Newton Poetry

Remember last week when I found that collection of “Free Tibet” songs on iTunes? Turns out the Chinese found it, too.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the communist government of China is blocking iTunes and the Songs for Tibet collection. All after finding out some Olympic athletes were downloading the music.

Maybe they just don’t like Moby?

Anyway, those cryptic Chinese messages I found in the reviews section of the collection? Ars Technica found the translations, and they’re not very nice. Is this anyway to treat Apple after they decided to build a store in Beijing?

How sad. Here we were worried about the Olympic athletes choking on all the smog; in reality, they’re chocking on the authoritarian bullshit.

Joe Rivera, serving in Iraq, over at Low End Mac:

I have both my PowerBook G4 and my black MacBook, but what I carry on me as part of my gear is my MessagePad 120. This is my second deployment with it, and I have it custom painted tan to match my old desert camouflage uniform.

Now that’s hardcore. Read the rest of Joe’s story, and why he doesn’t plan on springing for a new iPhone any time soon.

Well I’ll be darned – another Newton blog out there!

This one is called My Apple Newton, and it’s a great technical resource for hands-on projects and service comparisons. The blog is authored by Genghis7777 of New Zealand, and offers tips on how to go wireless, the latest software developments, and making Bluetooth connections.

The blog hasn’t been updated since mid May, but it still offers some great reading and handy info.

Our Airport Extreme Base Station connectivity issues are over. Life can begin again.

This, friends, is a new day. Thanks to one lost, but helpful, Apple support site, the issues I had with connecting to my Airport Base Station’s wifi signal and USB hard drive have been solved.

The trick, like anything else, is knowing where to look.

If you’re having issues like I was (Mac wouldn’t connect to base station’s wifi signal, air disk support was totally lost, etc.), first open up your Airport Utility app. I’m using version 5.1 after finding 5.2 to be too problematic (many others found this too – browse the support discussions at Apple.com sometime). Double-click on your base station (above), which will bring up the more detailed manual window.

Then, select the Base Station menu at the top, and click on “Upload firmware…”

You’ll see the options above, thanks to a drop-down menu. I selected firmware version 7.3.1, which was the previous firmware download. In essence, you’re overwriting the firmware – version 7.3.2 – already on your base station with the previous version. Out with the new, in with the old.

After you select your version and hit “Okay,” Airport Utility will download the firmware and automatically replace the 7.3.2 firmware.

I reset my base station a few times, with Airport Utility, just to make sure everything was a-okay. But when Airport Utility recognized the fresh old firmwared-version of my base station, I saw that it worked:

Hoo-ha. Version 7.3.1. We’re now running on the old software in both Airport Utility and on the base station itself. And see that little button with the 7.3.2 update on it. Don’t dare touch it. We know better now.

Hey, if Apple can’t came out with great new stuff, we’ll just use the old stuff that works, right?

But now came the test. Would my iBook find the base station’s Airport signal? Could I connect to the USB drive and actually save some files and open my iPhoto library?

You bet. Everything now works as normal. I can connect to wifi, and my USB drive’s wackiness comes to an end.

So lesson learned: wait longer than normal on things like firmware updates. And when you can’t find a solution, revert back to the old way of doing things. This is a problem, though, when security issues are addressed in new software updates. If you revert to the old version, do you risk leaving yourself open to attack?

Shame on Apple for not fixing the Airport Extreme Base Station firmware and Utility. We just have to do it ourselves in a roundabout way.

by Langston Hughes

Let twen’cu be America again.
letit be the dream it used to be.
letit he tupneev on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

[It’s been a while since we’ve done any real Newton Poetry here. Read the original. A good one, I think, in these weird times. Check out other Newton Poems, and find out why this poem is misspelled.]

Good news: Apple has dropped refurbished iPod Classic prices on the 80 GB model to $179, down from $199 only a week ago.

I’m always scanning the Apple Store’s refurb list for deals, and this one’s a doozy. It makes me wonder: does the price drop signal something? A clearing-out of inventory, perhaps, in anticipation of something on the horizon?

iPod Nano refurbs are cheaper these days, too, while iPod Shuffles are stuck at $10 under retail. When Apple dropped the Shuffle prices, the refurbs took a few days to catch up with the new pricing scheme.

So what do you think? Is something new coming? Or is this just a fabulous deal?

Two days and about $15 later, my “Yikes!” PowerMac G4 now features full USB 2.0 capabilities thanks to the PCI card I installed on Thursday.

More… »

Anyone else ever get a low memory message like the one I got playing “Aurora Feint” just now?

I don’t remember how much RAM is in the iPhone 3G, but I guess it wasn’t enough for all the mining action.

[Update: Turns out I’m not the only one – read here and here. Also, the iPhone RAM specs are hard to come by.  Apple doesn’t own up to them, Macenstein has a good debate going, but the consensus is 128 MB.]

Already in progress.

Looking for advice on an eMate purchase. Is it worth it, to play around with Newton OS 2.x, to go with the cheaper eMate model?

It seems like forever ago now, but all the fun we had on iPhone 3G launch day comes back to me when I watch that video.

The “don’t-you-feel-bad” guys are T-Mobile reps, who had the bad luck of being stationed next to an Apple store at the Briarwood Mall. They had one customer the whole time I was there. T-Mobile shoppers were either too intimidated or too horrified at the gross consumerism to step foot at their home base.

Good times. Relive the madness of that weird day in July, a whole month ago, when I reported from the front lines.