BiPAC 7300GX
3G/ADSL2+ Wireless Router
Looks like Billion have come first to market in Australia with a WIFI router that uses either 3G USB modem or ADSL2+ copper line connection.
Great bit of gear for traveling bands on the road, film crews on location, or just trying to keep the kids occupied in the car with WIFI iPods or PSP’s.
Have your mother-in-law email you from the back seat of the family wagon….
The BiPAC 7300GX is equipped with a built-in 4-port full-duplex 10/100 Switch so you can connect wired-Ethernet devices together. Directly connect up to four PCs or attach more hubs and switches to create a larger network as needed. Use the integrated Router function to share a blistering ADSL2+ or 3G-based Internet connection (requires a 3G data card, available separately), with automatic fail-over*4 to ensure an always-on Internet connection in the event that one of your Internet services fails.
A 12V car power cable is bundled with the router to let you plug the adapter into your car’s cigarette lighter for mobility. The BiPAC 7300GX can also encode all 802.11g wireless LAN transmissions with WEP or WPA encryption to ensure that your data is protected, and boasts a DHCP Server and a powerful SPI firewall to protect against intruders and most known Internet attacks. Secure WLAN setup is simplified by the web browser-based configuration for
easy access to the Internet wherever a 3G connection is available - whether you’re seated at your desk or taking a cross-country train trip.
Call BigTrousers now and get your order in.
Amid the almost non-existance of current 15 inch MacBook Pro laptops, a new line of Apple notebooks believed to be nearing release have been spotted in both black and traditional aluminum enclosures, according to a new report.
In order to get a current 15 inch laptop some clients have resorted to travelling to the US. Tam picked up a new MacBook Pro in San Fransisco this week and with the US dollar on the skids saved around $1000.
Well I did not see this coming, an all new iPod range with the big surprise, an iPod Touch with iPhone like big touch screen and Wi-Fi for web browsing and iTunes for direct download.
I have ordered a few and I have no idea when they will land.
UPDATE: Looks like it could be a month or two…
Well I finally took delivery of a shiny new MacPro quad core Xeon.
I have to say it was a decision made for me by the continuing requirements of current software.
When the new iMovie failed to load that was the straw that broke the camels back.
I put if off for long enough but the wait was worth it.
I can stop bugging Petrina for Aperture and Joost and the Mac Pro runs HD video a lot better.
Pat B. from the Briagolong school of Fine art just received her new iMac and writes:
We are delighted with the new set up. I was nervous about tackling a new computer being correctly described as a technophobe, but I am able immediatly to do all the things I need to do, no pain at all.
Pat is on Mac OSX for the first time and it is great to hear that all is going well, I expect a Skype call at some point in the future from Briagolong…
Well we along with everyone else tipped this but the new brushed aluminium iMac is here. What is cool is just how thin it is, up to 4.0 GIG RAM, Up to 1 TB HD, up to 2.8GHz Core 2 Extreme processor, ATI Radeon HD graphics card, and a brand new keyboard.
This photo from Engadget
So the last remaining end of life MacBooks are going out cheap.
Just a few dozen left, be quick.
Still no word on new stocks of the new model MacBook Pro’s.
This piece from PhotoGeek on the new Drobo USB four drive storage unit.
This could be a very handy bit of gear and we have contacted Drobo to see if we can get hold of a few of these for re-sale.
The Drobo is unique in that it can have drives of unequal size inserted and removed as your requirements change. Have two 500 GB drives and a few old 100 GB drives when you start then just replace a 100 GB for another 500 GB. Drobo will release the extra drive space as storage on the fly, even while the drive is being accessed by a computer.
I am thinking this will be a useful device for photographers with ever increasing storage requirements. It also acts as a hard drive redundancy system so that in the event of a drive failure no data is lost. All you need to do is take out the dead drive and replace it.
Engadget has posted a short piece on this photo of Al Gore’s triple 30 inch Apple cinema display.
Do we all want a set up like this? Not so messy perhaps?
Last line was a good one. ( thanks for the link-Ajay )
“P.S. -Yeah, fine, we’re creepy gadget stalkers, what of it?”
Just released the Elgato H.264 hardware encoder.
Make Apple TV ready content from Elgato recorded HD Free to Air TV in a flash. No more waiting for video to re-encode as 720p for iTunes playback.
This makes the AppleTV a much more useful device for managing Free To Air TV on your widescreen TV.
Read the article from PhotoGeek.tv
It comes at a time users are coming to terms with the process of automating playback from various sources including HD TV onto TV screens through hardware such as the AppleTV unit.
What this means is that Free to air TV can be recorded, re encoded, then added to iTunes at break-neck speed so that the content will show up on your TV screen as content available for immediate playback.
This is a little job for Ringo, an artist from The StKilda Esplanade market.
Ringo wanted to know if we could reproduce from an original oil painting, a color accurate reproduction to canvas using the wide format Epson printer. The 4800 pro uses 100 year archive pigment ink and also is amazing at this sort of reproduction.
Shot with the Canon 5D and imaging on the Mac calibrated using the Huey display calibrator the first print was nearly indistinguishable from the original.
We look forward to the long print runs Ringo….
This pic from Apples’ booth at NAB is a little over the top for most of us.
According to Think Secret:
Apple Inc.’s presence at the National Association of Broadcasters conference this week includes a mind-boggling on-site server demonstration comprised of 130 Xserve components and over 3 miles of fiber optic cable.
Very impressive but it does beg the question, what should the average Mac user have as Network storage for the ever increasing files created by bigger and better digital cameras, web design work, artwork files or even audio files created in the numerous small home based recording studios?
Big Trousers is currently assessing the various methods of Network attached storage as a way of providing large data storage and backup. We believe that from around $1400- $2500 a 1.0 to 2.0 Terrabyte NAS either as RAID or a simple storage volume is the way to go for most of us. This method is a lot less of a hassle than server based systems with attached RAID, and the access speed is perfectly suited to this task.
The Ethernet Disk RAID comes with Gigabit Ethernet interface plus robust data protection, four hot-swappable drives, and RAID 0, 1, 5, 5+spare, and 10 support. This essential network storage solution meets small business needs perfectly as a file-sharing server and central backup storage for multiple PCs. As a DHCP server with a second Ethernet port, it enables you to create your own local Gigabit network. User and group level authentication allows for securing data shares. With two USB 2.0 expansion ports, you can easily attach extra storage for expanding available capacity. The convenient email notification reports system errors, and it comes with an easy-to-use setup Wizard and Windows® Client Backup and Recovery software.
The pic above shows the LaCie 1.0 TB RAID that we can supply at $2000 and would be the perfect solution in a 1 - 4 person media office providing both storage and backup over gigabit connection. It will also provide a small Gigabit network but most will need a Gigabit switch, all PowerMacs from around 2002 have Gigabit cards as standard as do iMacs from 2005.
So it looks like there are 4 processor options now. Dual quad core “Clovertown” Xeon, Quad 2.0 GHz, Quad 2.66 GHz, Quad 3.0 GHz all “Woodcrest” Xeon.
Standard feature is the 2.66 GHz Quad, the 8 core adds a whopping $2400 to the price and the 3.0 GHz Quad adds $1300.
Start adding multiple 750 GIG drives and RAM and you could blow a big hole in the budget.
No Quad 3.0 GHz “Clovertown” Xeon is available. Not sure why that is apart from there being a significant pent up demand for the new workstation Macs with the imminent availability of Adobe CS3 Intel binary software. There could also be some significant stocks of “Woodcrest” Xeon chips at Apple that are being shifted before going with “Clovertown” across the range. The Clovertown being the latest and fastest Xeon chip from Intel.
Cinema display prices have been reduced too which is good news.
Below is the “standard” MacPro configuration.
Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon “Woodcrest” processors
1GB memory (667MHz DDR2 fully-buffered DIMM ECC)
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT graphics with 256MB memory
250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s 7200-rpm hard drive1
16x double-layer SuperDrive
We have RAM at around $280 per GIG for this machine and SATA drives are more affordable than the Apple supplied options.
Perhaps the 3.0GHz MacPro will be my preferred option, I want to see CS3 running and Aperture.
Finally the worst kept secret is out.
When there is a box to check online for this puppy it will have my name on it.
They are currently online in Australia but not in the online store.
Opt for the 8-core Mac Pro and you get the power of two Quad-Core Intel Xeon “Clovertown†processors running at 3.0GHz. Or choose a quad-core Mac Pro featuring two Dual-Core Intel Xeon “Woodcrest†processors and decide how fast they fly: 2.0GHz, 2.66GHz or 3.0GHz. At 3.0GHz, the quad-core Mac Pro runs up to 2x faster than the Power Mac G5 Quad.
See the full specs here
This article from Daniel Eran on the capability of Apple TV in relation to 5.1 audio is lengthy and concise.
Thanks to Merlin Mann who has a vested interest in the technology working properly now and who is in opposition to the Scott Bourne’s of the podcast world.
I think Merlin or Ze Frank could be the stuff that makes the Apple TV type device a real winner. Just as Dire Straits helped make the CD a standard for audio by being one of the pioneers of digital recording.
When “Brothers in Arms” was released most CD’s were produced by recording on analogue equipment then mastering as digital. The quality of that CD made me look for material that was recorded digital. It makes sense that as more people have HD screens and AppleTV they will look for 720p content online. At present the podcast is the best bet to find it.
