News for Tuesday, 9 September 2008

Now available on Software Update:

QuickTime 7.5.5 includes changes that increase reliability, improve application compatibility and enhance security.
This release is recommended for all QuickTime 7 users.
For detailed information on the security content of this update, please visit this website: http://www.info.apple.com/kbnum/n61798.

This Front Row update provides improved iTunes 8.0 compatibility and bug fixes.

The new 2.1 Firmware update for the iPod Touch is now available. It's $9,95 price won't be charged for those who already bought the 2.0 version.

2.1 Firmware for the iPod Touch

If your means are unlimited and that you are unceasing with the search of maximum performances, the card ioSAN is made for you.

It acts as a card with the format PCI-Express with two Ethernet 10 Gbits/s port and one Infiniband and on which it is possible to install two ultra fast Flash memory modules each of 320 GB. Thus equipped, it is able to reach a data flow of 1,5 GB/s and especially 200.000 inputs/outputs a second, the equivalent of a few thousand hard drives.
This card will be available to at the beginning of 2009 with at a price not yet known and should interest only some professional services needing to access large databases.
However this product is also interesting to show the potential that SSD disks may acheive one day for the general public, probably in some tens of years.

During today's Keynote, Steve Jobs announced a bunch of new products. Here's a short sum-up of the event:
-New iTunes 8 now offers browsing by cover albums and new genius playlists: make automatic playlists from songs in your library that go great together. NBC is back on iTunes.
-The new iPod classic goes to 120GB and can hold 30,000 songs while the 160GB version has been discontinued.
Price is $249.
-The iPod Nano gets a new skinny look, oval shape, with a larger screen. It gets new features such as voice recording and shake it to start shuffle. It's the thinnest iPod ever and a good point is that it's environementally friendly with arsenic free glass, and the fact that it's mercury and PVC free. New headphones have in-band controls for volume and playback control from a button. It's available in a nice range of colors: silver, black, purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, violet, but no white.
Prices are $149 for the 8GB and $199 for the 16GB.
-The new iPod Touch is thinner as well and redesigned with a nice steel contour. It features volume control on the side and a speaker. It now has a Nike+iPod buit in receiver and can manage the new genius playlists. A whole bunch of new games for the Touch are available via the App Store.
New software is 2.1 and the update from 1.x will cost you $9.95. (free for the 2.0 owners)
Prices are $229 for the 8GB, $299 for the 16GB and $399 for the 32GB.

Finally, we, HardMac team, would like to express our sincere apology for the live coverage we were unable to produce tonight.
Be sure we'll try to do way better next time.

During the keynote, Steve Jobs ironically made fun of his announced death.

His rivals and enemies might have to wait a little longer !

Friday will see the 2.1 update for the iPhone. Nothing new was announced, but it should fix some problems:
- Better performance
- Fewer dropped calls
- Better battery life
- Less Apps crashes
- Faster backups
Which all should've been in the iPhone 3G in the first place.

As expected, Apple announced new iPods:
- iPod nano:
Accelerometer
Creation of "Genius" playlists
Enhanced User Interface
Voice recording (when it detects a mic)
Rotation of the screen when you hold it sideways
Shake to shuffle songs
Available in 8GB ($149) and 16GB ($199) models in multiple colours.

- iPod Touch:
Built-in speakers
Volume Button
36 hour music playback, 6 hours for video
Integrated Nike+iPod receptor
Available in 8GB ($229), 16GB ($299), and 32GB ($399) models
- 120 GB iPod Classic for $249

Steve Jobs has announced that iTunes 8 will be available for download shortly. It contains a new feature dubbed "Genius" which searches your music library and offers suggestions based on the music you like.

It is a difficult period for NAND flash manufacturers. Following biased predictions/expectations, they have production capacity way to large compared to the current demand for such products, As a consequence, prices keeps going down while stocks are getting larger every day.
SanDisk is currently trying to sell not the NAND chips, but wafers on which the chips are engraved but not cut and packaged yet. Indeed, the post-production is the expensive part, and SanDisk is trying to sell part of its production to avoid having to stock up finished product while waiting for the price to increase again.
Unfortunately, companies interested in such NAND flash chips have either there own stocks already, or are in position to define the price for such chips, bringing the value of NAND chips further down. this could also explain why SanDisk might be acquired by Samsung.

Apple seems to have decided to close down all its online Apple Stores more than 2 hours before the beginning of the Let's Rock Special Event.
So, then we can start speculating, only 2 hours to go before defining who was right or wrong :)
Shortest link to: Apple Store Europe

Dear readers, this post just to remind you to fire up your browsers today slightly before 10am PST (meaning GMT-9, so for example it will be 6pm in London and 7pm in Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona, etc...) and point then to Hardmac.com, for our potential live coverage of the Steve's "let's Rock" special event.
As usual, we hope our servers will handle the load and won't collapse under the stare of so many eager readers. We also expect to have enough team members to help us covering the stream of news. I will post the link to the dedicated webpage as soon as it is up and running.
Stay tuned!
[update]
The link to the dedicated webpage:

http://keynote.hardmac.com

According to information available on the web, NVidia is offering 200 USD per defective notebook GPU to computer companies. It should cover cost linked to shipping GPU-defective notebook back to repair center, replacement of the motherboard, then potentially repairing the latest.
Based on the 200 millions USD budget allocated by NVidia for covering the costs associated to this issue, it means that the company expect that 1 million GPU will turn dead within the warranty period, while hundreds of millions of potentially defective GPU have been shipped...
Unfortunately, end users who will directly be affected by having their notebook turning dead from one day to the other will of course not receive financial compensation for the lost or time or productivity... It remains unclear how such defective GPUs will be covered when the warranty period will be over (one to 3 years in general). However, in most EU countries, computer companies should not forget that hidden defect are associated with unlimited warranty, meaning that Apple and others will have to cover motherboard replacement on any affected notebooks, so they should ring at NVidia's door to mention those points as it will not only cost money for one or 3 years, but maybe 5 to 10...

SSD were initially presented as the right solution to decrease power consumption associated with storage unit in notebooks. However, with times and after testing first SSD samples to be released, things have changed, or evolved. Couple of weeks ago, Tom’s hardware ignited fire by publishing a test aiming to compare power consumption of SSD vs. 2.5”HD, with rather surprising conclusions: SSD might drain more power in some cases (test procedure was questionable), but definitely pointing a question mark on the real power saving factor associated with SSDs.
Today, the French website Hardware.fr published an in-depth test aiming to compare SSD models to 2.5”HD, involving SSD from Samsung, Intel, OCZ and SuperTalent. Results are interesting even though it is difficult to conclude as SSD are just born compared to HD:
- All SSD are not born equal performance-wise
- SSD power consumption is not as low as claimed by manufacturers, and can even be higher that 2.5 »HD, whoever the latest have lower performance level.
- SSD are sometimes fasters than the best 2.5 » HD, however performance level can drop significantly depending on the type of request.
In summary, if the technology seems powerful and full of potentials, SSD are not fully evolved to really compete against 2.5” HD yet, and depending on the type of request mostly used by users, one storage unit might be more advantageous than the other.

It is difficult for us for not sharing with you information received from our sources, so hereafter if what we know.
- Let's start wit the iPod nano 4G: available as 8 or 16 GB model, different colors: silver, blue, pink, violet, orange, black, yellow, green and red (RED).
- The shape of the iPod Touch will evolve, however storage space will remain unchanged: 8, 16 or 32 GB.
- An iPod Classic featuring a 120 GB storage space will be unveiled
- A pink iPod Shuffle (to replace the current violet model) will be added to the offer, storage capacity will not change (1 or 2 GB)
Apple should significantly reduce the price of its iPods, all models included. This are of course "rumors" so far they have not been confirmed officially.

Intel has already delayed its Centrino 2 architecture equipped with integrated video, it is now learned that they will also delay certain Nehalem processors. These products are Havendale (for office machines) and Auburndale (for portables), these are Nehalem processors equipped with two cores and also integrated video, a first for Intel. The goal was by putting the video in the same chip that the performance would improve while simplifying largely the structure of the mother boards, and this would have lowered the cost of the entry level machines.
Envisaged for the third quarters 2009, the Havendale will, in the final analysis, be available only at the beginning of 2010.
One can also wonder whether Intel made the choice to delay certain products in order to release the resources for others. Indeed, never has the founder been so aggressive and releasing so many products at the same time. AMD on the other hand is at the edge of the technical KO, they do not manage to follow in terms of innovation nor in term of power.