News for Wednesday, 17 September 2008

The German online shop IT Shop that sells Macs among other things shows strange MacBook Pro's pictures:

They do not fit the present Apple laptops even if the design is really close to the one we know. One can see a black framed screen and a lack of hinges, just like the MacBook air.
Yours to decide if the picture is a leak or only a cheap publicity stunt.

According to Europa.eu Steve Jobs was at a "round table for consumers and industrials about opportunities and brake actings for online commerce in the European Common Market.".

Looking for him is way to easy: he's the only one not wearing a suit :)
The meeting's report will be available soon.

Steve Jobs officially announced 8 and 16GB fourth generation iPod nanos.

That's the reason why one's thought this picture which was taken in the Nederlands was a fake cause it did showed a 4GB model.
Contrary to expectations, Apple confirmed they manufactured a small amount of those nanos for limited markets. They're sold for $169 (€119) which is more expensive than the current $149 8GB US's price, but about $40 less than the european 8GB's price (€149). Color's choice remains just the same.

During the night, Apple released an update of its Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) Client and Server. The new version 3.2.2 is recommended to all users of ARD and fixes several bugs affecting reliability and security of the system. It is available via software update panel.

Apple offers an update for the native support of new digital camera models, often expected by many owners to fully benefit from their new camera on a Mac. The following models are now supported by Apple applications:

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS/Kiss Digital F/1000D
Kodak DCS Pro SLR/n
Nikon D700
Olympus EVOLT E-420
Olympus EVOLT E-520
Olympus SP-570
Samsung GX-10
Samsung GX-20
Sony DSLR-A300
Sony DSC-R1

This update is available from the software update panel.

According to the last rumors available on the web, Microsoft might have decided to speed up the release of its future OS, aka Windows 7. The new dead-line could now be June 2009, so about 2 years after the launch of the current version, Vista, a rather short period between 2 major releases. While sale figures remains excellent, majority of users downgrade their OS from Vista to XP, and the overall usage of Vista on PC does not take off. In addition, HP is currently evaluating the option of developing its own Linux to be provided as the default OS in its computer models.
The recent advertising campaign featuring Seinfeld and Gates, and worth 300 millions USD, does not seem to have modified the tendency for Vista. Microsoft is now facing stronger competitors with Linux and Mac OS X, while not being able to stop the support on Windows XP. The problem for Microsoft is not the lower than expected financial results, but the fact of loosing market shares while originally being an unreachable leader.
This earlier release of Windows 7 would also be a challenge for Apple. Indeed, with Snow Leopard, the company has decided to slow down evolution on the GUI and concentrate on modifying and optimizing deep layers of the code and the OS to speed it up, and to pave the way of the development for the next decade while being able to benefit from future hardware revolution. Apple might have to revise its plan and face a new Windows version earlier than expected. On the other end, several points indicate that Windows 7 could only be a refreshment of Vista, and not really an entirely new version and it could explain why Microsoft can speed up such release.

Samsung launched a hostile bid for Sandisk by putting on the table 5.8 billion dollars. As always in this kind of case, Sandisk announced that this offer is under evaluation their company. But the shareholders will probably have difficulty resisting this offer, since Sandisk has announced rather poor figures in a market based on the very depressed flash memory.
Samsung, in making this offer, is trying to get the knowledge connected with memory controllers, but also to obtain a famous trademark which would enable them to sell their excess flash memory directly.
In the medium term with the emergence of the SSD market, Samsung could easily make a profit from this purchase. The other interest with this offer will be to prevent Seagate from putting its hands on Sandisk thus slowing down its arrival onto the SSD market in a considerable way.