HardMac.com

About Time to Get a Fix for the Mac Pro 2009 Audio Bug!?

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 06:00:00 +0100

The problem seems to affect most units equipped with Nehalem CPU bit also several iMac Core i5 and i7 configurations. It translates into a sudden and excessive increase of the CPU temperature leading the fan to go full speed as soon as you start using the audio resource of those computers. Several tests and experiments performed by unfortunate users seem to define the integrated audio solution of the chipset as the origin of this problem. If you use an audio PCI card, the problem disappear as the audio will directly be managed by the card and not the audio integrated into the chipset. Last but not least, this bug is NOT present when running Windows 7 on the same computers... so indicating a clear issue with the OS/drivers. It is clear that Apple is aware of this problem as hundreds of reports have been posted on Apple discussion forum and other Mac-dedicated websites. According to the last information available, Apple would be working on a fix, but it is time to release quickly especially in one consider that it affects high-end models while this is most probably a bug with the audio driver on the OS advertised as being the most advanced in its class...

iPhone Market Share in USA: Still Growing

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 06:00:00 +0100

The last report from Comscore related to the evolution of smartphone platform (OS) over the last three months of 2009 might revive the battle between Apple and the other players in the field. During the last quarter of 2009, 25% of smartphone sold was an iPhone, giving Apple the second position in its ranking, behind RIM. Figures are summarized in the table below:

Overall winners are Apple and Google, as they are the only ones having recorded an increase of their market share. For getting further details on this report: comScore_Reports_December_2009_U.S._Mobile_Subscriber_Market_Share

NVIDIA Also Interested by External Graphic Cards for Notebooks

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 06:00:00 +0100

ATI/AMD is trying to develop a new market for graphic cards dedicated to notebooks, under the name of XGP.

So far, those solutions were not really successful (performance and market wise). However, with NVIDIA also interested by the market, it could open doors for innovation driven by competition between both main actors in the field of GPU. In a recent interview, Rene Haas, NVIDIA Notebook GPU General Manager acknowledges that he company had project for this segment.
If both actors could agree to use the PCI-Express port as a common and default entry point for their respective systems, it could push notebook manufacturers to include it in all their models, or at least mid-range and high-end products. This would increase the number of potential users.
It would be nice if Apple could offer similar system, giving more power for MacBook users when they are plugging their notebook to an external GPU for desktop work, while saving on the battery lifetime when on the move.

NVidia Optimus: THE Technology We Absolutely Need in Our MacBook Pro!

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:10:00 +0100

Yesterday, NVIDIA launched Optimus Technology, the final evolution of what was initially known as Hybrid SLI. It looks a bit similar to the current system allowing MacBoo Pro sporting a GF 9400 M and a second NVIDIA discrete GPU to switch from one to the other to choose between performance and battery lifetime. The final step is linked to the way this switching procedure is taking place. While it requires a MacBook Pro user to change setting and log out then in, with Optimus, this switch can be performed on the fly and in a totally transparent manner for the end user.
Depending on the needs, Optimus will activate or pause the discrete GPU, without affecting display. This technology is now available, and we would not understand why Apple would not include it for its new MacBook Pro models which should be unveiled in about a week. It would only need to associate the GF 9400 M with a GF 200 or 300, supporting Optimus, giving then birth to notebooks able to easily switch from performance to battery lifetime, depending on needs. According to NVIDIA, some ASUS notebooks are already having this technology on place... Let's hope that Apple will follow quickly.

Seagate Unveils Savvio HD

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:10:00 +0100

While waiting for the transition to sSD, Seagate announced its new 2.5" HD, aka Savvio 10K4.

Those drives are dedicated to servers and heavy usage systems (24/7). They spin at 10,000 rpm and offer up to 600 GB of storage space. They are available in 2 format, SAS at 6 Gbits/s and Fiber Channel at4 Gbits/s.
With a dedicated adaptor it is possible to install them in a Mac Pro sporting a RAID card. They are more silent that the 3.5" SAS and drain/exhaust much less power. The annual failure rate is 0.44% according to Seagate, much lower than the HD dedicated to the consumer electronic market.

Aperture 3 Is Out

linathael@macbidouille.com (linathael) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:45:50 +0100

The Apple Store is back online with the release of Aperture 3 (and not Aperture X has rumored couple of weeks ago). Among the new important features:

It includes including Faces, Places and Brushes (Brushes for painting image adjustments onto parts of your)
Aperture also handles your HD video straight from your camera, such as the recent Nikon D90 and D300s, etc...
Existing Aperture users can upgrade for a suggested retail price of 99 USD or 199 USD for a brand new license
Adjustment Presets Choose from dozens of professional imaging effects. Or create your own
If you’re using a separate GPS tracking device, the path of your photo journey appears on the map when you import a track log
Brushes New nondestructive, edge-aware brushes let you selectively apply powerful adjustments to photos.
Full-Screen Browser Take advantage of your Apple display to get a big, uncluttered, full-screen view of your library.
Advanced Slideshows Create spectacular multimedia shows with photos, HD video clips, titles, layered soundtracks
RAW+JPEG Import Choose to have Aperture import RAW and JPEG images as joined pairs or separate images
Double-click any image in the Import window to view it at a larger size. You can play video and audio clips before importing
Merge and Sync Libraries To merge two or more Aperture libraries, simply drag one Aperture library into another. (handy option)
Camera “LCD” Panel The easy-to-read display emulates the LCD screen on many digital cameras.
Write IPTC Metadata to Master
Chromatic Aberration Filter Remove the color fringing that can occur along edges due to optical issues
64-Bit Support (requires Snow Leopard and Intel Core 2 Duo processor)
Aperture 3 is Intel-only

Appel Store Closed: Yellow Sticker Up

linathael@macbidouille.com (linathael) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:10:23 +0100

Here we go for a new round of speculations, new MacBook, MacBook Pro or Mac Pro? Some minor updates or rather new models?

But where are the portables core ix ?

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 06:00:00 +0100

It is now a month since Intel officially launched its new mobile platform and its new processors Core i3, i5 and i7 mobile. Since then, all PC manufacturers updated their ranges and have these products in their catalogues.
However from Apple, nothing yet. The company has exclusively made its news around the iPad and nothing moved on the side of Mac. The MacBook Pro and MacBook Air are still equipped with processors Core 2 duo.
Even the entry line machine has to have an acceptable video chip, that integrated in the 9400M, but we are very impatient to know if Apple will be satisfied with the integrated solution of Arrendale or if they will give us what we hope for, and make a great jump by offering all Mac portable with dedicated video chips.
Perhaps after all, we will have the answer to our question as of today. It is Tuesday, a day when all is possible at Apple :)

Intel Wants to Become a Leader on the SSD Market

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 06:00:00 +0100

In the past, Intel initiated or entered new markets to launch them and turn them into established ones, then left them when they were matured. We could have thought that Intel would do the same think for SSD, promoting efficient products, establishing new references for such devices, in order to push other manufacturers to bring levels up. The founder could then left the market and concentrate again on its main topic, CPU. However, this time the strategy might be different.
Intel wants to become a leader on the flash memory market, and compete with Samsung, toshiba and Hynix, to become the number 1 with its partner on this market, Micron. To reach such goal, both partners are betting a lot on their future 25 nm engraving process, and expect to release SSDs based on such chips to turn their current high-end SSD models into consumer electronic products for the mass.
So, we might see the first price battle on SSDs before the end of the year, as it will be the only way for Intel and Micron to quickly capture market share and reach their goal. So, 2010 might well be the year for democratization of the SSD, at reasonable prices, as storage unit.

2.5 TB as the Next Step for 3.5" HD?

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:09:00 +0100

Currently 3.5" HDs offer up to 2 TB of storage space. They are composed of 4 discs of 500 GB each. If in theory 5 discs could fit in the enclosure, to reach 2.5 TB, no manufacturer made this choice so far. Indeed, with the heat released by mechanical operations, it would impact reliability and life time.
However, we should see 2.5 TB HD models soon according to a roadmap from TDK, one of the main manufacturers of HD heads. They have in development a head able to push capacity of each disc to 640 GB. Once ,assembled by four of such disc, it would storage space of 2.5 TB. For 2.5" HD, their storage capacity could reach 750 to 800 GB splitted on 2 discs.

IBM has made a graphene transistor run at 100 GHz

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 06:00:00 +0100

IBM announced to have succeeded in reaching 100 Ghz with a graphene transistor.
The transistor in question is made up of a single d' layer of carbon atoms forced into a two dimension configuration in the form of a honeycomb. It was obtained starting from simple graphite (i.e. pencil lead). This transistor exceeds by far that of traditional silicon where it is impossible to exceed 40 GHz. indeed, in Graphène, the electrons move much more quickly.
Currently, this type of transistor is conceived to be used in the military communication systems. It will need a long time before the way is found to link together billions in order to produce a microprocessor.

Successor of H.264 in Development

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 06:00:00 +0100

Today, the main video compression format is the H.264, used in BD, by Apple and YouTube for compressing video available from the web. It ensures an excellent quality of the image with a interesting compression ratio.
While it fully responds to current and probably futures needs, its potential successor is already being developed under the code name: HVC or High Efficiency Video Coding. This new format will support video with resolution reaching 8kx4K, but it also expects to directly compete with H.264 and MPEG2. The goal is to improve the ratio GB of video and quality. While it will most likely be draining more resources, it might offer higher quality for a smaller size format. However, this is again only preliminary claims and we would have to wait for first tests and beta to evaluate the real performance.

A hybrid SSD-hard disk

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 06:00:00 +0100

For a moment the traditional manufacturers of hard drives thought of making hybrid hard drives containing, in addition to the platters for storage, some flash memory which could be used as a buffer and thus accelerate reading and writing. The idea was quickly abandoned, the cost of the FLASH forcing them to use only a small quantity that nevertheless increased the price of the discs without bringing significant real performances. It was in the same way for the experiments of Intel and of Microsoft to manage memory flash to make a cache disc. Since we now have the choice, that is to say the SSD, with its speed but high price and low capacity or the hard drive, unbeatable in terms of the ratio of capacity to price, but quite insipid in performances when one has tasted the SSD. The SilverStone company tries ressusciter this concept by releasing a product.

The unit functions by connecting a SSD on the SATA interface between the computer and the traditional hard drive. It becomes then a comfortable buffer (according to its size), several tens of GB and manages the writings deferred writing onto the hard drive. It would of course be necessary to test the solution to know the real performances, but they could prove interesting if the algorithms of management of the readings and writings are rather powerful and predictive.
PS: This type of solution will be very difficult to set up in Mac that does not have eSATA, two positions for the hard drive, or in the drawers of Mac Pro that prevents any originality in the connection of the hard drives.

Apple, It Is Time to Correct Aiport Bugs

linathael@macbidouille.com (linathael) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:08:00 +0100

Last October, Apple updated its Airport Extreme and Time capsule models to further improve performance. We have been testing both products and we could confirm the faster data transfer speed in optima conditions. However, it seems that many users are having problems with the 5 GHz network as reported on Apple forum: New Extreme (slow on 5 Ghz but NOT on 2.4Ghz?!?!?). If you remain very close to the station, performances are excellent, but they dramatically dropped as soon as you slightly move away from the station. We also experienced another problem, while the effective range has increased, the reliability of hate network dropped, usually connection is broken when the wireless link is heavily used. So in summary, if you remain close enough to the station, everything is fine, as soon as you move away, performance and reliability drop. So, we rely on Apple to provide an updated firmware for both devices in order to finally get long range performance and reliability as advertised for both models.

there is apparently another major issue affecting some Airport cards found in Mac mini and MacBook models after migrating to Snow Leopard as reported by one of our reader below as well as on Apple forum:

My son basically cannot get a reliable connection with a two and half year old white Macbook since installing SL. The Airport update did not fix anything. If you want to get a feeling of the detailed situation of many people (33 pages, 47000 readers!) look at:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2142725&start=0

I can assure it, it's hell when you cannot use wifi on a laptop. Beyond home, where he can get close enough to the router, my son can no longer use the mac in the library where he studies.

My son basically cannot get a reliable connection with a two and half year old white Macbook since installing SL. The Airport update did not fix anything. If you want to get a feeling of the detailed situation of many people (33 pages, 47000 readers!) look at:http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2142725&tstart=0. I can assure it, it's hell when you cannot use wifi on a laptop. Beyond home, where he can get close enough to the router, my son can no longer use the mac in the library where he studies.

Here too, let's hope that Apple could identify the problem affecting apparently the Airport card found in those computer models when they are running Snow Leopard, it sounds like an obvious issue with Airport driver in SL.

Dev iPhone: No geolocalization for adverts

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 10:11:00 +0100

At the end of last week Apple announced to the iPhone developers that they would henceforth not be authorized to use the functions of geolocalisation of the iPhone to display publicity targeted according to their localization. On the other hand, it is always possible to do it, for example, indicating the closest restaurant or service station.
On an ethical point of view, there is no particular reason to block them. A localised advertizing is only a little bit intrusive and aggravating, but without changing anything basically. Like others we suppose that Apple wants to keep this possibility now that they purchased a company of publicity on mobile and they thus hope to make use of it.
Geolocalized publicity is today the holy graal of advertizing. They are very focused because they ensure an excellent return on investment of the advertisers who pay only for adverts targeted at potential customers who are nearby. Google has understood this for a long time and obviously Apple does too.

Storage: You Need More Speed?

arthur@macbidouille.com (Arthur) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:04:55 +0100

As you probably know now, at Macbidouille/Hardmac we particularly like the SSD and their associated performance levels, bringing a new dimension of access time and boosting overall performance of our Macs. So, we did a small experiment with a MacBook Pro (2.4) with its default 250 GB Hitachi 5,400 rpm HD, offering max. 50 MB/s in reading/writing modes.

We then removed the original HD and the optical drive to install two Intel SSDs x25-m and created a software-based RAID0 volume with both of them. Results are below and speak by themselves:

Of course, having 500 MB/s in reading mode has a cost, and such RAID0 volume setting will come with some side effects: the Mac OS X software-based RAID0 is draining power from the battery, a defect or crash of one of the SSD will corrupt the entire volume. Of course, the same installation in a Mac Pro will not generate any problem with battery and only the limitations linked to the RAID0 will remain, but regular backup can make it a relatively secure system if this volume is reserved for system and applications, as larger files and data can be stored 3.5" disc-based HD via the other SATA ports available in the Mac Pro.

The best compromise for a MacBook Pro is to have the SSD for the system and applications, then remove the optical drive to install a 2.5" disc-based HD for storing data (500 GB for example).

Apple and Adobe: The Roots and Reasons Behind Today's Situation

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 11:59:51 +0100

One does not need to be a wizard or a medium to realize that the relationship between Apple and Adobe have slowly but surely switched from an undercovered to an opened conflict. This is especially true after the recent comments made by Steve Jobs during the introduction of the iPad, when he said that Adobe engineers were too lazy and that HTML 5 will take over Flash; clearly pouring oil onto the already burning fire. In summary, Apple made it clear that Flash will never exist as such on the iPhone nor the iPad.

However, if we look back over the last decade, relationship between Apple and Adobe have also been tagged with some dark periods. It probably starts when Apple launched its movie/video edition suite, Final Cut Pro that killed Première on Mac OS X in a record time. Over the last versions of the Adobe Creative Suite, optimizations developed specifically for Windows, leaving Mac OS X users with an older and slower code, probably fueled the Apple resentment, leading to today's open conflict.

One of our source, very close to an Apple executive and decision board sent us some information and comments, highlighting the current situation with a new angle bringing further details on the roots and reasons concerning the conflict between Apple and Adobe. Let's start with a sentence from Steve Jobs spoken at the Apple HQ:

"Like Microsoft, Adobe has become a stodgy and conservative company, they've lost their focus - they are stuck in the middle."

Below are some details of Apple's complains against Adobe, some things are known from the public, others not:

Adobe completely missed the transition to Cocoa, and tried to extend the use of Carbon, causing problems for both users and Apple. They only now start to work within the programming environment, however, the first beta of the new Creative Suite 5 remain incomplete and unstable.
Adobe is reported to be very slow to react when Apple sends them bug reports, especially about Flash. Apple sent them description of 410 bugs, identified as important for Flash on Mac OS X, but Adobe only fixed 25 of them so far. Another comment from Steve Jobs about Flash:

Flash has become a collection of cobbled together technologies - a Kludge. It takes a huge amount of processing power and memory - it is too inefficient, and takes too long to learn.

According to Apple, the lack of Flash on the first iPhone OS was not a choice, but rather the consequence of the inability of Adobe to offer a mobile and power efficient bug-free Flash version.
Apple is also upset about Adobe Software Activation, their anti-piracy protection. This system forces CS users to validate their license online. In order to prevent any bypassing by software-based debuggers, the ASA shunts the system in order to directly access the deepest layer of the CPU and the RAM, without considering the protection of such components built into Mac OS X. As a consequence it would increase the risk of crash and fragmentation, making Mac OS X unable to manage or better control them. So, every time the ASA is modified or updated as it has already been hacked a certain number of times, Adobe asks Apple to take measures on its system to let the ASA work efficiently, without creating too much instability
Last but not least, Apple thinks that the user interface of current Adobe applications is now getting too old, and did not move to a more user friendly version; and finally the price of the Creative Suite are just too high according to Apple's ranking.

The recent comments from Steve Jobs regarding Adobe might well be the first sign of a "cold war" between the two companies. Apple would be already preparing and developing applications to compete directly with Adobe's solutions, leading to open warfare. Cupertino would also be developing a software that could compete with Flash and Dreamweaver, entirely based on HTML 5.0. Beside Aperture X which should be released soon, Apple might also be working to develop a solution similar to Photoshop, a high-end Pro-oriented solution. We do not know further details about those applications being developed as it is either hidden from view or just starting.

The video chip integrated in the Sandy Bridge chip will be twice as fast?

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 06:00:00 +0100

According to Fudzilla, Intel announced a great news to their closest partners. The graphics chips which will be integrated into the future architecture Sandy Bridge planned for in one year will be twice as powerful as those currently installed in the processors Arrendale and Clarkdale. We do not know if Intel will make a real effort to modify their architecture or if they will be satisfied to benefit from their engraving in 32 nm and to increase the frequency significantly.
At this rate, and if Intel continues to double the performances of its video solution every two years, one will be able to play Starcraft II in the native resolution of an Apple portable in ten years time.

Citrix will bring Windows 7 to the iPad

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 00:05:00 +0100

Here is a news that will delight or disgust people according to their inclination. Citrix announced on its blog that it will be soon possible, thanks to them, to work under Windows 7 from the iPad. Of course, it is not question of wanting to run Windows 7 on the tablet of Apple, but to use Citrix software to display on the iPad the screen of a distant PC in the manner of VNC, or Apple Remote.
They will have nevertheless to manage the absence of mouse that will be needed to be replaced by the touch-screen interface and to find the means of managing the virtual keyboard as well. This kind of software will charm certainly Apple, because it will open new prospects for selling the iPad.

About Problems with LCD Panel on iMac 27"

lionel@macbidouille.com (Lionel) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 16:24:35 +0100

After searching in many different directions without really finding the beginning of a solution for all problems affecting the iMac 27", Apple seems to have identified the key factor. While everybody was initially thinking that the problem was linked to ATI/AMD GPU, leading to the first firmware update in December, this was not really fixing flickering issues as we reported it couple of weeks ago. It now seems that the firmware of the LCD panel found on some iMac 27" models is the root of almost all problems. The recent firmware update released beginning of this week has solved almost all display problems. This is confirmed by a new after sale procedure sent by Apple to all its certified repair centers with a dedicated application entitled: Apple Service Display Utility or ASDU. It will specifically analyze the display of iMac 27" still affected by some issues despite applying the last firmware update. The procedure is rather long, as the software needs about 40 minutes to complete the analysis. Apple if even asking Apple repair centers to also check LCD panels from all iMac 27” on which they exchanged the panel to try to fix display issues. So, it seems that all display issues have been tackled and are now fixed with exchange procedure in place.