" Scheduled Web Posting Date

Monday, October 22
Stylus C40
Stylus C60
Stylus C80
Stylus Photo 820
Stylus Photo 785EPX

Monday, October 29
Stylus Photo 780
Stylus Photo 890
Stylus Photo 1280
Stylus COLOR 980

Monday, November 5
Stylus Photo 870
Stylus Photo 875DC
Stylus Photo 1270
Stylus Photo 2000P
Stylus COLOR 900

"We will be announcing in a few weeks the release dates for drivers for the EPSON Stylus Color 740, 760, 860, 777 and 880, as well as our Perfection scanners and professional graphics printers that will be supported. We regret any inconvenience you may have experienced during this time. But we believe that by taking time to wait for the more fully featured operating system and subsequently taking time to properly develop and test each driver to our exacting standards, our printers will continue to provide the best image quality with OS X, as they do with other operating systems. "

The comments on the 740 confuse me a bit - the 740 (USB) model works in OS X (even before 10.1) - it's the only Epson printer I have that works in OS X to date. Not sure about the other models in that sentence, but a reader said in the forums the 880 model was also currently supported by OS X. Perhaps they mean improved drivers with more features?
As an owner of an Epson Photo 870, I'm one of the many readers with various unsupported Epson printers chomping at the bit for OS X drivers.

" Hi again Mike,
I have the Dazzle Hollywood DV Bridge and it never did work under OS X. Until now anyway.

The system is my Powerbook 333 Bronze keyboard with a Newer firewire 2 go pcmcia card. Until I just tried this a few minutes ago, OS X 10.04 wouldn't even recognize the firewire card. Now after upgrading to 10.1, it sees the card and captures video into iMovie through the DV bridge pretty good. I need to fool around with the compression settings (a little grainy).

Good news for people with firewire cardbus's, and the Hollywood Bridge.
-Kelly"

The Firewire2Go cards are pretty cheap now at some sources. OWC has them for $29.97 on the site specials page.

1. backup your data often and
2. make sure you have a Discwarrior CD.

Sometimes I forget to do #1 so having #2 handy can be a lifesaver. Diskwarrior is a must have utility for every Mac owner in my opinion, and countless readers have noted the same thing.
Diskwarrior has not only saved my desktop/portable Macs data several times, it's also done so for my servers. I had a server crash last year and even though the disk would mount, any attempt to copy database files, etc. from the disk resulted in a read error (I prefer to make a copy of important data files before running any repair utility if possible). However Diskwarrior repaired the disk without one byte of lost data. It paid for itself 10 times over with that recovery alone.
If you're not familiar with Diskwarrior, visit Alsoft's product page. I'm told version 2.1 can repair OS X disks also and the included PlusOptimizer v1.3 can optimize OS X disks (in both cases booted from another volume or from the CD).
[Note: A reader noted he had a major problem with OS X 10.1 after using DiskWarrior 2.1 on the disk. He did not save the disk report so Alsoft could not offer any support on the problem. For now I'd suggest caution on using any 3rd party disk utility on OS X 10.1 volumes.] (I've not personally used PlusOptimize or Diskwarrior on OS X disks because my DW CD has an older versions, but I have used the latest Norton SpeedDisk to optimize OS X volumes on 3 Macs as noted in this previous article.)

" I see Formac have a new 17.4" TFT LCD Flat-Panel Display 1280 x 1024 resolution. 2 options available

• ADC for Power Macintosh G4 and Cube
• DVI / VGA for other Macs and PCs

www.formac.co.uk/html/sets/1740_set.htm
It does not show up in US website ??
and cannot see any pricing.
James"

I've written Formac to ask for more details and pricing.

I've used PC formatted IDE drives in firewire cases for over a year without problems (in OS 9 - requires File Exchange control panel to be enabled). They won't mount in OS X 10.1 in my tests however. If you have a Mac IDE PCI card (and not a Firewire case), this is one option to consider if you need access to data files on a PC IDE hard drive.

"* PowerBook G3 1998 and 333MHz version of PowerBook G3 1999 require the separate DVD Decoder PC Card (expected to be available in mid-October) to decode DVD video."

Kelly promised to report back on the card when it arrives. MCE told me today they have the Decoder cards in stock and they started shipping yesterday.

"I've been reading about the different Firewire problems with OS 10.1 and thought I'd chime in with my own. I use a Director's Cut DV converter (from PowerR) and iMovie doesn't seem to see it under OS 10.1. I have e-mailed PowerR about it and will email Apple also.
Otherwise OS 10.1 is great.
Shane"

If any other readers have problems in 10.1 with Firewire devices, let me know the details. (I'm especially interested in owner reports on the Dazzle DV bridge.)

"Not really a comparison to OS9 sleep times, since I never really worried about them, but just as a test last night I unplugged the AC adapter from my 1999 Bronze keyboard (Lombard) and put it to sleep. Six hours later, I woke it up and the battery monitor estimated that I had 83% remaining. With 10.0 - 10.0.4, an overnight sleep would have probably drained the whole battery.

Gotta say, I'm impressed with that number, especially since my battery's starting to get old and I can't even get two hours of it while watching a DVD in OS9. BTW, here's my config: 192 MB RAM, 10 GB IBM Travelstar, Newer Firewire-2-Go PC card.
Eric Lehto"

Another reader wrote:

" One data point. I'm running 10.1 on a Wallstreet with 192 MB of RAM and 2 batteries. I left it sleeping overnight and came back to find 1 battery completely drained. (The system itself reported 44% charged in the menu bar.)

This is much improved from 10.0.0; I recall that both batteries would be drained overnight. But under 9.x, there would be barely any drain at all.
-- Larry R."

That still seems to be a very high drain rate for sleep.

Combo DVD/CDRW Reports:
• IDE Toshbia R1102 (8x8+DVD) in G4/AGP 2001
  (See my OS X 10.1 DVD player, CDRW burning, etc. article for my experiences with this drive)
• IDE Toshiba SD-R1002 (4x4 + DVD) in B&W G3
  
  IDE CDRW Reports:
• Sony CRX1611-82U 16/10/40 in Beige G3
• Sony CRX160 in G4 no AGP (yikes)
  (noted problems)
• TDK 24/10/40 in Beige G3
• Yamaha 2100 16/10/40 in 85/8600 w/IDE PCI Card
  
  Firewire CDRW Reports:
• Acer 8x in ADS Pyro case used w/G4/AGP
  (noted that it doesn't work in OS X 10.1)
• Que 24/10/40 in ADS Pyro case used w/G4/AGP
  (Noted authoring support 1.1.3 update supports the drive)
• TDK 24/10/40 in ADS Pyro case used w/G4 AGP
  
  USB CDRW Drive Reports:
• Pacific Digital U-30098 used w/iMac
  (no itunes/discburner support)
  
  DVD ROM Drive Reports:
• Cyberdrive DM126D 12x/40x in G4/AGP
  (filed under "other brands")
  
  Firewire Hard Drive Reports: (See my prev. OS X/FW Drive tests article for more info on the issue with 10.1 and some FW drives)
• Que 60GB used w/Beige G3
  (not running OS X to test for issues)
  
  IDE Hard Drive Reports:
• IBM 75GXP 60GB in G4/AGP - noted failure after 3 months.
  (used the illustrated install guide here)
• IBM 60GXP 40GB in Beige G3
• IBM Travelstar 10GB (OEM) in PB G3 2000
• Fujitsu MPG3409AH-E 40GB in Dual G4
• Toshiba 1.3GB in PowerBook 3400
• Western Digital 40GB in 9500 w/IDE to SCSI adapter
• Western Digital 20GB in 85/8600 w/IDE PCI Card

You can find full owner reports 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.]

• MetaBox G4/500 in Beige G3 (rated 2)
  (noted cache failed after several months of overclocking)
• Sonnet G4/500 in Beige G3 (rated 10)
• Sonnet G3/400 in 8100/80 (rated 10)
• XLR8 CarrierZIF MPe w/G3/400 ZIF in 9600/300 (rated 10)
• Apple G4/400 AGP OC report

(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.)

• 1 year ago today
• 2 years ago today
• 3 years ago today

Software Updates:
• Iomega QuikSync 3.1
• MOTU 2.33
  
  OS X Software:
• ArchiCAD 7.0v1

Mac/PowerPC Related News:
(Note: Rehashing of press releases, repeated news, etc. not listed)

• Apple says stores helping win back PC users (yahoo)
• Apple Sued by Pension Fund Over Disclosures on G4 Cube and IMac (bloomberg)
• The wait is over: OS X 10.1 easily lives up to its promise (chronicle)
• Microsoft Starting to Push New Office for Apple (yahoo)
• Tech giants push MPEG-4 standard (cnet)
• Apple pulls plug on MacApp (macuser)
• Apple Previews Sleek Store In Valley (interactiveweek)
• Zayante, Leaders in IEEE1394 Hardware and Software, Offers New Comprehensive Training Course in 1394b Technology, Nov. 14-15 (businesswire)

Gaming:
• Myst III Exile 1.22 (ubisoft)
• Aspyr, Omni clarify Cocoa game development efforts (maccentral)

Misc. Hardware Related:
• Company Shows Off Shrinking Screens (pcworld)