News for Wednesday, 21 November 2007

FirmTek released new Leopard-compatible firmware for its SeriTek 1S2, 1SM2, 1V4, 1VE4, 1V2E2 and 1SE2 cards:

When to Upgrade Firmware
The following firmware updates are mainly for Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" users. However, this firmware is also compatible with Mac OS X 10.4. If your existing FirmTek driver is working well with your current version of Mac OS we highly recommend not upgrading. This falls under the heading, "If it's not broken don't fix it". While FirmTek tries to make every new driver release better than the last, there is always a chance that a new firmware upgrade may actually cause an issue with some configurations. The new 5.3.1 firmware version posted below corrects a Leopard wake on sleep issue.

For additional information, please visit the following webpage: http://www.firmtek.com/download/

nVidia announced the GeForce 8800M, a new GPU dedicated to the notebook market:

All 8800M-based models are clocked at 500MHz and based on a 256-bits bus, while associated with up to 512 MB of VRAM. The main difference is defined by the number of available Stream Processors, 64 for the 8800M GTS and 96 for the 8800M GTX.
Both models support nVidia PureVideo HD technology, in other words, hardware-based HD video decoding (Blu-ray and HD-DVD). One will have to wait for the first test in order to evaluate the power consumption of those new high-end mobile GPUs. If nVidia managed to control the heat release, we could quickly find those GPUs in MacBook Pro and iMac.

QuickerTek, the company specialized in 802.11n wireless solutions for the Mac, announced a new product named Dualy.

As usual with QuickTerk, the design is minimalist, and the enclosure holds an 802.11n compatible adaptor compatible with all USB2-based Mac running Mac OS X 10.3.9, 10.4 and 10.5. Its main advantage is its power (500mW) which should significantly increase the wireless network range of the Dualy when compared to competitors solutions often based on 100mW 802.11n modules.
However, this more powerful wireless device is expensive: US$325.95; and in addition the Dualy will not be available in many countries due to its higher power, significantly higher than the standard and certified 100mW-based models.

From Mac OS X 10.0, Apple was openly advertising that its new OS was based on UNIX by displaying the following logo:

As announced by Steve Jobs, Leopard is not only based on UNIX, but it also supports all UNIX certifications. This was made official yesterday by the Open Group which granted UNIX 03 certification to Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server Leopard.
If such announcement will most likely not change anything for consumers, it might ease adoption of Apple hardware and software solutions in some Pro environment.