Wednesday March 12, 2008

- Japan launches a survey on the iPod Nano - Lionel - 23:36:06

Source : Associated Press

As a reaction to an enflaming iPod Nano battery, the Japanese government has launched a survey.
Apple will have to prepare a report that describes into detail under which circumstances such an accident could have happened, and will also have to provide the source and production numbers of these batteries.
The survey applies to iPod Nano models sold between September 2005 and September 2006, with the model number MA099J/A.
We hope for Apple that this is an isolated accident, and that there's no greater problem with all of these batteries.
About 425000 iPod Nano's of this type have been sold in Japan.

[translation by xavier]

- Buy a blu-ray disk and watch it on the iPod - Lionel - 22:44:13

Source : CDR Info

Among the possibilities offered by the AACS protection of the Blu-ray disks, one of them, Managed Copy, makes it possible in theory to be able to replicate the contents of the disk onto authorized media. Of course, this possibility was currently defined without any title.
Lionsgate wants to propose a similar function in partnership with the iTunes Store.
They intend to propose with their titles Blu-ray and HD-DVD a code which will make it possible that when the digital version is bought at the online Apple Store, that they will be also able to view it as well on the Apple TV a iPod.

This is an extension of the offer that Apple and Fox already propose with certain DVDs. We are unaware if the sale of Blu-ray will give access to the HD version on Apple TV.

[translation by crispin]

- Side Effects for the Radeon HD 2600 XT Firmware Update - Lionel - 17:10:35

Source : XLR8yourMac

If the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT Firmware Update fixed the freezing issue experienced by many Mac Pro owners, it seems to have unexpected side effect.
It seems than the graphic card can not enter into lower power consumption mode as it use to be when only working in 2D. As a consequence, the GPU fan spins at full speed generating unexpected noise.
For information the GeForce 8800 GT is really silent and never generate noise which will be higher than the one created by the entire cooling system of the Mac Pro...


[translation by Linathael]

- AMD/ATI Optimitstic with its new GPU - Lionel - 16:55:48

Source : Digitimes

ATI/AMD is currently loosing behind NVidia in the fight for the leadership of the mid-range and high-end consumer-oriented GPU market. However, ATI/AMD is really optimistic as they have already announced to their partners that the company expects to capture 35 to 50% of the market share with the future generation of GPU, aka RV770.
One will have to wait for the first tests to conclude if this a true revolutionizing GPU or if ATI/AMD are trying to create a buzz which will be profitable for the value of AMD stock on the NYSE. Consumers might also benefit from a healthy competition between ATI/AMD and NVidia as the latest has a tendency to slow down the release of new products as it can currently control the market without much efforts.

[translation by Linathael]

- NVidia Want 55nm Engraving for G92 GPU - Lionel - 15:43:56

Source : vr-zone

The new NVidia G92 GPU used in GeForce 8800 GT is currently engraved at 65nm whereas ATI/AMD is already using 55nm process for its current GPUs (RV770). NVidia announced its goal to move the engraving process to a thinner one in order to be bale to further increase GPU clock frequency. It could also help NVidia to increase the number of manufactured chips per wafer. The first NVidia GPU to benefit from such thinner engraving will be the chip dedicated to notebook.



[translation by Linathael]

- Several considerations about the Time Capsule - Lionel - 07:42:41

Over the weekend we have made a number of tests concerning the real performance of the Time Capsule:
- We confirm that the disk WD Green Power seems a perfect choice for this device. It is silent and contrary to other owners of the 1 TB model, it heats up very little, far from the impression that one could cook eggs on it, even after a long period of use of the internal disk.
- All external disks connected to the Time CApsule can be used for Time machine backups.
- On the other hand, any copy from the internal disk to the external obligatorily passes through the computer that made the demand. This takes a long time and totally dependent on the quality of the network. We look forward to an update that will permit a duplication of the backup on the internal disk.
- We found that the Time Capsule seems to have a lower sensitivity than an Airport base station n. The connection was less good than that one obtained with an Airport base station n with an identical setup. We could get a reception of 70 with the widget Air Traffic Control, while the Time Capsule never passed 50.
- The first Time Machine backup takes a long time. It is preferable to have a good ethernet connection to cut the time by 4 or 5.
- It is possible to make Time Machine backups from several computers to the Time Capsule disk. Each backup will have its own specific disk image.
- Unfortunately, it is impossible to partition the internal disk, or to specify a maximum size of a Time Machine backup. One knows that in this case, the disk will just fill up and it will be difficult to use the disk for other things, especially if you back up several computers on it.
- the only way to reserve some space on the backup disk for another thing, is to create on the Time Caspule disk a disk image where you have chosen the size in advance.

in summary:
* we wished that Apple had chosen to use more discreet disks
* an optimisation of the speed of exchange, the sensitivity and the write speeds needs to be done.
* it would be desirable to be able to configure the Time Machine in a manner to control the size of the backup

[translation by crispin]