News for Monday, 6 June 2005

w00kie just sent us photos from the keynote:

It is a real thunderstorm for Apple World, probably the most important one since Apple Computers birth. It is really part of Mac roots that has been replaced by x86 from Intel. It still remains incredibly difficult to accept such a switch when one can remember what Steve was thinking about Intel few years ago.

For many years, Apple has been communicating how the PowerPC associated with Altivec was the best choice, but today we have to start “thinking different”… It is of course not the first revolution that Macusers will have to face, but for sure it is the biggest one.
So let’s start the therapy, repeat:
- intel is designing and producing the best processors.
- intel is designing and producing the best processors.
- intel is designing and producing the best processors.
- intel is designing and producing the best processors.
- intel is designing and producing the best processors.
3 times a day.
Despite our surprise, Apple has probably made the right choice. It was becoming quite dangerous to rely only on a single CPU manufacturer. Of course we might have Intel-only (why not AMD still not clear), but if Intel is not evolving or is facing issues in processor development, then it will be the same for PC. And Apple remains free since AMD processor can also be implemented easily.
Being optimistic, one can say that Apple will make a new start. This is the end of the rather slow G4 in our portable… welcome Centrino and Banias… Hyper Threading…and DRM (arghhh….)
But there is a big question remaining. What will happen to Apple’s hardware sales over the next 2 years? Will users still buy PPC-based Apple computers? Apple has probably though about it, because the iPod will not by itself ensure positive financial results for the company. And despite pessimism, apple will continue to evolve, with enough CPU power increase in order to convince users to keep switching to the Mac platform. But it still remains a hugh challenge for Apple.
Concerning Macbidouille/hardmac, beside our “surprise” to today’s announcement, we are enthusiastic. Imagine all the new possible tricks we will be able to uncover with those news machines!! The humongous overclock that we will be able to test! It is the beginning of a new era also for us, if Mac sales drop over the CPU switch period than we will also have to fight to survive since most of our profit are originating for our affiliated website status.
Let’s be positive, we will for sure have troubles within the next 2 years, but then it will be heaven for many, many years.

PS : if Apple adds "Intel inside" stickers to the Mac, then I go and buy a Dell

Welcome to the Keynote
thanks to w00kie (on location), MacRumors Live, and Mac Daily News who give the information
[Note] We are encountering an incredible workload! Probably our absolute record, far ahead from the 2000 simultaneous connexions where the server gets weak.
Steve Jobs is on stage. He's very pleased of the huge success of the WWDC which breaks all records.
The Apple Store is still open.
Report on the products
109 Apple Stores have been open in the world.
The market share of the iPod is 76% of all MP3 players (16M units sold).
The ITMS is still the leader in the market with 430M songs sold.
2 millions of Tiger have been out in 6 weeks (bundled with new machines or sold).
15% of the Mac Users are already using Tiger. 50% are expected by the end of the year.
Widget demonstration with Amazon.com. 400 wigdets have been put on line by Apple (many others outside Apple.com). 550 Automator actions are already available.
QuickTime 7 for Windows will be available today.
The next version of Mac OSX will be code-named Leopard.
Future processors
Steve is claiming that he wants to produce the best computers for Apple's customers. IBM has failed to reach 3GHz with the G5 and is not able to bring it to the PB. Intel is offering a better roadmap for Apple's market. On June 2006, the first Intel-based computer will be available. The entire models will be running on Intel chips by June 2007.
It is a double challenge for Apple. Apple has since 5 years ensured that all its applications including MacOSX car run both on Intel and PPC processors. All demonstration done during the Keynote are made on an Intel-based Mac.
Steve starts explaining development tools.
Cocoa applications: some minor optimization and recompilation will be enough to ensure compatibility. Widgets, scripts, ... everything works.
According to Steve, everything will be easy.
Steve is announcing that PowerPC will still be supported for years - identical binaries. One of Mathematica developpers is coming on the stage to work with a Intel-based Mac. It tooks him 2 hours to port Mathematica. He only changed 20 lines of codes over millions of lines. A quite impressive demo is currently running. Mr Gray tells the audience that he had a crazy phone call from Steve last Wednesday evening. Steve asked him to make a demo of Mathematica, one of the most complex application for this Monday.
A new environment, completely transparent, called Rosetta will allow to run PowerPC applications on Intel-Mac. Demonstration of Rosetta with several PPC applications running on the Intel-Mac (Excel, Photoshop). And it seems to work!
Apple will offer un developping kit, including a PIV 3.6 GHz. These kits must be returned to Apple by the end of 2006 and will cost $999 (for developpers only).
Roz Ho, General Manager of the Microsoft Macintosh Business Unit (MBU) talks about this transition. A lot of Exchange features will then be accessible to Mac (applauds).
Adobe's CEO Bruce Chizen is also present. He ensures that Adobe will be the first to offer their suite on "Mactel". Adobe couldn't be alive without Apple.
This is now the turn of Intel's CEO, Paul Otellini. He talks about his company and its history. And also the relationship with Apple. Remember the "anti-Intel" spots... they show one to the audience!
Otellini considers that Apple is "the most innovative computer company in the world".
Intel : the most performant processor
Apple: main strength in innovation for OS and hardware design
Steve is back, and explains that Apple has already performed successfully 2 transitions, and that both the Mac and the company are strong players.
Developpers will do their best to make this transition as easy as possible, and one of the keys will be to make universal binaries.
End of the Keynote... but not of the story... Stay tuned!

What Apple didn't want to do, iPodLinux will now allow you to do.
Under certain specific conditions you will now be able to read video on an iPod. Beware though, this beta if far from being finished, as it will use a specific uncompressed AVI format, and there's no sound yet. But now, it is obvious that this question will sooner or later be dealt with.

Luxpro is the company that had tried to sell an enhanced clone of the iPod shuffle during CEBIT.

If their product still doesn't exist, the company displyaed a new product, still inspired by the Shuffle, during Computex.

Still very close to the Shuffle concept, this MP3 player has a very small (64x64 pixels) OLED screen, that allows navigating between songs.
We congratulate them any way for their excellent ad campaign during CEBIT, thanks to which people now know their products exist.
[Upd.] Some sites did test this Luxpro, which is yet available in Taiwan only. Let's see if Apple will tolerate this expand or not.

PCI G3s and G4s were always the less favored machines for CPU upgrades, as the offer is sparse and prices high.
OWC compared two PCI upgrades, one from Powerlogix with a 1 GHz G3 and the other from Sonnet with a G4 800 MHz.
The G3 1 GHz wins all the tests except the one based on Altivec Fractal Carbon where he far behind.
Those tests could make you think a G3 1 GHz is a far better choice than a 800 MHz G4. Yet this would neglect other points than raw performances, which are important nevertheless, particularly the case of the iApps. Apple made an intensive use of Altivec in their iLife suite.
Without a G4, iDVD won't work, you won't have access to the software instruments in Garageband or to advanced editing options in iPhoto. Moreover, a G4 will be quite faster to encode songs using iTunes or for video encoding.
So before to choose between a G3 and a G4 upgrade, you should consider it any of those features are important in your upgrade choice.

If we remind us well, Pascal was one of the first G5 iMacs owners to experience the no unfamous "midplane" problem. He had to change the motherboard a first time, yet this was only the first time:

another problem one week ago that consists in a kernel panic on boot with RAM infos displayed ?
Looks like a RAM problem
RAM check is ok
So this is the midplane again...
I call Apple who let me know I won't be allowed to reach phone help any more.
Small negotiation ensues as the card was changed not so long ago.
An hour later on the phone, I take an Applecare contract, as Apple won't send any more CIPs and the first Apple Center is 100 km away from where I livre.
I just had the Apple Center which confirms the following:
- the midplane isn't available any more, shortage
- 170 cards preordered for Apple (over all Europe). It's a really bad situation (so says the Apple center).

Let's remind Apple what the French law says:

Lorsque l'acheteur demande au vendeur, pendant le cours de la garantie contractuelle qui lui a été consentie, une remise en état couverte par la garantie, toute période d'immobilisation d'au moins sept jours vient s'ajouter à la durée de la garantie qui restait à courir. Cette période court à compter de la demande d'intervention de l'acheteur ou de la mise à disposition pour réparation du bien en cause, si cette mise à disposition est postérieure à la demande d'intervention.

This article L211-16 from the consumer's code created by the "ordonnance" n°2005-136 of February 2005 art. 1, says, in short, that any changes made to a belonging during the warranty time which results in an immobilization at least 7 days, will hence cause a prolongation of the warranty time.

Sharp announced for the beginning of August the availability of the 65" (165cm) LCD TV. Its native resolution will be of 1920*1080 pixels.

Even if they will not produce more than 300 units per month for a starter, Sharp decided to deal a hard blow to this market by selling this TV for "only" 1,600,000 Yen (about 12,000 Euros) VAT not included. In order to compare, the French FNAC currently sells a 71" Plasma for 69,990 Euros...

While NVIdia should shortly announce their Geforce 7800, and as we already know almosta everything about it, The Inquirer now gives us information about the R520, ATI future GPU.
It will be engraved at 90nm, will decode H264, and will have 300 millions transistors. While it will feature a total amount of 32 pipelines, ATI will activate only 24 for a starter. The remaining will be activated on high end models, later on, except if NVidia GPU is more powerful. ATI will hence try and keep a margin out of commercial reasons, on top of keeping things easier during the manufacturing process.
The competition between the two brands stimulates innovation and power at an amazing pace. It's a shame Apple will never offer their high end chips at a similar pace...

This evening, as for all Mac-related events, we will try to report from the Keynote.
This year, one of our team members, w00kie, will be following the Keynote. In case we can not establish a reliable and/or stable connection with him, we will find another channel in order to cover the Keynote as you were there.
So be there around 19h00 CET (10h00 am San Francisco)

The rumor launched by CNET is spreading like... never seen before. It was originally a not particularly precise piece of information, originating from rather undefined sources, which have been taken up by news networks to become a huge rumor/news.
All websites that have taken up this piece of information, have added additional comments or even turned hypothesis into facts.
In France, even France-info is commenting this rumor, starting with a "conditional", to end up with a fact: "Steve Jobs will announce this evening that Apple will adopt Intel processor for its computers, starting even at the end of the year."
So why such a noise for something which was at the beginning a rather undefined rumor?
- First, and this is not new: Apple does not comment in advance.
- Apple, the "iPod/iTMS" company, is currently on the top in the news networks.
- Some people are wishing so much to have Intel processor into Macs, that they might take their dreams for reality, and acting as much as possible to get it done. Among them, one can find pro-Mac or anti-Mac supporters, but also some people wishing to achieve a "coup" at the NYSE, playing with the price of Apple and Intel shares.
To our point of view, we think that it is unreal to believe that Apple can currently drop PowerPC processors, especially to adopt x86. We think it is more likely that Apple is wishing to acquire Intel's technologies, such as part of Centrino chipset, or DDR2, or any other Intel's proprietary technologies (there are really a lot of them).
In any case, if the rumor turns to be false, seeing how it has been turn as a fact in all news networks, it is clear that the SEC (American Stock Exchange Commission) will investigate.

The Apple Store is proposing special discount for affiliated-website’s readers:
- You can save up to 10 Euros if you buy for 150 Euros or more if you click on the following link (relocate to your local AppleStore):
P37L6E88PW
- You can save up to 30 Euros if you buy for over 300 Euros, if you click on the following link (relocate to your local AppleStore):
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Both special discount will end on June 26th.

Small news, but today, Apple has updated its Dashboard Widgets download page. It now features a column view browser, which makes the gallery much easier to explore.
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/.
One can expect the same for Automator Actions and Spotlight Plugins soon...

Plextor, currently selling optical drives under its name, isn't really the maker of the same. After changing suppliers from NEC, then Sanyo, and then Matsushita, Plextor is going to use BenQ components in its upcoming PX-740A.
Obviously, Plextor is trying to lower its production costs, to stay in the now crazy race of optical storage drives. Now that all burners are operating at 8x, DL, the prices are running to the ground since no technological advantage can justify a higher price tag.

You may have a webcam attached to your machine, but that doesn't make your Mac proactively "see" its environment.
William is developing "Observer", a technology that identifies objects in a visual feed, on OS X.
http://www.no-more-blind-computer.com/
A few movies examples are available on the project's website. Quite impressive if you ask us : the computer can recognise when one is on the phone, when one is smiling or frowning...

Many of our readers have had some problems with the carrier TNT, in some cases the packages arrived in more pieces than they were designed.
Arnaud sent us a picture taken in Cairo, proving that there's always worse.

Good luck to the recipients of those machines...