News for Tuesday, 2 November 2004

Thanks to Denis for his report.

I have seen in Paris a demo of Logic Pro 7, this version is having quite some nice features:
- a nice operational score part,
- good quality integrated sounds,
- easy to setup system for synchronizing audio/midi,
- a nice Apple's style GUI displaying a picture of the current instrument in the track,
- a full-screen video import system, with an automatic resizing and naming,
- a new container format, still named AIF, including midi and audio, which can be exported simply using drag-and-drop, but can also be a bit modified without being edited (i.e. tempo).
- direct import of GarageBand creation,
- direct import of midi file in the folder track, and probably many additional features that I did not see or forget to mention.
The main issue, not so much important here, it is only available for Mac, there is no PC version planned. So, one will have to export his file in midi format to be able to use it in other PC application.

[Update] Krikor, who has recently received his Logic Audio 7 copy, is reporting about the really interesting and performant "Node" mode. Indeed, after having connected computers via Ethernet or FireWire, one can use CPU resources as a cluster, and only one license is required for the "Master" computer is this case!

AOL, the "Internet Giant", the same that acquired "Time Warner" few years ago, is today in trouble. Many internet users have left AOL for other cheaper ISP.
According to several sources, AOL is preparing to cut its work force by at least 700 employees, most of them from AOL Headquarters in Virginia.
In less than a year AOL might have lost around 700 000 internet users.

As the IEEE 802.11n specification is only still a project, Belkin announced they'll shortly commercialize peripherals using it.
This most prematurate announcement made the Wi-Fi Alliance angry, which indicated in a press communicate they'd revocate the certifications of products released before the specification is finalized. In the past, Apple and Buffalotech offered 802.11g products many months before an agreement was made on the specs.
This 802.11n norm should go over a real 100Mbits/s and also increase range by a considerable factor. It is due to come in 2006.
One may wonder what superlative Apple shall use for their products name. Super Aiport ? Airport extremissime ?...

Currently, the PPC 970 or G5 has 512 Ko cache L2. The current trend for chips manufacturers is to increase this cache, which brings an important CPU performance hop withtout increasing frequency.
IBM's site allows preorder of a Blade JS20 server which holds 2 2.2 GHz PPC 970 with not only 512 Ko cache, but 1 Mo.
According to the application, this CPU might be 5 to 20% faster with this enhanced cache.
PS: it would seem IBM didn't cumulate the two CPUs caches, as the dual 1.6 GHz version has only 512 Ko cache L2.

Even though FireFox homepage is not announcing the news yet, the version 1.0 RC 1 (Release Candidate) is now available to replace the current 1.0 PR1 (Preview Release 1), not only for Mac and PC, but also directly in French. This is the last step before the official version 1.0 final release planned for November 9th.

This new web browser might be the real alternative to Internet Explorer for consumers but also companies being quite often overloaded with spywares; and with 7 millions downloads FireFox is on the right track, even though, once the version 1.0 available, it will be time to gear up to the next step. That's probably what Mozilla Foundation is planning with the support from IBM, RedHat, Sun and AOL, and with US$ 170,000 collected so far. The official launch will feature a full page ad in the New-York Times.
Now let's see how Microsoft will react on the marketing aspect.
If you want to celebrate with friends FireFox LaunchDay, mozparty are planned in (France and in other countries). You can also organized your own party if nothing is happening in your city.
You can install with a simple click, the Macbidouille search plug-in button for FireFox :www.samyn.dynalias.com/pub/plugin.php.

Some news from the Web.
- On Powerbook-fr, you will see how to install an internal Bluetooth module for an iBook.
- Angelcube is a new site dedicated to RealBasic programming.
- Nicéphore17 is proposing a step-by-step guidelines to install PHP/mySQL under OSX: http://pagesperso.laposte.net/nicephore17
- MySecureShell is now available in version 0.2: http://mysecureshell.sourceforge.net/
- WOBB, WebObjects-base phpBB version is now available as beta version 1: http://www.ekopp.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/WobbTest.woa

The highly expected update version 6.5 for Xpress is now available from Quark website.
You better use a high-speed internet connection, since this update is around 155MB.
Do not hesitate to contact us for reporting info/impression/new features of this update.

Yvan was surprised not to be offered the same upgrade offer for Photoshop Elements V. 2 to v. 3 in France, that exists in the USA. Adobe answered:

As a follow up to your request, we inform you Adobe decided not to commercialize an update to Photoshop Elements 3.0 for France.
If you desire further information, do not hesitate to contact us again.

Too bad, a shame for Adobe...

Philippe just received his MP G5 1.8 GHz, and sent us those pics.



You'll notice the differences with other G5s.
- The motherboard is much smaller, as the 4 RAM slots are so close to the radiator.
- No fan in front of the CPU.
- Bluetooth and Airport cards are not located at the same place.

Mass marketing couldn't afford not selling the iPod mini. Yet all brands didn't equally put it in front.
As shown on this pic by Titofe, Auchan made their best to really have the iPod mini shine.

On the other hand, with this scan sent by Alexis, you'll see Carrefour made a big mistake with their ad!

Thx to Philippe for his testimony.

I bought the Tiger development kit worth $500 (at least ten CDs and DVDs…)
Here's my first impression :
Installed on an external 160 G0 FW, it will pilot my G4 iMac flat 15" with 768 Mo RAM.
It's 4 TIMES QUICKER ON A DISTANT DISK
SPOTLIGHT IS AMAZING. YOU GOT TO SEE IT TO BELIEVE IT!
As for the rest, I haven't had time to test yet, yet this will cause a major change in the computer world.
Here are pictures of the opened package.
I've been using it extensively and switched from 10.3.5 to 10.4 preview for two days, nothing ever crashed.

As on all products of the iXXX line, Apple willingly bridled the dual display function on their G5 iMacs.
The site Heise.de created an AppleScript which will free this functionality by patching the Open Firmware. Theoretically, it will be reactivated simply by zapping PRAM.
Caution, if you choose to use this patch, it wil be your own responsability:
Heise.de