Thursday September 20, 2007

- iPhone in Europe: Orange Will Sell It in France - Eric - 18:13:42

While it was rumored for weeks, it is now official; Orange will be the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in France. It was announced today by Orange Chief Executive Didier Lombard during an industry event in Hanoi. Orange (the France Telecom Mobile phone business unit) signed a deal with Apple, and is now expected to start offering an iPhone package to French customers by the end of November.
As for O2 and T-Mobile, Apple might have obtained a percentage of revenues originating from iPhone subscription, while 40% is being rumored for O2, figures remains unknown for Orange and T-Mobile.
Orange has apparently not fully defined the subscription offers to be bundled with the iPhone, and many French customers have received a questionnaire via email about Orange and the iPhone. Among the question, hereafter are two examples:

If Orange was the exclusive distributor for the iPhone in France, would you acquire an iPhone for 400 euros + 49 euros/month subscription including 100 SMS and unlimited Mail & browsing internet as well as Visual voice Mail?

Would you still purchase an iPhone and its bundle subscription if it would be only available from France Telecom and Orange shops?

It seems that Orange is still working on both the price of the subscription and its distribution network which should be as large as possible in order to ensure reach as many customers as possible (including new clients as well as Orange network users). Unlike the offer from O2, Orange will bundle the iPhone with unlimited Mail, browsing internet and Visual voice Mail (similar services available from AT&T).
As we reported couple of days ago, the recent acquisition of the virtual French carrier Ten might allow Orange to deploy the iPhone offer without affecting or changing its current network infrastructure.

- Apple Acknowledges Problems with some iPod Touch "Negative Black Effect" - Lionel - 17:44:19

According to iPod touch dedicated websites, such as Apple-touch.com, the last iPod family member is having some problem previously identified as the "Negative Black Effect".



When playing some video, the display delivers a black/dark image.
According to Walter S. Mossberg from Wall Street Journal Apple is aware of the problem and acknowledge it, while working on a fix. It seems it only affects a small number of iPod Touch.
It is nice to see Apple reacting so fast, but it is only when it deals with iPod-related problems, Mac users often have to fight months or even years when it comes to acknowledge a hardware defect in some Mac or Airport Express station...


[translation by Linathael]

- Apple to Double iPhone Production for Q4 2007 - Lionel - 14:26:22

According to Reuters, Apple plans to double iPhone production for Q4 2007, moving from 1.6 million units to 2.7 million. So Apple's initial plan to produce 3.6 million iPhones this year is now up to 4.8 million. This could be directly linked to the success in USA and to prepare the launch in UK, Germany and France for the second week of November.

[translation by Linathael]

- New iPod nano: Manufacturing Problem - Lionel - 14:19:48

A report from Baptiste.

I just purchased an 8GB iPod nano, silver model, in Canada. After unpacking it, I realized that the display is not straight and slightly rotated on the left. I went back to the shop to get it exchanged, unpacked it right on the place, and... same thing...
When browsing the web, it quickly found 2 websites reporting about this issue:

http://crunchgear.com/2007/09/16/new-nanos-feature-crooked-screens/

http://ipodnanosucks.blogspot.com/

the defect is barely visible, but this is the first time that the iPod suffer such a quality control assembly defect. Apple should strengthen its quality control levels directly from its contractors.



[translation by Linathael]

- Dead PMG5: Another Leaky Cooling System - Lionel - 13:55:20

First, a report from Dominik:

It is my turn to report a dead PMG5 (Dual 2.5GHz) due to its leaky liquid cooling system.
The cost for being repair is over 1000 euros. I have tried to contact Apple to find an agreement in order to get the problem covered by the warranty. No way.
So, facing Apple's decision to ignore its responsibility with the faulty liquid cooling system, I decided to launch a legal action against Cupertino. First to collect all reports about PMG5 dying due to faulty cooling system: http://www.fusina.net/G5_coolant_leaks/.
As we can not initiate class action in Europe, I will use the French and European customer's protection system to sue Apple (personally or via customer's protection organizations).

I have been a Mac users since 1987, and this is the first time Apple decided not to discuss or negotiate with me regarding a technical issue for which they are obviously responsible.

If the number of reported cases is still not humongous, it is high enough to be significant, and should be considered by Apple as the potential sign for a REP. We are cautious, but we would not be surprised to see many reports of dead PMG5 due to leaky liquid cooling system in a near future; and as stated by Dominik, in France, such defect is defined as a hidden defect, and has no time limit of warranty. After the Airport Express problem still not solved by Apple, Cupertino might soon face a major problem with its liquid cooling system installed in PMG5 couple of years ago.

[translation by Linathael]

- HP to Offer SSD as an Option Storage Unit - Lionel - 13:35:30

Source : Dailytech

As many notebook manufacturers did already, HP will offer flash memory-based SSD as an optional storage unit in its notebooks. If SSD will save power and consequently increase battery lifetime, it will have a cost: around $US1, 000. Such a price will most likely restrict the use of SSD in HP notebook to a small niche market. We also now understand why Apple does not offer such option on its notebook yet.


[translation by Linathael]

- Phase Change Memory: A vision of the Future? - Eric - 13:34:16

Source : Tgdaily

Flash memory has become over the past 5 years the reference as a power efficient, user friendly and versatility storage space unit. And the future development of SSD based on NAND chips will maintain the exponential growth of this market. However, flash memory is not the ultimate system, and research labs are working on its successor for our future storage unit.
Scientists from the University of Pennsylvania have developed a new variant of phase change memory. As indicated by the name, a physical change of a component is taken as a reference to translate read/write function. They used physical abilities of self-assembling nanowire of germanium antimony telluride able to phase switch between amorphous and crystalline structures. They could evaluate that such memory would be about 1,000 fold faster than AND chips to copy and retrieve data, while allowing an estimated lifetime of 100,000 years.
Scientists made it also clear that such technology is far from being tomorrow on the shelves of your favorite shop, and one will still need 8 to 10 years development before maybe reaching the market.