Monday August 20, 2007
- The iPhone on the Apple US Refurb Store! - Lionel - 15:38:32
It did not take that much time to see the iPhone arriving on the Apple US Refurb Store.
Both models featuring 4 or 8GB storage space are available with a US$100 price discount. It remains unknown if such iPhone models on the Refurb Store are due to lower than expected sales, or refurbished units from an initialy rejected production lot, or most probably from customer returns after having testing it for a week and not being satisfied with the device.
[translation by Linathael]
- iRec: Directly Record on your iPod - Lionel - 15:24:32
Our partner Macway released a new iPod dock allowing you to directly record analogic sources on your iPod.
The iRec supports both Pal and NTSC format and is compatible with iPod 5G and 5.5G. Its costs: 149€ (VAT included).
More detailed description (in French) : http://www.macway.com/
[translation by Linathael]
- Localization Bugs with new Apple USB Keyboard? - Sam - 11:44:03
It seems that the new stylish keyboard released by Apple together with the new iMac does not work properly. Especially when using non US English version. In French for example, there are at least 2 bugs left after applying the Apple Keyboard Update 1.1:
- Keyboard shortcuts tab in Keyboard and Mouse menu is not available in the System Preferences
- Some fonts are missing, such as American Typewriter and Helvetica Neue.
Spiral, one of our French form members, released a patch to fix the issue for French keyboards:
http://files.macbidouille.com/news/200708/patchBugKeyboard.dmg
It remains unclear if it also affects many other languages, we would be happy to hear about it, simply post your comment/report in the dedicated topic on our forum: here
Otherwise, there is another way to retrieve "lost" fonts:
- Use the application Onyx to delete the font cache.
- Reboot
- Launch any text editor application, TextEdit of xPad; you should notice that some fonts are missing such as American Typewriter and Helvetica Neue
- Launch Font Book, and then select Add new fonts from Files menu. Select them from the /Library/Font/ directory
- It is done, if you relaunch you text editor application, the missing fonts are back.
[translation by Linathael]
- Problem with MacBook Internal Power Connector - Lionel - 10:11:33
One of our readers from a certified Apple Repair Center sent us a report concerning a problem affecting the internal power connector of some MacBooks.
As shown on the photo, there is a short circuit between the internal connector and the motherboard. It burns tracks, and the entire board has to be exchanged.
The problem does not affect many units (yet?), but we can confirm from our disassembling experiments, that the internal connector seems lousy, while it is a critical component.
Another member from an Apple Repair Center confirmed the initial report. So we can suspect that the recent modification of the MacBook motherboard as we reported previously might not only be to support EnergyStar regulations but mostly to upgrade the internal power connector. In addition, we have learned that Apple is sending a need internal power connector with all new motherboard.
[translation by Linathael]
- Xeon Penryn on November 11th - Lionel - 10:02:04
Intel officially announced that the Xeon Penryn will be released on November 11th.
There will be 7 models available, with frequencies ranging from 2.0 to 3.16GHz. For more details regarding specification and features, read our recent article about Penryn.
So, we can expect the Mac Pro to be updated couple of weeks after or before this date, so either late September for the Apple Expo Paris or early January for the MacWorld in January. Mac Pro would then all feature 8 cores, and maybe more powerful graphic cards.
[translation by Linathael]
- iMac: RAM and Performance - Lionel - 10:01:38
OtherWorldComputing (OWC) published an interesting test illustrating the impact of the amount of RAM installed in the new iMac on performance. All models have been tested with 1 to 4GB of RAM.
In summary, the default configuration equipped with 1GB of RAM will work fine for basic and single task usage. If you intend to routinely have several applications opened simultaneously, you will install 2GB of RAM.
Adding 4GB of RAM would make sense for users intensively using RAM-eager applications such as Photoshop CS3, however, such users would be most likely be working on a Mac Pro.
Considering the price of RAM modules today, it might be a good investment to install 2GB or even 4GB of RAM by default in order to have the new iMac fed with a large amount of memory for its lifetime; nobody knows how Leopard will "consume" memory.
[translation by Linathael]
- No Warranty Extension for Cracking MacBook Cases - Lionel - 09:58:30
Since May 2007, Apple officially acknowledges the defect affecting some MacBook cases which can break into pieces as illustrated by the photo below:
Up to now, the top case was exchanged without much difficulty, if it was not the result of a shock.
The dedicated internal TechNote has been recently updated by Cupertino, and such top case exchange will only be limited to MacBook still covered by the warranty (legal one and extended with Apple Care).
So, think of checking the case of your MacBook is the warranty expiration date is approaching.
[translation by Linathael]
