Monday October 22, 2007
- Multi-core Radeon before the end of 2007!? - Lionel - 15:15:36
According to the French 3D-decitated website Generation 3d, AMD/ATI could be on track to release high-end graphic cards based on multi-core GPU by the end of the year. If one can already use several graphic cards in the same computer via nVidia SLI or ATI CrossFire, multi-core-based GPU will offer several advantages to today dual GPU graphic cards, as it will be easier to manufacture and performance wise more efficient.
However, ATI/AMD will have to work hard to deliver optimized drivers, and as Windows version will most likely the first one to be released, one can imagine that Apple drivers will not be for the date of availability of such cards. It will imply for Cupertino to allocate resources for optimizing such drivers, and why not implementing multithreading for OpenGL management for both CPU and GPU.
[translation by Linathael]
- SONY Pushing Hard to Deliver BD Drives for Notebooks - Lionel - 09:20:23
Source : CDR Info
To compete with Toshiba and its combo HD-DVD drives for notebook, SONY and NEC through their Joint Venture Optiarc announced a combo Blu-ray drive:
Known as BC-5500A, it burns DVD at 8x, CD at 16x and read BD media at 2x (the notebook will still need to be equipped with a HDCP chips). The BC-5500A being a tray-based model with a 12.5mm thickness, one can not install it in current MacBook/MacBook Pro, as Apple only uses 9.5mm-thick optical drive modules.
So for future revision, Apple will have either to wait for 9.5mm slot-in models to arrive, or slightly increase the thickness of its notebooks in order to adapt with current BD drive offers.
[translation by Linathael]
- Meizu iPhone and Interface Clone - Lionel - 09:18:54
As we already reported it last Friday, Meizu, a Chinese company well known for its previous iPod clones, announced an iPhone clone for the end of the year.
The Meizu M8 is not only almost identical to the iPhone, but its interface is also very similar to the iPhone one. All screenshots published online are most likely taken from the original Apple iPhone GUI to attract consumers as well as testing Apple Legal reactions.
[translation by Linathael]
- Towards, 802.1n Draft 3.0 - Lionel - 09:17:45
According to Dailytech, SmallNetBuildet while analyzing 802.11n draft 2.0-based devices might have discovered a problem which could prevent the final validation of this draft.
The issue is linked to the ability of draft 2.0-based devices to use simultaneously several frequencies and in some conditions it will interfere with other peripherals or devices, something of course forbidden.
So, one will most likely only need to update the function in charge of frequency usage to make it more friendly towards other peripherals or devices.
[translation by Linathael]
- How to Stream Photo via Apple TV - Lionel - 09:16:56
In a dedicated TechNote Apple explains how to stream photos from a computer to the Apple TV via iTunes. However, iTunes and Apple TV do not stream photo slideshows made in iPhoto, you can either stream the entire photo library or just selected albums and use Apple TV's slideshow function to view photos in a slideshow. Music used for photo slideshows on Apple TV also has to be streamed from iTunes. This function can be used to stream photos from a guest notebook. It would also be nice if Apple could update the Apple TV to adapt the interface to the last features from iPhoto.
[translation by Linathael]
- iToner 1.0.4 Is Available - Lionel - 09:15:44
Following iPhone firmware update, Ambrosia had to modify its popular iToner application to adapt it to the new version 1.1.1. The new iToner version 1.0.4 is now fully functional, and can be accessed hereafter: http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/itoner/
[translation by Linathael]
- Airport Express Short Lifetime: Legal Action Launched in France - Eric - 09:15:06
For a couple of month, we did not post news about the issue affecting Apple Airport Expression station (APX). Today, based on over 1600 reports of dead APX and their corresponding serial numbers we can provide the following bullet point review:
- 50% increase of dead APX built in 2005
- Some users just discovered the short lifetime issue affecting the APX, while their APX were already dead since one or two years.
- The average lifetime of a dead APX remains around 18 months, so in countries having 2 year warranty, it will never be recorded as a major issue, as the unit will be exchanged. In countries with one-year warranty policy, only the large number of dead APX reports indicates the problem.
Below is the profile illustrating the number of dead APX depending on their manufacturing date:
While many users in France were complaining about their short lifetime APX, only one decided to bring Apple to the court. Located in Paris, this user sued Apple and claimed for the free exchange of its dead APX (based on our investigation reports demonstrating a design/production defect) as well as financial compensation. Today, we learned that both parts could settle an agreement down, demonstrating that Apple is aware of the problem affecting the APX and does not want to make it public, as it could impact its image and consequently its business. Indeed, the Court would have asked an expert to review the product and he would have easily spotted that inappropriate capacitors have been used on the APX power board.
So, if your are one of those unlucky APX owners, you know what to do.
[translation by Linathael]
