POWERWATCH NEWS POWERWATCH VIEWS POWERWATCH SYSTEMS POWER TECH POWERWATCH FILES ABOUT POWERWATCH POWERWATCH LINKS JEFF'S LOSTWORLD		August Power News Archive (Up to September news archive)   Sunday, August 31 I did a lot of thinking today about where to take PowerWatch after the impending licensing decision, and based on response for users yesterday, we may not need to go far. There will still be thousands of Power Computing users, just not new ones. Focusing on upgrades and support solutions will undoubtably need to expand, in place of news, which won't flow in anymore. Please, join me for a PW Views discussion on the topic. I must say that I'm stunned by the horribly tragic death of Princess Diana last night. While I never really followed the whole Royal scene, this is truly terrible and she will be missed by many.   Saturday, August 30 The normally reserved Ric Ford wrote a super editorial/analysis on the impending death of the cloners. I advise you all to read it. We moved servers yesterday, taking WebX down for a while. Things should be faster now. In the event of Power's announcement on Tuesday, PowerWatch will begin its transition to a new web page, with an entirely new concept, and possibly a new name. Suggestions are welcome.   Friday, August 29 While I keep hoping for the opposite, reports from our sources indicate that after the long holiday weekend, Apple will announce the purchase of Power Computing's license. If this does happen, support for Power customers will be taken over by Apple. While I keep hoping for good news, I honestly don't expect it at this point. When something does happen, I'll post it right away.   Thursday, August 28 Webintosh has an interview with Power's Marketing man, Mike Rosenfelt. Check out this Motley Fool article on "Steve Jobs Totalitarian Vision" ... it's a good read. Check out the MRP's review of a Newer MAXpowr Pro card.. also note how Newer says that it will be running on Catalyst in October, and Alchemy (that's Powerbase) in November or so.   Wednesday, August 27 Late update: Something big is about to happen regarding licensing (and I'm not feeling too positive about it either). Apple's MacOS Up-to-Date page now says that the program is not available to clone purchasers. Stay tuned for the very latest as this develops. As predicted last week, and again mention in this Austin American-Statesman article, Power will indeed ship the PowerTower Pro G3 this week, uncertified. PW users will be able to help me review one in the next week! (Thanks, MacInTouch). Be sure to check out MacInTouch's G3 upgrade page, for helpful information for Power users especially. Power apparently layed off more employees on Monday, in general areas like accounting and HR. I assume this is part of the "streamlining" that Power is undergoing at this time. A note about e-mailing me: I get a good deal of e-mail. And, between my real job, PowerWatch, and everyday life, I don't have time to respond to all of them. In fact, I have sort of a priority list of email importance: Breaking news News that can wait a day or two Technical support questions Messages in which I'm referred to as "Jake". ;-) MacQuake is out! Go out and buy it! Other new games I recommend this week are Civ II and Links LS.   Tuesday, August 26 Some good articles to read regarding the Power/Apple feud: Wired News article has a timeline... fascinating thessaSource has an (IMHO here) error plagued article bashing Power. (I'd expect a Power response soon) MRP has more G3-related news, including more on upgrades. The Mercury News editorial by Gil Amelio. Note the pro-licensing quote: Apple must also support a strong constellation of healthy clones. Not only does this make the platform more attractive to the customer base, but it also helps Apple learn how to compete. Apple has always been a great innovator and Microsoft has been a great competitor. Only Intel has done both well. For the sake of survival, Apple must develop some competitive muscle and show that it can win. Given the relative unit volumes, Apple should have no fear of strong and healthy clones. Good news regarding G3 upgrades from Newer. PW reader Gene was told this by Newer's Senior VP and CTO: "We have tested with the PowerCenter, PowerCenter Pro and PowerTower. We work in all three machines. It will take a slight tweak to our existing card. The first cards we ship in September will support all computers EXCEPT the three models you asked about. Starting in October our cards will support ALL models, including the three you are interested in. I hope this information pleases you. We are in the business of creating impossibly cool upgrades. We think our MAXpowr PRO & PRO+ cards certainly carry on the tradition." Super! Power has indeed temporarily cut weekend tech support. Chris Heatherly of Power explains: "Over the recent weeks, we have experienced a sizable increase in volume on the weekdays. To provide the best possible service during those times, we have decided to temporarily suspend weekend operations. This was not a cost-cutting measure, but rather decision to optimize our weekday service until additional people can be hired and trained." Deleting my prefs seems to have made CDToolkit 3.0 hold the CD-ROM tray in during restart. I'll keep you posted on this one. The PTPro G3 should start shipping later this week, with MacOS 8 installed most likely. The other systems are currently shipping with 7.6.1. And though I'm a little late, it seems that the Powerbase 200 has been discontinued, leaving only the 240. PW continues to have a record setting month of activity. With the exception of last Monday the 18th, every weekday last week had over 70,000 hits, peaked with over 90,000 on Friday. This day was second only to the 104,000 hits we received at the beginning of the month. Many thanks to all of you!   Monday, August 25 The Macintosh Resource Page is tracking G3 upgrades for PowerCenter Pro systems. Be sure to read the customer service horror story that one user received. Power doesn't seem to be offering technical support on weekends anymore. See Tuesday for more. No news on licensing over the weekend... hopefully this uncertainty will soon end. I picked up FWB CDToolkit 3.0 last friday. It still ejects the CD on shutdown, even if you tell it to "draw in" the try at that time. It is still a good upgrade.   Friday, August 22 Late update: Weekend reading. Well, I'm off for Southern California, again. Be sure to read this Businessweek article and this Austin American-Statesman article about all these rumors (note the shameless PW plug, too). Have a super weekend-- I'll be back Sunday afternoon. Hopefully nothing will have happened between now and then. Remember: They're rumors. Until you see a press release, everything you read on the other mac sites is a rumor. Power insists that nothing has happened (yet). A great article to read is this one by Don Crabb, before you believe everything you read. The G3 systems will begin shipping early next week, uncertified by Apple.   Thursday, August 21 Is the end here? Several Mac websites (Rumors, MacResource, MacInTouch) are all reporting that Apple is buying back Power's MacOS license, thus forcing Power to "close its doors or go Wintel." While this is just another rumor in a crazy week, I have a very bad feeling that several hundred thousand loyal Power owners are about to get screwed. This on the brink of one of the coolest products yet, the PTPro G3, which was to start shipping at the end of the week. This is truly an all time low for Apple, IMHO, if these rumors prove true. I'll try to keep posted on this story as it develops. Still, a few reliable sources tell me that this rumor is completely false. The PowerCenter Pro 240 is now shipping in quantity.   Wednesday, August 20 The Soap Opera continues... In a shocking development, Power's President and COO Joel Kocher yesterday resigned his post due to "irreconcilable differences" with Power management regarding licensing. Joel did a lot of great things for Power, and we're all going to miss him. An anonymous friend provides this additional info, which is awfully frightening: Joel Kocher did not, really, resign from PowerCC today, but he was ousted by the board that disagreed over his strategy of dealing with Apple on the clone issue. Sure, he 'resigned' about as much as Gil Amelio resigned.... The rumors about Apple buying Power are *NOT* just a hoax, as it is a strategy discussed (and very seriously considered) by Apple in order to evade Apple's contractual obligations with PowerCC. If this were to happen, it would most likely not only deal a severe blow to cloning, but it would also be the lowest thing that Apple could possibly have done... The CHRP certification group within Apple has been reclassified as 'special projects' and put 'on hold' until further notice. Check out this cartoon -- related to the whole licensing issue. Please join us for PowerWatch Chat this Sunday night at 6:30pm Pacific, 9:30pm Eastern time. We'll definitely be talking about this stuff.   Tuesday, August 19 In other news... As I predicted, the MacOS Rumors story about Apple buying Power was a hoax. Phew. And I was right concerning Apple not allowing licensing of CHRP systems. Score one for PowerWatch. Finally.. I did receive another confirmation that around 17 Tech support and customer service employees were laid off recently... Come discuss this all in our special forum in PowerWatch Views! I've still got some games to unload to make way for this summer's crop of new ones. E-Mail me if you're interested in any of these: Warcraft II with Expansion pack - $33 (all games are shipped 2nd day air) SOLD Inherit the Earth - it's old but it's not that bad. Take it off my hands for $10 SOLD Shivers - $20 takes this puzzle/mystery game Marathon Infinity - $20 shipped SOLD Caesar II - $20 (it's pretty cool too) SOLD Wing Commander IV - a classic. Excellent. $20. SOLD We did it! We had over 100,000 visitors in the last month! Advertisers take notice! ;-)   Monday, August 18 I go away for three days, and look what happens! Power Computing in the news big time! I don't have all the facts straight-- many of these items are rumors, but some are pretty reliable. I'll try to get more info and post it as soon as I find it out. Sources: Apple Recon (intro here, original story pulled.. I personally have never trusted what they post); MacOS Rumors, MacWeek (licensing article, Wintel notebook article); MacWorld, NEWS.com; Dallas morning news, Austin American-Statesman; PowerWatch sources; What's going on? Well, nobody knows for sure except for the Power executives. Here's what I know: $28mil Georgetown Power campus construction on hold Company is not adding jobs but will fill some existing positions as they become open. 17 layoffs, according to one source; Support being outsourced to Softbank in Las Vegas; Power denies layoff rumors (see AppleRecon article). Low on cash? (Power denies this too, same AppleRecon article). IPO on hold for the time being What can we do? You can still write to leadership@apple.com - and be sure to stay put, I'll try to get more info on what's going on exactly. If Power goes, you may see me on the side of the road with a "Will Webmaster for Food" sign!! Power has posted a solution (sort of) to the blinking '?' at startup for Powerbase users: Power Computing has identified an issue with a limited number of IDE (ATA) 1.2 GB hard disk drives used with PowerBase computers. This issue can occur with Mac OS 8 or a previous versions of the Mac OS. Power Computing uses the Apple IDE driver installed by the Mac OS Drive Setup utility. Drivers installed by versions of Drive Setup 1.2 or later been known to expose this issue. Customers should either contact Power Computing Technical Support or their reseller for further assistance with this issue. We still may move servers at some time this week. PW Views may go down as a result. VirtualPC is now officially an option with any system purchased from Power. I'm still trying to figure out how $159 is a bargain.   Friday, August 15 Is Apple seriously considering abandoning the cloners? From their latest SEC S10-Q filing, it damn sure looks like it. Here's a rather incriminating quote: As part of its efforts to increase the installed base for the Macintosh platform, the Company announced the licensing of the Mac OS to other personal computer vendors in 1995 and 1996. Several vendors currently sell products that utilize the Macintosh operating system, many of which have licensing arrangements with the Company. As a result of licensing its operating system, the Company competes with other companies producing Mac OS- based computer systems. The benefits to the Company from licensing the Mac OS to third parties may be more than offset by the disadvantages of competing with them. The Company is currently in discussions concerning the nature of such licensing arrangements going forward, including whether or not to extend such arrangements. There can be no assurance that the Company's Mac OS licensing strategy will prove successful or will financially benefit the Company or, if the Company decides to alter its strategy, that it will be able to modify its existing licensing arrangements to pursue such a strategy. Continue to fight back for your freedom of choice! Write to leadership@apple.com, visit this Save the Clones page, or click on the banner on the blue bar to the left. It's not just a Power thing-- it's for Umax and Motorola and friends too! (I, for one, think that the Starmax 6000 is really cool). Those of you look for the Bill Goins response to the MacOS Rumors licensing story, look no further -- we've got it right here. It's a good read. Speaking of good reads, Jim Stoneburner has kindly trimmed down the PowerWatch Chat transcript into a text file, and it's available for your reading for a limited time! In case you missed it, Brian Combs and Tom Beardmore from Power were there, and we had a great time. Stories of my disappearance are greatly exaggerated! ;-)   Thursday, August 14 (Happy Birthday Mom!) Due to the low performance of WebCrossing and the site as a whole lately, we are moving to a new server. Things should get much faster, I hope. It will be necessary to kill the WebX CGI during the move, so everything copies correctly (there are nearly 40mb of messages in the database!) In case you're wondering about the server setup, here's the deal: Dual DS-3 lines to both Digex and UUNET Pentium Pro 200, 128mb RAM, 7.4gb disk space Running Apache 1.2.x on FreeBSD Hey PowerCurve owners (and 'Wave owners, too). Other World Computing has genuine PowerComputing 604/150MHz daughtercards for only $99, with a one year warranty. In addition, they have 604e/200MHz cards for only $459. Be sure you tell them where you heard about the deal! ;-) Power Computing will offer Connectix Virtual PC, Windows 95 Version as an option to buyers of its PowerTower Pro, PowerCenter Pro, and PowerBase product lines. (No word on pricing yet). Since I'll be gone for a few days, here is my upcoming "no news posting" dates: This weekend Next weekend Sept 13-18 (going to Disney World!! Also get to fly back on a Boeing 777!! I don't know which is more exciting...) Want a Power "Beat the Machine" poster? Their ad says to write top poster@powercc.com.   Tuesday, August 12 Well, yesterday my new power supply arrived (in record time, too), and after a battle with swapping the two, I'm back at full speed. I could tell the difference right away.. the fan in the old power supply hardly put any air out when the system was going.. this one is at full blast. Why did I have so much trouble installing it? Well, I'm pretty lousy when it comes to that hand-eye coordination thing, I guess. Getting all the power cords out, and even worse, plugging everything back in was tough.... Miss the big introductions from Macworld last week? They're right here! I hope many of you had the chance to see the Rhapsody User Experience PDF files that MacOS Rumors had posted earlier yesterday (they've been since removed). The details inside look fantastic!   Monday, August 11 Whoops. I really blew it. I was so busy editing vacation video tapes that I forgot we had a chat session! So, to make up for it, let's try again this Tuesday at 6:30/9:30pm Pacific/Eastern times.   Weekend, August 9-10 Power's Senior Director of Product Marketing, Bill Goins, responds to the story MacOS Rumors ran a few days ago which basically said that Power was trying to make Apple look bad, so they could get the upper hand in licensing. Update: The response has disappeared. I'm trying to find where it went. A new power supply is on its way from Power Computing, and it will be here next week. I'll let you know how it goes. Update: The machine continues to crash, even though the fan is spinning. I need that supply soon. News.com says that this licensing garbage has Power's IPO at risk. Meanwhile, PowerWatch has learned that Power's IPO is also in danger from several lawsuits against the company. Well, MacWorld Boston (I updated this page again) is over, and the licensing issues have still not been resolved. Hmm... Looking for some cool games to play this weekend? I recommend checking out Access Software's Links LS, or Lucasarts' Tie Fighter. Both are really fun.   Friday, August 8 My PowerTower 200 started crashing profusely last night and today. I used Norton. Nothing. Disk First Aid. Same. Turned off newly installed extensions. Still crashing. I get down to look at the machine, and sure enough, the fan in the Power Supply is stopped. I take it aside and see that its pretty dusty inside.. so I do a little cleaning (but not enough) and the fan now works again. I'm going to keep my eyes on it though... and maybe get a replacement. (Does anyone know if a hot power supply would crash the machine though?) I've updated the Macworld Boston report with a show report, and the show specials. Speaking of which, here they are: PTPro 225 64/4gb/16x/1Mb L2 Cache/ixMicro 8Mb/Zip/Director5/MacOS8 - $2995 PTPro 250 64/2gb/16x/1mb L2 Cache/ixMicro 8Mb/Director 5/MacOS8/Powertron 20" - $4995 If you can afford either, you can call the normal 800 number and mention the MacWorld special. I was quite p.o.'ed to see that, at least according to a News.com story, Newer Technologies G3-based MacPowr Pro cards will cost $1200 to $2200. (I'll withhold my remarks on this -- PowerWatch is a family site). Another story there (with the lovely title of: "Apple tells cloners: Drop Dead") talks about notebook licensing holdups. ixMicro this week introduced their new 3D cards, including the IX3D Ultimate Rez, which not only has killer 3D acceleration, but also has 2D acceleration 40% faster than the current TwinTurbo models. Noteworthy for Power users is a quote from Steve Kahng which strongly hints at Power using this card in PTPro models. And no, I don't have any info on Power Computing's upgrades, sorry. Later this month. Thursday, August 7 Damn. Well, I never got to listen to the Jobs speech, thanks to the overloaded RealAudio servers. But I did start a MacWorld Boston page with some pictures from yesterday's action! A few more notes: Power usually runs promotions during the expo-- I haven't heard what it is this time, and I'm sure readers would be interested... One reader wrote in saying that MacOS 8 won't be installed on systems until later this month. Need confirmation from users on this one, I guess. Update: A few users have been told by Power that they will be indeed shipping with MacOS 8. Hmmm.. Having trouble installing MacOS 8 on a PowerBase? Getting the blinking '?' on startup? Please e-mail Power's Chris Heatherly with the following info: What model of PowerBase are you using? What is the size, vendor, and driver used on your internal hard drive? Is it IDE or SCSI? Do you have more than one internal HD? If so, what type is it? This information should be available through Hard Disk Toolkit. What model CD-ROM and revision of the firmware do you have? This information should be displayed in the CD-ROM Toolkit control panel. Do you have any external SCSI devices connected? If so, what vendor and type of device? Does the symptom occur with these disconnected? Do you have any other external devices connected? Does the symptom occur with these disconnected? Have you clean installed the OS? If not, clean install and monitor the results.   Wednesday, August 6 Or then again, maybe not... Power President Joel Kocher really gave Apple hell in his speech at the Macweek Volume Buyers event yesterday. I'll be up early to listen to Jobs and friends speak, so I'll be updating this page after that happens, hopefully. Some interesting things Kocher showed off were a 325MHz G3 logic board and a G3-based notebook that "we'll never get." Though Apple currently won't allow it, Power will jump onto the CHRP bandwagon later than Motorola and Umax- probably by the end of the year.   Tuesday, August 5 It's starting to sound like the rumors of Apple dropping the MacOS licensees is pre-Macworld hype, but I guess we'll find out on Wednesday. You can now preorder all the new machines mentioned last Friday at Power's newly re-redesigned website. The four week lead times seem hauntingly familiar to this time last year. I'm gonna try to test one of those G3's still. Going to MacWorld? Be sure to report in and tell me what you see, Power and not-Power related!   Saturday, August 2 Folks, it's time to rally up the troops, put on the fatigues, and fight for our cause. While still rumors (though apparently accurate ones), the thought of Apple ending the licensing of the MacOS to clone makers, is absolutely shocking. We're trying to get some form of protest going, and I'll keep you guys posted on what we can do to save our freedom of choice in MacOS computers! Update: it gets worse... "Effective immediately the [MacOS] UptoDate program will no longer be extended to Licensees for Mac OS 8. Our expectation is for your company to switch as soon as possible to the next major release. Apple will continue to honor the upgrade to Mac OS 7.6." (Thanks, MacInTouch) A stunning end to a great week. PowerWatch today shatter all previous activity records. After a great week starting with 43,000 page views on Monday, to around 47,000 through Thursday, we had an unbelievable 104,000+ page views today. I'm still reeling over it (and the ISP will be too with a 10mb log file for today :- ) While I still don't have any concrete dates, the new PowerCenter Pro 240 won't be shipping until later in August. The free RAM deals are over, by all indications. MacWeek compares the new PowerTower Pro G3 with an coming Starmax Pro 6000, and well... I'll let you read it.   Friday, August 1 Well, today's one of those days I love, and I'm paying for it writing this all after midnight after an already too-long day. I get to dish out exclusive details on Power's new systems and periperhals, to be announced next Monday at MacWorld! But that's why you come to PW anyway, right?? Hold tight -- oh, and don't call Power asking about them about any of this stuff-- they can't sell any of this until it's announced on Monday! Here we go! PowerTower Pro G3 - The fastest Mac on the planet! This puppy MacBenches nearly 1,100! I'm still working on getting one to test -- perhaps after MacWorld. PTPro G3/275 - PowerPC 750 processor; 64Mb RAM; 2gb 7200 rpm -or- 4gb 5400rpm UltraSCSI hard drives; 24x CD-ROM; ixMicro TwinTurbo 128M8 video card; 1Mb 275MHz backside L2 cache; Ultra-Wide SCSI (40Mb/sec!); All the usual fixins' including MacOS 8! $4795 (Did I mention that I'm currently accepting donations?) PTPro G3/250 - Same deal, except 250MHz processor and 250MHz L2 cache bus. $4295 PTPro G3/250 Core - 32Mb RAM; 2gb 5400 rpm Ultra SCSI hard drive; ixMicro 2mb 64bit video on-board; Everything else is the same as the regular 250. $3695 (!) PowerTower Pro price cuts! The PTPro 250 64/2gb system falls to $3595 There are now both 225 and 250 core configurations, which lack the TwinTurbo video, use 5400rpm hard drives, and have 16 and 32Mb of RAM (respectively). $2595 for the 225, $2995 for the 250. New PowerCenter Pro 240 and big price cuts! PCPro 240 - PowerPC 604e/240MHz processor; 32Mb RAM; 2gb 5400 rpm drive; 16x CD-ROM; 60MHz bus; 1Mb L2 cache; UltraSCSI (20Mb/sec); The rest of the PCPro goodies in a Low Profile case for $2595 The PCPro 210 drops in price to make room - a 32/2gb/LowProfile system is now $2195. The most exciting arrival-- I think -- is the PowerCenter Pro 180 core system; 16Mb RAM, 2gb 5400 rpm hard drive, but without the UltraSCSI card for an astounding $1695 in the Low Profile case. Folks, this is Powerbase pricing for a 604e! New Monitor options (see our new monitor page for all the details!) Powertron 20" display - yes, that's tron as in Trinitron! It's got a 19.1" viewable image size with resolutions up to 1280x1024, and full digital controls for $1395 (!!). Powertron 24" display - one of the most amazing monitors I've seen, this is one of those ultra-wide monitors, that Sony currently sells for over $4200! Resolutions up to 1920x1200 and on-screen controls for $3495. Again, see the new Monitors page for all the specs and a place for reviews! But wait-- there's more! (Can anyone sense my exhaustion yet?) Periperhals! 24x CD-ROM option in PowerCenter Pro, standard in PowerTower Pro ($100 upgrade?) 6gb 5400 rpm UltraSCSI hard drive for $650 9gb 7200 rpm UltraSCSI hard drive for $1295 Global Village 56K Fax Modem - your choice of x2 or k56Flex for $195 MiroMotion DC30 Video Editing card for $495 New RAID options that are too numerous to mention at this hour. And, as reported last week... ALL Power Systems will ship with MacOS 8, when ordered after Monday! On a related note, a News.com story says that a licensing agreement has NOT been reached, but Power is doing this anyway. The big question-- when can I get one? Remember, don't call asking about it today, or this weekend. Power estimates the following dates for these new products: PowerCenter Pro 240 - Maybe it's later this month? PowerTower Pro G3 - no later than August 29th Powertron monitors - late August Now, if you'll excuse me... I need some sleep!!! Thanks for your wonderful support in this endeavor! - Jeff Since a lot of people will be reading this page this weekend, I'm going to point out a feature of PowerWatch which many people seem to miss. PowerWatch Views is a threaded message board, with discussions on topics from new computers to getting MacOS 8 to install. The 4,000+ registered users will tell you that it's well worth your time to stop by and contribute!   (Down to July News Archive)