Digital Cameras

were everywhere, all the newer ones had USB ports and advertised iMac compatibility. I almost bought a just-out Epson CP-800 with 2.3 MB pixels and 1600x1200 resolution for just over $650 but a Japanese-only manual and Japanese characters displayed in the LCD made me decide to wait and HOPE for an English version to show up in the US for the same price.

Yano Electric (TEAC) USB Floppy Drive UFD-01 Works with my B&W G3/300! This model was "discontinued" in favor of UFD-03 in all five iMac colors so I got it at a discount at the Ike Shop in Akihabara, Tokyo. It came with v1.0 of the driver on a CD. The clerk at the Ike Shop pointed out that I'd need to update the driver for Mac OS 8.6 from Yano's web site. She even called Yano to try to find out if the drive would work on a US version of the Mac OS. The answer was "not sure" so I took a risk and got it anyway. Copying the drive's extension to my system folder from the CD was a simple matter but it caused a freeze on startup since it was designed to work with an older version of Apple's USB software. I got the new driver (v1.2.1) off Yano's site. The secret to navigating Japanese web sites is to highlight links by passing over them with the cursor and viewing the URL in English in the browser's bottom window. v1.2.1 included an updater and an enabler. After installing them, the Yano floppy drive worked fine.

To get the correct driver, first use the Apple System Profiler's "Devices and Volumes" tab to look up which version of the USB Hub Driver that you have (v1.0, 1.0.1, 1.1 or 1.2). It's the number under "USB 0". Then go to Yano's USB FD Chooser Page and scroll to the bottom and click on the correct link. For example, to get v1.2.1 of the driver click on "D ... USB 1.2" which goes to the Registration Page, scroll to the bottom, enter your name in the top field and email address in the bottom field and click on the left button or use this direct link for the USB FD Driver v1.2.1.

Subsequently, I installed Apple's latest USB Mass Storage v1.3.5 drivers and noticed in the readme file that both the Yano and TEAC USB floppy drives are listed as Apple compliant. Sure enough, the Yano drive now worked even without the Yano driver/enabler. It's hot-swapable and has no separate power supply so it must run off the computer's direct USB connection (not the keyboard) or a powered USB hub. Since this drive made by TEAC is coming to the US for $99 according to last Monday's announcement, I'll post more on its performance after a week's use.