Tuesday November 21, 2006

- How to Better Cool Down MB and MB Pro - Lionel - 21:22:02

Intel-based Apple notebooks have been massively modified by mac users, and mostly to cool them down.
The first popular application was designed to slow down fan rotation speed, today CoolBook is aiming to modify voltage and clock-speed of Core Duo CPUs. One can then get a cooler MB by slowing down CPU performance, this should rapidly be translated into increased battery lifespan. According to readers from Xlr8yourmac forum, this application is working fine. It might even be possible to reduce the CPU voltage while maintaining its clock speed. But be careful, lowering CPU voltage might lead to unstable CPU.

[translation by Linathael]

- Sharp to Manufacture Blue Laser Diodes - Lionel - 21:09:00

Source : Présence PC

Blue laser diodes are required for both BD and HD-DVD players/burners; and only Sony is currently having them in large scale production. The problem is that most of the manufactured diodes end up in the brand new PlayStation 3, cannibalizing most of them for third parties and contributing to the high prices of blue laser-based devices.
Things might change in a near future as Sharp announced opening of production lines able to deliver 150,000 diodes per month, and preparing to scale up if necessary.
Such numbers will not have a real impact on consumer market before months, but it is a beginning, and it is always better to rely on more than only one supplier. But for sure it is the first step towards cheaper blue laser devices.

[translation by Linathael]

- MacBook Pro C2D Features New Improved Fans - Lionel - 13:52:27

Following our yesterday's news related to MB Pro comparison, Uli, one of our readers, has pointed out the new fans in C2D-based MB PRo



On the right, the new fan from the MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo features a modified impeller blade design as well as a different rotor. In the last MB Pro revision both fans spin, in silence, at 2000-rpm by default, while for the Core Duo-based MB Pro, the basal rotation speed was 1000-rpm (slower but noisier).
We have tested the ratio noise/rotation speed, and we start hearing them from 3000-rpm; but in all our tests they are much more silent than the previous models installed in MB Pro Core Duo.
Overall, the new MB Pro is more silent while being cooler.

[translation by Linathael]

- iGoogle therefore iRows - Lionel - 10:55:45

Google, which already offers a web-based spreadsheet app has just bought [where are they going to stop???]: iRows.
The two developers who created iRows will work on improving Google's less advanced tool. iRows, notably, can read and write Excel files.
We're not that far from the day when Google will launch a complete web-based OS and software suite... and we will be back to the (not so) good old times of thin client terminals with all the logic running somewhere on a worldwide distributed cluster...

[moose: my two cents... I'd NEVER trust any company, especially Google, to store all my files and data on THEIR servers and nowhere else... actually, I don't even trust them to store my backups and e-mails...].

[translation by moose]