Friday November 23, 2007

- Hollywood Gives the Mac the Cold Shoulder Once Again - Lionel - 20:27:23

To combat against the ripping of it's DVDs, 20th Century Fox has decided to directly offer a version of its films which can be installed on video players and computers. For the former, the data rate will be at 768 Kbit/s and for the latter at 1.6 Mbit/s.
Of course, these files will be full of DRM so that they won't be found for download. And that's where the problem starts. The studio has, in fact, decided to go with Microsoft, and the files will be offered in the protected WMV format, which is not playable on the Mac, iPod, or iPhone.
It is hard to understand this choice which practically ruins the value of this initiative.
Disney will be offering a similar solution in 2008. There will be a good chance, though, that this time it will be compatible with Apple products.

[translation by jwa]

- Give Good Food to your Mac - Lionel - 20:19:29

Twenty European developers will start offering their applications to Mac users with price discount ranging from 30 to 70% (to last one week).
The special offer will start on November 27th, and will include the following applications:
- Art Text from Belight
- BannerZest from Aquafadas
- PixelMator from PixelMator
- Cheetah3D from Cheetah3D
- Contactizer Express & Pro from Objective Decision
- CoverScout 2.3.5 from Equinux
- CSSEdit from MacRabbit
- Expert Wine Cellar from Kletel Multimedia
- Feeder from Reinvented Software
- Fotomagico Express from Boinx Software Ltd.
- FreeWay Express and PRO from Softpress Systems Limited
- Geophoto from Ovolab
- iDive from Aquafadas
- iStopMotion Home from Boinx software Ltd.
- Magnet from Creaceed
- Merlin 2.5 from ProjectWizard
- Money from Jumsoft
- Morphage 3.x from Creaceed
- Personal Trader from Coladia
- RapidWeaver from Realmacsoftware
- PulpMotion from Aquafadas
- Remote Buddy 1.x from Iospirit GmbH
- Table from Daniel Schwill
- Together from Reinvented Software
- VideoPier from Aquafadas

For additional information, please visit the following website: Give Good Food to your Mac

[translation by Linathael]

- The iPod Touch has Audio In - Lionel - 20:13:15

The site Touchmods has made a very interesting discovery which should delight owners of the iPod touch.


They have, in fact, succeeded at using a microphone in the dock connection of the device. With this microphone, they have even been successful at recording audio memos using the VoiceNotes application developed by Erica Sadun for the iPhone.
All that remains is to wait for a version of the iPhone/iPod touch for Skype or a SIP application to use the mp3 player as an Internet telephone.

[translation by jwa]

- The Optimus Keyboard is For Real - Lionel - 20:01:46

Although nobody's seen it, everyone has heard the talk about the Optimus keyboard. This saga, which began in July 2005, has had many twists and oh-so-many delays.
The beast is almost ready. As proof, you can go to
Gizmodo, who has publish a video showing it. It is actually being demoed in the Wired store in SoHo in New York.
It is very impressive, allowing the configuration of the display of every key with a logo or a letter. However, few people will be able to pay for it, it costs the staggering total of $1564 (without tax).


[translation by jwa]

- Sony Sells the First OLED TV - Lionel - 19:54:08

Source : CDR Info

This week in Japan, Sony launched the first TV using an OLED screen.


This display technology, already widely used in mobile phones, has the following advantages:
- High Contrast Ratio of 1000000:1
- Very low power consumption
- No back-light, as the pixels illuminate themselves once they are turned on
This last point makes it so that the screen is only 3mm thick.
However, this technology is still very expensive. Costing in the range of 1500€ to buy one of these TVs which are only 11" diagonally.
The life-span of the screen is estimated to be 30000 hours, so it will last more than 8 years at an average of 6 hours of usage per day.
The difficulties in producing these screens are so high that there is little chance that this technology will be used in large TVs in the near future.

[translation by jwa]

- LTH BD-R: Firmware Updates for Burners - Lionel - 01:44:30

Source : CDR Info

Last September, we told you about the new organic substrate developed for cheaper manufacturing of recordable Blu-ray discs. These products will soon be sold, but they pose a problem.
They are, in fact, not compatible with burners nor with readers on sale due to an inversion of their polarity compared to other media.
To fix this problem a firmware update will be required for all previously sold drives. Panasonic is the first to get the ball rolling on the firmware updates by offering them for all of its burners and its readers:
http://panasonic.jp/support/bd/info/download.html
We hope that all the other manufactures will be releasing updates without much delay.

[translation by jwa]