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Latest OS X GUI Comments: There is a very interesting (new) thread on OS X's interface in the 3Dfx forum. Some very good points are made and I hope there are options in the final version to allow owners to customize the GUI, perhaps even an option to look like the current MacOS if desired. This new thread was started today in response to the earlier comments here that referred to a previous post in the forum. The new thread is well worth reading and I invite other reader comments there. I'll be posting a page on these later to preserve them.
OS X and MacOS Apps: A reader commented that OS X will not have a 'bluebox' (what I referred to as a MacOS emulator) and will run MacOS applications perhaps faster than the current versions. Great news:
"Hi Mike,
you made a comment about MacOS X that the "MacOS emulator will likely
run them slower than OS 8 or 9" -- Just wanted to correct you because
there is no "emulator" in MacOS X. The MacOS APIs have been ported
to the MacOS X environment previously known as "blue box" so
applications should run as fast if not faster! Virtual memory and
all hardware drivers go through OSX giving it that extra performance.
Steve Jobs made a specific point of showing how fast Excel launched.
The only real delay is the first time you launch the "classic"
environment. If "classic" crashes, then it needs to reboot just
"classic". ... Please don't
use the word "emulator" because that is not accurate and will
discourage people into thinking MacOS X will be slower. This is not
true because the underlying hardware and the APIs are the same.
(name withheld by request)
"
I missed this info in watching the Keynote in a 1" window via a modem connection. I'm glad to hear that our current applications may even show a performance gain under OS X. I can't wait to try it...
OS X Mac Model Support: While on the subject of OS X, many readers are asking what Macs will be supported. Officially I think Apple G3 and later models (AIO, Beige, iMac, B&W and G4s, and PB G3/iBook of course), but according to a insider developer post here last year there is a longer list of supported motherboards in the DP2 versions. If you missed the original post check my FAQ's Operating Systems topic area for the list and original reader posting. I hear DP2 has run on G3 upgrade Apple Macs. Clone support may be an issue, but that remains to be seen.
Creative Labs MW Booth: I'm hoping to have a summary of Matthew's show comments later, but I wanted to mention he was extremely pleased at the attitudes of the folks at the Creative Labs booth. He said the Soundblaster Live sounded great and their Nomad and WebCam's looked good. It was odd the same day I posted my 2000 Wish List which included Soundblaster Live Mac support that Creative released a press release. I predict the SBLive and the 3dfx VSA100 graphics cards (see press release link below) will be two of the hottest consumer Mac products this year.
Speaking of graphics cards - I suspect everyone has read the web posts on comments from ATI that the dual Rage128 Pro MAXX cards are not compatible with the G4 AGP controller. I've asked for real technical reasons why (lack of sufficient current? DME support? what specificially?). If/when I get a reply I'll post a note. As I'd listed here last year, ATI told me the card would require a 66MHz slot (3.3 volt only) which limited the Mac market size but now I wonder if the 66MHz PCI slots of the B&W G3 or Yikes G4 would work.
More Toshiba DVD Drive Reports: Two new reports just came in. A G4 Yikes owner notes he's running the drive fine with a ZIP drive as the slave:
"The Toshiba SD-M1212 does work ok with a G4/400 Yikes as the master
drive on ATA 0. OS is as delivered 8.6. CD/DVD driver 1.2.2
Internal ATA 0, ID=0 (master): Toshiba M1212 DVD
(changed out the
original CRDOM)
1 (slave): Zip 100 ATAPI drive (added)
I can boot a CD from the DVD if and only if I set Startup to the DVD.
This DVD works OK with the DVD Player patch.
Henry Goldwire"
This reader responded to an earlier problem report saying he initially that he has gotten the drive to work:
"When I first got the Toshiba Drive, I had the same booting problem - no recognition by the computer, hanging at the 2nd extension on bootup. Really frustrating. So, I hooked it up as a slave to the main hard drive (laying it over my PCI cards, VERY carefully!), and it WORKED! Amazing. Successive boots then worked on the 2nd IDE bus. Don't know if it's a zap PRAM thing, Electrical thing, whatever. Now, it works well, boots fine, etc. I chalked it up to a strange PC thing invading the Mac hardware realm thing.
Also, the Audio sync with the patched 2.0 player, quicktime 4.1, etc.. STILL out of sync. Watched most of Elizabeth last night (pretty boring movie), and about 1 hour 20 minutes into it I noticed a sync problem (from about 10 feet away). A pause and restart fixed it, not big deal.
Finally, I can say it IS too dark, and the audio IS too quiet, and the audio also POPS quite a bit. Still workable for the price, but if I were a iMac or G4 owner, I'd be ticked.
Daniel C. Richardson "
= 1:00 PM Update Follows =
MWSF 2000 Picture Gallery: I've posted a Photo Gallery page of Matthew Culmore's photos from the MW Expo show. Included are some very cool pix of the VST FireRAID 100GB array, the USB Mac Microscope and some photos of the OS X demo.
= 11:00 AM Update Follows =
Pix of PowerForce Dual G4 Card Late last night I posted a page with a picture and recap of the PowerLogix PowerForce Dual G4 card announced in yesterday's news. As noted in the original press release, the card is said to have active cooling (fans? peltier?), proprietary SMP firmware (the Xlinx chip between the two cache chips I suspect), dual variable power supplies and up to 2MB of backside cache. See my PF Dual G4 page for a large image of the card and original press release info on pricing and compatibility.
3Dfx Mac Press Release: As a follow-up to the related Apple press release posted here yesterday, I have posted a copy of the official 3dfx press release officially announcing their
next-generation VSA-100 chip based Macintosh graphics cards. Included are comments from 3dfx, Apple and developers like Bungie and Graphics Simulations. As noted here previously, the new VSA-100 chip supports large textures, 32bit 3D rendering, full-scene anti-aliasing and their exclusive T-buffer technology.
Mac Onstream 30GB SCSI Drive: Onstream, makers of a 30GB (compressed - 15GB native) removable storage drive just
announced Mac support including bundled Dantz backup software. See their Mac product page for details and special promo pricing which includes a free 30GB disk (#39.95 value). I noticed the $699 price for the SCSI Mac external drive is $100 more than the PC External SCSI model however according to their product pages.
CarrierZIF Wins MW Eddy: XLR8 has a press release reporting that their CarrierZIF won the Macworld Eddy award for acceleration product of the year. For many articles, an illustrated setup guide and reviews on the CarrierZIF/MAChCarrier cards, see my CPU Upgrades page or search the Rate Your CPU Upgrade database for hundreds of owner reports. As noted on the December 20th news page here, the CarrierZIF was my pick for CPU upgrade of the year in my list of Upgrade Gear of the Year.
OS X GUI Discussion: Although I liked what I saw and I think most did as well, there was an off-topic post in my 3dfx forum from a Mac user that was very upset over the new 'aqua' interface. I'm sure the GUI will be customizable either out of the box or through addons, but if you'd like to post your comments on the OS X interface in that forum thread please do. I'm personally excited about the new OS for many reasons (core improvements as well as visuals).
Toshiba 6X DVD Report: A reader sent his test results with the $99 Memorex (Toshiba Sm-1212) drive mentioned in the weekend news:
"Hi Mike,
I spent all day trying to get my G3/300/8.5.1/rev1 to work with the
Toshiba drive set as master. Mac took forever to boot, then would
freeze when loading cd driver. There seemed to be a low level conflict
when power fist applied due to the long pauses and gray screens! With
extensions off, a very long boot to desktop. Apple profiler would see
the drive at "0" and report another unknown CD at "1". The original
drive was the 24x Sony with "Apple firmware"(?) sticker. Resetting the
Toshiba to slave (1), resulted in normal boot and profiler showing
correct IDE position of "1". I then tested booting off 8.5.1 cd using
"C" key, no good. Any ideas as to the Mac not liking the Toshiba as
"Master"? I searched your site but must have missed related problems.
Mike Searight
"
I asked him to try the drive as a master with no slave and to also check that
the IDE cable was not a 'cable select' model - where the connector positions determine
master and slave settings (some mfrs use these - allows drives to be set to CS -cable select)
and then the cable determines the master/slave). Always remember to check the FAQ's DVD section for info on Mac DVD software and hardware info. The FAQ is the first place to look for answers if the main site topic pages (linked below the logo above and in the sidebar) don't have a review or article to address your question.
Patched DVD Player/Pioneer DVD SCSI Drive Report: I have been meaning to mention my lack of success getting a Pioneer 303S SCSI DVD drive to work in a pre-G3 (SCSI based) Mac. A reader sent a Pioneer DVD extension and I used the patched software player noted in the news last month (see the FAQ DVD section for links). The drive was recognized only with the Pioneer DVD extension, but with Apple's UDF extension any DVD discs inserted resulted in a Finder alert that the disc was not recognizable (the format/eject dialog). Replacing Apple's UDF extension with Adaptec's (from a recent reader tip on Pioneer IDE DVD drives) allowed DVDs to mount but the Apple DVD player would still not recognize the drive. I suspect the player only supports IDE drives, or those that work with Apple's CD/DVD extension. I was too backlogged in other work to try the resedit hack on the Apple extension to see if that would have helped. If anyone has tried this (SCSI DVD drive with patched software player) please contact me.
Midiman Audio Card Report: A reader notes the Midiman 2044 mentioned in an old Audio Column here has been discontinued. I did not see that card listed in Thad Brown's recent Audio Buyer's Guide posted here last month.
"Mike
... (Thad Brown) mentioned the midiman
2044 [in a past article last year] so I went and bought the thing last night. To my dismay the card
worked ok on my starmax 4400 and cubase, as it turned out thou, that card
has been discontinued and there will be no longer any drivers for it, it
was discontinued last month!!
The kind folks at midiman.net recommended the delta Dio 2496 that has
[beta] mac drivers and will have all the bells and whistle and guess what you
can order this thing direct for 260.00
"
I've asked Thad for his comments on the new card. For the current issue and links to more than 50 back issues of Thad's audio column here see www.xlr8yourmac.com/audio/
Product Ratings Databases Updated: The Rate Your CPU Upgrade, Mac Game Reviews, and Mac Game/Video Card Performance searchable databases have been updated with new entries from the week. There were a few cases of missing info but I've emailed the authors for the missing information.
Casady and Greene released a 1.02 update to SpeedStartup. I normally don't use these types of addons, as they often add to the mix of potential compatibility issues either now or down the road. However some may find them useful. SpeedStartup lists for $19.99.
Latest Forum Topics: A small sample of the latest discussions going on in the message boards:
G4 Forum:
- Yamaha 4416 cdrw SCSI on a g4/350??
- G4 running at 500mhz
- Apple.com has the OSX goods
- Quake3 on G4's
- Anyone here that there's Permedia 3 for Mac?!?
- I need a new cover for my G4
- Dual G4's are out... are there Dual G3's?
- 3rd Party DVD drives and VGS???
and hundreds of other messages/threads
3dfx Forums:
- question about OS X & voodoo3
- Will MacOS X be any good for games?
- 3dfx Support For Mac is Official
- Voodoo 3/2000 and Quake II freezes
- VGS and NON-ATI???
- Do PC Unreal Mission Packs Work With Mac Unreal?
- RAID
- 3dfx is announcing retail mac support!!!!!!!
and hundreds of other messages/threads
For a blast from the past see what was on the front page news here one year ago.
Other Net News:
Wednesday's News Summary
- Sonnet PB 1400 G3 Upgrades
- 3Dfx (Retail) Mac Support
- Apple MacOS X Web Site
- XLR8 announces Interview 2.0, Cuts Prices
- OS X's Stunning Interface
- My comments on Keynote
- Keynote Summary
- Webstar 4.2 Adds Altivec Support
- Rainbow 6 Column Issue #3
- PowerForce Dual G4 Upgrades
- After Effects 4.1 Altivec Plugin Reports
- Nintendo 64 Emulator Feedback/3dfx Card Tips
- SoundJam MP 1.6 (still problematic here with G4 upgrades)
- USB 1.3.5 Performance Hit
- OS 9 on older Macs
- iMac DV Audio Delay Report
- RamDoubler 9 (Confirmed):
- HP8110 IDE CDR/ZIP Drive Problem
- Mac QuakeIII CD Key Problems Fixed?
- OWC CPU Upgrade Sale
- More on Lotus CC:Mail Y2K Issues
- Apple OT Update
- Forum Topics in G4 Forum and 3Dfx Forums.
Tuesday's News Summary
- After Effects 4.1 Altivec Plugin released
- Nintendo 64 Emulator
- Powerlogix page on MWSF Expo
- CarrierZIF 2.0 Announced
- Formac Exodus?
- $180 27GB Maxtor Drive
- Toshiba 6X DVD Report
- Quickmail Y2K Bug and Fix
- Lotus cc:Mail Mobile Y2K Bug
- Emailer/AOL Date Fix
- DVD Movies and VR128 TV Out
- New Sonnet L2 G3 Upgrades/PCI Video Card Report
- Mac vs PC Quake 3 TeamDM
- Latest topics in the G4 and 3Dfx Forums
Monday's News Summary
- XLR8 whistle and win Macworld giveaways
- $199.97 Maxtor 27GB DiamondMax Plus HD
- Acer 8X/4X/32X IDE CDRs for $249.95
- Mac Software Y2K Issues Reported (emailer/AOL and nubus mac reports)
- Orange Micro Combo Firewire/USB Card Report
- Sonnet L2 Cache Slot G3/400 Cards - New Revision?
- CharisMac Product News (Audioscribe and MWSF giveways)
- Rainbow 6 Column Issue #2
- Free DSL Service?
- Latest topics in the G4 and 3Dfx Forums
- Macsonly review of PF G4/350 upgrades
- G4 vs Athlon CPU design article
Weekend's News Summary
- Rate Your CPU Upgrade, Mac Game Reviews, and Mac Game/Video Card Performance searchable databases updated with new entries.
- Apple Site Year 2000 Date Glitch
- Reminder on ZIF Heatsink Clip Orientation (important for cooling/stability)
- Memorex $100 DVD ROM Drive
- More Wired4DVD/Pioneer 10X DVD ROM Feedback
- Pioneer DVD ROM Driver Tips
- Beige G3 w/Pioneer 10X IDE Drive Report
- TombRaider II Update Boon for Voodoo3 Owners
- Other Software Updates (Communicator, Fax STF Pro, Hash Animation Master 2000)
- Forum Topics in G4 Forum and 3Dfx Forums.
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? Check the CPU Upgrade Owner's Survey results and search for owner reports by Mac model and/or card brand. Readers post new entries daily and the database is updated several times a week. The current database has more than 2,800 reports and growing.
Note: Before sending tech support related questions please check the Answers to Common Questions, Troubleshooting page, Site Contents, CPU Card reviews/articles, SCSI reviews articles, Graphics card reviews, Tips/Misc, Message Boards and Help pages - in many cases the answers to your questions are there and they have far more detail than I can list in an email. For Apple G3 system info - see the G3-ZONE.
Please try the Men in Mac Help page as an alternative on requests for tech support to help me be able to spend more time on reviews and getting caught up in mail. Thanks.
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Answers!