As expected, Intel officially unveiled today its Penryn CPUs, with 5 models dedicated to its mobile platform:
T8100: 2.1 GHz 3MB cache FSB 800 MHz
T8300: 2.4 GHz 3MB cache FSB 800 MHz
T8930: 2.5 GHz 6MB cache FSB 800 MHz
T9500: 2.6 GHz 6MB cache FSB800 MHz
X9000: 2.8 GHz 6MB cache FSB800 MHz
The last model should find its way in the iMac, as its TDP makes it unfriendly for being use in notebook (or it would strongly reduce battery lifetime).
If the clock frequency did not significantly increase when compared to the first Santa Rosa-dedicated CPUs, the Penryn and their SSE4 instruction set bring a substantial gain of performance for multimedia applications, and will be noticeably enjoyed by Mac users with 10.5.2.
The improved power management technology included in Penryn mobile CPU should further increase battery lifetime (such as turning L1 and L2 cache off when the CPU is idle).
So, with such new mobile CPU offer, one will simply need to imagine the future MacBook Pro, MacBook, iMac and let's hope Mac mini.
Intel also unveiled new 3xxx Xeon CPUS. They are different than those to be found in the future Penryn powered Mac Pro, as they can not be used on dual socket motherboard, and are in summary renamed Core 2 Quad. However, Apple might use them for offering a entry-level tower model, much cheaper than the current entry-level Mac Pro.
It's THAT time of the year... again.
The 2008 edition of
MacWorld San Francisco Expo is approaching fast (from January 15th to 18th), and it should be a great vintage.
Last year we got the iPhone and it sure stormed the Mac and cellphone worlds.
This year, the rumor mill is abuzz with predictions of a version 2 iPhone (3G anyone?) along with the long awaited iPhone SDK (well, that's not really a rumor anymore), a subnotebook-style MacBook, new MacBook Pros and Mac Pros, as well as new displays (long overdue). Some even think that Apple will unveil some sort of multitouch-enabled desktop Mac and/or dockable laptop (see
our news about an Apple patent): this one seems a bit far fetched, but, hey!, Apple has a long history of surprising us by announcing way more - or less - than everybody hoped for. And, of course, everyone is holding their breath (or not) to know what will happen with Jobs' so-called "hobby": the AppleTV.
One thing is sure: it should be an
interesting Expo, and there's one fact that strongly hints at this:
Apple has invited the European media to a live broadcast of the Keynote session, in the BBC TV Studios. If I remember well, last year's Keynote
didn't get the satellite treatment, so... The Keynote will take place on January 15th, from 9 to 10:30am PST, so mark this down in iCal to be sure not to miss the appointment.
And because Hardmac/Macbidouille really is all about the Mac and all things Apple (as long as they can be tinkered with and hacked away...), we'll have someone from the team on site, coming all the way from France for the Expo: me!
I'll try to get as much intel as I can while on the show floor, posting live updates from my iPhone and my reliable MacBook Pro (as long as there's some wifi available, I don't plan to be one of these people doing the headlines about "monstrous EDGE roaming bills"). Macbidouille will try and secure me a pass to the Keynote, but there's absolutely nothing certain there even if we'll do our best.
So, if you have any questions you would like answered or things you want me to investigate during the Expo, head over to the forums by way of the "Add your comment" link below and let me know.
And stay tuned for our pre-Expo posts and live keynote coverage...
Couple of days before the MWSF, while Mac rumor sites are releasing photos supposed to illustrate future products from Apple, a new patent issued by Apple might defined how Cupertino is designing the future of docking station for notebooks. So far, such devices were composed of stations already linked to a display and other peripherals.
The last patent from Apple illustrates how one can transform a MacBook into an iMac. If the concept looks interesting, Apple will have to add a new connector for connecting the notebook to the iMac station, and also develop a system to cool down the components located inside the notebook when being "docked" into the iMac.
While it remains unclear which format will win the blue- laser-based battle, the Warner Home Video announced that it will exclusively distribute its movies in Blu-ray format in a near future.
Of course, no one knows if such announcement was obtained after negotiating partnership and/or financial compensation with Sony, but one can also imagine that Warner decided to choose one side to speed up the end of this battle.
This news was a surprise for Toshiba-leaded alliance, and a 1:1 HD-DVD conference at the CES 2008 was even cancelled.
Of course it will not put an end to this war, as the Paramount has made the opposite choice, by exclusively distributing its catalog in HD-DVD.
Hereafter is a report from one of our readers about a TomTom product
I recently purchased a GPS map update for TomTom.
After two days, TomTom Home was not able to locate my new maps, and as a consequence could not download them.
Hereafter is the answer from TomTom Consumer Service following my request:
Dear Mr. XXXXXXX,
Thanks for contacting TomTom consumer Service
To download your card you need TomTom HOME 2.1.
You can obtained it from the following link: www.tomtom.com/7606
HOME2 is not currently available for Apple Macintosh, and we are working hard to release a solution in a near future.
In the mean time, you can use a Windows-based computer to take advantage of our offer regarding map updates (Windows XP, 2000 or Vista including the last service packs).
If, you have any question or need any further information; do not hesitate to contact us
Sincerely Yours
TomTom Consumer Service
The related maps (MapShare) have been released since months, and the current version of Home compatible with Mac (version 1.6) was only released last week, and is not compatible with those maps.
Of course such information is not available on TomTom website when placing your order for MapShares...
Yesterday,
the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2008), the world largest consumer electronic-oriented event, opened its doors,
For most companies in the field, this is the perfect place to introduce new products, prototypes and concepts, as well as defining what consumers will find in shops over the year. we will keep you inform of all information which could be linked the Mac.
First, it seems that SSD drive will be one of the most expected products this year, with numerous companies unveiling their offer, including Intel. It also illustrates how this solid state storage solution can offer both performance and space to save your data. Fast SSD are usually obtained with SLC chips, however, one can not achieve high density with such design, and the storage capacity of such drive will be rapidly limited. To increase space, manufacturers have developed MLC chips, allowing much larger storage capacity at the cost of writing speed and power consumption.
Competition between both SSD models will be defined by their use and the ratio price/capacity/power consumption. For entry level products, SSD drives should be limited to 32 to 64GB, while larger SSD will have lower writing speed and be power draining (as high as 2W!).
