News for Wednesday, 5 July 2006

Apple has translated the "Get a Mac" advertising campaign in different languages.
The French version: http://www.apple.com/fr/getamac/
The UK version: http://www.apple.com/uk/getamac/
The German version: http://www.apple.com/de/getamac/
The Dutch version: http://www.apple.com/nl/getamac/
The Dannish version: http://www.apple.com/dk/getamac/
The Spanish version: http://www.apple.com/es/getamac/
The Novergian version: http://www.apple.com/no/getamac/
The Swedish version: http://www.apple.com/se/getamac/
The Italian version: http://www.apple.com/it/getamac/
The Canadian version: http://www.apple.com/ca/getamac/
Not sure that the US, UK or canadian version is different...
This campaign should normally appear on TV in Europe.
[update]: it turns out that only the French and German versions have been fully translated, the english version is used for all other countries.

To replace the eMac for education market, Apple has released a iMac Core Duo Education.
Of course for 899$, this iMac 17" does not have all features of the standard model .
Hereafter are the differences:
- 80GB HD instead of 160GB
- GMA 950 as GPU instead of a Radeon X1600
- ComboDrive instead of a Superdrive
- No remote control.
- No BlueTooth.
This iMac should appear on the European Store very soon.
One would also expect to see the price of Mac mini models to drop.

There are currently only a few graphic cards models supporting HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection). This could become an issue in a very near future since HDCP implementation is a requirement of HDTV (high-definition TV) and blue-laser media content (Blu-ray and HD-DVD). Graphics cards that don't support HDCP will downgrade HD video resolution from 1080p to 540p; in other words, it is not high-definition anymore.
But things will change soon as nVidia has announced the release of HDCP-enabled GeForce 7900 GT and GTX graphic cards to be available by mid-August. For mid-range and entry-level graphic cards, nVidia will offer HDCP support as an option.
HDCP also means HDMI as HDCP is a part of the HDMI standard (high-definition multimedia interface connector and cable). The goal being to unify audio and video into a single connector leaving synchronization and decoding of both signals to the GPU.
The additional cost linked to HDCP and HDMI connector on the price of a graphic card should be around US$15 (probably only applied for entry level and mid-range models).
For Apple, it also means that it is time to upgrade current Apple Cinema displays to bring HDMI/HDCP support.

JCJ

Probably to compete with the not yet released iPod nano 8GB, SONY has launched a 8GB Music Player.

The NW-A1200 is available in colour, either purple or pink, with a estimated battery lifes of 20 hours. Its price is very aggressive when compared to the iPod nano US$199.95; but, of course, it does to have all iPod nano features. The NW-A1200 should be available on July 20th.
Let's hope that with this new competitor, Apple will quickly react and update the current iPod nano models that are getting slightly "old".

JCJ