The Mac Set

Archive 4

Backorder Update Update

19 October 1999.

From the latest press release from Apple:

Apple to Honor Power Mac G4 Orders

CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA - October 18, 1999 - Apple® today announced it will honor all orders for its Power Macintosh® G4 computers placed before Wednesday, October 13, at the originally quoted prices, including those placed with the Company's resellers which were accompanied by a purchase order, or a cash or credit card deposit.

"We aim to delight our customers, and we clearly dropped the ball in this instance. We apologize to our customers for upsetting and disappointing them during this past week," said Steve Jobs, Apple's interim CEO. "Our actions today will hopefully set things right. As the old business proverb says: Good companies make mistakes. Great companies fix them."

...

It has been said many a time that Apple makes great computers, but the company that makes them leaves a lot to be desired.

[Something similar can unfortunately be said about Christians: Christians are the worst advertisement for Christianity. IM, 26/2/00.]

Macs and the Sydney 2000 Olympics

11 November 1999.

Reports filtering in from Australia:

I was in a Sydney Mac shop during the week, and noticed a large collection of new G4s and 21-inch monitors. I asked the sales assistant where the computers were off to.

He told me that they were going to the design offices at SOGOC (the Sydney Olympic organising Committee), but they had to be quiet about it because one of the game's major sponsors is IBM.

Apparently the design team can't stand using the IBM computers, so they ordered in the Macs.

And:

Another Aussie reader with connections at Apple Australia said that although there is little chance of Apple outbidding IBM's lucrative Olympic sponsorship contract, that a surprising number of Olympic organization team members have demanded Mac solutions... in fact, one source there believes that more Macs than RS/6000s may actually be involved in the day-to-day work of running the Olympic Web site during the events next year!

Job Vacancy

7 December 1999.

As found on the Answers in Genesis web site.

GRAPHIC DESIGNER (posted 10-28-1999)

Product Development Department

This position requires a creative team-player with desktop publishing experience. Besides the requirements listed below, this position demands knowledge of 4-color printing, pre-flighting and packaging electronic files for printing

Requirements:

B.F.A./B.S. in Graphic Design OR Equivalent Experience
Strong Portfolio of Printed Projects (Books, Package Design, Posters, Brochures, etc.)
Experienced user of the Power Macintosh Operating System*
Experienced user of the following applications:

Macromedia Freehand, or Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe InDesign, Adobe PageMaker, or Quark XPress

* Windows users may still be considered if able to demonstrate solid experience on the applications listed above.

Emphasis added.

iBook Update

26 February 2000.

About time to put this up, I think.

It's been out for a couple of weeks, now. A "Limited Edition" iBook - same specs as the upgraded iBook in blueberry and tangerine, except that it has a 366MHz G3 CPU instead of 300MHz. US$200 more expensive - you decide if it's worth it.

All the iBooks now come with 64MB of RAM and a 6GB hard disk (up from 32MB and 4GB respectively).

It's Faster When It's Doing More!?!

27 February 2000.

I thought this snippet was interesting enough to put in here.

Q: I bought a G4/350 a week ago and I've noticed the speed isn't anything special compared to my 233 G3. I found out that when the mouse was moving on the screen the Computer speed up drastically. Am I alone here?

A: What you've run into here is called Processor Switching, and it's an energy-saving option which disables your backside Level 2 cache SRAM(s) when there is no input activity from the keyboard or mouse. Many G4 users have reported running with this feature activated and not knowing it; simply deselect the "Allow Processor Cycling" option in your Energy Saver control panel.

IBM's Unsellable G4s

9 March 2000.

From MacOS Rumors (sic):

It appears that there is substantial truth to rumors that IBM has been able to produce shippable quantities of PowerPC 7400(G4)s at 550, 600, and 650MHz -- but cannot sell them to Apple because of the terms of the contract which allows IBM to produce G4s with Motorola's Altivec technology.

Apparently, because Moto cannot presently raise clock rates high enough to compete normally with IBM in the G4 space, the company has elected [to] use the contract to prevent IBM's faster chips from going to market and depressing demand as well as pricing for their slower G4s. Motorola's 7400s also cost more than IBM's to produce because of the poor yields Somerset is experiencing.

Clones Killed

9 March 2000.

Apple and the computer makers involved in the iMac knockoff dispute [Emachines and Daewoo] said today they have settled the lawsuits.

...

Full terms of the out-of-court settlements were not disclosed. Emachines said the eOne may continue in another form.

"We did settle with Apple and agreed to stop manufacturing and selling the current eOne," said an Emachines spokesperson. "However, Apple agreed to a provision for us to sell a redesigned eOne."

An Apple spokesperson said: "The court sided with Apple with the preliminary injunctions, and then these companies agreed to the settlements. As far as we're concerned, this has ended it."

...

Like the iMac, the Emachines all-in-one featured a translucent design with blue accents.

Future of PPC?

9 March 2000.

PowerPC maker IBM, in partnership with Nikon, is developing a new way to build microprocessors that could not only accelerate them by a factor of 1,000X or more, it may also dramatically reduce the time and expense required to create them.

This new process, called PREVAIL (Projection Reduction Exposure With Variable Axis Immersion Lenses -- try to say that ten times fast!), uses beams of electrons to build indvidual circuits barely larger than a few atoms (as small as 0.08 micron and below, compared to today's leading-edge 0.18 micron processes), and by projecting numerous simultaneous beams, can build each chip tremendously faster than current systems based on lasers.

A working model of this system is still in the works, but IBM PR seems optimistic that the company will be putting this technology to work "within two generations" of microprocessor manufacturing. In the years of carbon-based Solar life forms, this is said to be about three years -- just about where the PowerPC roadmap tapers off into question marks...

The Need For Speed

11 March 2000.

Just when you thought you'd seen it all...

For the Power Mac 6100(av), 7100, 8100, 8115; Performa 6110, 6112, 6115, 6116, 6117, 6118; Workgroup Server 6150, 8150, 9150; PowerComputing 100, 120; and Radius 81/110.

The Sonnet Crescendo G4/NuBus processor upgrade card transforms your NuBus-based Power Macintosh into a G4 Powerhouse! The Crescendo G4/NuBus incorporates the revolutionary PowerPC G4 processor and ultra high-speed backside cache, delivering up to a 10x overall speed improvement. This easy-to-install card is compatible with your existing hardware, applications and software. The Crescendo G4/NuBus automatically adjusts to the highest possible processor speed for your particular Macintosh model, ensuring the best performance possible from your computer.

Empahsis added. It runs at 360MHz on an 8100 (for example) and is compatible with Mac OS 9, although it looks like a extra adapter is required for 7100 and 8100 AV models. But all that for under NZ$1600.

Classic Tributes Classic

11 March 2000.

Behold - the iBug.

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