News for Wednesday, 20 August 2008

We just learned that unlike previously promised by Apple, the Apple Premium Resellers will still not be able to sell the iPhone in France as in many EU countries. The availability through the APRs channel is now to be planned for September, with no further details. For sure, APRs might feel like a small ball with which Apple is playing depending on the success of a product or Cupertino's needs...
Maybe, apple will take the occasion of the Apple Expo to give APRs the green light? It might also be directly linked to the iPhone shortage, leading Apple to restrict number of distribution channels to better serve/control them.

As Apple keeps having problems to stabilize and bring MobileMe to the expected standard excellence level, and users are having nightmare for synchronizing data (mostly contacts and agenda), Cupertino decided to offer two additional months of service for free.
As stated by Steve Jobs himself: The MobileMe launch clearly demonstrates that we have more to learn about Internet services. And learn we will. The vision of MobileMe is both exciting and ambitious, and we will press on to make it a service we are all proud of by the end of this year.., those two new months of service free of charge might indicate that it will take more time than expected to make MobileMe fully functional irrespective to your usage or location. Especially users from EU countries have been experiencing low performance level of MobileMe while broadband internet infrastructures are much better than in USA. It might be time that Apple realizes that it can not offer a so-called worldwide service, if it only works properly in USA... Cupertino should install a server center in EU in order to better serve the users located on the other side of the Atlantic.
The latest extension applies to both paid and trial account users and should show up in the Account tab of the MobileMe web interface soon

While Apple successfully negotiated a financial compensation regarding the previous case of iPod battery burst leading to fire in Japan, a new reported case relaunched the entire story.
According to Apple, such problem can potentially affected 0.001% of the iPod, however, the Japanese government has asked Apple to provide further details and explanations, and potentially a call-back of affected devices. Maybe the Japanese government forgot about the explosive/burning notebook batteries story couple of months ago which leaded most notebook manufacturers to launch exchange program... but as it was a Japanese company (Sony), it was maybe strategically different...

Apple published a TechNote related to MagSafe power adapter strain relief issues. As expected by many users, Apple indirectly acknowledges the problem with MagSafe power adapter from MacBook (13" Late 2006), MacBook (13"), MacBook Pro (15" Glossy) and MacBook Pro (17"). This is a good move in the right direction; let's hope that Apple will extend the list of products affected to all hardware using first original MagSafe.

Resolution
Whether your product is in or out-of-warranty, you can take your adapter (you don't need to take the computer) to an Apple-Authorized Service Provider or Apple Retail Store for evaluation, and replacement if necessary. You may be eligible for a replacement adapter free of charge provided there are no signs of abuse. Make a reservation at the Genius Bar before visiting your local Apple Retail Store. To make a reservation, go to http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/.

If it implies that it will not be a default exchange program, as the defect will have to be identified/controlled by an Apple's employee, most users who have had problems with their MagSafe while taking good care of the power unit should get it replace without problem, regardless of the warranty status.

Two recent studies indicate that the initiatives of Microsoft aimed at regilding Vista have failed.
In the first, the " Q2 American Customer Index" satisfaction of American consumers shows that Microsoft loses two point passing from 71 to 69, unlining the dissatification for Windows Vista. It should be noted that in the same study Apple strongly climbs, gaining 8% to 85 points.
In the second, one learns that one third of the purchasers of PC with Vista starts with the de-installing Vista in order to replace it with Windows XP.

While Intel did not officially launched them, TGdaily reports to have been testing the extreme version of the future Intel mobile quad-core CPUs. The Core 2 Extreme Q9100 is clocked at 2.26 GHz while the Core 2 Extreme Q9300 will reach 2.53 GHz. they will have TDP of 45 W, a surprisingly low value for quad-core CPUs, but too much for being integrated into high-end notebooks, such as those designed by Apple. However, one could easily integrate them in iMacs which feature a much larger cooling system and does not have to deal with battery lifetime.

Those future quad-core processors will be compatible with the motherboards currently installed in Penryn-based Macs, so in the future we could upgrade Penryn iMac, if the price/performance ratio is worth it.

NVidia released a new version of the SDK Cuda for Mac OS X. It allows developers to code applications in C language to benefit of GPU acceleration from GeForce 8xxx and 9xxx. It requires Mac OS X 10.5.2.

NVIDIA CUDA is a C language development environment for CUDA-enabled GPUs. The CUDA development environment includes:
- nvcc C compiler
- CUDA FFT and BLAS libraries for the GPU
- Profiler
- gdb debugger for the GPU (alpha available in March, 2008)
- CUDA runtime driver (now also available in the standard NVIDIA GPU driver)
- CUDA programming manual
The CUDA Developer SDK provides examples with source code to help you get started with CUDA. Examples include:
- Parallel bitonic sort
- Matrix multiplication
- Matrix transpose
- Performance profiling using timers
- Parallel prefix sum (scan) of large arrays
- Image convolution
- 1D DWT using Haar wavelet

For the very first time , Apple offers a MacBook Air 1,8 GHZ with a 64 GB SSD hard drive for 1749 euros at the French Refurb Store. With a 40% discount on the original price, this might me a good offer for one who needs portability and high end features.
Refurb Store

The Devteam has just released a beta version of QuickPwn, a jailbreaking software for our beloved iPhones and other iPod Touch. While SIM unlocking does not seem to be dealt with (note that 3G iPhones are still not unlockable), it allows much easier jailbreak than with PWNage tool, the custom firmware flashing tool that has put this Russia based team under the spotlight. The current beta only works on Windows but a Mac version is reportedly in the pipeline. Give it a second thought before rushing to jailbreak your Precious, though: since firmware 2.0 and the opening of the AppStore, many developers have come back to the fold and jailbreaking has somehow lost part of its appeal.