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First on DT: iBook G4 Logic Board Petition Started

By Nick, September 26, 2005

There is currently a petition on PetitionOnline.com calling for Apple to extend the iBook Logic Board Repair Extension Program to the first generation iBook G4s (800 MHz 12”, 933 MHz 14"). The petition states that the original iBook G4 suffers from the same scrambled video issue that afflicts many iBook G3s.

From the petition:

It is our wish that Apple Computer acknowledges that iBook G4s produced between October 2003 and April 2004 (12” 800Mhz, 14” 933 Mhz, 14” 1Ghz) commonly have a manufacturing or design fault causing the graphics card to fail and requiring the logic board to be replaced. We ask Apple to extend it’s logic board repair program for iBook G3s to cover these models.

Full disclosure: The writer owns an iBook G4 1.2 GHz and has owned a 900 MHz iBook G3 that had four fried logic boards. The writer’s iBook ownership in no way influenced the writing of this article.

Submitted by Thomas Davie


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Ten Suggestions for Leopard

By Nick, September 26, 2005

Hire John Siracusa.

Don’t get me wrong; Tiger’s a great operating system. It’s solid, stable, and full of cool goodies. However, there are a number of improvements or additions I’d like to see in Leopard. Here are ten of them--some small, some large--in no particular order:

1) Fix the Finder. Yes, I know. This has been beaten to a bloody pulp, and for good reason. The Finder definitely needs an overhaul. The two things that Apple must address are speed and consistency. As it stands, the Finder is rather prone to giving me the spinning beachball, like while performing a search. Connecting to servers or an iDisk can be painful; instead of popping up a dialog with a progress bar, the Finder will often hang for a few moments when connecting to my iDisk. As for the consistency issue, well, others have covered better than I can. The ability to apply keywords to documents via the Finder would be nice too.

2) Hire John Siracusa. See above. wink

3) Pick a look already. Once upon a time, the Mac OS was a model of consistency. While today all applications work largely the same, it would be nice if Apple picked a consistent look. Perhaps the smooth look of Mail and iTunes is the beginning of a return to a somewhat consistent look?

4) Refine Spotlight. I wouldn’t mind seeing Spotlight have the option of searching through system files (I know this would likely slow Spotlight down, which is why I say have it as an…
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Three days later, I’m underwhelmed by Tiger.

By UnnDunn, September 25, 2005

Dashboard is like a less polished, less versatile and less popular version of Konfabulator. Spotlight... doesn't deliver anything special.... MSN Desktop Search for Windows XP does an equal job.

So I’ve been using Tiger for three days, and, well… I’m underwhelmed. Quite frankly, I think it should have been made available at $20 for Panther customers, because that’s about all the value it delivers over its predecessor. Let’s take a look.

The two big features Apple is touting are Dashboard and Spotlight. Dashboard is like a less polished and less versatile version of Konfabulator. Konfabulator is free. But hey, those wavy effects when you add a new widget sure look purdy. Spotlight requires a behavioral switch to use effectively, and doesn’t deliver anything special even when you do make that switch. MSN Desktop Search for Windows XP does an equal job, and it’s free.

Then there’s Safari RSS, which I used for about five minutes before I switched back to my trusty Firefox, which delivers more flexibility, better rendering, tons of extensions and RSS support that, while not as polished or full-featured as that in Safari, is quite good in its own right.

I tried the new iChat AV. I like the Bonjour support, but trying a voice chat using the Power Mac’s built in Mic yielded massive feedback through the speakerswith no obvious way to turn down the monitor output volume. It’s probably a mistake I made. I’ll keep looking, but for now I’m nonplussed.

QuickTime 7 still doesn’t deliver full-screen video for free, a travesty in this day and age.

The new Mail looks nice, but it seems to behave exactly as the old Mail did, except with…
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iPod Nano design flaw

By Pilky, September 23, 2005

A website is pushing to have Apple replace iPod Nanos which gain cracked screens without any abuse from the user. It is claiming that it is a design flaw on Apples part and the evidence seems to point to that. DT has received reports that some major retail chains are finding iPod Nanos with cracks on the screen, with the cracks being on the right of the screen each time. The photos sent into the website all show the cracks are on the right of the screen.


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Why does Apple force you to register your operating system?

By UnnDunn, September 23, 2005

So last night I installed Tiger on my uncle’s aging PowerMac G4 450 (after adding 1GB of RAM of course.) The installation process went well despite taking the better part of an hour to completey copy all of the files over. It was what happened after the install that miffed me a little.

Quite simply, it wanted me to register Tiger by entering personal information - name, address and phone number. There were no ‘cancel’ or ‘skip’ buttons, and trying to submit a blank form would pop up big, angry red arrows indicating required fields. To add insult to injury, the very same form says “Registration is not required for your warranty.” So why are you forcing me to register, then?

Not even Microsoft forces people to register with personal information.

Those who approve of Apple’s tactics will most likely respond by saying “well you can yank the network cable out and the registration info will not be sent.” That’s an unacceptable cop-out because it’s not obvious. Equally unacceptable are suggestions to press Command-Q (Quit) or Command-. (Cancel) - the former because it doesn’t work during a clean install, and the latter because, again, it’s non-obvious (even if it does work, which I doubt.)

I also think it’s ironic that the same people who agree with and accept Apple’s heavy-handed coercion to get personal information will turn around and blast Microsoft for its Product Activation scheme, claiming it as intrusive and privacy-infringing. Well I’m sorry, but Product Activation does not require…
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