Appletell

I really enjoy the two finger scrolling gesture on the Apple laptop trackpads. It’s smooth, and it works exactly how you would expect, unlike some of those other built in scroll bars.  However, this technology is only available from Apple on newer models; so, what about the older ones? Enter iScroll2. This preference pane software is “...a modified trackpad driver that adds two-finger scrolling capabilities to supported pre-2005 PowerBooks and iBooks on OS X 10.3 and up.” It looks great.

Simply download and install this program, tweak the settings to your liking, then put those fingers to work.

However, if linear scrolling isn’t your style, iScroll2 also supports a circular scrolling option. This option is just like the scroll wheel on an iPod, except you use two fingers in a circular motion instead of one.  That’s a pretty neat idea, if you ask me. It’s nice to see someone cared enough to make this product, because I’m sure a lot of people are benefiting from it.

Product [iScroll2]

Apple may well be one of the top IT companies producing top-selling and cool products here and there, but this success doesn’t render the company immune to various lawsuits. Like any other big IT companies, Apple is hounded by several lawsuits caused by product-related issues which the company needs to settle financially.

One of these lawsuits is the case filed by some Canadian residents who purchase the Apple iPod player before June 24, 2004. Those iPod buyers filed a class-action lawsuit against Apple for misrepresenting the actual battery life of its iPod players. Apple claimed eight hours before charging, but the plaintiff found it to last for only three hours. The legal dispute was won by the plaintiff and Apple would have to give them $45 credit which they can use on Canadian Apple retail or online stores. This is reported to cost Apple around $36 million in settlement.

A similar case is facing Apple in San Jose California. This time involving the power adapters of Apple’s PowerBook and iBook computers. A class-action suit was also filed against Apple for failing to correct the problems encountered by users of the said adapters. In 2001, Apple had to recall around 570,000 power adapters due to overheating and sparking. If approved the U.S. District Attorney of San Jose, Apple will have to pay each owners of the iBook and PowerBook $79 each. This would amount to around 2.3 million total settlement damages for Apple.

Read [The Wall Street Journal]

Apple has announced that coming June 2008, a majority of G4 computers will be classified as “obsolete” or “vintage” which means they are no longer supported by Apple in terms of hardware (except for vintage computers, which are only supported in the state of California due to legislation.) If your computer is still supported by Leopard or other software, it’s fine to run it, but if something breaks on your computer, Apple wont fix it, even for a fee. They just won’t have the parts.

As of June 17, 2008, the following computers are no longer supported by Apple.

• iBooks with 32 MB VRAM
• iBook (Opaque 16 VRAM)
• Sunflower iMac Flat Panel (Summer 2001)
• eMac
• Power Mac G4 with Firewire 800

Think it’s too soon? Sound off below!

In what is perhaps the coolest thing I have ever seen, Troika has created a “virus” for Mac, though its status as a virus is debatable. It lives on a USB key, and you have to have physical access to the computer to install it. The virus was created in an attempt to get back to the tme when viruses were just amusing little programs run to make the user chuckle. Nowadays, viruses are used for malicious intent, but back in the advent of the personal computer, “viruses [were] born out of the wit of early computer adopters, viruses whose sole purpose was to surprise and amuse.”

Troika says that they “chose to do it for mac as the platform is still a virgin territory.” If this is what Mac viruses will look like, I will download and install every suspicious looking thing that comes my way. The “virus” causes the menu bar to crack in half and fall, along with all desktop icons, to the bottom of the screen. Then, by turning the computer around, the icons and menu bar halves respond just as they would if they were really in a box.

The only problem? You can’t actually get it. If anyone can figure out how to get this, please comment. I want it really badly. Now, to see it in action, look after the break.

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Famous modder Ben Heckendorn is at it again, this time with an Apple IIgs laptop.  This laptop is very impressive, and although it may seem dangerous, Ben said it gives off just about as much heat as a pocket calculator (calculators give off heat?).  Here are the full specs:

• 15-inch screen
• Original Apple IIgs motherboard
• Custom acrylic keyboard with laser etched keys
• Compact Flash adapter as the hard drive
• Side port access for floppy drive, joystick, and mouse
• Original mouse
• Glowing blue “][” logo
• Built-in stereo speakers

This isn’t Ben’s only awesome creation, be sure to check out his PS3 mod as well.  Also, there are more pictures and a video up on his site.

Stevie Jay just whipped it out, and I almost had an accident in my pants when I saw it. I’m talking about the brand spanking new iBook. If you like the Blueberry iMac, you’re going to love this. A blazing fast G3 processor is right inside of this machine, with speeds that will make Internet Explorer launch in under ten seconds. This thing has no legacy ports. You have a lot of floppies, you say? Throw them out, they’re no good on this machine. Optical drive, USB, Ethernet, and modem ports are what this baby ships with.

It’s got a beautiful 12” display with a mindblowing 800x600 resolution. 32 megs of RAM, a 3.2 GB hard drive, and the amazing Mac OS 8.6 ship with this portable as well. The best part is for last, though. Wireless networking is completely built in and integrated, and AirPort Base Stations are up for sale now, making this the ultimate wireless machine. Hell, it even has a handle on the back in case you don’t know how to carry it. Overall, this 300 MHz beast is an amazing product that we can’t wait to get our hands on!

When I signed up to write at Appletell nearly two months ago, I had planned to write frequently, but soon after I began writing, things took a turn for the worst. The problem was that my 15” powerbook G4 kept randomly shutting down about every 9 or 10 hours. Because I had purchased the AppleCare extended warranty, I was eligible to receive repairs free of charge. I called up AppleCare (1-800-APL-CARE) and explained the situation to a representative.

They decided to send me a box which I would send the computer back to them in to get it repaired. After a couple of days, I got the box in the mail, and after about 2 weeks I got the computer back from the repair center. I eagerly fired it up, and everything seemed fine, but I would soon find that instead of every 9 or 10 hours, it was now shutting down every 2-3 hours. I called up AppleCare again and I was shortly transferred to a senior repair representative. He was very nice, and said that he would be happy to set me up for a second, expedited repair. This time, after only 1 week, I got my computer back, but only to find out that my computer was now shutting down every 40 minutes. I called my representative at his direct number and spoke to him about the situation.

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The very popular social news network, Digg tends to give large amounts of traffic to articles that hit the front page, but when Pingdom’s post about old Mac’s that host sites on web, hit the front page one of the old servers didn’t go down. Paul’s 19 year old Mac IIci survived the onslaught of Digg traffic when the post about it and other old Mac servers hit the front page. Even with a Cache card and 1 GB SCSI Hard Drive update, the uptime of this Mac is quite impressive. Up to this day, the site is up and welcome for anyone to visit at www.littledork.err0neous.org

Here are the stats of Paul’s NetBSD powered Mac:

Introduced: September 20, 1989
CPU: Motorola 68030, 25 MHz
Ram: Upgraded to 128 MB
OS: NetBSD
Web server: Apache
Upgrades: Cache card and 1 GB SCSI hard drive

Via [Royal Pingdom]
Stats Via [MacTracker]

Flickr user Dansays is one of the most happy Apple geeks in the world right now… he is the proud owner or a brand new Apple //c. Yes, Apple //c.

It all started for him back in 1986, when he recieved an Apple //c for Christmas from his father. It was love at first sight. Since then, Dansays has been an Apple user. But the nostalgia kept tugging on him.

“I perused the auction listings on Ebay for old Apples, even bidding on a few lots, but most units were quite weathered, yellowed by years of use and exposure to the sun. Then, in late January, I found a one-in-a-million computer up for auction: an Apple //c, new in the box. It hadn’t seen the light of day since May 5, 1988, when it was shipped to an Apple reseller as a sales incentive.”

Dansays received his Apple //c and has posted the unboxing photos to Flickr. A 30 year old computer is an unlikely candidate for unboxing pictures, and that’s what makes this photoset the ultimate unboxing.

View Photos [Flickr]

Here is a great Youtube video by a person called “DoctorMacenstein” chronicling the life and times of the Apple website. Sadly, the views aren’t comprehensive (you’ll have to hit the “Wayback Machine” for that) but it is a nice walk down the Mac’s memory lane. It’s paved with wild colored CRT-based iMac’s and toilet seat shaped clamshell iBooks. The video is pretty well done, I make no promises on the Skid Row song.