News for Wednesday, 11 January 2006

Last summer, TDK began to communicate about Blu-Ray blank medias featuring not only 2 but 4 layers. As each of them may contain 25 Go data, you'll reach a final 100 Go on a 12 cm surface.

The writing speed will reacg 27 Mo/s, which theoretically leads to a one hour burning session.
Such 4 layer products, due to their prices not yet communicated but surely huge, should be aimed at professionals.

As could be expected, a firmware update is available for iPods via software udpate panel. It will basically enable compatibility with the new iPod Radio Remote.

iPod Updater 2006-01-10 contains :
• iPod 1.1 software for the iPod
• iPod 1.1 software for the iPod nano
• iPod 1.2.1 software for the color screen iPod
• iPod 1.4.1 software for iPod mini
• iPod 3.1.1 software for click wheel iPod

Western Digital will release two versions of their newest Raptor. One of them, the Raptor X will be made for lovers of moded PCs [How can someone be ? beats me - K.] and will a glass like surface displaying its internal components at work.

Some impressive videos there:
www.wdraptorx.com/
Be careful, this drive will be more expensive, be available later and have a MTBF dropping from 1.2 millions of hours to 600,000.

In July, we'd let you know about this keyboard which created a sensation among our readers [still wonder why, as for me - K].



Since that date, their site remained unchanged, which could have meant the concept wasn't ready yet to become true.
Yet for some days, it's been displaying a message reading:
"Good things come in small packages on February 1st, 2006."
We could hence expect some good news.
http://www.artlebedev.com/portfolio/optimus/

Only some rare persons managed to apply the battery update on their laptops.
Actually, this update was made especially for recent Powerbooks which were delivered with a faulty battery that wouldn't keep its charge.
It thus allow not to have it exchanged it by Apple.

Sorry for the fragmentated news about the new machines, but we keep receiving info about them that we'd like to share.
iMac and MacPro use 667 MHz DDR2, as opposed to 533 MHz for G5s and 1.67 MHz G4 Powerbooks. You will have to pay attention to it when buying RAM. No more internal modems on either machines,which won't be able to use Classic either.
the iMac Intel:
- now supports extended screen and has a mini DVI or a VGA output via an adapter. Supports connecting a display up to 23".
- A small move backwards with RAM, which is now SO-DIMM. There are two slots.
MacBook Pro
- The Superdrive is a 4X but not double layer. If there is ant technical reason to this meannes, we'd surely like to know it.
- The Battery is a Polymere Lithium, more powerful than that of current Powerbooks, yet Apple are the first in the world to sell a laptop without any hint about battery life...
The machine consumption can be expected to rise, though, as the transformer itself is more powerful by 15W.
- S-Video is now an option.
- No more PCMCIA, but its follower, ExpressCard/34.
So as always with Apple, even the happiest ones wil be disappointed. We'll try hard to get info about this machine battery life.
[MàJ] According to the information Ars Technica got on Macworld, and as displayed by prototypes that are available to the public, the machine shows a battery lifespan of 3h 03 mn with a fully loaded battery. As we do not know energy saving preferences, neither the screen luminosity (probably set to the max), this lenght is only indicative.

The beta version of Google Earth for Mac OS X is now available from Google website
Required configuration:

Mac OS X (10.4)
1.5GHz+
512M RAM
2 GB of free disk space
Network speed: 768 Kbits/sec or better (DSL/Cable)
3D-capable video card with 32 MB of VRAM or greater
1280x1024, "32-bit True Color" screen

Flip4Mac is a set of QT plug-ins allowing Windows Media management by QuickTime.
So far, Microsoft was selling Flip4mac; but from today one can download the set for free from Redmond website : http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/flip4mac.mspx

One of the question related to the MacIntel was: what type of firmware will be used by Apple? Today we have the answer in an Intel migration-dedicated TechNote: no BIOS, no firmware but EFI. EFI, or Extensible Firmware Interface, is an advanced BIOS developed by Intel and so far reserved for Itanium platform. It is rather an OpenFirmware than a BIOS, since EFI appears to the user as a Shell. EFI is not really being used in PC world for hte moment.
One should also mention that EFI has been developed around Intel Secured-platform (trusted computing). One can let EFI taking care of the memory management, or controlling the network to run a secured applciation. OS calls to the hardware are done via EFI drivers.
Why are we mentioning this point? Because, based on the EFI drivers definition, one will be able to limit the peripherals to be used or installed in the MacIntel. Indeed, PCI-E card firmware (such as the ones of new generation graphic cards) must be compatible with the computer firmware. So far on the mac, OpenFirmware was forcing card developers to create specific software to manage the card, one of the reason why Mac Edition graphic card were so expensive.

Updates fro 10.4.4 and its server version are available for downlaod from the automatic software update panel or from Apple website.

The 10.4.4 Update delivers overall improved reliability and compatibility for Mac OS X v10.4 and is recommended for all users.
It includes fixes for:
- SMB/CIFS and NFS network file services
- Bluetooth wireless access
- Core Graphics, Core Audio, Core Image, RAW camera support, including updated ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers
- Spotlight indexing and searching
- AppleScript, iChat, DVD Player, and Safari applications
- Dashboard widgets: Calendar and Stocks
- Software Update and Sync Services
- compatibility with USB and FireWire devices and third party applications
- previous standalone security updates
For detailed information on this Update, please visit this website: http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n302810.

Apple has started contacting developers owning the OSX x86 Developer Tool Kit (rented for 999US$).
When signing in for the TDK, Apple was planning to get them back when the first MacIntel would be released. For sure, those developers will be happy to learn that they will get an iMacIntel in exchange of their OSX x86 DTK machine!

Here are a first few comments on yesterday's keynote and its so much awaited announcements. Steve started with the software to had us wait, but we'll go for the hard stuff first, that is the brilliant update of the Powerbook and iMac:
- The iMac is by its own nature aimed at the consumer market. Far from our professional concerns, it is a market which does not care very much about what's inside the machine, or whether professional softs like Photoshop are optimized or not. And this very clever strategic move will indeed have real professionals turn to the more expensive G5 Powermac.
- The Macbook is a very clever move as well. With all PC makers announcing their dualcore laptops, Apple's Macbook can now be considered instead of these Windows based ones. There again, Photoshop's lack of optimization won't be an issue for professionals who, anyway, don't use this kind of configuration for the urgent processing of heavy workloads.
Hard to tell more now without more precise information. The Powerbook's heir now has up to 256 MB of VRAM and Radeon X1600 mobile graphic card, which is very good. However, it seems that Firewire 800 is now a dead and burried technology. A pity but not a critical loss given its limited use, especially on a laptop.
On the software part, iLife comes up with some upgrades but is more than ever tied to the .Mac service for an optimal use. While it's only $79, you also have to include the cost of an annual subscrition to get the most of it, and this is a real pity.
However, Apple seems to have lent an ear to its customers and took their concerns into consideration for the betterment of this software suite. We were thus very satisfied to hear Stevie announce the end of the iDVD locking system. It is a real victory against Apple, a victory gained battle after battle, patching after patching, for the freeing of the iApps and especially iDVD.
And then the cherry on the icing: Steve only briefly spoke of the iPods. Thank you Apple to let us be in good terms with them again!