News for Tuesday, 16 March 2004

For economical reasons, computer memory manufacturers diminshed their DRAM production (both SDR and DDR) to focus on more profitable products, such as USB keys memories or mobile phones.
Yet the demand for DRAM chips didn't drop. It seems a balance has currently been found between offer and demand. This should evolve into a shortage during the second half of the year, as both the end of summer vacation and Christmas buys significantly increase the demand for computer products.
Yet those informations may be discyssed, as they emanate from Samsung, world's biggest RAM manufacturer, who are interested in seeing prices rise out of speculation.

Intel announced they had to cease their selling in China of some Centrino models. Those are namely the Wi-Fi products which won't be sold there any more, as no agreement has been found with the Chinese government who asked for material changes. It turns out that China, with local manufacturers, created a security protocole named WAPI. Neither Intel, nor the American government succeeded in persuading them to allow standard Wi-Fi.

Thx to mbfix for his analysis.
For some years, and especially since the beginning of 2003, Apple has been stricken by a curse. All their leading products are late. This has started with the Powerbook G4 17" which was expected for weeks. Then came the Powermac G5, then the Powerbook G4 AL 15". We hoped things would fare better in 2004... Yet the xServe G5 though released last month is still not available, and the Apple Store delivery counter is still locked on 5-7 weeks. At last come the iPod mini for which stocks are so low European consumers may expect them to come for long, not to talk about a G5, or portable, or iMac potentially delayed revision...
It seems something's rotten with Apple. Either somebody are unable to preview and make their promises come true, or Steve Jobs announces things that haven't yet come to life, almost rumors so to say.

We'd told you about that, yet it is confirmed. The Pioneer 107D is natively supported by Panther.

While no current Apple machine ships with a 107, it will necessarily come.

A new DVD copy software is available for Mac.

Fast DVD Copy allows to rip a DVD (even a protected one) in one-click, to resize it so it will stand on a DVD-R and to burn it.
We had a problem with a 107D dezoned burner. The soft would refuse to launch the copy as the reader region informations were different from those on the disk. We had to use the Region X soft to put the system on the right zone. (Region_X_107.bin). Though the soft finally burnt the DVD quite fast, we have been a bit disappointed.

It has found our "Minority Report" DVD, which is less than 8 Go bug, is too big. This soft, still limited in version 1.0, costs a consequent $99,95 but does what sharewares or freewares are able to do.
http://www.fastdvdcopy.com/
PS: to learn more on DVDs and video in general, the French reference site is still Mac et Video.

AMD has been using the P-Rating for quite a while now. The denomination of the processors isn't based on the frequency of the core itself, but on the frequency of the Intel chip of the equivalent power.
Intel might be about to do the same. It must be taken into account that inside the range of Intel processors, some of them are more powerful than others at same speed. And this will be still more true with the release of the 64bits processors.
This adoption will bother AMD, who will have to adapt the way they name their CPUs. But it might be a great opportunity for Apple. If it apply the same rating to the G5, then it won't be necessary any more to throw a poor guy across the walls to show how powerful the new Powermac is.

Many of you wrote us to let us know of your worries linked to the promotion Apple is running in France until May, 8th on RAM (on US AppleStore, it is until March 28th).
http://promo.euro.apple.com/promo/morememory/fr/
Does this mean Apple will not introduce new products before May 8th? Without falling into the rumors and just by analysing the terms of the promotion, we think there is no influence on the product range.
- For starters, said promotion is valid on a limited number of machines... (from Apple FR Terms and Conditions)

Mac à 1,25 GHz avec SuperDrive (écran LCD 17") - M9168*/A iMac à 1,25 GHz avec SuperDrive (écran LCD 20") - M9290*/A iMac à 1 GHz avec lecteur de DVD/CD-RW (écran LCD 15") - M9285*/A Power Mac G5 à 1,6 GHz, 256 Mo, 80 Go, SD M9020*/A Power Mac G5 biprocesseur 1,8 GHz, 512 Mo, 160 Go, SD M9393*/A Power Mac G5 biprocesseur à 2 GHz, 512 Mo, 160 Go, SD - M9032*/A Power Mac G4 à 1,25 GHz, 256 Mo, 80 Go, Combo - M9145*/A Xserve G5 à 2 GHz DP - M9217*/A Xserve G5 à 2 GHz - M9216*/A Nœud Xserve G5 à 2 GHz DP - M9215*/A

... whose product numbers are precisely noted. And when Apple renew a product range, these numbers are changed, so no substitution of product is possible.
- Next,

Cette offre est uniquement valable dans la limite des stocks disponibles. [Promotion valid within the limits of available inventory]

If the machine is not on catalog, it will beharder to ask for the rebate.
- And to end this:

Apple se réserve le droit de modifier les conditions générales de cette offre, notamment de remplacer ou de supprimer des produits éligibles ou de mettre fin à cette promotion, à tout moment et sans préavis. [Apple retains the right to change the terms and conditions of this promotional offer, specifically to replace or suppress eligible products or to end the promotion at any time and without notice.]

So nothing is frozen.

The new update of Mac OS X Panther has just been released, update available via Software Update...
For detailed information on this update, please visit : http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n25711
The build is 7F44, really close to the one talked about yesterday ;-)
Mac OS X Server has also been updated:
Mac OS X Server version 10.3.3 Update
The 10.3.3 Server Update delivers enhanced functionality and improved reliability for Mac OS X Server v10.3 and is recommended for all systems.
Key enhancements include:
• improved reliability of AFP, SMB/CIFS and NFS file services
• enhanced Server Admin, Workgroup Manager and Network Image Utility applications
• improved Open Directory authentication performance, Active Directory integration and Kerberos support
• updated QuickTime streaming and broadcast services for compatibility with 3G phones
• added support for background rebuilding of RAID mirrors, and network VLAN tagging
• updated to Samba version 3.0.2 and MySQL version 4.0.18
• improved PostScript and USB printing
• additional support for FireWire and USB devices
• improved compatibility for third party applications and devices
• previous standalone security updates
For detailed information on this Update, please visit this website: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107851