" Mike,
Just got off phone with Apple-I had called to cancel my Dual 2.5 order....The shipping date had changed from the mid-August date yesterday, then this morning changed to mid-September. I was p****ed off!
While I was on hold, had to log back in to get order number-status had changed to shipped. Upgraded to FEDEX shipping direct from factory for free. The Apple Store rep verified and gave me tracking number!!! Shipping from China.
-Jeff W. "

I later received more mails like this - where Dual 2.5GHz G5 orders shown as delayed on Friday were eventually said to be shipped.
I'm not fortunate enough to have one of these on order, but if anyone that does would like to do a review for posting here let me know. Thanks.

"What's new in this version:

• Performance improvements for Panther
• This release, when used with the latest ATTO Configuration Tool utility version (v2.61, or later), includes support for dynamic SCSI bus rescan, allowing users to add and remove devices from the bus without a system reboot.
  
  Requirements: Mac OS X 10.3 or higher "

" Now available is the MercuryZ500+ G4/450-500MHz ZIF with 1MB L2 2:1 Cache for PowerMac G3 Beige, G3 Blue & White, and G4 'Yikes' PCI models.
Also compatible with PowerLogix Zforce and XLR8 ZIF Carrier cards for older PCI Macs. Product is new, includes basic printed manual and jumper blocks (detailed color step by step manual available online) - 2 Year OWC Warranty applies. $135.00 on the Xlr8YourMac Specials Page, $137.95 normal price.
Best Regards,
Lawrence R. O'Connor
Other World Computing"

" I had two e-mails from Apple yesterday. One saying that there was a delay, the other saying they had changed the order to expedite shipping. Today it shipped

Z0ACKLL/A  2.5DPG5/512MB/250/SD/R9600XT/56K-USA        1         
2,800.96

The only problem is that the original price was 2789.00. I am checking with Apple on this because they said there was no change in price!
John
(I asked when he ordered - assuming it was a very early order)
No, June 29th, its shipping from China "

Here's a sample mail from a reader earlier today that reported his order slipped (but some are saying ETAs have changed more than once today):

" I just got an email (yesterday) from apple regarding my 2.5 g5 order. It's delayed till 8/20.
(I asked when he ordered and if it had any BTO options)
I ordered at 8:54AM on June 9th, Standard config.
-Rusty M."
(clip of store email follows)

" To Our Valued Apple Customer:
Thank you for ordering the new Dual 2.5GHz Power Mac G5!
The demand for this item has been incredible. We are shipping them as quickly as possible, but cannot meet the ship date we previously estimated for you. We now expect to ship your Power Mac on or before August 20th.

Please rest assured that we fulfill all orders in the order they are received. If we do not hear from you prior to shipment, we will assume the revised date is acceptable, and will ship your order. We will notify you if there are any changes to the revised ship date..."

If any readers that ordered a Dual G5 2.5GHz has their order actually ship soon, let me know. Thanks.
Shortly after posting this a reader sent a note that his June 15th order had slipped to an ETA of Sept. 20th:

" Forget sooner, I didn't even get an email, but the Apple Order Status page now shows a ship date of NOT August 20th, but September 20th. And this for a machine that was ordered June 15th.
3 months. Amazing.
--John "

I ordered within an hour of the first announcement of the G5s last year and waited about 3 months also for it to ship (after sometimes having the ETA change more than once in one day). I guess supplies of 970FX CPUs are the reason.
It's deja-vu all over again it seems on changing ETAs... so I'd check the online order status a few times a day. (It may have changed more than once in 24hrs; the same thing happened last year when the first Dual 2GHz models started shipping.)

"Basically, iTunes with AirTunes acts as a RTSP server, and the AirPort Express (APX) is a receiver. The APX announces itself via Rendezvous, and iTunes picks up on it and presents it in the "Remote Speakers" drop-down menu.

When you play audio to the APX, iTunes connects to the selected APX (TCP port 5000) and tells it via standard RTSP commands to set up a listener session from the IP address of the machine with iTunes. Once this is done, iTunes pushes the stream to the APX.

Here's what the conversation looks like:

itunes = my G5 running iTunes (ip address: 192.168.1.201)
apx = the Airport Express

=== itunes -> apx ===
ANNOUNCE rtsp://192.168.1.201/3173999677 RTSP/1.0
Content-Type: application/sdp
Content-Length: 573
User-Agent: iTunes/4.6 (Macintosh; N; PPC)
Client-Instance: D1A1E2CEA3099DCA
Apple-Challenge: wKo6Fg+62RI1U84Bmo8TYQ



=== apx -> itunes ===
RTSP/1.0 200 OK
Seq: 1
Apple-Response:  
U396etdxQD2zRULwxH0GnKbVep5G7pH3chTXjggtUS673mOjf8gUxCqKqVbq3+GPgg7/ 
UxJVTnUtf6e0Fnrl/LNzUfMb73zb/7pLoJ43l1UHULjkcI191qNNAhSvQdoZWc+maBg/ 
NHxkPxgr6uQoK1+2V/BYKWYEIhuMDzktK3/ 
TqlStu4KTCujYiO6kaAuE7h1Oj63SaqyQ7WK0L5DsdmsiaZR4f0/ 
BpJws2q9cqk39Kzbp1bjjaw72lzq5wL+CxuYTfWxhgKDsjvfBgG51JzGgi5LY7B0MrNw4hsf 
ZcnTJRFmfJ7aWyvLgDqPk3NdZwwxPM1rXl6oXPa4OeoPLzQ
Audio-Jack-Status: connected; type=digital

=== itunes -> apx ===
SETUP rtsp://192.168.1.201/3173999677 RTSP/1.0
Seq: 2
Transport: RTP/AVP/TCP;unicast;interleaved=0-1;mode=record
User-Agent: iTunes/4.6 (Macintosh; N; PPC)
Client-Instance: D1A1E2CEA3099DCA

=== apx -> itunes ===
RTSP/1.0 200 OK
Seq: 2
Session: 80CEC220
Transport:  
RTP/AVP/TCP;unicast;interleaved=0-1;mode=record;server_port=6000
Audio-Jack-Status: connected; type=digital

iTunes now stops the handshake on port 5000 of the APX and starts pushing the RTSP stream carrying Apple Lossless Audio Codec payload to port 6000/tcp of the APX.

Interesting, I now see why my APX was grayed out in iTunes when I first got it configured on my network - the APX reports the status of the audio jack in its RTSP response. Once I plugged the optical cable into my receiver, the status was changed in iTunes.

Also, in the SDP definition file, an RSA key is presented. Perhaps the audio payload is encrypted. This would explain the reports from some users regarding CPU usage on their Macs when using the APX. It also appears that iTunes and the APX verify each other via a hash of some sort. Perhaps this exists to prevent iTunes from talking to anything but an APX. I'll have to look into this more.

The RTSP protocol is detailed in RFC 2326:
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2326.html

The SDP protocol is detailed in RFC 2327:
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2327.html
/dale"

" Hello! I've been busy upgrading systems in the last weeks. And while I was at it, I realized that there`s no place on the internet where I find the dip-switch configuration sheet. (for an older Mac to VGA adapter) Although very common on the Mac world I was allowed to see, the user manual is not online, hard to read (very small) and easy to lose. Anyway, I called up my local Support Provider, the only one still standing tall, copied the sheet, and wrote some html. Here it is:
http://homepage.mac.com/ijunghaertchen/macibmadaptor.html
Maybe you would like to include that into your help files. Then it would be worth the effort - although I`m pretty sure that in a while, I'll need my own page for reference. again. And again :-)
Have a good day
Immo J. "

Combo DVD-CDR Drives:
• IDE Panasonic (matshita) CW-8123-B (24x16x24x + 8x DVD-ROM) in iBook 2000 (OS X 10.3) (said drive fixed at master, so HD had to be set to slave.)
• IDE Samsung SM-352B (52x24x52x + 16x DVD-ROM) in Beige G3 (OS X 10.3)
  (using Patchburn II for Panther iApps burn support)
  
  DVD+R/RW + DVD-R/RW Drives:
• IDE Liteon SOHW-812S in G4/AGP (OS X 10.3)
  (using Patchburn II for for Panther iApps burn support)
• IDE Pioneer DVR-107D in Dual G4 (OS X 10.3)
  (native burn support in 10.3.3 and later, FAQ's DVD section has OS 9.x burn support file
  Illustrated CD drive install guide here covers Beige G3, B&W G3 - G4 towers up to the Digital Audio Model)
  
  Hard Drives:
• IDE IBM/Hitachi 120GB in G4/AGP (OS X 10.3)
  (Illustrated guide to adding a 2nd HD here in B&W G3 rev2 and G4 towers up to the QuickSilver models.
  IDE articles page RAID section has an illustrated guide for adding 2 more drives in the side bays.)
• IDE Maxtor 40GB in iMac slot-loading (OS X)
  (FAQ's iMac section has links to drive install guides)

You can find full owner reports (latest shown first) by searching the database by drive/brand/interface/mac models (the latest reports are shown first in searches). For guides to installing CD/CDRW/DVD drives or Hard drives in many mac models, see the IDE Articles page. The Firewire articles page also has guides on case kits, installing drives, etc.
If you've added a IDE, SCSI, Firewire or USB hard drive, CDRW, tape drive, etc. make sure you add a report to the database. (If you post an updated entry - make sure you use the same name, etc. as you did before so I can find your past entry. Thanks.)
(Incomplete entries are deleted. Do not post questions in the database, it's for drive reports not questions on what drive to buy - for that try searching the database for reports from owners of your mac model on the drive type/brand/interface, etc. you're interested in.)

• XLR8 G4/350 (at 400MHz) in B&W G3 (rated 9)
  (long term report on overclocking)
  
  (Full reviews of G4 and G3 upgrades compared to stock CPUs, including real world apps/game tests, install info, etc. - see the CPU upgrades page. OC/CPU module articles are on the Systems page.)

(Warning - Overclocking may not be reliable and could lead to hardware failure or corrupted data.) You can find the full reports by searching the database selecting the indicated Mac model and upgrade card brand/type. If you've upgraded the CPU on your Mac, please post an entry in the database. Search the database for entries from most every upgradable Mac model *before* you buy. (Searchable by mac model/upgrade brand). For detailed reviews with performance tests and install tips, see the CPU Upgrades page.)