Author: mactech

MCE has begun shipping its Xcaret Pro Expansion Hard Drive with IBM’s new 5400 RPM 48GB Drive. The expansion bay is available for Bronze (Lombard) and FireWire (Pismo) PowerBook’s for US$799. A different module is available to accommodate the original PowerBook G3 series (Wallstreet) for the same price.

An eWeek TARGET=”_top”>article offers commentary from analysts on Apple’s retail store strategy, including the benefits they present and the struggles they face. According to one analyst, Apple will need to maintain a gross margin of at least 25 percent to profit from the stores. Apple has said it expects margins for the next quarter to come in between 26 and 27 percent, where it typically likes to see margins.

MacMinute reader Scott Stevenson pointed out this Tech Info Library article, which explains that support for symmetric multiprocessing is disabled under Mac OS X Server when the Network File System Service is enabled. Apple doesn’t say when a fix will be available.

MacUser UK has published an article discussing the lack of a good backup solution for Mac OS X. The article notes that command-line (UNIX) solutions will not recognize the resource fork of some Classic/Carbon applications, while straight file copying skips invisible files required by the system. Finally, Classic backup solutions do not function properly.

Asante today introduced three new PCMCIA Ethernet cards for PowerBooks. The FriendlyNET 10T and 10T/TN are 10 Mbps cards and sell for US$69 and $79, respectively. The FriendlyNET 10/100 is capable of up to 200 Mbps with full duplex, and sells for $75.