Friday March 09, 2007
- MacDrive 7 Is Available - Lionel - 17:06:34
MacDrive is a Windows application allowing PC users to write and read on HFS+ volumes.
The new version brings support for Vista but also brings a nice feature for users running Windows via BootCamp on their Intel-based Mac, as it provides seamless access to files on all Mac formatted disks or partitions. In addition, MacDrive does not only support HD but works also with CD-R/RW, DVD RW/ R, floppies, iPods, flash drives, Zip, Jaz, MO, or DMG virtual disk files.
MacDrive is available now at www.mediafour.com for US$49.95 or US$19.95 as an update.
For additional information: http://www.mediafour.com/products/macdrive/
[translation by Linathael]
- Hide Your iPod Ear Buds - Lionel - 16:17:29
Source : http://www.ilounge.com/
As part of many recent warnings in USA and Europe, San Francisco’s rail system started to inform commuters, especially those who won an iPod, that they should hide their famous white and grey ear buds. Why? To avoid to be the dedicated target of thieves. The Bay Area Rapid Transit District is even distributing fliers with the following warning: "Don’t be a target: Use ear buds other than the standard iPod white, or other aftermarket headphones"Statistics show that up to 11 percent of robberies were iPod thefts.
For sure, third-party ear bud manufacturers will be glad to obtain such support, and iPod owners might also discover that iPods have an audio potential and quality not fully rendered by the original white and grey ear buds.
[translation by Linathael]
- So what about gaming on an Apple TV? - Lionel - 11:07:20
At the beginning of this week, Macscoop made a sensation with its discovery that iTunes code includes references to Apple TV dedicated games. And indeed we kind of wonder to what extent this was really a blunder, and not some clever way to create hype about it a a time when no much exciting news is coming from Cuppertino.
But let's get back to where we were...
As far as we know, the Apple TV features:
- A Pentium M CPU running around 1GHz.
- A Geforce 7400 Go video card with 64MB cache and Turbocache.
- 512 MB RAM.
While that's not quite what you get in a XBox 360, a PS3, or even a MacBook, you can still get someting interesting with it as a TV device.
With a 1280x720 maximum resolution (the native resolution of a MacBook is 1280x800), the Apple TV is well within the Geforce Go 7300's limits and should indeed be able to display some nice and smooth 3D animations.
The bottleneck is to be looked on the side of the CPU, which probably won't run above 1.2 GHz. But well, that's already significant enough, right?
For sure that's not the kind of machine that will run games based on Doom 3's rendering engine, but then again that's not Apple's goal anyway. On the other hand, rendering engines from former generations will be perfectly at ease.
One thing is still to be know: what of the remote? Right, the Apple TV comes with an Apple Remote but... unless that's Arkanoid you want to play (and still...) it's far from being an acceptable solution for gaming. Our idea is that the guys from Apple are preparing some other kind of remote, about which we know nothing for the moment and can only guess that it won't use the infrared port, but instead some USB dongle to be added separately.
So one thing is sure: the Apple TV won't ship "ready-for-gaming" and you'll surely have to purchase some interfaces separately...
[translation by Greg]
- Airport Extreme Update 2007-002: Holy Graal for MacPro and iMac Core2Duo? - Lionel - 07:17:37
The update is available via the software update (6.5 MB). Here are the details:
About AirPort Extreme Update 2007-002Based on what we read on the web, it seems that this update solves the bandwidth and connection problems for the MacPro and the iMac Core2Duo. The users of these machines were waiting for this problem to be solved for a long time... Is it finally THE ONE?
This update is recommended for all Intel-based Macintosh computers and improves compatibility with AirPort Extreme base stations and networks.
This update includes the content from the AirPort Extreme Update 2007-001, and addresses a security issue as described in: http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n305031
This update also improves compatibility for the MacBook Core 2 Duo and the MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo when using certain third-party access points configured to use WEP Open System security.
If you were concerned by this problem, thank you to give your feedback on this update in the relevant topic of our forum!
[translation by Cri-cri]
