Quick Bytes
Price cut makes iMac look better
Gannett News Service
Several weeks ago, Apple Computer announced it was cutting prices for its sleek, high-end Titanium PowerBook G4 laptop.
Now it's whacking away at the low end of its inventory, cutting the price of its entry-level iMac from $999 to $799.
Apple sliced the price on its iMac down to $799.
While the new price is certainly attractive, especially considering it comes with a monitor, the performance is reminiscent of 1998.
The entry-level model features a 500 megahertz (MHz) G3 processor, 64 megabytes (MB) of memory (128 MB for an additional $50), a 20 gigabyte (GB) hard drive and a CD-ROM drive rather than the CD-RW drive that comes standard on the higher-end iMacs that start at $999.
If you want to burn tunes on the low-end model, you'll have to buy a Universal Serial Bus- (USB) or FireWire-based external CD-RW drive from someone else. The iMac comes with two USB ports and as many FireWire ports.
On the graphics side, the iMac comes with a RAGE 128 graphics chip with 16 MB of dedicated graphics memory. That's the same as you'll find on the other iMacs, as is the 15-inch monitor.
Standard software includes both OS 9 and the new OS X operating systems, iTunes for handling music, iMovie 2 for digital video, AppleWorks 6 for creating documents, Quicken Deluxe 2001 for finances and more.
It's available in indigo only.
If you're mulling a purchase, it's probably worth going with the 128 MB of memory.
Most Macs are easy to upgrade at home. But the unified construction of the iMac's main board and monitor make the guts difficult to get at.
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E-911 cell phone service delayed
The events of Sept. 11 demonstrated how helpful mobile phones can be in an emergency.
Sprint's E-911 phone will sell for $149.99.
There are numerous accounts of victims and survivors of the terrorist attacks making critical calls to friends and family over cellular networks.
Cellular service providers, under federal orders, plan to make cell phones even more valuable in emergencies by adding what's known as E-911 service, a technology that would allow rescue teams to electronically track the location of the cell phone in the event it's used to summon help. But just when consumers will get the service remains unclear.
E-911 technology would work two ways: track the cell phone's location relative to the position of ground-based cellular transmission stations through what's known as triangulation, or through Global Positioning System satellites. Rescue workers would be able to locate a cell phone transmitting E-911 signals to within as close as 50 yards.
While demand for E-911 service has reportedly surged following the Sept. 11 attacks, the rollout calendar remains in doubt.
Service was supposed to begin this fall and be completed by the end of 2005, with 95 percent of all cellular subscribers carrying location-tracking phones. But the major cellular carriers have been granted extensions.
"E-911 is going to require a fairly large retrofitting of the entire cellular system," said Travis Larson of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, which represents the cellular industry. "And you've got technological hurdles. ... Most GPS handsets are twice the size of a cell phone so you've got to shrink everything down. That takes time and money."
Sprint PCS, the nation's fourth-largest cellular carrier, plans to launch service first, in Rhode Island in November. Sprint is already selling an E-911 handset, the SPH-N300 made by Samsung Electronics, for $149.99.
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Videophones gear of choice
The videophone, a technology that's been around for decades but never caught on with consumers, is getting more attention in this age of terrorism.
Videophones are the gear of choice for broadcast journalists from CNN, the BBC and other news organizations in Afghanistan.
During its recent Afghanistan coverage, CNN used the "Talking Head-1" video reporting unit from 7E Communications.
CNN and the BBC use videophones made by 7E Communications in Middlesex, England, and Motion Media Technology in Bristol, England.
To transmit overseas news, broadcast teams sometimes lug 40 cases of satellite uplink machinery weighing hundreds of pounds, said CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan. But 7E and Motion Media's specially built, rugged satellite videophone units weigh 20 pounds or less and can fit in two laptop-sized cases.
So reporters wanting to get to the action in remote places can toss the satellite videophone unit in a duffel bag with a toothbrush and go, 7E President Peter Beardow said. They can also transmit news from just about anywhere using Inmarsat's orbital satellite network, he said.
Videophones helped CNN correspondents get exclusive footage deep in Afghanistan, including a helicopter attack on Kabul by anti-Taliban forces. "We have more than three dozen videophones," Jordan said.
Satellite videophones transmit at about 5 frames per second, so image and audio can be jerky and unsynchronized. Prices start at about $8,000.
Consumer videophones from Panasonic sell for about $1,000. A $350 model from InnoMedia works in tandem with television.
