When Steve Jobs announced that Apple was switch from PowerPC to Intel chips , initial reactions included furrowed brows , quizzical stare , and the scratching of head . You had questions and , until lately , we had few answer . Once the first Intel - based Macs in conclusion arrived , we immediately set about answering as many of your questions as we could . Those answers , publish in the March issue , gratify many . But for a few of you , they only enhance more questions .

Questions about the FAQ

Dana F. Sutton — I learn the test scores in “ The Intel Mac FAQ ” ( March 2006 ) with considerable interest , but do they tell the accomplished level ? You liken the 2GHz iMac Core Duo with the 2.1GHz iMac G5 , using the manufactory - installed 512 MiB of RAM on both . But I have read that Rosetta is a genuine computer storage grunter . Is 512 MB of Aries really enough to run Rosetta on a Core Duo motorcar ? Is Rosetta really as slow as you account , or did your test wedge it to do a raft of disk swapping ? It would be interesting if you could reprize these comparisons with RAM maxed out on both machines .

In addition to the tests we describe , we also tested with 1 GB of RAM . Everything — on both Intel and PowerPC system — ran only slightly faster , with Photoshop point the most improvement . And yes , Rosetta apps really are as slow as we reported.—Ed .

Bob Barkie — I switched from a PC to an iMac a few months ago . When I discovered a duo of months afterward that I had just miss out on getting an iMac with an iSight and Front Row , I was n’t really too dismayed ( though free gadgets and software are always cool ) . Now I read that if I had await just a little longer , I could have had an iMac that is reportedly doubly as fast — and that still includes an iSight and Front Row — for the same price that I paid for my machine . I can populate with the bad timing , but I really wonder about software compatibility . I know Apple is write two type of codification for some of its programs , so they will run on PowerPC and Intel flake - based car . But what about other developer ? Will I pick up that I ’ve waited for Civilization IV just to find that it will run only on an Intel Mac ? It seems that the Mac world is becoming as volatile as the Windows public .

Scott Lederhaus — The raw MacBook Pro will not have a modem . Why not ? I know that few laptop exploiter go online via modem these days , but what about those of us who apply a modem to fax documents ? I was ready to go and corrupt a new notebook computer , but without a modem hookup , I ’m lost .

As we wrote in the report , most laptop users believably have broadband access over Ethernet or Wi - Fi . And Apple does sell an external USB modem for people who need it.—Ed .

Up with tune-ups

Harry Baxter — give thanks you , give thanks you , give thanks you for your “ The Ultimate Mac Tune - Up ” article ( March 2006 ) . Safari used to take 45 seconds to load ; now it read 3 , thanks to your tips . If you have any more jot , please make them a regular feature in your column .

Claudiu Benga — While Joe Kissell did an OK occupation overall of explaining how to speed up various applications , I have a trouble with some of his advice about Firefox . The trouble is with his encouraging readers to set

James Baily — In “ The Ultimate Mac Tune - Up , ” Kyle Wiens save , “ If the free RAM report by Activity Monitor is less than 10 percent of your physical Aries … you need to increase your RAM until those phone number are more in dividing line . ” This is just evidently incorrect . If you run OS X for a while , almost all of your free memory should be used — and this is a good matter . passive memory is used to cache data and late used app . If those cached items are needed again , the OS will debase them from RAM alternatively of from the disk . Free memory is memory that the type O is n’t using for lay away and that is therefore die to consume .

You ’re right . That sentence should have been “ If the total of innocent and inactive [ emphasis added ] RAM report by Activity Monitor is less than 10 percent of your physical RAM under a typical workload of apps and documents , you need to increase your RAM until those act are more in crease . ” That was the editor ’s fault , not the writer ’s , and he ’s very , very sorry.—Ed .

Chad Armstrong — Regarding your clause about troubleshooting bad random-access memory : recently , Adobe InDesign bulge out unexpectedly resign on me . Then my whole estimator started crashing . Then it would n’t even boot . At first , I suspected a faulty voiceless drive , but the Apple Hardware Test reported that my parkway was fine . After some further tests , it cover that one of the RAM Saratoga chip was bad . I took the chip out and shipped it off to get a replacement . With that new chip install , everything is now up and running just fine . The issue : RAM defects can be hard to diagnose , since they can appear to be so many other things .

Copy that

Ian Thomas — In “ Multiple iPods and Computers , ” ( play list , March 2006 ) , you say that iPod.iTunes can quash twin file cabinet , but implied that PodWorks ca n’t . I am attaching a screenshot to show that PodWorkscan . I do n’t hump how well these alternative run , but they ’re there .

They write the songs

Daniel Baker — When Dan Miller concluded his story about the disceptation over publishing medicine lyric online ( “ Bye - Bye , Lyrics,”Mac Beat , March 2006 ) by saying “ as common , users are catch in the crossbreed fire , ” he ’s take over the all - too - popular opinion that listeners are the dupe here . But if anyone ’s take in in the mark fire , it ’s the composers . medicine publisher who are going after online lyrics sites divvy up ownership of those songs with the composers . By seeking free access to copyrighted material , the “ users ” Miller come to to are , in effect , waging war against rational property rights . If publisher do nothing to defend those right , composer turn a loss income . And , after all , without the composers , would this situation even exist ?

Terminally difficult

Walter R. Basil — The revaluation of MacJournal 3.2 (; March 2006 ) says that you’re able to “ easy export journal to a .Mac story or post entries to your blog using LiveJournal , Blogger , WordPress , or MovableType . ” True , you may — but only after you go to Terminal , enable some hidden features , and then tag your article right . That ’s easy ? I fuck MacJournal , but your review could have someone to go out and bribe the software only to detect that he or she needs to jump through several hoops to get it to act .

You ’re right ; we should have made it clearer that MacJournal does n’t claim to be a full - feature blogging client.—Ed .