New and Noteworthy: Dual 1.6 GHz G4 card provides Mac OS 9/X compatibility; MacMod Challenge 2006 kicks off; more

Dual 1.6 GHz G4 card provides Mac OS 9/X compatibility For those that want high-performance while retaining full boot-compatibility with Mac OS 9.x, Sonnet offers the Encore/ST G4 Duet 1.6 GHz, which is compatible with most "Sawtooth' PowerMac G4 systems, including AGP Graphics, Gigabit Ethernet, Digital Audio and QuickSilver models. The card features PowerPC G4 7447A processors from Freescale Semiconductor, and ue 512K of SRAM on-chip L2 cache. More.

MacMod Challenge 2006 kicks off The annual MacMod Challenge is now underway. In the contest, Mac and iPod owners are recognized for creativity and ingenuity in the upgrades and modifications made to their systems to improve performance, appearance, and functionality. "Macintosh modification is more popular than ever, and the challenge has become an intensely competitive event. This year, entrants are looking to trump previous champions such as the Necronomicon G4, Wallstreet RoadWarrior and the Millenium Falcon Mac mini." Grand prize will be a $1,000 prize package from primary sponsor Other World Computing and MacSales.com. More.

Logitec offers first Mac OS X compatible Blu-ray drive Logitec has unveiled its first Blu-ray drive that is compatible with Mac OS X, according to HDTV UK. "Their LBD-A2FU2/LBD-A2U2 drives, made by Panasonic, will read and record both single and dual-layer Blu-ray discs at 2x speed, as well as handling ordinary DVDs at 8x speed. The LBD-A2FU2 connects via FireWire and USB 2.0; the LBD-A2U2 has just USB 2.0. It will also work with Windows, but the main issue was that no previous drives (scarce though they are anyway) would work natively with Mac OS X. Now we have a Blu-ray disc - mildly ironic given that Apple seems to be sitting in the Blu-ray camp at present." More.

European iTunes Music store tops 200 million songs sold Apple has announced that users downloaded more than 200 million songs from its European iTunes Music Stores in just over two years, and the iTunes music catalog now includes more than three million songs from major music companies and over 1,000 independent record labels. More.

Previously on MacFixIt:

• Last-ditch attempt for "dead" iPods
• Another tip for getting printers to work properly -- use another model's driver
• Quicken 2007 released: Introduces data-entry widget; not yet Universal
• Adobe InDesign 4.0.4 released: Resolves printing, QuickTime 7.x issues
• Odds and Ends: Mac OS X 10.4.7 Server overrides port closure; Knowledge Base updates

Resources