News for Thursday, 17 April 2008

Source: Tom's hardware

IOGear, who specializes in KVM Switches, announces a new product which could tempt some professionals. It lets you transmit a DVI signal over a distance of 90ft via a simple ethernet cable. To achieve this, one connects the DVI output from one computer to a box that will convert and amplify the signal along the cable to a second box that will restore it bac to a DVI signal. It is also possible to convey sound via cable jack.
Those who need a long-range monitor and can afford the box (almost $500) will be interested. Even shielded DVI cables never exceeded 35ft.

While the price of the iPhone dropped only recently to 169 £, UK consumers can now get it even cheaper. The website Quidco offers to get it for 67 £ after 100 £ cash-back when placing an order associated with a subscription plan.
for sure if the iPhone would be offer for 85 Euros in France or in Germany, sales might rocket up. On the other side, having cash-back websites offering deals on iPhone is the last sign of a new iPhone revision to come, and probably right around the corner. O2 might be trying to empty its stocks of iPhone rev1 before getting the long expected 3G iPhone in stock in June.

IBM seems to have gained some time over competitors in the race towards thinner engraving process, and has decided to heavily communicate about it.
IBM expects to manufacture the first 32 nm engraving-based CPU samples by the end of the year. Thank to a new material, the high-k/metal gate (HKMG), the company expect to increase clock speed by up to 35% when compared to 45 nm engraving-based CPU. In addition, it should also help to save 30 to 50% power consumption
On its side, Intel is not communicating as much as IBM regarding the 32 nm engraving, and we only know that it should happen in 2009. One should also not forget that getting samples does not mean that scaling up to mass production.
Last but not least, it would be nice to get a better usage by OS and applications of the increasing number of cores in our CPUs, what the use of having 8 or 12 cores CPU, engraved at 32 nm, if the system or applications can only benefit from 4 cores...

Yesterday, we were mentioning the legal action launched by Seagate against STEC, a small SSD manufacturer.
It did not take long before STEC published an official answer to patent infringement claims from Seagate.
STEC starts by reminding Seagate that they were already building flash memory-based HD in 1994 (as they are developing such products for space and military industries), while Seagate patents were issued in 2005. STEC even think that Seagate might misappropriate STEC’s core technologies
To conclude STEC cite a fact about which we will almost all agree:

We view this action as Seagate's attempt to slow down the growth that STEC's SSD business is experiencing, particularly in the enterprise segment.

Entitled "Blood, sweat and cheers", entries for the Apple Design Awards 2008 are now being accepted. So if you are a Mac application developer, run to your computer and submit your application in one or more of the following categories.

iPhone Developer Showcase
Highlights innovative and compelling new iPhone applications built using the Beta iPhone SDK. Entries in this category must be pre-release, feature complete versions which run within the iPhone simulator or on an iPhone or iPod touch. Apple reserves the right to award more than one winning entry in this category.
Best iPhone Web Application
Highlights web applications designed specifically for Safari on iPhone, which offers iPhone users innovative, compelling, valuable, and highly desirable capabilities.
Best Mac OS X Leopard Application
Highlights trendsetting, innovative, best-of-breed Mac OS X Leopard applications. Entries in this category must be release versions.
Best New Mac OS X Leopard Game
Highlights games introduced on Mac OS X Leopard after June 2007, which take full advantage of relevant Leopard technologies and offer the best entertainment value to all ages. Entries in this category must be release versions.
Best Mac OS X Leopard User Experience
Highlights excellence in design, aesthetics, ease of use, compelling and appropriate use of animation, and pervasive integration with built-in Mac OS X Leopard system services and sharing technologies. Entries in this category must be release versions.
Best Mac OS X Leopard Graphics and Media Application
Highlights best-of-breed Mac OS X Leopard graphics and media solutions providing unparalleled functionality, performance, innovation, and stunning visuals and/or audio. Entries in this category must be release versions.
Best Mac OS X Leopard Student Product
Highlights Mac OS X Leopard applications developed exclusively by Student Developers. Entries in this category must be release versions.

Do not forget that entries will be accepted beginning Tuesday, April 15 and ending at 5PM (PDT) Monday, May 12, 2008. Complete the online Contest Entry Form and upload your iPhone or Mac OS X Leopard application via FTP.

Apple has just made available, via the software updates or by direct download, an update for Safari (39 MB for Mac OS X 10.4.11, Mac OS X 10.5.2, Windows XP and Windows Vista).

This update is recommended for all Safari users and includes improvements to stability, compatibility and security.

Safari will certainly be considered faster as often is the case after such updates.

According to Digitimes, UMC specialized in the manufacture of made-to-order chips obtained the contract of manufacture the 3G chips that will be used the iPhone.
According to the information, these chips will be manufactured in 65 nm, which is unusual for this type of product rather than the 90 nm.
This would be proof that Apple has pulled all stops to decrease the power consumption, a large black spot of this type of chip.