Monday February 13, 2006

- Intel Conroe: new information released - Lionel - 22:59:40

Source : http://www.tgdaily.com

After the relative mixed success of the P4, Intel needs to get back on the stage with a new desktop processor that will compete with current AMD CPUs.
The first element of Intel's "strike-back" was the well-known Yonah, aka Core Duo, reserved for notebooks, even-though Apple used it in the first x86-based iMac.
The next CPU to be released will be dedicated to desktop, its name Conroe. Its architecture is similar to the one found in the Yonah, with the same goal: finding the best ratio performance/Watts; but it will feature a faster bus, 64 bits support, as well as virtualization...
According to TG, the first 6 models of Conroe should be:
• E6700: 2.66 GHz / FSB 1066/ 4 MB shared L2 cache
• E6600: 2.40 GHz / FSB 1066/ 4 MB shared L2 cache
• E6400: 2.13 GHz / FSB 1066/ 2 MB shared L2 cache
• E6300: 1.86 GHz / FSB 1066/ 2 MB shared L2 cache
• E4200: 1.60 GHz / FSB 800/ 2 MB shared L2 cache
• and a Conroe Extreme Edition (XE): unknown specifications.
As you can see, the clockspeed is significantly lower than the last P4, however performance should be much higher.
However, it is not sure if this processor will find its way into the successor of the PMG5. Indeed, if the Conroe is a dual core CPU, it is apparently not possible to have a computer with a dual Conroe dual core. in order to obtain something similar to the current PMG5 Quad.
To get a x86 4 cores-based Mac, Apple will have to use the Xeon CrestWood that should be available in the time frame than the Conroe.
however, the Conroe could be present in the Powermac entry-level models, and/or the iMAcIntel revB.
Then in 2006, Intel will introduce 4-cores CPU and we could get a 8CPU-based Powermac.
As shown in our recent hardware-related news, Intel is in the middle of a transition period, together with Apple. In the coming month there will be many transitions computer models released in order to cover all current PPC-based models. Of course, some models will have a short half-life since they will evolve with "Intel's CPU refresh rate"; something really exciting for us, but maybe annoying for users who will buy such models.

[translation by Eric]

- Pioneer K06 in an iMac G5 - Lionel - 22:31:46

A report from Eric who has successfully installed the last slim burner released by Pioneer in his iMacG5.

I have just replaced the DVD burner of my iMac G5 20' 2GHz that originally came with a Pioneer K04. I bought the K06 in Germany from www.cyberport.de.
The overall exchange took me 15 minutes (including 5 minutes to find the proper screw driver).
OSX recognizes this drive including the DVD-RAM.



After couples of trials, including a DVD-RAM that is identified as a HD by Disk Utility, this drive works perfectly in the iMacG5.

[translation by Eric]

- You got no fax... - Lionel - 15:59:50

Here's Francis' account:

I have purchased an iMac G5 (the one with an iSight) and an external Apple modem. It appeared that the modem works fine for the sending of faxes but is unable to receive any.
I got in touch with Apple's customer service, who confirmed that this modem does have a problem for receiving faxes. They've had complains about that since the launch of the modem although the culprit is indeed the iMac.

We contacted them as well, and here's what a support engineer told us:

There is currently no solution to the problem and there won't be any in the future. The external modem sold for the last iMac G5 dooesn't work properly on this computer. Indeed, internet connnection and fax emission work just fine, but compatibility issues make it impossible to process incoming faxes. The problem lays in this iMac's firmware. I have no information about the iMac Intel. The only solution is to be refunded for the modem and get a fax machine.

If other "minor" bugs happen to be found on PPC Macs, then that's just too bad because it is now pretty obvious that Apple won't bother trying to solve them.

[translation by Greg]

- Darwine 0.9.7 available - Yoc - 14:57:49

Darwine is now available in version 0.9.7, the first one to be able to run on MacIntel
Just to remind you, Darwine is the project aiming to port Wine to the Mac, Wine being a software solution allowing a Linux-based PC to run Windows software without having Windows installed. On a Mac, Darwine will allow you to launch Windows applications without requiring to third parties emulator such as VirtualPC. Wine is simply emulating Microsoft API for displaying windows in an Linux environment.
Before the first MacIntel to be released, Darwine was based on a PPC towards x86 emulation; now that the x86 based Mac are available, one only needs to recompile Darwine with Universal Binaries to immediately get access to Windows applications on its Mac. However for the moment, you still need to have X11 installed on your Mac.


[translation by Eric]

- iPod nano clones available in shops in Andorra - Lionel - 14:47:17

Another information related to iPod nano clones and counterfeits.
If the “iPod wild sellers” phenomenon in Paris' streets has decreased significantly, it does not really matter since one can find now iPod nano clones in shops in Andorra as reported by Jordi.

While I was in a large Andorran shop yesterday, I spotted an iPod nano on sale. When looking closer, for 75€, it was of course not a real iPod nano.
It was difficult to consider it as a counterfeit, the box being pink; but it was placed in the middle of official third parties iPod accessories; probably to foul customers.
I, of course, requested to have a look at this iPod nano clone. It was 2 to 3 millimeter thicker than the original one, and its storage capacity was either 512MB or 1GB.
the back of this MP3 player has also an "Alu style" as the original nano, and featured a "Made in China" label :)
On the description label, it is described as a MP3/MP4 player with additional features such as: radio, photo, video, voice recorder and video games.
While I was looking at it, a little girl was passing by and showed the iPod nano clone I was looking at and mentioned to her mother: “Mom, that's the one I want".
If customers are not aware of counterfeit or fakes, it is really difficult to be able to discriminate between the copy and the original.

Apparently everything is done in order to maintain the confusion between all those iPod nano clones and the original model. Of course the idea of placing such an iPod nano fake in the middle of true iPod third parties accessories is particularly mean.


[translation by Eric]

- AT&T: MPEG4 is ours - Lionel - 09:08:50

Source : Présence PC

AT&T, which owns patents related to the MPEG-4 format, want to start cashing in on them and is asking companies that use the media format to cough up. Among said companies, there's Apple that use MPEG-4 for its computer and 5G iPod products.
Apple not being exactly a smooth player when confronted with situations like this one, we can expect years of legal battle before any money is actually paid on anything else than lawyer fees.

[translation by moose]