Wednesday September 05, 2007

- Starbucks: A New iTunes Store Partner for Apple - Lionel - 22:04:13

Probably the most important announcement during this Special Event was the partnership between Apple and Starbucks around the iTunes Store. iPod Touch owners entering a Starbucks store will have the opportunity to freely access to the iTunes Store, and to browse or purchase tracks online.
Starbucks has been trying to built its own online music store, and this agreement with Apple is probably for both partners a good deal. Starbucks keeps having a "Music offer", while Apple will build the success of on-air iTunes Store purchase from Starbucks stores and its WiFi hotspot network. In a couple of weeks, one should not be surprised to see iPhone and iPod Touch owners massively represented in Starbucks shops.

[translation by Linathael]

- Say Hello to the New iPods - Lionel - 21:56:49

As expected, Apple unveiled the new iPod models, and even decided to further develop the "family":

- the iPod Shuffles were not massively modified as other models. The storage capacity remain unchanged, only colors change, and a RED model is added. The price remains (too high) unchanged 79€.



- IPod nano enclosure was strongly modified, becoming smaller, but also wider to accommodate a larger display (2"). Capacity did not change, but one can play video on the iPod nano (needs good eyes). The 4GB model is only available in Silver (159€), while color models are all featuring 8GB storage space for 209€.



- The iPods are on diet, and become thinner, with doubled storage space (80GB or 160GB), increased battery lifetime (30-40hours audio, 6-7hours videos). Prices: 80GB model for 259€ and 160GB for 359€.



- And the new family member, the iPod Touch. In other word, an iPhone without the phone, but with a WiFi function around which Apple has built some important new features: web browser, virtual keyboard to search on the web, integrated access to YouTube, and of course the new partnership with Starbucks (see the dedicated news for additional comments on this topic). Featuring 8GB (309€) or 16GB(409€) storage space, the iPod Touch will have a battery lifetime of 22hours for audio and 5hours for videos.



To support hardware visit the Apple store with the following link: Apple Store

[translation by Linathael]

- iPhone 8GB: US$200 Cheaper! - Lionel - 21:41:44

Steve Jobs just announced that the high-end iPhone model will now be available at US$399 instead of US$599 previously. Effective immediately this impressive price cut for the high-end iPhone model might shake competitors even more than the result of iPhone sales published couple of days ago by iSupply.



Of course, Europeans expect to be able to purchase the iPhone at a similar price in a couple of days, but first purchasers of the iPhone might be rather disappointed to see how their 8 weeks-old device lost US$200 in such a short time. The reason behind such price cut could be:
- Apple getting prepared to fight against the rumored Google phone
- Apple decided to press further Smartphone competitors
- Apple wants to quickly become a major player in mobile Smartphone business by offering a feature-rich model, cutting price will increase market share.
Any other idea, drop us a line on our forum: here

[translation by Linathael]

- 'The Beat Goes On' Special Event Coverage - Eric - 16:04:08

We will provide coverage of the 'The Beat Goes On' Special Event which will take place in about 3 hours from now on.
Here are some details of our coverage:

- follow it on this special whizz-bang Special Event page: http://hardmac.com/event/event.php
- the Keynote (and our coverage) will start at 10am Pacific time, 12pm central time, 1pm eastern time, 5pm GMT, 6pm UK time and 7pm in France... and 1am for our fearless readers in Easter Island.
- we will be gathering bits and pieces from various internal and external sources.

We'll do our best to bring you the most up-to-date and comprehensive information...

Oh, one more thing... expect big announcements as usual.

- Dell Releases a New LCD Display with Integrated Webcam - Lionel - 13:38:12

Source : Engadget

Following our yesterday news about the new 24" HP LCD display w2408 featuring a design similar to the last iMacs:



It is now Dell to unveil a new LCD display featuring an integrated webcam, and burying current Apple Cinema Display models for good.



The webcam integrated in the Dell 20" LCD display, aka SP2008EFP, strongly resembles the one located in the display mounting boarder of iMac and MacBooks. This display features a resolution of 1680x1050 (not enough for full HD video), a responsiveness of 2ms, a 300cd/m2 brightness and a 2000:1 contrast, without forgetting the useful 4 USB hub. Last but not least, it is compatible with HDCP.
The price remains unknown so far as well as the availability of a larger model based on a 24" panel.

Apple should invest in R&D resources to be able to deliver updates on a regular basis for some of its key hardware models. The Apple Cinema Displays are getting really old nowadays... while remaining extremely expensive when compared to competitors with specifications from another era...

[translation by Linathael]

- Intel to Release First Mobile Quad Core CPU in 2008 - Lionel - 13:21:12

According to some internal document obtained by HKEPC, Intel plans to launch a mobile Quad Core Penryn CPU in 2H 2008.



This CPU will be dedicated to the Montevina platform, so it will be working on a 1066MHz FSB, with DDR2/DDR3 support. The TDP is higher than current Merom CPUs found in MacBook Pro topping at 35W. Apple will have to revise the cooling system as well as the power consumption to be able to use such Quad Core Penryn in MacBook Pro. The new high-end iMac with its Core 2 Duo Merom clocked at 2.8GHz has a TDP of 45W, but the enclosure allows a much more efficient heat control, and power consumption is not an issue.


[translation by Linathael]

- iPhone Sales SkyRocket - Lionel - 12:07:00

According to iSupply, Apple's iPhone outsells all other competitor Smartphone models during first full month of sales in July. According to the report:

The two models of the iPhone on the market sold more than Research in Motion's Blackberry series, the entire Palm portfolio and any individual Smartphone model from Motorola, Nokia or Samsung.

Data were collected from a survey involving 2 million participants, giving a solid statistical basis for the results. Of course the iPhone will have to deliver on long term, and demonstrate that those numbers are the first sign of a snow-ball effect, rather than the peak of a marketing campaign.

At the same time, Palm CEO announced that the much anticipated and advertised Foleo mobile companion product is cancelled! It remains unclear if this is the first sign of Apple's iPhone pressure on historical Smartphone companies such as Palm; or rather the result of reorganization in the process of building their next generation Palm software platform.

[translation by Linathael]

- Circles to be Unveiled this Evening? - Lionel - 11:40:35

According to an article published on Giiks.com (French), an information leaked out during the IFA meeting which took place in Berlin: Apple could unveil this evening a completely new video concept called "Circles".
There is no further information available currently, so we will not comment on it, but for sure it could explain why Apple acquire a huge data/server center couple of month ago...


[translation by Linathael]

- Deauville American Film Festival, Trouville Off-Courts Festival - Lionel - 11:31:16

While the American Film Festival was launched in Deauville, couple of kilometers away in Trouville, the Off-Courts Festival also opened its doors. While Deauville is the place to be seen with US movie stars at VIP parties, Trouville had packed a huge amount of Macs to be able to deliver short movies within 48 hours of time.




As Mac fans we were not disappointed, hardly seen such a high concentration of Macs, there were Macs everywhere!





While most of the people were not there when we shoot those photos, the place looks like a bee nest when all professionals are in action.
The reason being that the basis of this festival is to shoot, edit and deliver a final copy of a short movie within 48 hours. So, in the morning it was rather "shooting time", so editing first captures with Final Cut Pro on iMac and Mac Pro happened later. All movies are edited with Mac hardware and software solutions from A to Z.

There is of course a theater for showing short movies to the public and professional audiences:



This photo nicely shows two eras of the film history, a Mac Pro on one side and the 35mm projector on the other.

The other company massively supporting this festival along with Apple is SONY; they provide all digital camcorders as well as an outstanding video projector:



This is one of the two models of the SRX R-110 available in France. It delivers a 4K resolution (4096 x 2160), but do not rush to purchase one for your home cinema, it cost more 100,000 Euros, and its bulb with an average lifetime of 1000 hours is worth 15,000 Euros.


All the short movies, known as "Kinos" will be available for free in Video Podcast from iTunes: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=151727889


[translation by Linathael]