Tuesday December 02, 2008

- Google Calendar Officially Supports CalDAV - Ewok - 13:13:42

Google Calendar officially supports CalDAV protocol. CalDAV is a calendar standard protocol and format supported by Apple in iCal, Mozilla in Sunbird and Microsoft in Outlook. It is now possible to synchronize iCal and Google Calendar, but if basic 2-way synchronization should work as expected, not all features are currently supported. You need to be the owner of the calendar, shared calendars can not be synchronized yet.
Google developed a small application for making the synchronization setup a easy task: Calaboration. As a reminder, there is an alternative offering more features for synchronizing iCal and Google Calendar: Spanning Sync; it is not a freeware, but its price might be worse it for most of us.

[translation by Linathael]

- Apple Offers "Free" Licensing for the Mini DisplayPort - Lionel - 09:22:54

Source : Apple

When Apple released the new MacBook models, it also adopted DisplayPort in a different size format than the one certified by the VESA: the mini DisplayPort was born. It quickly became obvious that Apple did not offered all adaptors required to use the unibody MacBooks with all type of display, and many Mac users had the feeling to revisit the ADC era and how Apple locked its hardware to its branded-display. For example, one of the missing adaptor is the Mini DisplayPort -> HDMI to allow unibody MacBook owners to use any HD video devices or TV.
Most likely to stop the growing complain among the Mac community, while preventing giving its competitors weapons to criticize the new MacBook models, Apple made a quite unprecedented announcement by offering 2 mini DisplayPort licensing options:

Mini DisplayPort Connector
The Mini DisplayPort Connector is a small form factor connector designed to fully support the VESA DisplayPort protocol. It is particularly useful on systems where space is at a premium, such as portable computers or to support multiple connectors on reduced height add-in cards. The dimensional specifications of the plug and receptacle mating interface and a recommended PCB landing pad are available for download under the Mini DisplayPort Evaluation License. If you agree to the terms of the evaluation license, download the Mini DisplayPort Connector Dimensions.
Mini DisplayPort Connector Implementation License (No Fee)
If, after evaluation, you would like to obtain a license to develop or distribute plugs, receptacles or other devices implementing the Mini DisplayPort Connector, please download and print this Mini DisplayPort Implementation License, complete according to the attached checklist and mail two original signed Implementation License forms to the Software Licensing address on the checklist. Your license will become effective when signed by Apple.

So any company willing to develop mini DisplayPort adaptor will be able to do it without having to pay royalties to Apple. In parallel, it seems that Apple offered to the VESA to certify the mini Display Port in order to make it a new size format standard. Till this certification is completed and made public by the VESA all mini DisplayPort adaptors manufactured by third-parties will have to feature Apple's copyright.
This is a great news for all of us as it will offer both more compatibility and lower prices, especially considering that some adaptors are simply outrageously expensive.

[translation by Linathael]

- AppStore Now Offers 10,000 iPhone Applications - Lionel - 09:21:53

Source : http://radar.oreilly.com

The application online store dedicated to the iPhone, aka AppStore, introduced by Apple only couples of months ago, just reached its first milestone with 10,000 different applications. In reality, the number of currently available applications is just below 10,000 due to discontinued apps, but this it should be reached during the week.
This information illustrates the incredible buzz and interest of developers for the iPhone platform, and if you visit some developer-dedicated networks, request for iPhone apps development are just rocketing , and several job opportunities are not filled, and salaries are rising.
Among the key features or information about the first 10,000 iPhone apps:

- Games are the leading category, accounting for one in four of total applications. This reinforces Apple's recent marketing campaign around games.
- 0.99USD is the most common price point, although one in four applications are free.
- The most expensive application currently for sale is iRa by Lextech Labs for $899.99. This is video surveillance application that integrates with a number of CCTV systems.
- The entire iPhone App Store catalog could be purchased for just over $30,000, although there's only room to fit 129 of them on your iPhone or iPod touch at any given time (148 apps in total, but that includes the default applications from Apple).

To repeat the success story of the iPod, Apple will have to be maintain such figures and attraction for the iPhone over time, and it will of course require to enlarge the number of potential owners, meaning offering the iPhone without exclusive carrier deal.


[translation by Linathael]

- The Mac continues its increase on the Web - Lionel - 07:40:10

New figures of the market share of the computers on the American Web have been announced.
Mac, as always, increases a bit, passing from 8,21% in October to 8,87% in November. Even though the difference is only 0,66 points, it represents an enormous gain for the Mac.
The iPhone also continues to progress, passing from 0,33% to 0,37%.
It should be noted that Windows regressed in a significant way, going from 90,46% to 89,62% while Linux also increases from 0,71% to 0,83%.

If Apple appears the big winner over the period, it is especially Windows which has seen its market share nibbled away as it lost 3,29% over one year.

[translation by crispin]

- Blu-ray of 400 GB on display - Lionel - 07:30:38

Source : Digitimes

In order to show the world the potential evolution of Blu-ray, Pioneer displayed a functional prototype of a Blu-ray reader able to read media containing 16 layers of 25 GB of data for a total of 400 GB.
According to Pioneer, these disks would be readable on current readers (certainly an update of their firmware would at least be needed). Already Pioneer envisages to reach the industrial stage in the next two years. It will be necessary to wait until 2010 to 2012 to have inscribable media and engravers of 400 GB capacity while one could reach TB in 2013.

[translation by crispin]

- A chip to have Full HD on our mobiles - Lionel - 07:24:44

Source : PC Inpact

Renesas Technology announced a miniscule chip able to decode Full HD (1080p). With a size of 6,4 X 6,5 mm it consumes only 342 MW and runs at the frequency of 500 MHz.
It is intended to be installed in cellphones or mp3 players. Admittedly, their screen do not have this capability, but one can imagine, with the rise of the power and the memory capacity, that Apple could propose, one day in the future, an iPhone or an iPod Touch able to output Full HD to connect on our television sets and there to view the videos bought on the iTunes Store.

[translation by crispin]

- Apple shows another face to Psystar - Lionel - 07:06:22

Now freed from the legal actions of Psystar, Apple has set out again on the attack. In addition to the procedure already in progress, Apple now accuses them of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by circumventing protections of Mac OS X built in to prevent the installation of the system on other machines than the mac.
Apple accuses them "of have acquired or creates a code which cancels, circumvents, withdraws, decodes, deciphers or decontaminates its codes which are under copyright without its agreement." The aggressiveness has indeed changed. If some will be happy, others will regret the clones, where the competition could have pushed Apple to propose an entry level tower. But one never knows, it will be perhaps announced in January.

[translation by crispin]