They take regular SO-DIMMS, but you have to be careful about the size of the whole SO-DIMM package. I recommend checking out dealram. Dealram is run by the Dealmac people, and lists the best prices on memory for each Apple model. They are solid consumer advocates, and they will yank sellers that rip people off.
Their best price on 512MB for the TiBook right now is $95 shipped from Data Memory Systems.
cracking an iBook or PowerBook open can be a little daunting (and warranty-voiding if done wrong)
You haven't done it, have you? Easy as pie. Pop off the keyboard. On the TiBook, you will see the 2 slots. On the iBook, you need to remove the Airport card (if installed), and 2 small screws to remove the cover over the memory slot. Even if you don't know what you are doing, it doesn't take more than 10 minutes.
In fact, I think there is a diagram on the bottom of the keyboard to help you. There are definitely directions in the owners manual.
128 is the bare minimum. It works, and if you don't run more than 1 or 2 apps at a time, you might not notice the swapping. I have 384MB in my original iBook 500, and it runs Jaguar just fine. It bogs down a bit if I have 10-12 apps running, but otherwise swapping is not a problem.
The good news is that 512MB chips for the iBook are now available for $80-100, so you can max out the memory (640MB) for a reasonable price. Apple memory is still expensive though.
I don't know about the rest, but the best course of action with the battery is to get it re-celled. Inside the battery casing is usually just standard sized NiCad or NiMH or LiIon cells (depending on the age). Search around, there are companies that specialize in exactly this.
Look at the xrays of a TiBook, for example. You can see the cells inside the battery in the lower left corner.
Yeah, I know. I just checked top on my iBook and it told me that the WindowManager has consumed 2 minutes of processor time since my last reboot 6 days ago. SystemUIServices has used another 2.5 minutes.
I mean, thats like.04% wasted processor cycles.
Note to the clueless, the GUI doesn't consume much processor time if nothing is writing to the screen.
I believe that there are a few components of MacOS X that Apple has licenced and cannot release the source to, so Darwin has replacements for those components, but it is supposed to be binary compatible with MacOS X.
You know, I keep wondering if we'll ever see the return of Mac-clones. Because Darwin is open-source, it should be possible to port it to any other PPC-based machine. Quartz and carbon and cocoa all ride on top of Darwin and don't know what is underneath, so once you've ported Darwin, you should be able to install the full MacOS X.
This would be a better situation for Apple than their old clone prorgam was, because Apple can force the other hardware vendors to port Darwin to their own clones and support it themselves, and pay Apple for the bit that provides the interface. It would also help Apple spread the cost of Darwin development out a bit.
Considering that Best Buy was/is the first retailer to sell iPods
You mean aside from CompUSA? And Fry's? and Apple themselves?
Anyway, I'm not convinced that this is quite to the level of a TiBook. It is 20% thicker, at least a pound heavier, and I haven't seen any info about battery life (which makes me think it will be very poor).
Until someone gets their hands on one to review, I'm not convinced. That C|Net writeup sounds like it was written by marketing people, not people who've used it.
I'm going to expand on this a little. I'm a ceramics person, so I'm actually qualified.
Glass is primarily SiO2 or "silica", but what we go around calling glass has plenty of additives. Most of what we call glass is actually soda-lime glass, so called because it contains ample ammounts of soda (Na2O) and lime (CaO). Those two ingredients help lower the melting point of SiO2 and make it a lot easier to process. Pyrex is a brand name for borosilicate glass and its composition allows it to be very strong and resistant to thermal shocks (this is why you can put Pyrex in the oven without worrying about it shattering). LCD glass is probably different alltogether.
Very pure amorphous SiO2 glass can be made, but it is much more expensive and is often sold as "fused silica" or "fused quartz".
True "quartz" is a crystalline (ordered) phase of SiO2, and it is not the only one. Crystoballite and tridymite are two other crystalline phases of quartz.
In any case, SiO2 is a dialectric, and not a semiconductor, so the computation being done in this story is all contained in the layers on top of the glass and not in the glass itself.
Yes, this is true, but the current PPC7450 chips that Apple uses can only use up to a 167MHz SDR bus for communicating between processors and the chipset. 900MHz between the processors and the chipset will be a big improvement.
People claim that the current G4s can't really make use of DDR because the processor bus can't handle it. This bus would obliterate those problems.
DMA avoids the processor all together BTW, routing data directly from memory through the chipset to other devices and vice versa.
The 970 also sports a cache-coherent, 900-MHz processor bus capable of data rates up to 6.4 Gbytes/second.
Keep in mind that DDR333 runs at 167MHz, so this new processor has a bus that can do DDR at 450MHz (DDR900), or quad-pumped 225MHz (QDR900?), or maybe <Sarcasm>PC900 SDRAM</Sarcasm>.
Well, Apple does have to defend their Trademarks or they become generic and anybody will be able to call their MP3 player an iPod.
I don't know if Apple will ask them to change this one, but the Author would be well advised to contact Apple first and see if they think that gnuPod might interfere. The development of this software benefits Apple, and if it helps them sell more iPods, Apple will be very happy. If it dilutes their trademark, then they will ask for a name change and nothing more.
Re:What's with the attitude?
on
New MP3 Portables
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Um...
The Yepp isn't coming out until Feb/March, so it is way behind the iPod in that respect. By the time it comes out, Apple will have had the 10GB iPod on the market for a year. I mean come on, "Oh yeah, well wait 6 months...I'm going to get an MP3 player with the same capacity as your iPod and a slightly faster connection speed for the same price you paid today! Oh, yeah, the interface will probably suck too."
Besides which USB 2.0 isn't really faster than Firewire, and either one is faster than that 1.8" HD can handle anyway. The real advantage to Firewire is that it provides power too, so you can charge and sync your iPod by only plugging in one cable.
I've been reading a lot lately about how MacOS X doesn't really use a Mach microkernel. The kernel that Darwin uses is actually called xnu, and is more of a hybred micro/macrokernel, as appropriate.
Apple's Developer site has
more info. In fact, they say that xnu is not strictly a microkernel.
You know, it is funny you mention that, because I've been wondering if/when Apple might introduce automatic clustering. The way I understand it, the threading implementation in Darwin is such that threads can not only be transferred between processors, but also between computers too. Rendezvous could let you find all the other computers on the network that will let you run code (in a sandbox, perhaps) and automatically throw threads to them if it will help.
Imagine the Photoshop benchmarks if everything was spread across a rack of XServes!
All "New World" Macs use Open Firmware for booting and you can have as many OS partitions as you like, with or without any of the MacOSes. Linux does need to reside on a different partition from MacOS X, though, as some of the directory structures clash.
It is worth noting that the iPod for Windows uses a FAT32 formatted drive. I'm sure as soon as these hit the market (within the next 2 weeks), there will be Linux software within days. People have already reverse engineered the playlist format, and the MP3 files are just stored in hidden directories.
So if you like the iPod (and it is in your budget), you probably can't go wrong.
I'm a little disappointed that Audible.com doesn't carry Morning Edition, only ATC. They are equally good programs at different times of the day.
The original asker should probably look at the New York Times Audio Digest which they promise to have available by 6:00 AM EST Monday-Friday. At $13/month or $70/year it is not a bad deal. Heck, for $15/month you can get one audiobook each month plus the NYT audio.
As a bonus, it is probably possible to write an AppleScript to download it to iTunes every day. Plus, if you are a Mac user, they have a special deal going on right now if you sign up for the $15/month service.
They would likely still have their own, special BIOS and architecture
I suspect Apple would require a different BIOS than what is used, per se, but right now Apple uses Open Firmware, which is an open standard for booting. You can wipe MacOS off of the so called "New World" Macs (most Macs since the original iMac) and install Linux if you like.
I think that this is one of the reasons that Apple maintains an Intel port of Darwin. It is not Apple's intention to move, but as long as the code works on more than one architechture, it makes it easier to port it to another one. You will loose Classic support though, and everything will have to be recompiled, but MacOS X provides a mechanism for distributing multiarchitecture binaries.
IA-64 seems more likely than IA-32 to me, but some people have suggested
Apple could move to IBM's Power4 line, which is closely related to PPC. How about ARM Processors? MIPS? Sparc? Alpha? Transmeta? Anybody have any other ideas?
Slashdot Mirror
Their best price on 512MB for the TiBook right now is $95 shipped from Data Memory Systems.
You haven't done it, have you? Easy as pie. Pop off the keyboard. On the TiBook, you will see the 2 slots. On the iBook, you need to remove the Airport card (if installed), and 2 small screws to remove the cover over the memory slot. Even if you don't know what you are doing, it doesn't take more than 10 minutes.
In fact, I think there is a diagram on the bottom of the keyboard to help you. There are definitely directions in the owners manual.
The good news is that 512MB chips for the iBook are now available for $80-100, so you can max out the memory (640MB) for a reasonable price. Apple memory is still expensive though.
I don't know about the rest, but the best course of action with the battery is to get it re-celled. Inside the battery casing is usually just standard sized NiCad or NiMH or LiIon cells (depending on the age). Search around, there are companies that specialize in exactly this.
Look at the xrays of a TiBook, for example. You can see the cells inside the battery in the lower left corner.
I mean, thats like .04% wasted processor cycles.
Note to the clueless, the GUI doesn't consume much processor time if nothing is writing to the screen.
A FAQ is available.
I believe that there are a few components of MacOS X that Apple has licenced and cannot release the source to, so Darwin has replacements for those components, but it is supposed to be binary compatible with MacOS X.
You know, I keep wondering if we'll ever see the return of Mac-clones. Because Darwin is open-source, it should be possible to port it to any other PPC-based machine. Quartz and carbon and cocoa all ride on top of Darwin and don't know what is underneath, so once you've ported Darwin, you should be able to install the full MacOS X.
This would be a better situation for Apple than their old clone prorgam was, because Apple can force the other hardware vendors to port Darwin to their own clones and support it themselves, and pay Apple for the bit that provides the interface. It would also help Apple spread the cost of Darwin development out a bit.
Probably a pipe dream, but still...
You mean aside from CompUSA? And Fry's? and Apple themselves?
Anyway, I'm not convinced that this is quite to the level of a TiBook. It is 20% thicker, at least a pound heavier, and I haven't seen any info about battery life (which makes me think it will be very poor).
Until someone gets their hands on one to review, I'm not convinced. That C|Net writeup sounds like it was written by marketing people, not people who've used it.
Glass is primarily SiO2 or "silica", but what we go around calling glass has plenty of additives. Most of what we call glass is actually soda-lime glass, so called because it contains ample ammounts of soda (Na2O) and lime (CaO). Those two ingredients help lower the melting point of SiO2 and make it a lot easier to process. Pyrex is a brand name for borosilicate glass and its composition allows it to be very strong and resistant to thermal shocks (this is why you can put Pyrex in the oven without worrying about it shattering). LCD glass is probably different alltogether.
Very pure amorphous SiO2 glass can be made, but it is much more expensive and is often sold as "fused silica" or "fused quartz".
True "quartz" is a crystalline (ordered) phase of SiO2, and it is not the only one. Crystoballite and tridymite are two other crystalline phases of quartz.
In any case, SiO2 is a dialectric, and not a semiconductor, so the computation being done in this story is all contained in the layers on top of the glass and not in the glass itself.
Hydrogen and pure carbon (soot) would be considered bad to be coming out of an engine.
People claim that the current G4s can't really make use of DDR because the processor bus can't handle it. This bus would obliterate those problems.
DMA avoids the processor all together BTW, routing data directly from memory through the chipset to other devices and vice versa.
Keep in mind that DDR333 runs at 167MHz, so this new processor has a bus that can do DDR at 450MHz (DDR900), or quad-pumped 225MHz (QDR900?), or maybe <Sarcasm>PC900 SDRAM</Sarcasm>.
I don't know if Apple will ask them to change this one, but the Author would be well advised to contact Apple first and see if they think that gnuPod might interfere. The development of this software benefits Apple, and if it helps them sell more iPods, Apple will be very happy. If it dilutes their trademark, then they will ask for a name change and nothing more.
The Yepp isn't coming out until Feb/March, so it is way behind the iPod in that respect. By the time it comes out, Apple will have had the 10GB iPod on the market for a year. I mean come on, "Oh yeah, well wait 6 months...I'm going to get an MP3 player with the same capacity as your iPod and a slightly faster connection speed for the same price you paid today! Oh, yeah, the interface will probably suck too."
Besides which USB 2.0 isn't really faster than Firewire, and either one is faster than that 1.8" HD can handle anyway. The real advantage to Firewire is that it provides power too, so you can charge and sync your iPod by only plugging in one cable.
No, really.
Apple's Developer site has more info. In fact, they say that xnu is not strictly a microkernel.
You know, it is funny you mention that, because I've been wondering if/when Apple might introduce automatic clustering. The way I understand it, the threading implementation in Darwin is such that threads can not only be transferred between processors, but also between computers too. Rendezvous could let you find all the other computers on the network that will let you run code (in a sandbox, perhaps) and automatically throw threads to them if it will help.
Imagine the Photoshop benchmarks if everything was spread across a rack of XServes!
<DUCKS>
All "New World" Macs use Open Firmware for booting and you can have as many OS partitions as you like, with or without any of the MacOSes. Linux does need to reside on a different partition from MacOS X, though, as some of the directory structures clash.
So if you like the iPod (and it is in your budget), you probably can't go wrong.
I'm a little disappointed that Audible.com doesn't carry Morning Edition, only ATC. They are equally good programs at different times of the day.
The original asker should probably look at the New York Times Audio Digest which they promise to have available by 6:00 AM EST Monday-Friday. At $13/month or $70/year it is not a bad deal. Heck, for $15/month you can get one audiobook each month plus the NYT audio.
As a bonus, it is probably possible to write an AppleScript to download it to iTunes every day. Plus, if you are a Mac user, they have a special deal going on right now if you sign up for the $15/month service.
From Filemaker's website.
It's a little hard to get pissed off at your parent company.
Win95A-D = 4.0.0 - 4.0.3
Win98/98SE = 4.1.0/4.1.1
WinNT 4.0.0 - 4.0.6 Unless the service packs added major features, but I thought they were mainly bug fixes.
Win 2000/NT5 5.0.0 - 5.0.2
WinXP = NT5.1 seems resonable to me.
Remember that Apple has had 11 versions of OS X so far 10.0.0 - 10.0.4 and 10.1.0 - 10.1.5.
I suspect Apple would require a different BIOS than what is used, per se, but right now Apple uses Open Firmware, which is an open standard for booting. You can wipe MacOS off of the so called "New World" Macs (most Macs since the original iMac) and install Linux if you like.
IA-64 seems more likely than IA-32 to me, but some people have suggested Apple could move to IBM's Power4 line, which is closely related to PPC. How about ARM Processors? MIPS? Sparc? Alpha? Transmeta? Anybody have any other ideas?