Friday October 12, 2007

- SIM Unlocked iPhone Available in Shops in France! - Lionel - 14:00:09

A reader from the French PC website PC INpact could take a photo of a SIM unlocked iPhone on sale in one the leading French supermarket corporation (E.Leclerc).



The price for this SIM unlocked iPhone is set to 999€! Knowing that via the grey market, one can purchase an iPhone from US Apple Store for around 300€, making the margin for this French supermarket quite substantial...
It is about time that Apple and Orange release their final agreement and subscription offer, as customers could be fouled by those offers from the grey market, especially considering that those iPhone units will most likely not be covered by warranty.


[translation by Linathael]

- Be Safe with your MagSafe - Lionel - 13:50:05

The MagSafe connector is a true improvement for notebook users, as it prevents notebook to fly from a desk because the user or a third-party got stacked into the power cable. However, the magnet of the MagSafe could make the cable more "fragile", and Apple released two TechNotes explaining in details on how to (reduce cable strain on your MagSafe power adapter) and how to How to disconnect the MagSafe power adapter)







If you see your cable twisting without any reason, this is mostly due to the metal wire inside, so contact quickly your Apple Reseller as many users have seen their MagSafe starting burning or smoking due to excessive strain applied to the cable (especially for MacBook Pro Core Duo).

[translation by Linathael]

- iPod Touch: Already Out of Stock? - Eric - 13:46:02

According to several reports from our readers, it seems that (once more) Apple can not ship as much iPod Touch as customers would like. While being launched since beginning of the week in Europe, it is already out of stock, with next shipping date already moving from October 23rd to October 30th on the Apple Store. If some Apple Resellers had the iPod Touch in stock, it did not last long, and most units were sold before reaching shelves.

The iPod touch is a true success, and it might really bury the iPod Classic faster than expected, especially if Apple can double storage capacity with the iPod Touch 2G. iSupply expects the iPod Classic to contribute only marginally (10%) to overall iPod sales in 2008.

- A Water Sensor in iPhone and iPod Touch!? - Lionel - 13:45:12

Let's say you drop accidentally your iPhone in water (not sea water as salt will be easily spotted), you can always try to send it back to Apple Support for having it repair under warranty. To avoid such behavior, Apple has included a water sensor in the iPhone and in the iPod Touch:



At the bottom of the jack plug you can see a white disc that will irreversibly change color when entering in contact with water. So one would not need to open an iPhone or an iPod Touch to ensure it stopped working due to an unexpected bath.
Hereafter it the same disc in the iPod Touch.



We did not have the opportunity to check if such system was also added to the last iPod nano and iPod Classic.

[translation by Linathael]

- Intel Eyeing to 2 GHz+ DDR3 - Lionel - 13:44:14

Source : http://www.xbitlabs.com

while some memory manufacturers have already released DDR3 modules clocked at 1.8 GHz, Intel is currently working with JEDEC to increase RAM frequency even higher with 1866 MHz and 2133 MHz DDR3 modules. Santa Clara's giant wants also to enable such speed-bins via its extreme memory profile (XMP) technology:

“We are working on adding a few more speed bins to JEDEC’s standard DDR3’s definition – specifically like 1866MHz and 2133MHz – even though these speed bins will first be covered by the XMP spec,” said Christopher Cox, senior staff engineer for Intel’s platform memory operation

DDR3 is planed to replace current DDR2 in next generation Intel platform, providing larger bandwidth and lower power consumption (1.5V vs. 1.8V for the DDR2). This is to reduce the resulting higher latency that Intel wants to increase DDR3 frequencies, as well as DDR3 overclocking feature via XMP.
First hardware model to feature DDR3 should arrive mid 2008, while XMP should be already implemented in motherboard, it will only work with modules supporting such technology.

[translation by Linathael]