Wednesday January 23, 2008

- Refurbed Mac Pro: not such a bargain - Lionel - 12:13:23

If we like to proclaim the bargains from the Refurb shop, we must also point out when something isn't as cheap as it may seem.

Case in point: the old Mac Pro's offered at a reduction of 16-17%. They are hardly any cheaper than the new models which are more powerful, have a bigger hard drive, more RAM and a better video card. A better deal is a new machine with a single 2,8 GHZ CPU or the 8 core model for 2499€.

MacMini fans will be pleased with its return, at 529€.

@Le Refurb Store

[translation by jeremy]

- The iPhone Coming Soon to Corporate - Lionel - 12:11:00

Until now, the iPhone is sold everywhere as a device for the general public. Professionals want to use it but it is, for the most part, incompatible, for example, with a company's technology infrastructure. Things could change in the U.S. as early as Monday. By then, AT&T will begin offering its business customers a more suitable package. In France, it's presumed that this will be possible by the end of the month, which falls well for enterprise software developers (IBM, 4D...) with the launch of official software development for the iPhone.


[translation by Paul], a new Hardmac team member

- The HD-DVD Camp Redoubles Efforts to Stay Alive - Lionel - 11:34:25

The announcement by Time Warner that they are abandoning the HD-DVD format has depressed many, and for most, has signaled the death of HD-DVD. To have an idea of the impact of this little drama, in the week following the announcement 6 times as many Blu-Ray discs titles were sold than HD-DVD. Such a disparity in sales was unthinkable even just a few weeks ago. But the HD-DVD camp has very quickly put their disaster-recovery plan into action w ith Toshiba leading the way in slashing prices on their players. Other initiatives are also quickly being launched. Toshiba is trying to convince the HD-DVD media manufacturers to lower their prices as much as possible in order to drastically undercut Blu-Ray prices. Paramount, still exclusively supporting HD-DVD, is going to launch as many titles as possible on hybrid discs, with an HD-DVD layer and a DVD layer, in an effort to bump up sales of HD-DVD players, which in turn should boost the sale of the discs. Across the battlefield, the Blu-Ray camp is also mobilizing. While they won't cut prices in the U.S., Sony and Sharp will offer a $400 rebate on the purchase of an LCD TV/Blu-Ray player package (PS3 not eligible). So things are still undecided, which at least has the merit of hastening the availability of HD movies. Of course, the big losers in all of this are the manufacturers who have already invested heavily in order to produce machines that support multiple formats (multi-format consoles that actually cost more than making one of each).

[translation by msmith]

- New Mac Pro: Even Crunchier - Lionel - 09:58:25

Barefeats keep testing the new Mac Pro, and with time and benchmarks results, those new Mac Pro appear to be a true and important evolution performance wise.
The new 8 cores Mac Pro 3.2GHz is 25% faster than the previous 8 cores Mac Pro 3.0GHz, and around two times faster than the Quad Core Mac Pro 3.0GHz. Performance gains remain unchanged in almost all applications tested, so this is not only related to a SSE improvement. The entry-level 8 core Mac Pro 2.8GHz is almost as fast as the previous 8 cores Mac Pro 3.0GHz which was much more expensive...

Concerning power consumption, the new Mac Pro are also very interesting, with the 8x3.2GHz model requiring 25% less energy than the previous 8x3.0GHz model. For the lower models clocked at 2.8 and 3.0 GHz, TDP of 80W vs. 120W for the 3.2GHz unit should be even more environment friendly.

Last but not least, a memory test to evaluate the impact of using 800MHz modules vs. 667MHz modules demonstrated that lower memory bus frequency will only marginally affect performance, 4.2% at the most. So if you can not invest in expensive 800MHz RAM modules, recycling 667MHz memory would not affect performance.

[translation by Linathael]

- Microsoft Unchained Virtualization for all Vista Versions - Lionel - 09:57:19

Source : Macworld

Many Mac users have installed Windows on their hardware in addition to Mac OS X for both playing games or for running Windows-only applications. If BootCamp is perfect for games as it brings full 3D support, this solution is not really handy for Pro users requiring switching from PC to Mac application, and in this case virtualization is the way to go as one does not need to reboot.
When vista was released, Microsoft made it clear in the license agreement that only the two most expensive Vista versions can be used for virtualization. Without any further explanation, Redmond's giant decided to modify such licensing terms to make all Vista versions, including the cheapest one, compatible with virtualization. This announcement is coming at the same time than rumors about a possible Microsoft-branded virtualization solution which could be initiated by acquiring companies already offering such solutions for the Mac. Microsoft already did it in the past by taking control of Connectix which was developing Virtual PC


[translation by Linathael]

- NBC to Come Back to iTunes Store? - Lionel - 09:56:04

Apple and NBC are officially not collaborating anymore after having published aggressive press releases in the past months. However, it seems that they might forget about the recent battles to concentrate on a new partnership. According to Dailytech, Steve Jobs and Jeff Zucker, respective CEO of Apple and NBC, have declared to hope for a new collaboration between both companies. It is quite obvious that the launch during the MWSF of iTunes Movie Rentals including if not all, most of the move studios, might have change the draw, and NBC might not be able to offer a better online platform for its catalog than the iTunes Store. As for music, the iTS might become in the coming months the main channel for online video and movie offers.


[translation by Linathael]

- Apple's in great shape - Lionel - 09:17:33

Apple has announced its quarterly results during the Q108 conference call: the company had sales of $9.6 billion, and profits rose to $1.58 billion. They've sold 2 319 000 Macs, 22 121 000 iPods and 2 315 000 iPhones, during this first quarter of 2008.
Steve Jobs has announced that 2008 will be the year of some "incredible strong" new products, of which the MacBook Air, Time Capsule, iTunes Store and renewed Mac Pro mark only the beginning; so Apple should not have problem to reach its financial expectations for its fiscal 2008 quarters.

[translation by xavier]

- Next generation of MacBook Pro will sport a multitouch trackpad? - Lionel - 07:55:31

According to Apple Insider, the next MacBook pro (equipped with Intel's Penryn processors) will have a larger trackpad that will support the multitouch input as found on the MacBook Air. The processors with run at 2.5 GHz for the entry level, and 2.6 GHz for the higher performance 15' and for the 17'.
They do not predict a date when these machines will be available. It will certainly be in the coming weeks, maybe at the beginning of February, leaving time for the press to finish with the MacBook Air story. Apple likes to spread out the launches of its products so that there is a continuous buzz surrounding its brand name.

[translation by crispin]

- A pink iPod Nano - Lionel - 07:35:41

For the first time in ages, we have hesitated in echoing a new Apple product.

However you should know that the US Apple Store was closed for a good two hours to add a pink iPod nano of 8 GB. The price is 199$ in the US - and overnight has been added to the european Apple stores (£129.00 / Eur 209,00)

[translation by crispin]