News for Monday, 9 March 2009

Samsung started producing its first 1.5 TB 3.5" HD based on 3 platters of 500 GB each. Entitled EcoGreen Spinpoint F2EG, they should drain 40 to 50% less power than competitor models. Samsung joined the club of the manufacturers able to offer HD based on 500 GB/platter: Seagate and Western Digital, the latest having packed four of such disc into a single enclosure to make the first 2 TB HD available.
According to Samsung, "green" HD should be using 3 x 500 GB platter instead of 4 as they drain less power, and heat less too. If this ecological argument is correct, it might also back up perfectly another marketing point: in the current economic environment, it might be more useful to offer a 1.5 TB HD around 140 € than 2 TB for twice the price as the strategy currently followed by WD.

As reported in Apple discussion forum, the recent Airport Extreme N firmware update to 7.4.1 has generated some problems. It affects stations purchased in USA but used in europe. Indeed, if channels 36, 40, 44 and 48 are available in europe, there 8 additional ones in USA, among them the channel 149. If the station selects the latest channel and is being used in Europe, no computer will be able to access it. Instead of reinstalling the previous firmware, you can simply push the Airport admin to manually select the correct 5 GHz European channel:

You simply need to press the "alt" key on the keyboard before selecting the drop-down menu of "channels" set by default on "automatic detection". You will need to get the station directly connected via Ethernet to the computer only during this quick channel definition procedure.

According to Digitimes, Wintek, a taiwanese contractor is claiming to be working with Apple on a touchscreen notebook (ultraportable) that should be on the market for Q3 2009. Quanta should be in charge of the production.
It is unclear how this information leaked out, but Apple might not like it at all, as such partnership might imply the highest degree of confidentiality. One can imagine that part of the information has been released to make investors less stress about mid-term future and perspective. Indeed, cooperating with Apple on a project is usually synonym of a success story.

You know that we love the Mac mini, and it seems that we re not the only ones. Hereafter is a massage received by one of our readers who placed an order for the 2.26 GHz model, almost immediately after its release:

Cher(ère) client(e),
La demande pour le produit que vous avez commandé a dépassé nos prévisions. Nous l'enverrons dès que possible, mais ne pourrons vous livrer dans les délais prévus initialement. Nous envisageons désormais un envoi d'ici au 09/03/2009.
Veuillez noter que la disponibilité des produits étant susceptible de changer rapidement, il est possible que votre commande vous soit expédiée plus tôt que prévu.
Soucieux de satisfaire notre clientèle, nous vous prions de nous excuser pour la gêne occasionnée.

In summary, the number of orders placed for the Mac mini (at least in France) was over Apple's stocks and expectations, and the new shipping date is now planned to be on March 9th. With the mass production of HD TV, the new Mac mini is now finding its way in the living room, and is a much better media center than the currently limited Apple TV.

Macworld has published an article comparing the new Mac minis and a previous model.

Unsurprisingly, as soon as you play video games, the new machine completely buries the previous model, thanks to it's GeForce 9400M.
In the table, another point is very interesting. That is the comparison between the model given 1 GB of RAM and that having double. In fact, for the second case, the available memory for video doubles, going from 128 to 256 MB, additionally the bandwidth doubles. In this case there is a gain of 20% in the frame rate, which is enormous and largely justifies the move to 2 GB, which is more than recommended under OS X anyway.

Bertrand has found on the Apple site a mistake full of consequences in the translation of the page explaining the replacement of the battery of MacBook Air:
On the American version one can read:

If your MacBook Air requires service only because the battery’s ability to hold an electrical charge has diminished, Apple will repair your MacBook Air for a service fee.

In the french version one reads::

Si votre MacBook Air nécessite une réparation uniquement parce que la batterie ne tient plus correctement la charge, nous remplacerons votre MacBook Air pour une somme forfaitaire.

The error in translation states that in France that they will change the entire machine for 139€ including all taxes! At this price, the operation will be certainly be in the red.

Many MacBook Pro Unibody 17'' are affected by a rather serious problem.

If one choses to use Geforce 9600 instead of the 9400M, for example, to make 3D, the video chip quickly overheats and the image is scrambled and becomes illegible. There is a big chance that Apple will propose an EFI update very quickly for these machines in order to modify the behavior of their cooling system when one uses the 9600 to avoid this climb to a too high temperature.
We had noted during our first tests on the 15" model that the CPU could heat extremely, and even exceed 100 degrees. But to the contrary the 17" never had problem with the display.