Monday February 04, 2008

- Apple recruits the Wall Mart Video expert - Lionel - 22:25:56

Source : Macworld.co.uk

Apple has recruited Kevin Swint, who ran the audio and video services of Wall Mart. He will take up his position at Apple this month and will lead the development of the iTunes Video stores in the rest of the world.
One imagines that after the closure of the VOD service at Wall Mart he was overjoyed to find such an opportunity and a new chance to succeed in this market segment.

[translation by crispin]

- A problem on some Seagate discs - Lionel - 15:28:38

Seagate announced a problem affecting some of their 3.5" disks. The affected models have firmware SD04 or SD14. The serial number of the impacted Disks will have a numeral different to the 3 that we have put in bold:
1000 Go ST31000340AS
750 GB: ST3750330AS
500 GB: ST3500320AS
The bug causes a partial recognition of the disk cache resulting in malfunctions.
An update is available via a bootable disk image. Although intended for PC, it should work on the Mac Pro:
AD14-AllMoose.zip
Once the archive is downloaded and unpacked, you should use disk utility to burn an iso image to a CD and reboot.

We are still waiting Apple and Seagate's postion on the large number of defective 2.5" disks that were mainly found in the laptops and Mac mini.

[translation by jeremy]

- TomTom Home 2 Available for Mac OS X - Lionel - 09:18:59

As reported in a previous news, TomTom Home 2 support for Mac OS X was not complete.
We do not know if as a consequence TomTom boosted development of the Mac version, but the company just announced the availability of TomTom Home 2.2.0.16 (as a update from version 1.5, or as a direct installation) from the following webpage: TomTomHOME2maclatest.dmg

To be noticed, this version seems to be still incomplete as some options are still missing. At least they are working on it, maybe we should keep talking about in order to get a finalized and full functional product...


[translation by Linathael]

- Changing the colour of metals - Lionel - 08:58:19

A laboratory at the University of Rochester has succedded in changing the colour of certain metals such as aluminium.


This technique uses a very powerful laser beam applied for a very short time to the surface of the finished product. This alters the surface such that the wavelengths that are absorbed or reflected are modified, and this changes the colour.
The technique still needs to be refined, however it will permit the production of items that, on demand, can take a large variety of colours.
In future, as Apple is always very innovative concerning design, on request, we will be able to order machines in colours of our choice.

[translation by crispin]

- A new simple version to Jailbreak the iPhone with firmware 1.1.3 - Lionel - 08:41:36

A new Jailbreak solution has appeared for the iPhone with firmware 1.1.3 that allows the iPhone to be unlocked, and also keeps the capability to install applications.
It is based on the techniques of the devteam iPhone and requires only an iPhone with jailbroken 1.1.2 firmware (baseband 04.02.13_G) and a Wi-Fi connection. Here are the steps to do (after you have syncronized and saved all your data on your iPhone):

- connect your iPhone to an energy source (USB ou charger) and IMPORTANT change the power down from 'auto' to 'NEVER'.
- start the Installer application and update to the latest version.
- Install BSD Subsystem 2.0 which is found in the system page of Community Sources.
- Restart the iPhone..
- Restart the Installer, and load "Official 1.1.3 Upgrader" that is found on the system page.
- Quit the Installer et start the application Upgrade that you have just installed.
It will ask two questions: reply yes to the first if you have an official Orange iPhone; the second question concerns restoring the iPhone to the previous state. We completed this upgrade on our 3 iPhones without needing this restore. Then it almost like magic and the whole thing will take place in front of your eyes: it will download the 1.1.3 firmware update, decompress it, modify it to install the jailbreak applications and then install everything. It takes about 20 to 30 minutes to reach the end. Once it is complete, the iPhone will restart automatically.
You will then have an iPhone 1.1.3 but will keep the baseband 1.1.2 and preserve the desim unlock software and the use of Turbosim. This update already has the Installer application, so you can reinstall your preferred applications at your leisure.
If you meet any problem Frenchiphone has a list together with their solution.

[translation by crispin]