AppleBloggo - All the News from the Apple World! 2009

A rumor that appeared on the SemiAccurate website says that in the next Mac computers to be produced in the next two years, no more nVIDIA chips will be found. The chips, according to the rumor reported on the website, wouldn’t guarantee the quality standard that Apple requires on their products.

In particular, there would be two reasons for this: first, the lawsuit from Intel against nVIDIA. According to Intel, nVIDIA was never authorized to design chipsets with an integrated memory controller, and that could prevent nVIDIA from manufacturing Nehalem -based chipsets, which are currently present on the Mac Pro line, and are expected to be launched on the portable lines as well. The second reason is the malfunctioning of a few graphic cards which hit a few number of MacBook Pro users, and that forced Apple to give a special extended warranty.

Of course, this isn’t good news for end-users, especially on the low-end range: the introduction of nVIDIA chipsets on the entry-level MacBooks and iMacs have brought these computers to rather decent video performances, especially when compared to the integrated Intel solution, which is still not compatible with some videogames. Also, nVIDIA was the first one to be prepared for the OpenCL, the technology integrated in Snow Leopard, that would divert part of the workload from the CPU to the GPU.

We think that if the rumors are true, it could be a big issue. We’re hoping they’re not.

Apple has released the update for the MacBook Air firmware. The MacBook Air SMC Firmware Update 1.2 is recommended for all the MacBook Air owners that have the Mac OS X 10.5.7 installed.

The update was released to solve some software problems that would come up after removing the battery. It can be downloaded through the Software Update or the support page on the Apple website.

More information about the update can be found on this site.

Apple has intensified the tests on the new Mac Os X 10.6 Snow Leopard, which will be launched after the Summer, and the current 10.5 Leopard.

Developers have received new builds: 10A394 for Snow Leopard, with a full XCode version (3.2) and a little more than a week after the last build for Leopard distributed to developers, now they received the 9L20, that solves compatibility issues with CalDAV servers and problems with synchronization beween MobileMe and the address book.

The final version of the Mac OS X 10.5.8, which will most likely be the last update before the 10.6, is expected to launch by the end of next month.

According to MacRumors, the number of daily uploads from mobile devices on YouTube has increased five times after the launch day of the iPhone 3G S, the first iPhone capable of recording video and editing them from the device.

The last days’ increase was only the latest step on a trend that started months ago, with the launch of more modern smartphones that allow users to upload their videos directly to YouTube; hence, a trend that concerns the whole mobile phone world. In any case, it’s worth mentioning the same fact: the iPhone users seem to be the most active of the bunch.

Apple released a firmware update for their own wireless routers Airport 802.11n a few hours ago. The firmware update corrects five specific bugs and enhances the stability on the Time Capsule and AirPort Base Station. The update 7.4.2 corrects these issues:

- Loss of connection that sometimes happens on bigger networks
- Better compatibility with devices that use the “Power Save” function
- Better compatibility with third-party devices
- Correction of a possible issue when the base station uses the PPPoE
- Better reliability on the Back To My Mac function.

Before proceeding with the update, Apple advises users to verify that the AirPort Utility 5.4.2 is installed. The update can be done directly from the software, and for more information, users can visit the support page.

Last night, Apple released a firmware update for the new MacBook Pro presented during the WWDC 2009. The update brings the firmware to the 1.7 version and enhances the hard disk’s access speed.

Before the update, the SATA speed on the MacBook Pro was strangely limited to 1.5GBps even though the theorical speed was 3Gbps. This software limitation was removed and the users that install high-speed drivers will now be able to fully take advantage of their SATA drives.

As usual, it’s possible to download the update through the Sofware Update or directly from Apple’s support site.

Ten days after the last build release of Mac OS X 10.5.8 released to developers, now Apple has released another: The 9L16. With this update, Apple seems to have solved many small problems such as the connection of USB audio devices on Mac Pro computers, a crash that happened in some Airport settings, Safari compatibility with ImageIO and the bluetooth connection bugs in some situations.

It was asked of developers and testers to concentrate on these applications: iCal, ColorSync, Safari and USB devices. It’s not possible yet to determine when the last update of Leopard will be launched, before the launch of Snow Leopard on the market.

With the presentation of the new notebook line, Apple has definitely put an end to the era of the removable battery for the professional notebooks. In the current line, in fact, all notebooks feature batteries that can’t be removed.

Although it might look like a disadvantage for the final user, this fact has allowed the engineers to take advantage of the internal spaces on the case to enhance the power capacity. The charging and usage of the battery has become more stable and complex, and it’s managed by an autonomous chip installed on the motherboard. The whole battery has gone from a total capacity of 5500 mAH to 6700 mAH, losing 200 g.

The battery lifetime goes from the 500 recharge cycles to 700. Obviously, that’s all in theory. In order to test this data, it takes one or two years. But even in theory, it’s a good step forward.

It took a little longer than what was expected, but finally the highly-awaited update 3.0 for the iPhone OS is available. In order to obtain it, users will need to connect their iPhone to iTunes and check what updates are available. The download has 230Mb.

Also, together with the iPhone OS 3.0, Apple has also released the update for Safari, the 4.0.1. With that update, comes the bug fix on the incompatibility between Safari and some features on the iPhoto ‘09.

As it usually happens when Apple makes a drastic decision regarding the removal or replacement of a specific piece of hardware on their new computer models, there were many people that didn’t quite understand the replacement of the slot ExpressCard with an SD slot on the latest MacBook Pro 13″ and 15″ models.

Other people might have taken it a little suspiciously. With a document published on their website, Apple has decided to explain things, and mentioned one of the reasons why the replacement was made in the first place.

The SD has become one of the most common storage standards on the digital photocameras, but not only there. Many other multimedia devices, such as cellphone, smartphones and the latest videogaming consoles use this standard to store data, and more and more different models with different storage capacities are being launched on the market.

On the document, Apple answers to many questions on this matter (also redirecting users to the official site for the association that promotes the SD cards), and explains that it’s possible to use cards with storage capacity superior to 32Gb and that it’s possible to format them in HFS+ to use as a boot disc for the Mac OS X. That definitely opens more possibilities there, besides common storage and usage with digital photocameras.