POWERWATCH NEWS POWERWATCH VIEWS POWERWATCH SYSTEMS POWER TECH POWERWATCH FILES ABOUT POWERWATCH POWERWATCH LINKS JEFF'S LOSTWORLD		July Power News Archive (Up to August News Archive) Thursday, July 31 PowerWatch has learned that next week, at MacWorld, Power will be scrapping those Humvee's for helicopters, which will fly between the two expo halls (VIP's only). Instead of fatigues, they'll be in flightsuits! Wish I could see it :-) The problems with powercc.com seem to be over. I don't know what happened. One clever reader noticed that Power Computing also owns the following domain names: POWERNOW.COM, GETTHEPOWER.COM, and IHAVEPOWER.COM. Today is the last day for the $100 Powerbase rebates. MacWorld expo is next week. Be sure to stay right here for info on what's happening-- in fact, tomorrow morning I can release all the great news on all the new stuff! But, since I'm stuck out in the Bay Area, I can't get reports from Boston-- so if you're going, do write in and tell me what Power's doing this time around! The next PowerWatch chat is ONE WEEK from this Sunday.   Wednesday, July 30 Something's happened to the powercc.com domain, leaving them basically off the Net. A check with the InterNIC says that their domain is "on hold." Hopefully someone from Power will be able to clarify this, since I can't write in and ask. Rumor has it that Power CEO Joel Kocher is the leading candidate for Apple CEO. Having met Mr. Kocher in person, I would say that it would be a great loss to Power if he left. Of course, this is just a rumor.. A few random tips... Does your MacOS 8 CD crash on bootup? Hold down shift and shut off those extensions. I get a lot of mail asking "Why does [insert inaccurate clock speed reporting utility here] say that my PowerCenter Pro 210 is only 195MHz? Is Power lying to us?" Please go to PowerWatch Files and grab Clockometer or SpeedControl, which will tell you the truth! A wise man once said to check PowerWatch this Friday for (hopefully) exclusive information on the new Power systems to be introduced next week!   Monday, July 28 Anybody else having trouble with Netscape (either version) just quitting all of a sudden in MacOS 8? I am. My configuration is a PowerTower 200e (Mach9'd to 220MHz), 88mb RAM, MacOS 8. The only odd things installed are the Twin Turbo (v. 4.0.2) and a Miro DC 20. (Speaking of Miro, a company called Pinnacle (not Micro) bought them out last week).   Saturday, July 26 The Lostworld pages have been snazzied up a bit. I'm sure those of you who don't like "web tricks" are pleased that this wasn't done to these pages... Thanks to the great crowd who came to chat last night - we had a great time and WebX worked flawlessly! Hopefully you came away with something! PowerWatch has learned that one of the major Mac upgrade card makers is working on a G3 daughtercard that will work in most Power systems-- including the PowerBase. This is excellent news for PB owners. Update: Many of you have written asking for the manufacturer. I can NOT say at this time, but I will as soon as I can! I picked up MacOS 8 yesterday from Computerware in Palo Alto- installed it, and its working great! Remember to do a clean install, it'll help a great deal in preventing problems. A CMP TechWeb story discusses how Power may be the first MacOS systems manufacturer to ship witth MacOS 8 pre-installed (heck, even Apple won't be by then!). This was reported here last Thursday, PW readers know ;-)   Friday, July 25 Is Motorola taking the lead? A MacWeek story talks about September's CHRP-based Starmax 6000, which will use the G3/Arthur processor at 266MHz with a 66MHz bus, and a backside cache. All this leads to big performance (how big, we don't know). Will Motorola take the performance crown? Only time will tell, I'd say.. Power probably has something up their sleeve!   Thursday, July 24 I got my copy of the BeOS yesterday, and well, it was fun. It seemed more buggy than the one I got back in January, and the lack of applications still make it kind of a toy. But it's fun to play with. I may write more about it later. We have another PowerWatch sighting in a magazine: See Henry Bortman's column in MacUser September, where we're referred to as "The Power Underground." Cool. In this very same article, he's asking all purchasers of Macs and Mac clones to write in, and tell him your experiences, positive or negative. Go to it! I'm not sure how much we helped, but MacZone is out of the $999 PowerCenter 150's, and they're no longer selling PCPro 180's with 64mb of RAM free.   Wednesday, July 23 MacOS 8 was introduced yesterday. I urge all of you to go out and buy it! I plan on buying it at a retail outlet instead of a catalog reseller so the stores put more Mac stuff on the shelves! Remember that all new Power systems as of August 4th will have MacOS 8 preinstalled (though they haven't announced this yet), and that those who ordered their systems after June 22nd can get it for $9.95 through the MacOS Up-to-Date program. I really dropped the ball on this one: MacZone (1-888-211-5032) has PowerCenter 150 16/1000/4xCD systems for $999. These are Powerbase prices, folks, and this is a great machine. As far as I know, these are NOT refurbs, but call and ask. MacZone also still seems have the PowerCenter Pro 180's with 64mb of RAM still too, even those Power no longer offers such configurations. A user has reported that upgrading his Powerbase 180's L2 cache to 512k (for $86 from The Chip Merchant) raised performance about 20%, putting it a little bit above the Powerbase 240, in MacBench processor tests. Sounds like a worthy investment. Waiting for the BeOS? (So am I). Power won't be shipping it until their engineers have approved it, according to a note on their page. This same note reiterates what we've been saying here-- since there isn't any Adaptec driver from Be, PowerCenter Pro owners will have to either hold out for one, or put the OS on a hard drive off the Adaptec card. You can also move your internal drives onto the built-in SCSI bus. The ixMicro TwinTurbo v. 4.0.2 driver has been released, and can be downloaded from ixMicro or PowerWatch Files. I attended a luncheon with about 50 other Oracle interns today, where Larry Ellison spoke to us and answered a few questions. Didn't get a chance to meet him personally, but it was real cool listening to him.   Sunday, July 20 A loud cheer rings out from the crowd! The Java applet is gone! While I'm still trying to find a good way to present information on the home page, I think most of you will be happy with the current appearance. Be sure to let me know what you think. I've compiled a Systems page for the upcoming PowerTower Pro G3, which summarizes all the rumors from the magazines (MacWeek being the latest), and leaves lots of open space for reviews from you guys, and me too! PowerWatch Views has been redone, again, with a few new topics, and some others moved around.   Saturday, July 19 A reader reports that "very reliable sources" say that a PowerCenter Pro 240 is coming real soon! Bay Area readers, I need your help. I didn't order MacOS 8 yet-- I was going to buy it at a retail store instead. If you see a copy at any store around the area, please do tell me so I can grab it! Incidentally, pick up the MacWorld September issue -- it has a great interactive guide to MacOS 8 on a CD. I should be getting the BeOS on Monday-- I'll let you know what I think after a day or two of usage!   Friday, July 18 Both MacUser and MacWorld have previews of the PowerTower Pro G3 systems, due in late August (look for a review from me as well in the next two weeks). A brief summary of the articles: PowerPC 750 (G3 Arthur) at 275MHz, 250MHz 1Mb backside cache, communicating at 1:1 with the processor Adaptec 2940UW Fast/Wide UltraSCSI card 64MB RAM standard Usual PTPro features: ATX Tower case, 2gb AV drive, 6 PCI slots, 9 drive bays, upgradable CPU daughtercard MacWorld gives (optimistic?) pricing of: PTPro G3/250c (core) 32/2gb/24X/ixMicro TT128M2 $3395 PTPro G3/250 64/2gb/ixMicro TT128M8 $3995 PTPro G3/275 64/2gb/ixMicro TT128M8 $4495 MacUser's MacBench scores: Processor: 1067 (%#$*!!!!) FPU: 567 (after MathLibMoto is installed this will skyrocket). MacWorld mentions that there will be a 3D accelerated video card included by the time it ships. Some changes noticed on the PowerComputing home page tonight... The PowerCenter Pro 180 64Mb of free RAM deal seems to be over-- only the 210 is still getting it. There is now an option to turn off the frames. I CHANGED MY MIND-- THERE WILL BE NO CHAT THIS WEEK! NEXT FRIDAY AT 6:30 IT IS!   Thursday, July 17 PowerWatch Exclusive News! (This first of many over the next few weeks!). I have learned lots of great new Power information! Unfortunately, there's a whole lot I can't share with you yet-- but there's also a lot that I can! New machines for MacWorld: I really can't comment on them, other than saying Power will not disappoint those looking for bigger, better, faster. I will be doing an exclusive preview (like I did with the PCPro) of one of these new monsters, and it should be up for the August 1st news day, along with other news I will be able to tell you all about then! MacOS 8: Great news here-- as of August 4th, all new Power systems will ship with MacOS8 installed on the hard drive! I know we're all very excited about this upgrade! Also, if you bought a system after June 22nd, you can call Claris at 800-335-9258 and you'll pay only $9.95! If you're stuck having to pay full price (like me), Deal-Mac has a good analysis on where to get it! BeOS: As mentioned Tuesday, the BeOS Preview Release is now shipping! (I ordered the $49 version today). Power hasn't yet received the CD's from Be, and they will ship as soon as possible-- be warned that it will not work on a PowerCenter Pro because of th Adaptec card -- Be is working on it, I'm told. Quieter fans: The Power people tell me that they have been listening to the complaints about noisy fans-- and they will be using a quieter power supply fan starting next month. Power says that this is the noisiest of the fans, and that since strong fans are needed to keep these fast machines cool, they tend to be noisier. Upgrades: In late August, Power will announce two upgrades for current owners: a PPC 604e/225MHz for all machines except Powerbase and the original Power series. While prices have been set, the ballpark figure I was told is substantially lower than other cards currently on the market. a PPC 603e/240MHz for Powerbase -- will be even cheaper, so all those PB 180 and 200 users can keep up! Stay tuned for more exclusives up to MacWorld Expo and beyond! Activity is way up here at PW -- we just passed 500,000 visits to the home page alone! The java applet may be on its way out this weekend!   Tuesday, July 15 Late updates: The BeOS Preview Release ships tomorrow! While still no word from Power on how eligible users will get their free copy, a Be press release says you can call Power at 800-671-6227 and ask for shipping info. When I find out, you'll hear it here! Other ways you can get it: MacUser magazine October issue (arrives August 25th) $10 - $49 from the Be web site (depending on if you want documentation, support, etc). Look for more exciting Power news, hopefully tomorrow! PowerWatch has learned from a very reliable source that daughtercard upgrades for the PowerWave, PowerCurve, PowerCenter, PowerTower, and yes, even the Powerbase will be shipping in August. While I don't have anymore information yet, I will get it as soon as possible!   Monday, July 14 The MacWeek article about the G3-powered Newer daughtercard caught the eye of many PW users, with its MacBench scores nearly 300 points higher than a PCPro 210. This card will only work in 604e systems, though, so PowerBase users are still left out in the cold. I'm going to try to get the straight answer on upgrades in the next week or two. PowerWatch was selected as the MacOS Mania site of the week. Cool! A personal note: I got the chance to see Quidam by Cirque du Soleil in Oakland, CA this wekeend, and cannot recommend it enough. I've seen their show in Vegas twice -- both are very highly recommended! The Java applet hasn't proved overly popular due to the load time. I'll be looking into possible solutions to provide a similar feature that is "caffeine free."   Saturday, July 12 I'm hearing from users that the wait for a PowerCenter Pro is now 3-4 weeks. If I get an official confirmation of this, or more users keep telling me, I'll update ShipWatch. The server went down this morning, taking WebCrossing with it for about 3.5 hours. It's back up now.   Friday, July 11 Apologies for the chat technical issues-- the server was killing webCrossing, and hence our chats got cut off. I will be trying to fix it for next week! Thanks to the great crowd who showed up and waited patiently!   Thursday, July 10 Come share your opinion on the departure of Gil Amelio on PowerWatch Views-- which, may I add, has been newly reorganized. Power has added PowerSource to its support site-- here you can browse through the very same information that the tech support people use. I did a little test run to find out which DIMMs to use for a Powerbase, and it proved very useful.   Wednesday, July 9 As many of you saw already, MacOS 8.1, due in late August, will have the Mac ROM built into the OS-- meaning no more using Apple ROM chips. This could mean big things for cloners like Power, and may open the way to those long awaited (at least by me) CHRP notebooks. Let's give a warm welcome (and lots of click-throughs <grin>) to Vicom Technologies, the newest PowerWatch advertiser! There's still 2 or 3 spots left open on the home page-- so take advantage of my summer promotion! In case you missed it, that's 2 months, 2 slots, $200 per month. Big time savings. I must apologize for the updates lately... after a long day at work then a trip to the gym, time is short. But I'm working on it.   Tuesday, July 8 Real slow days for news so far this week. So, in the meantime, just a reminder that you may miss out on some good stuff if you miss this week's Chat! A quick peek at the PowerWatch Poll says that users really want quieter fans-- and are willing to pay for them. I'm sure Power could even find some cool name for a new cooling system (PowerFans? hmm..) and market it to PW readers ;-)   Saturday, July 5 Hope you all had a great 4th! According to MacInTouch, the BeOS ships on July 14th. We already know that MacOS 8 ships a week later. Unfortunately, I don't know of how users will be the BeOS (and when), nor do I know what's up with MacOS 8 upgrades. Stay tuned. I added a few items to PowerLinks, PowerFiles, Upgrades, PowerCenter Pro, and PowerBase. Still need those benchmarks.   Thursday, July 3 Power Computing's filing with the SEC is available on the Net. To save myself some e-mail, I don't have any idea when it's coming on the market, or any other information about it. MacInTouch posted a conversation between Power President Joel Kocher and an end user, who was concerned about the whole Wintel thing. Education Access, a major K-12 educational reseller, has picked Power instead of Apple for MacOS systems. MacWorld Online has the story. A reminder: Our next PowerWatch Chat is Friday, July 11,7pm Pacific time. I highly recommend coming, as you may miss out on some real good stuff. Also, we are looking into doing a MacWorld Boston chat, so stay tuned. Not much else going on today.. I will be taking a (IMHO) much deserved rest this holiday weekend.   Wednesday, July 2 Thanks mostly to the wonderful people (Jeff's Little Helpers?) on PW Views, I have found the way to put an end to the lousy textflow problems we've been having since remodeling. They will begin to spread their way around the site tonight and tomorrow. Most pages have been corrected. On a similar note, the Java applet doesn't seem to work for everybody. I don't see any patterns, but I'll keep my eye on this one. Some people have written saying that Newer MAXpowr cards DO work in the PowerCenter, at least the desktop case. Answers still needed on exactly which systems it DOES work in. Rumors has it that the BeOS is shipping around the 17th of this month. What that means for Power users, I don't know. And no, there won't be a PowerWatch Stock Club ;-)   Tuesday, July 1 What an exhausting day. I come home from my first day at work, and I've got 84 e-mails, Power's IPO, and lots of things to add to this page! This day was made even more exhausting since I have to use Windows NT this summer! You really start to appreciate the MacOS, even with all its problems, when you use Windows-- though the multithreading/tasking/etc was impressive. The big news today, of course, was the announcement that Power Computing will be going public in the near future. The media has already mentioned (and blown out of proportion, IMHO) the fact that Power will indeed be selling PC's. Sources tell PW that Power is totally committed to the MacOS, and they'll actually be stepping up the fight for the Mac! Ahh, opening day for a new web design. You get all kind of responses. Most, were very positive. Some were "nice but fix [insert web page here with text flow problems]". And, my favorites, the one line e-mails reading "it sucks." Well, I'm not resting on my laurels yet -- I've removed the righthand blue bar, and have allowed the table fo fill the screen on a few pages, keeping the left blue bar constant. HTML pros (I thought I was one..) can send me code to help fix the textflow problems that happen.. I will be working on it as well. Keep the feedback coming! This one's kind of funny: Insignia Solutions have cut the price of Softwindows 95 to $199 (and Softwindows 3.0 to $149) to compete with VirtualPC. They also say they'll be releasing a newer version with DOS sound support, this summer. Seeing how I haven't been able to mount a CD in two versions of Softwindows, I'll save my money. A few miscellaneous site notes: Did you know you can scroll up and down, and click on links in the Java applet on the left hand side? I added a NewerTech MAXpower review to the upgrades page. I'm having a special promotion on ads on this very front page! Two months, prepaid, two slots, $200/month. The usual price is $700! (Even my banner I made is wrong!) Mail me for details. Oh, and finally, that 64 megs of free RAM applies to BOTH the PowerCenter Pro 210 AND the 180. $1995 for a superfast 604e AND 64mb! Cool deal.   (Down to June News Archive)