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Which PC maker has a DVD burner shipping standard?

Sony for one. $1199.00 but no monitor, and sold out online. Best Buy probably has them.

Sony has a portable cd/mp3 player. So while open standards mean nothing to businesses, being able to push units that capitalize on these standards does. And for what it's worth, MP3 isn't the most open standard out there. Although everyone here already knows that.

I would like to happily note that two high-class consumer electronic companies notice that people want mp3 playback from custom-mixed cds. one of which, already tried the SDMI route.

Sony
Bose

People want simplicity... not the ball-and-chain "digital rights management" approach of WindowsMedia.

sony has one; it's mentioned in the post:

"One very exciting product is Sony's 'Plug and Play'
DRN-XM01 model that works in both your car and home stereo system through the use of a $150 adapter kit."

According to this sony site, the service is only $9.99/month if you activate it online. It is $14.99/month if you call the 800 number and sign up. This sounds like a company that is preparing to offer very little in the way of good customer service. Right from the beginning their business model seems to say "We are going to charge you more if you want to talk to us." Being charged $5/month more to talk to a real person is a little to futuristic to me. My local bank operates the same way which is why I closed my accounts with them.

Very true. I used to use Gnome exclusively, in preference to KDE (probably due to RedHat favoring Gnome to some extent). Then a few months ago I bought and installed the Ximian desktop. Sure it looks really nice, but runs about as well as OS-X on my old iMac (really, really bad). So I decided to take another look at KDE and unless the KDE team do something unbelievably stupid in V3, I'll be staying with it! Even with all the bells and whistles enabled, and the Acqua theme in use, it's a joy to use on both my Vaio and Athlon desktops.

I'll keep checking out Gnome's development, but for the moment, it can't touch KDE in terms of speed or usability, in my view...

That really-small, really-cool Sony Vaio device comes to mind... or even an Apple iBook....

I've got one of those really-small really-cool Sony Vaio devices of which you speak (an sr27k which I got free after Sony borked my previous sr7k in the shop), and I must say I *really* like the thing. I've taken it to a bunch of classes, and my notes are a lot better because of it. I type a whole lot faster and more accurately than I can write, as I'm sure a lot of other people do - the keyboard on this thing is pretty conducive to fast typing, too.

As for equation entry, I realised after much puzzling that doing all that in Mathematica is the best way to do it. It took me a while to get good at it, but after I figured out all the keyboard shortcuts it got pretty easy. The real bonus is that I can actually decipher what I took down when I look at it an hour later.

On a side note, I'm planning on trading this laptop in on an iBook soon. This one is fantastic, but it's shiny-newness has worn off for me for some reason, and that's mostly what I'm interested in. :-)

There's no problem copying to/from memory sticks, including MP3's... I wouldn't deter people from buying a Clie if they want to play MP3's.. I've never had problems playing an MP3 on the Clie. It also plays the secure ATRAC3 files, if you're into that sort of thing. The Clie also comes with a nice input wand that lets you control music without taking the Clie out of your pocket (and can actually provide input for PDA functions, if any programs were ever to take advantage of that).

Memory sticks go up to 128mb currently, so if you want to store your entire CD collection you're out of luck (unless you have a CD collection consisting of 3 CD's). A 128mb Memory Stick costs about $100 if you shop around a little.

I'd recommend buying a Clie 760 if you want an MP3 player and a PDA (it's the best PDA out there), but if you just want an MP3 player buy an Ipod or something.

There's no problem copying to/from memory sticks, including MP3's... I wouldn't deter people from buying a Clie if they want to play MP3's.. I've never had problems playing an MP3 on the Clie. It also plays the secure ATRAC3 files, if you're into that sort of thing. The Clie also comes with a nice input wand that lets you control music without taking the Clie out of your pocket (and can actually provide input for PDA functions, if any programs were ever to take advantage of that).

Memory sticks go up to 128mb currently, so if you want to store your entire CD collection you're out of luck (unless you have a CD collection consisting of 3 CD's). A 128mb Memory Stick costs about $100 if you shop around a little.

I'd recommend buying a Clie 760 if you want an MP3 player and a PDA (it's the best PDA out there), but if you just want an MP3 player buy an Ipod or something.

Althought the price has fortunately come down on the Minijam, support is less than stellar for new operating systems. In fact, Innogear originally said they had no plans to support WinXP or Mac OS X. Looking at their FAQ I see they now say they're "exploring" XP and OS X support for "early 2002".

Given that Innogear still hasn't implemented the originally promised functionality to read e-books and other files directly from the Minijam's memory, I'm skeptical that they'll get around to it that soon.

Plus, the Minijam uses MMC cards with a proprietary format, so you wouldn't be able to pop your MMC card into any old desktop adapter and pull your MP3's off that way (or put new ones on).

Early Visor adopters may remember Innogear as the company that boldly announced the SixPack module early on, which was supposedly going to provide six features like a 56kmodem, 8 megs of flash memory, vibrating alarm, voice recorder, etc. They claimed it would cost $199 and that it would be available Q1 2000.

After pushing that release date back for the better part of a year, they announced the cancellation of the project. I've never bought any Innogear products, as much as I'd like an MP3 player for my Visor, because I don't trust the company to provide me with adequate support for the damn thing.

The SoundsGood MP3 player springboard seemed to be well received, but it has been discontued and didn't use external memory.

You'll find all kinds of consumer opinion about the Minijam at this site.

-Andy

P.S. You might want to check out the Sony Clie PEG-N760c for PDA/MP3 Capability. Sony seems poised to kick Handspring's ass.

Um, like a $1000 iBook which will kick the ass of most equivalent Win laptops? Real overpriced

Yeh right

I just got a sony vaio SR, 2.68 pounds with firewire, a 600mhz CPU, 128 megs of ram for $999.

The cheapest iBook on apples site is $1299 ($300 more) and while the specs are similar it weighs twice as much. I chose my laptop based mostly on size and formfactor. An equvelant thinkpad or the like would run you even less.

It exists. It is great. A battery powered CD burner to take with your laptop. It acts as a stand alone MP3 player if you want. USB 4X write. You just need 60 Mb free on the computer to "rip it onto itself".

I just finished burning yet another CD with it.

Sony CRX10U/A2 Digital Relay Drive

Sony's 18.1" LCD display is available now. Looks better, too.

you just described most of the current ultra-portable notebooks in existence. Try these:

Dell Inspiron

Compaq EVO

Sony VAIO R505 series

You'll have some trouble finding a notebook that is completely devoid of those features you mentioned. All three of these come with the standard legacy and PS/2 connectors, but none of them have any internal floppy or optical drives, which saves a great deal of weight and battery life. And they're all about $1400...not too bad if you ask me. We use the Dells here at my place of employment, and they work great. It's not mentioned on Dell's website, but you can order any of their laptops without an operating system at a $100 discount.

Yeah, right. Microsoft will put those other tiny companies right out of business. Which would be bad because, you know, Sony would never try to be a huge control-freak media monopoly.

By the way, where did you hear that Microsoft isn't getting royalties from third-party Xbox games? Or is that just your own conspiracy theory?

Sony C1 Picturebook. 2.2 lbs. Crusoe chip. Nifty.

Tuxtops used to do it but are now focusing on software. Their hardware buisness is being handled by QLITech Personally, when I wasnt using x, an old Compaq presario 1210 running Slackware worked well (except of course the modem. Now I am running a Sony Vaio PCG-FX240 with Red Hat 7.2, and it has no problems (except the modem, which I have no need for with broadband everywhere I use it. ). (Slack install didnt go as well as I would have liked...) A great deal of useful info can be found on the Linux on laptops page.

This thing combines all the functionality of a TIVO with a P4 and a DVD-ROM. Not only can you record 'Enterprise', you can edit the commercials out, and burn the whole Season, commercial free, to a DVD. And it's made to fit into your component system, with S-Video in and out, optical in and out, and RCA Stereo in and out.

It also includes a Fast Ethernet card, and a PCMCIA slot for your 802.11b card.

Yes, I know's it XP; the world ins't perfect.

Sony Digital Relay: full-size CD, 650 MB, under 1 pound, 3 hour battery life, $250
Imation RipGO!: mini-CD, 185 MB, 8 ounces, 5 hour battery life, $400

Both: USB (4x / 4x / 6x max), WMA, MP3, CDDA.

Apple iPod: hard drive, 5 GB, 6 ounces, 10 hour battery life, $400

iPod: FireWire ( 32x ), MP3, VBR, WAV, AIFF.
(Firmware upgradable to future formats. Built-in video games. Charges over FireWire.)

And their's is only $250.

...which by virtue of being firewire will be limited to Apple Mac owners...

You mean, people who own Apple Macs like these?

Since the iPod can double as a normal portable hard drive. I'm sure it will likely be pretty easily used on a PC. And if it's not, big deal. It might be nice for the other half to see how THEY like having their perfectly-good platform ignored, and having to hack a product to make it usable on their systems.

And if you haven't noticed, it is possible to buy a FireWire card for a PC that doesn't already come with it.

Just checking up on this (as I thought I heard about it before), Minidiscs can be 'burned' at faster than real time speeds (depending on the media copying from). In fact, Sony's MDS-JB940 model can burn CD->MD in 4x speeds (full 80 minute extended CD in 20 minutes.. you get the idea). Other reason: Unless you're using memory sticks for your MP3's (ungodly expensive, $50 for 32 meg), I'd lay claims that an MD player has greater flexibility and cheaper media than MP3 players do.

• The Sony GDM-FW900, a 24" (22.5" viewable) screen that'll do 1920 x 1200 @ 85Hz, and 2304 x 1440 max. You won't believe how beautiful it is 'til you see it. Sony says retail is $1,999, but I've seen it for much less. The Viewsonic P225f is also very nice, 22", much cheaper.
  
• My favorite solution, 2 19" screens on a Matrox DualHead card. Right now I'm using 2 Viewsonic P95fs. Perfectly flat, max 1920 x 1440. Overall I think I like Iiyamas better, but these are nice.
  

What exactly is everyone doing with their handhelds that makes "color" and "multimedia" top priorities (other than using them as expensive toys that is)?

I bought my Sony Clié 710 specifically for the screen. I love reading books on my Palm, but my old Palm III's screen was just way too low contrast. The Clié's screen is bright and very high-contrast. The front light makes it extremely easy to see in any lighting condition. And the hi-res display gives me great text. (It's even better now that iSilo supports the hi-res screen directly!)

The other "multimedia" features can go jump in a lake as far as I'm concerned. I would have gladly bought the 610 (same specs, minus the MP3 hardware) if it had been available at the time. I watched the demo movies that came with it, then deleted them. I do like to keep photos in there; it's a good way to carry around the output of my digital camera. Actually, right now I have a large chunk of the Helen, Sweetheart of the Internet comics installed.

I also considered the HandEra 330, but I didn't like the 240x320 display. (Although the virtual silkscreen area rocks!) That makes a scaling factor of 1.5x to fit apps on the screen, which makes a lot of bitmaps look just plain wrong. The Clié's 320x320 display is double the Palm's 160x160, so anything that doesn't play nice with the hi-res display can just be viewed in 2x mode.

BTW, I'll do my karma-whoring for the day and give a plug to Baen Webscriptions. Baen books is making all their new paperback releases available electronically concurrent with the dead-tree release. (Actually earlier, if you want to read incomplete galleys.) The releases are done in HTML. No "digital rights management", no bizarro proprietary format, just the book in bog-standard HTML. (Available in other formats too, but I think the HTML is the most portable and most useful.) They also have a free library of complete books so you can try before you buy. Kudos to Baen for being a major dead-tree publisher that actually seems to grok electronic publishing as well!

1. Memory Stick -- The white MagicGate DRM sticks are only used for playing back ATRAC3 format audio. Unless you're a big MiniDisc fan, the purple non-MG sticks work fine with MP3s.

2. High-res color screen -- The battery life isn't nearly as bad as you think. The MP3 player sucks far more power. (You can watch the meter go down if you leave the screen on while playing.) And there are now $399 models that trade the MP3 player for PalmOS 4 and 65K colors. In silver or purple. Take that, Neo! :-)

3. Springboard -- Point conceded. Sony has hinted that stick-based devices are in development, but so far, it's just marketing vapor. I'd settle for better throughput.

Sony has had a camera out for a few months now that uses a smilar looking media... however they claim it holds 156MB.

here

What exactly are the advantages of using these 3" cds over the normal sized ones? They hold less, cost more, may not be directly (though it seems you can get an adapter) supported by your burner and are probably a lot harder to find. I could only find one other device (those digital cameras) that really needs to use these things, so that means much less use of the extra mini cdrs around. Again, what exactly is the point?

Doubtless Palm was after not the desktop BeOS, but the BeIA internet appliance operating system. BeIA has, to date, only been sold to Sony for the eVilla gizmo, but that probably won't earn Sony much money.

I'm also sure that BeIA is the target of this overtake. But don't forget that Sony already has also some connections to Palm since their Clié PDA already uses PalmOS. So maybe Sony had a hand in this too (pure speculation!).

And don't forget that Sonys also big in home entertainment and Be has the HARP platform for multimedia devices. Maybe Palm plans to sell this to Sony too...

-- I'm too lazy to get an /. account, so i'll stay an ac

Doubtless Palm was after not the desktop BeOS, but the BeIA internet appliance operating system. BeIA has, to date, only been sold to Sony for the eVilla gizmo, but that probably won't earn Sony much money. But if Palm can combine BeIA with their own PalmOS, they could really give PocketPC a run for the market.

As has been mentioned before, Apple is in a unique situation where they control nearly all the aspects of the computer. The ATX standard and most PC motherboards are designed with either tower or desktop cases in mind.

Separately sold cases, which have to be compatible with a wide variety of motherboards, have a hard time replicating Apple's designs. In particular, in a tower case, the internal devices are all above the motherboard, so the cable connectors are at the top. A swing out design, like in the G4, is hard to do because the cables will get in the way. Take a look ColorCases to see what "niche" case manufacturers are doing despite these limitations.

On the other hand, companies like Compaq, Sony, and Gateway already ship their computers with custom motherboards and cases, and so have fewer limitations. They do offer their own takes on PC case design, just not exact copies of Apple's design for legal reasons. I mean, check out Compaq's Ipaq and Sony's Vaio Line and tell me they're ignoring design considerations.

As for computer enthusiasts who actually prefer compatibility, performance, and value to fancy design, we typically opt for the kind of cases listed here. (My specific case isn't listed there; it's an Antec S830.) They offer better cooling, more expandibility, and better access than most of the cases that tend to form before function. We're not immune to the concerns of aesthetics either; we just prefer to take matters in our own hands. Granted, some of the mods are of questionable taste and talent, but there are as many clean, professional jobs as bad jobs. And every one is the pride and joy of someone, no matter what you think of them.

This is false. I should know, having picked up a brand new Sony VAIO FX215 for $1500 a couple weeks ago. Built like a tank (and feels like one if you want to carry it on long hikes :o) , 15" screen, 128MB RAM, mobile Duron, integrated 100baseT ethernet, DVD reader, firewire, etc... etc... have a look. The FX215, afaik, is simply an FX210 with a 15" screen. And the prices online are about $150 higher than you'd find at Best Buy.

Some of the pros are that I got a recent Linux (Mandrake 8.0) to work with virtually no hassle. If you're into win*, it'll take win2k and win98 with ease if you don't like loseme. It's pretty standard hardware (save for the modem) from any OS's point of view.

Cons are that there's no docking station or port replicator for it. No PS/2 ports (solved that with a $60 USB hub with PS/2 ports)... it has an HSF modem instead of a real one (I got away with that by using my Xircom RealPort card, which IS a real modem)... Sony as an OEM needs to learn to do what real laptop OEMs do, and make drivers available for download... and, of course, it may be too big for some folks.

Short and sweet on it: I love this thing. I've also loved every Toshiba Tecra I've had from the corporate (a 730, 550, 8000, and 8100) save for their hideous keyboard layout and shallow feel.

BTW, anyone thinking about skimping on the extended warranty should weigh that against the exorbitant cost of a new LCD or other fragile parts contained in laptops. Go ahead and play it safe.

This would be so cool for laptops like the Sony PictureBook.

Of course, that would involve using DeCSS, so the MPAA wouldn't like it. With the DMCA, it would probably be illegal in the United States (although it sounds like "Fair Use" to me).

steveha

A backlight won't help in the GBA's case. The LCD screen has reflective faceting to improve the visual quality (not to be confused with the reflective plastic cover that actually makes frontlighting the unit unbearable due to glare).

My spiffy new Sony CLIÉ has the same style display. Their solution is a front-light that shines up from underneath the graffiti area. Looks great in all lighting conditions. (Though I admit that I never turn the light off unless I'm in bright sunlight.)

If battery life is a concern, you really should be using rechargables. Or, like I did with my son's GameBoy Pocket, velcro a couple of D-cells to the back of the thing. That sucker lasts for months now!

Show me a Palm device that has a color screen, can play MP3s and videos, can connect to a corporate network, has wireless options, records voice memos, and has large storage solutions and I'll happily eat my words.

Sony Clie'. Eat up ;-) (actually I'm not sure it records voice memos, but it should do everything else). Alternatively you can get a Handspring Visor Deluxe to do all those things but not at once.

I note that the low end model is not all that bad, and costs 1500 USian.

what is not mentioned is whether or not this has "advanced technology" to make it fully compliant with MPA and RIAA legal restrictions.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

I note that the low end model is not all that bad, and costs 1500 USian.

what is not mentioned is whether or not this has "advanced technology" to make it fully compliant with MPA and RIAA legal restrictions.

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

Everyone check out this

Does this thing dispence heroin or some other kind of addictive substance? Look at the expression on that guy's face!

--
Forget Napster. Why not really break the law?

You seem to be mistaken

John

--

This is like Sony's Key Ring USB Music Time Stamp 'The Emarker'.

What? First to *use* USB (not just put it on the board).

That's an argument about their choice of peripherals, not about their support of i/o standards. It's marketing, not engineering. (Not that marketing is not important, just a different discussion.)

First to use Firewire. Using 32bit Nubus when PCs where using ISA slots.

Still using Nubus years after the PC had moved to PCI. Indeed, I'd count Nubus along with SCSI--in both cases Apple went with a clearly superior solution early on, but ended up being held back as the mainstream PC standards, driven by the much larger marketplace, managed to improve much faster and yet be much cheaper than what Apple used.

The "laughably inferior video card" may be so for FPS, but actually performs quite well for graphic artists. Makes me wonder why they specced it.

"The Macintosh does not have any decent 3d support, so therefore we can pretend that 3d support is not important." Any $9 graphics card is just fine for 2d, although I seriously doubt that 16 MB and a 230 MHz RAMDAC are really good enough for any serious graphic artists. The simple fact is that the Mac does not do 3d well, and that that is simply pitiful in this day and age. And no, 3d is not just used for games; you may be shocked, but there are actually graphics artists that work in three dimensions too! (They use PCs and Unix workstations.)

BTW, the only decent 802.11 system out there that can hold a candle to the AirPort system is the Lucent Orinoco system, which is slightly more expensive and a lot harder to set up.

I don't know how hard it is to set up, but IIRC for what you admit is only a slightly higher price it has a much greater wireless range.

How many makers right now are putting out machines with DDR RAM? Last I checked, not many. Sure they're ramping up, but Apple would be stupid (and possibly insane) to be on the top of the curve for every trend. Their machines would be even more overpriced and they could end up with a Rambus/Intel fiasco on their hands if they made the wrong choice. Better to let someone like Intel make that mistake and fight the battles worth fighting (i.e the ones pretty much won already like USB, firewire)

As this thread was initially about system *performance* (as opposed to capabilities), let me tell you that DDR is MUCH more "a battle worth fighting" on this metric. But you have a very valid point--indeed, I agree with you completely. The thing is, what you're saying assumes that Apple will be designing and validating its own chipsets, incompatible with the real world, every time they want to add a feature. In such an environment, it is indeed not worth it to come out with a DDR chipset now. Moreover, while it would have been worth it to come out with a PC133 chispet a year ago and a DDR chipset in around 3 months time, the fact that Apple is the one designing and validating every new chipset is the reason these chipsets are always a year behind the times--it's a very complicated process and Apple's engineers are understandably stretched thin to try to replicate the work of dozens of companies in the PC world.

That's the problem with having a vertical monopoly; there's not enough room for differentiated product lines and innovation. In the PC world, there are 2 or 3 major chipset manufacturers competing to come out with the fastest chipsets with the most new features, and another couple players who drop in to keep competition high. There are about a dozen major motherboard manufacturers, who compete to best implement these chipsets with the most features at the lowest price. Because the PC RAM market is so large, you have all the DRAM manufacturers in the world driving chipset innovation as well. Finally, because PCs are used for general purpose tasks and because there's an independent benchmarking industry in the PC marketplace, all these people know that they won't be able to get away with a single toy SIMD benchmark as an overall measure of "performance"--thus they all feel pressure to create components which actually work fast over a wide variety of circumstances. Hence the PC market is moving into 2.1 and 3.2 GB/s FSBs while the Mac is finally hitting 1.1 GB/s. Oh, and while we're on the subject, it turns out I was wrong: you won't be able to buy a G4 with on-die L2 cache until the G4+ is released in March. Only then will the G4 finally be approaching clock-for-clock parity with x86 chips (according to SPECcpu, i.e. a real benchmark suite).

Now, I'm not saying there aren't some important tangible benefits to Apple's vertical monopoly. I just don't think they're worth the drawback: machines which cost twice as much as the equivalent PC did when it was released 9 months ago.

One final word re: price/performance -- find a notebook that can compete in that area with the new powerbook. Good luck.

Here you finally have a point: the new powerbook is very impressive and indeed competitive with PCs in price/performance. One important reason why is that AMD has not yet had a viable notebook CPU for the mainstream and performance ends of the market, so therefore Intel has a monopoly over that segment and thus performance notebooks tend to cost as much as powerbooks. Conversely, Apple has seen itself frozen out of the market it practically invented with the first powerbooks, as the portable market becomes more and more dominated by corporate consumers. Thus you have a reversal of the situation in the desktop PC market: Intel is getting away with monopoly pricing, while Apple is heavily discounting to try to break back into a market they've nearly lost.

Still, no matter how I might try to talk bad about it, there's no doubt the new powerbooks are very competitive. On the other hand, the situation is decidedly *not* as Apple has presented it. Here's what Apple has to say on the matter:


Sony Vaio Z505...........PowerBook G4

12.1-inch display........15.2-inch wide-screen display
Magnesium alloy..........99.5% pure grade CP1 titanium
650MHz Pentium III.......400 MHz PowerPC G4
No optical drive.........Slot-loading DVD-ROM
2 hours battery life.....5 hours battery life
Not wireless ready.......AirPort antenna built-in
1.15 inches thick........1 inch thick
$2549*...................$2599*

(Taken from here.)

Now let's look at what the actual facts on that Sony Z505 really are.

First off, let's take note of the fact that contrary to Apple's blatant misrepresentation, the Z505 with a P3-650 actually costs $2250, not "$2549". But what's $300 among friends? Well, we can use some of that money to buy the Z505 a 6-hour battery, so hahaha on you. The cost is now $2450, or $150 less than the Mac. Also while the powerbook may be a miraculous 3.8 mm thinner than the Z505, the important measure is of course weight; the powerbook, at 5.3 pounds, is 41% heavier than the 3.75 pound Z505--which makes sense, as they really serve different purposes. Indeed, the low weight (and its huge popularity) is the reason the Z505 is so underpowered for its price (for a PC that is), but we'll disregard that for now.

Unfortunately, there's no way to buy the Vaio as unloaded as those powerbooks: in particular, no way to buy it without at least Word 2000. Nor is there any way to purchase Word 2001 with our brand new powerbook at the Apple Store. We could buy it from MS for $400 but that doesn't seem quite fair. Instead we'll upgrade both machines to Office.

Where does that put us now?


Sony Vaio Z505...........PowerBook G4

12.1-inch display........15.2-inch wide-screen display
Magnesium alloy..........99.5% pure grade CP1 titanium
650MHz Pentium III.......400 MHz PowerPC G4
No optical drive.........Slot-loading DVD-ROM
6 hours battery life.....5 hours battery life
Not wireless ready.......AirPort antenna built-in
1.15 inches thick........1 inch thick
12 GB HD.................10 GB HD
3.75 pounds*.............5.3 pounds
$2650....................$3060

*Longer battery adds weight from this original measurement, but I couldn't find out how much.

What's missing? Well, the DVD player, for one thing. An external one adds $400 to the Z505's cost, making it just a hair cheaper than the powerbook. The 650 MHz P3 is in reality a good deal faster than the 400 MHz G4, but by using the right programs an argument can be made that the G4 comes close. "AirPort antenna built-in" is a red-herring, since you still need to spend $100 for the AirPort card. I looked it up, and the first place I checked had an Orinoco card for $160. Again, I'm almost positive this card has much better range than AirPort. Eh, let's look it up, shall we? Well, AirPort only goes a measely up to 150 feet. Orinoco goes...let's see...up to 1750 feet. Hmm. Guess the "built-in antenna" isn't working too well, is it??

So what do we end up with? The new powerbook is almost exactly the same price as a similarly configured Z505, except that the Z505 has a tad more HD space, has an extra hour on the battery, and, sorry to say, is the faster machine. Alternatively, you can get the Z505 without a DVD player and save $400.

Meanwhile, the powerbook has a luscious 15.2" screen, while the Z505 is stuck with a 12.1" which, while quite small, at least manages to almost hit the resolution of the powerbook (1024x768 vs. 1152x768). The benefit of giving up the nice screen and the internal DVD is up to 1.55 pounds of heft and of course that extra hour.

In other words, it's arguably a tossup. Of course it's a bad comparison because one is a sub-notebook and the other a full-sizer, but Apple chose it, not me. Still, it's worth noting that the Z505 is perhaps the most overpriced laptop around, so it's not such a surprise that Apple chose it when making a comparison.

Well phew! Aren't we enlightened? Did I pass? (It wasn't that tough, I let Apple "find a notebook that can compete in [price/performance] with the new powerbook" for me!)

Now it's my turn: find a desktop Mac that can compete in (price/1.5)/performance with a similarly equipped desktop PC--and I mean in a wide variety of benchmarks, not just Photoshop and RC5. (Indeed, it would be tough to do that even with Photoshop, assuming one actually used a complete Photoshop benchmark like PSbench.)

Good luck. Unfortunately, there are very few good cross-platform benchmarks to consult; the most well-respected cross-platform benchmark in the world, SPECcpu, shows the G4 in a rather unflattering light--indeed, because of this Motorola hasn't even released official scores for the G4, making it the only current general-purpose CPU family I can think of for which SPEC scores are not available. Oh wait, I lied: there's no SPEC scores for Cyrix chips either. However, there are SPEC scores for the P3, P4, the AMD K7, for Sun's UltraSparc II and III, for IBM's POWER3 chip which is sorta related to the G3 kinda sorta, for the Alpha EV67, and the MIPS R12000 and the HP PA-RISC 8600-just in the past year. The point is, every real chip releases SPEC scores, usually early and often. The best we have for the brand-spanking-new G4+ is an *estimate* for the outdated (in fact retired) SPEC95 suite, and man it's not too pretty. Of course, Motorola can always complain that they don't have a very good Fortran compiler, which is key to a good SPECfp score (their SPECint score sucks too, though); still, this is no one's fault but their own, unless of course they never meant the G4 or G4+ to be a high-performance general-purpose chip (oh that's right, they didn't; they built it for the embedded market).

Other cross-platform benchmarks are invariably much less trustworthy, because they are almost always binary only and are never of the breadth or depth of the SPEC suite. Picking Photoshop, for example, is just plain dumb, as Photoshop is simply better optimized on the Mac than on the PC (alternatively, we could benchmark Word and see which runs it faster). There's a nice collection of published cross-platform Mac vs. x86 results here; it's worth perusing, even though most of these programs make *very* poor overall benchmarks, taken as a whole they at least provide some semblence of a big picture. Needless to say, I think your task will be pretty difficult, even if there were a good way to compare performance across the two platforms.

It would be very hard to stay with those dimensions since you'd also have to fit at least a power supply, hard drive, dvd drive, and a couple PCI cards in there as well (audio, network). For a reasonably fast processor (such as would be requisite for good DivX/MP4 encoding/decoding) and the AIW card, a 300W power supply will be necessary. Again, ATX format PS is the most flexible so you've got another big chunk (roughly 5 1/2 x 3 3/4 x 6 inches - see ATX Specs). Also realize that you'll need a good heatsink for your CPU (I'd recommend a Duron or Thunderbird whose included heatsinks are 2 inches high). Using an NLX/Micro-ATX/FlexATX form factor (specs) buys some size, but limits peripheral/mobo choices. Also check out this quick form factor guide and comparison chart.

I haven't settled on a choice yet, but you might look at the following (these cases are typically about 17 x 17 x 6 inches, which is smaller than the Qbex you mention above). Key components are Abit KT7A, Athlon ~1GHz, ATI Radeon AIW, Pioneer DV-105S, IBM 75GXP HD, NetGear FA312, and Soundblaster Platinum.

• Lian-Li miniPC 31 - very spiffy aluminum case (black with silver) ... very pricey as well.
• SuperPower Landmark KS-699 - Small and decent looking, but will need to upgrade power supply and heat could be an issue.
• Palo Alto ATCX Convertible - Supports custom faceplates, buy without PSU (only 235W).
• CoolerMaster ATC 100 is similar to the Lian-Li, but slightly larger.
• Neoseeker has an interesting case listing, with collated reviews and rankings, but not a lot of independent data.
• If you get inspired to do a custom job, see HardOCP's article on case modding, which may be helpful.
• Slashdot has run many past articles on cool cases and quiet PCs (search for them, too many to link).
• Another tip: consider the Pioneer DV-105S or similar slot loading DVD drive, so you can orient horizontally.

Personally, I think the thing to concentrate on is the loudness of the unit, rather than its physical size (and, to a lesser extent its stylishness). I have a Tivo (Phillips HDR312 with 1 30G Quantum) and find it unacceptably loud when watching movies unless placed in an enclosed cabinet (its considerably more quiet than a PC). My focus on cases is just for something that can fit inside my audio cabinet and which can flow enough air (preferably out the back) to keep the system reasonably cool. If I get something really good together, I'll probably just build myself a custom case once its all settled out (but there is lots more important things to do for integration software, remote contol, DivX support, mp3 management, etc. first IMO). Remember you are also going to have a tangle of cables to deal with if you want good integration to an A/V receiver or multiple components.

Some other options to think about:

• Mac Cube, which is already compact, stylish, and quiet. Unfortunately, it lacks S-Video, tuner, and S/PDIF (digital audio) connections, costs quite a bit of money, and has limited software choices
• Laptop PC - compact and sometimes stylish, but may not have the horsepower for DivX and would probably require a lot more software to integrate functions, pricey (maybe buy used with dead LCD).
• Sony VAIO Slimtop or similar - small with many multimedia features, but you have to pay for LCD and don't have component flexibility.

Good luck, and please email me if you find anything else good or build software around the AIW and/or remote controls.

Regards, RJS

So its not at all a conspiracy by Sony to protect its music industry. Especially considering the fact that Sony makes several MP3 players.

For instance, I live in an apartment, a space where too much power would kill the overall sound stage. My speakers are all KLH, no sub, the fronts deliver plenty of bass without pissing off my neighbors. Yes, I can get better ones, better sound reproduction, but KLH have always been very good for people on a budget. If you have plenty of money, I would go with Klipch or Cerwin-Vega. Main thing, stay away from Bose or any clone makers. Those cubes may look pretty, but the sound reproduction is sub-par. It's pretty simple physics, you need the large box for accurate sound.

Second, the reciever/decoder. At the moment, I have a Sony DE-835 Dolby Digital/DTS decoder. I have been very happy with this system, and I have always liked Sony. Like I said, I am on a budget, so it is not top of the line, but it works quite well and Sony has many other options for more money. Plus, it has tons of optical inputs. My only problem with it is the number of coax digital inputs; it only has one. Hope this helps you some.

For instance, I live in an apartment, a space where too much power would kill the overall sound stage. My speakers are all KLH, no sub, the fronts deliver plenty of bass without pissing off my neighbors. Yes, I can get better ones, better sound reproduction, but KLH have always been very good for people on a budget. If you have plenty of money, I would go with Klipch or Cerwin-Vega. Main thing, stay away from Bose or any clone makers. Those cubes may look pretty, but the sound reproduction is sub-par. It's pretty simple physics, you need the large box for accurate sound.

Second, the reciever/decoder. At the moment, I have a Sony DE-835 Dolby Digital/DTS decoder. I have been very happy with this system, and I have always liked Sony. Like I said, I am on a budget, so it is not top of the line, but it works quite well and Sony has many other options for more money. Plus, it has tons of optical inputs. My only problem with it is the number of coax digital inputs; it only has one. Hope this helps you some.

and check out the Sony's Home Theatre ES Receivers - Not too shabby.

Sony has a pretty cool Cursoe based laptop not to be off topic or anything. Smite congigated: Smite - Smote - Smitten?

No, the sony VAIO Directwebsite says:

"Starts Selling September 25, 2000
Starts Shipping October 25, 2000"

Even the only picturebook was sold in the US, I played with one in the CompUSA in Honolulu.