Tuesday October 16, 2007
- iTunes Plus DRM-free Tracks at 0.99€? - Lionel - 22:42:12
Source : ARS
Following Steve Jobs' Thoughts on Music, EMI and Apple announced the availability of DRM-free tracks on the iTunes Store in May. Such songs, known as iTunes Plus catalog were initially sold at 1.29€/track while the price of the album remain unchanged, while featuring a higher AAC encoding quality (256kpsthe).EMI was quickly confirming that iTunes Plus tracks were selling well.
Today several readers reported to have spotted songs from the iTunes Plus catalog available for 0.99€. Ars Technica reports that Apple is working on a project to expand the iTunes Plus catalog with other labels including indies while dropping the price to compete with similar offer from Amazon.
[translation by Linathael]
- 300: This is AAAAAAAPPLE! - moose - 21:38:26
Source : Apple
Some interesting Leopard hidden gems, as seen on Apple's new page dedicated to the next big cat... So take a deep breath and let's dive in!Address Book
Google Map Addresses: View a detailed map of any address in Address Book.
Synchronize with Yahoo!
Automator
UI Recording and Playback: Use a new action called Watch Me Do that lets you record a user action and replay as an action in a workflow.
Workflow Looping: Repeat a workflow for a specified number of times or a specified time duration
Desktop
Spring-Loaded Dock: Just drag a file, hover over any application in the Dock, and press the Space bar the application opens instantly.
Finder
New folder options: Adjust the grid spacing.
Font Book
Printable Font Book.
Font Auto-Activation.
FrontRow
AppleTV like interface.
Streaming iTunes Content.
iCal
Inline Editing in iCal
Event Dropbox: Share the information you need for a successful meeting. Simply drag photos, video, or any kind of document into an event. Send email invitations to attendees and your attachments go along for the ride.
iChat
Recording: Save your audio and video chats for posterity with iChat recording
Multiple Logins
New AAC-LD Audio Codec
Watch for My Name: Receive an alert when someone calls your name in a group chat
File Transfer Manager
Imaging
Improved Tethered Camera Support: More camera models from Canon and Nikon are now supported
Network Scanning Support:Take advantage of new Bonjour-based network scanners
Forward as Attachment: Forward an email as an attachment instead of an inline message
Data Detectors: Mail automatically detects text fragments like appointments and addresses, and lets you choose smart actions with a click: create a new contact, map an address, or create an iCal event.
Photo Browser: browse your entire iPhoto library to find the photo you need for your message
Simple Mail Setup: Just enter your email address and password. Mail knows the email settings for 30 leading email providers, including Yahoo!, AOL, Gmail...
Archive Mailbox:Create an archive of your mailbox to back up important messages or to transfer your mail to another computer
Networking
Self-Tuning TCP: Let Leopard adjust TCP buffer size automatically.
Preview
Improved PDF Annotations: Add Stickies-style notes and links to websites or other pages within the PDF, highlight text.
More Image Manipulation Options: Crop, rotate, resize, and save images in a range of image formats.
Instant Alpha Background Removal: Easily remove the background from an image, leaving just the subject
PDF Manipulation in Preview: Move individual pages around, or remove pages. You can even combine PDFs with a simple drag and drop.
Batch Image Operations
GPS Metadata Support:Preview pinpoints the location where you took the photo on a world map.
Printing
Location-Aware Printing: Leopard detects when you’ve changed locations and figures out which printer to use and sets it as the default printer.
CUPS v1.3
Safari
Full History Search: Safari indexes all of the text in websites that you browse. Even weeks later, Safari will be able to find a web page that matches your search.
Remove History Items Periodically:Choose the time interval at which you’d like your browsing history to be automatically deleted.
Security
Tagging Downloaded Applications: Any application downloaded to your Mac is tagged. Before it runs for the first time, the system asks for your consent — telling you when it was downloaded, what application was used to download it, and, if applicable, what URL it came from.
Library Randomization: Leopard relocates system libraries to one of several thousand possible randomly assigned addresses to prevent a hacker’s code calling a known memory address to have a system function execute malicious code.
Spotlight
Dictionary Definitions in Spotlight
Advanced Searches: The Spotlight search field now supports Boolean logic with AND/NOT/OR and parenthesis syntax, and ranges including “greater than” and “less than.” Spotlight also understands quoted phrases and dates.
Search System Files
Calculations in Spotlight: Just activate Spotlight an equation, and Spotlight will instantly show you the result. Support for over 40 functions ranging from simple math to logarithms to trigonometry.
System
Icon Mode in Open and Save Panels
iLife Media Browser in Open Panel
Live Partition Resizing in Disk Utility
Guest Log-In Accounts
Grammar Check
Eject All Partitions: Enjoy greater flexibility when ejecting a partitioned USB or FireWire volume. You can eject just one of the volumes or all the volumes at once.
System preferences
.Mac Sync for System Preferences
Hot Corner for Sleep Display
TextEdit
Autosave
OpenDocument and Word 2007 Formats
- iPhone in France: On November 29th with Orange - Lionel - 19:48:08
Hereafter is the press release:
PARIS—October 16, 2007—Apple® and Orange today announced that Orange, the leading wireless carrier in France, will be the exclusive French carrier partner for the revolutionary iPhone™ when it makes its debut in France on Thursday, November 29. iPhone combines three devices into one—a mobile phone, a widescreen iPod®, and the best mobile Internet device ever—all based on Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface and pioneering software that allows users to control iPhone with just a tap, flick or pinch of their fingers. Apple sold its one millionth iPhone just 74 days after it went on sale in the US on June 29.So, both parties are happy for this partnership, and especially to bring the iPhone in France right before Christmas. The 8 GB iPhone model will be available in France with Orange subscription plans (not yet described) for 399€.
“We are excited to partner with Orange and bring iPhone to France in time for the holidays,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPhone is an amazing product and we hope mobile users in France will love it as much as we do.”
“The iPhone is a marvelous product and will change how people think about mobile. I’m delighted that it is launching in France through Orange, and I’m sure that our customers share my excitement. Our partnership with Apple is a natural fit because we are two global brands who share the same values of simplicity and innovation. It’s going to be a very merry Christmas for Orange customers all over the country!” said Didier Lombard, CEO, France Telecom.
In addition to all the revolutionary features that made iPhone so popular in the US, iPhone users in France will have access to Apple’s latest music offerings on iPhone including the iTunes® Wi-Fi Music Store. The iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store offers customers the ability to browse, search, preview, purchase and download songs and albums from iTunes over the built-in Wi-Fi on their iPhone. Music fans can start enjoying their music purchases immediately on their iPhone with no computer required. Once they connect their iPhone back to their PC or Mac®, downloaded music will automatically sync back into their iTunes library.
Pricing & Availability
iPhone is scheduled to go on sale on November 29 and will be sold in France through Orange’s online and direct retail stores. iPhone will be available in an 8GB model for €399 including V.A.T. for any subscription to one of the dedicated rate plans and will work with either a PC or Mac.
[translation by Linathael]
- Leopard on October 26th - Eric - 14:47:50
All Apple Stores are now back online, and it is now official, Leopard will arrive on October 26th as previously rumored. For the MacBook update, one will have to wait a bit more, and Apple might be waiting for Leopard release in order to avoid shipping too many Leopard Free update DVD to users who would purchase MacBook within the coming days.
- Hitachi Expect to Ship 4TB HD by 2011 - Lionel - 13:35:00
Source : CDR Info
Couple of hours before the beginning of the 8th Perpendicular Magnetic Recording Conference (PMRC 2007 October 15-17, 2007) to take place at the Tokyo International Forum in Japan, Hitachi announced to have miniaturized recording heads by more than a factor of two, opening the way to a huge increase in HD recording density. Hitachi expects to introduce its perpendicular-to-the-plane giant magnetoresistive (CPP-GMR) heads (30-50 nm in size vs. 70 nm today) in products from 2009, with mass adoption in 2011.Recording density will increase to 200 GB/sq. inch. to 500-1000 GB/sq. inch. opening the door for 4TB HD. This is only by increasing storage capacity, that HD manufacturer's will maintain their market share against the forthcoming invasion of SSD which will initially target markets for handheld and mobile devices.
[translation by Linathael]
- Leopard: Already Used in Shops to Sell Macs - Lionel - 13:34:06
If Leopard is not officially released yet, several reports from our readers indicate that consumer electronics shops selling Macs have already installed the future OS on demonstration models. Hereafter, are 2 photos taken from one of our Swiss reader:
Of course, one can immediately spot that those photos were taken in "FNAC" shop, but we have several photos taken from other shops. If one can not define if this is the last build released to developers, it also confirms our previous information relation to documents and supports already sent by Apple to Apple Resellers to organize Discovery and Learning session for Leopard.
[translation by Linathael]
- About BootCamp and Leopard - Lionel - 13:33:32
Several readers were worrying when discovering couple of days ago that BootCamp will cease to work with the release of Leopard; interpreting such decision as a way to force user to purchase Leopard.
Only the application BootCamp Assistant will expire in a near future, and it will not prevent you to use the Windows partition already install on your Intel-based Mac. You will even be able to re-install Windows on this partition. If so you will need to have saved the last drivers CD.
So, when Leopard will be released, only the ability to create or delete a Windows partition will not be possible anymore via the BootCamp Assistant.
[translation by Linathael]
- For Apple, Virus=Windows - Lionel - 13:33:06
Every time we are talking about Microsoft or one of its products, several readers complain that we are not fair, and conducting an anti-Microsoft campaign, whereas we are waiting for Mac Office 2008 with a lot of expectations (see our previous news about it).
When considering making bad joke about Microsoft, we think Apple is far better than us. Not convinced? Go to Apple website and type "virus" in the search bar. The search engine will immediately point to... Windows with a huge smiley:
Of course, this is a typical little game between both companies. Another example was provided yesterday by Microsoft, when announcing its decision to NOT distribute the Zune in Germany (lucky you) because one can not compete with Apple for design and fashion, style, and one has to add more features to deliver a true competitor, without any smiley!
[translation by Linathael]
- Apple Stores are Closed for Being Updated: MacBook or Leopard? - Yoc - 13:31:52
All Apple Stores are closed down for being updated. Some predicts that Leopard could be released while other that SantaRosa-based MacBook will be introduced today. the answer should arrive around 14h00 CET.
[translation by Linathael]
