Aug 18
Aluminum PowerBook 15 Confirmed for This Week
PowerPage sources come through again with new data on the new PowerBook 15-inch announcement.
A reliable PowerPage source who has seen the new PB15″ and its box describes it as looking just like a 17-inch except smaller. Some notes:
- Ports on right side
- 1.25GHz G4 processor
- Firewire 800 on board
- nVIDIA video cards across the 12, 15 and 17
We have also received word that Apple plans to announce four new products this week. We know that the PB17 is getting a fix, the PB15 is going to Aluminum with an illuminated keyboard and that the PB12 is getting an update but we don’t yet know what the fourth product is. Rumors are circulating about an iBook revision, tablet Mac, or (more likely) a new audio application.
Apple is trying to announce the new PB15 by this Friday, but it could happen any time this week. There is a huge push to get the new PowerBooks into the channel for the lucrative back-to-school buying season.
nVIDIA video cards will debut in all three PowerBooks, but only be for this version. Apple plans to return to ATI video processors for the next round of updates because of poor nVIDIA support to Apple.
ThinkSecret is also chiming in on the August PowerBooks:
The hardware projects, known internally as Q16 and Q41, consist of upgrades to the 15-inch and 17-inch PowerBook G4. The projects were scheduled to complete in the first part of August.
Q16 and Q41 will run a Jaguar OS variant code-named Blackrider. Like Smeagol, the build train for the Power Mac G5, Blackrider is a special version of Mac OS X 10.2.7 with hardware support for the new models.
Aug 12
Ok, the PowerPage database has been giving me fits lately, something keeps hanging the instances. Anyway, to satiate my need to write, I am resorting to my trusty blog. Beware: this is not the PowerPage and opinions expressed herein aren’t moderated or edited any way…
Aug 12
RIP Gregory Hines
11 August 2003…today, dancing legend Gregory Hines succumbed to cancer at the young age of 57.
Having met him at one Macworld event in SF in years past, it is worthy noting what a big fan he was of Apple and the things you guys do.
Likewise, Apple heralded him as a visionary exemplory for the type of people whose Apple’s products are designed. He is even noted to be an Apple Master.
I am saddened that a fitting tribute is not hosted here or at Apple.com, a press release voicing words of calm for his family or a simple announcment acknowledging his passing as a member of our community.
He will be missed by all, especially the Apple Community.
Aug 12
House of Live Phish
An AP article (”Web site pays off for Phish“) discusses the band’s LivePhish.com Web site:
In the first four months after the site’s launch on New Year’s Eve, the service generated $1 million, said Brad Serling, whose company runs the site as a joint venture with the band. “It’s been profitable from day one,” Serling said.
…and their partnership with Apple to provide free MP3 and iTunes-equipped Macs as CD burning stations at last weekend’s Phestival in Limestone, Maine.
Maybe other artists (and labels) should wake up and smell the Kerosene?
Aug 12
Industry could embrace, not fight, technology
With reports of further declines in CD sales and news of lawsuits against illegal downloading, it’s gotten so that music technology has become a kind of all-purpose, amorphous villain. If you believe the hype, the genie is now out of the bottle and on a campaign of mass destruction. … of wallet-sized engineering known as the Apple iPod and its equally elegant iTunes … (Philadelphia Inquirer)
The article goes on discuss the author’s ideas that move in the same direction (”gadget dreaming”): MP3 remix software, iPod groovebox, Live satellite radio and MP3 kiosks.
I should be getting my 3G iPod any day now, so expect a lot of iPod content on these pages in the coming days.
Aug 12
XM PCR Control Program for Mac OS X
Pudge posted this excellent XM Radio article on Slashdot:
nsayer writes “I’m a fan of XM Radio. The least expensive XM radio you can get is the XM PCR, which is powered and controlled over a USB connection to a host PC (the audio does not, however, come back across the USB connection. It’s just got an analog line-out jack). Unfortunately, the only software they give you is for Windows. But fortunately, it’s been reverse engineered, so I was able to write MacXM. At this point, it is very stable and easy to use, and so far as I know it is the only XM radio software that integrates with the iTunes music store (click a button and iTunes pops up with a search for the current song title and artist).”
I have been an XM Radio customer since my girlfriend got it for me for Christmas two years ago. Easily the best $10 a month you can spend. In fact, my next car will definitely have an XM receiver built-in to the factory system (as opposed to going third-party). The real question: anyone know of a factory XM radio that also has an auxiliary input for my iPod?
Aug 12
Newswire Contest Features Some Sweet Prizes
Sweet Cocoa has released LapCop 2 of their Mac OS X PowerBook security software that “phones home” invisibly when connected to the Internet. Very cool for road warriors. The PowerPage is having a Newswire contest this month and is giving away five LapCop 2 licenses, copies of the MacBible and a few limited edition Macworld CreativePro t-shirts. Start posting those juicy stories!