|
Bad News for Scandal Fans (9/8/99)
|
 
|
| | |
Ahhh, Blue Blocker-- the scandal that keeps on giving. We refer to Apple's widely-publicized, never-officially-denied insidious campaign to make upgrading current and future Macs as tough as possible. The furor began when word leaked out that Apple's last firmware update for the blue and white G3 actually rendered the system incapable of booting if a G4 processor was installed; prior to the update, the same system could use a G4 happily. So was the lockout intentional? That depends on whom you ask, but if you go by sheer volume of the cries of outrage, the overwhelming teeth-gnashing majority of the Mac world would seem to think that it was. And if it was intentional, did Apple simply mean to curtail G4 chip shortages in the short term until they could get some Power Mac G4s out the door, or was it just one skirmish in an all-out war on upgrades? Rumors that upcoming G4 systems moved the proprietary Mac hardware ROM to the processor card (à la the iMac), thus making the systems effectively impossible to upgrade without Apple's say-so, followed hard upon.
Anyway, enjoy the righteous indignation while it lasts, because if Mac OS Rumors is right, then Blue Blocker may soon just be last week's scandal. They're reporting that "reliable Apple sources" confirm that the next firmware update for the blue and white G3s will remove the G4-blocking code, thus returning the systems to an upgradeable state. However, these same sources indicate that, yes, Apple developed the block on purpose, in an attempt to keep the G4 announcement a surprise. Remember Apple's G3 unveiling? The G3 chip was fairly old news by then, since several companies had demonstrated screaming-fast upgrades at Macworld Expo several months before-- in systems that were benchmarking faster than Apple's first G3 Power Macs. That stole a lot of thunder. By comparison, the G4 introduction had more thunder than anyone knew what to do with; buzz on the G4 continues unabated.
So blue G3s, more likely than not, will end up being upgradeable some time in the relatively near future. As for rumors that "Sawtooth"-based Power Mac G4s would have the Mac ROM on the processor card, those appear to be false as well. Mac OS Rumors now claims that the confusion arose due to "outdated diagrams" of the motherboard. Again, we're not going to know for sure until Apple actually ships the new systems in (hopefully) a few weeks, but for now at least, it looks like upgrading has a future on the Mac. Beyond the next few months, though, who knows?
| |
| |
 |
SceneLink (1767)
|  |
 |
|
And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
| | | |
|
| |
|
 | | The above scene was taken from the 9/8/99 episode: September 8, 1999: Rumor has it that Apple's hard at work on a firmware fix to re-enable G4 upgrades in Power Mac G3s. Meanwhile, Handspring readies an improved Palm device, raising questions about what Apple's foray into the world of Palm licensing will look like, and is Microsoft in bed with the NSA? Depends on how paranoid you are...
Other scenes from that episode: 1768: Waiting For New Toys (9/8/99) Have you noticed that Apple's kept us all so busy since the last Macworld Expo that we've heard nary a word about the Apple-Palm rumors? Think about it; one of the "expected surprises" during Steve Jobs' New York keynote was some sort of Apple-branded Palm device to fill the handheld gap left by the deep-sixed Newton... 1769: Smile; They're Watching (9/8/99) Longtime AtAT fans know we're not ones to shrink from a conspiracy theory, no matter how far-fetched. In fact, the wilder the theory, the brighter our eyes light up and the wider our grins get; there's a certain glee and sense of relief from personal responsibility that arises from simply acknowledging that everyone else is out to get you...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
|
|
