News for Monday, 16 March 2009

iFixit disassembled the new iPod Shuffle.

Apple has pushed the integration to a new stage with the new iPod Shuffle. Most of the space is taken by the battery; the remaining volume is composed of a small PCB on which sits a chip integrating all features required for the iPod Shuffle to work, from the decoding CPU to the flash memory.
If one could consider that this is most likely an expensive solution, it allows Apple to offer a truly small iPod, but also to prevent easy copies of this new model by the usual Asian counterfeiting companies. If the design can be copied, one will have a hard time to find components which when associated will be able to offer the same features than the new iPod shuffle.

We would be happy to hear your comments about the new iPod shuffle in the dedicated forum topic of this news. Share your thoughts.

Let's start with some photos and comments from François who compared the new Mac Pro to the previous model:

- White box
- Finally some space around HDs to easily swap them.
- Apple colored graphic cards
- Airport card in a drawer below the processor
- vented brushed metal enclosure around HDs to improve thermal management
- holding and fixing system for long PCIe extension cards

The default graphic card is well integrated, and might be even difficult to spot. Barefeats already started to test the new Mac Pro. The most impressive test is performed with a Photoshop CS4 setting, with the new high-end (expensive) model being almost three times faster than the previous Octo Core 3.2 GHz. To conclude on this aspect, the new Radeon HD 4870 seems to be compatible with Mac Pro 2007 and 2008 as long as you can install the Mac OS X shipped with new the Mac Pro.
When looking at the technical specification of the new Mac Pro, we noticed two interesting points. First, this Mac does NOT sport any PATA connector anymore. All peripherals, even the SuperDrive, are now using SATA ports. The second point is linked to its architecture based on a small motherboard on which is plugged a huge daughter card. The latest includes CPUs, RAM modules as well as most of the important components. So, the daughter card seems to define the specification of the computer.
If the CPU can be removed or swapped, one will not be able to add a second CPU to the model featuring only one CPU, or you will have change the entire daughter card:
- The daughter card of the single CPU model features only one CPU socket.
- The single CPU model is using a Xeon CPU not designed to in pairs
So, one will not be able to easily upgrade the single CPU Mac Pro model, and for sure not to add a second CPU. It could then be more advisable to purchase the entry level dual core (Octo Core) having in mind to replace both CPU with faster ones in the future, if their retail price becomes low enough to be financially interesting.

As one could have expected it, the Radeon HD 4870 is now the main focusing point of all Mac Pro owners, new generation or previous models, but for different reasons. According to a long discussion, in which one can get links to download the Mac ROM version of the Radeon 4870, one can already read reports of users who have successfully flashed a PC version of this card into a Mac version. A step-by-step procedure is available at the following address: http://netkas.org/?p=90. According to this website, Apple seems to have reduced the clock speed of the Mac Radeon 4870 HD, as the memory is clocked at 850 MHz instead of 900 MHz on the PC version.

We will follow this subject we will bring details about the procedure, the compatible and flashable PC cards and the best way to install drivers, even though the future Mac OS X update 10.5.7 should bring those missing files.

OWC tried to install the two new graphic cards released with the new Mac Pro in previous models of Mac Pro (2007 and 2008):
- When installed on the Mac Pro 2008 (featuring a memory bus of 800 MHz)
* The GeForce GT 120 works perfectly fine, including its DVI and DisplayPort outputs.
* The Radeon HD 4870 is also working, however the DisplayPort output does not.
- When installed on the Mac Pro 2007 (featuring a memory bus of 667 MHz)
None of the two graphic cards worked. This is most likely a problem with drivers, as one user reported to have made the Radeon HD 4870 working on a Mac Pro 2007 by using the OS X version shipped with the Mac Pro 2009.
We will follow those thread and let you know how things will evolve, we expect the Radeon HD 4870 for PC to be "flashable" without too many problems with the Mac ROM version.

Here is a subject which will restart the flow of polemics about certain procedures of Apple. According to iLounge, who have tested the last iPod Shuffle in great depth, Apple has locked the operation of the walkman so that it cannot function with other accessories than those which will be authorized. Thus, any headphone set intended for the iPhones or iPod and fitted with a remote control will not be recognized by the walkman and will not start the iPod unless the headphones are fitted with an Apple "authentication chip".
The EFF follows along the iLounge path and is very critical of this behavior, stating that Apple adds DRM everywhere where they it can, in order to block the manufacturers of compatible accessories unless they pay royalties to Apple.
The story above is possible, and it would not be surprising for Apple. However, there remains also possible that the communication between the walkman and its remote control is a completely updated process what would explain this incompatibility. Ilounge detected at the time of the test of a noncompatible headset of specific whistles at the limit of the audible seeming to be an attempt at communication between the iPod and its remote control. Apple perhaps decided to use an analogical management with a numerical system, which would not be astonishing knowing the number of possible actions with these 3 buttons,namely: the pause, the change of list of reading, the reading of the title in progress….
Note that if this system is practical, it obliges a user of Apple product to dig into in the instructions of the iPod to be able to extract the maximum from it.

As they do it regularly, the Hardware.fr site has put online after sales service requests for hard drives recorded by a very large retailer.
Here is the result:
- Western Digital: 1.2%
- Hitachi: 1.4%
- Seagate: 1.6%
- Samsung: 2.8%
These figures are to be weighted according to the capacity of the discs. Indeed, the high capacity models have rates of return much higher, for example 3,7% for Hitachi 1 TB or 3,5% for Spinpoint F1 1TB.
This is certainly related to their mechanics containing more platters and more heads which multiplies the default risk statistically, in addition the heat released is also larger.
This is perhaps the reason that the manufacturers of disks seem to want to give up the disks with 5 platters, and the reason that Seagate refuses to offer disks with more than 3 platters and not to offer a disk of 2 TB.
In any event, the same rule continues to prevail, it is necessary to backup its data with a regularity related to the value that one allots to it.