News for Monday, 19 January 2009

Apple seems to have no clue of what is going on with its Dual-Link adaptor, and the current problems faced by many unibody MacBook owners. When using the DVI Dual-Link and an Apple Cinema Display in most cases, the image is blurred (left panel), while with other models it is fine (right panel):

To face current issues, Apple support declared that the adaptor is only compatible with the 30" Apple Cinema display. However, according to several readers, it is not true as 30" owners reported incompatibility. As we reported it earlier, there is a clear issue with the DisplayPort mini adaptor and Apple will have to work further on it. It would be interesting to know if such adaptor is working fine when running Windows, and have only issues with OS X, as it would then indicate a driver issue. According to a team member, the adaptor is working perfectly with Dell 30” display…

In its recent financial report, Intel was forced to release a profit warning as despite being the first founder world-wide, decrease of computer sales would impact the company's results. However, Intel indicated that the 32 nm-engraving process was ramping up according to plans and will contribute, as well as the launch of new CPU models, to the more shinny results. Intel denied to have delayed the launch of some of its CPU. However, Digitimes claims that the Nehalem-based mobile CPUs originally planned for July will be postponed at least till the back-to-school period. Such prediction might still evolve depending on computer sales and on manufacturer's stock of CPUs, as Intel might not release any new CPUs if there is not clients ready to incorporate them in a new hardware. In addition, AMD is not expected to launch any mobile PCU competitive enough to push Intel to be the first on the market with a new product.
Regarding the release of Nehalem Xeon to be installed in the future release of Mac Pro; it seems that Apple is waiting for Intel's green light.

Seagate released a webpage dedicated to the current issues affecting some of its HD: http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207931&Hilite=
The list of potentially affected 3.5" HD:
Barracuda 7200.11

ST31000340AS

ST31000640AS

ST3750330AS

ST3750630AS

ST3640330AS

ST3640630AS

ST3500320AS

ST3500620AS

ST3500820AS

ST31500341AS

ST31000333AS

ST3640323AS

ST3640623AS

ST3320613AS

ST3320813AS

ST3160813AS
Barracuda ES.2 SATA

ST31000340NS

ST3750330NS

ST3500320NS

ST3250310NS
DiamondMax 22

STM31000340AS

STM31000640AS

STM3750330AS

STM3750630AS

STM3500320AS

STM3500620AS

STM3500820AS

STM31000334AS

STM3320614AS

STM3160813AS
All HDs have been manufactured on December 2008. Seagate offers an online detector system allowing you to identify if your HD is potentially affected or not. You will need to enter the serial number at the following address: https://apps1.seagate.com/rms_af_srl_chk
If your HD is internally plugged, you will find information related to the serial number in system information under SATA tab. If it is plugged via an external enclosure, you might get the information too from the system (depending on the bridge), or you will have to disassemble it (it voids the warranty, so it you installed the HD yourself, no problem, if you purchased the external HD as a complete unit, you better contact your reseller).
If your HD is detected as faulty, Seagate will ask you to contact its customer support service, as no firmware update has been made public so far.

If XP was the most popular Windows version and allowed Microsoft to strengthen its monopoly, it starts to become a problem for Microsoft.
After postponing several time XP's EOL status, and asked EOM and manufacturers to switch from XP to Vista, Microsoft might be forced to let XP survive after 2010.
Indeed, Intel asked Microsoft to keep XP system supporting and selling XP for several years in order to preserve netbook sales as their limited CPU performance can NOT match with Vista specifications. The current plan would be to let XP on the market till Microsoft release a "Light" version of Windows. Intel's request will most likely be followed by Microsoft as current Netbook are often selling with a Linux system, so to avoid losing this market, Redmond's giant will have to be able to offer a competitive OS, aka XP.

Just like Apple on its MacBook Pro 17" , Dell proposes SSD disks instead of the basic 320 GB 5400 rpm. But this option marketed on the XPS models is much less expensive than at Apple. Count on $200 more to have a disk of 128 GB compared to $500 for Apple, and $400 for a model 256 GB compared to $900.

Probably on the 128 GB model (and certainly on the 256 GB), the disk used is identical, a Samsung.
Even though it is probable that Apple has a higher margin on its component, the difference is such as Samsung is certainly not selling its disks at the same price to the two manufacturers.