Monday January 14, 2008

- Towards Cheaper Notebooks with Intel Shelton - Lionel - 22:33:37

Source : Digitimes

There is currently no doubt that Intel is currently offering the best mobile computer platform associating dedicated motherboard, chipsets and CPUs. However, good components have a cost, and Intel lets other founder to take care of the entry level mobile CPU market (such as Via).
However, this might change in a near future as Intel announced its goal to release a new platform entitled Shelton. It will be based on a single core CPU clocked at 1.6GHz, on a 533MHz bus, with a graphical chipset similar to the GMA950 and using DDR2 RAM modules. It will also include Wi-Fi 802.11g, as well as SATA and PATA interfaces. Power consumption of display-free architecture should be around 8W.
This platform should quickly be adopted by manufacturers of ultra portable and/or subnotebooks (Q3 2008) featuring 7-8" display while offering hours of battery lifetime for a price varying from US$300 to US$500. So, Apple could have the component to release a MacBook nano...



[translation by Linathael]

- MacBook Air Domains Registered by Apple? - Lionel - 20:58:14

According to Macdailynews an unknown company, located at 1, Infinite Loop CUPERTINO, has registered the macbookair.com, .biz, .info, ...
It could confirm rumors about the MacBook Air to go together with the already famous banner "Something in the air...", however, one should not forget that anybody can provide Apple's address when reserving an URL. In addition, all MacBook Air domain have been registered the same day that photos of banners "Something in the air..." have been published on the web...
So, is it really Apple?



[translation by Linathael]

- iPhone: 70,000 Units Sold in One Month in France - Lionel - 17:23:37

Source : AFP

In a press release, Orange announced to have sold 70,000 iPhones during the first month of its availability in France.
In addition, 48% of iPhone users are new Orange-customers, while the iPhone dedicated subscription contract attracted 82% of Orange iPhone owners.
If the success remains steady in the coming month, Orange will have definitely setup a profitable partnership with Apple. But no doubt that Apple will have to keep innovating around the iPhone to keep its exclusive partners happy.


[translation by Linathael]

- NewerTech Released 802.11n Peripherals - Lionel - 17:14:48

NewerTech released new 802.11n products dedicated to non-WiFi-n ready Macs:



The offer is quite diversified as one can find an 802.11n PCMCIA card, a PCI format card and its external antenna station, a USB-based stick or an 802.11n router. If the latest is not as sexy as an Airport 802.11n base station, it only costs US$98. Other products are priced between US$60 and US$65.
Other manufacturers should offer similar products in the future as 802.11n is a real improvement compared to 802.11g.
For additional details, visit: http://www.newertech.com/products/wireless.php

[translation by Linathael]

- New Mac Pro: New Tests Available - Lionel - 17:07:04

Macworld tested the new entry level Mac Pro 2.8GHz with different procedures and benchmarks, then compared it with the previous Mac Pro models clocked at 2.66 and 3.0GHz respectively.
All encoding tasks (iTunes, iMovie HD, Compressor 3 or Handbrake), the new Mac Pro won hands down.
However, when all cores are not in use, the previous 3.0GHz Mac Pro takes back the lead due to a higher clock frequency.
All tests so far illustrate how the ratio price/performance is in favor of the new Mac Pro, and we are quite impatient to test the new high-end Mac Pro and its 8 cores clocked at 3.2GHz. One will also have to determine how SSE4-dependent task will be accelerated with the new models compare to the previous ones.


[translation by Linathael]