Three Kinks in the New iBook (Dual USB)

We have used our two new iBooks for a week now and have run across just three problems, two of which have workarounds and a third we'll tackle today and report on later.

Spongy Keyboard: The keyboard is flexible like the original iBook's and those that came with the PowerBook G3 1999 and 2000. However, it is a bit spongy in the center at the top near the keyboard lock. We fixed this by screwing in the screw in the lock with a small eyeglass screwdriver. It actually took quite a few turns but it anchored the center of the keyboard solidly. No more keyboard sponginess.

• [Update from Guy Kuo] "This is in regard to the comment about using the keyboard lock to help with mushiness on the iBook. I don't think that addresses the real cause of the mushiness... Apple's lack of emphasis in its instructions to carefully align the tabs on the front edge of the keyboard when reassembling the machine. If these are even slightly out of alignment, the keyboard won't seat down flat as designed but can easily be forced into position. The amount of force isn't excessive so most users won't realize they didn't line things up correctly after excitedly installing RAM or an Airport card.
  
  "The keyboard should feel rock solid even WITHOUT using the keyboard lock. The middle of the keyboard is held down flat by a magnet yielding a solid feel. However, a tiny misalignment of the front keyboard edge defeats that mechanism and leaves the keyboard slightly flexed.
  
  "The keyboard removal/replacement instructions during airport and RAM installation don't emphasize this detail at all and the iBook is getting an unfair reputation for having a fragile or mushy keyboard as a result of most people not seating the front of the keyboard correctly. It should fit together like silk when aligned correctly.
  
  "The trick is to pay particular attention to the tab just in front of the right side command key. Slightly flex the keyboard up and down during reassembly and you'll see that tab go COMPLETELY into its slot. Once that happens, the rear of the keyboard and indeed the whole keyboard will fit much better and be sucked down flat by its magnet."
  

Mac OS X Sleep = Coma: Most of the times when we choose "Sleep" from the Apple menu while running Mac OS X the new iBooks go into a coma and can't be awakened by any means. We have to hold down the power key for up to 10 seconds to fully shutdown the iBooks. Then press the power key again to start up. We get the coma about 80 percent of the time while running Mac OS X with Classic mode also started. With Mac OS X only, we never get a coma. We noticed that when we get a coma, the pulsing sleep light next to the catch button never lights up. Listening, the new iBook clicks off when it goes into normal sleep but the click never happens when we get a coma. Apparently, the new iBook can not fully stop running the Classic mode resulting in the coma rather than wakable sleep. I asked the resident Genius in our Apple Store about this. The Genius replied that it is a known issue with Mac OS X 10.0.3, the only workaround is to stop Classic mode in the Preference panel before putting the new iBook to sleep and that it will be fixed in a Mac OS X update.

Screen Ripples: We noticed that when we moved (tilted) the screen on both new iBooks that ripples on the screen emanated from two places on the right-hand side of the screen near the top and the bottom. The ripples propagated out about an inch. We could make this happen simply by gently shaking the screen. We visited the Apple Store and two of the four iBooks on display exhibited the same phenomenon but barely and almost imperceptibly, unlike the large and obvious ripples on our iBooks. The ripples are not a problem sitting quietly at a desk, of course, but in a plane, train, bus, subway or car they would be very distractive. The Genius in our Apple Store said that we had to ship the iBooks to Apple to be repaired. The ripples emanate from the places on the screen opposite the two torx screws that hold the top together. Today we will try adjusting the torx screws a bit to see it we can eliminate the ripples so we don't have to go through the trouble of sending them in and endure the I-told-you-so gigs from our PC-using colleagues.

[Update] Quake III Arena v1.29f Beta for Mac OS X is Out and available for download. The latest version is for Mac OS X only, no Classic version yet, plus Windows and Linux. It came out late last night ET and the servers were jammed but we managed to get a copy from Speakeasy.net. We installed it on our Power Mac G4 533DP with the new GeForce3 card. Version 1.29f has a timed demo which seemed to run incredibly fast on Mac OS X but it yielded a calculation of only 36 frames per second which we find hard to believe given how fast the demo ran. There were only 102 servers up when we got v1.29f installed (had to re-enter the CD key) but we played a few games. The maps have been revised and look gorgeous under Mac OS X. More later.