Wednesday December 14, 2005

- Creative being ambitious and ambiguous - Lionel - 16:18:04

Source : http://www.generationmp3.com

Creative is claiming to be the first flash memory-based audio player manufacturer in France. They even made it official in an advertisement published in a free newspaper distributed in Paris "A nous Paris".


We do not want to question this claim. It can be true, but it will change since the huge additional tax that was applied on the iPod nano till December 1st has been changed.
Creative has been granted for their audio player interface that is looking so much as the one used in iPods (Apple forgot to patent it earlier on...).
We have the feeling that Creative is releasing new mobile audio player almost identical to iPod models on purpose: as proven by the last Zen vision model:


We think that taking into account their patent for the interface, they are copying iPod models as close as possible till the time apple will react and sue them. Creative would then counter-attack with its patent on the interface.
Creative is probably trying this maneuver to get a bigger piece of the mobile audio player market, or maybe to get extra money via agreement or royalties...


[translation by Eric]

- Better graphics drivers in 10.4.4? - Lionel - 10:35:02

Mac OS Rumors, a older rumor site which has lost much of its luster, gives details on the next update to Mac OS X, 10.4.4 build 8G17.
It should correct nearly 200 bugs, and should be much faster on dual processor machines, especially the latest dual G5s and the quad G5.
It should also bring new video drivers. We hope, in fact, that they really improve the latest NVidia cards, especially the Quadro. Because currently these cards use drivers that are not optimised for the old GeForce FX.

[translation by jwa]

- Quake 4 optimized for dual processors - Lionel - 10:09:29

ID software has released an update for Quake 4 (still in beta for Windows and Linux). The software now utilises both processors in dual processor machines. The gain in performance is said to be between 25% and 75%.
Now that Intel and AMD invested in multi-core processors, this evolution will tend to spread.
There already was a slightly optimised dual processor version of Quake 3 for the Mac. It was not completely thorough, though, as it only used the additional processor for the management of the sound, leaving the rest for the other processor.
Let's hope that Quake 4 for the Mac will also be optimized for dual processors, since the number of Macs with at least two processors is much higher proportionately than in the Wintel world.

[translation by jwa]

- Japan shuns the Xbox - Lionel - 09:55:03

Source : CDR Info

The Xbox sold out quickly in Europe and The United States, but in Japan it got a much colder reception. Only half of what Microsoft expected was sold, even though, in Japan, its price was proportionally low.
Obviously, Microsoft will have to find a way to counter Sony, which has a hold on its territory. It is not impossible though, as Apple succeeded in the sales of its iPod there.

[translation by jwa]