iBook tidbits: Palm software; AirPort connections; Developers Note; more
iBook tidbits: Palm software; AirPort connections; Developers Note; more
An AirPort page has a link to an AirPort FAQ. It notes that with third party PC cards, you will be able to connect existing PowerBook G3 Macs to an AirPort. An iMac or Power Macintosh G3 can easily be added to the network by using a crossover Ethernet cable with the AirPort Base Station. Two AirPort-equipped iBooks can also communicate with each other - via a wireless connection - even without an AirPort base unit.
When I was playing with the iBook at the Expo, I noticed: (1) the Monitors & Sound control panel was split into separate Monitors and Sound control panels; (2) connecting to an AirPort required that AppleTalk be active at that AirPort be the connected device as listed both in the AppleTalk and TCP/IP control panels. However, this is not the same thing as supporting an AppleTalk network, such as needed for AppleTalk connected printers. As was discussed at the "Ask the Experts: Mac OS" Expo session that I participated in, speculation is heavy that AppleTalk is on the way out and may be gone altogether from Mac OS 9.0. How Apple will handle printing to AppleTalk printers, if it will address this at all, remains a mystery.
Chip Russell wondered how Steve Jobs was able to get the iBook screen to display on the large screen used for the Keynote address - given that the iBook does not appear to have any video out port.
Update: Several reader noted that Apple could have been using AVerMedia's USBPresenter, which provides video out via the USB port. (Thanks, Aaron Bergner who noted that the iBook Zone had an article on this). However, Michael Langlois writes: "According to a contact at Apple, Steve was using a pre-production model that either had a video-out port and/or had been hacked to provide one."
The iBook Developers Note has been posted.