News for Thursday, 16 February 2006

Netusers on Macrumors forums got tricked by a file supposed to contain screenshots from OS 10.5. Once double-clicked, this archive file called latestpics.tgz expands into an executable file under the shape of a picture. Compiled for PowerPC, it cosily nests itself in the system, infecting other applications (however this piece of code doesn't work and keeps the app from running) and trying to send itself through iChat.
In short, nothing very serious, but that Trojan prototype comes out as the first on Mac to replicate and send itself, although iChat is definitely not the most efficient way to do so. It also requires the user's action, who first has to open the archive and then double-click on the resulting file.
It is only a matter of time before such trojans/viruses begin to appear on our platform. And the more famous OSX becomes, the sooner this will happen. This might be the reason behind Apple's silence concerning the absence of viruses on Mac so far: they wouldn't want to be discredited when this eventually happens.
Ambrosia's president has published more detailled information on his website. A good read.

MSN music has officially announced the end of its unique price of 0.99 Euros/track (identical to iTMA)
As requested by Music Majors, the most "wanted" tracks will be sold 1.19 Euros a,d 11.99 Euros for the popular album; while the other album will be available for 6.99 Euros.
Up to date, Apple via its CEO Steve Jobs has strongly refuse to adopt such a "variable" or "on-demand" price for the iTMS
But with this decision taken by MSN Music represented in France by OD2, it might be the beginning of a new battle; eventhough MSN or OD2 are far to have as much strength as Apple/iTMS for negotiating such deals with Music Majors.
In such battle to come, the winner is the one that will be able to financially resist to such agreement.

DVD-RAM media have usually not been the main product receiving technology improvements in order to catch up with the burning speed race. But the DVD-/+R/RW media have reached their limits, and manufacturers are now proposing new DVD-RAM media with improved performance, but at higher cost.
For this purpose, the DVD Forum has validated the DVD-RAM2 format and its corresponding media could support up to 16x burning speed (going through the usual 6x, 8x and 12x).
But this performance improvement has a side effect: such media will not be compatible with the current DVD-RAM drives that can burn only at 5x. It could even be dangerous since such media inserted in the current drives could be ejected while rotating at 1600rpm...
DVD-RAM drive manufacturers should propose firmware updates before those new media arrives in our shops.

We have already reported twice about the potential battery lifespan issue of the future Core Duo-based Core Duo (here and there). In summary, by simply plugging a USB peripheral in Core Duo-based computer, it would stop energy saving management and reduce battery lifespan by 30%.
AnandTech has analyzed the problem and brings additional information.
- First, this bug is not only present in Yonah (aka Core Duo and Solo), but also in Pentium M processors.
- This bug is initiated as soon as a USB peripheral is plugged in, eventhough the peripheral is not working or request sent to it (from a USB printer to a USB storage key); the power-saving management system is stopped, and the USB port receive the maximal amount of power possible (unnecessary).
- Microsoft has published for Windows XP a patch that partially fixes the issue while waiting for a more definitive answer. This patch is not perfect, since it does not work in some notebooks, where putting the computer into sleep mode inactivates the patch...
The last part of this news is a good point, since it proves that one can fix the issue via a software solution. For sure, Apple is working hard on this problem, and we should soon know what is the real battery lifespan of the MB Pro.

CineBench 9.5 is now available for download.
Among new features, it is now based on Universal Binary and supports up to 16 cores!

To come back to this issue affecting some PMG5 and apparently due to the a defective PSU; at least one of our readers has been experiencing the problem while the computer was installed in an optimal environment (ventilated, temperature and voltage controlled), leading to the conclusion that it is really a hardware problem and not due to any external factor.
AppleCenters responsible for taking care of those defect PMG5 have ordered 200 PSU (to be delivered on Feb 22nd); but it is already not enough to cover the currently 219 computers waiting for being repaired (only for Europe).
The problem should be solved quite quickly, since Apple has reserved 1000W PSU only for PMG5 Quad, and started using a 710W PSU for both PMG5 dualcore 2.0 and 2.3GHz models.

Intel's Internal notes would support the idea that the future desktop processor to be released by Santa Clara Giant, Conroe, will feature a new set of instructions (currently SSE3) in order to boost some specific processes (a bit like Altivec).
This new set would particularly focus on enhancing video processing.
We should get more information about this subject on March 7th when the Conroe will officially be announced.
Maybe this specific set has been requested by Apple to add a bit of Velocity Engine-like strength into Intel processors? ;)

As time passes, the date of release for blue laser-based disc readers/burners gets farther and farther.
And this time it is for both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.
The culprit this time? It's the AACS super-dupper copy protection scheme, supposed to be absolutely un-hackable [is there a DeCSS Jon in the audience?] The skinny? The various involved actors can't agree on the final specs, so the whole thing has been postponed to a later date (a meeting around the end of the month should try and iron out the differences.)
Basically you have Hollywood on one side trying to lock everything up, and the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray promoters on the other side cringing at the perspective of too user-unfriendly DRM schemes.
The only point on which these happy people have agreed is that you will pay your discs more than current DVDs.

Pioneer Japan has officialy announced their new DVR-111 device.
If performances remain the same, it is supposed to pack new technologies aiming at enhancing disc stability during rotation, thus making burning more reliable and quieter.
Seems like the DVR-111's internal controler is different from that of the 110, which makes flashing a 110 with a 111 firmware very unlikely.

Thanks to Serafin for this info.
Up to now, the Apple only offered a global warranty for it's mobile machines, like the laptops and the iPod.
This changed on Feb 10th. Here is an extract of the message from Apple:

US/CANADA/EUROPE/LATIN AMERICA/ASIA-PACIFIC
=============================================
"Global Warranty for All Desktop and Server Products" February 10, 2006
Effective February 11, 2006, Apple will provide global service
coverage for all Apple desktop computers, servers, and displays under
warranty. Beginning February 11, GSX will no longer indicate whether
or not service coverage for desktop and server products is global;
all desktop and server product coverage should be considered global.

In summary, the international guarantee from Apple now covers all their products for the normal warranty period, or for the Apple Care extended warranty.
You can now, without any problem as a result of importing, have your repair done in your country.

Vincent, who lives in Quebec, has an issue with Apple and the iTMS:

Like many Mac fans, I was interested in taking part in the iTunes Music Store competition with the hope of having the lucky billionth song downloaded... Just for kicks, I decided to read the official rules, to see whether it's actually necessary to be American in order to win the grand prize. Well, it seems that it's not a requirement to be American, but for some reason, which I don't know, Quebec has been excluded (one again!) by an Apple policy. Why?! As a Canadian and a Québécois, I have a little difficulty in understanding why I can download music from the Apple Music Store, but I can't take part in this contest. Perhaps somebody has an answer?
On http://www.apple.com/itunes/1billion/rules.html you can read:
4. Eligibility. In order to be eligible, entrants must be 13 years of age or older, and a legal resident of one of the 50 United States, including Washington, D.C., Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada (excluding the Province of Quebec), Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland or the United Kingdom.

To be excluded like this is particularly annoying. We are curious to find out the reason that has justified this exception.
[update]
We have received numerous mail explaining why Quebec was not included for Apple's iTMS contest. And it is not Apple's fault but rather due to the difficulties to deal with Lotto Quebec as reported to us by Jeremy:

Hello, I live in Montreal, Quebec. To answer
Vincent's question as to why Apple excludes Quebec, lies in Quebec
laws and regulations concerning lottery and prize winnings. Apple has
nothing to do with the rules and regulations, it is Lotto Quebec, a
government owned corporation that prohibits many contests from
entering Quebec. Apple is not the first to have an issue with this.
Most american companies that have prize winnings of any sort just
exclude Quebec because it is just too much trouble to bypass the
Governments regulations and rules with Lotto Quebec. Look it up...

[update by Eric]

Various iLife '06 applications have been updated. These are available via Software Update and also on the Apple Software Downloads page

• iDVD 6.0.1 (5.3 Mb)
  

  This update to iDVD 6 resolves issues with integration with the other iLife applications, importing of legacy projects and some theme related issues. It also addresses a number of other minor issues.

• iPhoto 6.0.1 (13.7 Mb)



Resolves issues with photocasting, viewing thumbnails in large libraries, and ordering cards, calendars and books. It also addresses a number of other minor issues.



• iWeb 1.0.1 (19.1 Mb)
  

  Resolves issues with photocasting, viewing thumbnails in large libraries, and ordering cards, calendars and books. It also addresses a number of other minor issues.



• iTunes 6.0.3 (18.7 Mb)
  

  With iTunes 6, you can preview, buy, and download over 2,000 music videos and hit TV shows on the iTunes Music Store and sync your music and purchased videos with iPod to enjoy on the go. To watch purchased videos, you must have QuickTime 7.0.3 or later and Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later.
  iTunes 6.0.3 includes stability and performance improvements over iTunes 6.0.2.
  Note: After purchasing music from the iTunes Music Store with iTunes 6 or later, you will also need to upgrade your other computers that purchase music from the iTunes Music Store to the latest version of iTunes.

• iMovie HD 6.0.1 (52.6 Mb)
  

  iMovie HD 6.0.1 update addresses issues with Ken Burns rendering performance, Scrubber Bar editing performance, and theme image quality. It also addresses a number of other minor issues.

  
  

One of our readers working in a CMAA sent these photos to us:



The customer wrongly thought that it was necessary to leave the two plastic pull knobs to insert the stick of memory in his iMac G5 Rev C. The slot was completely destroyed!
Please note: This was not posted to mock this person. Instead, we published these photos to prevent this mishap from occuring to other people, and then having to replace the motherboard of their almost new machine out of their own pocket.

We recently told you about iNMR, a Mac OS X native application to handle NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance). But it is not the only one. The application NMRnotebook, from the NMRTec company, allows the viewing of NMR results on the Mac in 1D or 2D. NMRNotebook in particular automates the importation, the treatment, the detection of peaks, and spectra creation. Additional modules can be added to it.

Because of the dropping costs of flash memory, the manufacturers of micro-drives need to raise the capacities of their micro-drives as fast as possible in order to stay competitive in the portable device market.
Thus, Seagate has just announced the first 1" disk which uses perpendicular recording technology and has a capacity of 12 Gb. It is 2 Gb larger than the competitions.
The price has not yet been set for this product, as it will not be available until the 3rd quarter of 2006.