News for Thursday, 12 May 2005

Symantec announced Norton AntiVirus 10.0 for Mac OS X.
The new version is compatible with Panther and Tiger and retails for 69,95$. According to Symantec, it's the best product in its category.
One can note that they have given in to the widget craze. They offer one that can drive the entirety of the software.
We would have liked to attempt to perform a shootout, as on PC, but unfortunately the lack of infectious agents on mac os X makes it impossible. It wouldn't be very interesting to appreciate their efficiency just on Microsoft software macros.

Here's an update that is not available via software update, just like iTunes.
One can wonder why Apple doesn't offer it?
Maybe Akamai, which carries this on top of tons of other things, is saturating
Here are the changes as per Apple's site:

About DVD Player 4.6
DVD Player 4.6 delivers added support for DVD Studio Pro 4 authored HD DVDs. It is recommended for all users of DVD Player.
Key Updates include:
-Additional support for playing DSP 4 authored HD DVD folders from DVD discs and hard drives.
-Additional support of discs with both SD and DSP 4 authored HD content.
-Improved Global Player settings.
-Improved usage for last play and disc info dialogs.

Pascal, tried it and tells us a few things about the update:

In the Window menu, some new options are available:
1 sound settings with an equalizer. The ability to increase the volume is still missing
2 image size setting with a horizontal and vertical zoom, or proportional
3 colour setting.
1 2 3 work on the G5 iMac
2 3 do not work on the G3

DVDPlayerUpdate.dmg

Here's Serge talking.

I received yesterday the 2*2.7 Ghz that shall replace my former 2*2 Ghz.
Installation method:
. replaced the original HD by my 2 Panther 10.3.9 250Go HDs
. took away the two 256 Mo RAM and put in the 4*1Go
Start :
. everything seems to work correctly under Panther
. my 30" display is perfectly acknowledged by the original card
. the DVR-109 burner will work with my printable 16* Verbatim DVDs
The CPU speed bump is quite visible even when opening a window !
So, pleasure prevails! Or almost, as it is a scandal in my view that's it's not possible to install Panther on those machines, while the compatibility with all third party applications isn't sure yet.

It would also be possible to take the G5 in Target mode to install Panther directly on its HD.

We let the Mac mini we overclocked to 1.67 GHz yesterday work all night to give it a strain and evaluate the resistance of the overclocked CPU.

This morning, the machine would still work flawlessly. We'd let it calculate 16 millions fractals with Altivec Fractal Carbon though. It's the maximum this soft allows.
One might consider this machine perfectly stood this 250 MHz overclock. Which demonstrates that Apple manoeuver margin is still very important.

The unavoidable guys at Barefeats tested the Radeon 9650 that's available on high end G5s. This card's main feature is to support 30" displays thanks to its Dual-link DVI. No big surprise, its performances won't stand in front of those of the X800 or the 6800 Ultra.
Obviously because Apple made some concessions when doubling the RAM size. Instead of running at 311 MHz like the Radeon 9600 XT, it will just reach 270 MHz. Though small a difference it might sound, it will involve a proportional decrease of performances as the memory bus on the 96xx is quite smaller than that of the 9800 series. In that case, keeping a frequency of 401 MHz just like on the 6800 Ultra is not very useful.
This card is then only just a way to use screens above 23". If you only do 2D there's no problem with it. But if you need a powerful, high resolution 3D card, you will have to change for a X800 or a 6800.

Yahoo launched their online music service, based on a monthly fee. For $6,99 a month, their clients will be able to rent all the music that's available. Of course, as soon as they'll stop paying, they won't be allowed to listen anymore to this music they don't own.
It would seem that this announcement somehow scared the financial investors, as it caused a loss of about 5,5% of the Apple share value.
Well, it will just take a dual core G5 to help them understand Apple is still _ until proven otherwise _ a computer manufacturer above all.

Leo Bodnar paved the way of the Mac mini overclock. The mod didn't feature the last resistor "PLL_CFG", that would have allowed the whole range of multipliers. Thanks to Michael, who kindly sent us the info, we went off and tried for ourselves. The resistor is well hidden, beneath the heatsink of the processor.

Here's a zoomed up image

With this info, we decided to push a 1.42GHz mini, that already had managed to run at 1.58GHz.
We took the R52 resistor off and bridged the other side, to reach the higher speeds. Of course, the better way of doing it would be to put the resistor back, but they are really small, and it works without them anyway.

We then put the machine back together, replacing the factory thermal pad by some Artic Silver 3.
Crossing our fingers, we switched the Mini on and we heard the comforting startup chime. Bingo !! Our Mac mini now flies at 1.67 GHz


The first few tests that we ran went smoothly, without any freezes. Michael told us his mini has been running at 1.73GHz for a while now, without any ill side effects.
Beware though, that the soldering involded is quite a pain in the ass...
Here's a recap of the resistors and the according frequencies :

0 means the resistor in in place, and 1 means no resistor. We also can now see the 1.33GHz frequency, unavailable with the previous hack.
We left the Mac mini running all night, crunching 16 millions fractals in Altivec Fractal Carbon (which is the maximum the program will let you run in one go) and the little dude is humming along this morning. If the current Mac mini can take a 250MHz overclock, it's pretty safe to say that they have some room left for upgrades.
Finally, Michael mentionned that the 1.25GHz mini has a different heatsink, which probably cannot withstand much more than what it was designed to.

The VESA group is working on a new video standard called DisplayPort*, which should unify video connection to computer displays (including laptop LCDs), HDTVs, DVD players and the like.
The bandwidth should be higher than the actual DVI, allowing to get rid of the need of Dual DVI solutions for high resolution displays like Apple's 30" LCD.
Following the idea of making connections easier, DisplayPort should also carry sound on the same cable**.
For those who recently bought a 30" or are planning to buy one, remember what the Guide says: DO NOT PANIC. It will be years before this standard is widely adopted.

[moose: *OK, I'm no great fan of acronyms, but please, can't they come up with something better than DisplayPort?
** well, try just a little harder and you'll reinvent ADC]

Two little updates are available for Tiger, regarding Pro Apps support:
Apple Intermediate Codec

Apple Intermediate Codec 1.0.1 delivers improved compatibility and reliability for Final Cut Express HD and iLife '05 users. It is recommended for all users of Apple Intermediate Codec 1.0 who are using QuickTime 7. Key updates include:
-Improved export performance
-Improved playback

Pro Application Support

This update improves general user interface reliability for Apple's professional applications and is recommended for all users of DVD Studio Pro, Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Logic Express, Motion and Soundtrack.

[moose: OK, nothing to get all heated up about, return to your normal occupations]