News for Thursday, 5 April 2007

If the Quad Core Xeon-based Mac Pro was expected, the way Apple announced it and its non-synchronized availability in all Apple Stores argue for a precipitated announcement. So why? Why would Apple have changed its strict rules regarding new product introduction on Tuesday? Knowing Apple addiction for secrecy, the Mac Pro announcement looks like the work of a beginner...
We might have found the reason of such precipitated announcement: introduce a new product to avoid commenting or talking about the "Guide to Greener Electronics: 3rd Edition" published by Greenpeace.
The reason is simple, Apple ranks last!!! ... again... and while most companies seem to have taken action to improve their ranking and modified their policies towards a more environment-friendly behavior, Cupertino did not change anything. If the buzz around the brominated flame retardants specifically seems to be overestimated as confirmed by the EU; they are numerous other points concerning policies and practices for which Cupertino did not improve its ranking.
So, if Apple really rushed to announce the Mac Pro to avoid talking about the "Guide to Greener Electronics: 3rd Edition" as we think, this is a really weird behavior; and probably deserve Cupertino more than it would expect.
There might be other reasons for such chaotic Mac Pro announcement yesterday, but we failed to find another one...

Intel announced a new brand, entitled, Centrino Pro, which is based on the Santa Rosa Intel mobile platform, mixed with the vPro processor technology.
This is mostly a product developed to target business PC notebooks as it includes the Intel Active Management system, supposed to help IT administrators to manage both wired notebooks and desktop PCs regardless of their power state or the health of the computer. With such system, IT department of large corporate should have a better control over PCs, while providing accurate inventories, fewer desk-side visits and less interruption to business.
This information confirms our news published yesterday regarding the availability in May of notebook models based on the Santa Rosa platform; so we are on track for new MacBooks in May, latest in June at the WWDC.

Gizmodo published photos of a damaged iPod nano.

The battery of this iPod nano went up in flames before exploding, while being recharged.
There was thankfully no additional damage. Taking into accounts that millions of such iPod nano have already been purchased one should consider this accident as an unfortunate event. But it also shows that batteries of such devices are sensitive componenta and one should avoid reloading them on a carpet or any flammable material.

This is only during the night that all Apple Store have been updated to reflect the yesterday' announcement of the 8 Core Xeon Mac Pro on the US Apple Store.
Doubling the number of cores from the previous high-end model will cost you 780€ (VAT included), while moving from Dual Core 2.66GHz Xeon to Quad Core 3.0GHz Xeon will be priced 1.460€ (VAT included).