Worse news for Iomega/Jaz, quoted directly from MacInTouch column today, macintouch.com :
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"Defective cartridges (see yesterday's news entry) and cooling problems (covered earlier) may not be Iomega's only problems with Jaz technology. A reader reports a new issue with magnetic fields,
noted by Iomega support (although this has not been confirmed officially):
Working as a consultant in Manhattan, I use jaz drives all the time, my clients' as well as my own. Recently, my own drive failed, and in discussion with an Iomega hardware engineer in Phoenix, I
mentioned seeing 4 or 5 Jaz drives fail (in one way or another) of the 10 or 11 drives that I've used on a regular basis.
He asked if the drives were being used near any 'strong magnetic fields,' and I (too) quickly said they were not, but followed up by saying, well, what sort of mag fields?
Reply: "Oh, a full-page monitor puts out a strong mag field, strong enough to interfere with the drive."
Shocked, I asked "What about my two-page monitor - how far away should i have the Jaz from it?"
Reply: "Oh, a display that large can put out a field strong enough to break the drive head mechanism; i'd probably put it 3 or 4 FEET away!!!!!!" (emphasis added for comic relief...)
Naturally, my clients and I (and I'm sure many of your readers) use our Jaz drives just inches away from our 17" and 21" monitors.... which likely explains the incredibly high fail rate I've observed."
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I can't imagine this being anything but good news for SYQT.
- Jeff |
