News for Friday, 24 October 2008

Thanks to Freddy for reporting important information which might interest many Mac users owning a Nokia mobile phones.

Hi all!
Nokia has launched on the 20th of October a Beta version of Nokia Map Loader for Mac: http://betalabs.nokia.com/blog/tag/map-loader-for-mac/
"Overview:
With Nokia MapLoader for Mac, you can side load maps to your phone directly from your Mac. This way, you can save a lot on your data transfer costs – especially if you are planning a trip abroad. Nokia MapLoader allows you to download map data for whole countries or areas, so that you don’t need to use data connection on the road.
For more information about using Nokia Maps on your device, see maps.nokia.com. Nokia Multimedia Transfer 1.3 or higher is required and can be downloaded from www.nokia.com/mac/multimediatransfer."
I personally think it looks visually much better than on Windows

It is good to see that despite the success of the iPhone among the Mac community, other mobile phone manufacturers keep developing applications for making their mobile phone models more friendly with the Mac platform. According to Freddy, we might see more Mac software coming from Nokia in the near future, it will for sure make many Nokia/Mac owners happy, as getting mobile phone and Mac computer communicating efficiently has not been always an easy task.

As many of you might have experienced it, the transfer speed of the USB2.0 port on Mac has always been slower than on PC, even when using BootCamp. The French website Les Numériques performed a test to compare the FireWire and the USB2.0 port of the new MacBook Pro. With a dual interface external HD, the USB2.0 and the FireWire provided the same transfer speed, with 20 MB/s and more than 30 MB/s respectively in reading and writing model, placing the new MBP in front of the tested PC hardware.
This information is important as it resembles the procedure used to clone HDs, as one needs both high transfer speed and low access time. If it might prove that the USB2.0 is now working properly in our Mac, it might not necessarily prove to Mac users that the lack of FireWire in the new MacBook is now justified.

According to the French IT website TT-Hardware, Intel might offer a small speed bump for its current Centrino 2 platform before the transition to Nehalem currently planned to take place during H2 2009. Despite some changes among the chipset family for which we should care as Apple is now using NVidia solutions, Intel could release higher clocked Core 2 Duo CPUs, with some models reaching or breaking the 3 GHz barrier.
This introduction should maintain sales or become the entry-level platform when the Nehalem platform will be released.

Up to now, Intel was the leader on the market for integrated graphics chipset (IGP) dedicated to notebooks. The release of the NVidia GeForce 9400M might dramatically change this situation. Adopted by Apple for all its new MacBook models, this chipset could grab 30 % of the market share, representing dozen of millions of units.
According to the last benchmarking test, the GF 9400M is still 2.5x faster than the most recent Intel IGP, the X4500 HD. So Apple might have made the right choice at the right moment. However, it does not imply that Apple will remain with NVidia forever, and it might well be an adventure which will last till the transition to Nehalem planned for H2 2009.

We just received our MacBook Pro yesterday, and following its disassembling to look what is inside, especially the SSD (see previous news), hereafter is our first comments:
- As usual Apple worked on the user experience, and unpacking the MBP is still a great moment.
- We immediately looked at the famous glossy display to evaluate its brightness and its sensitivity to reflection. The first shock is when you open the notebook while the MBP is off: it is like a black-background mirror. However, when turning the power on, this first impression immediately disappears and the contrast with the black frame around the LCD is very nice.
- Let's see how sensitive to reflections this new display is. Wwell, here again, in the black frame you might see reflections, however if you concentrate on our display and data, you will most likely not notice reflections anymore, thank to the brightness and the contrast of the LED backlighted display. In summary, if you want to see reflections in a bright environment, you will see them; if you watch the information on your screen you will not notice reflections anymore.
- We tried to take photos to illustrate such effect, but it was very difficult to achieve it.
Everybody will have to make its own experience. If I would have had the choice, I would have taken a matt display, however, I do not feel so much negative about this new display, and over time I might be able to give a more detailed judgment.

Samsung and Netflix announced a partnership that allows Netflix to propose on the burners BD-P2550 and BD-P2500 the renting of on-line films that will be streamed from their servers.
The customers will even have the possibility of a double subscription, with the possibility of viewing the contents on-line, and of renting Blu-ray discs by correspondence.
For American, this offer; is not uninteresting, since these compatible readers are marketed at less than $400, a price rather close to readers without these functions.
It is especially a big success for Netflix who have already signed a similar partnership with LG and its Blu-ray readers; this brings a more serious competitor to the iTunes Store and the sorry Apple TV which although equipped with other advantages marks time here.

Deezer, the on-line service to listen to music is now available for downloading onto the iPhones and iPods Touch. This application gives access to unlimited and completely free listening of music.
However, there exists a few limitations. It is impossible to directly seek a specific piece, and if one launches search on a particular artist, only one of his titles will be proposed. In exchange, the software proposes radio broadcasters with theme.
Last good news, one can use this on the iPhones via the telephone network and not only via Wi-Fi. A note to finish with: the quality of the sound is very good.
Deezer on the AppStore