News for Thursday, 13 November 2008

Apple has just made available via software update and by direct download, the update of Safari to version 3.2, for Windows, Tiger and Leopard.

This update is recommended for all Safari users and features protection from fraudulent phishing websites and better identification of online businesses. This update also includes the latest security updates.

LG, Sharp and CPT admitted guilt of having had an illicit agreement re the price of LCD screens. We were direct victims since many manufacturers of laptops, Apple included, were forced to overpay between 2001 and 2006 for these components intended for their laptops by a few tens of Euros.
To bring the procedure to a close, the 3 companies agreed to pay a fine of 585 million Dollars.
The investigations are not yet finished, screens intended for other products, LCD television sets and monitors, have been also affected by this embezzlement.

Most of us have been already facing a HD failure, demonstrating how backup of your data are so essential.
If you want to be trained to recognize the sound of a dying HD, Datacent has made available a library of the typical noises produced by the unit when it is reaching its end of life. Interesting information, especially for those who never experienced a HD crash.

It is now a month since Apple brought out its new range portables and since then some of us await a 17" model to be released.
Rumours initially stated that the release date of the machine was pushed back because a problem with the screen. It is possible, given that the slab of glass weighs down the screen, and that the hinges of the 15" machines already have trouble to support the weight and to ensure sufficient stabilisation at any given angle.
But the most probable cause could be related to the new manufacturing process of the bodies of these machines. Previously, it was sufficient just to create a mould and press them out. It is probable that the production chain has not been adapted yet to this different work or quite simply that the machine tools intended for this format are not ready.
This may give Apple a chance to bring out a model that takes account of various criticisms: why not with several Firewire ports and with an option to have a matte screen?

With the arrival of the new portables from Apple, many people have noted that it is no longer to put the iPhones and the iPod Touch into mode DFU. This is a particular mode in which the device accepts more easily the firmware updates. However, more importantly, this mode is essential if one wants to "jailbreak" the iPhones.
Apple thus seem to have started again its battle against the hackers.
If, for a moment, some thought that this limitation was related to the hardware, it now seems more likely that it is instead related to the specific version of Mac OS X installed on new MacBook and MacBook Pro.
This new attempt against the unlocking of these devices had to arrive. Indeed, for a long time the principal goal of the jailbreak was related to the desimlockage of the iPhone or with the installation of third party software, it has since become a means of pirating the software of the AppStore and this, to our eyes, is infinitely more condemnable.

We have reported many times the economic difficulties encountered by the manufacturers of memory who are confronted with an uncontrollable fall of the sales of their products.
This crisis began a few months before the release of Windows Vista. This system, greedy in memory, convinced them that there was going to be a large whiplash to the sales; thus they started to increase their production capacities. Alas for them, this bet did not pay off and the overproduction caused an unrestrained fall of their profit margins. Hoping that this crisis would not last, the largest producers continued to invest massively hoping to be more profitable in the medium-term. But the crisis that prevails now will be certainly be too much for a number of them. There seems no end in sight for this market that has already started to downsize; and this reduction will certainly not be sufficient.
According to DRAMeXchange, the specialist in this market, the only solution for them is to reduce their production capacities enormously or to die. Unfortunately, some will not be able to solve the enormous loss of money in the short term by closing production lines installed at great expense.
In this case, the price of the memory will still drop before going up abruptly if one or more of the players are obliged to close up shop.