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- Little Big Disk Quadra
Filed under: Accessories, Hardware, Peripherals
Do you need a bus-powered 1 TB hard disk? You're in luck - LaCie announced the Little Big Disk Quadra today.
Available in early July, the Little Big Disk Quadra uses a pair of drives in a RAID 0 configuration for speedy response. My personal concern is that if one of the two RAID drives goes out, you'd lose all of the data in the array. Although LaCie states that it's "Compatible with Time Machine", the Little Big Disk Quadra is probably better-suited as a scratch drive for video work on the go.
This is a tiny drive considering the capacity - the outside dimensions are 1.6 x 3.3 x 5.5 in. (40 x 85 x 140 mm) and it tips the scales at 1.4 lbs (650 g). You don't need to use the included AC adapter when using the Little Big Disk Quadra with FireWire 400 or 800, but you will need it when using the drive with eSATA or USB 2.0.
Some sites are stating immediate availability, but LaCie has confirmed that it will be several weeks before the Little Big Disk is available.Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Apple releases Xserve EFI Firmware Update 1.1
Filed under: Software Update, XServe, Apple
Apple just released an update for the Xserve. This EFI firmware update helps "improve the stability of Xserve computers," so if your Xserver has had stability issues, maybe this is just the update you've been praying for.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
The Xserve EFI Firmware Update 1.1 can be downloaded by using Software Update (Apple menu > Software Update) or by downloading the installer package from Apple's Support website. Additional information about the update can be found in a support note on the Apple support website.Переслать - AT&T to limit iPhone 3G speeds to 1.4 Mbps?
Filed under: iPhone
MacNN noted in a recent post that AT&T is listing the iPhone as having a 1.4 Mbps connection (down-stream) while other 3G phones such as the Motorola Q have upwards of 3.6 Mbps connections. If you are thinking that this is a typo on AT&T's website, think again, because it was also mentioned in their press release about the iPhone (PDF link).
The mobile phones, of course, have a slower connection compared to the 3G cards that AT&T offers. Some of the 3G cards can connect as fast as 7.2 Mbps down. So while Apple is touting their "3G speeds approaching WiFi speeds" you have to wonder why is AT&T limiting the bandwidth on the iPhone 3G so much.
Update: MacNN updated their post shortly after this posting. MacNN's sources are saying that the 1.4 Mbps speed is "observed" speed over the network.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - PopChar X 4.0
Filed under: Software, Cool tools, Graphic Design
PopChar X, the little utility that gets all of those funky symbols, accents, and other special characters into your documents without having to remember arcane key codes, has been updated to version 4 for Mac.
PopChar has been around for over 20 years and is a favorite of editors and designers. To type a special character, you click on a P in the menu bar and a list of characters appears. Selecting the character you want drops it into your current document. Sure, you could always use Apple's Character Palette tool, but it's slow, and difficult to search for a special character in a particular font.
PopChar X 4.0 adds a new feature for searching Unicode characters by name across font boundaries. Ergonis, developer of PopChar, provides an example of searching for a "cubic meters" symbol in Helvetica. Typing in "cub" produces no results, but you can click a new "All" button to search across all Unicode fonts.
You can download a trial version of PopChar X 4.0, or purchase it online from Ergonis for €29.99. Multiple license packs are available at a discount.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Germans to get iPhone 3G for €1
Filed under: iPhone
T-Mobile has released the iPhone 3G rate plans (link auf Deutsch) for Germany and it looks like our lucky friends in Deutschland are getting a major subsidy. The 8Gb iPhone will be available for as little as €1 with monthly plan of €69 while the 16Gb iPhone will be €19.95 with a monthly plan of €89. All of these plans include 3G data and access to T-Mobile's wifi HotSpot network and require a 24-month contract.
Unfortunately, things are not so rosy for existing iPhone customers. According to the German iPhone Blog, existing customers will be on the hook for €10 per month remaining in their original contracts (or about €180 for the earliest adopters) before being eligible to sign up for the new 24 month plan. So it's good news for new iPhone customers, but existing 2G customers are in for a blow to the Geldbeutel if they want to upgrade.
Thanks, Carlos and Thorsten!Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Houdini 9.5 3D software coming to OS X
Filed under: Software, Leopard, Graphic Design
Side Effects is bringing Houdini, their professional 3D software, to OS X for the first time with the release of the Houdini 9.5 beta for OS X, Windows, and Linux. According to the company, Houdini "brings the 3D industry's first node-based workflow to the Mac ensuring that 3D artists can collaborate seamlessly in a multi-platform environment." This modeling and rendering platform has been used on a number of high profile projects like Spiderman 3 and Resident Evil: Extinction.
Houdini will come in four editions:
- a free Apprentice edition for learning that includes watermarks
- a non-watermarked Apprentice HD for $99
- Houdini Escape "with modeling, animation, characters, lighting, rendering and compositing" for $1995
- Houdini Master "with all of Escape's features plus particles and integrated dynamics such as rigid bodies, wire, cloth and fluids" for $7995.
Thanks eze!Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Rumor: Intel preparing 3.2 GHz quad-core processors
Speaking of Intel, The Register is reporting that the chipmaker is preparing three, next-generation processors based on its "Nehalem" architecture, with the fastest topping out at 3.2 GHz. Each processor has four cores with eight processing threads.
The chip architecture, codenamed "Bloomfield," is targeted mostly at gamers. This is purely speculation, of course, but Apple's
mid-rangehigh-end desktops could be good candidates for the chips as well.Intel anticipates the processors will be available in the fourth quarter of 2008.
[Via AMD vs. Intel.]
Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Fortune on the Intel-Apple relationship
Filed under: Apple Corporate
Fortune has an interesting article detailing how Apple and Intel are fast on the way to becoming best buds. Apparently Intel has been more willing to accommodate Apple than some of its other customers, as demonstrated by the MacBook Air. It seems that in the design phase of the Air Apple went to Intel with the processor spec they wanted and the response was "'We don't have that,' or 'We have that on a roadmap 3-4 years from now,'" but after digging around Intel realized that they had a processor concept on the shelf that "had been put on the back burner after PC makers gave it a ho-hum reception." So they revamped it slightly and delivered it to Apple within a year. And the Air was just the beginning with several "equally aggressive" projects in the pipeline for the two companies. In short, it seems like the relationship is good for both partners, with Apple making demands that push the technology forward and Intel responding in ways that look to benefit the larger PC industry as a whole.
[via Gizmodo]Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - iPhone vs. the world
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPhone
BusinessWeek.com has a really interesting article online today theorizing about the potential impact the iPhone 3G will have on other smartphone manufacturers and the wireless industry at large. The $200 introductory price point can lure lots of customers over to AT&T and put the price crunch on other smartphone manufacturers. Plus, now that the phone has been out for a year, consumers are more eager to upgrade. As the article points out, the trend of cell phone carriers subsidizing the price of handsets was on the wane, but now that the iPhone 3G is going to be released at a subsidized price, other manufacturers might want to follow suit, and that may mean cutting their prices on bulk orders.
Even before the 3G announcement last week, Apple has already forced the other mobile players to up their game. Not only are future phones adopting more iPhone-centric interfaces and features, wireless carriers who can't offer the iPhone to their customers are spending more to remind users of their offerings. According to the BusinessWeek article, Verizon's ad budget increased 30% in the first quarter of 2008.
While AT&T is surely going to continue to benefit from being the sole iPhone carrier in the United States, they also stand-out as being expensive. To help cover iPhone subsidies, AT&T is raising the data plan $10 a month. As BusinessWeek mentions, this could be an area that other carriers could seize on. By offering more features for less money, other carriers have an incentive that while not as flashy as the iPhone, might be more financially practical for lots of customers.
Still, as I said in last night's talkcast, I think the $200 price point is going to vastly reduce the barrier to entry for lots and lots of users. The data plan price increase is going to be more a determent for existing iPhone users, not new users to the fold. Just as the iPod really hit its stride when it became available for under $400, the $200 pricepoint on the iPhone is going to be extremely tempting for anyone approaching the end of a cellular contract. The other phone manufacturers SHOULD be concerned; the war for mobile domination will not be won or lost based on the iPhone 3G, but Apple is a very, very deft opponent.Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - MacGDBp Kills PHP Bugs Dead!
Filed under: Software, Cool tools, Open Source, Developer
Bothered with pesky PHP bugs? Grab a can of MacGDBp and exterminate those bugs FAST!
18 year-old Beantown open source whiz Robert Sesek has announced that he'll be releasing his MacGDBp project bright and early on Tuesday, June 17 at his Blue Static website.
MacGDBp builds on the open source Xdebug application to provide a native Cocoa Leopard-only app for remote debugging of PHP scripts. Connect to your running PHP script and you can do instruction stepping to see how your script is working. You can set breakpoints, view the current function call stack, and look at all local variable values.
Robert noted that MacGDBp is designed to be very familiar to anyone who has spent time using the Xcode debugger. He's releasing the app under the GNU GPL version 2, which (duh) means it is available at no cost.
If you do any work with PHP (hey, I'm constantly customizing WordPress myself), MacGDBp may be your new best friend. Be sure to set an iCal alarm for Tuesday morning and get your copy of MacGDBp.
Thank you, Robert, for telling us about your app!
Updated to add correct dateRead | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Jerome, where's my mirror?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Humor, iPhone
Gizmodo's Jesus Diaz has a wonderful solution to the problem of videoconferencing on your 3G iPhone: compact, convenient and battery-free!
Okay, we get it: a camera on the front of the iPhone is probably a pretty useful idea. Although there's something oddly compelling about turning a videoconferencing session on the iPhone into a Morris Day and the Time concert....Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать - Apple working on an "iSight HD"?
Filed under: Accessories, Multimedia, Rumors, Apple
According to a recent MacRumors posting, Apple might be working on a "next generation" high definition iSight camera. This comes after a reference in the localization strings file for QuickTime shows "iSight HD" as one of the import devices.
You can see the localization strings for "iSight HD" by opening the following file in either QuickLook (space bar) or by opening it in TextEdit: /System/Library/QuickTime/QuickTimeUSBVDCDigitizer.component/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/Localizable.strings
Once you have the file opened, you can clearly see where Apple has placed the following bit of code:
/* Next Generation USB iSight */
"iSight HD" = "iSight HD";
We should note that while this code has been found, it doesn't necessarily mean that Apple will release a new iSight product, but this does give us hope.
[via World of Apple]Read | Permalink | Email this | CommentsПереслать
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