Tuesday March 25, 2008

- Google wins big at Big Brothers Awards - Lionel - 22:16:25

Source: http://bigbrotherawards.eu.org/Google-Inc.html

Google earned a distinction which would be fine if they want to win the Orwell Prize for Big Brothers Awards.
That "distinction" punishes companies with a particular desire for control of individuals and intrusions into their privacy.
Google has won according to the jury for many things:
-- It does not have want to implement European law, preferring instead self-regulation, even if they refuse, for example, a person to have access to their own personal information and ask them to delete it.
-- Having agreed to put in place a screening so as not to displease the Chinese authorities. Google could also have censored its results in France and Germany since 2002.
-- They have also launched a campaign to collect DNA -- offering Internet users the opportunity to test their genome in order to uncover predisposition to certain diseases.

You will understand, these accusations are very tongue-in-cheek, but it is of great concern if Google persists in this direction. Does the Internet belong to us, or does it going to belong to Google?

[translation by jeremy]

- A version of CrossOver focused on games - Lionel - 21:45:58

Codeweavers has released a version of CrossOver specifically destined to run WINDOW games on Mac OSX.
Costing 37 euros it is certified to function with the following games:
- World of Warcraft
-EVE Online
-Guild Wars
-Prey
- Half-Life 2
-Team Fortress 2
-Counterstrike
-Counterstrike: Source
-Civilization IV
-Peggle Extreme
-Call of Duty 2
-Max Payne 2
-Grand Theft Auto 2
Others games probably could run but not in an official manner and therefore could pose some problems.

[translation by crispin]

- Sony's image takes another fall - Lionel - 15:57:31

In recent years, Sony has taken some disastrous blows in terms of image.

We all remember Rootkit installing without the knowledge of customers to prevent them from copying their CDs, and we all know their unrelenting pro-DRM stance. A new case has arisen, seemingly less serious but potentially just as damaging.

Mac-users may not be as familiar with this notion - our machines come installed with just OS X and iLife - but Windows-users know the problem of pre-installed commercial applications all too well. This software is more or less invasive, is rarely useful, and it is very difficult to get rid of.

The publishers of these programs pay computer manufacturers to load their software on new machines. This helps to reduce the final price, which explains why all manufacturers are eager to do so. Sony, however, wanted to distinguish itself by offering a PC without these programs. While the initiative is good, the implementation is terrible: the manufacturer charging $50 for this option! The initiative has raised an outcry at the notion that we must pay for a machine that is not overrun with shifty, unwanted apps.

To cope with the discontent which has rapidly expanded, Sony has since announced that the option will be ultimately free but it will leave a legacy, and will cost them money in lost software installations.

[translation by CliveAtFive]

- Google will not be a mobile phone operator in the USA - Lionel - 14:34:49

The auction of frequencies around 700 MHz ended last week in the USA.
Google did not succeed in catching a slice of the coveted frequencies that would have allowed them to become mobile phone operators. It should be said that the installed operators did everything to bar the road to them. Never has such an auction raised so much, nearly 19.6 billion dollars.
In a way, Google has nevertheless a half victory since it forced the telephone operators such as AT&T to invest much more than necessary, certainly this will weaken them a bit.
In France we are always waiting to know if there will be a fourth mobile telephone operator. The European Union is in favour of this initiative, since there is little competition in the French market and the average price of subscriptions is much more expensive than other countries.
Free and Numéricable are interested and should fight with drawn knives to obtain this license. Indeed, it seems that it is the key of survival, convergence is being established with the repurchase of Neuf by SFR and the wish of Bouygues to re-enter on the market of the ADSL.
The goal seems now that operators supply packs to their clients with global tariffs to supply all the communication needs (fixed telephone, mobile, fixed and mobile internet and according to rumours also television, music...)
The operator that does not get this fourth license will not have the power to survive in the medium term and can only be absorbed.

[translation by crispin]

- Communicate with Bootloader of the iPhone - Lionel - 10:44:52

Source : Tuaw

The bootloader is first layer of software in the iPhone; it takes control at start-up, and enables the iPhone to know what it is. It is also the bootloader that iTunes will communicate with in order to install new firmware or a baseband.
It is also the route, or rather by the faults in the bootloader, that allows the hackers to modify the firmware of a iPhone in order to jailbreak or to sim-unlock the iPhone.
Knowing that this is the 'open sesame', you can imagine that Apple arranged a protection system that allowed access only through iTunes. There, still this protection lives.
However the software "IBooter" allows one to open a dialogue with the iPhone (currently only via command-line) and to start, for example, a diagnosis on a failing iPhone.
It allows, in fact, many more things, which certainly should NOT be used by everyone, such as modifying the frequency of the bus system and thus overclocking the CPU, or modify the tension of the processor - things that we more-than-strongly advise against touching.
Other more amusing functions may provoke a flowering of users: iBooter permits one to change the startup logo of the iPhone, pushing the personalization of the iPhone and allowing one to replace the apple logo by whatever one chooses.

Again: once more attention, all erroneous manipulations could lead to the destruction of the iPhone!

[translation by crispin]

- Laser Diodes: Investigation for Patent Infringement in USA - Lionel - 09:47:10

The U.S. International Trade Commission announced to have launched an investigation on certain laser and short-wavelength light emitting diodes for potential patent infringement. Among the 30 respondents in this investigation, many companies are well known in the field of red and blue laser-based devices dedicated to pro and consumer markets: Sony, LG, Hitachi, Panasonic, Samsung....
This investigation was launched following complaint filed by Gertrude Neumark Rothschild of Hartsdale, NY, on February 20, 2008, for patent infringement (only limited to the US market). The solutions should be found quickly within the next two months, and as usual is such case, it is all about money, either someone trying to get money with a broad claims owned patent, or companies that on purpose decided to ignore an intellectual property when developing a product.

[translation by Linathael]

- Fujitsu: 320GB at 7200rpm in 2.5" Format - Lionel - 09:45:25

Fujitsu announced the future availability in June of a 2.5" HD spinning at 7200rpm and offering 320GB of storage space.
The MHZ2 BJ will drain 2.3W, less than competitor’s models, while featuring 16MB of cache and a SATA II format. Last but not least, thanks to its 9.5mm thickness, it should easily find its way in all MacBooks.
The market for mobile plate-based HD is really active over the last few months, for two main reasons: sales of mobile computers keep growing up and SSD appeared as a possible solution, even though it remains very expensive.


[translation by Linathael]

- Towards a new Mac mini? - Lionel - 09:45:00

According to Apple Insider, the Mac Mini has, in fact, not reached EOL status ("End of Life"), and that we should expect new models soon.

This is a popular product for Mac users, but financially not interesting for Apple. AI predicts it might finally evolve and receive new Penryn processors (up to 2.1GHz) as well as the "old new" shared memory graphic chipset GMA X3100. We could also expect the Mac Mini to support WiFi 802.11n, it could be a good marketing point for Apple to claim that all its hardware models supporting the new wireless format. Europeans should expect the price of the new Mac mini to drop significantly according to the new price policy from Apple Europe.

[translation by Linathael]

- Utility to reinitialize the iPod shuffle 1.0.3 - MacEnsteph - 07:18:42

Apple has just released a small update of its utility for reinitializing the iPod shuffle (version 1.0.3 3.6 MB) by default with iTunes. This restores the factory parameters for the 1st and 2nd generation models.

About iPod Reset Utility 1.0.3 for Mac

Use iPod Reset Utility to restore the following iPod models back to their factory settings, when iTunes is unable to do so:

• iPod shuffle (1st Generation)
• iPod shuffle (2nd Generation)

The restore process completely erases all music and data on your iPod, and installs current iPod software on it.

For detailed information on this Update, please visit this website: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305204

Note: iPod Reset Utility is intended for use only with the iPod models listed above; other iPods are not supported. If you are not sure which iPod you have, see Apple Support article 61688: Identifying iPod models

[translation by crispin]