News for Monday, 3 July 2006

According to Digitimes, the number of MacBook units already sold is way beyond Apple's most optimistic expectations. Current estimations indicate a rate of 120,000 MacBook sold per month. For 2006, Apple could ship more than 2 millions of iBook/MacBook, while MacBook Pro could also reached 1 million units.
This is simply a huge success, remember in 2005, Cupertino has sold 4 742 000 Macs (all models included). So to the 3 millions notebooks units already estimated, one will have to add Powermac and its successor Mac Pro, as well as the Mac mini and iMac!

Quark has published on line a second beta version of Xpress 7 in Universal Binary.
It is currently only available from US Quark website: http://www.quark.com/products/xpress/seven/beta.html
It is a fully functional version till July 31st, and can be installed on a G4, G5 or Intel-based Macs.

Symantec has announced they have discovered a security hole in OS X 10.4.6. This hole gives access to ROOT privileges and the code of the exploit has been released on the web, which means anyone with some coding skills might now make a trojan heading for it.
The thing is, as MacFixit puts it, Symantec only "found" that hole after it was documented and filled with the 10.4.7 update.
Whether they do this on purpose or not, Symantec obviously overstates the danger and even omits to mention the update that puts an end to it.
While we understand that a security software editor bounces on real issues to publicize its products, it is quite disturbing that misinformation and the systematic use of the fear factor has become a standard commercial strategy.

Dailytech claims to have obtained additional information on the GMA950 successor, a.k.a. X3000. Based on assumption that Apple will massively use this integrated graphical chips in its future entry-level models, we are carefully following specifications/information related to the X3000:

- X3000 will support manageability engine, so one will be able to update the X3000 rendering or capabilities.
- Graphics core frequency should be around 400MHz (quite expected with the FSB800MHz of the Merom)
- T&L (Transform and Lighting) as well as Clipping will now be supported at the hardware level and not via software solution. This will save on memory bandwidth.
- Anisotropic filtering should be able to manage up to 16 sample dynamically.
- Floating point precision moves from 24 bit to 32 bit, and the X300 will support OpenGL2.0.
This integrated graphics unit will not compete with a mid-range graphic cards, but it will add rendering performances that are currently lacking in the MacBook. The X3000 will bring hardware display support for DID, ADD2, MEC and HDMI (TVHD). An important detail to mention, the G965 GMCH chipset that will come with the X3000 features an PCI Express x16, so notebooks based on this Intel architecture could have graphical units options: X3000 or a true third-party GPU as a BTO.
This chipset will appear in Apple notebooks or mac mini powered by Intel Core 2 Duo notebook (a.k.a. Merom), expected to arrive in notebooks in September.

The website MacGeek has measured the CPU temperature of a MB Pro with its original thermal paste, then after changing it to a more appropriate amount of Artic Silver 5.

Results are quite clear; applying the right amount of thermal paste reduces temperature by up to 6.5°C. But one should not forget that the quality of the Artic Silver 5 is for sure higher than the thermal paste used by Apple, and this might also contribute to the lower temperatures measured after the modification.
In addition, Apple might have chosen the best ratio between: cost of thermal paste, amount to be added, easiness for manufacturing lines workers, and impact on MBPro lifespan.

Uneasysilence reports that Microsoft has been using a MacBook Pro to demonstrate Office 2007 running on Vista.

This is probably the best way to recognize the superior quality of Apple notebooks, even though Apple might not like it so much to be used to run Vista.
It is likely that BootCamp will be discontinued with Leopard to promote a more integrated system that will make Vista running inside Mac OSX.