Friday June 08, 2007

- iTunes Plus: Universal Music to Follow EMI? - Lionel - 16:51:07

According to Macworld, Apple would be negotiating with Universal Music in order to offer the catalog of first music major in an iTunes Plus format (including DRM-free). The current discussions are probably related to the price tag, will it be flexible or dependent on the album or artists? Is Universal Music trying to get a compensation fee, or a better deal with Apple?
One should not forget that Universal Music was among the very first, if not the first major to sign up with Apple when the iTMS was launched. For sure if Cupertino and the French Major can signed up an agreement before the WWDC, Steve will be happy to announce it. After EMI and Universal catalogs available in iTunes Plus format, the remaining music majors will have no other choice than to follow the wave.

[translation by Linathael]

- Virtualization Solutions: Parallels 3.0 Adds 3D Support - WMWare Unity - Yoc - 16:20:41

After the failure of Virtual PC, and the relative success of WMWare with its Fusion beta version, Parallels tries to provide 3D experience in its virtualization solution. The principle is to let the 3D API requests to be directly managed by the graphic card, without trying to emulate them via a software or hardware solution. So In theory, all applications using OpenGL and DirectX, from 3D games to 3D rendering professional applications, should benefit from it.

Unfortunately, as with Fusion, first real tests performed on games have not been really convincing. Only few games exhibits performance levels similar to those experienced with a reboot via Boot Camp. In addition, Vista Aero effect is still not supported, and one will have to wait for a (free) update to come.

Hereafter are the most important new features added in version 3.0 of Parallel virtualization solution (among 50 new ones claimed):

- SmartSelect : Cross OS application & file integration.
- Snapshot : Quickly and easily go back in time to a clean VM state
- Shared printers for cross OS printing
- Significantly enhanced overall performance

If the 3D support is not really working properly, one will have to judge if this update is worth US$49.99, especially for users who have purchased the previous version couple of weeks ago…

On its side, WMWare keeps developing Fusion, and unveiled Unity, a feature similar to Parallel's Coherence mode, but different. If Coherence is rather a hack allowing to hide the windows desktop to see the MAC OSX desktop, WMWare tried to push the concept further by treating Win windows as OSX windows: shadowing of windows, Exposé works perfectly too (animations in Win windows are not stopped!), and as with Coherence, one can minimize Win windows In the dock



Last but not least concerning the installation of Parallels 3.0: If you already have the version 2.x on your computer, make an image of your disk before installing the version 3.0, as it will update the previous version without any way to go back in case of problems.

[translation by Linathael]

- New Macbooks Pro Are Shipping - Lionel - 10:45:48

Many readers have sent us emails to mention that their ordered MacBook Pro orders are being shipped. It proves that those units were already in stock for Apple Resellers, and could also explain why Mac rumors websites could provide such detailed information 1 or 2 days before the official release.

[translation by Linathael]

- WWDC Special: Developers Can Advertise (almost) for Free on Hardmac.com - Lionel - 10:35:23

The WWDC will start beginning of next week with the much anticipated Steve Jobs' Keynote. To celebrate this event dedicated to developers, we decided to revive our campaign launched last December and to offer (almost) free advertising campaign on hardmac.com for freeware and shareware developers.

If we are publishing news about some innovative or "must have" software, we can not talk about all of them. Our goals are not to publish all the Press Releases we receive everyday. However to help freeware and shareware developers, we have decided to reserve part of our advertising-dedicated space on hardmac.com to promote them among the Mac community.

If you are interested, please send an email to pub [at] macbidouille.com or to linathael [at] macbidouille.com in order to get registered and to allow us to send you the details of this offer.


[translation by Linathael]

- iPhone to Boost Smartphone Market? - Lionel - 10:06:38

Source : Macworld

Warren East, CEO of ARM holding, believes in the iPhone success. He is expecting the iPhone to shake and invade the Smartphone market, the same way the iPod did for digital music players. He is also expecting sales of Smartphone to double this year thanks to the sales of iPhone and models from other manufacturers aiming to compete with Apple-branded device. For sure, it is of strong interest for ARM Holding to predict the way the market will evolve, as 95% of those Smartphones are powered with ARM-type CPU (including the iPhone).
We would not have to wait for too long, as the iPhone will be available in USA on June 29th, with a rumored starting amount of 3 millions units ready for the launch.

[translation by Linathael]

- Turbo Memory: Is It Really Worth It? - Lionel - 10:03:37

While the new MacBook Pro is using the Santa Rosa platform, Apple did not implement native support for Turbo Memory technology in OS X. If Cupertino does not want to use it, other PC manufacturers are also trying to follow the same path. Indeed, HP and SONY will not support Turbo Memory in their Santa Rosa-based notebook models due to the high cost for implementing the technology, for more than questionable benefits.

As we already reported it, one can measure performance gain only when 512 or 1024MB of flash memory are installed, but, is the extra cost generated by this flash memory unit worth it? Couple of years ago, Intel was able to claim that a Pentium CPU featuring MMX technology was able to boost internet browsing...

[translation by Linathael]

- A Notebook for US$200 - Lionel - 10:02:21

Source : http://www.matbe.com

Together with Intel, ASUS announced a new notebook model featuring a 7" display:



This notebook, powered by a 600-800MHz CPU, will feature Ethernet, Wi-Fi, a modem, 512MB RAM, a webcam, and a flash-memory HD (capacity ranging from 2-16GB), battery life time is expected to last 3 hours.
If performance is not the goal, the price might be the driving force of its future success: US$200 (2GB SSD). This notebook should be available on the market in August. For us it remains unclear which market could be the target of such product.

[translation by Linathael]

- BootCamp Beta version 1.3 Available - Lionel - 10:00:27

Apple released an update of its BootCamp beta application:

Boot Camp 1.3 beta includes:
Support for keyboard backlighting (MacBook Pro only)
Apple Remote pairing
Updated graphics drivers
Improved Boot Camp driver installer
Improved international keyboard support
Localization fixes
Updated Windows Help for Boot Camp

This update weights 274 MB...
Additional information on the dedicated website: http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/

[translation by Linathael]

- PowerBook: Replacement Parts Missing - Lionel - 09:52:34

Apple is facing lack of parts for repairing under-warranty PowerBook G4 1.5GHz and 1.67GHz, especially the top case (replaced when having a trackpad defect). The production will have to be relaunched, but the new parts are not expected before end of July.
It seems that Apple agree to exchange under-warranty PowerBook units with brand new MacBook Pro unit when asked (at least in USA).
There is also a lack of MacBook logic boards, but the channel is expected to resume much faster.

[translation by Linathael]

- Wiiitis: Tennis Elbow for Wii Users - Lionel - 09:51:58

Source : Dailytech

The deep immersion into the action provided by the Nintendo Wii game station is not without side effects. In Spain, a doctor diagnosed a pain directly linked to the immoderate use of the Wii game controller especially when after playing Wii Sports Tennis intensively for hours.
Here, the injured body part is the shoulder instead of the tennis elbow well known by users practicing this sport. The cure is based on the complete abstinence from playing Wii video games associated with anti-inflammatory drugs. For sure addicted Wii gamers might have problem to follow such prescription, but it might also lead to a more chronic disease.
For sure Nintendo did not think that its "revolutionary" game station might have such side effects...

[translation by Linathael]

- Intel to Enter Dedicated Graphic Cards Market in 2008? - Lionel - 09:51:30

If Intel officially announced that the market of GPU-dedicated graphic cards is a potential field where the company might extend its current integrated graphic chipsets business, nothing it really known so far. During the Computex Show, some graphic card manufacturers seemed to be willing the share some information as reported by Digitimes. Intel's project for mid-range and high-end GPU, code name Larrabee, was not expected to be launched before 2009, but Intel GPU-based graphic cards might hit the market as soon as early 2008.
Intel is planning to directly compete with ATI/AMD and NVidia, primarily on the mid-range GPU market, the largest and financially most interesting segment (US$300 graphic card).
Some graphic cards have already announced that they will offer Intel GPU models, but other wants to know more before launching a new line of graphic cards.

[translation by Linathael]