News for Monday, 22 May 2006

Here is a useless soft that will nonetheless definitely meet a huge success.
MacSaber uses Apple laptop's sudden motion sensor and has your beloved digital weapon buzz like a Jedi sword when you move it.
While it seems to work on Macbook, this beta version is not compatible with all SMS enabled laptops.

Thanks to Clodo for this info
The beta_1 version of the VoIP application openwango 2 is now available on Mac from the official website: www.openwengo.org). It might be interested for Mac users wishing to do some video conferencing.

This is an alpha build of the upcoming WengoPhone NG version. It comes with each and every functionality planned for the 2.0 release: audio and video calls, MSN, Yahoo!, AIM/ICQ and Jabber support and a completely redesigned user interface. It still has stability issues.
Features:
- webcam support for Win, Linux and OSX.
- interoperability with numerous IM protocols
- GPL licensing.

It remains annoying that there is not an universal/cross-platform format for audio/video conferencing available. Apple has implemented Jabber in iChat; but not IM applications are supporting Jabber.

The Mighty Mouse is a nice mouse, but as all mouse, it has to be clean from time to time. Obviously, Apple does not provide any real method to perform such operation. As shown on this photo, the tracking ball can be covered by dust, preventing a proper usage of the mouse.

Karrel, a Dutch citizen, has decided to clean his Mighty Mouse, and has posted a detailed and easy to follow procedure on his website: Operation Mighty Mouse

For some PC users it might appear as a revolution. After years of Intel-only offers, Dell will prose AMD processor-based computers for S2 2006.
It will only concern servers that will be powered by Opteron; and Dell will continue to propose Intel-based servers too.
This will not increase by 200% Dell's earnings, as it concerns a niche market; but it is a sign.
It is obvious that the success of AMD processors vs. ageing Pentium IV during the last 12 months has strongly contribute to the adoption of AMD processor by Dell. But it remains unknown if the partnership between Intel and Apple has contributed or not to this decision.
By Q3 2006, the new server-dedicated Intel processor should be available, and AMD Opteron will have to face serious competitors from Santa Clara Giant.

Since 10 months, the OLED-based keyboard from Optimus is making users dreaming of it. If a new product, based on an USB pad, is announced, the release of the main product, the keyboard, has been postponed one more time.

One will now have to wait till August, 15th; and in addition the price will be higher than originally planned: 128€ (probably VAT excluded) or 102€ in pre-order.
This price might kill this revolutionary product before it becomes truly available.

Apple France has invited media representatives for a demo of the MacBook.
While we were not invited, we could get photos of this event thanks different sources.


Important to mention is the estimated battery lifespan: it moves dramatically from 6 hours to 2.75h in DVD playback mode; similarly to the one experienced with a MBPro 15".