News for Tuesday, 10 April 2007

As we reported it already last week, rumors of a potential back-door in the Apple TV were officially denied by an Apple representative contacted by Engadget.
It confirms our first analysis, regarding both the legal point of view and the technically difficult procedure to be developed.
Apple will not fight to prevent the Apple TV to be hacked, but as mentioned by Cupertino, any modification will void the warranty...

One of our readers has brought a problem to our attention that affects some Mac Pros equipped with a Radeon X1900 XT. After couple of months of intensive 3D use, the cooling system installed on the Radeon X1900 XT loses efficiency, the card then overheats and the user sees video artifacts and even complete freezes of the system.
The problem seems to have been identified and to fix it, the user can change the orientation of one of the Mac Pro fans to make it blow towards the GPU. You can also speed up the PCI stage fan with smcFancControl to fix the problem.
Several reports have been published on Macrumors forum, World Of Warcraft forum as well as on Apple discussion forum.
If Apple finally acknowledges the problem, we may expect to have a firmware update released soon, which may then give us access to a Mac OS X native GPU firmware flashing utility.
JCJ

To capture market share from the iPod ecosystem, SanDisk and Yahoo Music decided to team up to deliver a new product expected to be more autonomous than the iPod. thanks to its WiFi capabilities, one will be able to connect to Yahoo Music from WiFi hotspot to purchase online music tracks, as well as browsing on Yahoo web services, and listening to web radios.

This new product illustrate the new way followed by manufacturers aiming to compete with Apple and its iPod; not trying to offer an iPod-like product, but rather a product with similar functions and innovative or unique features.

While yesterday was free in many countries (Easter's Monday), Apple chose it to announce that the 100 millionth iPod has been sold.
This magical number is really impressive, giving more weight when speaking about a true success story, not just quick and dirty one, a long steady success initiated in November 2001.
Of course, for Apple, the most difficult part is not behind but in front: how to keep innovating for surfing on this success, and likely to offer diversified products around the iPod concept, such as the iPhone, as the market for mobile digital music player will be saturated in a near future.
The official Press release from Cupertino: here

The firmware update for the Airport Extreme base station 802.11n fixes 2 vulnerabilities

- AirPort Extreme Base Station with 802.11n* allows incoming IPv6 connections
Description: The default configuration of an AirPort Extreme Base Station with 802.11n* allows incoming IPv6 connections. This may expose network services on hosts connected through an AirPort Extreme Base Station with 802.11n* to remote attackers. This update addresses the issue by changing the default setting to limit inbound IPv6 traffic to the local network. This issue only affects AirPort Extreme Base Station with 802.11n*, and not other versions of the Base Station.
- Filenames on a password-protected AirPort Disk may be viewable to users on the local network
Description: AirPort Disk is a feature of AirPort Extreme Base Station with 802.11n that allows the sharing of files from a USB hard drive connected to a compatible base station. Sharing options, including password protection, are available via the AirPort Disk Utility. An issue in the AirPort Disk feature allows users on the local network to view filenames (but not their contents) on a password-protected disk without providing a password. This update addresses the issue by performing additional validation on AirPort Disk access requests. This issue only affects AirPort Extreme Base Station with 802.11n*, and not other versions of the Base Station.

You will need a recent version of AirPort Utility (at least 5.1) for performing this firmware update; for additional information please read: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305366

In our previous news about the Pioneer DVR-112 burner we noticed that the drive was not burning at more than 12x with most 16x certified media.
A new firmware update fixes this problem:
http://wwwbsc.pioneer.co.jp
Again, as no native Mace flashing application is available, one will have to use a PC or boot a MacIntel from BootCamp partition to perform the operation.
A list of DVR-112 compatible media is available as a PDF file from Pioneer website:
DVR112_MediaList_115.pdf

VMWare Fusion releases the third version of its virtualization solution aiming to compete with parallels.
The new version fixes known bugs and brings many new features:

- Improved performance: You now have the option of turning off debugging features in VMware Fusion to enjoy even better performance.
- Support for Boot Camp: You no longer have to choose between Windows or Mac-run Windows XP side-by-side with Mac OS X off your existing Boot Camp partition.
- Windows Easy Install: Just answer a few simple questions, insert your Windows CD, and VMware Fusion will automatically create a Windows virtual machine that is optimized for your Mac.
- Virtual machine packages: Virtual machines are now encapsulated in single, easy-to-manage packages. Move your virtual machines to another hard drive or Mac simply by copying a file.
- Enhanced virtual machine management: Managing multiple virtual machines and changing virtual machine settings is even easier with the Virtual Machine Library.
- Improved international support: European and Japanese Apple keyboards now work properly in virtual machines.

Fusion seems to be maturing well, however it remains unclear if WMWare will be able to catch up Parallels, its key feature remaining the preliminary native 3D support.

FastMac offers a Blu-ray burner designed to be installed in notebooks

This drive can read and write on CD, single and double layer DVD and BD media (1X). Its price: US$799.95 (taxes excluded), so it might cost as much as a MacBook...
If the website does not provide much details, this drive seems to be compatible with most apple notebook, except MacBook Pro 15" which would need a BD burner with a ultra slim format. This drive is most likely a Panasonic UJ-215.
Last but not least, current Apple notebooks lacking the HDCP chip, installing such a drive in a notebook will only be useful for using BD as a storing solution and for backup, as one will NOT be able to play DRM protected BD video content.