News for Wednesday, 27 June 2007

There is an update to the SuperDrive firmware available through Software Update: it is supposed to bring better support of some CD media.
No more details for now...

Apple published a "Questions and Answers" webpage online. It provides additional details such as the preinstalled SIM, even though it is not stated if one can exchange it or not. One can also view PDF, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Excel email attachments in their original formats. However one can not unlock the iPhone as AT&T is the exclusive wireless carrier, and users will have to transfer their number when activating their AT&T account. It remains unclear if this will remain true in 2 years (the required subscription period).

Fujitsu announced the FMV-T8140, a new sub-notebook.

Featuring a 12.1" display, this sub-notebook can also be used as a "Tablet PC" with its rotating screen.
Its specifications are illustrating the top components currently available for each parts of a sub-notebook:
- Ultra-Low voltage Core 2 Duo COU U7500 clocked at 1.06GHz
- 12.1" LED-backlighted LCD display featuring 1280x800 pixels resolution (16 millions colors)
- IGP GMA X3100
- 533MHz FSB
- Up to 4 GB of RAM
- 1.49 kg
- SSD as an option
- Battery lifetime 7.5 hours, up to 11 hours with an optimal battery
We publish a news about this sub-notebook to illustrate how competitors are releasing one after the other their own sub-notebook models while Mac users are still waiting for Apple to announce such product. Apple can easily take hardware components from Intel, Samsung, and others manufacturers to build up a sub-notebook which should be something like a MacBook Pro mini. Indeed, this potential sub-notebook will be a professional machine, and its price will no be competing with entry-level MacBooks. One should rather be prepared for a price equivalent to the high-end MacBook Pro 15".
If many users claim to be waiting for such Apple-branded sub-notebook, does it mean that they will purchase it, and what should be the price range to be affordable? Most switchers or first-Mac users are purchasing iMac or MacBook hardware units. So, Cupertino needs to define if the market for such sub-notebook is there. Keep in mind that the Tablet PC failed because it was too expensive and only useful for some niche users. Such sub-notebook would be mostly dedicated to corporate, and Apple might need to strengthen its position on this market before releasing a sub-notebook. On the other hand, a sub-notebook from Cupertino might be the perfect tool to further explore/invade the market of corporate-dedicated mobile computers.

We are all dreaming of a notebook which could deliver stunning 3D rendering and video performance while providing an extended battery lifetime. Some might call it utopia, but it seems that NVidia is working hard to bring a solution to the market.
Most of the mobile GPUs drain power even for rendering 2D while an integrated graphics processor (IGP) will deliver the same level of performance while consuming less energy. By releasing its Hybrid SLI Technology, NVidia intends to bring faster mobility video and 3D performance while cutting power consumption. To achieve such a goal, NVidia intends to offer a platform featuring both an integrated graphics processor (IGP) and a discrete graphics processing unit (GPU). In power saving mode, the discrete GPU is simply switched off on-the-fly, while the IGP will assist the GPU when the user will run applications, such as games, turning graphic units to the performance mode.
The SLI is usually a power consuming graphic solution, but applied to notebook and by associating an IGP and a discrete GPU it could well be the solution for an all-in-one graphic unit without compromising performance and battery lifetime.

After testing his iPhone for about two weeks Walter Mossberg published on the Wall Street Journal website the first review of the Apple-branded mobile phone.
In summary, the iPhone raises the bar for all other smart phones. The battery lifetime turned out to be better than Apple's claim of a maximum of eight hours, as he could get 7h18' of talk time while Wi-Fi and email fetching was on. The touch-screen interface and glass display was easy to use while scratch-proof. The iPhone does not feature SIM card, which one side gives Apple and AT&T a huge control over the phone, but it also makes the iPhone a no-target for thief as one would not be able to activate a new account. While the iPhone features a 2-megapixel camera, it can only take photo and it can not record video. The virtual keyboard requires some training but at the end it is rather quick for entering text; however you have to switch to a different keyboard view to insert a period or comma.
As mentioned by the Walter Mossberg:"Expectations for the iPhone have been so high that it can't possibly meet them all". So one will find some drawbacks or missing features, hereafter are those identified by the WSJ columnist:

The iPhone is missing some features common on some competitors. There's no instant messaging, only standard text messaging. While its two-megapixel camera took excellent pictures in our tests, it can't record video. Its otherwise excellent Web browser can't fully utilize some Web sites, because it doesn't yet support Adobe's Flash technology. Although the phone contains a complete iPod, you can't use your songs as ringtones. There aren't any games, nor is there any way to directly access Apple's iTunes Music Store.

Overall the iPhone turns to be the expected device, but Apple should ensure it remains as open as possible to third-party developers as this will make it popular and extend its potential market share.

Most Mac users probably remember Freescale as the spin off semiconductor division of Motorola and its famous G3 and G4 processors. Apple decision to adopt Intel processors sent it back to its main business: embedded processor solutions.
Expected for 2008, the new platform from Freescale will be engraved at 45nm and will support up to 32 cores. Such core will be an evolution of "our" G4 clocked at 1.5GHz. With current Dual or Quad Core Intel processors and the development of multithreading and parallelization, it would have been interesting to test OS X on a 32 Core G4-based computer.
More information and details here

While everybody is dreaming of testing or reviewing a SSD, the Japanese website Akiba could get 2 units and decided to compare a RAID 0 volume composed of 2 SSD vs. 2 Raptor and to an i-RAM drive.

If transfer speeds for sequential large files are slower for the RAID 0 SSD when compared to 3.5" plates-based HDs RAID 0, performance for random read/write of small size files are much faster with the solid state unit than the Raptor. Such feature would be very interesting as a system disk, as OS X spends its time to write and read small files. This explains why the Japanese website reports that the system was much more reactive with a RAID 0 SSD than with a RAID 0 Raptor. Ideally, one would need a computer using SSD as a system disk and one or several plate-based HDs as a storage volume for data.
For notebooks, it will be different as performance level of SSD is almost identical to the ones obtained from 2.5" HD. This is really the main market targeted by SSD manufacturers, as SSD will also extend battery lifetime and provide higher reliability and silence.