News for Wednesday, 23 November 2005

We already told you in February of Inkscape being ported on OS X.
From that time, the software evolved and reached version 0.43.
Hervé, a reader lets us know.

I recently started to use this software, and I am quite enthusiastic at its possibilities and user-friendliness. The developer team seems to work quite well, and it will evolve on a regular basis. A real candidate for replacing our regretted Claris Draw.
There is still no native Aqua version, but it's on the track, and for now it's delivered as a MacOS X app you'll just have to drag'n drop in /Applications.

http://www.inkscape.org/

People thought the DVD-RAM was almost dead, far behind DVD+/R as for burning speeds. It is not the case.
After a 5x burning speed, the DVD Forum appproved of a norme that would allow DVD-RAM burning of 12x and plans to reach 16x. Substratum and laser cells prototypes are already ready.
As a reminder, the DVD-RAM has the advantage of using the "Packet Writing" system which makes its use quite close to that of a HD and allows 100,000 writing cycles against 1,000 for DVD+/-RW.
Yet this coming back to the DVD Forum is probably more of a marketing thing.
- It will allow them to come back to the headline after a late and somewhat failed launch of the DVD-R DL norm.
- It will allow burner manufacturers to offer new models on a market where products specifications are identical, which may result in more royalties.
Apple used to support DVD-RAM by offering compatible burners in some G4s. But now things have changed, as the same burners that are compatible according to their manufacturers, will be bridled before they reach your Mac. This is particularly the case for UJ-8XX burners found in laptops.

Yesterday, members of the Apple ADC program received the following mail [sayng "plan your migration as soon as today"]:

This reminder makes us think of those rumours that foresee first MacIntel coming on next January :)
If you wish to know more about transition:
http://developer.apple.com/transition/index.html

MacGLide library emulating 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics hardware is now in version 0.11.

New Features:

• New rendering engine (more accurate than in 0.10.1) allows better quality on suitable graphics cards (ATI 7500 and later or similar NVidia cards). Also fixes some rendering glitches such as the haze in Falcon 4.0 (which didn't show up in 0.10.1). To get the higher quality rendering, you need a graphics card with at least 3 texture units, for example an ATI Radeon 7500. Smaller cards like NVidia GForce2mx or ATI Rage 128 will still use the simple rendering mode, and things will continue to look like in 0.10.1.


• Full Scene Anti-Aliasing (FSAA) for ATI chips (only in the Classic environment)


• Global texture smoothing and mip mapping


• Tweaked a code a little to gain more speed on slower systems


• Original 3dfx-splash animation is displayed when starting a game in order to achieve a more authentic appearance.


• Better resource management.

So if you want to play again with Carmageddon or Tomb Raider, Go and visit : http://sourceforge.net/projects/macglide/

There is not a single day without a new development around the infamous RootKit story from SONY audio protection project.
The General Attorney from the Texas has decided to sue SONY for having introduced a spyware in customer computers. The cost for SONY could be huge.
Another part of the story to which we are much more concerned is related to the fact that the RootKit made by SONY contains part of codes coming from GPL-based OpenSource software, such as VLC or Lame. In addition, SONY has not respected the terms of the GPL license, regarding the use and the distribution of such GPL-based codes...
At the end this RootKit story will cost more money to SONY, that the music piracy it was suppose to fight...

Probably based on the popular toy Lego, LaCie and the designer Ora-ïto are proposing new FireWire external HD models:


Their name: LaCie Brick will be available in different 2.5" and 3.5" format with storage capacity varying from 40 to 500GB.
Of course one can pile them up...
Price should be announced during the day : LaCie

It is quite clear that flash memory will more and more find its way in the current and future mobile device such as digital music and video players.
The market is looking so attractive that Intel and Micron Technologies will create a Joint-Venture to manufacture NAND chips,IM Flash Technologies , with already the main major customer name known : Apple.
Over the next 3 years, Intel and Micron plan to invest up to 5 billions dollars in this Joint Venture, while Apple would have invested only 250 millions dollars.