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Tech Support Friday
Tech Expo
With Fast Forward's Rob Pegoraro
Friday, Jan. 11, 2002; 2 p.m. EST
Fast Forward columnist Rob Pegoraro spent a week covering the opening of Macworld Expo in San Francisco, then headed on to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nev. He has inspected the new iMac, gawked at some amazingly expensive digital TVs, heard too many marketing pitches, walked several miles through the Vegas convention center and eaten some pretty bad food along the way. Read his article "At Macworld Expo, Apple CEO Unveils New iMac" (Post, Jan. 8, 2002). Submit your questions and comments before or during today's discussion.
Bring your questions about Apple, digital TV, DVD, home theater or whatever else online Friday, Jan. 11 at 2 p.m. EST. He will talk about all the new gadgets and services that tech retailers will be offering in the near future, including the hot new iMac model.
Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control
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guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
Rob Pegoraro: In the past week, I've been through six airports, three hotel rooms and two trade shows. My reward for this is a set of aching feet and a sore shoulder from lugging around a laptop--but I've also had the chance to see a lot of cool, interesting (and sometimes useful) products, from the new iMac to several showrooms' worth of drool-inducing plasma HDTVs.
So there's a lot to talk about this time around. Let's get the show started...
Alexandria, Va.:
The Imac seems cheaper than any equivalent Apple laptop. Is the Imac small enough to be carried from room to room and possibly cradled on one's knees?
Rob Pegoraro: No--the base itself has a fairly large diameter and weighs a bunch. You can take it from room to room (Apple says you can just grab it by the chrome handle).
More important, though, the iMac is *not* cheaper than any Apple laptop. The iBook now starts at $1200 for the CD-ROM version, with the combo-drive model going for $1,500.
Bethesda:
At CES did you see any camcorders that have photo resolution higher than 2 megapixels for stills?
Also did you see/like Hitachis DVD camcorders?
Rob Pegoraro: No... for instance, Sony's camcorders maxed out at one megapixel. But I easily could have missed some in the convention center--the main halls could probably accomodate a 747 assembly line with room to spare.
Alexandria, Va.:
My combination of Dell/Cox Cable Roadrunner/Windows 200 Professional has been a disaster. How reliable are Apple products with cable modems?
Rob Pegoraro: Haven't heard of any problems--well, with the Mac end of the equation. The TCP/IP software on both OS 9 and OS X has been really reliable in the past few years in my experience.
The cable-modem is the bigger question... as we wrote today, Cox's track record doesn't seem to be improving.
Arlington, VA:
I've been thinking about dumping the whole PC/Microsoft thing, but I'm concerned about my peripherals. Is there some way I can hook them up to the USB ports in the new iMac?
Rob Pegoraro: It's a two-part answer:
1) You can buy USB-to-parallel and USB-to-serial adapters for older PC hardware. But you have to consider the relative cost here: would it be worthwhile to buy a parallel-port adapter for an old printer, versus buying a new, much better color inkjet?
2) You should see if there are Mac drivers for the peripherals in question. Hard drives are no problem, but printers and scanners can get a little more complicated.
Alexandria, Va.:
If I buy an iMAC do I get the full Mac OS X operating system?
Or does Apple sell a watered down version of its OS similar to Microsoft's Windows Me.
Rob Pegoraro: Every Mac ships with the full version of OS X, which, starting now, will be what the computer boots into when you first plug it in. There is a server version of OS X, but there's nothing in that which a home user would actually want or need. (Or, for that matter, most business users.)
Alexandria, Va.:
How closely does the Mac Operating System X command line prompt resemble those of Unix, Linux or even DOS?
Does the Mac OS X support the Linux tools that many of us are used to such as the vi editor, the Perl language and the Gnu C Compiler?
Rob Pegoraro: OS X includes the tsch shell, if I remember correctly, and most of the usual set of Unix command-line tools. Not sure about compilers, but if they're not already available I would expect them to be soon--it's apparently not that tough to port command-line software from BSD Unix to OS X, since the latter is based on the former.
Washington DC:
ipod and the Wintel platform. Does it work? Should I buy the ipod and will it work as a portable data storage device (not just MP3s!)
Rob Pegoraro: A company called MediaFour Productions is working on Windows software for the iPod that will let you use it both to store MP3s and as a regular FireWire drive: http://www.mediafour.com/products/xplay/faq.asp
Lorton, Va.:
Well, I won't give my opinions on the new iDesklamp, but I'm curious what you think of the design? Is it forward looking, or a bit TOO radical? Also, does it have many of the same limitations as its predecessor?
Rob Pegoraro: Lemme put it to you this way: Every Comdex, Intel shows off a variety of prototype PC designs in various unconventional shapes--say, a pyramid or an ottoman. The iMac isn't that much more radical than those designs, except that Apple actually had the guts to build, ship and sell the thing.
I like the design a bunch myself. Quite elegant (although I have to knock Apple for putting all the ports,and the power button, on the back third of the base).
If by limitations you mean that the iMac still lacks PCI slots or internal drive bays, yup, the new one is like the old one.
Alexandria, Va.:
I have read that Apple optimizes the Macintosh processor to be faster for desktop publishing tasks than it is for number crunching.
Are clock speeds for PC and Mac processors comparable? Is a 900-MHz PC chip faster than an 800-MHz Mac chip?
Rob Pegoraro: Yes, no, or maybe. The G4--as well as the AMD Athlon--does process more instructions per clock cycle than the Pentium 4. Apple also argues that the P4's architecture makes it less efficient in practice, and regularly stages the same Photoshop demonstration to illustrate this point.
What Apple needs to be concerned about is that its chip suppliers can't seem to get the G4 to run any faster. The top speed has been stuck at 867 Mhz since July, which is a long time in the processor business (compare that to Intel and AMD's speed increases).
Washtech.com::
Rob, what was the buzz at CES about the District's very own XM Satellite Radio?
Rob Pegoraro: XM's doing well--it's signed up 30,000 customers so far and will get a major head start over Sirius, which won't launch its competing satellite-radio service across the nation until August.
Alexandria, Va.:
Several years ago VP Al Gore said that he felt that the Mac was a superior product but that he had switched to Windows because of the decreasing availability of software for the Mac.
Are Mac enthusiasts optimistic about the future of their product?
Rob Pegoraro: Yes. But most of them always have been--it's the rest of the world that no longer seems to be so down on Apple. These days, it's companies like Gateway, Compaq or HP that get the "beleagured" label.
wiredog:
Rob,
I'm thinking seriously about getting the HP DVD writer, PC Magazine recommended it highly. By the way, DVD-RW and DVD+RW both write DVD-R, which can be played in recent DVD players. And both types of burners can handle pre-recorded DVDs. So as long as you're just using it for backup and burning video dvds, and not sharing files with it, it doesn't matter which one you get.
I recently got a neat little device from Pinnacle. It's a gadget that has a 1394 (firewire) plug on one side, and regular RCA jacks, for input from a vcrs line out jacks, on the other. It makes your vcr look, to your computer, like a digital video recorder. You hit record on the software, play on the vcr, and bam, your video is now an avi file on the hard drive! Works with windows and mac, and I'm looking for a 1394 driver for linux. Costs about $300.
Rob Pegoraro: I think that DVD+RW drives can write DVD+R discs, but not DVD-R. But think about that last sentence--"as long as you're not sharing files with it." Isn't that the very point of having a removable-storage drive on a PC? Or in a home-theater system?
The Pinnacle device sounds interesting--that would be a lot cheaper than paying somebody to archive your old VHS home movies onto DVD. But you can hook that up to Super-8 equipment? :)
Olney 20832:
Are there PCI cards to add a FireWire port, and how much do they cost? (And, of course, are they any good, slower, etc.)
Rob Pegoraro: Yes, and they're pretty cheap--Outpost.com lists some that for as little as $25 to $30.
Arlington, Va.:
Rob, what's the deal with these cell-phone antenna boosters I keep seeing advertised on late-night TV? Do they really work?
Rob Pegoraro: I doubt it, just because they only seem to be advertised in places like late-night TV or in e-mail spam. If they actually work, why aren't they sold in Sprint/Verizon/AT&T stores? Why would these companies not want to cash in on that opportunity?
Washington, DC:
I bought a macintosh laptop 190CS in the summer of 1996. I was waiting for the powerbooks with cdrom drive to come out, but they were late, and I had to get SOMEthing before I left for grad school.
Last year I tried to upgrade the operating system. Didn't work and the hard drive appears to be toast. I really know very little about Macs. If I take it to one of those Mac Doctor places, will they be able to do anything? Is it worth doing anything with a laptop circa 1995? All I need is word processing, internet & email.
Rob Pegoraro: It's not worth it to fix a laptop that old. I'd get a new iBook or shop for a reconditioned/discontinued model from Apple or any of the catalogs.
Are DVDs a useful backup medium?:
Mr. Pegoraro,
I regularly burn data CDs, or write to CD-RW, both on Windows and Unix/Linux OSs. I love using CDs instead of unreliable floppies. However, the larger capacity of DVDs is tempting. What do you know about DVD burners? Also, I've heard DVDs have hardware copy protection. Would this affect my ability to burn DVDs, or read data DVDs on different machines? Are there drivers for DVDs on linux yet?
Rob Pegoraro: DVD burners are here and work. You just can't reliably share the rewriteable discs with most people. The copy protection you speak of is on DVD movies, which doesn't affect your ability to make your own DVDs. Not sure about Linux DVD software; maybe wiredog is here and can update us on that?
EraserheadGuy, D.C.:
Hi, Rob. Long time no chat. Have you managed to catch "Eraserhead" yet? David Lynch is getting it ready for release on DVD soon. Yes!!!
Rob Pegoraro: Yes, I did! I watched a very old VHS copy. At night. Alone. Man, that's one creepy piece of work!
Alexandria, VA:
Rob, what's the coolest gadget you got for Xmas?
Rob Pegoraro: Well, I got this nifty little bar set, with all these handy widgets for mixing cocktails... oh, you meant electronic gadgets?!
Firewireland.com:
Rob - Just bought a PCI Firewire Card (off ebay). Just make sure that they know the card can be found for around $30 but you need the cable which is sold separately (for around $30) PLUS you need the software if you want to do some handy dandy video editing and compiling (not to mentioned a good CPU and TONS of HD space)
Rob Pegoraro: Yes indeed. If your main interest is in video editing, though, you should probably buy one of the movie-making kits that the likes of Pinnacle sell. That's going to be cheaper and simpler than assembling everything yourself.
Annapolis MD:
Hi Rob
I am hoping you can give me some good advice. My sister is a senior in college and my parents are buying her a new computer for graduation, to be purchased for the last semester of school. She can't decide between a PC or a laptop, first off, because she thinks that a laptop would be more convenent but she might have to sacrifice things she would get with a PC. Is this true? What would you suggest she choose? Also, while she has a standalone DVD player, she wouold like to get a CD burner. My dad said that he read that standalone CD burners were better and more reliabel than those that come in desk or laptops. True?
As this will be her computer for a while, until she is able to get one herself (And with some travel and nursing school coming up, I don't know when that will be) she would liek to get the best available thing. While she can't get the most expensive thing on the market, price is flexible and not a huge concern. Any suggestions you can offer or sites you can point us towards to assist us would be most appreciated!
Thanks!
Rob Pegoraro: If anything, external CD burners are likely to be glitchier than anything internal--the USB connections most use on the PC side aren't fast enough to do the job all that well.
I would recommend a laptop myself for anybody in college. Make sure it's got 802.11b wireless networking built in, plus Ethernet. We reviewed a batch of consumer-priced laptops last summer; while the models we looked at are gone, the characteristics of each manufacturer's product line don't seem to have changed much since then.
Pnley, Md:
Are there any curent and/or future DVD ROM drives that can be added to either a current ibook (CD rom) or older Mac (7500)?
Rob Pegoraro: I suspect you can get a FireWire DVD-ROM drive for the iBook, but on the 7500 I'm almost positive you're out of luck. That's a six-year-old model!
EraserheadGuy, D.C.:
Well, I am thrilled that you finally saw it, and that you seem to like it (or at least not hate it, unlike most of the people at the Post.) Do you think it has changed your worldview? Or maybe just reinforced it? You've always struck me as a bit of an e-guy. I'm sure you are now a better person for the experience in ways you may not yet realize. I recommend repeated viewings when it comes out on DVD. Then you shall experience true enlightenment!
Rob Pegoraro: I'll never be able to look at small cooked poultry in the same way again.
Sterling, Va.:
Rob, I have a computer I bought in 1999 (450 mhz, P2). I wanted to install a new Maxtor 60G hard drive but my computer wont detect it, probably because the bios is old. I don't want to flash it myself, is there somewhere cheap I can take it in to get my bios flashed?
Rob Pegoraro: Possibly... did you buy the computer from a local shop? Is it still around?
Baltimore, Md:
Conceded that in terms of space/wieght, plasma displays are the way that sets will eventually go. But in terms of current bang for the buck, they can't touch the crop of RP and direct-view HDTVs. Rear projection sets start at just over $1000 for 40" and cap out at around $6000 for 65"+! That's where the lowest plasma sets start. Even HDTV tubes, which had been priced along plasma lines, are under $2000 now for 30-34". And my experience with plasma is that the picture, albeit hi def, is nowhere near as sharp as a direct view. Yes they may be drool-inducing, but when all the average consumer reads about are $25,000 toys for the superrich, no wonder DTV is having trouble getting off the ground. People should know that for only about $3000, they can have the best possible picture for both their DVD's and over-the-air television viewing TODAY.
Rob Pegoraro: The plasma sets I saw looked pretty sharp to me--although not as sharp as the LCD sets. A lot of companies seem to be turning to that instead.
But, yes, plain old CRTs still cost a bunch less. It really does amaze me how cheap they've gotten. And then it depresses me to see that the HDTV tuners themselves cost just as much as they did three years ago.
Silver Spring, MD:
What do I do with my older Mac? It's a G4 400 MHZ with a 15" studio display. Is it one worth selling via the classifieds?
Rob Pegoraro: You call that "older"? That can't be more than a year or two old. You should have no problem unloading it via the classifieds (Can I get a link to Washingtonpost.com's classified-ads page here? :)
For Sterling:
Go to the maxtor site and download the installation software. It's a snap1
Rob Pegoraro: You still here, Sterling?
washingtonpost.com:
Here's the link to the washingtonpost.com classfieds ... ;)
Click here.
Baltimore, MD:
I know everyone from Apple is singing the praises of the new iMac, but do you feel this will actually have a long term effect on Apple's financial statements or will this fade after a couple of years like the older iMacs?
Rob Pegoraro: I suppose it depends on how you define "long term." Two years is a long time in the computer business, and the iMac had a huge effect on Apple's fortunes in that time.
Apple shows all the signs of wanting to starting stealing market share from PC manufacturers. Steve Jobs seemed quite happy to note in the Macworld keynote that 40 percent of the computer buyers in Apple's stores didn't own a Mac when they walked into the store.
The press handout on the new iMac also had two pages of arguments on why Windows users should buy that machine instead, which I expect to see showing up in Apple's ads before long.
South Riding, VA:
Rob, a question about a technical article in The Washington Post a week or so ago about wireless networking. The author seems to have had a basic misconception about data speed standards, and said that a wireless LAN card that transferred on the order of 800KBytes/sec was slow, when, actually, that's darn good, being 6.4Mbit/sec. I'm pretty sure he thought the standard (802.11b, of course) was 11MByte, not 11Mbit.
The question is: this sort of mistake can be very misleading for those not in the industry or not that technical. Who in the FFwd squad vets (anyone?!)the content of article for this kind of basic fact?
Thanks! washingtonpost.com:
The article referred to above can be read here.
Rob Pegoraro: I'm not sure which article you're talking about--the link post.com gave me refers to a column I did about VoiceStream's GPRS cell phone, not wireless LANs. I agree that it's important to get these numbers right, which is why I try to double- and triple-check my own math, especially when any comparison of bits and bytes are involved. It's awfully easy to forget to multiply or divide by 8.
Washington DC:
Rob:
I am going to make the leap of faith and upgrade my machine to Win XP (from Win 98SE). I have an old Athlon CPU, 512 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive, an old Voodoo 3DFX Graphic Card. Is it a wise decision? How long should the process take?
Rob Pegoraro: The basic specs should be more than enough for XP, but make sure it supports your video card. Microsoft's XP site includes a list of supported products; if yours isn't there, you're probably going to have problems.
Minneapolis, MN:
I just received a quote today from a home automation company that wants $25-$30,000 to "wire" my home and install electronic components for lighting controls, security, audio/video, and appliances.
Are there wireless home automation systems out there that are much more affordable? Which ones are the best, what do they cost, and how do they work?
Rob Pegoraro: Wireless is where the industry is heading--it's how the Moxi set-top box I saw will communicate throughout the house--but it's not there yet. The current technology in favor is IEEE 802.11a, which is a faster, but incompatible, version of the 802.11b used on many laptops.
for d.c. xp upgrade:
don't do it! don't do it until you have all of the upgraded drivers for all of your hardware, because nothing will run until then.
besides, 98 is a nice, stable platform, why ruin your peace of mind ?
Rob Pegoraro: I'd disagree with the "nice, stable" description of 98. The Win 98 ThinkPad the Post loaned me froze hard at the show. Right while I was standing at the Microsoft booth.
Silver Spring with G4:
Actually, the G4 is almost two and a half years old; the studio display was bought later and I had to put in a Dr. Bott DviAtor to get it to work.
In any case, I think someone should want it. I inherited it from my father, which makes it a bit too creepy to use right now. I'd rather have an iMac, a model he never saw.
Rob Pegoraro: Yeah, I understand that angle.
You are right that someone would want it--the processor isn't that slow at all and the LCD is a nice extra. Do a search for similar models on eBay and you should get a decent idea of what kind of resale value yours could fetch.
Wash, D.C.:
-I sent this to you earlier without realizing you would have a chat today]
Good Afternoon Rob,
A follow up question to your article on the debacle that is HDTV. The setup: have the desire for the HDTV monitor, might have the budget (depending on the model), and have the significant other's grudging permission (the key element). The issue: don't want to buy a current model if it will be subject to a forced "down conversion" under digital protection agreements if the monitor does not use a DVI (or competing) digital port, since current models only go as high as component video. The question: is it worth getting the monitor now because setting a standard is years off, or is it better to wait to avoid built-in obsolescence?
Or, is there any chance that manufacturers, fearing massive defective product class-action suits will reach a compromise with studios and offer upgrades, or that manufacturers, or third parties, will offer DVI-component conversion boxes that will allow early adopters to still receive HDTV signals even if they do not have the built in DVI port?
Right now, I'm looking at the Pioneer SD533, which seems to have the best line doubler and features in a set in its price range, but I don't want to be stuck with $3k-3.5 DVD monitor in just a year or 2, and the bargain basement Panasonic 47wx49 at $1600-1900 doesn't necessarily have all the features I want, but would be less of a potential boondoggle.
plus, want to avoid any "I told you so's."
Can you help?? what does your professional crystal ball say?
Thanks
Rob Pegoraro: This is a complicated issue, but it's one of the most important things to consider with HDTV. I'll give you a more detailed answer in e-mail, but the short answer is, buying an HDTV does mean taking the risk that your purchase could be crippled by later copy-protection technology. My hope, however, is that the installed base of HDTV monitors is getting too large for that sort of move to be politically survivable by the movie studios.
Adams-Morgan:
I look at the new iMac and just drool, but then I'm a longtime Mac fanatic and no one should pay attention to me. Do you think this new design is the homerun Steve Jobs THINKS it is?
Rob Pegoraro: I don't think it's quite as cool as, say, Time magazine :) But it is cool enough. Nobody's done anything this creative before and, for what you get, it's a good deal. I expect to see people stopping by Apple stores to check it out.
Minneapolis, MN:
In your recent Washtech article, you wrote:
"How many of the consumer-electronics industry's new 'standards' will last in the market? And while things are this confusing, how many people will stay on the sidelines and not buy anything?"
I'm one of those people standing on the sidelines wanting to buy something, but concerned about investing in a 'standard' that won't last. Which standard do you see winning the battle--and when?
Rob Pegoraro: That's a tough one. I started answering your question before, then realized that I didn't really know.
Take recordable DVD. I *think* that the write-once DVD standards are a safe bet, since both DVD-R and DVD+R emphasize compatibility. I think DVD-RAM is a goner. I don't know if DVD-RW or +RW is better, and won't until I can try both technologies out myself.
Then there's Super Audio Compact Disc versus DVD-Audio. That's an easier call to make: The CD beats them both. Manufacturers are sniffing glue if they think they can replace the installed base of CD players with a more expensive standard that offers benefits that can't be heard on a lot of consumer hardware.
And then there's HDTV. Issues like digital interconnects and copy-protection standards aren't technical issues at all--they're matters of economics and politics, and people like you and me don't seem to get to join in these discussions at all.
wiredog:
Had to go to a meeting. Sorry for the late response.
Rob,
I think you've got DVD+RW and -RW confused with DVD-R . There is no DVD+R. Unless there ARE 5 formats. I thought there were only 3.
Yes, you can hook up a super8 to the pinnacle device, if the super 8 has rca video and audio out jacks. Any device with rca video and audio out jacks works with it.
I think it works the other way, that is, digital to analog. It doesn't have to be hooked up to a PC if you want to copy VHS to digital tape or vice versa. Cool device. Comes with firewire card.
Rob Pegoraro: I didn't think there was DVD+R either. But Philips is now offering that with a new DVD recorder. The company wanted to give consumers a cheaper, write-once option ($8/disc for DVD+R, vs. $17/disc for DVD+RW). See what I mean about confusing?
Chantilly, Va:
Actually, everyone is overlooking Windows 2000 Pro right now. Talk about a stable platform ! Better than ME, more tried and tested than XP.
Rob Pegoraro: I like Win 2000 alright as well, even if the software and hardware support for it is a little spotty. (I said "like," not "love.")
Problem is, it's disappeared from new desktops, but you can still get it on refurbished machines and on some laptops. Or you can buy the software itself for a non-trivial price.
Rob Pegoraro: My time's up--actually, it was up 20 minutes ago, but since y'all kept sending me questions, I thought I'd stick around for a bit. If I missed your query, please e-mail me and I'll try to get back to you. Otherwise, let's try to meet "here" again in a couple of weeks.
Thanks!
- R
washingtonpost.com:
Thanks Rob, and thanks everyone for sending in so many great questions. Keep an eye out on http://www.washingtonpost.com/ffwd for updates on Rob's next live online discussion.
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