Thursday February 21, 2008

- iPhone: forever blowing bubbles? - Kalomir - 21:53:12

Source: Macuser

Macuser recently relayed information that had gone unnoticed until now, probably because it affects a limited number of people.
According to testimony from the Apple support forums , some iPhone owners (apparently among the first buyers) noticed under their iPhone screen ... air bubbles. One of the person has seen five such bubbles!

One Man's bubble is another man's trouble (pic)

In case some iPhone owners in France face this problem, information may be hard to come by.... even if the case seems innocuous, Apple has been replacing the affected (under-warranty) iPhones without difficulty.
Of course one must have a guarantee, which is not always possible for an iPhone from the "grey market".

[translation by jeremy]

- DVD Jon clobbers DRM again - Lionel - 14:50:17

DVD Jon, who acquired his "title of nobility" by bypassing the protections of DVDs, has also taken on, on several occasions, iTunes and its FairPlay DRM.
He has returned to the battlefield with his company DoubleTwist, and proposes a universal file-exchange solution for all platforms: computers, mp3 players, mobile phones.
The ultimate goal is to free users from the constraints inherent in these devices and create perfect interoperability.
His software is already available on the PC and detects iTunes Mp4 protected files , cleaning them of any DRM.
Just as this situation could have posed great problems to Apple just a year ago, the trend to do away with DRM minimises the impact of such news. The software DVD Jon once again proves that no protection is foolproof. This new move could help Apple convince the majors to abandon once and for all DRM protections.
An OS X version is planned, as well as support for iPod and iPhone.
http://www.doubletwistventures.com/

[translation by jeremy]

- An Apple a day not good for Flash memory - Lionel - 14:34:48

Time flies when you're having a good time: it has been almost 2 years since the market for memory has been very bad. Prices plummeted dramatically for manufacturers who have had a great deal of trouble to keep their heads above water, especially the little ones (manufacturers, not heads).
Leading analysts hoped that 2008 would mark the end of the crisis thanks to strong growth in the market for SSD drives and Walkmans.
But today Apple -- who buys 13% of world production for its iPod -- fearing a slowdown in sales during the year, decreased the volume of its orders. This means that we will end up again with estimates of production higher than sales, which will cause a further decline in prices.
The fact remains that for the first time in many years, the market for Apple's very profitable portable will have little or no growth. This expectation drove the significant reductions in the price of their 1 GB iPod shuffle while the 2GB model has not yet been announced commercially, evidence they are looking primarily to volume and to avoid a reduction in the number of players sold.

[translation by jeremy]

- Are the consoles killing games played on computer? - Lionel - 12:41:50

Source : CDR Info

Some great names of PC industry (Acer, DEll, INTEL, Epic, NVidia, Razer, Microsoft) have joined together under a new assiciation known as the PC Gaming Alliance (PCGA) to promote video games on PC. Their goal is to counter the harmful effects to their market from the game consoles that are siphoning off the big players.
The will support R&D in this field, create federations of players, make promotions.... It is correct to say that PC games have always had a big weight in the PC market. Often it is the arrival of a new game always in need of more cpu power that triggers the buying of a new PC. Other usage : internet, video are much less demanding on machines that have been around for some years.
However, the new consoles are running before the wind. They work as well as, or better, than the PCs. However, one should recall that Apple has managed to survive and even to grow despite its attitude of pretending that video games do not exist.

[translation by crispin]

- It is not unusual that a Mac breaks down within 2 years! - Lionel - 10:25:44

During the past years, by buying an Apple product, one was certain to have a machine that would function without fault over the years to come... and this is regarded as a fact. Even though this is often the case today, the golden era is over. Over the past few years we have seen many problems over the full range of Apple products: the Airport Express , iMac G5, Powermac g5 that leak, MacBooks that crack...
A reader having had within a short time two identical breakdowns on two computers bought 18 and 21 month ago tried to negotiate with Apple to repair them under guarantee. Faced with their absolute refusal for any compensation, he decided to take them to court. Since this business is still under jurisdiction and it has not yet been judged, we can say no more at this time. However there is a sentence in the report written by the Apple lawyers that has us so surprised that we decided to communicate it to you.

The litigious computers functioned perfectly, to the satisfaction of even Mr. xxx, during more than 21 month for xxxx and 18 months for xxx, which REPRESENTS, FOR COMPUTER MATERIAL , A PERIOD LONGER THAN USUAL

According to its lawyers Apple considers it normal that a life of a Mac is less than two years. Thus they can stick with their one year legal guarantee without any flexibility.

[translation by crispin]

- A flood of low price portables - Lionel - 09:50:59

Source: Digitimes

The EEEPC, a laptop with an 7" screen sold for less than € 300, manufactured by Asus, has met with huge success despite minimalist performance. Already other PC manufacturers want to roll with the momentum and also offer machines at entry level for deflated prices.
That is certainly the phenomenon, in the face of the computing world's traditions, which has prompted Intel to accelerate the release of its platform Shelton, which will arrive as early as May, instead of later in the year.
It is the architecture of a very cheap motherboard and processors , entirely in line with this new method.
It will consist of engraved processors in 45nm low frequency (roughly those of Air Macbook) and a chipset with integrated video. The power requirement is not yet known.

Of course, one might wonder whether Apple will follow this wave and propose a machine two to three times cheaper than a MacBook. On paper, this would be attractive, but at the same time it would be so far from their usual products, so one can still doubt it. However, a laptop under 500 € running Mac OS X could be a huge success.

[translation by jeremy]

- Cell phones with no limits in the US - Lionel - 09:41:26

Source: Dailytech

Even if we credit it to the iPhone and its exclusive contracts , it's nice to have revived a price war between operators who preferred to share the cake.
In France, iPhone's arrival launched the war in the price of data packages previously almost non-existent and now cheaper by the month.
In the United States, the war is now focussing on telephony tariffs, a sensitive issue because unlike us, it is the receiving party who pays for incoming calls.
Within a few days, 3 operators out of 4 (Verizon, T-Mobile and AT & T) have announced plans with totally unlimited voice and without constraints. Already T-Mobile is considering to add unlimited SMS also.
In France, if some attempts in this direction have been made, they have never lasted long. It must be said that the mobile arm of each group is a superb money-making machine.
A fourth 3G operator is coming (probably Free or Numéricable) so things are moving in the right direction.

[translation by jeremy]

- iPhone tax will pass 27 Feb, 2009 - Lionel - 09:23:04

Source: PC Inpact

While the Albis commission is experiencing an unprecedented crisis questioning its impartiality and more generally its legitimacy, the rights-owners consider only the economic realities important.
If lack of a quorum meant that the iPhone royalty could not be passed this week, it will be in a second meeting to be held on February 27 next year. Even without a quorum, it will be possible, the statutes provide that a second meeting does not require a quorum.
The calculation in this case is relatively straightforward. Orange will sell (optimistically) half a million iPhones in 2008. The fee is calcualted to be 7 Euros for the model HT 8 GB, this vote will allow them to rake in at least € 3500000. It must be compelling to be able to get so much money just by raising your hand ...

[translation by jeremy]