Thursday June 29, 2006

- YourMacStore: Last Day For Saving 10% - Eric - 19:46:30

Our current partner, YourMacStore.com, is offering a special discount for hardmac readers:

We would like to offer a special discount coupon for HardMac readers.
Please type "hardmac06" in the field of discount coupon on the check out page.
All items are 10 % off with the coupon code from 6/15 to 6/30 on PST. We don't accept discount after checking out. So please don't forget to type the coupon code

This discount is only valid till June, 30th (midnight) in United States, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Netherlands and Italy.

- See You At Paris Apple Expo - Lionel - 15:09:00

This year again, team members of macbidouille.com and hardmac.com will be present at Paris Apple Expo (Paris Expo, Hall 5, September 12th-16th).
We will be together with other French Mac-dedicated websites, namely
Le Pommier (Apple tree), we should be located on a booth D73, close to the LAN area.
So if you are in Paris at that time, do not hesitate to come and visit us.
(do not forget to pre-register to Apple Expo to get your free entrance ticket).

[translation by Eric]

- Blu-Ray Burner: Made by Plextor - Lionel - 14:55:18

Plextor has released specs of its first Blu-Ray burner. It will be an ATAPI device featuring 8MB of cache. Supported media and their corresponding burning speed are listed below:

BD-R and BD-RW single layer (25 Go) 2x
BD-R and BD-RW double layer (50 Go) 2x
DVD +R/-R/+RW 8x
DVD-RW 6x
DVD +R/-R DL 4x
DVD-RAM 5x
CD-R 24x
CD-RW 16x.

It is almost an universal burner, only missing HD-DVD support.
The PX-B900A should be on shelves for Q3 2006, the price is currently unknown.

[translation by Eric]

- Microsoft Acquires iView - Lionel - 14:50:30

Microsoft has acquired iView multimedia, a small company developing well-known photo editing and management applications.
For Microsoft this is an additional acquisition joining the impressive list of start-up companies now own by Redmond's Giant.
Microsoft seems to be following Apple, which couple of years ago, acquired many IT start-ups to built up its iApps, and other Pro applications.
There is a very nice website (in French) describing Apple's history, and especially from Steve Jobs' return to Apple: Aventure Apple .


[translation by Eric]

- LCD Displays By Microsoft - Lionel - 14:36:17

Source : PC Inpact

Microsoft seems to be on track for increasing hardware products branded with its name. After, keyboards, mouse, webcam, Xbox, soon it will be LCD display to be branded by Microsoft.
Redmond's giant has signed up a partnership with Samsung to produce a 22" 16:9.
One reason for such move could be Microsoft's wish to push LCD display market for larger size in order to better accommodate with Vista.
On Apple's side, we are still waiting for the revision of the current LCD Apple cinema models, they are getting old and overpriced. One will expect future model to feature HDCP/HDMI and potentially an integrated iSight.

[translation by Eric]

- Core 2 Duo To Be Launched On July, 27th - Lionel - 13:41:42

According to HKEPC, Intel has decided to postpone by a couple of days the official launch of its new desktop CPU: Conroe, a.k.a. Core 2 Duo; it will be on July 27th instead of July 23rd.
The Core 2 Duo will probably find its way in a new version of iMac and Mac Pro (successor of the current PMG5).
For the Mac Pro, Apple could use the Core 2 Duo for the Mac Pro entry level models. There is no motherboard able to be equipped with 2 Conroe, so a Conroe-based Mac Pro will be a double core single CPU, so it can not really compete with the current PMG 5 Quad. So, one should see the Xeon WoodCrest in high-end Mac Pro, and maybe Conroe in the entry levels; but all models of Mac Pro could be also be powered by Xeon WoodCrest, depending on original plans.
(Unlikely for us that Apple uses 2 different CPUs/sockets for the Mac Pro line).


[translation by Eric]

- LightRoom 1.0 = 369€ - Lionel - 11:12:57

Adobe has fired back to Apple's Aperture with a free beta version of a photo editing solution named LightRoom.
Since then, Apple decreased the price of Aperture, and corrected main bugs, making the solution more attractive.
But Adobe beta version of LightRoom is free... well maybe not for a long time as shown by this screen capture (in French):



It is the last window of an online poll organized by Adobe for a dedicated pool of its customers (aiming to evaluate if current or future prices of Adobe solutions will fit customers’ budget estimations for software updates).
One can clearly see the price of Adobe LightRoom 1.0: 369€.

[translation by Eric]

- Canon Low Cost Laser Printers: The Hidden Driver - Lionel - 10:57:52

As Epson, Canon does not release Mac-dedicated drivers for all its entry-level printers. annoying... well drivers exist but are not publicly advertised as reported by Jean-Claude.

My brother bought a entry-level laser printer from Canon for 59 EUR. Of course no driver, so we decided to give it a try, especially after reading a message on apple's forum about a driver CAPT available from Canon Japan and usable with all Canon Low Cost Laser Printer. In addition this driver is 100% Mac OS X compatible up to 10.4!!
The most amazing thing: Canon Europe does not know this driver; neither Canon US, etc...
of course the driver is in Japanese, but by clicking on all default button, it gets installed straight away.
To get the driver: http://cweb.canon.jp/drv-upd/lasershot/captusbmacx.html

In the past we have already published news about those universal Mac drivers available only in Japan... it seems that internal communication in big corporate is really inefficient :(

[translation by Eric]

- RefurbStore: All iPod nano Models Are There - Lionel - 10:44:11

For the first time, iPod nano are available on the AppleRefurb, but price cut is not impressive:

- 1GB: 143.65 €TTC
- 2GB: 189,54 €TTC
- 4GB: 235,46 €TTC

PowerBook G4 12" and 15" are also available.

To support hardmac.com while buying from RefurbStore, click here.

[translation by Eric]

- New Updates: QuickTime And Motion - bad_duck - 10:40:09

As good things, updates come together.

QuickTime 7.1.2 addresses an issue previewing iDVD projects. This update is recommended for all QuickTime 7 users.

Motion 2.1.2 is a maintenance release offering high priority bug fixes in support of Final Cut Pro. The release also offers high priority and general maintenance bug fixes for our Motion customers.
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/Motion_2.0_lbn_z.pdf.

[translation by Eric]