News for Tuesday, 22 March 2005

First let's start with a report from Seblec.

We have already seen in Paris the standard 4x3m panels in the subway, train stations, airport, etc...
But, we have never seen such an ad for the iPod Shuffle in Paris.
Hereafter is what we can see at Odéon Subway exit...
Unfortunately, Apple is not communicating as much about the Mac mini... it could work as well as for the iPod!! Apparently Apple prefers attracting a maximum of students to the iPod shuffle and its mini price.

And we continue with Matthieu who has sent us this photo from Japan.

While I was enjoying a national free days (last Monday) in Japan, to visit Osaka center, mes eyes were attracted by a commercial panel os a quite unusual size...look at the photo to imagine:

The location of this huge iPod Shuffle ad was not chosen on random basis; it is located close to Ebisubashi bridge (not so far from Namba), where 2 most popular pedestrians streets crosses. In addition, Shinsaibashi AppleStore is around 500 meters away.
The timing for this ad is also correlated with a quite active commercial campaign for few weeks.
I will remember the visual impact of this panel, and its size, in addition I was definitely not the only one to look at it.

Apple has published yesterday on its Developer Website a Technote explaining the best way to optimize OpenGL performance with OSX.
If Doom3 was not released few days ago, this TechNote would have probably not been noticed...but Doom3 is out, and current performances are rather disappointing.
Apple is maybe trying with this Technote to convince us that Aspyr has not properly ported this game on the Mac platform...just an impression, nothing else
http://developer.apple.com/graphicsimaging/opengl/optimizingdata.html

The little camera to iPod adapter announced during the renewal of the iPod line, is now available for purchase on the US Apple Store. Delivery estimate : 1-3 weeks.

It should cross the Atlantic relatively quickly.

Reacting pretty quickly to the threat that represented DVD Jon's latest hack, Apple has patched the iTMS to prevent abuses. Downpart to that is that now, iTunes 4.7.1 is REQUIRED to buy anything on the store.

We started testing DOOM 3 on Apple's current highest end configuration available on the Store. It's a Dual 2.5 GHz G5 with a Geforce 6800 Ultra, that has 4 Go RAM and is connected to a 30" Apple display.
We first made tests in medium and high quality, using various resolutions without AntiAliasing and all other options being activated.

We then tried and tested the overall effect of AntiAliasing on performances.

The 1280x800 and 2560x1600 resolutions, that are specific to the 30" in full screen can be selected by pressing the Apple key when launching the game.
To understand and comment the results displayed here in FPS took us more time than conducting the tests. Here are our conclusions:
- Obviously, and whatever way you put it, there is something wrong with this game. Performances are almost constant up to1280x800 , which accounts for the fact that there's something in the machine, before the video card, that would stall and bridle performances. On the fastest Mac now available :(
- From 1600x1200, you'll reach the limits of the card, 2560 x1600 being virtually unplayable.
Antialiasing, though it will strongly improve the image quality, has no effect when used at the lower resolutions. It's the Geforce itself then that will do a part of the calculations, and you feel that it doesn't
break a sweat in doing so. Note that deactivating the "Shadow" option will earn you about 20% more FPS under any resolution.
Some will find us tough, but this game is probably the worst thing that could happen to Apple in such a successful period. Unless playing in lower resolutions, and be satisfied with it and images of lower
quality that Duke Nukem would already offer so long ago, this game is merely unplayable on most currently sold machines. Unless Apple would do a big hop to the most recent video card generation when they renew their iMac (a 6600 or a X700 at least), Doom 3 will result in more frustration than happiness, unless the industry, in an unlikely move, turns back to games in text mode, as we used to have on Sinclair computers.
Apple made so many great things to bestow the Mac a more modern image: the G5, the iPod, the iMac, the Mac mini, all participated in making people want to own an Apple branded machine again. Now the Anti-Mac will dash to this leak and claim our machines are underpowered. It may not be that simple, and we know it well, but a single poor argument will dissuade more than a would be switcher.

Remember the Super Shuffle, this total iPod Shuffle clone that drew attention during the last CEBIT last week?
Bets were open on how long it would take Apple to pound them into the ground under a salvo of subpoenas, lawsuits and other legal ordnance...

Well, Engadget did some investigation and found out it was just a PR stunt by Luxpro, a small Taiwanese integrator, a good way of attracting lots of media coverage and sign a bunch of new contracts for manufacturing REAL MP3 players.
Well, kudos to their PR drones for such a skillfull implementation of the First Pilar of Advertisement: Talk about me in good or bad, but talk about me!

Through the S.U. panel :

Security Update 2005-003 delivers a number of security enhancements and is recommended for all Macintosh users. This update includes the following components:
AFP Server
Bluetooth Setup Assistant
CoreFoundation
Cyrus SASL
Folder permissions
Safari
Samba
For detailed information on this Update, please visit this website: http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n61798