News for Thursday, 2 October 2008

According to our sources and as revealed by Apple Insider Apple is on track to release the first beta version of Snow Leopard, the next Mac Intel-only Mac OS X version.
This is not surprising as many application developers need to know in advance what will be changed in future version of the OS, and it can also help them to benefit from new implemented technologies, such as Open CL.
We are very excited to get the first feedbacks from beta tester, and it will give us the occasion to talk about the Mac... again.

We often discussed about ways to unlock the power of the Apple TV or at least turn the Apple TV box into a more “open” device, especially for the support of additional video format. Many owners did not want to try such procedure as it required disassembling the Apple TV, then using a USB key to install the necessary applications. A new Open Source project might break all those barriers, and make Apple TV unlocking a breathe:

The atvusb-creator allows you to prepare and load automatically an USB key in order to modify the Apple TV software specifications. Almost everything is possible, you can install patchscript, ssh, XMBC and even Linux. You can also create a default factory configuration.
You can always install back the Factory configuration by pressing simultaneously the “menu” and “-“ keys on the remote control. You then choose the Factory Restore option. However, depending on the model, the original firmware might then be version 1.0 or 2.0.
For additional information, please visit: http://code.google.com/p/atvusb-creator/

In a interview to Macworld, Apple spokesman Bill Evans announced that: “We have not found anything that supports this claim, but continue to investigate it for the customer”
If one starts analyzing Apple’s statement, it does not dismiss reports, as Apple can not really claim that the chemical analysis was not performed according to state of the art conditions (ISO certified-lab), but Apple can indeed say without necessarily implying doubts from customers that it did find any evidence to confirm the claim. For sure, Apple will immediately conduct further analysis on its side to track down any similar cases. We had reports indicating that from both EU and US origins, indicating that it might involve a secondary elements, and not necessarily a component, and currently it seems that the thermal paste might be the source of such issue. Indeed, some users reported to have solved the problem by either making the computer running full CPU load for couple of days, or by changing the thermal paste.

If some of you want to try this procedure, there is nothing complicated, and it has been described in details in one of our article for the first generation of Mac Pro (the only potentially affected models): Upgrading CPUs of a Mac Pro to Quad Core Xeons

We spoke about this some time ago, and now Toshiba has finally showed it. The company made the demonstration of a SCiB battery (Super Load Ion Batteries) able to be relcharged to 90% in only 10 minutes. To arrive at this performance, it uses particularly stable compounds which do not degrade with the heat caused by this fast lcharging. In addition to this undeniable advantage, the battery is much more robust than the current products on the market and supports 5000 to 6000 recharge cycles.
Its first use near the general public will be done for electric bicycles. Later on, one will be able to find it in laptops and mobiles.
There will be however a constraint, the size of the charger. One will be need a lot of power to charge quickly such a battery.