Thursday March 29, 2007

- New Features for iTS: "Complete My Album" and "My Alerts" - Lionel - 21:10:19

Source : Apple

The iTunes Store features 2 new functions: "My Alert", a way to receive e-mail notifications depending on alerts setup for artist or albums, and more interestingly "Complete My Album", a mean to purchase at a discount price the missing tracks present on an album for which you already owned some songs:

Did you know that if you've purchased one or more songs from an eligible album, you may now be able to buy the rest of the album at a reduced price? You have up to six months after first downloading a song from an eligible album to purchase the remainder of the album.

The discount will be equal to 0.99 x number of tracks already purchased.

[translation by Linathael]

- Intel Unveils Future Processors for our Macs - Lionel - 13:51:09

During a recent conference, Intel unveiled some information related to its next generation CPUs.
The Peyrin, successor of the current Core 2 Duo, will be a minor evolution and the main new features will be:
- clock-speed higher than 3GHz
- 45nm engraving
- larger L2 cache: 6MB
- Improvement of some SSE instructions.
- Improved performance/watt ratio.
- Important increase of the FSB, 800MHz for the Peyrin notebook version and 1600MHz for the server Peyrin CPU (Mac Pro and Xserve?).
- Last but not least, the ability to overclock specifically one Core and not the other ones, to boost mono-threaded application, providing higher performance level without increasing power consumption.

Intel plans to improve performance by up to 20% and even 40% for video encoding thanks to a specific set of SSE4.

Later on, somewhere in 2009, the Nehalem, based on a new architecture will make its first steps:
- Nehalem CPU will be based on 8 Cores, and hyperthreading will make it possible to generate 16 logic Cores.
- All CPU cache will be shared between Cores to improve efficiency.
- Cores will be able to communicate directly with a Hypertansport-like system, avoiding using the bus (the G5 Quad Core was already using Hypertansport)
- The memory controller will also be shared
- There will be a power management system for each Core, making it easier and more specific to balance CPU loading.
- There will also be an option to include an integrated graphical unit in the processor, as AMD already planed to do it too.

[translation by Linathael]

- All You Ever Wanted to Know about the Mac Pro and its RAM Modules - Eric - 10:24:23

Source : http://diglloyd.com

Diglloyd, a well known and skilled Mac user, has been experiencing some serious issues with the memory modules installed in his Mac Pro. After spending times to identify the problem, he decided to share his experience in a well documented article, a "must read" if you plan to add additional RAM modules in your Mac Pro.
Direct link to the article: Digitimes

- Ink-Jet Printers to Be Smaller and Faster - Lionel - 10:13:49

Source : Digitimes

Epson announced to have finalized the development of its next generation Micro Piezo ink-jet writing heads, which will be smaller and faster than the current ones.
Mass production should start already start in April, and should be the basis of the future announcement of an entire new generation of ink-jet printer models.
Let's hope that they do not take advantage of renewing their catalog to further decrease the ink tank capacity while increasing the cost of each cartridge. So our dream would be that next generation ink-jet printers are: smaller, faster but also cheaper for consumable.

[translation by Linathael]

- Sony-Ericsson to Launch HSDPA-based Mobile Phones - Lionel - 10:12:22

Some of you might have already heard about the HSDPA mobile phone technology, also known as 3.5G protocol. While deriving directly from the 3G network, and not requiring massive modification of the network hardware, it boosts communication speed to up to 3 to 4 Mbits/s.
In France, SFR (Vodafone partner) and Orange have launched this offer, but to take advantage of such data transfer speed, one needs to use a dedicated cards, such as the Merlin XU870 that we test previously in this article.

Well, it might change, in a near future as Sony Ericsson plans to launch 2 new HSPDA-based mobile phone, Z750 and W580. However, they will first be available in USA, a country mostly using GSM and with a very small 3G network, before being available for the rest of the world by the end of the year. The geographical and timing availability look similar to the one of the iPhone...

However to use such mobile with a computer, one will need a USB2 connection, as BT2 should not be fast enough; and when one knows how poor are the USB drivers on Mac for such mobile phone-based modem usage, it would probably be a better investment to get keep a dedicated card as the merlin.

[translation by Linathael]

- Software Patents: New Rounds of Legal Actions - Lionel - 10:09:41

In this news we will report about 2 major legal actions launched in USA and based on the strongly criticized "software/IT patent" system:
- Several computer developers and manufacturers using the BlueTooth technology, and among them Apple, Dell or Sony, are currently sued by the Washington Research Foundation. Details are not fully available, and nobody really known the reason for such legal action; it seems to be due to the "patented concept" of plugging peripherals to a computer, such as keyboard and mouse (probably via BT, a technology patented by Ericsson)

- The second story is related to the legal action launched by HP against Acer, for the use of the illegal usage of 5 patents. Among those patents, one of them explain how to boot a multi CPU or Core computer from a single ROM. Another one explains how to detect the CPU loading level to switch it to energy saving mode; another one explains the concept for writing data several times on a HD without modifying the data already stored...

Both stories demonstrate how ridiculous the current US patent system can be when directly applied to software or IT concepts. Such patents are mostly covering concepts, never demonstrated to be fully functional, and often including a large collection of claims, so broad that one could even sue you for inventing a coffee machine if one can demonstrate that you could be plugged to your computer.
Patents are necessary and should be granted to real invention, and the justice should spend more time fighting against counterfeits and illegal usage of patents, than spending their time and energy to discuss if an old concept, never proven to be functional could be the basis of a successful product. It is all about the money.

[translation by Linathael]

- Joost on Apple TV - Lionel - 08:24:22

Source: Joostteam

Joost, formerly known as the Venice Project, is an IPTV platform allowing you to watch TV for free on your computer. Copyright holders on the shows are paid by add-generated revenues (sounds exactly like regular TV for me).
Someone over at Tutorialninjas.netEurope managed to install the Joost client on an Apple TV, with only minor glitches that we can hope the Joost team will fix quickly.
Apple should not like this, as Joost is in competition with the iTunes Store, and Apple is counting on the Apple TV to boost the sales of series and movies on the iTS.

[translation by moose]