iBook 600 on the way, help please!
I've got a new iBook 600 12.1 combo drive on the way with 382mb ram, an airport. We've been using some iMac 350mhz models in the office for a couple of years, and need the new upgrade for a variety of reasons.
However, I need help with a few issues, and I hope people here might have the answer.
1. GPRS connectivity. I subscribe to a GPRS high speed (ha!) service in Canada, and use a Motorola P280 GSM fone. It provide no-trouble wireless access to my IBM Thinkpad thru a usb cable or via infrared. My iPaq is more troublesome - A quick perusal of my Motorola CD shows no Mac drivers... anybody know if I can use / hack the USB connection with a Motorola phone?
2. No infrared port. I noticed this *after* the purchase. I've come to rely on infrared for a) printing wirelessly to our office HP laser, for the Motorola phone, and other devices. Is there any IR solution for iBooks? USB connected type device?
3. No PC card slot. Knew this going in, but I do a lot of photo work and have a slew of CF cards (both for iPaq and digicam). I access my CF cards thru pcmcia adapters. Any cheap, light, SMALL solutions out there for people who are sans PC card slots?
4. Anyone know what the current rev of shipping iBooks is, and if possible, can you point me to a URL that shows changes between revs?
5. Another real mystery is the speed of the combo drive. I've found conflicting reports - some said 12x cdrw, some said 16x cdrw. I've seen reports the cdrw only version is 24x. Can someone verify the speed of the read (cd), write (cd), rewrite (cd) and read (dvd) speeds for me?
6. Photoshop OSX is imminent, right?
Thanks guys and gals!
Mark
<a href="http://www.coffeekid.com,"; target="_blank">www.coffeekid.com,</a> <a href="http://www.spiffle.com"; target="_blank">www.spiffle.com</a>
However, I need help with a few issues, and I hope people here might have the answer.
1. GPRS connectivity. I subscribe to a GPRS high speed (ha!) service in Canada, and use a Motorola P280 GSM fone. It provide no-trouble wireless access to my IBM Thinkpad thru a usb cable or via infrared. My iPaq is more troublesome - A quick perusal of my Motorola CD shows no Mac drivers... anybody know if I can use / hack the USB connection with a Motorola phone?
2. No infrared port. I noticed this *after* the purchase. I've come to rely on infrared for a) printing wirelessly to our office HP laser, for the Motorola phone, and other devices. Is there any IR solution for iBooks? USB connected type device?
3. No PC card slot. Knew this going in, but I do a lot of photo work and have a slew of CF cards (both for iPaq and digicam). I access my CF cards thru pcmcia adapters. Any cheap, light, SMALL solutions out there for people who are sans PC card slots?
4. Anyone know what the current rev of shipping iBooks is, and if possible, can you point me to a URL that shows changes between revs?
5. Another real mystery is the speed of the combo drive. I've found conflicting reports - some said 12x cdrw, some said 16x cdrw. I've seen reports the cdrw only version is 24x. Can someone verify the speed of the read (cd), write (cd), rewrite (cd) and read (dvd) speeds for me?
6. Photoshop OSX is imminent, right?
Thanks guys and gals!
Mark
<a href="http://www.coffeekid.com,"; target="_blank">www.coffeekid.com,</a> <a href="http://www.spiffle.com"; target="_blank">www.spiffle.com</a>
Comments
And the TiBook still doesn't solve some of the issues I asked about (like the gprs thing)
Oh by the way. If you have signed to receive the package you may just refuse the package and tell the courier to send it back.....
[ 03-31-2002: Message edited by: Leonis ]</p>
I don't have all of the answers you are looking for, but I'll try to answer some of your questions:
1. GPRS connectivity. ... A quick perusal of my Motorola CD shows no Mac drivers... anybody know if I can use / hack the USB connection with a Motorola phone?
Sorry, I don't know about this one.
2. No infrared port. ... Is there any IR solution for iBooks? USB connected type device?
Currently, I know of no USB connected infrared devices. I don't think there are any out there.
3. No PC card slot. ... Any cheap, light, SMALL solutions out there for people who are sans PC card slots?
YES! There a few choices out there. SmartDisk makes a flash memory reader that works with both SmartMedia AND CompactFlash. These retail for under $40.
4. Anyone know what the current rev of shipping iBooks is, and if possible, can you point me to a URL that shows changes between revs?
The current rev on the iBooks is "C." This specifies the software build on the machines, as Apple now includes the game "Otto-Matic" and the WorldBook Encyclopeida. Apple has not acknowledged any hardware design changes that may have been made since the iBooks introduction, except for the addition of the 14" version.
5. Another real mystery is the speed of the combo drive. ... Can someone verify the speed of the read (cd), write (cd), rewrite (cd) and read (dvd) speeds for me?
Here are the specs, lifted directly from Apple's website (you should try to do at least a little of this on your own):
— 4x4x6x24x-speed (maximum) DVD-ROM/CD-RW Combo drive on 12.1-inch model (writes CD-R and CD-RW discs at 4x speed; reads DVD-ROM discs at 6x speed; reads CD-ROM discs at 24x speed)
— 8x8x8x24x-speed (maximum) DVD-ROM/CD-RW Combo drive on 14-inch model (writes CD-R and CD-RW discs at 8x speed; reads DVD-ROM discs at 8x speed; reads CD-ROM discs at 24x speed)
6. Photoshop OSX is imminent, right?
Yes, it's expected this month (April). You've bought a G3 iBook, which will not run Photopshop as well as the G4 PowerBook.
Hope this helps.
[ 04-01-2002: Message edited by: clonenode ]</p>