Blake Patterson

Dave Gerard writes "Apple have recently been in contact with Nvidia about putting a GeForce based AGP card in all the G4 Macs. It has also been said that these cards may become a feature in current Mac models not a future revised range. Apple have been interested in the Geforce 2 GTS as it has been out performing the ATI Radeon in most benchmarks. Nvidia now have a beta driver for the card so...

ijcossor writes, " Navigate Different is a new page about a custom GPS Navigation project in Australia using an Apple PowerBook in a Jeep Wrangler. The page covers an introduction to GPS, the hardware and software used, as well as great pictures of the completed installation." Interesting stuff -- chek it out!...

The Fly on the Mac has posted a superb piece of web content. A Look Back: The NeXTstation is a 9-page HTMLified rendition of an advertisement for the NeXTstation computer, circulated in 1990. Quite an incredible piece of hardware (it's impressive even today, I'll be bold enough to say), this Unix machine was the final hardware item that NeXT put out before feeling the pain ...

MacSlash recently posted an article pointing to Steve Jackson's account (dated Aug. 17) of Apple royally shafting him, in a rather unenviable way. (Steve Jackson of Steve Jackson Games, author of the back-in-the-day Ogre, Car Wars, etc.) Apple allegedly, having been given instructions to contact Steve before doing anything that might put the data on his HD in jeapordy (Steve...

A user wrote in to inform us that Xtrem, Inc. has announced their in-development XtremMac 1200MHz -- what appears to be a Mac-clone of sorts (how're they gonna get away with that?) sporting an unbelievable industrial design and a 1200MHz G4 processor!!! Other specs include: 150MHz bus, 320MB/sec SCSI RAID controller, 15000 RPM Ultra160 SCSI drive, etc. The simple benchmark graphs on their site...

We've been informed of a new site, Xicons.com, which is here to provide nice, new, large 128x128 pixel icons for Mac OS X. Quite a nifty find. Apple calls them "emotive," these large icons...well...they're rather detailed--we'll give them that. What do you...

Several previews/reviews of the Mac Voodoo5 5500 PCI 2D/3D accel. graphics board have surfaced. Of note are some lengthy pieces at Sharky Extreme and Inside Mac Games. The board is an important piece of hardware for the Mac in that it provides us with one of--if not the, most cutting edge pieces of graphics hardware in the PC world. Whether it'll end up a better total-package than ATI's Radeon...

A recent ZDNet News story gives some speculative details surrounding InkWell, a handwriting recognition package that Apple is supposedly planning to release for use with Mac OS X. Based on the Newton's incredible "Rosetta" handwriting recognition engine, and in conjunction with Wacom's pen input devices, the package should bring startlingly effective handwriting recognition to the Mac. The...

Reader Dave Avis wrote in telling us: "ZDNet is reporting that the G4 Powerbook is in preliminary testing at Apple and should be ready for January. Of course, Apple wouldn't comment." Take a look at the article for yourself. Rumor has it that the unit, codenamed Mercury will sport a >15" widescreen display (aspect ratio similar to Cinema Display) and a 400-500MHz G4. Such a Powerbook would...

ATI, yesterday, publicly accepted full responsibility for letting the cat out of the bag on some new Mac releases just before Jobs' MacWorld Expo keynote speech, NWFusion News reports. Though the incident did not strengthen ties between Apple and ATI, the two companies have been having discussions about their relationship since the fiasco. It would seem that little will change regarding ATI's...

MacSpeedZone has setup a rather useful page going into detail about the features of, differences between, and just general skinny on the new revision "F" iMac's. There's a handy comparison chart on there as well. Useful for anyone about to take hold of one of these indigo, ruby, sage, graphite, or snow...

It's not widely known that Apple has discontinued the 21" Apple Studio Display monitor, but they have. Apparently the units never sold well...understandably. They are rather overpriced--retail is $1,499 for a Trinitron screen that is not as advanced or posessing of a screen as flat as Sony's latest, the CPD-G500, which retails for $1,199, and has a smaller case. Other "no-name" vendors...

The "Critical Thinking Forum" has produced a rather emotive look at the G4 Cube and its role as the "computer of the future." Another worhtwhile look at the whole niche placement of this machine and smart takes on how to approach it. Good...

Several readers have recently written in to inform us of their displeasure with a certain...Mac site, I suppose you could call it. Ihateapple.com is definitely not a Mac fan site...but does cover much of the latest news and info in the Mac world...painted with a certain negativity. As the users writing in have pointed out, statements of "part rahter than whole" facts shed a rather negative...

InsideMacGames has posted their "Second Look at the Cube" where they take a look at Apple's new G4 Cube and consider how it fares as a game box (no pun intended!) and possibly...an X-Box Killer. Some interesting points are made for anyone considering this little minute marvel. Check it...

So I've been lusting after the G4 Cube. I've got a blue&white G3 400 with two screens (both 17"), and I'm so happy with the dual-head setup that the G4 Cube with its one 2x AGP slot (and it is really a slot) pretty-much ruled out a dual-head setup, and thus the Cube itself. Well, it occurred to me that the desktop area (in # of pixels) of one 21" screen (@ 1600x1200) is 96%...

Well...there's too much for me to go into right now, but in short, MacWorld Expo 2000 was one of the finest Apple Events that I have witnessed. Truly awesome offerings, among them... 4 new iMacs, lowend G3 350 model @ $799! 3 new G4 desktops, upper two are dual G4 models PowerMac G4 Cube introduced! 450MHz G4, no cooling fan, etc. 3 new displays shown (17" CRT, 15" LCD, Studio Display ...

( UPDATE: ...read the comments on this one. ) A MacRumors reader writes to express that: "The infamous 'Cube' shall be pushed for business rather than consumer or professional use. Far more sensible market aim actually. To keep costs low enough to compete with wintels, it is likely to use the newest of IBMs G3 chips, running between 600-750Mhz. And the size shall be smaller, and more...

We've just received word that Jobs has changed his mind with regard to broadcasting his MacWorld Expo keynote speech. The keynote can be viewed via satellite or through streaming Quicktime on July 19th, 9AM EDT. Could this mean more shiny new Apple products are headed our way than originally anticipated? Hopefully. Should be interesting. Our fingers are crossed for this being the pu...

MacCentral Online has posted an article discussing the likely scenario of standard Unix apps migrating to OS X. In short, the future looks bright. The significant role that GNU apps play, even in current and past developer previews of OS X, is discussed, as is the role NeXTStep played in basically becoming OS X. OS X, it would seem, will deliver us to a brave, gnu world indeed. (...sorry!)...