News for Monday, 19 March 2007

After successfully installing a Core 2 Duo in a Mac mini Core Duo (see our previous article) we decided to graft an Airport card 802.11n to further improve this model; and provide the way to get a Mac mini Apple Rev 2 before Cupertino ever releases it.
After identifying the required components, we launched the operation: Mission accomplished.

What we really need now is to find a trick to change the firmware reference from Macmini1,1 to Macmini2,1.
Direct link to this new article: http://www.hardmac.com/articles/74/

Intel should update its Xeon CPU offer during the third quarter. If the 3.0GHz will be the top clockspeed, Intel will offer a new flagship, known as Xeon 5365, featuring 4 Cores at 3.0GHz, its price should be US$1,172$/units for thousand units ordered.
Other models and their corresponding price should be:
X5355 (4 Cores at 2.66 GHz) US$744
E5345 (4 Cores at 2.33 GHz) US$455
E5335 (4 Cores at 2.00 GHz) US$316
...
Such price cuts could push more Mac Pro owners to perform the CPU upgrade of their Mac Pro as we detailed it in a previous article.

The Pennsylvania liberal arts college decided to switch its current 50%Mac/50%PC computer inventory to 100% Mac. With such a move, Scott Byers, vice president for finance and the head of campus expect to save up to US$150,000. The main reason behind this decision seems to be Boot Camp as it allows students to use OSX or Windows from the same hardware.
Of course, such a switch is not much more than a drop compared to the ocean of Universities or State organizations relying on Windows and PC hardware; but with Microsoft having problem to promote Vista adoption by either enterprise or consumers, we might read more of such story in the future.

Since Summer 2005, we report about this revolutionary OLED-based keyboard, an interesting concept where all keys are a small programmable LED screen. Designed by Optimus, its availability has been postponed for more than 18 months; with estimated price kept rocketing higher and higher while specification were reduced in parallel.
The website Engadget reports some news about Optimus. The company has a booth at the CeBIT, and the OLED keyboard is exposed...as a giant carton board-based model. The availability is now announced for end of 2007, and the price should be US$1,490. Last but not least, OLED screen lifetime should not be longer than 5 years, and replacing defective keys will cost US$10/unit...
Is the Optimus OLED Keyboard on track for the Vaporware 2007 Awards?