Speaking of Apple, their latest press release notes that the iBook is the #1 selling portable in the USA according to PC Data.

[There's been a lot of snow here locally which has caused some problems with connecting to my ISP. News may be light today due to this and the fact I'm having to clear more 'bandwidth' in the driveway :-]

A reader sent a note that he ordered one of the Smalldog/Powerlogix Macworld 'specials' but instead of the G3/500 standard card he received a Z-Force card and a G3 ZIF, which he can't get running properly in his 9600/350 he said. [Update - his problem stemmed from the fact the ZIF manual was for a Beige/B&W G3 which didn't list the higher ratio settings needed for running the cpu with a 50MHz bus speed setting in the 9600. The CPU was an IBM 500MHz and I've written to PL asking if there is a ZIF setting for 10x ratio, which would run the CPU at 500MHz (50MHz bus times 10x ratio = 500MHz CPU speed.] In some cases substitutions were made due to backorders on the standard cards according to Small Dog's response he included. This would normally be a more expensive bundle and a plus (upgradeable ZIF card plus ZIF), but of course he's not happy with the problems he's having (250MHz max speeds he says). I've asked him to double check switch settings, and verify the ZIF is a G3/500 model. His mail indicated Small Dog is also a bit frustrated with the backorders/substitutions. Hopefully they'll have more cards to fill backorders soon and I've asked PL for an update on the situation. If you got a substituted card I welcome your comments on how satisfied you are and how well it's working.

I inadvertently omitted the resolution of the Unreal tests in yesterday's PowerForce G4/350 review. I updated the performance graph and test later in the day to note the resolution was 640x480.

BitBoys 3D News: BitBoys (makers of the Glaze3D graphics chip) posted a press release they've established operations in the US. They also have a press release on their Xtreme Bandwidth Architecture^TM (XBA^TM) which utilizes Infineon Technologies AG's leading embedded memory technology (eDRAM) with 9 MB of extremely high speed memory integrated with the graphics engine. The XBA^TM technology has been created as part of company's Glaze3D project. In the past they have said they were considering support for the Mac but have yet to ship any retail models, even for the PC. The Glaze 3D specs are impressive..

Another Slower Win OS? Just as Windows 98 is generally slower than Win 95 (party due to the FAT32 disk format), the trend continues it seems as according this article at the register, MS fudged the results of tests between Windows 2000 and NT 4.

Maxtor 40GB IDE Drive Feedback: This reader reports all OK with the large Maxtor drive in a Beige G3/300 (rev 3):

"Hey Mike,
I just installed my new Maxtor 40.9 GB Ultra ATA hard disk and it works like a charm! I formatted it in 4 partitions, 3 of 3 GB on which I will install several flavors of the MacOS and one 30 GB partition for other data. The speed is obviously not optimal as I don't have an UltraATA connection on my motherboard, but who cares? Is the real world speed difference between IDE/33 and IDE/66 very big? Anyway, I'll be upgrading to a G4 soon anyhow, so I won't be slowed down for too long.

I formatted it using Drive Setup and the effective size of the disk is 39080 MB, just over 38 GB, but even though it's not the full capacity listed "on the box" I'm quite, quite satisfied ;) though the combination of a DSL line + Macster may prove to be deadly :)
Arthur Langereis
Njinn Software "

The drive formatted size issue is usually due to the 1,000 (decimal) vs 1024 (binary) numbering system. Rather than repeat all the info and links, see the FAQ's HD/SCSI/IDE Controller topic area for more info on this. Since no single IDE drive sustains more than 23MB/sec or so that I've seen, the ATA/33 interface will only limit potential peak rates. Many ATA/66 drives can peak at over 50MB/sec however. In normal use, I doubt you'd notice the difference in the two interfaces. As with most interfaces, the drive itself is usually the limiter. (There are exceptions like USB and the 5MB/sec SCSI external ports on many older Macs however.) Also remember to format large volumes as HFS+ (MacOS Extended) to avoid wasting a huge amount of disk space. (OS 8.1 and later supports HFS+)

Latest ACard ATA/66 News: As has been reported here previously, the initial firmware for the ATA/66 card has some issues in certain configurations (many based on feedback). According to this reader mail from Mike Barbier, Blackfire has temporarily stopped taking orders for the card until the issues are resolved.

"...However, as more & more cards are shipping out to clients, we are starting to receive a small number of reports of problems with the cards and various combinations of MacOS, Mac models & Hard Disk Drive Brands (like the G4/350 with MacOS9 & Western Digital Hard Disk Drives).

Until we have clarified/resolved these issues with the card's manufacturer (ACARD in Taiwan), we won't be processing any more orders.

Our apologies for this delay - hopefully it won't be too long ... We'll keep you updated.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Regards ...
Peter KORTGE - Principal
Black*Fire Technology "

I hope these issues are resolved soon. Hopefully the firmware update flasher will eventually be available in Mac format as well. A reader noted they recently offered the Acard ATA/66 for US $100 + $25 shipping on direct orders. I urge readers to verify that their systems/drives and disk driver is compatible before buying however. I'd personally wait for the updated firmware to see if that resolves the reported problems.

TurboMax Support Feedback: A reader and TurboMax IDE card owner replied to the comments from Promax regarding pricing/support costs in Saturday's news:

"Dear Accelerate Your Macintosh,
I read with interest your letter from Charles McConathy of ProMax. I am currently in the process of returning a TurboMax card to CDW and a non-mountable Maxtor 27gb drive to Office Depot. (My G3/233 froze re-installing drivers. I had gone through after several weeks of serious write errors; 'invalid siblings, -199, etc. Thus, the disastrous reinstall. ) So, at some future point I'll start over.

However, ProMax support refused to support the card I bought from CDW. It was a nice enough refusal and the tech person did suggest the errors may have been due to noise infiltrating the connector cable, but as far as assisting me in isolating the problem, identifying the ROM version, or providing troubleshooting help, the response was minimal and not helpful.

So if ProMax is seeing an increase in support calls from those of us who buy from resellers, it's not due to orders from CDW. All-in-all, ProMax's support was non-support in my case, and so I'm not a happy Mac puppy. Great site, check it at least once a day!) Thanks.
Stephen Calhoun"

I've had no problems with my Turbomax IDE card (reviewed here last spring) other than using CDRom drives (which are not officially supported). There were some mixed reports of OS 9 problems in the past news however.

iMac DV Questions: Recently several readers have asked for info on the new iMac DV video performance, etc. - see my review of the iMac DV SE for tests of application performance, game performance, upgrades, compatibility and more. The video chip and video ram are not upgradeable, but it's a lot better than the previous iMac as far as graphics chip performance. The FAQ's iMac and iBook topic area has a link to a guide on upgrading the hard drive for those owners needing a larger drive.

More B&W G3 Rev 1 Slave Drive Feedback: A reader notes the Maxtor 27GB drive works in his rev 1 B&W G3 with the stock Quantum drive only if the Maxtor is the slave:

"Just wanted to pass on my experience adding a second drive to my rev.1 B&W G3. I used the Maxtor 27.2 Diamond Max Plus drive and my original 6 GB drive was a Quantum Fireball EX. Setting up the Maxtor as master and the Quantum as slave didn't work. Occasionally the Quantum would mount but not often (very strange). Swapped the Quantum to master and Maxtor to slave and now everything works fine. I also found that the ribbon cable that came with the new drive works fine hooked up backwards. The slave must be on the center connector but otherwise the two ends are interchangeable.
Mike"

[Note: in case anyone missed it in the past, I have never recommended IBM or WD drives for use with rev 1 B&W G3s due to corruption issues I saw with WD Expert drives and reports from readers on IBM drives in rev 1 systems. There is no guarantee that any drive will work as a slave with a rev 1 B&W G3. Many Maxtor's have (as noted here by reader reports), but see the article and FAQ topics for more info.] Although the rev 1 B&W G3 didn't officially support slaves, as noted in my Illustrated B&W G3 Rev 1 Slave Drive Upgrade article a Maxtor drive worked for mine for me. Remember to test any drive you use by mounting an Apple .smi file to from the new drive to check for data errors. (Many of Apple's software updates are .smi file extension versions that are self-mounting and perform a checksum test. Use the largest file you can and the OS 8.5.1 update is a good test as it's about 30MB in size.) The rev 2 B&W G3s have a revised IDE chip to address this issue. See last summer's Rev 2 B&W G3 page for an illustrated article on the other rev 2 improvements.

$139 Sony 4X SCSI CDR: Sau-Chun Lam wrote that Computer Geeks has the Sony Spressa 4X SCSI CDR (not RW) drive with SCSI card (PC) for $139. He later said the drive is a caddy model with 2MB buffer and is supported by Toast. It's the lowest priced 4X SCSI CDR I've seen. The best deal I've seen on 8X SCSI CDRs (Plextor mechanism) was the Best Buy sale I mentioned some weeks back (Imation 8X20 kit) that was $199.95 and included Mac and PC software as well as a SCSI Card (PC 2930 OEM). I suspect these are sold out now however.

Bias Peak Software Update Adds Altivec Support: Nick Gold writes that another audio software program now has G4/Altivec support.:

"Hiya Mike
Just wanted to let you know (maybe you want to pass this along to the guy who does the audio column as well) that BIAS (Berkely Integrated Audio Systems) has released an update to their popular product Peak, the audio waveform editor. The new version is 2.1, and adds Altivec support (YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!), ASIO support, and more. It's a free download for any current Peak 2.0x owner.

Their site (www.bias-inc.com) is veeeerrrry slow, however -- I haven't even been able to download the update yet! heheheh This must be some sort of spiritual/mental test... ;) -Nick Gold, Baltimore "

CarrierZIF 1.0 and G4 Upgrades: Several readers wrote to ask if the current CarrierZIF cards are G4 CPU compatible. I was pretty sure they were but verified this with XLR8. The CarrierZIF 2.0 will add dual G4 compatibility and more, but owners of current CarrierZIFs can use existing G4 ZIF upgrades in the cards according to XLR8. For more info on using OEM or non-XLR8 ZIF modules in a base CarrierZIF card, see my Illustrated CarrierZIF Setup Guide.

Notes on OWC G3/450s: Other World Computing sent word they are now selling Motorola (aluminum) G3/450 CPUs for $239. There were some issues seen with the copper IBM G3/450's in some Beige G3s (noted here in the news and in my Rate Your CPU Upgrade database). OWC say the Motorola G4/450's should be more compatible with those machines. I encourage owners of the new 450's to enter their results *after* using the upgrade for at least a week or so. Also read my past review of the OWC Mercury 350/400MHz ZIFs for links to installation pages with motherboard jumper settings and other info.

Ratings Databases Updated: The Rate Your CPU Upgrade, Mac Game Reviews, and Mac Game/Video Card Performance searchable databases were updated again with new reader submissions.

The reader that reported the problem with 3rd party CDrom extensions under OS 9 on a PB 2400 w/G3 upgrade yesterday answered my question as to why he wasn't using Apple's CD extension:

"Sorry, I should have mentioned that I am using an external nonApple CD drive - a Yamaha 6416 CD-RW.

I'm no longer so sure the problem is with the NuPowr acclerator. It seems that the system is quite stable as long as I turn off the Yamaha (even if I leave on an older NEC 4x). This seems to suggest that the problem is either with the drive itself; or as ClubMac assures me, with OS 9. "

I reminded him to make sure the external drive was set to supply terminator power to the SCSI bus, since the Powerbook doesn't supply it. I also suggested he try www.intechusa.com's CDtools extension which might be more compatible with OS 9 and the drive.

Patrick O'Reilly sent a note that when Toy Story 2 won a Golden Globe award that Steve Jobs was mentioned in the acceptance speech.

PC World has a story saying a Patent claim threatens wireless protocol as GeoWorks wants vendors to pay up for wireless products and services.

For a blast from the past see what was on the front page news here one year ago.

Monday's News Summary

• Rush Limbaugh's 500MHz G4?
• Toast 4.1 Update Soon
• Video Capture Tip
• Mexico Retailer Buying CompUSA?
• PowerForce G4/350 CPU Upgrade Review
• Game News page updated (game doctor+)
• 2 Rainbow Six Mods Reviewed
• Networkable Postscript Laser/Copiers (reader recommendations)
• TrueX 72X IDE CDROM Drive Report
• PB 2400/G3 Upgrades and OS 9
• MP3 Encoders Compared
• XLR8 Support Message Board
• Rate Your CPU Upgrade, Mac Game Reviews, and Mac Game/Video Card Performance searchable databases updated
• Samsung profits up 90% (wise investment by Apple)
• Forum Topics in G4 Forum and 3Dfx Forums.

Saturday's News Summary

• Review of N64 Emulators
• Game News page updated
• Promax Responds On TurboMax Pricing/ACard ATA66 Cards
• List of products to be reviewed
• Audio Tip for VR128 Owners Running OS 8.1
• QT 4.1 Streaming Audio Problem
• Sawtooth G4 Rev 1 vs Rev 2 Differences
• G4Strip Control Strip Module
• Reader Request: Networkable Printer/Copier
• GeForce Drivers - Just Rumor?
• Ratings Databases Updated
• Apple investment in Samsung pays off - profits up 90%
• Rate Your CPU Upgrade, Mac Game Reviews, and Mac Game/Video Card Performance searchable databases updated
• Forum Topics in G4 Forum and 3Dfx Forums.

Friday's News Summary

• Bottom Line's latest weekly specials
• CDW's sale on B&W G3/450 systems/Apple LCD bundle
• Last Word on VPC USB Printing
• Rage128 Pro Cooling Fan Comments
• Rumors of nVidia Mac GeForce Drivers
• Orange Micro Firewire/USB Card Tip
• More Sound Manager Update Game Problems
• iMac DV/OS 9 Audio Update 1.2 Feedback
• VPC 3.0/OS 8.6 USB Printing
• Newer Tech GaugePro Released
• Orb Tools 1.3
• Rate Your CPU Upgrade, Mac Game Reviews, and Mac Game/Video Card Performance searchable databases updated
• Forum Topics in G4 Forum and 3Dfx Forums.

Thursday's News Summary

• ATA/66 IDE Raid Performance
• Western-Digital exiting high-end Hard Drive business
• Reader Request: VPC 3.0 USB Printer Support with OS 8.6?
• QT 4.1/OS 9 Audio Update 1.2 DVD Audio Sync Feedback
• Quicktime 4.1 Sound Manager Causing Game Problems:
• Audio Update 1.2 Download Link
• Notes on my 9600/350 G4 Upgrade Issues and Fix
• Aqua Kaleidoscope Theme
• GameSprockets 1.7.3 Available
• Analog Video to Firewire Tip
• More Analog Video/Firewire Converter Feedback
• WiredInc Firewire Products
• Odd DVD Audio Sync Fix Tip
• More on G4 vs 1GHz Althon RC5 Benchmarks
• Another Competitor for Intel? (Fast, 1 watt CPU design)
• Today's 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.

-Freq Asked Questions

Apple Related:
QT 4.1
Sprockets 1.7.3
iTools 1.01
Firewire 2.2.2
OT Tuner
iMac DVD ROM
SW DVD 2.0
OS 9 Audio Update
OpenGL 1.1.2
USB Card Support 1.3.5
Plaintalk Enabler
[For B&W/iMac]

Storage Related:
ORB Tools 1.3
Grappler Updates
3940/3944 SCSI
2940U2B v1.2 Firmware
2940U2W v1.1
MagicScan G3
Initio SCSI
ATTO SCSI
Formac PowerRaid

G3 CPU Cards:
XLR8 Cache Cntl 1.43
Sonnet Cresendo v1.4
PPC Checker
PowerLogix SW
MAXpowr G3

Misc/General:
Canvas7 G4 Tool
Ram Dblr 9
Office 98/Y2K
IE 4.5/OE 5.01 Y2K
Prof.3 OpenGL
ATI Univ 4.2 Update
Glidehack v1.2
Wired4DVD
Quicken 2000R2
TT Pro 2.5.2
Outlook Express 5
USB Overdrive
Softraid v2.21
Rage128/Older Macs Patch
Font Mgr Update
GameSprockets
Retrospect Drvrs
Office98 GUID Patch
NAV 5.03
NAV Defs
Logitech MouseWare USB

Games Related:
KoreaGL Beta
Myth II/Voodoo3 Upd
POD Racer/3Dfx Patch
Quake3 Demo
Unreal Tourn. RAVE
MesaQuake2
Voodoo3 drvrs
Voodoo2 drvrs
MesaGL 3dfx drvrs
Joyport Update
(InputSprocket fix)
MacMame(emulator)
Descent 3Dfx