#hardware Articles


Playing iPod tunes while connected to the Mac

If you have more than one Macintosh or are just getting a bit stingy on disk space (seeing as you have 20-30GB of iPod tunes), you may be wondering how you can play back songs on your iPod while it is connected to your Macintosh. Here are the helpful hints …

What are the new iPod pins for?

I got my new slimmer, fatter iPod yesterday and so far, so good. I'll put up more comments as I have time to test various features. However, it struck me that there sure are a lot of pins on that connector at the bottom. What are they all for? Pins …

Tadpole releases new Sparc laptop

Tadpole, long-time purveyor of Solaris-running Sparc-based laptops, has decided to try competing directly with lower price offerings. According to an article on CNET, the company has released an under-$3000 model as part of its new line- up.

E3: Day 3-The End

Perhaps not the end of E3, but it is the end for me, as I am returning on Friday. The final day involved a few sessions and a very good lunch presentation followed by one more swing through the booths and out. Here are some pictures of my trip as …

Detailed 970 technical review

For those watching for Apple and IBM's next moves in the small server, desktop, and laptop space, the 970 has been the great hope. Find out more about it in this in-depth technical review from ArsTechnica. Warning, it is very detailed.

Intel has another processor problem

According to an article from CNET, Intel has revealed a new problem with their Itanium 2 processor. Under certain conditions, affected processors can act erratically. Intel claims to have a program that can be used to detect the defective chips. The "solution" proposed by Intel is to run the CPUs …


Initial reviews on AMD Opteron from Ace

Ace's Hardware reviews the AMD Opteron (the new 64-bit chip that can run 32-bit x86 code unmodified) this month. Extensive benchmarks and a lot of background information. In the end, they think the chip family is very promising, but the 1.8GHz version can still fall behind a 2.8GHz …

Upgrading an Xserve hard drive

I've been wondering what it would take to upgrade the disk drives in an Xserve. Since Apple charges an arm and a leg for the 180GB replacement drives, that just wasn't a reasonable option. So, I set out with an 8MB cache 200GB drive and a pocket screwdriver to see …

Bucky Ram could be the key to fast, small, non-volatile storage

You just can't keep Buckminster Fuller down. Although he obviously wasn't personally involved in it's development (Fuller died in 1983), the latest development in high-density, high-speed non-volatile memory uses Buckytubes to store a bit of data. According to this article in The Economist, Nantero is developing what it refers to …

Apple updates eMacs, releases 10.2.6

Apple has updated the eMac computers (the only models with CRTs) today. The new machines run from $799 (800MHz G4/128MB/40GB/CD) to $1299 (1GHz G4/256MB/80GB/DVDR) for the standard configurations with up to 1GB RAM available in build to order. The new machines are also Airport …

Mac site posts supposed 970 benchmark results

Are they real? We won't ever really know, but the folks at MacBidouille have been known to be rather prescient in the past. However, they are a very Mac-happy bunch, so it might just be propaganda or wishful thinking. Their latest story contains benchmarks from a series of supposed 970-based …

Comparing Music Services

OK, given that there are a wide range of opinions about the various music services, I decided to sign up for them and find out what they all look like and are about. My preliminary results are in the table on this site. Feel free to add your comments by …

Nomad gets larger

Nomad, Creative Lab's attempt to compete with the iPod has just gotten larger. One day after Apple announced their new, redesigned iPod with up to 30GB (for $499), Creative announced that their 60GB Zen will be available for $399. Exact specs on the 60GB version aren't available right now …

Intel to read your lips

Intel has an article on their site describing "Audio Visual Speech Recognition" and the technique employed to achieve higher reliability in recognizing human speech. The kicker is that there is open source code available as well. Way to go.

Intel contractor finally charged

An article in Wired details that "Mike" Hawash (previously mentioned on this site in another article) has finally been charged by the government. I never had an opinion on his guilt or innocence, just on the issue of detention without information or charges, and because of that I'm even more …

Intel to release 32-bit converter to fight Opteron

In order to fight some of the bad press that Intel is getting about the Itanium processor in comparison to the Opteron processor from AMD, Intel has announced that they will be producing a 32-bit "converter" to allow 32-bit code to run on the 64-bit architecture. The article in Information …


Hard Drive backup with... well... hard drives!

An article1 on Tom's Hardware details the project in Germany to build a 70TB (that's 70,000,000,000,000 bytes) back up system with hard drives. Amusingly, I was just this lunch talking about a "drive robot" that I was suggesting would be a more efficient (speed and …

Apple/AMD discussions again?

The Register fuels the file of speculation about a possible AMD/Apple link, with an article debating the merits of a cooperation between Apple and AMD after an AMD representative made some obscure comments at a press conference this week that could be construed as implying that they may at …