Thinking about a wireless AirPort network? You might do better than using Apple’s AirPort Base Station these days – read on for Glenn Fleishman’s look at competing 802.11 access points. TenBITS offers news about Mac OS X software releases, plus warnings about damage that can be done by Apple’s installer. In the news, we cover problems with some Power Mac G4 hard drives, Outpost.com shipping changes, and BBEdit 6.1.1, QuickTime 5.0.1, and Palm Desktop 2.6.3.
Bad Power Mac G4 Hard Drives -- Apple has revealed that some Power Mac G4s (Digital Audio - those released in January of 2001) contain defective 40 GB and 60 GB hard drives that can damage files, cause data loss, and potentially prevent the computer from starting up
Palm Desktop 2.6.3 Supports Newest Handhelds -- Palm has released Palm Desktop 2.6.3, a small update that primarily provides compatibility with the latest Palm devices running Palm OS 4.0
BBEdit 6.1.1 Addresses Conflicts, Fixes Bugs -- Less than a week after releasing BBEdit 6.1, Bare Bones Software has issued a minor update to fix crashes caused by bugs in St
Apple Releases QuickTime 5.0.1 -- After a long public beta, Apple has released QuickTime 5.0.1, enhancing performance and finally cleaning up the QuickTime Player interface
Outpost.com Adjusts Shipping Policy Yet Again -- Less than a month after increasing its shipping charges a second time, Outpost.com has again adjusted its shipping rates to try to win back customers stung by the previous changes (see "I Saw Free Ships..." in TidBITS-567 and "Outpost.com's Shipping Charges Increase Again" in TidBITS-574)
Other members of the TidBITS staff are also contributing to the TenBITS columns - our looks at issues and products surrounding Mac OS X - so check for initials after each item to see who's responsible for it.
More on Mac OS X's FTP Server -- I hate being fooled by a special case
Apple started the wireless networking revolution with AirPort (and the rest of the industry acknowledges its role) but the AirPort Base Station is largely unchanged since its introduction nearly two years ago - no drop in price and only a few software updates that added overdue and welcome features