HardMac.com

Intel wants to add USB 3.0 quicker than foreseen?

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 00:22:00 +0100

This is still just a rumour spun by Semi Accurate but it could sound like a thunder clap since Intel, who did not want to support the USB 3.0 standard in its chipsets. The foundry now thinks of rather quickly launching a controller similar to that of NEC about which we recently spoke to you in order to compete with it.
The product would perform the same function and in the same manner. The chip installed on the mother board would come to use the PCI-Express in order to connect itself to the remainder of the machine and would add two ports USB 3.0 to the machine. Note that this external configuration is limited by the bus to 250 MB/s and this is much lower than its maximum but already enough for the rare peripherals on offer that one can connect.
The arrival of Intel shows that they realized that they have made a strategic error. It will nevertheless benefit the manufacturers who will pay some dollars less for their mother boards and thus for the consumers, the offer of machines with USB 3.0 will quickly move to the front of the pack.
On the side of Apple, it is still impossible to know what they will do, and when. It is in any case certain that if you keep your computers during many years, it would be more intelligent if you have the possibility of it and thus to wait for the Mac USB 3.0, the absence of this connector is likely to penalize you greatly in 12 to 18 months.

The iPhone is able to use a 4G network - kind of...

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 00:01:00 +0100

Sprint has put online some publicity in which they show how to make an iPhone function on a 4G network (Wi-max).

To arrive at this prowess, since the iPhone that does not support 4G, they have conceived an "Overdrive".

This small box is compatible with Wi-max and acts as bridge by creating a Wi-Fi network on which iPhone is able to be connected. Thus, Sprint can bring the 4G to the equipment which is not compatible and even circumvent the simlocked iPhones sold in the United States.
Beyond the customers that could be interested, Sprint especially wanted to show case its superior technological to AT&T that they had already done in the past by comparing the 3G coverage of the two carriers.

An update for Safari to version 4.0.5...

crispin@macbidouille.com (crispin) — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 16:21:35 +0100

Update: This is old news - sorry...

This update (31.8 MB) is recommended for all Safari users and includes improvements to performance, stability, and security including:

Performance improvements for Top Sites
Stability improvements for 3rd-party plug-ins
Stability improvements for websites with online forms and Scalable Vector Graphics
Fixes an issue that prevented Safari from changing settings on some Linksys routers
Fixes an issue that prevented some iWork.com users from commenting on documents

For detailed information on the security content of this update, please visit this site:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

A new version of EyeTV

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 08:20:00 +0100

Elgato offers via a download a new version of EyeTV. Curiously, it is not offered yet by the automatic update of the software. To get it, enter the following address in your navigator
eyetv://checkforupdates?build=6034
Among the changes, it regulates bugs and brings again component supporting the 64 bits…

20 zero day faults discovered under OSX

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 17:50:00 +0100

In the world of computer security, the zero day faults are the worst. They are revealed even before the editor of the software concerned has been informed and are thus exploitable immediately by malevolent people. According to H-Online, Charlie Miller, an IT expert has discovered at least 20 relating to the Mac running OS X. These faults also affect the Open Source components installed in Mac OS X, as well as third party software such as Flash and faults specific to the components specific to Apple.
These 20 faults are vulnerabilities to a process that consists of bombarding the entry channels of the applications with a massive volume of corrupted data until the saturated software allows writing in its memory and to execute the code.
Charlie Miller will not reveal these faults but considers that the attitude of Apple concerning the security breaches is far too off-hand. Apple are safe just since they have a small market share and are uninteresting to hackers (however even they have joked on the number of security issues under Windows).

No new Mac Pros before June?

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 08:39:00 +0100

AppleInsider announced that that they had received information that Apple would not change anything in its range of Mac Pros before June. On that occasion, and only at that moment, they would replace 4 core Xeon with the 6 core models about which we have spoken to you at length.
They would also take advantage at this time to release a new screen, an Apple LED display 27" using an identical screen to that of the iMac and whose price would be competitive thanks to the effect of volume created by the excellent sales of the iMac. In this case, the price of the 24" would be examined otherwise it will be completely overshadowed if the price is too close to the newcomer.
According to old information that we have, Apple would prepare also a significant update of the design of the case of Mac Pro and a still much larger screen intended for the mounting of HD videos.

Intego does the house cleaning

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 08:31:00 +0100

Intego has announced the second version of its software "Washing Machine" for washing your machine. This software is dedicated to erase all the traces that you could have left on a computer while surfing on Internet or by using software that reach the internet in some way.
The software is not sold alone, but the update is free for those who have obtained the first version as a supplement of another product of this company.

NVIDIA Bets on Tegra

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:00:00 +0100

By refusing to license the technology required for developing controllers/chipset for its Clarkdale and Arrendale CPUs, Intel prevents NVIDIA to access the market where its last product, the GeForce 9400M has been a hit and most likely pushed Intel to react in such a way. While this story will find an end in front of the court, NVIDIA has to find a new market as its chipset can only be found on AMD CPU-based hardware.

So, NVIDIA announced the end of its R&D teams dedicated to chipset development, and the creation of new department dedicated to the design and development of Tegra chips. This is now a team composed of 650 people that will be working on such chips, consider by NVIDIA CEO as more power than the A4 developed by Apple. With such move, NVIDIA will not be in direct competition with Intel, as the founder does not really work hard on developing ARM-based CPU; for the time being...

USB3.0 becomes known without the support of Intel

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:00:00 +0100

If though we thought that the standard USB 3.0 would not manage to take off since it did not have the support of Intel and especially since it was not present in its chipsets of 2010. Today, a good number of PC manufacturers, portables and offices machines, add on the mother board of their products a controller able to add USB 3.0. The leading controller of this adaptation is manufactured by NEC.

NEC announced that they have already sold 2 million since September 2009. The demand is increasing, NEC announced that the monthly production of this chip would be pushed as of the next month to 2 million units monthly. Now when Intel decides to support this standard, there will be already many millions of computers all over the world which will support it and certainly more, since other chipmakers will not miss taking advantage of this hole.

No New MacBook/MBP: Intel Can NOT Deliver Enough Mobile Arrendale CPU!?

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:51:00 +0100

According to Digitimes, Intel is having problem to deliver enough units of mobile Arrendale Core i3/i5/i7 to computer manufacturers. The problem seems to be linked to some companies, such as Acer that placed orders for huge amount of chips, probably betting on a quick economic come-back after the gap. So, Intel would have decided to favor its main/largest customers first, answering other orders later when production would have fully ramped up. It remains unclear if this is the reason why we are still waiting for the update of Apple MacBook and MacBook Pro models based on Core ix. It is possible that Apple and Intel are not as close as it used to be 2 years ago, and the founder decided to deal first with Acer and Co than with Apple... same thing could apply for the delay of the new Mac Pro...

After the Mobile Phone and the OS, the Google TV

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:19:00 +0100

Sony announced to be working with Intel and google in order to improve internet contents on its current and futures TV models. Google would be working on a dedicated OS derived from Android, aka Google TV software. The remote control featuring a keyboard would be designed and manufactured by Logitech.

Such information could push Apple to (finally) update the Apple TV or bring a true new version in order to boost sales and turn this hobby into a success, as without a fully functional Apple TV Apple and the iTunes Store will be kick out from the emerging and juicy online video market.

Amazon releases its Kindle application for the Mac

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 07:36:00 +0100

Proof that they did not take up arms against the iPad, Amazon has just launched its Kindle application for Mac OS X.

It makes it possible to communicate with Kindle or quite simply to directly read the digital books bought on the Mac.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/?ie=UTF8&ie=UTF8&docId=1000464931

A new process to fabricate processors ?

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 06:00:00 +0100

Researchers at MIT made a breakthrough in a system which could in the future replace or rather change the manufactoring processes of processors based on lithography.

They have created molecular chains, to be precise copolymers that are capable of being arranged to form motifs. These motifs could become transistors.
Of course, one is still at light years away from being able to manufacture processors, but not so far from being able to produce simple chips, typically memories. These are indeed made up of completely repetitive patterns representing the cells of data storage. One could imagine in future that it is enough to soak plates in liquids before polymerizing them to produce memory chips whose capacity will be defined by the size of the plates and the properties of these copolymers since one can also imagine them to have 3D structures.

A problem with deep sleep mode for SandForce Controllers

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 06:00:00 +0100

It seems that that SSD discs using a SandForce controller have a problem that one has often met in the past with other SSD in our portables. It does not work with a system that 'sleeps' and very specifically to Mac OS X. In this case, even reclosing the portable does not put it to sleep and this causes a significant heating that can oblige one to restart by force to recover the use when it is reopened.
We had already given you a trick to circumvent this bug while waiting for an update of the drivers for the SSD. It is enough to change the the mode of hibernation of the portable. This is what causes the problem, the default mode will start by backing up the contents of the RAM onto the hard drive before putting its components to sleep. Thus, if the battery is drained, no work is lost. This is very practical, but in the event of a bug, it is simpler is to return to the previous mode which does nothing but put the components to sleep. To arrive there, one must enter the following commands in the terminal before giving your password administrator:

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0

You can also benefit from it by recovering some GB (size identical to the quantity of RAM that you have) immobilized unnecessarily while entering the command

sudo rm /var/vm/sleepimage

Of course if you fully discharge your battery, the machine will lose the memory.

Apple will no longer sell screen protectors for the iPhone

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:18:00 +0100

Which are the accessories most sold to the owners of the iPhone? They are certainly screen protectors that a good number of people stick onto the glass screen of their precious in order to protect them from scratches. This does not seem to stop Apple deciding from one day to the next to withdraw them from its online Apple Store as well as their physical shops.
This decision was a great surprise to the providers of Apple. Two reasons are advanced to explain this decision:

The difficulty of putting them in position would cause large number of returns (and Apple would refund these case)
Apple wants nothing that gives any impression that the screen of the iPhone is fragile. And yet…

In any case it will be a godsend for the other retailers of iPhone accessories that will recover back this market which has little chance of extinguishing from one day to the next.

A Blu-ray reader under $70

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 06:00:00 +0100

Engadget has found what is certainly the cheapest current Blu-ray reader.

This Philips full HD reader is sold for less than $70. At this rate one should go down soon to under the $50 that will make these readers the natural alternatives to the readers of DVD. Keep in mind nevertheless that the first 3D models soon will arrive. Even though they will be more expensive, you will be certainly feel some frustrations in the near future. This is however not certain. This standard already has had an hallucinating number of updates (DB Profiles, standard HDMI, network…). This lack of stability does not help at all with decision to purchase.

40% of BlackBerry Owners Would Exchange their Mobile Phone for an iPhone

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 06:00:00 +0100

A recent study might give RIM some real stress despite its growth. IT indicates that 40% of current BlackBerry owners would exchange their mobile phone for an iPhone, or an Android-based model. The same study indicates that 90% of owners of Google OS-based phone would take another model based on the same system. This study challenging the fidelity of mobile phone users indicate that the growth of RIM might be more fragile than for Apple or Google. The reason might be linked to the fact that most BlackBerry are devices provided by corporates, so end users did not have the choice of their Pro mobile phone. This could also explain why Apple is pushing so strongly to make the iPhone as compatible and native as possible for Windows-based corporate IT services.

NVidia will be open to all types of 3D glasses

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 06:00:00 +0100

It is several years that NVidia, ahead of its time, tried to impose its 3D display system on computers. Up to now, they did not have much success until the advent of 3D television gave it a new kick of life.
For this purpose, they decided an important thing, to modify their software " 3DTV Play software" to be compatible with other glasses that theirs. After all, this is good sense, it is hard to imagine the people wanting to see in 3D on their television set and their computer needing to provide a different pair of glasses for each product, especially as these glasses have a considerable cost, since that the standard selected implies that they have two LCD screens being used to alternatively hide the vision in each eye, the whole being connected, without wires, to the television set to ensure perfect synchronization.
This raises elsewhere another aspect of the arrival of 3D television, the war of the glasses, because there will be one of them. Many manufacturers are waiting to produce them, knowing that their number will be X time higher than that of the television set, since each televiewer is obliged to have a pair, and this market could well be profitable. If one takes, for example, the first 3D television sets from Samsung that must arrive soon, they should be sold without these famous glasses which will cost between 100 and 150€ according to their size and of the fact that it have batteries. Sony will also make this choice to sell these glasses separately and this will inflate in an impressive way the profits…
A last thing worries us on their subject. We do not know if there exists a standard of communication between the television sets and the glasses or if each manufacturer will have his own standard. If this is the case, the customers will be caught and will not be able to use generic products that would not hesitate to be offered at lower tariffs.

Apple Delays the Release of some Peripherals for the iPad

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:29:00 +0100

Without much noise, Apple quietly postponed the launch of peripherals dedicated to its forthcoming iPad on its Store.

The protection enclosure originally planned on April 3rd is postponed to mid-April.
The keyboard is postponed to May.
More alarming, the USB charger, a rather must have peripheral is ALSO postponed till May...

So, currently there are several explanation: problem in production, all customers who pre-order the iPad also purchased those peripherals, and all stocks are now empty, there is some last minutes issues, or the first sign of a serious delay for the real launch of the iPad. This is particularly true for the keyboard, a basic peripheral for all customers willing to use the iPad as their main terminal.

Apple: First Victim of its Amazing Growth?

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:17:00 +0100

Many of our readers also noticed it: Apple seems to have entered into a sleeping mode-like phase:

We are waiting for the update of all MacBook and MacBook Pro models for now 2 months according to the usual schedule of updates.
While it seems to be finished and validated by beta tester, the update 10.6.3 is still not released.
We are still waiting for an update of the Airport firmware to fix remaining issues.
Alors qu'Apple prenait un malin plaisir à lancer ses Mac Pro Xeon avant les annonces Intel, ces derniers sont arrivés, mais point de Mac Pro.

We could have added other examples to the list. They all have in common to require engineer and system supports. We are currently thinking that the iPad, as the iPhone few months ago, completely drained all engineer resources, and could delay all other products as they are mainly working on fixing the issue of the iPad OS.
You should know that Apple does not have endless engineer resources as Microsoft or other software companies. They are composed of restricted teams moving from one project to another one depending on needs and emergency. We know that Apple is working on strengthening those teams, but it is difficult to add need members in strongly unified teams, especially we also consider that there is no real IT course or training leading to Apple engineers, as it exists for Microsoft Windows...

So, we currently think that Apple has decided to have iPad becoming the main project for this year, not even thinking of an half success or failure, it has to be a blockbuster and Apple is dedicated to available resources to complete the work, even if all other products have to suffer delays. Of course if what you want is a new MacBook or a Mac Pro, you might not care at all about the iPad and its future success... Let's hope that this situation will quickly evolve.