Tuesday May 20, 2008

- iPhone 3G: Available for the WWDC Keynote? - Lionel - 21:41:34

As one could have expected it with the launch of the WWDC getting everyday closer, rumors about the iPhone 3G are flowering and spreading on the web.
The last one has been launched by the website Gizmodo, citing sources close to the project, that the iPhone 3G will be announced by Steve Jobs (so far nothing new), but it should be available right after the keynote.
As we reported it earlier (here and here), Apple will change the business model for the iPhone, at least in some countries (including those covered by EU carriers). This would then imply that carrier could apply large discount on the official price, by favoring cash-back based on 24-month subscription plan or fee-based service. So far, only UK and Germany have been offering discount on iPhone 8GB models. Other countries should follow as soon as Steve Jobs will end his keynote. In some countries, such as Switzerland, customers will have choice between carriers, and one can be sure that there will be a battle to offer the best price and the best service for the iPhone.
Recently, most of EU carriers have speed up deployment of their voice and data services; is it to be ready to offer the iPhone 3G at the beginning of June? Only couple of weeks to wait...

[translation by Linathael]

- Apple protects its "Made for iPod" label - Lionel - 11:58:54

Source : http://www.informationweek.com

As you probably know, one can not manufacture an iPod-dedicated peripheral or product using the dock connector without paying royalties to Apple (4 USD per unit).
To protect its “Made for iPod” branding, Apple has filed a lawsuit seeking to stop Atico International USA from selling unauthorized iPod accessories. In the document filed last Wednesday, apple accuses Atico International USA of patent infringement, trademark infringement, and unfair competition. Indeed, Apple Legal claims that Atico manufactures and distributes various iPod accessories branded under the name “Living Solutions” without having got a license or an agreement from Apple.
For sure Apple is aiming to take the opportunity to remind other companies manufacturing iPod peripherals that one has to pay the royalties to get the right to distribute products made for the iPod.

[translation by Linathael]

- Information about Next Generation GPUs - Lionel - 10:29:03

June will most likely be the month chosen by AMD to announce the new generation of GPUs. Similar announcements should be done by NVidia couple of days later. However, some information starts leaking despite NDA.

- NVidia will change the branding name of its cards, dropping the GeForce 8xxx or 9xxx, to a shorter version: GTX 2x0. NVidia should also revise its aging architecture used on the current GPU generation and now about 2 years old. The high-end model, aka GTX 280 should feature 1 GB of VRAM on a 512 bits bus, and sport 240 core units.

- AMD will try to better compete with NVidia with its Radeon 48xx series. It will be the fist card to use GDDR5 RAM modules. AS with NVidia, high-end models should feature 1 GB VRAM, and the GPU clock speed should break the 1 GHz frequency barrier.

For sure the summer will be hot on the GPU battle front, and first tests released should allow us to define a winner, but one will have to consider the three GPU segments: entry-level, mid-range and high-end models. Let's hope that Apple will early on adapt such new GPU generations for our Mac, and especially the Mac Pro, and not only offer Mac users, GPUs belonging to the previous generation...

[translation by Linathael]

- Apple: Green Lights Everywhere - Lionel - 10:22:03

Source : eweek.com

According to a study conducted by NPD, Apple dominates 1,000+ USD retail computer sales as Apple grabs 66% of retail laptop sales. The iMac seems to be the key product, as Mac desktop sales increase by 44% while corresponding market for desktop sales is 20% down, and Windows desktop market even lower with -25%. Apple’ success is not restricted to desktop, as Apple’s notebook marketshare is growing twice faster than the market rate, while Windows-based notebook sales remain flat.

However, as the future market with the most growth potential seems to be for computer models for less than 1000 USD, Apple will have to work hard in this segment and finally release the long expected a mini tower model, aka Mac Pro mini, powered by Core 2 Duo desktop CPU giving more crunching performance than the Mac mini thank to a dedicated PCIe graphic card. Otherwise, the 14% marketshare for this segment will for sure not increase, and new comers as ASUS might be eating rapidly a large piece of the cake.

In addition, this study did not take into accounts online sales (so no data for Dell, as well as order placed via the online Apple Store), and hardware sold to corporate, a market dominated by Dell and HP.

[translation by Linathael]

- Seagate Launches its High-end 320 GB 2.5 - Lionel - 10:20:27

Source: Seagate

Over the last month, Seagate did not release groundbreaking products, and seemed to be satisfied with its world leadership position for the entry-level market; and looked like concentrating more on negotiating partnership with computer manufacturers than developing new products.

Well, today the company announced its new flagship dedicated to 2.5" notebook storage: 320 GB of storage space while spinning at 7200rpm. Based on two plates, and featuring 16 MB of cache, the Momentus 7200.3 hard drive will perfectly find its place in MacBooks and the Mac mini. Seagate has signed up an exclusive partnership with Dell and Alienware, and one will have to wait a bit more before find it in Apple-branded products or even in shops.

It would be nice to test such a HD in our Mac before it becomes truly available in order to evaluate if it is worse waiting for it; so if Seagate is willing to send us a sample will are ready to conduct a full evaluation. It would be nice coming from a company which did not really communicate about the high failure rate recorded for Firmware 7.01-based HD found in many Mac models.

[translation by Linathael]

- iPod discounts at the refurb store. - Lionel - 10:02:22

Apple has some good iPod offers at the refurb store today. The current iPod Nano models are sold at 40 € below their original price: 109 € for the 4 Gb and 159 € for the 8 Gb model.
You should ignore the Shuffle and iPod Touch, since they're only 10 € cheaper compared to new products.
The Apple TV 160 Gb also returns at 267 €, which is the price it should have if Apple Europe wants to get to the same level as in the US.
And finally, on the Mac part, there are still current-generation MacBooks, and previous-generations iMacs for sale. Forget about the 8-core 3 Ghz Mac Pro (rev 1), which is too expensive compared to a new machine, and even equipped with an outdated Geforce 7300 GT!
To the Refurb Store!

[translation by xavier]

- Samsung announces a new 82" LCD panel - Lionel - 09:12:56

During a Show, Samsung revealed its new screen LCD with a size of 82" and equipped a record resolution of 3840x2160, i.e. 4 times more pixels than a full HD television.

But the principal interest of this product is elsewhere. This screen is equipped with a new type of retro-lighting LED; this is not based on white diodes, but on an alternation of green and blue red diodes. The goal is to vary the intensity of the diodes in zones in order to reinforce the colours already displayed by LCD screen. According to Samsung saturation would be improved of 150%.
If one manages sufficiently to miniaturize the diodes in the future, this technologies could be used in screens of small size and certainly for computer monitors.
While waiting, if you want to benefit from this technologyr, it will be necessary for you to have approximately $40'000 to blow on this monster.

[translation by crispin]

- Microsoft tries a new approach with Yahoo - Lionel - 07:49:17

Source : Dailytech

Definitely, the Microsoft announcement that they did not want Yahoo any more was in vain; at least, they have started to study ways of making them return in their bosom.
After the rejection of the takeover, Microsoft now proposes to supply capital to the company without inevitably taking control of it, all at least initially.
They would reserve the right increase the capital ownership at a later date if they judged this useful.
According to certain analysts, Microsoft needs Yahoo more than they want to let it appear; without Yahoo they will become insignificant on the Web economy. Currently Google dominates and startst to overflow into the"" real-world, that, until now, has been dominated by Microsoft.

[translation by crispin]

- After the memory makers, now the integrated memory products will suffer - Lionel - 07:30:43

Source : Digitimes

The crisis concerning memory chips tested the chipmakers hard, it also had an important impact on those which manufacture products equipped with memory, they make bars of RAM, USB keys USB or memory cards. Indeed, their margin also declined as they tried to place their products onto a saturated market.
And this is only the beginning. In order to gain a little more money, some the memory suppliers, such as Hynix and Micron have decided to also sell end products. They start with simplest, the memory cards and will supply products inevitably less expensive since there is one less intermediary.
If the crisis continues, there is a strong bet that many manufacturers of these products will simply disappear.

[translation by crispin]