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News Archive for: Friday March 2nd, 2007 Goto Current News Page
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| Mac Mini owner on Mac Pro 802.11n card swap, Tests w/Airport N base |
| (from a reader mail Thursday night - updated again appx Noon. Saturday with more info on single antenna connection, etc.)
"
Mike, I have now installed the card into my Mac Mini. (Intel Core Duo 1.66GHz.) I had no issues installing the card (Mac Pro Upgrade card). I have also upgraded my wife's PC with a Buffalo Wireless Nfiniti dual band card.
I next re-configured the Apple Airport Extreme N station to N Only at
5 GHz with broad bands on. The speed is amazing.
My Mac Mini across the house registers about 270 Mbits. Front Row is now seamless when streaming video from a G5
tower connected via ethernet to the Apple Airport Extreme.
There is no lag now when selecting movies or TV shows (located on the remote G5). The video selection is instant on.
Oddly enough though my wife's PC fluxuates from 216 to 168 Mbits, but if you move a foot or two it goes to 250 or 300 Mbits.
This may be due to interference from a wireless phone (at 5 GHz)? I also have Uniden 5GHz phones in the house.
(He later wrote)
If I configure at 2.4 GHz, the connection is slower, and with
compatible setting for b/g/n (not N only mode) I get 120 mbits on the Mac Mini.
The 5 GHz setting is definitely the fastest.
(One reader thought the Mini had Bluetooth+Wireless on 1 card
but they are separate)
My Mac mini had bluetooth and (separate) wireless. I have two
antennas, 1 for bluetooth and 1 for wireless.
I used 1 antenna. I attached the single antenna to the left plug
closest to the back of the computer. (I assume he means he connected the
antenna to the Mac Pro card's antenna connector on the left side/closest to the rear
of the Mini with the card installed.)
Yes. I connected the antenna to the left side. There are 2
connectors on the Mac pro wireless card (there were in fact also 2 on
the card I removed from the Intel Mini).
-Jeffrey M.
"
From Jeff's comments even with one 802.11 antenna connection he's still seeing a performance gain in pure-N mode. Another Mini owner that did the swap previously said he had added a 2nd external antenna but unfortunately as with most mails, didn't include any details on what addon/external antenna he used, etc. (as 802.11n cards normally do not have only 1.)
Despite the service bulletin on "possible damage" in 'unsupported Macs' like this (mentioned in Wednesday's news), so far no reader has reported any 'damage' from using the Mac Pro N card kit in a MacBook/Macbook Pro, iMac or Mini.
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| SubRosaSoft Announces DasBoot Version 1.0.2 |
Subrosasoft sent a note they've released DasBoot 1.0.2 (utility for creating a bootable Flash drive, iPod, etc. with diagnostic utils). They say v1.0.2 "includes new documentation, a FAQ, and filtering to make sure your not using an unsuitable boot disk along with some minor bug fixes." I've not tried v1.0.2 yet but I mentioned I had problems with DasBoot 1.0 (seemed to hang/never finish) when run from my 10.3.9 powerbook G4 and using a FW 20GB iPod as the target and a DW 3.0x disc. (The Feb. 9th news page has my notes on those Problems with DasBoot 1.0 utility and included some tips from readers that didn't help with my setup. (Never got an answer if v1.0 required Tiger and they had never tested with DW 3.x CDs they said.)
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| iEye Captain Price Cut and Development Note |
| (from the author's email)
"
iEye Captain Price Changes & Development Note
I am dropping the price of iEye Captain (toolbox for EyeTV) from $30 to $15, effective March 2nd. Infrared bundles are no longer available, but the ZephIR infrared device has also dropped in price by $15 to $49.95. Also, the latest version (1.0.6.3) resets the trial periods, so EyeTV users can give it another test drive.
As for development: I have made the tough decision that though I will continue to support and debug iEye Captain, I will be discontinuing development of new features. Recent changes in EyeTV are making it difficult to innovate the way that I used to, and because Elgato doesn't share their development schedule with me, I can spend months developing something that is obsolete the day after I introduce it.
iEye Captain's tool box, including rapid-fire screenshots, iCal, alias, and text exporting, infrared control, savable advanced searches, and other features will still be useful for quite some time, and most are unlikely to be added by Elgato anytime soon. And with the new $15 purchase price, it is more cost-effective than ever to add these features.
Thanks,
Graham Jones,
Developer.
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| DVD Studio Pro 4.1.2 Update |
(released yesterday - thanks Stewart)
DVD Studio Pro 4.1.2 "
What's New in this Version
DVD Studio Pro 4.1.2 provides important bug fixes and addresses
compatibility issues with DVD Studio Pro 4.1 HD DVD projects and Toshiba HD
DVD players.
DVD Studio Pro 4.1.2 also updates the Disc Description Protocol (DDP) 2.1
to DDP 3.0 and the Cutting Master Format (CMF) 1.0 to CMF 2.0, which is
required for HD DVD replication.
This update is recommended for all DVD Studio Pro 4.1 users.
(Requirements say Mac OS X 10.4.8, QuickTime 7.1.3)"
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