News for Tuesday, 5 February 2008

Apple has just released a pair of updates for MacOS X:

- iPhoto 7.1.2:

This update addresses issues when publishing photos to a .Mac Web Gallery, improves overall stability, and fixes a number of other minor issues.
For information on the security content of this update, please visit this website: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61798

- ProKit 4.5:

This update improves reliability for Apple's professional applications and is recommended for all users of Final Cut Studio, Final Cut Express, Aperture, Logic Studio and Logic Express.

It has now been over two years since Apple has begun the transition from Power PC processors to Intel, which, it is fair to say, has become a huge success. This transition took place with an incredible simplicity, strongly supported by Rosetta and by the availability of compilers that have enabled developers to quickly offer native software. Of course, a huge propellant was the faily quick transition of Adobe CS.
The final component of that transition was the eagerly-awaited Microsoft Office 2008, which has now sold for over two weeks. Until the release of Office 2008, we had full confidence in the MBU (Macintosh Business Unit), which has operated at Microsoft for 11 years, doing an excellent job, we might add. Their Mac versions often surpass their Windows-counterparts, but it's difficult not to be disappointed Office 2008. Without wanting to throw too many stones, let's just say it disappoints.
Although some cosmetic and functional improvements were certainly made, it now runs natively with the Intel CPU, which has yielded disappointing results! The first and foremost, we have already discussed that performance is slow. As incredible as it may seem, it is not better than 2004's performance, even under Rosetta. On the contrary, everything in Excel is slower, Entourage is still incredibly dependent on the disk and froze when we simultaneously selected a few dozen messages. We have even come to believe that a piece of code regarding PPC disk-access had been forgotten! Other problems exist, for example, a bug in the installer not giving the right permissions to files, or this incredible omission of Visual Basic.
We are not only disappointed but also worried. Like it or not, Office on the Mac is still essential for many professionals, and a sub-par version may affect sales of Apple machines. Our high expectations, therefore, might encourage the MBU to work very hard to improve its software suite as soon as possible!

Last May, a study to measure the effect of electromagnetic waves generated by the iPod on PaceMakers caused quite a stir. Its findings showed that in 50% of cases, the player had disrupted the functioning of these devices, even causing total halt in operation in one patient. Of course, critics of Apple products are always quick to pull the trigger on reporting negative findings.
A new study done this time in-vitro brings totally contradictory results. None of 4 iPod models has been able to generate a magnetic field sufficient to disrupt the functioning of a PaceMaker to within 2.7 cm distance (just over 1 inch). The magnetic field generated has been shown to be less than that of the background noise generated by the pacemaker.
It will certainly prompt further studies to verify these results, but we wonder what interest they may have sparked in PaceMaker-users, who know they must, under no circumstances, move even the smallest electronic devices within close proximity of their hearts.

Ageia is a small company founded in 2002 that has tried in recent years to wedge its PhysX chips in the realm of video games. The PhysX-friendly coding paired with their dedicated physics-processing PCI cards greatly improve the rendering of video games, producing very realistic, stimulating effects.
Even though intentions are good, there are only a few games on the PC have been optimized with PhysX coding. With only a few games optimized, few cards were sold, and thus, few developers were tempted to write with PhysX in mind.
NVidia has probably saved the company in deciding to purchase it. Eventually, one could find PhysX support in their graphics chips, which could entice developers to implement the technology. Last September, Intel had purchased Havok-developed solutions that rival those of Ageia.
Another problem arises in this kind of acquisition. In recent years, strategies (AMD) ATI and NVidia began to diverge in the technological choices made in their hardware. At this point in time, the differences are few, but if each company begins to implement their proprietary technologies, it might become necesary to install one of each type in one's machine in order to enjoy all games.

Apple introduced a new iPhone and a new iPod touch, featuring respectively 16GB and 32GB of storage space. The new high-end iPhone is now priced 499 USD as well as the high-end iPod touch.
those new products does not replace existing ones, Apple is simply adding high-end model with more storage space to keep having its flagship models ahead of competitors.

First tests performed on PC were already indicating that the 1TB Samsung F1 was a fast HD and would not fear many competitors. This has now been confirmed on Mac too.
Xlr8yourmac published a comparison of the Samsung F1 vs. Hitachi model, both HD featuring 32MB of cache and 1TB of a storage space. The 1TB Western Digital Caviar was also included, however it has only 16MB of cache.
The Samsung F1 won all benchmark tests, in front of the WD Caviar, the Hitachi coming last, most probably due to its age, as it was the 1TB HD on the market.
As a summary, the Samsung F1 is definitely today the best OD for any users willing to get a 1TB storage space unit associated to high level performance. For higher performance level, one will have to choose the WD Raptor, however it will not be the same storage space capacity.

Here we go for some hours of speculations! New products or simply Apple Store server upgrade?
The European Apple Stores are open, so it might be something related to the recently announced Video rental service on iTunes Store.

We received a very successful phishing for Paypal accounts.

Access to your account has been restricted!
Security measures by PayPal.
Dear Member We recently reviewed your account and to provide a continuous service, we would need more information about your business. As long as we can not collect this information, your access to the confidential account remains limited. We want to restore full access to your account as soon as possible. Please forgive the inconvenience.
Why access to my account is limited?
Access to your account has been restricted for the following reason:
Jan. 28, 2008: Your account may have been used by a third party. Because the security of your account is our main priority, we have limited access to some strategic features of your PayPal account. We know that this restriction may cause temporary inconvenience to you, but you should know that we are acting to ensure your safety.
(The case number for this is PP-431-474-491.)

Of course, the link leads to a server whose sole purpose is to retrieve usernames and passwords.
Be careful, scammers have learned to write well in french and to make their hooks credible enough to reel in many victims.
Update: The same scam has appeared for Chase bank accounts.

Even though Intel does not manufacturer (yet) video cards, they are in first place concerning a graphic solution using a chipset such as the GMA950 or the GM X3100 that we have seen in certain Macs.
Intel has just published this documentation that allows developers in the 'free' world, led by Linux, to develop drivers that have better 2D and 3D support.
We assume that this has been motivated by at least two things:
- Intel has never been particularly strong with its video products. In this way it can use the development made by others to improve their product.
- they must also prepare for 2009 when their graphic solution must compete with AMD and NVidia who have a project known only by its code name "larrabee".
Let us hope that Apple can also issue something to the Open Source community working in this segment!

Not everyone uses Time Machine, however every time you attach an external Firewire or USB disk, the program proposes to use that disk as a backup volume. If this happen rarely, then it is not a problem, but if you have a portable to which to often connect a disk, it becomes annoying. To suppress this notification, all that is needed is to enter the following command in the terminal:

defaults write com.apple.TimeMachine DoNotOfferNewDisksForBackup -bool YES

To return to the previous condition, one just reenters the above line but changing the YES to NO.
It is high time for Apple to add this configuration options to what is one of best the innovations of Mac OS X.