News for Monday, 20 February 2006

The Refurb store is full again:
- iBook G4 12" 1.2 Ghz for 699 Euros
- iBook G4 12" 1.33 Ghz for 786 Euros
- Powerbook G4 15" 1.5 GHz for 1449 Euros
- as well as Xserve for 2092 and 2995 Euros (as usual)
So the best way to get one of this offer is to click the right link: Refurb store
[update] All iBooks are gone...

Those of you who rushed on their credit card as soon as the MacBook Pro was available on the Apple Store have been blessed: Apple confirmed that their computer has left the factory and should be delivered within the end of the week. Then we will be able to talk seriously about this machine's autonomy...

While Plextor announced the release of an 18x burner a few months back, Lite-On has now announced its product which is able to break the 16x barrier.
This product should arrive in the third quarter of 2006.
Still, there are only a few manufacturers who have been able to maintain their sales in this tough market, because of the lack of technological innovation. It is further amplified because burners with blue lasers have not yet started shipping...
An 18x burner should allow people in a hurry to save a few seconds for now.

Microsoft has renewed the OEM license agreements for its operating system. From this point on, the license is no longer attached to the machine as a whole, but to the motherboard, which is considered the heart of a computer.
So, customers will have to acquire a new license if they change this component.
It should be noted that, contrary to Mac OS X which updates approximately every year, Windows, and in particular XP, is in production for a very long time, much longer than the a computer's life-span. This is thus a means for Microsoft to make a little more money. It is impossible, after all, to go bankrupt when you're on the top.

Many people are upset at video card manufactures for not yet including support for HDCP, even in their top-of-the-line and very expensive products.
In the future, HDCP will be required in order to view HD content, and all the video components from the display to the original source will have to be compatible with it.
Returning to video cards, ATi has a surprising reason for the absence of HDCP support: it is currently useless, since no protected content is available yet.
However, the reason for not including it is not the cost of implementation or the licences, since it is $15,000 per year, plus a $.15 tax per product, which can be reduced to $.04.
We think that, even more than display manufacturers, video card manufacturers have very little concern about adding the support, as once HDCP content arrives, their customers will be forced to purchase new products in order to use the standard.
This is even better than the Y2k bug!

We have been impatiently waiting for the first independant MacBook Pro tests. While it's still necessary to be patient, the packaging and the unpacking of the machine has already appeared on the Web.


Apple has followed it's tendency towards reducing the thickness of the boxes.
You can see the other photos at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewescoba