The latest in computer hardware includes new LCD monitors from Apple clad in anodized aluminum and offering even larger sizes than ever before. The top of the line 30 inch monitor retails for $3299 (but wait, there's more). You need a special new video card to run this puppy, so add another $600 for the card. The good news here is that the video card can drive two of these monster monitors. The bad news is the total cost is $3899, so not many of us mortals will be bringing one home any time soon. On to the other monitors: the 23 inch model has dropped to $1999 and the 20 inch is still priced at $1299. The big change is that all of these monitors now have FireWire and USB ports, so no more cables running everywhere on your desk. Another big change is one I have been wanting ever since Apple went to ADC connectors. Apple has gone back to DVI connectors for their monitors. Why is this important? Due to the fact they have gone back to the standard DVI connector, PC users can also buy these lovely Apple monitors. If all goes well, that should mean more orders, and more orders should result in lower costs for Apple, hopefully lowering the retail cost of product. The minus of this is that you will have a power cable connected, but Apple has constructed the cable in such a way that you won't notice it or its power brick hiding on the floor. Please note that Apple has not talked about the 17 inch version of the LCD monitor being updated; it still appears in its old form factor on the Apple web site for $699.

Apple also announced that the next version of iMacs would be showing up later than expected and that current production of iMacs has been shut down. This will most likely result in iMacs becoming hard to find by the end of August. This appears to be another production screw up and most likely someone's job will be lost.

By the way, The Portland Mac Store has loaned us an iMac for the last year and a half. We are going to turn it in so they can clear their inventory. Please thank Erick Laabs for this generous loan.

Speaking of the Mac Stores, the Mac Outlet Store in Tigard will go away sometime this Fall. A new Beaverton Mac Store will open up in the Cedar Hills Crossing shopping center. The new store will feature all new Apple and third party products.

By the time you read this, PMUG's MacCamp Promo video will have been viewed at Macworld Boston. It will be part of the User Group University program on what User Groups are doing to promote special events. PMUG would like to thank John Mantzefield for all the hard work he put in on the PMUG promo and the MacCamp version he created for this event. Chuck Joiner, President of the Hershey's User Group, responded to the video: "All I can say is WOW!!!!" Chuck also heads up the Apple User Group advisory board and User Group University.

It must have been one of the those 4th of July things; I received 12 phone calls about computer problems on Saturday the 3rd. In the course of things, this reminded me of a few things that everyone needs to be aware of. The number one thing is if you call and say that you're going to bring a computer for help, please call and cancel if you change your mind about coming. You may not mind spending your Saturday waiting for a client that never shows, but I may have other things I could do. Also please do not expect more than five minutes free consulting because you had an hour of work done a year ago. Please do not ask for advice and then argue about the answer.

It seems that some folks are having problems with a conflict between their iSight and other FireWire devices. Users have reported hard drives not mounting when the iSight is plugged in; others say if certain PCI video capture cards are present, the iSight fails to work. If you have any of these problems, please report the bug to Apple or one of the websites that track that data like macfixit.com or macintouch.com.

Many of you have Electric Sheep that you use for email and to read the New Macintosh Users area. That's nice, but there are so many other areas on the Sheep that should be checked out for everyone with an account. In the Software area we had a really good discussion on things you should not be removing from your System. The Hardware forum has talked about problems mounting some DVD-R disks under System 9.x. For those with a urge to argue politics, religion, and every thing else under the sun, the Soap Box is worth checking out. While on the lighter side, Just Kidding has all the latest jokes and humor to keep you laughing. So the next time you log into the Sheep, try looking around and finding those hidden gems.

Upgrades are good for some computers and not cost effective for others. Most of the G4 machines can be upgraded at a fairly reasonable cost, starting at around $260 plus installation fees. On other machines that are fairly old (7500/8500) you may want to invest your money in upgrading into a new machine or a newer used machine. I end up telling people upgrading a really old machine is like putting a new motor in a junk car. It's not going to go very fast and it will still be an old car. However, hanging on to that old machine to run your old scanner or some SCSI devices that will not run on the new machine makes perfect sense.

Now back to the G4 machines. If you decide to upgrade, make sure that you're getting the best bang for your buck. Most folks who have older AP video G4s can upgrade to faster G4 chips. The most cost effective is the 800MHz chip, with a 1.4GHz being almost three times the cost of a 800MHz upgrade. You can research all of this on the internet and on a great little web site called www.xlr8yourmac.com where you can compare comments of different upgrades and even download pictures of how to do it yourself.

Speaking of upgrades, here are some great things to remember. Make sure your machine has the latest firmware updates. Be sure you are running OS 9.2.2 if you want your machine to work correctly with the upgrade. At least 256M of RAM should be installed. Check the jumpers on the upgrade to be sure they are set for your machine. Use a static strap to insure that you are static free. Be sure you follow the directions or you can end up with a fried machine.

The costs of upgrading to System X are not only the time and OS X software, but also the other software you run. Yes, most of the OS 9 software will run in Classic but not all; and maybe not as well as it ran under OS 9. So be sure to figure out what upgrades in software you will need and make it part of the budget.

One of the comments I get from graphic artists is that they don't see a speed increase with their upgrade. The answer is they need a faster video card to keep up. Older video cards just can't keep up with the amount of information being thrown at them and show it with slow redraw rates.

At this time I will again remind everyone that those utilities you used to use are not good for your new System upgrades. Norton Utilities has not had a major update in three years and it has been announced that they will no longer update this product. So that leaves DiskWarrior (version 3.0.2) and TechTool (version 4.0.1) as main stream utilities for end consumer use.

There is one more application I need to talk about, but it is not for the beginning user. That is Data Rescue, from Prosoft Engineering <www.prosofteng.com> . To use this, you really need to read the directions before using it, and have another drive to put the information on. Data Rescue will not change any of the information on your hard drive; it simply tries to find the data on the drive and recover it to another device. If the hard drive you are trying to get the data off of is large, it may take several hours or even days for the utility to read all the bits and pieces of data, so be aware that some time is involved.

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