memory in the iMac, 192 Megs
Well, here are a few time demo's for you
Q3 Using vertex lighting 37.9 fps, timedemo 1 map
Q3 Using lighting Map 34.9 fps, timedemo 1 map
Q2 43.9 fps demo1.dm2 map
"
To compare performance with other mac models - search my Mac Game/Video card FPS database. When I can catch a breath, I'll update my iMac DV SE review apps/games page for performance comparions with full Quake3 and with the iMaxPowr upgrade in an older iMac.
IBM ViaVoice and Headsets: A reader asks for info on a USB Audio headset that works with Macs:
"The recent announcement Roger Wilco coming to the Mac is certainly great
news. It also goes to reinforce that the Mac is definitely a viable computer gaming
platform (like we haven't know that for years?).
My question is regarding compatible headset style microphones for use
with this. I recall a few months ago when IBM's ViaVoice was released I read
on your website that people found a USB headset that was made for PC but
worked well on their Mac.
I was wondering if you might be able to direct me (and possibly many
other of your readers) of this or even help us find the news item that was
posted on the site in relation to ViaVoice.
Glen Brink"
I don't remember the USB headset post (it may have been in the forums) but if anyone has used a USB headset on the Mac please contact me with details.
Wanted: PB (Firewire) DVD Playback Reports: A popular question is how does the new Powerbooks with software decoding work? Any audio sync issues? I welcome any reports from owners of the new models on DVD movie performance. Please note your amount of RAM, if Virtual Memory is on, titles you've tested, etc. Thanks! (If you missed it - Apple had a TIL on G4 DVD playback tips recently.)
B&W G3 SCSI RAID Booting? A reader sent an interesting report:
"Hi. Just thought I'd drop a line about my recent experience with booting
from a raid array.
I've been having problems with OS9 crashes and yesterday when both my IDE
drives refused to mount my B&W G3/dvd/400 booted several times from my raid
array. Weird but true. My machine is not supposed to support booting from a
raid array (according to Apple). When other drives (including the CD) are
available it will first try to boot from them and if no system folder is
found, it boots from the raid.
This tells me that for some reason Apple has decided to disable raid booting
unless there is no other option. My machine ran fast and without problems
until I fixed my other drives - then I was back to booting from the internal
non raid drives.
I have the stock 6gb ide drive, a Maxtor plus 20gb ide and two 9gb, 10,000
rpm SCSI drives connected to an Initio Miles U2W (raid striped L2) all
internally installed.
Simon O'Donovan
Cambridge, Ont. Canada"
According to Softraid's web site, Softraid volumes are not bootable. Here's a quote from that page:
"Using SoftRAID with the Blue and White G3 and Charcoal G4 systems:
NOTE: There are a few issues which arise with the new Yosemite G3 computers. Please read this Apple Tech note [Link is bad-Mike] for more information. In short, you cannot boot from Yosemite from a striped volume, and there are other restrictions on booting, such as the requirement to boot from the first volume on a drive.
"
I searched Apple's TIL page and found the TIL on Power Macintosh G3 (Blue and White): "Cannot Boot from a RAID Striped Volume". I know Mark at Softraid was working on a possible fix but never heard that it was completed. This TIL is dated Jan 1999 and notes that Striped volumes can't boot, but has tips on how to work around the issue (creating a standard or mirrored volume as the boot volume).
For a blast from the past, see what was on the main news page one year ago today and two years ago.
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.
Wednesday's News Summary
- Maxtor Plus40 Performance in Clubmac Firewire/IDE Case
- Comments on Clubmac firewire case
- Rumor of OEM Soundblaster Live Deal
- Newer iMaxPowr 466 & iMac Game Wizard A-OK
- Pismo PB G3/500 Game/MacBench Performance
- U2 Cheetah vs IDE
- More B&W G3 Rev 1 Drive Upgrade Reports
- Ricoh DVD/CDR Combo Drive at Computer City
- Pioneer 10X DVD in B&W G3 Report
- WD 10GB/Platter Caviar IDE Drives
- Another Headhunters Quake3 Mod Tip
- Future of IXMicro Graphics Card Drivers
- Quake3 Smoke Tip for Voodoo3 Cards
- The Rate Your CPU Upgrade, Mac Game Reviews and Mac Game/Video Card Performance databases were updated with new entries.
Tuesday's News Summary
- $99 128MB SDRAMs (222 code)
- $112.95 Firewire/IDE Case
- $100 Initio Miles Ultra2 Cards
- Maxtor 40GB Drives & Firewire/IDE cases
- Newer Tech Lowers Prices
- PC 39160 Controller Flashed To Mac ROM
- $369 18GB Atlas 10K RPM Ultra160 HDs
- PowerBook Firewire G3/400 MacBench Scores
- 6800 vs Plus 40 Maxtor Drive Models
- Another Mac IDE ATA/66 Controller
- Q3A HeadHunter Classic 1.0 Tip
- Top Selling Mac Games
- Blue Label PC Emulator 1.6SE
- Other Net News/TIL Updates/Service Manuals
Monday's News Summary
- Newerstore opens for business
- CDW closeout on Lombard PB G3/333s w/free battery
- Review of Maxtor's Fast 40GB DiamondMax Plus
- Reminder on Beige G3 IDE Drive Upgrades
- $100 (after rebate) Epson 740
- iMac 333's at Costco
- List of current Hard Drive sales
- New Voodoo Cards to Demo Again at CeBit Show
- Reader Ratings Databases Updated
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 3,300+ 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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Answers!