The 'Book Review 2001.11.30

Except as noted, prices are in US dollars, bold links are to outside sites, and regular links lead to 'Book profiles on Low End Mac.

• Buy an iBook, Get $100 Back from Apple
• XBattery 0.5 Battery Monitoring Utility for OS X 'Books
• IrDA with OS X 10.1.1
• Mac OS X PC Card ATA Driver
• Zero Halliburton Z Series Computer Cases
• PowerBook Zone Drops Price on FireWire Enclosure/PowerBrick Bundle
• Willow Design Year End Sale
• Crumpler 'Book Bags
• Bargain 'Books

Buy an iBook, Get $100 Back from Apple

Buy an iBook between November 21 and December 31, 2001, and you'll get $100 back by mail. Click here to download the needed coupon and to view the terms and conditions.

XBattery 0.5 Battery Monitoring Utility for OS X 'Books

XBattery is a battery monitoring utility for Mac OS X. It provides a user-customizable dock icon that shows your current battery level and charging status. It also provides a variety of graphs detailing battery information, and a user-customizable display.

New in this version:

• Provides accurate battery monitoring under OS X.
• Provides 3 different dock icon options, all of which show the current battery level and charging status.
• Monitors battery voltage, current draw, battery level, and more.
• Provides history graphs of battery voltage and battery level over time.

System requirements:

• XBattery runs on any PowerBook or iBook running OS X 10.1 or later

XBattery is $15 shareware  

XBattery is currently available as a prerelease download. This version is not feature complete., but if you register for it now, you will receive all future releases at no additional charge.

Mac OS X PC Card ATA Driver

Michael Fox's OS X PC Card ATA Driver is an implementation of a sixteen-bit PC Card ATA driver for Mac OS X (and Darwin). This driver will support PC Cards that have an ATA interface, such as micro disk drives, CompactFlash cards, SmartMedia cards, and Sony Memory Sticks. It is also a good reference for others wanting to write PC Card drivers.

At present, the driver is intended for developers, testers, and the not-so-weak-of-heart. Since one must install post-10.1.1 kernel extensions (at or near the Darwin repository's top of source tree), there are no packages or disk images. Rather, the instructions on building and installing the driver are included with the source. If you plan to try it out, be aware that a kernel panic can render a media card's file system unusable and possibly require that the card be reformatted.

New for this release:

The current version of the driver is much more stable than the previous one. Kernel panics are rare and the driver functions as it should modulo formatting a media card (formatting with the FAT file system or UFS file system works whereas attempting to format a card using the HFS or HFS+ file system sometimes fails.)

For more information, visit Sourceforge.

Also check out Remy Davison's article about the driver on Insanely-Great Mac.

IrDA With OS X 10.1.1

If you're interested in infrared connectivity on a PowerBook running OS X, check out this thread on Mac OS X Hints.

Zero Halliburton Z Series Computer Cases

These sleek, elegant notebook cases are claimed to be four times more protective than the leading soft-sided cases. The Z Series starts with a lightweight, aircraft-quality aluminum shell and incorporates an exceptionally thick, shock-absorbent interior. In addition, your notebook investment is protected by a triple-digit combination lock and a neoprene gasket that keeps out dust and moisture.

Starting with a heat-treated aluminum shell boasting a tensile strength of nearly 50,000 lbs. per square inch, every Zero Halliburton computer case includes extra shock-absorbent padding, and critically tested hinges.

According to independent drop testing, notebook computers properly strapped into a Zero Halliburton computer case sustained no noticeable damage even when dropped from a height of 60 inches, providing almost four times the protection offered by the best selling computer cases.

The Zero Halliburton computer case's aluminum shell and a triple-digit combination lock that allows you to set your own code provide security and privacy. The aluminum is "deep-drawn" over special steel dies to shape a shell that's free of wrinkling, distortion and manufacturing inconsistencies. And since the shell is made from two halves of solid aluminum, there's no chance for dirt or moisture to seep through and spoil your valuables. Then each shell is buffed and anodized to add color and prevent corrosion.

Aircraft-quality aluminum and advanced manufacturing procedures keep weight at a minimum while still offering maximum protection. In its natural form, aluminum offers an impressive combination of strength and lightness. However, with the addition of a precision deep-draw process and heat treatment, Zero Halliburton is able to enhance the natural strength-to-weight ratio of the aluminum even further. The result is a case with the same exceptional strength and rigidity of steel at just 1/4 the weight.

An innovative neoprene gasket means you won't have to sweat the little things - namely, dust and moisture. A pair of heavy-duty, chrome drawbolt latches double up to keep your case closed and your notebook secure. The Zero Halliburton Computer Case carrying strap is built for the long haul - without making it feel like one.

PowerBook Zone Drops Price on FireWire Enclosure/PowerBrick Bundle

PowerBook Zone has reduced the price of their FW-2500WB FireWire enclosure to $99 to clear out the remaining units. The bundles of the enclosure and a MadsonLine MicroAdapter power adapter are now $175 .

This bundle packages the black or silver MadsonLine MicroAdapter and the FW-2500WB 2.5" FireWire hard drive enclosure.

MadsonLine offers a 12 month guarantee on the electronics and a lifetime guarantee on the MicroAdapter's casing. The FireWire enclosure also has a 12 month guarantee.

• Black adapter for pre-2001 models plus FireWire enclosure
• Silver adapter for G4/Dual USB iBook plus FireWire enclosure:

PowerBook Zone offers UPS ground shipping free.

Willow Design Year End Sale

After fifteen years of crafting computer carrying cases, Willow Design is having its very first sale. In 1987 Willow's first case was for the Mac SE with an extended keyboard. Since then Willow has created a host of cases specifically designed for Apple products, including cases for the PowerBook G4 and G3s, iBooks, G4 Tower, and all of the Apple flat panel displays.

Willow has put most of its cases on sale until December 15th.

The year has been Willow's best ever with many new designs, great sales increases, and many valued, new customers. At the same time the year has turned tragic with the terrorist acts of September 11th. Willow watched and grieved, as has the rest of the world, the loss of life, pain and suffering of innocent people (and heroes) in New York, Washington, and other countries because of the reprehensible acts of that day.

In a very small way (in the global scope of things), it affected Willow with a painful drop in sales. They had spent the year to September 11th vigorously finding, hiring, and training new staff to try to keep up with demand. The abrupt sales drop meant that, to keep all those new employees (their most valuable resource), Willow ended up stockpiling more cases than is comfortable.

So as a "thank you" to the Macintosh community and a way to reduce their inventory, Willow is having its very first sale. It is effective from now until December 15th, 2001, and the savings are significant. For those ordering before December 7th, Willow will further increase savings by paying half the cost of shipping by ground in the United States and Canada.

The quality of the cases and their lifetime guarantee against defects are the same as ever. Only the prices have been dropped - but because Willow is trying to get the stock down, case models and colors are subject to availability.

See my review of the Willow Kerouac notepac laptop case this week on The Road Warrior.

Crumpler 'Book Bags

Crumpler offers laptop bags in three series:

Very Busy Man, an extra large notebook bag.

Features: Heavy Duty Padding, Multiple Internal Zip Pockets, Padded Shoulder Strap, Quick Release Buckles, Third Leg Stabilizing Strap, Laptop stabilizer, Internal padded laptop pocket for up to 14" W x 12" H x 3" Thick laptop.

Approximate Size

• Top to Bottom: 13 inches
• Side to Side: 18 inches
• Front to Back:   7 inches
• Weight: 45 oz.

Wack-O-Phone, the medium bag.

Features: Heavy Duty Padding, Multiple Internal Zip Pockets, Padded Shoulder Strap, Escape hole for audio or xcommunication devices, Quick Release Buckles and Laptop stabilizer, Internal padded laptop pocket for up to 13" W x 12" H x 3" Thick laptop.

Approximate Size

• Top to Bottom: 13 inches
• Side to Side: 14 inches
• Front to Back:   4 inches
• Weight: 40 oz.

Roll-O-Notes, the little bag.

Features: Heavy Duty Padding, Internal Zip Pockets, Padded Shoulder Strap, Escape hole for audio or communication devices, Quick Release Buckles and Laptop stabilizer.

Internal padded laptop pocket for up to 12" W x 9" H x 2.5" Thick laptop.

Approximate Size

• Top to Bottom: 10 inches
• Side to Side: 14 inches
• Front to Back:   5 inches
• Weight: 32 oz.

Available Colors (all three models)

• red/blue
• blue/orange
• black/blue
• brown/yellow
• green/blue

Crumpler uses high quality, Size 10 Zippers and synthetic materials like DuPont Cordura Plus and are lined with rip-stop nylon. The straps in Crumpler bags are made from the same material as seatbelts. Many Crumpler bags have a "third leg." This makes the bag easier to carry. Crumpler bags use buckles, and some have a special hole to allow wires from phones, CD players, MP3 players, etc. to come out of the closet and join the real world.

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Bargain 'Books

Small Dog Electronics

• iBook G3/500, 192/10 GB/CD-ROM, $1,049
• iBook G3/500, 64/10 GB/CD-ROM ($100 mail in rebate from Apple until 12/31/01), $1,199
• PowerBook WallStreet G3/300, 64/8 GB/DVD/56K/14.1", $1,199
• PowerBook Pismo G3/400, 64/6 GB/DVD/56K/FireWire, $1,329

MacResQ

• PowerBook Pismo G3/400, 128/6 GB/DVD/56K/FireWire/14.1", $1,199.99
• PowerBook 1400cs/133, 32/1.3 GB/floppy, $349.99

Power Max

• PowerBook Lombard G3/333, 64/4 GB/CD/56K/14.1", used, $1,069
• PowerBook WallStreet G3/292, 64/8 GB/CD/FD/14.1", used, $1,069
• PowerBook Pismo G3/400, 192/6 GB/DVD/56K/14.1", used, $1,299

MEGA Macs

• PowerBook G4/400, 128/10/DVD/56k, new, 1 year mfr., $ 1,849.99
• PowerBook Pismo G3/400, 128 MB/6 GB/DVD/FireWire, used, 30 day, $1,179.99
• PowerBook Pismo G3/400, 192/6 GB/DVD/FireWire, used, 30 day, $1,199.99
• PowerBook Lombard G3/400, 128/6 GB/CD-RW/SCSI, used, 30 day, $1,149.99
• PowerBook Lombard G3/333, 256/4G/CD-RW/14.1, used, 30 day, $1,149.99
• PowerBook Lombard G3/333, 128/6 GB/24X/14.1, used, 30 day, $949.99

PowerBook Guy

• PowerBook Pismo G3/400, 128/6 GB/DVD/56k/FireWire/14.1 TFT, $1,349.95
• PowerBook Lombard G3/333, 128/4 GB/CD/56k/SCSI/14.1" TFT, $1,099.95
• PowerBook WallStreet G3/233, 96/2 GB/CD/ethernet/14.1" TFT, $949.95

MacSelect

• PowerBook WallStreet G3/300, 128/8 GB/DVD/100 MB Zip/56K/14.1", refurbished, $999
• PowerBook WallStreet G3/266, 64/4 GB/20x CD/100 MB Zip/56K/ 14.1", refurbished, $849