Kupitero's Keep Gadgets Page

On to Kupitero's obsolete computers/gadgets...(please note that these are all actual pictures)!

Apple PowerBook 2400c Notebook:

Codenamed by Apple as "Comet", the Apple PowerBook 2400c was the smallest notebook (only 10.3"x 8.2" x 1.5") the company ever produced until the 12" PowerBook G4 was released in early 2003. Only two versions were released - with the faster variety (with a 240 MHz Power 603e chip) sold only in the Japanese market. The product was truly designed for the Japanese market - where it had already achieved cult status -, with its compact keyboard and very, very 'cutesy' design...features that Japanese easily fall for.

Underneath the facade is an engineering marvel - a collaboration of Apple and IBM-Japan - that include features such as a motor-driven, push-button controlled PC Card slots, an SODIMM RAM slot (16 MB of RAM is built-in while the slot takes a max of 96 MB for a total RAM capacity of 112 MB), 10.4" active-matrix color screen, a touch pad with clicker, IRDA, as well as, a unique, blinking green, indicator light on the latch when the unit is closed but is in "sleep mode".

Despite the absence of a built-in floppy or CD-ROM drive, ample connectors & ports at the back of the unit -as well as the PC Card slots- enable it to still access today's new hardware including printers and external monitors.

The one in my collection is the U.S.-released version (at 180 MHz), with 80 MB of RAM and 2.1GB hard drive and a matching external floppy drive. The unit was discontinued in 1998 but remains as one of the most sought-after PowerBooks in the pre-"Gx" series of the Apple PowerBook line-up.

The Timex/Sinclair 1000:

I first laid my eyes on the British-made Sinclair ZX-81 in 1982, in a small electronics store in the outskirts of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The unit was initially released a year earlier -1981- as a follow-up to the highly-successful ZX-80 (released 1980 in the U.K.). The price of the ZX-81 was about Saudi Riyals SR 350 (Saudi Riyals) which, in those days, was about US$ 112.

In 1982, Sir Clive Sinclair, owner of Sinclair Research, Ltd and creator of the ZX-81, entered the U.S. home computer market in a tie-up with watch maker, Timex. Hence, the ZX-81 was renamed the Timex-Sinclair 1000 for the North American market.

Powered by a 3.25 MHz chip- the Z80A - made by one of the early microprocessor companies in Silicon Valley - Zilog, it was among the cheapest personal computers afficionados could buy at that time, that it became very popular. But it was mainly regarded as "a toy" by personal computer purists and hence, did not take off as a mainstream PC.

Small and handy at about 6.7" x 6.5", the Timex-Sinclair 1000 was your very BASIC computer -its OS resided in the unit's paltry ROM- with only 4 IC (integrated circuit) chips on the mainboard. A port on the left side hooked it up to your TV (via an RF modulator) while another interface at the back, made the unit upgradeable (16K RAM pak, cassette recorder and thermal printer).

Timex ultimately dropped out of the computer market in 1984 while Sinclair Research, Ltd continues to operate and currently purveys an assortment of non-computer related gizmos in the U.K.

Apple iPod mini:

Officially released by Apple in the U.S. on Feb 20, 2004 - yet already a passé gadget for true-blue hardware geeks, since the features are no different from the white-colored, different-capacity-of-songs iPods which were released a year ago (the original iPod was released in December 2001) . Already on the drawing boards at Apple is a design for a yet cheaper model (maybe, priced at US$ 99) that will hold 500 songs and have a camera (and probably, phone) feature - cross my fingers on this one!).

But, credit Apple (again!) for the sleek and innovative features they had crammed into this tiny (2" x 3.6" x 0.5"), anodized-aluminum clad music marvel. Inside is a 4 GB super-micro hard drive that can hold up to 1,000 songs. The small (1.67") but crisp LCD display has user-controllable backlighting as well as a very intuitive user-interface. Separate control buttons were incorporated on the "touch wheel" in the original iPod and is now-called, the "click wheel"

The original "touch wheel" is a heat/pressure sensitive pad that allows one to scroll on the menu you see on the LCD screen by simply touching the pad in a circular motion. This is no different from touch pads found in newer laptops and notebooks. This music widget also packs other features like games, clock/alarm plus calendar, memo and PIM.

Previously left-in-the-cold Windows users can now buy the Apple iPod mini and not worry about connectivity since the device supports both the super fast FireWire and old-reliable, USB 2.0 - with cables included! Also added in the set is a holster which was an optional item in the original iPod.

Whether Apple hit another jackpot or, came up with another high-priced dud with the iPod mini, remains to be seen in the months ahead. But, given the warm reception it had on its Feb 20, 2004 release - as well as the on the Feb 28. 2004 opening of its flagship Apple Store in San Francisco - expect the gadget to be very ubiquitous in all major airports, trains and other forms of mass-transport.

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Netpliance Makeover

step by step

Materials

1. A laptop hard drive. The thinner the better. The one I bought online is about 15 mm -- too thick! I swapped it out with the one inside my NEC notebook which is about 9.5mm.

2. An 'inverted' 44-pin, laptop hard drive cable. I got this together with # 3, from a NYC-based online store.

3. A laptop to standard PC IDE hard drive adapter (this will come in different varieties -- get one that has a durable power connector and a molded IDE connector).

4. A PS/2 splitter (Y-adapter) - required so that we can: 1) Access BIOS using a standard PC keyboard. The iOpener KB has no ESC key. 2) Use a PS/2 mouse simultaneously for Windows/ Linux.

5. A PC running Windows or Linux - with a floppy drive.

6. Choice of operating system - to replace the proprietary QNX OS in the Netpliance iOpener.

7. Tons of patience.

The Hack

1. Using the PC, I downloaded the software required for the hack: an older V2 BIOS image file (.bin) for my V5 iOpener and Dolly - a HD cloning software. Just make sure that both files are in the same directory of your PC that runs any flavor of Windows (I used Windows Me) or Linux.

2. Cracked open my iOpener to have access to the IDE port. This is where I'll insert the 'inverted' 44-pin IDE cable.

3. Back to the desktop PC that runs any version of Windows ... again, note I used one with Windows Me on it. Remove the hard drive of this PC and in it's place, connect the laptop IDE HD using the laptop to IDE adapter we purchased in #3 in the Materials required above. Make sure that you configured the laptop HD as primary master via the laptop's HD physical jumper setting (normally, no jumper at alll) before you connect it to the PC's IDE cable.

4. Now, boot the PC and note on the POST if the laptop drive was recognized correctly and then, immediately access the BIOS. Change the settings to make the floppy drive as the first boot device. Save the settings and power off the PC. Get a bootable diskette with FDISK on it and boot to the A:> prompt. Using the FDISK command, delete ALL partitions on the laptop IDE HD. DO NOT make any new partitions. Simply exit the FDISK and turn off the PC as soon as you get back to the A:> prompt

5. Now, reconnect back the laptop HD to the desktop PC. This time, configure the laptop HD (via the jumper) as "primary slave". Hence, your PC's IDE HD (containing Windows Me) is back as the "primary master" Boot the PC - and note again if BOTH drives were properly detected on the POST - and access the BIOS again. Once there, configure ONLY the settings for the laptop HD (primary slave) on the BIOS with the ff. parameters: Cylinders: 490; Head: 2 and Sectors: 32. This will set the laptop HD as a 16 MB HD. Save the settings and allow the PC to continue booting back to the A:> prompt. Turn off the PC.

...continued here