Tuesday September 02, 2008

- Finally Universal abandons the DRM - Lionel - 22:57:02

Source : Numerama

Whereas the other major Music producers had understood that DRM was a brake to legal purchase with little effect on piratage, Universal resisted and refused to give up its protections.
The first platform to propose their catalogue without DRM will be the English site, 7digital, who will sell the pieces encoded in 320 Kbits/s MP3. The remainder of the online retailers should follow in the not too distant future according to the contracts in progress.

[translation by crispin]

- Overheating of a 3G iPhone - Lionel - 22:48:13

Thank you in Vincent for the information.
The Swiss online news 20 minutes reports the adventure of one of its readers who after having felt his iPhone 3G get abnormally hot had the surprise to see the interior of the telephone become bright red.



To our knowledge, this is the first time that this kind of thing has occurred and Apple has already supplied a few million of them.
However, there is a good chance that the media will seize on this case and make a mountain of it.

[translation by crispin]

- Special Event on September 9th - Lionel - 22:00:10

To confirm our earlier news today, Apple sent invitation to news network for a Special Event that will take place on September 9th at 10 a.m. in San Francisco:



Based on the flier it is quite clear that it will be linked to the introduction of new iPods. As we reported it previously, Apple could also release new services for the iTunes Store (renting music) as well as iTunes 8.0
We will provide a live coverage of the event, so be around on September 9th 19h00 CET for additional information.



[translation by Linathael]

- Say Hello to Google Chrome: Google’s Browser Project - Yoc - 12:00:22

Not satisfied with its current position, Google decided to launch its own internet browser. During the night, Google announced the future availability of Chrome via a comic explaining in details the project:



- Google Chrome is Google’s open source browser project, based on webkit, the same component used by Apple for Safari.
- The browser will include a JavaScript Virtual Machine called V8, built from scratch by a team in Denmark, and open-sourced as well so other browsers could include it. One aim of V8 was to speed up JavaScript performance in the browser, as it’s such an important component on the web today.
- Google Chrome will use special tabs. Instead of traditional tabs like those seen in Firefox, Chrome puts the tab buttons on the upper side of the window, not below the address bar
- Chaque composant du navigateur tourne dans son propre espace mémoire et en parallèle pour gagner en vitesse et en sécurité.
- Web apps can be launched in their own browser window without address bar and toolbar
- The browser has an address bar with auto-completion features. Called ’omnibox’, Google says it offers search suggestions, top pages you’ve visited, pages you didn’t visit but which are popular amd more.
- As a default homepage Chrome presents you with a kind of “speed dial” feature, similar to the one of Opera. On that page you will see your most visited webpages as 9 screenshot thumbnails..
- Chrome has a privacy mode; Google says you can create an “incognito” window “and nothing that occurs in that window is ever logged on your computer.”

Even though Chrome is using components already available/integrated in other browser, for sure Google’s browser might want to compete with the forthcoming Internet Explorer (version 8). Security seems to be the main topic of the future fight between internet browsers.

First beta version of chrome will be available for windows this evening, while Linux and Mac version should be available soon.

[translation by Linathael]

- iPhone 3G "Pay & Go" in UK - Lionel - 11:46:26

Source : 02

From September 16th, O2 will offer a "Pay & Go" iPhone model based on pre-paid card and a subscription-free system. The First model, an iPhone 3G 8 GB will cost 461 Euros, while the high-end model with 16 GB storage space will be available at 527 Euros.

In addition, the price includes unlimited browsing and Wi-Fi for the first 12 months after activating the bundled iPhone 3G. At the end of the 12 months you can continue to receive unlimited browsing and Wi-Fi for just £10 per month.

It might interest EU customers travelling in UK and not willing to pay roaming cost on their iPhone, so opting for a UK pre-paid iPhone might be a good investment. In addition, it might indicate that O2 expects to have secured enough iPhone 3G units to launch this offer. So, shortage of iPhones might end mid-spetember.

[translation by Linathael]

- New iPod on September 9th: Ten New Models!? - Lionel - 11:33:19

One of our reader and forum members could get access to the future reference of iPod to be released by Apple. All current models are EOL, while 10 new references are already announced. Even though each reference can indicate different colors, the iPod nano will most likely not be the only iPod to be refreshed, and Apple might well be releasing new models for the entire iPod offers.
One will see if Apple preserves the current iPod Classic or decide to have all iPods using NAND-flash memory from the iPod Shuffle, the nano and the Touch.
So, more next week to know colors and storage capacity, as the design will be similar to the iPod nano 2G.


[translation by Linathael]

- Microsoft to Introduce a 16 GB Zune Model - Lionel - 11:25:31

Despite ridiculous market share in the field, Microsoft keeps updating its digital music player, aka Zune:



Here again it seems that a "mistake" made the information leaked, and the high-end Zune to appear to feature now 16 GB storage space. Knowing that the iPod Nano 4G which looks like the iPod Nano 2G (as the Zune) should arrive in a near future; Apple should offer a model with a similar storage capacity.


[translation by Linathael]

- More Macs and iPhones Connected to the internet - Lionel - 11:25:02

Net application released its monthly statistics aiming to provide true computer/OS market share based on hardware being connected to internet.
Number of Macs connected to the web keeps increasing from 7.76% in July to 7.86 in August. During the same Period Windows went down from 91% to 90.66%. The most impressive increase is for the iPhone, with a jump from 0.19% to 0.3%. Within the last two years, the Mac market share gained 3.2 points, some more than 30% increase, quite an achievement.

[translation by Linathael]

- iPod Nano 4G: Design Unveiled - Lionel - 11:24:13

We all know how paranoiac Apple can be about future products to be introduced and how the company can abuse of such secrets for marketing reason.
So it is rather surprising to see the shape of the iPod Nano 4G to be revealed. It seems that Apple communicated information to third-parties to allow them to develop protections and other dedicated peripherals right on time for the launch of the new model. However, it seems that someone among those companies decided to break the NDA and to unveil the shape of the future iPod Nano 4G based on the design of a dedicated protection.



Even Engadget could put its hands on such iPod Nano 4G protection. In such conditions, one can imagine that Apple will revise its policies with third-parties, except if Cupertino has been indirectly controlling such leaks...

[translation by Linathael]

- Microsoft Wants to Reduce Startup Time with Windows 7 - Lionel - 11:23:11

While not officially acknowledged, the relative failure of Vista has pushed Microsoft to refresh its communication policies. A blog dedicated to the engineering of Microsoft Windows 7 has been launched, and several posts describing some of future feature expected to appear with the new OS in 2007 have been published.

The last posted message indicates that one of the goal of Microsoft is to reduce startup time with Windows 7. Currently, 75% of computers running Vista need less than 50 seconds from booting till users can access the interface. This is far too long for Microsoft engineers, and they decided to analyze the different steps and parameters which could influence startup time.

Why should we talk about it on a Mac-dedicated website? Because if Microsoft closely follow development of Mac OS X and products released by Apple, Cupertino is also doing the same thing. Mac OS X booting and closing down time are some times relatively long, and it would definitely be good to get access quickly to the interface after having turn on the computer. Development of SSD should boost startup time

[translation by Linathael]

- Belkin to Release an iPhone Gaming Controller? - Lionel - 11:22:20

Toucharcade reports to have found the following photo on Belkin’s Spanish website.



It shows a gaming controller supposed to improve gaming experience with the iPhone and iPod Touch. The goal is to offer usual gamepad feeling for players not used to the integrated accelerometer normally used for controls in iPhone games. One does not know if it will remain possible to get a call when this gaming controller is installed on the iPhone.

[translation by Linathael]