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I have no idea about tablets, does the modbook look anything like what you want?

look hear
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/

Well, you apparently can get one of these "ModBooks" with 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo for 2,579.00 USD. Seems reasonable to me considering all the nifty gadgets (e.g., WAAS enabled GPS) that come with it. Again, I don't own one of these, nor I have I ever used one. But, if I really needed a tablet-style device, I would take a close look at these.

Look at the article's photo:
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/laptops/0,39029450,49293967,00.htm

Now look at the MODbook
http://eshop.macsales.com/Customized_Pages/modbook/modbook_info_p1.html

The frame around the tablet in the article looks whiter, which I put down to light reflecting at a different angle to the MODbook photo. The key feature here is the oddly-shaped piece around the camera. It's identical in both images. I think it very unlikely Apple would lift that design from a third party.

The illustrations are bland enough to be worthless.

The photo is of a device already existing, that people desperate for an Apple tablet can buy today. I think it has normal warranty support, but the non-Apple-ness of the mod may turn people off.

I don't believe tablet PCs are a worthwhile area for Apple. They may be nice and have some real niches, but I don't see that they're successful enough to warrant an Apple model. I may well be wrong, but I'll only believe in them when I see them released on the Apple website or through some official communication.

Rumours about Apple products are almost always wrong, and there are a few stock market 'analysts' (read: "profiteers") out there who feed rumours, short the stock and make money out of the inevitable stock dip when it turns out the rumour was false after all. I completely distrust any rumours about companies these days, there are too many people with too many conflicting motives.

If only they'd ship the ModBook! Since the ModBook has been delayed, I wonder if that has anything to do with Apple.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ModBook/
http://www.macworld.com/2007/01/firstlooks/modbook_fl/index.php/
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/01/11/unofficial_mac_tablet_draws_record_crowd_at_macworld_high_res_photos.html/

I love my Nokia N800. What goes for tablets with Mac Os X.. those are available right now!

Based on your other description, this won't do it for you. But others might be interested in the ModBook. It is a 13.3" Mac tablet based on the MacBook. DVI output is there using the Mini DVI to DVI dongle. As far as using with your external keyboard, a basic table-top picture stand would do it. In fact, a video preview of the device I saw a long time ago showed an option for a standard VESA monitor mount. Now that would save desk real estate and provide ultimate flexibility in screen position.

And the photo is definitely (as a commenter said on TA) a ModBook)

We bought 3 Mac Minis, 2 with 512MB and 1 with 256MB which was very slow
compared to the others. After buying an inexpensive memory upgrade from
http://www.macsales.com/
I installed it per their online video, and presto,
Mac OSX has sufficient memory to run fast..

Anyone out there with MacMinis with 512MB should upgrade
ASAP as you don't have sufficient memory for OSX to be effective,

We also bought a faster, larger disk for the (former 256MB) MacMini,
and easily installed it per online video for another speed boost,
although not as dramatic as the memory upgrade. It helps
to haver more than one Mac Mini to compare. Some who don't,
just may not realize why their Mac Mini seems so slow....The answer
may be insufficient memory. BTW some thinks it violates Apple's
warranty to upgrade memory, disk etc, on your own. NOT TRUE.
They even info on their own site how to make such upgrades.
However, you're still responsible if you do something dumb like
dropping it or hitting it wirth a hammer.

There's a difference between stated requirements and what you can actually get to work. Users of the open-source XPostFacto have known this for years. Can't run OS 10.3 on that old beige G3 tower? Sure you can! Maybe even 10.4.

Nonetheless, even 10.4.x is supported on the 400mhz PowerBook G3 (the version with a bronze keyboard and FireWire). It is not the speediest thing ever, but for email, Word/PowerPoint, and most web browsing, it's just fine. My main reason to consider replacing it: after seven years of use, the backlighting is starting to fade. But those dual battery bays are hard to give up.

I would like to run this on a tablet or a PDA, but Apple don't make such devices

Apple doesn't make them, but they're available: ModBook http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ModBook

Here is one. I have an older version that only has FW800 and FW400 on it.

Seems it has two firewire 800 ports, one firewire 800, one USB2 and one eSATA. It is bloody expensive, though.

Totally agreed.

My wife recently went back to graduate school. Her seven-year-old laptop does everything she needs it to. It's a Mac PowerBook G3 (black case with Firewire, a.k.a. Apple's "Pismo" architecture) running at 400mhz, with 640mb of RAM, running the latest version of OS X (10.4.10) -- yes, Apple officially supports 10.4.x on Pismo systems (no XPostFacto required).

My wife uses the entire Microsoft Office suite for school; Photoshop CS 2 and iPhoto v5 run slowly on it, but she rarely uses them so it's not a big deal. She never plays games on it. The only irritation is that some courses now require using online multimedia, and certain Flash and streaming video pages are a little choppy (but let's face it, Flash on the Mac/PowerPC architecture has always been slower than it should have been). It's got built-in WiFi, USB and Firewire. I have added a bigger hard drive and more RAM to it over the years (six gigabytes dries up real fast with iPhoto) but the system is still chugging along. The main problem is that the LCD backlighting is growing dimmer with time, so the screen is getting harder to read. Other than that, there have never been any problems with it.

The Lombard and Pismo designs have dual hot-swappable bays: one for the battery and one for drives (DVD came with it, but we bought a used 250mb Zip for the bay a few years back). But -- and this is the coolest part -- you can put a second battery in the drive bay instead, netting nearly ten hours of real-time use. I miss that with my PowerBook G4... lucky to get three hours off of a full charge.

Apple doesn't, but I got a gazillion hits for "ipod mini battery replacement" on Google, including one from Other World Computing which will replace it for you for $60 or sell you a battery and tools to open the iPod for $20...

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ipod/mini/batteries /

I'm sure that services that do similar things for the iPhone will pop up in about two years....

This seems like sour grapes for what I have found to be a great product so far. The iPod batteries going all the way back to the first generation are not truly a user replaceable item. You have to spend forty bucks to get OWC to do it. Why such shock and outrage about the iPhone battery!?!

If you looked at the pictures and watched the video Apple released prior to the 29th, it doesn't take a genius to figure out the iPhone is not meant to be pulled apart.

Instead of waiting in line like a tool for four days, people complaining about battery life could have waited two days after release (like I did), futzed around with one before you bought it, and EASILY figured out the battery is not a user replaceable item.

Let's get real... the iPhone is a do-everything device in a form factor nobody expected to be as small as it is. You have to give up something somewhere... in this case, it is the battery... suck it up.

I think they could sell. In tablet mode, it would be like a large screen iphone. Then put it on a display stand and plug in your usb/firewire keyboard/mouse/dvd drive/etc for an iMac-like desktop machine. If not, there is the modbook conversion.

Sheesh, this was in Mac news about three weeks ago. Other World Computing had one listed for sale before March 16th.
$550 for a 2x BD-R internal drive. http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Panasonic/SW5582BK/

I would bet that Apple is going to force users to get Leopard/10.5 to be able to play retail movies like M$ did with Vista, and expect a crack a couple of months later.

>> What would be the Mac equivalent to a Tablet PC?

The Axiotron ModBook

Very well. Try these three sites and see where that gets you.

I'd be sold at nearly any price if they'd just include tablet functionality.

It's not ultraportable, but this should meet the "for nearly any price" requirement: Axiotron ModBook.

That's bullsh*t!

This year, I bought a 300 MHz Beige G3 (AUS$50!) and installed OS X 10.4.8 using the free XPostFacto http://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter/XPostFacto/.

It's no speed deamon, but my daughter's happy with it for surfing (Firefox) Chatting (Microsoft Messenger) and homework (Word et al).

All it takes is curiosity and Google - it's not rocket science!

BTW, I also installed XP on a 300 MHz Pentium - it runs slower and is next to useless!

You should've tried XPostFacto.

You know you can replace that battery right? http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ipod/batteryreplace ment/

You can install the latest OS X on your Beige G3 by using XPostFacto, available here:
http://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter/XPostFacto
I've used it. It works. Make sure you have lots of RAM.

This is silly. iPod batteries are replaceable. Here's a that sells batteries from the highly-rated Newer Technology. The high-capacity replacement for the iPod Photo is only $30. They aren't soldered in, either; they have a simple connector on them. All you have to do is open the case using the supplied plastic tool and follow the included instructions.

For something that only needs to be done every couple years or so, this really isn't a big deal.

Buying a version of software for a specific platform and then modifying to work on another platform is NOT fair use.

Perhaps, but additional software/patches have been used to run OS X on unsupported hardware before.

Alot of people purchased $1,000-2,500 macs and can't run the latest OS.

You should point them to XPostFacto. As for Windows XP, yes it runs Ok on hardware that was made around its release date. Good luck running Vista+Aero on anything released a couple of years ago.

Honestly I am not sure why all the keyboards and mice are USB now, the plug is no smaller, and you also give up at least one USB port to something that every non-server computer has.

Reason #1: USB is hotpluggable. PS/2 often isn't. Some computers will lock up or crash if you plug in PS/2 devices while they're running.

Reason #2: USB has become a cross-platform standard. Most USB devices will work on Windows, Macs, even Linux with the right drivers. Most keyboards and mice don't require drivers except for advanced non-standard features. Mostly they just work, and have done so for years. I applaud PC manufacturers for getting rid of PS/2, just like many people applauded Apple for getting rid of their proprietary ADB ports in favor of USB.

Reason #3: Cost. Consolidating devices into using a standard port means motherboards require fewer controller chips, which means cheaper, simpler computers.

Many computers these days are coming with at least four USB ports specifically to deal with the loss of the PS/2 ports. Things are really better this way, I promise. Although it would be even better if keyboard manufacturers would wise up and start putting a USB 2.0 hub in their keyboards like Apple has been doing for years.

And can we get a Mac with a USB port on the front of the box? I know that it's supposed to look like a simple design, but when I have to drag the expensive and fragile screen of the iMac I have at work around to get at the back of it so I can plug in the cable/thumb drive, so I can turn the screen around again so I can see it, so I can copy a file off of it, then turn it around and unplug it again, before turning it straight again so I can go back to work, it suddenly stops seeming like such a simple design.

I agree that there should be a port or two up front for thumb drives and such, but a lot of people like the fact that their AREN'T ports all over the place on Macs. If you have devices that you need to be plugging and unplugging they make these things called extension cables, you may have heard of them. You can even get cute ones with little lights in them in various lengths and colors. There is also a great way to solve the problem of not having enough ports by getting a miniStack V2 which also covers backups. You know, those backups that are so incredibly easy to do on a Mac. Some people even run their Mac mini right off the external Firewire drive for a little speed boost versus the slow internal drive. The miniStack V2 also has a couple of easily accessible USB and Firewire ports on the side. It's a great addition for any Mac mini, and I always recommend it over the Macally Minimate for many reasons.

By the way, the new Intel Mac minis have four USB ports so the problem with the keyboard/mouse taking up all the ports is solved, at least on the new machines.

The file format "choice" doesn't matter. Apple will release material to play back on that machine.

I specified "on demand" several times now. All you need is to plug it into a TV, plug it into your fast download connection, pick your shows from an "on demand" service and use your remote on that show.

What is missing is a service to get the media to the box and a vast library of content.

Which is why I started this whole thread with "wait a year."

It doesn't need the internal disk capacity and I/O that you specify unless you are planning on building a media library; which is a topic I'm not addressing, but if you were, Firewire enclosures that fit right under the mini are available.

http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=1047 6
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ministack/

I've tested these machines for this purpose and am speaking from experience. Honestly, I don't get what you're not getting.

Cheers,

I was going to send you over to OWC for a mini battery replacement for $24.95, but I see that they recommend that you don't do it yourself on the minis. If you watch the installation video, you'll see that changing the battery on the mini is a real PITA, and much more involved than changing the battery on one of the regular iPods. OWC does offer installation with quick turn around for an additional $39.00.

I was hoping this would be helpful to you, but alas, it looks more expensive or more trouble than I had originally thought. Best of luck whatever you decide to do.

I was going to send you over to OWC for a mini battery replacement for $24.95, but I see that they recommend that you don't do it yourself on the minis. If you watch the installation video, you'll see that changing the battery on the mini is a real PITA, and much more involved than changing the battery on one of the regular iPods. OWC does offer installation with quick turn around for an additional $39.00.

I was hoping this would be helpful to you, but alas, it looks more expensive or more trouble than I had originally thought. Best of luck whatever you decide to do.

I was going to send you over to OWC for a mini battery replacement for $24.95, but I see that they recommend that you don't do it yourself on the minis. If you watch the installation video, you'll see that changing the battery on the mini is a real PITA, and much more involved than changing the battery on one of the regular iPods. OWC does offer installation with quick turn around for an additional $39.00.

I was hoping this would be helpful to you, but alas, it looks more expensive or more trouble than I had originally thought. Best of luck whatever you decide to do.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ministack/

This case plus a 250GB 7200 3.5" PATA drive cost me $170, less than a 2.5" 120GB drive. And I got USB and Firewire hubs built in as well.

Pioneer DVR-111D

Great IDE Dual-Layer burner, Mac compatible (works with Toast out-of-the-box, I used Patchburn to make it "Apple Supported/Shipped"), apparently Linux compatible, and dirt cheap ($35.99).

Kicks ass, no coasters, does just about every format. 'nuff said.

The article and the blog linked to it are somewhat trollish since Mac OS X hasn't really had an open kernel for some time. Still, this doesn't affect end useres in the slightest. With the public sources, all that could be built for PowerPC anyway was Darwin which is another BSD derivative. It's not OS X...it doesn't have Quartz, QuickTime, Java, Aqua, the Dock, Carbon, or anything else that makes OS X the operating system that it is. Those components of OS X were never open source and never will be. Where Darwin shined, however, was in opening up the source for drivers.

Some drivers can be made in user space, but a lot of drivers need to be coded in kernel space. When OS X first came out years and years ago, the procedures for writing drivers was horrid. Even today, it's still easy when writing drivers to make a coding error and get a kernel panic. Each kernel panic has a bunch of stuff in the log that allows developers to trace back the problem that caused the kernel to crash.

On PowerPC, the source code for the underlying drivers is available. This is invaluable since not only do you have the point in your code where you have a crash, but you can also figure out what IOKit or the kernel was trying to do that caused the crash. Being able to see exactly how the driver family is using your device is very helpful in figuring out either how to work around your bug or how you can remove it.

With the Intel OS X drivers, however, there is no source. You can't look back and see what the kernel is trying to do that caused your driver to soil itself. This makes debugging a pain in the neck since now, instead of being able to try and figure it out for yourself, you need to get Apple involved if you need more information. Having the PowerPC source isn't sufficient since the drivers are different between x86 and PowerPC. Case in point: right now I'm developing a USB audio device that works just fine on PowerPC but the moment you plug it into an Intel based Mac the OS kernel panics. I suspect a div by zero in the x86 driver, but I can't verify that since I can't see the source. Instead I have to rely on Apple to tell me what to fix.

Thankfully starting with Tiger a number of the more obscure kernel interfaces are actually a bit more abstracted for dlils and the like for which in the past reading kernel code and other drivers was almost the only documentation. That's still no reason for getting rid of the sources.

Although this lack of source is no new development, it really doesn't affect end users. The only people really building custom kernels for running OS X are the XPostFacto guys for running OS X on legacy hardware or PowerPC accelerators, and they never needed x86 code anyway. It affects hardware developers like myself and can make debugging a pain in the neck, especially if you don't have any of those paid-for ADC tech support incidents left.

ed

This might sound odd, but I try, whenever possible, to have a personal relationship with people I do business with.

Even when I order Mac upgrades online, I tend to buy from OWC because I know the owner and his crew. I see them every time I go to MacWorld, I consider them to be friends, and they've always taken care of me personally, while offering low prices.

I live really close to a Home Depot, and I sometimes shop there. But I go out of my way to shop at Baller Hardware because I went to highschool with the owner. Not only that, but his hardware selection, especially for more unusual screws, nuts, and bolts, is a lot better than Home Depot. Also, his store is better organized. The extra 15 minutes it takes to drive to his store is often saved in how quickly I can find things, with or without help. Some of his prices are actually better than home depot, and when they're not and I'm buying large quantities, he'll check and see if he can match the price.

I don't hate Starbucks, but it won't be my first choice if there is a local coffee bar. I'm not a coffee snob; I just want to get high. If I was a snob, I'd drink only Peet's. =) If there's nothing else, I'll drink Starbuck's and I don't do it begrudgingly or holding my nose. I'll drink 7/11 or AM/PM coffee in a pinch.

I'm not even arguing that this is good to do because it helps the local economy. It's just the way I like to do business when I can. I guess it makes me feel more human.

hell, its even easier than that. Go here: http://eshop.macsales.com/ Call 'em up and say I'd like x amount of ram for my 1.6 ghz G5. They'll give you a price and its done. if it doesn't work, send it back and they'll replace it. They're the newegg of macs or something. No I dont' work for them, but have been very satisfied when i've used them.

Yes, that is true, although there is a free patch that will let you run OS X on some older hardware. Not surprisingly, this patch is distributed by OWC, a company that sells upgrades for Macs.

I think that the transition to Intel CPUs will be another such dividing line. If you buy a non-intel Mac the day before that model goes to Intel, your resale value down the road will be considerably less than if you waited a day.

Yes, that is true, although there is a free patch that will let you run OS X on some older hardware. Not surprisingly, this patch is distributed by OWC, a company that sells upgrades for Macs.

I think that the transition to Intel CPUs will be another such dividing line. If you buy a non-intel Mac the day before that model goes to Intel, your resale value down the road will be considerably less than if you waited a day.

About the comparison to OS X:

The transition from OS 9 to OS X was pretty major; I think Vista was supposed to be on that order of magnitude. Because it was such a major change, Apple not only provided for OS 9 emulation in OS X (The "Classic" environment), but also sold machines that could dual boot into either OS 9 or OS X for quite a few years (AFAIR, the 1.2 Ghz G4 desktops were the last with this capability). [Yes, I remembered correctly!].

Each major revision of Mac OS X has seen big changes, not just in addition and improvement of user features, but under-the-hood changes that have sped up operations (even seeing speed ups on older hardware!) and added major functionality for developers.

Additionally, Apple gives away OS X for free (one license with each purchase of a qualifying Macintosh =)). Sure, they'd like owners of older Mac hardware to upgrade to the latest version of OS X, but it wouldn't break their business if no one did this. Conversely, they do support older hardware. You can install the latest version of OS X (Tiger) on seven year old hardware (BW Powermac), and Apple still supports it.*

I'm not totally clear on MS's Vista strategy and how they might successfully emulate Apple's OS X strategy. From what I hear about them planning on releasing 5+ Vista products, and then folding in various Vista technologies in future releases, I'm not sure that they really can. I'm even less clear on how this all fits with their Windows Live and .net strategies (other than that they want to lock in the customer and dominate the world).

*If your hardware is not officially supported, you might still be able to run a version of OS X using Ex Post Facto.

The last time I priced an iPod battery replacement kit, I could get one for $19. I realize that not all of the replacement kits are that cheap, but the one for my 2nd generation 20GB model happens to be $19. The others are still in the $24.00 range if you own a 3rd or 4th gen iPod.

First, here are the two unequivocal facts you mention:

Have integrated FM radios. You're right about this, and I'd certainly like to see it. I will point out that a decent radio would add to the cost and complexity of the interface, and some people may not appreciate that.

Allow music to be uploaded from any PC, without having install special software to do so. Correct again, though I will point out as long as the software is free, this is not a tremendous impediment for most people. However, I agree it is disadvantagous for people who run any OS that is neither windows nor OS X. Even so, there are non-officially sanctioned solutions, such as this.

Next, to address your distortions:

Smaller. Maybe some are, maybe some aren't; maybe those that are smaller are less capable, or more expensive, or uglier, or have an unpleasant interface. In any event, this certainly doesn't seem to be a limiting factor in customer acceptance based either on the sales numbers, or on converstions with any of the dozens of iPod owners I know.

Have battery lives that match vendors claims. Granted, there was a lawsuit about this, and I believe Apple is more forthright now because of this. Nevertheless, for most people, it doesn't matter. Let me digress into real-world numbers based on my own experience. My 2G 20GB had a battery life that ranged from more than 10 hours when I got it (refurb) to about 3-4 hours after more than two years of almost daily charge/recharge cycles. My wife's 3G 10GB (also refurbed) maintained a charge for more than 10hr over its entire lifespan of about 1.5 years. Neither of these are still with us, due to no fault of Apple. Our replacements (a 1 year old Shuffle, a 4GB Nano, and a 4G 60GB Photo (the latter two are about .5 year old)) are all still going strong with more than 10hr per charge. Why do I keep referring to that mystical 10hr figure? Because for us, and probably the vast majority of people, that's long enough. I don't spend my entire day listening to my iPod to the exclusion of all other activities that require the use of my ears. As long as an overnight charge gives me enough juice to last through the next day, I'm satisfied, and I'm pretty sure most people feel the same way. Also, not everyone wants to deal with the hassle of swapping out "replacable" batteries all the time, even if they use rechargable ones.

Dont scratch. Well, my 2G, 3G, and 4G are pretty scratch resistant (as much as I'd expect them to be, anyway), and the Shuffle is certainly more than adequate under reasonable usage. I concur that the Nano is considerably less tolerant of abrasion, and I admit I'm not very pleased about it. However, it's clearly impossible for ANY player to be completely unscratchable (unless perhaps it's made of somthing exotic like diamonds).

Finally, your falsehoods:

Dont cost $50 to replace the failing battery. Well, that's just silly. Most people don't assume that the original vendor will be the least expensive option; in Apple's case, this is rarely true. However, they are definitely not the only option for replacement batteries. One that I have no relationship to (except as a satisfied customer) can be found here. If you glance at the page, you'll see that no replacement battery tops $30, and most of these are rated for longer lives than Apple's originals. As referenced above, this shouldn't be necessary under even pretty heavy usage more often than once every 1.5-2 years, which is not an incredibly large expenditure for a product that costs about ten times that much.

Dont attempt to lock users into Apples music format and the iTunes store. Yeah, I hate it when the

Unless it's for OWC!

I second your opinion. I've been buying stuff from OWC for maybe six years, and I've always been happy with both the products and the service. I have two of the "On-the-go" drives (FW 400s), and they've performed as expected and have even saved my ass at least once. I can't speak to USB or FW 800 versions, but the FW 400s use bus power without problem. These are great external drives if you use a laptop, and don't want to carry around a large external and a power brick.

They also have a mac-centric forum called Mac Resource Forum, appropriately enough, where the community is pretty helpful.

I've had the privilege of meeting Larry (the owner), Jamie (the manager) and many of the crew at MWSF, and I've been further privileged to have dinner with them all twice.

One further exceptional thing about OWC: Ryan Rempel, an OWC employee, wrote XPostFacto, which allows OS X to run on older Macs not supported by Apple. XPostFacto is open source, and its creation has been supported by OWC.

It appears this model is $85.

WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT. While you will need to get a program Called xpostfacto I am running OS X on a Powermac 8500 from 1995 (this would be a PPC 604 120 Mhz with a radeon 7000) and its running just fine. http://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter/XPostFacto/ Check the list of supported hardware. Oh and uh since OS X will run on any G4 since 1999 you just Won't have the hardware accelerated quartz display unless you have AGP and 32M Video card but it will still run and run great as a server which is how I use my 8500. Will Win2k boot on say a pentium pro from 1995 and be usable? I don't know.

I've seen way too much FUD regarding iPod batteries, so I'm going to take the time to set you straight, even though this may be a bit redundant. I've actually been very happy with the battery life of my iPod, and it's really not all that hard to trade out.

Everything below is copied from a previous post by me, which can be found here: http://apple.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=175992&c id=14626544

FYI, you can get an iPod battery through Other World Computing for as low as $14.99 (depending on the model of your iPod).

I used them to replace the battery in my old iPod to give to my sister, and it's not very difficult to change out the battery. They provide everything that you need to open the iPod without damaging it (basically, two nylon tools). My model required unscrewing one of the logic board screws, to free the connecting wire, and they do not provide a small screwdriver, but you could pick that up for under $3 at your local hardware store, if you don't already have one. IIRC, it took me less than 10 minutes to open it up, put the battery in, and close it up. (I'm not as quick as the guy who did their instructional videos on how to change the battery, who does this in about 2 minutes.)

Or you can have them replace the battery for you, for $39 plus the cost of the battery. (This includes the cost of FedEx Overnight both ways, and they state a 72 hour turn-around time, including the time the iPod is in transit.)

Details on this can be found here: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ipod/batteryreplace ment/

Before you try to say macs aren't upgradable, my wife's powermac has a retail ati 9800 in it and it shipped with a geforce 4 mx 32mb AGP card

I hear ya. I'm running OS X on a late 1995 PowerMac 7600, thanks to XPostFacto. I bought the box specifically because it was so upgradable (processor on a daughter card, 3 free PCI slots, 8 ram slots). Processor is now upgraded to a G3. One PCI slot now has an ATA133 controller, one has a Firewire/USB card and one is still free (maybe I'll drop a Radeon in that one). RAM slots are now full, with 1GB installed.

FYI, you can get an iPod battery through Other World Computing for as low as $14.99 (depending on the model of your iPod).

I used them to replace the battery in my old iPod to give to my sister, and it's not very difficult to change out the battery. They provide everything that you need to open the iPod without damaging it (basically, two nylon tools). My model required unscrewing one of the logic board screws, to free the connecting wire, and they do not provide a small screwdriver, but you could pick that up for under $3 at your local hardware store, if you don't already have one. IIRC, it took me less than 10 minutes to open it up, put the battery in, and close it up. (I'm not as quick as the guy who did their instructional videos on how to change the battery, who does this in about 2 minutes.)

Or you can have them replace the battery for you, for $39 plus the cost of the battery. (This includes the cost of FedEx Overnight both ways, and they state a 72 hour turn-around time, including the time the iPod is in transit.)

Details on this can be found here: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ipod/batteryreplace ment/

I picked up one of these in the beginning of the year, and put a 200GB drive in it. I keep all my installers, client drive images, and utilities on it, divided over six partitions. It has FireWire 800, FireWire 400, and USB2 connectors.

It replaced an identical enclosure that only offered FireWire 400 and USB2 that I bought a couple years ago, which had a 120GB drive in it.

Both enclosures are fanless, but I never had a problem with either drive due to heat. They don't run 24/7, but I've had them on for fairly long stretches. My only gripe with them is very minor: the blue activity LED is friggin' blinding-- I ended up taping a small square of copy paper over it to mute it a little bit.

~Philly