News for Monday, 29 August 2005

An update is available via the software update panel:

Safari version 2.0.1 for Mac OS X Tiger improves website compatibility, application stability and support for 3rd party web applications.

[update] A similar update for Safari is also available for mac users running OSX 10.3 Panther.

This is the title of an invitation sent by Apple to many "news" networks to join the company for a "special event" that will take place on September 7th.
This title was already used by Apple for the launch of the first 5GB iPod about 4 years ago.
"Here we go again"!!
what can we expect? It can vary from the long rumored iPhone built up with Motorola to the Video iPod. Frankly, nobody knows (iPhone?), for sure Apple will release something big, and they might not be alone for this announcement, otherwise Steve Jobs would have wait for AppleExpo in 3 weeks.
This special event will take place in San Fransisco with a Live video streaming organized by Apple for Europe at the "ArtsDepot" in London.

Reports from Jean Jacques:

I have just discovered something interesting : one can play WMV HD 720p video on a Mac!
On the website Doom http://www.doommovie.com, the trailer is available for download in QT and WMV format, including a WMV HD version. By clicking on the proper link, and you will download a 67.6MB zipped file. After unzipping it, you obtain a video file, recognized as a WMV file if you have Windows Media Player 9 installed. I clicked on it, and .... it worked!!
My computer: Power Mac G5 dual 1.8 GHz rev1 with Mac OS 10.4.2 and QT 7 pro, 1GB of RAM and a LCD 19" display (1280*1024). I have Windows Media Player serie 9 version 9.0.0 (3307)installed

.Indeed, the required configuration window does not mention Mac :

We have tried on a PMG5 dual 2.5GHz. The video is playing properly, with some lag with some action scenes.
In addition Jean Jacques is mentioning to us a bug in Windows Media Player related to language support; it does not recognize letters with an accent.

Via a press release, Apple is revealing to have signed up a purchase agreement vith Freescale; the contract end up in december 2008.
there is no real details given, but the contract seems to be rather flexible for Apple, and in addition, Apple is under no obligation to purchase Freescale microprocessors beyond work that was in progress and in place at the time of the agreement.
consequences?
Well let's do some math. A extended AppleCare stands for 3 years from the time of purchase. It would also mean that Apple might need G4 supply for manufacturing and/or replacement parts for current G4-based computers till 2008. So, Dec. 2008 (end of the agreement) - 3years extended AppleCare = Dec. 2005!
In other words, if Apple stops all G4-based computer models by the end of the year, it will still have G4 supply for manufacturing till end of 2005 and for replacement parts till Dec. 2008. Taking into account that Apple might get an additional percentage of stocks for AppleSupport, it will definitely confirms that all G4-based models will be shifted to x86 by June 2006 at the lastest; maybe even earlier.
We will see at the AppleExpo if there a ma jor or a minor update for current Powerbook models, it might give information related to the introduction of the future x86-based models.