Tuesday September 25, 2007

- MacBook and MacBook Pro Update - Yoc - 19:21:44

A small update for MacBooks and MacBook Pros has appeared on Software Update.

This update enables file system journaling on MacBook and MacBook Pro notebook computers. Some MacBook and MacBook Pro systems were shipped with file system journaling turned off. Journaling is recommended on all Mac computers as a preventative measure against file corruption.

After installing this update, please click here, for further instruction.

As Apple explains, this update activates journaling on MacBooks and MacBook Pros which did have this functionality activated from the factory (it seems that they forgot to do this)
For a reminder, journaling enables the tracking of all the latest changes performed on a hard drive and also protects against the loss of data in case your Mac crashes. In addition it limits hard drive corruption and inconsistencies in the file system in case of a hard shutdown.
To find out if your partitions are journaled or not, and to activate this functionality, it suffices to open Disk Utility:


[translation by jwa]

- iPhone SIM Unlocking: Dangerous Procedure and Grey Market - Eric - 11:49:36

In an interview published by USAToday, Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller announced that unlocking applications damage iPhone. Apple released Apple a consumer warning Monday: “Buy an unlocked iPhone at your own peril”; making it clear that Apple will not service any iPhone that will turn dead after applying an unlocking procedure or following firmware update. As the reported it previously, Apple will release a firmware update as the end of the week that will let iPhone owners access a new feature to buy music downloads via wireless Internet.

Of course one can not really know if this is purely marketing strategy, or if Apple will indeed design firmware updates to “kill on purpose” SIM unlocked iPhones. But Apple made it clear that the warranty will not applied on those hacked iPhone. Of course hackers will find ways to bypass the new protections, however the unlocked iPhone owners might not been able to make their iPhone evolving in parallel, and for sure not receive the expected customer service.
It reminds me the Mac OS X x86 project, a nice hack still running, but it never stopped or impacted Apple hardware sales. Apple never sold as many hardware units since it moved to Intel CPU, demonstrating that such hack are limited to a niche of users.

This is really a point that customers or iPhone lovers should know, while Apple can not legally prevent you to SIM unlock your iPhone, it does not have to provide service for such device if it does not work anymore as it has not been used accordingly to the license agreement.
This information comes right at the time when we hear about the increasing amount of offers available from the web in France and Europe for unlocked iPhone. Such iPhone can cost up to 1,400 Euros, while it will not provide all the feature of a true iPhone package (voice mail, unlimited web surfing, etc.). So customers should really think twice before buying such hacked iPhone as it does not come with Apple warranty anymore.

- Seagate to Offer a 200GB 2.5" HD 7200rpm. - Eric - 09:57:58

Seagate releases a 2.5HD to compete with Hitachi model for the high-performance HD notebook market. It features 200GB storage space in a 2.5" SATA format with a rotation speed of 7200rpm. With a thickness of 9.5mm, and a power consumption claimed to be as low as 2.3W, the Momentus 7200.2 series with capacity ranging from 80 to 200GB might be a good alternative to the corresponding Hitachi models so hard to find in shops. To be noted, only the 200GB Momentus 7200.2 model will feature 16MB cache, other models will only sport a standard 8MB.
We will have to test it to ensure that Seagate claims are true:

The Seagate Momentus 7200.2 hard drive delivers low-cost, high-performance storage in a 2.5-inch drive. The drive enables laptop performance that rivals the desktop experience.

I hope to receive some news and a sample from Seagate to put it under test ;)

- RTL2 and Fun to Team Up with iTunes Store in France - Lionel - 09:57:08

Both radios have sent PR to announce their future partnership with Apple iTunes Store. As soon as next month, the French iTunes Store will open "private rooms" featuring the logo/design of the radio and their associated playlists offering a selections of music tracks. Both radios plan to offer 100,000 tracks to be downloaded to promote the launch of this new service.

With such partnership, Apple plan to tackle physical distributors of music media while being closer to the music taste of teenagers being the main public of both radio. Apple might also prevent young customers to use illegal P2P networks to acquire their music.

We would liek to hear from similar partnership in other countries, drop us a message at (linathael at macbidouille dot com).

[translation by Linathael]

- Graphic Card: Next Generation Will Be Less Power Consuming - Lionel - 09:56:04

For a couple of years, the race for the fastest GPU leaded to the release of always more power-consuming graphic cards, while CPUs were already performing their revolution towards multicore processing and performance/watt scale.
AMD/ATI seems to be ready to initiate the revolution for the GPU with its next generation of GPU RV670 engraved at 55nm and reported to require "as low as" 135W... Of course, this is huge, as it is equivalent of the TDP of a Quad Core Xeon 3.0GHz, but it represents an almost 50% decrease for the GPU when compared to today's models and their average 250W...
Those new greener GPUs should be available in November, maybe early enough to be installed in the next revision of the Penryn Xeon-equipped Mac Pro.


[translation by Linathael]

- Paris Apple Expo: D-Day - No Black Curtain - Lionel - 09:54:54

If you expected that Apple would take advantage of the largest Mac-dedicated event in Europe to announce a new product, it is time to face reality — there are no black curtains, usually synonymous with an Apple announcement.





The Apple booth looks different, smaller, even though it covers the same area as last year. The reason is the lack of the usual stage and large screen replaced this year with a 100" plasma display worth 100,000 Euros!

However, if you plan to take advantage of the Apple Expo to purchase Apple products, the physical Apple Store is HUGE this year, almost the same size as the official Apple booth.
You will also be able to discover new iPod peripherals mounted on 4-tyres:





We conclude this item with some disappointing news. There is no sign of any iPhone or dedicated session or an iPhone booth. So, chances that Orange and Apple will host a press conference about the iPhone offering, expected to arrive in November, are low. However, it does not mean the iPhone will not be present, we expect to see many units on the show floor already being used with a French carrier.


[translation by Linathael] JCJ