"Good news, at least for me and probably a few other 450 purchasers. I just got through to Apple, and the person who checked my order said that since my 450 had already entered the final stages of construction before today's changes, it will ship to me and I'll pay the original price. You might want to pass this on to your readers, since I'm sure that others will be in the same situation. They should definitely call the Apple store to be sure of their order status.
-Ben "

Apple Canceling G4/450 Orders? Bill Buchanan wrote with a copy of his cancellation email on a backordered 450 system (see below for 500MHz order cancellations).

"This order (for a 450!!) was actually placed the first week g4s were available. on 10/13 I just modified the video card "

I felt bad over the 500, but Apple really should think again about cancelling backorders on 450 systems. First the Trojan Horse ROM check bad PR and now this. I can't believe they are treating customers with existing 450 orders this way. It reeks of greed and complete disregard for loyal customers. Never have I heard of a company increasing prices on existing backorders, which is basically what they are doing by cancelling 450MHz G4 orders (since new orders have the higher pricing). If a phone call to Apple does not solve the problem, I suggest those that had G4/450 orders cancelled file a complaint with the BBB Online.

Update: Many readers said that these cancellations may not be legal, as you have a contract with Apple. Especially on orders of G4/450s - which is a product they still sell. This is like forcing a retroactive price increase and then putting you at the back of the waiting list again. George Cole wrote that Apple also cancelled an order after they had charged a credit card on Oct. 4th for a G4/450.

"Check this out Mike! Apple "charged our credit card" on Oct. 4th and said our 450/1MB Sawtooth would be shipping on 10/12. Then we get this eMail [he sent the cancellation email notice] today! "

Another reader is on the phone with Apple now over his G4/450 order and is to let me know what the outcome is. This is going to get ugly and I hope Apple thinks this PR disaster is worth the added profits from the price increase they might gain from backordered 450 buyers reordering 450 systems. Considering the big picture - this is an insane move in my opinion. How can they cancel backorders and raise prices for a model they still sell? I've gotten dozens of reader mails from customers that are furious over this. I don't blame them.

Apple Cancels G4/500 Orders/Raises Prices: I received an email just now that Apple has cancelled my G4/500 order due to processor availability:

"To Our Valued Apple Customer:

We appreciate your recent order for an Apple G4 computer and want to take this opportunity to update you on Apple's G4 product line changes. As you may know, Apple today announced that it has reconfigured the processor speeds in its Power Mac G4 line to better match chip availability. You can review the full press release at at http://www.apple.com.

The changes being announced today mean that we are unable to fulfill your outstanding G4 order as originally configured and priced. As a result, we are obligated to cancel the G4 products on your order. Only the G4 products are affected and have been canceled from your order; the remaining products will ship when available. We regret the inconvenience this change will cause.

We do want to make you aware that the new options and configurations are immediately available for reorder. We invite you to visit our web site at www.apple.com/store to review the new offerings to see if one of them will suit your needs. You can place a new order directly at the online Apple Store, or call our Sales Team at 1-800-MYAPPLE for assistance in choosing the best machine for you. "

To add insult to injury - Apple apparently has raised prices on the line. A 400MHz G4 Sawtooth now costs as much as the 450 did when I ordered and there is no 500MHz option. What a slap in the face for those of us that ordered 500Mhz models and waited over a month only to have this happen. Not even an offer to honor their old 450 G4 prices which we could have chosen instead of the 500. I'm very disappointed.

I was lucky enough to buy a G4/450 via phone from Capitol Mac in Richmond at the old list price and will be picking it up tomorrow (thanks to Mark at Capitol Mac).

Apple also said that IBM will manufacture G4 processors for Apple products in the first half of 2000 (unknown if these G4s will include Altivec).

PowerLogix Z-Force Sneak Peek: Click on the thumbnail at the right to a larger pix of Powerlogix's long-awaited ZIF socket card - the Z-Force. Powerlogix indicates the card is soon to go into production.

ValueAmerica/Visa Special Offer: 'Z' sent a note on a special offer of $100 off on any order over $200 at ValueAmerica for Visa card holders that sign up now.

"http://www.valueamerica.com/links/vrpr9199/promo_register.asp
if you have a visa card you get $100 off. I'm ordering a maxtor diamond max + 20GB HD, normally around $200, for $108 shipped..
must enter and order at once through this URL"

According to their FAQ, membership is currently free (as of this date at least).

Casady & Greene sent word that Conflict Catcher(TM) 8.0.6, an update to their award winning utility is compatible with Mac OS 9 and is available as a free download for owners of version 8. See http://www.casadyg.com.

To those that have written and not gotten a response, it's not possible for me to answer all my mail (I wish it was). If you can't find the info here in the FAQ or topics links (above and in the sidebar), try sending it again in a few days. Even spending 4-6 hours a day in email alone I can't keep up. Please understand I'm trying my best, but it is not possible for one person to run this site and answer every mail for tech support problems.
Remember to make sure you contact the mfr or dealer of the product first for help, they often can provide assistance or tips that can solve the problem. If you still can't get an answer, write me or the Men in Mac with your tech support problem (please check the Troubleshooting and Frequently Asked Questions [440+ answers to dozens of topics - well organized by subject] and 2400+ Owner CPU Upgrade reports searchable database areas of this site first however).

Several readers sent thanks for the notes here on the PowerComputing riser card (noted again in yesterday's news) unseating issue, saying it solved their problems. One reader noted that the riser card became unseated after shipping as well:

"Mike,
Your site is great- and saved me $$$ on a motherboard thanks to your posting info on PCP DOA's after CPU upgrade- although my problems were related to handling during shipping rather than a daughter card installation.

I recently shipped my PCP 210 across country using a commercial van line. The machine went in its original packing so I was surprised to get no startup chime after arrival. I proceeded with all of the usual fixes (PRAM zap, CUDA reset, checked battery etc...) but no success. Having read about motherboard/riser card seating problems at your site, I completely disassembled the chassis, cleaned all of the contacts for all of the cards and carefully reseated everything, tightening the motherboard down last to ensure a square fit with the riser card. After this the machine booted without difficulty. I don't think I would have checked the riser card seating at all if not for your site- Thanks!!!
Sean Plunkett "

Lightwave OpenGL and 3Dfx Glide: In response to my review of the GameRocket (3dfx banshee) working in LW 5.6 Opengl preview mode, a reader from Germany wrote with some interesting info:

"Hi Mike,
I have some news for you too...
We found something in Conix Open-GL 1.5 supplied with Lightwave Update 5.6D. When you just start the Updater of Lightwave it normaly installes OPEN GL 1.5. No Acceleration for Video-Cards using the GLIDE API. Now Open your System-Extensions Folder (in German SYSTEMERWEITERUNGEN), open the Conix Open GL 1.5 Folder an double-click on "Conix_OpenGL_Runtime_1.5"

Something strange happens.... An Installer starts and put a File called "GLDriverGlide" into the ConixOpenGL 1.5 Folder.
You can think about the Rest (Works with VT MP 850)
[VT MP850 card is the same basic card as the Ixmicro Game Rocket-Mike]
Greeting from Germany
Stephen Obermeier"

iMovie Info: Apple's recent TIL Updates (always linked at the bottom of the sidebar here) has several iMovie releated docs in the last several days. Included is one important article on importing non-DV movies. You have to convert them to DV streams first, which requires QT Pro. Apple also has a page of Free Stuff for iMovie users including backgrounds, sound effects and looping music.

MS Office/Font Manager Conflict Tips: Catching up with past mail I saw several reader emails that noted they had fixed the Word98 paste crash by reinstalling the Office 98 updates after applying the Font Manager Update. Some never reported a problem, but others said reinstalling Office or the Updates solved their problems. One reader provided a more detailed comment on the reason for the crashes:

" We had a similar problem. The culprit turned out to be an old version of the Microsoft component library (v 2.22) that somehow got installed over v 2.24. Restoring v 2.24 cured the problem. It was very frustrating, because Word would repeatedly crash as soon as I tried to paste anything. Took several hours to track down, while I was working on an important deadline, and lost a page of important text. The ultimate source of the problem was probably a brain-dead installer that overwrote Microsoft Component library with an older version. We never figured out which program was responsible, but we can make an educated guess about what company produced it! (painful grin).
Phillip C. Saunders
Director, East Asia Nonproliferation Project "

Rage128 Pro/Rage Fury Maxx: I also found the following mail from ATI while digging through my mail backlog. This was sent last Friday from ATI's Deanna Perkins:

"Hi Mike,
ATI's RAGE 128 PRO based products, including RAGE Fury MAXX, require either AGP or PCI 66. Due to this market restriction we are still evaluating the appropriate business case for Mac retail products with RAGE 128 PRO.
Regards,
Deanna "

This limitation means that only B&W G3s and Apple G4 systems would be able to run the cards.

OS X/CDROM Note: This has been noted here before, but Wayne Chang sent a reminder that OS X will not install on a non-Apple CDROM drive. He asked if there were any workarounds but I don't know of any. If any reader does, please contact me.

Virtual PC 3.0/Red Hat Linux 6.1: Charlie Ruggiero wrote that Connectix's VPC 3.0 works great with (PC) Redhat Linux:

"Hey I installed Linux Redhat 6.1 last night under VPC 3.0 to see if the shared networking works... and it does. I couldn't believe it. I didn't have to alter any settings at all. I just set Linux to use DHCP and I was able to surf the web under KDE in netscape with no problems. Note you cannot use the server functions under Linux when using the shared networking feature of VPC 3.0.
--Charlie Ruggiero "

Linux is really making inroads into the consumer market - even our local Sam's Club now sells Red Hat and Corel's Linux Word Perfect Suite (under $40).

Silver PB G3 How-To: For those readers that wanted to know how to apply the silver treatment to their PB G3s shown on Alec Syme's PB in Monday's News, he sent the URL to the page that shows how to apply the silver treatment.

iBook/iMac DV Feedback: A long but interesting reader mail on these two new Macs:

"I also visited the CompUSA here at Culver City, CA after the 800 number said that they may have 3 iBooks for sale, and that today was the last day for the free airport card offer. Once again I pledged never to return, as customer support was abismal...

There was a display iMAC DV SE, which blew me away, and a display iBook, which paled in comparison. Sure, they are for different purposes, but the DV SE is such a great package... They had one strawberry DV in a box. There were no iBook's to be purchased, and no one to talk about them. There were more poeple looking at Macs than at all the other computers, but once again, CompUSA has left them in the dark.

The DV SE: One concern is the hot top. The handle is very hot, so no unplugging and then immediately moving this baby. But the lack of fan was really cool, and the monitor wasn't hot itself. Tried iMovie and was very impressed with the speed. Played bugdom, and was very impressed with graphics performance for an all in one. Wow. This is a great machine, like the only truelly great all in one before it, the old SE/30, it too will be useful YEARS from now for many people. This is a computer that a family or school could buy, and assuming no major breakdowns, NEVER stop using! (assuming it doesn't get so hot it burns the little kiddies)

iBook: It's big, which makes it ideal for laptop use. Why? Most laptops are too small to rest on legs without forcing you to keep them closed tightly. But it was like a caged animal in CompUSA's silly black harnesses. This one is so wide, its too big to fit properly, the screen was jammed half shut, the cd drive was forced open by the cage, and the nice rubber was getting ripped up by the metal edges. But the keyboard is nice, and the wrist rest is HUGE. I wedged my fingers around where they would fit, and felt little if any heat. Finally, a completely comfortable laptop.

The screen is very bright, but I am not sure about the performance. Bugdom was jumpy, even in Rage II mode, and the disk drive seemed sluggish. It could just be the 32MB of memory. [I suspect so - as the OS uses about 1/2 that RAM. -Mike] Apple should have made 64MB standard, no doubt about it. That and FireWire would make it a slam dunk.

As it is now, I'm getting one for the airport and the nice keyboard because these are a godsend to a screenwriter, but my pb1400/g3/250/1MB/3.2GB is just as fast (just hot, and too narrow). When the iBook revB comes out (or the mist and graphite pbG3 firewire that I hope is a december/january surprise), this computer goes to my grandparents (they're 90 and they want to learn to use the internet), or to my production company as my partner's new portable.
Love the sight.
Mike Kramer "

More on Low Volume iMac DVD Audio Several readers wrote to say that low audio volume on DVDs is normal, due to the dynamic range of DVD audio. Still I've played DVDs on many machines (Macs and PCs) and have not seen the problem as acute as on the iMac DV model here. I suspect there is a way Apple can address this in the next beta update to the DVD Player (boost the audio a bit). Using headphones might help, but I hear even the line out is lower on DVD (I need to try this tonight). Kay's loving her iMac DV SE and I think overall its a great home computer.

More ORB Drive Comments: I've updated the ORB Feedback page for a reader's comments on the SCSI ORB (external) drive. He notes using the Softraid driver and tests with other SCSI devices attached.

OS 9 Feedback: Here's a summary of some of the latest OS 9 feedback:

• XLR8 USB mouse fails (on non-USB equipped Macs - installing Apple's USB 1.2 drivers solves the problem XLR8 says - see sidebar for link).
• Simon Lisney writes about OpenGL and Game Sprockets:

  "1. OpenGL is included and is at 1.1.1 as I previously emailed (from OpenGL forum post). This is optimised for VE also previously posted but since I do not have an G4 yet I leave this for others to check on performance gains (supposed to be 20-40% speed up with VE enabled). not sure how that will transfer to actual fps etc)

  2. Input Sprocket contains all sprockets rather than lots of individual ones as noted in the Apple Tech note on OS9 and is at 1.7.2. I would be interested if the MS Intellimouse's USB work properly with this?
  [I've gotten reports of conflicts with some games like Starcraft already-Mike]

  Here is the info from the readme:
  InputSprocket provides a consistent set of interfaces to various input devices such as joysticks that are useful in game development. This version of InputSprocket provides a number of corrections and fixes over version 1.3 as follows:
  * Adds universal USB support for all USB HID-compliant devices. This means almost any USB gaming device will work off the shelf, without a custom driver.
  * It is now possible for InputSprocket to use a mouse with more than two axes or more than three buttons.
  * Adds support for calibration of devices and provides an interface for doing so in the InputSprocket configuration dialog.
  * All input sprockets have been consolidated into one file.

  3. Some (not all from the ATI S Update 1.0) ATI extensions updated and some left out (not needed as you previously noted??) "

• Photoshop Feedback:

  " After installing OS 9, I find that if I have checked in RGB Setup Prefs in Photoshop to "Dislpay using monitor compensation", I can no longer get white backgrounds. The lightest background is a light yellow. RGB values of 255 all around only produce that yellow. Unchecking the box returns white to Photoshop.
  Theo "

More TrueX CDROM Feedback: This owner reports only his 3rd SCSI TrueX drive worked properly:

"Hi Mike,
Wanted to give you an update on the ultimate resolution of my Kenwood SCSI TrueX problems, along with a warning which may spare other users much agony and frustration.

I've now confirmed that (at least to my satisfaction) there was a problem with the Kenwood drive itself. A bit of background - after the troubleshooting described in my previous emails, I went all out and replaced my system's stock SCSI cable with a Granite cable plus Granite terminator (I'd planned to do this soon, and the Kenwood provided the perfect opportunity). No dice - the drive still worked 50% of the time and didn't work 50% of the time.

So I returned the drive and picked up another. Drive #2 was DOA - no power light, no whirring, nothing. Back to the store with Drive #2. Picked up Drive #3 at the store, crossed my fingers, and installed it. It worked flawlessly from the get-go and has yet to have any issues whatsoever.

During this time, I ran across an article in Maximum PC magazine regarding customers' complaints over bad batches of TrueX (IDE) drives. [this was noted in the news here awhile back-Mike'] Based on my experience and that of my brother, who's been forced to return his IDE TrueX directly to Kenwood, I would have to concur. I would urge anyone who's experiencing flaky behavior from their TrueX (whether SCSI or IDE) to try another drive (or two, as in my case) to see if the problem clears up.

Make no mistake, I love the speed of my TrueX. But I'd have to say that, right now, it isn't for the faint of heart. FYI: System as it currently stands is PM 9600/350, OS 8.6, Intech's CD SpeedTools, 448 MB RAM.
--Erik "

Newer Tech News: I missed this in yesterday's mail, but Newer Technology announced 500MHz G3 upgrades, price cuts and G4 pricing yesterday. Read all about it in their press release.

A Use for Libmoto? I have not recommeneded using Libmoto since 1997 when I discovered it had drawbacks (compatibility and accuracy issues noted on my Libmoto page) and for the fact I found no real world apps that really gained from it (Macbench FPU scores did of course, the main purpose of Libmoto according to insider reports I received years ago). Due to the accuracy issues some mentioned with Libmoto, I'd not recommend having it enabled if you're doing serious design work. However Joyce Price noted that she saw dramatic gains with Libmoto running Lightwave 3D, at least according to the supplied benchmark files included with Lightwave. She also commented that Lightwave was the most MP (multiple CPU) aware application she'd tested.

Other Net News:

• iMac DV SE Buyer First Impressions (theiMac.com)
• Always a bridesmaid, but never a bride (theiMac.com)
• Apple updates with new product lines (Arizona Centra)
• Linux heads to everyday use with games (News.com)
• Taiwan earthquake could affect holiday PC sales (News.com)
• Another Internet Explorer 5 Security Bug (Microsoft)
• Megahertz does Matter (Macweek)
• Rage Fury MAXX promises serious fun ATI's $299 dual-processor offers high resolutions and frame rates for hardcore gamers.(PCworld)

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

If you don't check every day's daily news (updated several times a day normally) you might miss something valuable. Check the summary list below for highlights of the last few day's news and the archives page for older new page links. The recent features page has a list of recent reviews/articles posted (as does the sidebar topics links)..

Tuesday's News Summary

• DOA PowerComputing Machines May Be Riser Card Problems
• Kenwood TrueX IDE/Turbomax card/Powertower owner comments
• iMac rev A/B SCSI cards and TV Tuners
• Sonnet G4 Upgrades press release
• OS 9 Feedback
• Voodoo3 News at www.mac3dfx.com (new drivers, Monitor refresh tweaking)
• Game News page updated with TNT2 Mac driver status and more
• iMac DV Heat
• Taiwan Chip Production Back to Normal
• Retrospect 4.2 Update
• Other Net News
• CPU reviews, Game Reviews and Game Framerates databases updated

Monday's News Summary

• iMac Software DVD Player Tips
• More iMac DVD Comments (problem reports)
• iMac DVD SE First Impressions
• iMac DV model performance
• iMac DV SE's at CompUSA
• OWC Price Cuts
• Silver Accented PB G3
• Comments on G4 Errata (includes tech docs on G3 Errata)
• More Grappler/B&W G3 Feedback
• Jackhammer SCSI Card Crashes under OS 9
• PowerBase/Powercenter Tip on Riser card seating (reason for failures after cpu upgrades?)
• More On MS Office/Font Manager Conflict
• The 'Cheap PC' Illusion - Loaded Athlon 600MHz Build not cheap.
• Other Net News

Weekend's News Summary

• Demo Days at Sears C'Ville
• CompUSA Free AirPort Card Offer (ends 10/11/99)
• www.mac3dfx.com voodoo3 beta2 driver comments
• 9600/350 owners comment on ebay yikes trade offer
• 9600/350 + $1 for Yikes G4/400?
• Font Manager Update/Word 98 Conflict reported
• New Voodoo3 Drivers Feedback
• Apple Aggressively After 3D Market
• 500MHz G4's Delayed by chip errata/problems
• More Grappler SCSI/B&W G3 Feedback
• B&W G3 rev 1 IDE drive comments
• CPU reviews, Game Reviews and Game Framerates databases updated

For a guide to finding answers to questions - see my Site Guide page.

Considering a G3 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. I urge any owners that have had problems to report this via the Survey Form. Always give the most weight to recent owner reports (dated in the listing) as in many cases problems are later found to be due to settings errors, slow L2 cache, etc.

-Freq Asked Questions

Check VersionTracker
and Apple's Software Updates
(especially their Recent Updates)

Apple TIL Updates

Apple Forums