News for Tuesday, 27 September 2005

André Sterpin made a remarked visit to the Apple Expo. Many people litterally assaulted him for repairing or soldering something.
He took advantage of this event to write an article showing how to repair the cooling system of an Alu 12.
It's always as fascinating than unreachable to us, mere mortals:
http://www.sterpin.net/RadiateurAlu12Pouces.htm
PS: There are no ads on his site. so please think to make a small donation if you like the articles.
PPS : an English version is to come in the following days. Congratulations again, André.

The information has been relayed at blazing speed on the Web. The iPod nano alledgedly has big solidity issues LCD, the screen would be too fragile.
It' the site flawedmusicplayer.com that published some testimonies on the issue, which were then commented everywhere in a matter of days.
We don't stand for Apple. Yet the way this affair is put to the front looks like no less than a disinformation campaign.
Apple sold tens of thousands of nano at last, and those are some cases. Of course the iPod nano is very thin, yet it's very strong, and unless you sit on it without withdrawing it from your pocket, how could anyone break a LCD screen this way?
Some of you will remember a similar campaign tried to attack the iPod mini when it rolled out, people claming its earbuds connection was fragile. At the time we also contested the representativity of this info, and time proved we were right.
There are more people than ever, individuals or entreprises, who are interested in discrediting Apple. And as the iPod is such a successful and fashionable product, the medias won't hesitate to realy such information!
PS: To make up my own mind once and for all, I just pressed very strongly my two thumbs on my own iPod nano screen, stronger than would ever occur under normal use. It is intact.
Under such conditions, and though we may imagine some can be defective, it is hard to believe it will spontaneously break!

Apple Expo 2005 ended up last Saturday evening on a very festive tone, where many "pops" from bottles of Champagne could be heard.
And as opposed to what we'd feared, though we don't have any frequentation figures yet, the expo seemed to atttract crowds.
After an initial impression it is a "skin expo" you visit, given the many accessories for iPod from all sorts, you might realize the real rich contents of the event.
Of course, apart from the iPod nano which met a great success, there weren't any new producs from Apple. Yet despite, or perhaps thanks to that, visitors weren't only gathering on the Apple stand, and really took their time to visit the whole expo.
- Hardware sellers we've asked, and that particularly feared the lack of new products, told us sales volumes they'd made had been increasing as compared to the preceding year.
- Developers and professionnal solutions sellers were also glad of the contacts they'd taken.
- The really unhappy ones, if there were, might have the iPod mini skins sellers that only had products for EOL line and could do nothing but promise a new, upcoming line for the nano.
Tuesday at 11, as it is the case in every opening, there were huge crowds waiting to exchange an electronic badge for an entry badge. If this solution could save the organization some savings, it was not really the part people liked in this expo... Same problem on Saturday were affluence seems to have broken records. Many visitors from far told us they'd delayed their visit to Paris as there were no new products, but finally came to find good deals.
To finish with the exhibition, some thanks.
- To our friends from the Pommier ("appletree") that we're so glad to meet every year in this European Mac party
- To our many readers that came to meet the true people they're reading every day
- To the organization for letting us have a stand
And finally, of course to Apple. Let's emphasize that despite tensions that may have occurred with them, they fully accepted us on the expo, giving us both the "press" and VIP visas. Of course, some individuals will always try and demonish us for publishing reports of their failures or lacks, yet we're all going the same way, that is to promote the adoption of the Mac to the public. Of course, a full official acknowledgement, which we don't expect anyway, is not in order, yet we'll try in the months to come to get closer contacts which would allow us help solve problems without requiring shouting in public on Macbidouille/ hardmac.
Rendez-vous on Apple Expo 2006, anyway, that's due to be a great event, with the first MacIntel arriving.

Toshiba in its never-ending war against the Blu-Ray alliance has successfully made validated the HD DVD-R DL media format. It will have a 30GB storage capacity.
Toshiba should propose the first compatible burner for such media as soon as Spring 2006, but it remains completely unclear when such media will be available, and at what price.

First a report from Francis:

At the end of august, I bought an iMacG5 2GHz 20". I quickly realized that unlike my previous iMacG5 1.8GHz, the FireWire ports remained powered while the iMac was turned off.
I called Apple Support and they immediately told me that my brand new iMac was defect, and I quickly received a new one as replacement.
But with the new model the FireWire ports remained powered too...
So, a new call to Apple Support, and this time they told me that it was normal!! The FireWire ports of the new iMcG5 models remain powered even though the computer is switched off.
So now, I have an iMacG5 with an iSight and an external HD constantly turned on.
I do not know what to think about, when I know that I have a iMacG5 at work also bought at the end of August, but unlike mine at home, this one when it is turned off also switch off all peripherals...
Where is the truth...

Already with the Mac mini, the FireWire port is constantly powered, making all peripherals plugged into it unable to enter sleep-mode. It is still unclear if this is the new Apple way to NOT contribute to energy saving politic or rather a firmware bug, but it would be nice to have a clear statement from their side.

After PowerBooks and iPods, the Apple RefurbStore is now proposing iMacG5 17"/1.6GHz at 974.25 Euros (-25% discount on original price).
Those models are equipped with 256Mo of RAM and the famous GeForce 5200 Ultra.

Toshiba-Samsung has announced the first notebook-dedicated HD-DVD player.

It reads HD-DVD ROM at 1x, DVD at 8x and CD at 24x.
This drive is not able to burn HD-DVD R media, but can burn DVD as well as CD media.
It should become available in Q1 2006. Of course this is a typical marketing-oriented announcement, in order to keep the pressure on the Blu-Ray alliance. Indeed, there is almost no chance that HD-DVD media will be available when this drive will be on the market...

Thanks to MGP for this info

For owners of Bluetooth Sony Ericsson mobile phones, Bluetooth Remote Control 1.10 (MacOSX) has been released as a free application and will allow you create Remote control function from the following mobile phone :
W550
W600
Z520
K750
W800
K600
K700
S700/S710
V800
Z800

http://developer.sonyericsson.com/site/global/docstools/misc/p_misc.jsp