News for Tuesday, 7 July 2009

We have been following the development of this application for years since the very beginning. It is now a milestone for Videolan as they announced VLC version 1.0 (Windows only for the moment):

The VideoLAN project is pleased to announce the release of the first version of the Goldeneye branch of VLC: 1.0.0.
This major release introduces many new features, new formats and new codecs to the VLC multimedia framework and fixes a very high number of bugs that were present in the 0.9.x or 0.8.6 versions.
You can download it now.
The VLC project only lives with volunteers and would love help from new users and contributors: time, code, hardware and money would help us a lot. You don't need to be a developer to help.

This is a major achievement and one should always support them, it has been such a great application since the very beginning and a breakthrough as most Mac uses who have known the time before VLC can ensure it.

Currently, most SSD models are based on MLC memory chips offering higher storage capacity than SLC chips at the cost speed and 10x shorter lifetime. However, MLC chips are much cheaper to produce. Nevertheless, Intel did not drop the SLC channel yet, and is expecting to release a 128 GB SSD model based on this type of memory, and could release early 2010 an even larger unit offering 256 GB. The main problem will be the price, as SLC unit are currently around 13 Euro per GB, so 4 times more expensive than MLC-based GB.

Of course, such SLC SSDs would fit perfectly in high-performance servers, this is a niche market, but also a field were performance and reliability are necessary and often worth the cost. Intel could even strongly compete with other manufacturers currently sharing this niche market if the founder would release SLC-based SSDs with a SAS interface.

If you read HardMac regularly you should know that Intel will soon entirely refresh (in depth) its architecture dedicated to mobile computing, and we suspect that Apple will adopt it early 2010 in order to benefit from the performance gain offered by the Nehalem. This will be a major step for Intel as the founder will include on the same die a CPU engraved at 32 nm and a 45 nm engraved integrated graphics and integrated memory controller:

Intel already announced to its customers that it has high expectations concerning graphical and video performances of this embedded graphics, ranking it higher than the current X4500. However, according to some reports, it would be a refreshed version of the older GMA950 clocked at a much higher frequency. WE can only hope that such solution will indeed be efficient and able to compete with the currently popular and powerful GeForce 9400M found in MacBook and iMac models. Apple will probably not use it if the performance level is really too low when compared to the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M, however, NVIDIA will not be able to offer a Nehalem-compatible graphics solutions immediately as the company is legally battling with Intel on this specific topic.
If Apple adopts the new Intel solution we would not be surprised if it decides to add a discrete GPU in all MacBook Pro models, including the 13" model to compensate the difference performance wise, while defining a clear gap with the MacBook models. In addition, a discrete GPU will bring a huge performance benefit with Open CL and Snow Leopard.

Greenpeace updated its ranking for greener electronics:

Apple is now 11th, however its evaluation does not evolve and remains 4.7/10 despite the release of Alu-based notebook models, and their LED displays. In fact Apple went up only because Sony dropped down from 5th to 12th due to issues in its procedures for discarding and treating hazardous production side products. Within one year, Apple's evaluation went up 0.6 point, and 2 points since 2006. As the company is now actively looking towards a greener Apple, we would not be surprised to see its evaluation reaching the top within the coming years. However, Apple is almost the greenest computer manufacturer, as the companies ranked higher are mostly producing TV and mobile phones and other type of electronic devices not necessarily containing the historical toxic compounds found in computers. To be noticed, HP, Lenovo and Dell massively dropped down as their promises for greener computers turned out to be only noise and never facts.

One never should sell the skin of the bear before is has been killed, especially with Apple, however in agreement with the information that we gave on May 14 seems to confirm this. The next iPods, Touch and Nano should include a camera well.

One starts to see flowering of more and more of more prototypes of cases intended for the future ipods that have a small window at the back for the lens of  a camera. On the same note, Apple has placed a large order for camera modules.

Like some of you, we are not sure about the interest of this addition on these ipods and are curious to see how Apple will make this function sexy to us to sell it.

A reader drew our attention to a problem that he met on his Macbook pro 2009 equipped with a 500 GB hard drive running at 7200 rpm. This disk regularly ceases functioning (10 to 15 times per day), causing the appearance of the multicoloured wheel, and emits what one can qualify as a beep. A video posted on Youtube allows us to hear it (around the fourth second, it is not loud).

After digging a bit on the Web, one finds that he is not the only one to encounter this problem which seems related to the disk (made by Seagate), since it has the same behaviour in a PC under Windows 7. We are not completely sure, but we guess that during these short pauses the disc makes a calibration of its heads. It is a system used by the manufacturers to optimize the operation of their disks due to the temperature, since when the temperature rises, the plates dilate and are thus thicker.
A disk running at 7200 rpm heats more, thus this phenomenon is much more frequent and detectable by the user.