CT Scanner Bares Apple Notebook, PS3, and Big Mac to Their Core

Satre Stuelke seems to have three passions: McDonald's fast food, toys, and gadgets—specially the GE 4-slice medical research scanner he uses to create these stunning images and videos at Cornell University's Biomedical Imaging Centre: More »

Why Does This Apple iBook Have a Microsoft BSOD?

So there's this commercial on TV right now for some computer maintenance service with technologically-inept people frustrated over their crappy, virus-laden, machines. At one point an iBook even flashes a BSOD...wait, what? More »

Apple's Sparking Power Supply Lawsuit Settled (Verdict: They're Paying)

The class action lawsuit brought against Apple for PowerBook and iBook power bricks with the potential to spark has been settled. If the final approval for the settlement goes through, Apple will pay $25 to $79 to customers who "bought an adapter made by Apple or another company to replace a failed one." [LA Times, photo from Don Ramsey]

Laptop Accelerometers Used to Study Earthquakes, Desk "Bumping"

Seismologists at Stanford are learning from their roommates over in the biology department and rigging up a distributed computing system to gather quake data from laptops with accelerometers. It's used to save resources for scientists by using assets (your laptops) that are already deployed in a widespread area. They're rolling this out primarily in quake-heavy areas like SF and LA, but should be spreading to other zones later. More »

Apple iBook's Fatal Flaws Uncovered

After receiving ten complaints (a lot for Denmark), The Danish Consumer Complaints Board commissioned a study (on the microscopic scale) of the Apple iBook G4. More »

FastMac Truepower Indestructible iBook and Powerbook Charger Hands-On

We got our hands on FastMac's replacement AC adapter for Apple iBooks and PowerBooks and can say that they're pretty much as good as the standard. Ignoring the dubious benefit of being able to be kicked and run over by an SUV (which you can see after the jump), they actually work quite well. More »

How To Enable Two Finger Scrolling on Old Apple Laptops

Owners of old Mac laptops can join in on the fun of the newer laptops with this two-fingered scrolling trackpad driver. For the unfamiliar, two-finger scrolling means you press two fingers down on the trackpad and move up or down, and whatever you're looking at scrolls up or down. Essentially like the scroll wheel on a mouse. More »

Color Customize the Apple Logo on Your Laptop

As a proud new switcher and owner of a MacBook, I'm already looking for ways to tweak the sucker out (anybody have a laser engraver I can use? e-mail me), and this is one hell of an easy way to give the Apple laptop a little pop and color. Canadian company, iColours has small transparent sheets that can be placed inside the laptop to change the color of the Apple logo. If you don't want to use your Canadian funny money to order one of these, then just head on over to a hobby store and buy your own transparent sheets. Then follow the handy, dandy tutorials to figure out how to open up the MacBook and place the transparent sheet inside. iColours does custom designing of the transparent sheets, which could be kind of cool. –Travis Hudson More »

Screw Geek Squad, Just Use Fire to Fix the iBook

So, older iBooks have a bit of a video problem where they will stop displaying video entirely. Apple will replace the laptop, but what if it is out of it's warranty? Well, do what this guy did, figure out the problem and fix it yourself using fire. The iBook video problem occurs because of solder balls underneath the graphics chip that do not hold. Using a bit of heat can fix this problem. Jump for a video. More »

Apple's RED iMac, MacBook?

We're not so sure whether we should believe ThinkSecret or not, given that we've found the site's predictions to be about 57% accurate, but anyway, here's one that seems logical and could actually happen: sources report that Steve Jobs and Bono have discussed bringing a red iMac and MacBook to market part of its purchase price going to aid AIDS victims in Africa, to follow its red iPod that made such a splash last week. More »

Apple Recall Batteries Rolling In Already

One of my two recall batteries arrived this morning. The first one was for my iBook G4 12", that coincidentally was down to 8% battery life after about 30 months of usage. Readers should be getting theirs soon as well, quite a bit faster than the state 4-6 week turnaround stated when we filed for the recall. More »

iBook in Flames, Film at 11

There was a little problem with an Apple iBook in Minnesota, where an 11-year-old boy was playing with the laptop as it sat on a carpet. After he left the room for a few minutes, his family heard a popping noise, and noticed the carpet melting underneath the overheating iBook. After the kid's mom promptly took it outside, the thing burst into flames right there on the patio. The battery inside the errant iBook is not one of the ones on Apple's recall list, either. More »

Rumor: MacBooks Next Tuesday?

The release of the MacBook, expected yesterday, was hastily postponed because Apple wanted to build up enough stock of the new notebooks to actually be able to ship them in volume when it announced the new product. Now, sources are saying the iBook (pictured at right) replacement's new launch date will be next Tuesday, May 16. But then, well, that could change, too. More »

Apple Begins Producing MacBooks, Due Tomorrow?

The Apple rumor sites are humming with news that Apple may have started production of its MacBook, the Intel-based consumer laptop replacing the now long-in-the-tooth iBook, some going so far as to speculate that Apple will officially announce its launch tomorrow in a news conference. More »

Case Mod: Skinned iBook G3

Reader Aaron, being a fan of 80s pop culture and voiding warranties, skinned an old G3 iBook and took pictures. And with laptops, just like exes, naked pictures always wind up on the internet. Another thing they have in common: they both have the nickname Skeletor. More »

Intel-Packing iBooks in June?

Now that we've seen Intel inside the Mac mini, iMac and MacBook Pro, what about the iBook (current G4 versions shown above)? We got a sneak peek into what might be happening in a report published by the Commercial Times, saying Taiwan's Austek signed a contract with Apple to manufacture 1.2 million of the upcoming iBooks. The Intel-powered notebooks will reportedly have 13.3-inch LCD displays and will ship in June. More »

The Only OS X Tablet Never Sold.

Yesterday everyone doggy-piled on the iTab, an iBook hardware hack that was put to auction on eBay. Naturally, this limited edition series of 100 iTabs did not meet with eBay's standards. Did this surprise anyone? Today there is a new auction, starting bid $1,500 (zero bidders so far). The folks behind the iTab, ThePlaceforitAll, have done some great software mods—but hardware? I'd sooner put money down on how quickly this auction will disappear. More »

Upgrading Your 12-inch Powerbook for Fun and Profit

Hardmac ran an interesting upgrade article and one valiant reader took the plunge and cracked the hermetically-sealed titanium beast. After installing a DVD burner, a gigabyte of RAM, and a sassy new hard drive, he pulled the speaker cable out of the thing and had to use a soldering iron to put it back together. Luckily, he now has a tricked out Powerbook rather than a hunk of shiny metal. [Thanks, Daniel] More »

Apple iBook Riots in VA

What do you get when you mix record heat, $50 4-year-old iBooks, and a burgeoning back-to-school season? Riot! Folks in Richmond, Virginia piled up at the doors of the Richmond International Raceway to get their hands on one of about 1,000 laptops. The ensuing chaos caused one intrepid shopper to lose her footwear: More »

New Apple iBooks and Minis- Ehhh

I was kind of dreading writing about these new iBooks. It's not like they are any great shakes. It's a pair of G4 notebooks starting at $999 for a 12-inch model with 1.3-GHz processor and 512MB memory. Both of these, the 12-inch and the 14-inch, include Tiger, iLife '05, Bluetooth, and an Airport Extreme card. The Minis are the same except all of them have Bluetooth and Airport Extreme, now, which makes me angry because I bought one when the first came out and now I'm a pariah.they're a bit faster and the more expensive ones come with Bluetooth and Airport Extreme. The $499 one still comes with nothing. More »