Wednesday September 19, 2007

- Towards Cheaper BD-R Media - Lionel - 18:18:45

Source : CDR Info

Pioneer and Mitsubishi Chemical media announced to have successfully produced new Blu-ray disk featuring a recording layer made of new organic compound. Such disc will be cheaper to manufacture and could be produced in plants already dealing with CD and DVD media. If production cost of BD media are lower and do not require massive investment, it should speed up its adoption in computer as the new default optical drive. However, such cheaper BD media will required a firmware update for current player and burner in order to be compatible.

[translation by Linathael]

- First Apple Store in Paris? - Lionel - 16:03:25

Before going further, we would like to state that we could not doubled checked this information, but it makes so much sense that we decided to publish it.

About a year ago, Apple dropped its project to install the first physical Apple Store in Paris, rue Scribe. Then, Apple France moved to Place d’Iena where it is physically impossible to install the French Headquarter over an Apple Store as in Regent Street in London. We just received information from one of our sources concerning the location where Apple could locate its first Apple Store: le Carrousel du Louvre. For those who do not know Paris, this is probably the most famous shopping center in Paris, located near the museum, with lots of shops and dedicated places for exhibitions and conference rooms.



Advantages:
- in the center of Paris
- a really popular shopping place
- modern design associated with historical location
- shops are usually featuring 2 floors, so Apple could install its famous stair
- shops are opened up to 23h00 7days/week
- no official Apple resellers neither FNAC (usual Apple’s French partner) in the area.
- an inverted pyramid made of glass, something similar to the Cube in New-York

[translation by Linathael]

- iPhone in Germany: Herzlich Willkommen - Eric - 15:21:53

After UK yesterday, the iPhone was officially announced in Germany thanks to a partnership between Apple and T-Mobile (mobile phone division of Deutsch Telecom). Steve Jobs was at the press conference in Germany with T-Mobile executives to unveil the iPhone and the associated services.
According to the first PR released by T-Mobile, the iPhone will require a 2-years subscription; all features will be immediately available. The iPhone will cost 399€ to be added to the monthly subscription fee.

iPhone is scheduled to go on sale on November 9 and will be sold in Germany through Telekom Shops of Deutsche Telekom and the T-Mobile web shop. iPhone requires a new 2-year T-Mobile tariff and will be available in an 8GB model for €399 including V.A.T. and will work with either a PC or Mac.
...
The T-Mobile network will also support iPhone’s unique Visual Voicemail feature, which enables users to immediately randomly access those messages that interest them most.
...
By the end of 2007, T-Mobile will be the only network operator in Germany to offer EDGE throughout its entire GSM network.

The subscription prices are still unknown and it will be interesting to compare them with those released yesterday by O2 for UK . It is also unclear if T-mobile will also distribute the iPhone in Austria and Netherlands.
Next to be announced is the iPhone in france to be distributed by Orange, and considering hte botth reserved by the company at the Paris Apple Expo next week, we can imagine that the iPhone will be launched during this event, and potentially at the Keynote.

- Adobe Reports Record Financial Quarter - Lionel - 09:00:42

No, hardmac.com did not become a finance-oriented website during the night, but we mentioned this news to illustrate how Adobe benefits from the CS3, and especially from the release of the Universal binary Mac version. For years, Adobe application on Mac had the tendency to become slower and slower while hardware were running faster. The CS3 has been a major improvement, and many Pro users took advantage of CS3 to purchase an Intel-based Mac.
Unfortunately those record results for Adobe have also been possible thanks to worldwide customers, especially Europeans, who had to pay the same application up to twice the price found in USA. Let's hope that Adobe will decrease the price of the CS3 in outside USA.


[translation by Linathael]

- Carbon Copy Cloner 3 - Lionel - 08:59:32

The well-known application from Mike Bombich, Carbon Copy Cloner, is now available in version 3:

CCC 3.0 features a new interface designed to make the cloning and backup procedure more intuitive and more responsive. Users have better control over what gets backed up, and are provided with detailed information about the progress of their backup. In addition to general backup, CCC can also clone one hard drive to another, copying every single block or file to create an exact replica of your source hard drive. CCC's block-level copy offers the absolute best fidelity in the industry!
Among the new features are:
- Support for block-level disk-to-disk clones.
- Synchronization built-in, not bolted on.
- Support for backing up across the network to another Macintosh.
- Advanced scheduling capabilities -- Backup tasks can now be scheduled on an hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly basis, or you can indicate that a backup task should run when the backup device is attached (e.g. an iPod).
- CCC recognizes iPods specifically, allowing time for the iPod:iTunes synchronization to complete.
- The ability to drill down into folders to select exactly what gets copied and what doesn't (you can drill down indefinitely).
- Built-in software update feature notifies you when updates are available.

As usual with donatioware, you can use this application for free, but do not hesitate to donate to support its development
Additional information here.

[translation by Linathael]

- IDF: Mac OS X Runs on Nehalem - Lionel - 08:51:09

Source : Register

During IDF, Intel's CEO Paul Otellini talked about the future 45nm architecture known as Nehalem. To illustrate how the development is already well advanced, Paul Otellini mentioned that Intel has already successfully booted Mac OS X on it.
Nehalem is planned to debut mid year 2008, and will bring numerous improvements:
- Nehalem will be the first true native Quad Core CPU from Intel
- Intel will be able to offer 2 Nehalem on the same die, such as current Quad Core 2 based on two Dual Core on the same die
- As announced in March, Nehalem will support multithreading, doubling logical core from physical core.
- Intel will use a technology named QuickPath Interconnect to make Core communicate faster, a technology similar to the one used by AMD in the Barcelona
- Nehalem will feature low latency memory controller, a real improvement considering how memory latency impact Mac Pro performance today

For additiional information about Intel processor to be used in Mac, read our previous technical news about the Penryn to be launched on November 12th and Nehalem.


[translation by Linathael]

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