Macopinion

The Road Warrior Mailbag - February 26, 2007

iBook
Backpacks and bags
G3 Pismo Screen Problems
Bookmarks in Safari Tips
Inkpad vs. Vista's Tablet PC?

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iBook

From Harm Oving

Hi Charles,

I am an avid reader of Applelinks. It is years now that I pass daily to see what happened. You and the team have been a great help in making me a well-informed Machead, who can now also help his fellow Maccer with their day to day problems.

Last Wednesday afternoon my nearly four year old 14 inch IBook G3 900 MHz died on me. Motherboard trouble. I knew that it didn't qualify for the repairprogramme, but called Apple Netherlands anyway. Within 5 minutes I was given a CS (Customer Satisfaction) code for a free repair. Which was done in two days by a local repairshop.

Who can beat that in the world of computermakers?

I understood from the repairman that the IBook has had its share of problems, but I never experienced any trouble what so ever. Its is a bit to slow for several media operations as making movieclips and so forth but for the regular tasks it is a nice and handy machine.

That it may live another four years.

Harm Oving

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Hi Harm;

Thanks for your faithful readership, and for the report about your iBook. Glad to hear that Apple came through for you.

My own 700 MHz G3 iBook is now well into its fifth year, and has never given any significant trouble. It handles OS 10.4.8 Tiger amazingly well considering its age.

Wishing you many more years of service from yours.

Charles

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Backpacks and bags

From Dennis Farber

Charles

I have a 12" Powerbook, a Canon IP90 printer, and a Canon 1240 scanner that I would like to take with me when I travel. Do you have a recommendation of a bag or pack that would hold all 3 of these? I use this combination when I am doing genealogy away from home.

Dennis

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Hi Dennis;

Too bad Willow Design is not still in business, as they used to make a variety of large cases for Mac computers and peripherals. I still have one of their cases designed for the G4 Cube that I've found extremely useful for storing and transporting a wide variety of computer stuff.

My knowledge of what's available in computer luggage is far from encyclopedic, but the nearest thing I can think of is Waterfield's Cargo laptop bag, which comes in a large size that can hold a lot of stuff.

You can read a recent review of mine here:
http://www.sfbags.com/reviews/pbcentral-review/index.htm

Charles

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G3 Pismo Screen Problems

From Gilby;

Hi Charles,

I just sold an upgraded G4 Pismo on eBay which worked fine in my possession.

The buyer is claiming that the display "exhibits the dreaded/telltale pink/reddish hue/discoloration on start-up/wake from sleep," and claims that "this is a sign that the backlight (which is both difficult and expensive to replace) is dying or about to die."

This guy further claims that this problem is well-documented, though I've never heard about it. The folks at my local Mac shop said that this is simply the result of the LCD aging, that it's not the backlight, and that it doesn't mean it's at the end of its life.

I've valued your opinion on Pismo topics before, so I thought I'd ask you for a third opinion. Does what is occuring here sound legitimate to you? Thanks.

Gilby

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Hi Gilby;

Unfortunately, the dreaded "pink screen" is indeed a relatively common problem with Pismos once they get some years on them. My own Pismo is afflicted, and the problem is getting worse. When I wake it from sleep, the entire display has a distinct ruddy cast (it even makes the translucent Apple logo on the lid glow alarmingly pink) , although so far it goes away after a few minutes.

If you do a Google search for "Pink screen + Pismo" you will find plenty of references.

The cure actually is to replace the backlight. The part is cheap, but the installation procedure is a bit tricky - not necessarily terribly expensive. For a thorough dissertation on the topic, and its remedy click here.

Charles

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Bookmarks in Safari Tips

From Don Andrachuk

Hi Charles:

Reader Terry Smith noted that he has about 35 bookmarks that he visits every day and was looking for a way to improve the efficiency of that process.

If he activates tabbed browsing (in Preferences) and shows Safari's Bookmarks Bar (in the View menu), he can create a new folder in the Bookmarks Bar collection of Safari's Bookmarks page. He can then add as many bookmarks to that folder as he wishes.

Once that one-time set up is done, a click on the folder's entry in Safari's Bookmarks Bar will pop up a menu, the last item of which will be Open in Tabs. Selecting that item will simultaneously open every bookmarked page in the folder, each in its own tab, ready for him to peruse at his leisure.

I have been using this method daily for years to review my own collection of about a dozen favourite sites.

Just one thing to note: loading Mr Smith's collection of 35 sites will now be dead simple to initiate but will take some time for his Internet connection and Safari to accomplish. Triggering the process just before a coffee break is probably a good idea...

Cheers,
Don Andrachuk

P.S. He can make things simpler still by checking the Auto-Tab checkbox beside the folder's listing in Safari's Bookmarks page. Then just a single click of the folder's entry in the Bookmarks Bar will trigger the loading of all 35 sites!

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Thank you for the mini-tutorial, Don

I'm sure it will be helpful.

Charles

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Inkpad vs. Vista's Tablet PC?

From Norman L. Rubenstein

Dear Charles:

Now that OWC and Axiotron have introduced their ModBook Tablet PC running Mac OS 10.4 and it's Inkpad, while Microsoft has just introduced the many versions of Vista with their enhanced Tablet PC support, and new Tablet PC's are being introduced which support it, has ANYONE done any comparison as to how well the two OS systems' handwriting recognition systems actually work? Obviously, one that actually (finally) works well would be a great boon, at least for some of us.

Many thanks,
Norm Rubenstein

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Hi Norm;

I think I did see at least a commentary comparison in some of the ModBook coverage during or after Expo, and regrettably, Inkpad came off second-best.

I doubt that it means Inkpad is necessarily intrinsically inferior to Microsoft's technology, but Apple simply hasn't given Inkpad much development attention.

I expect it would be different if Apple were selling their own tablet.

Charles

*** Charles W. Moore

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