HP this morning stepped up the performance of its higher-end, mainstream towers with the launch of the Pavilion Elite m9600t. The system is built on Core i7 processors and takes advantage of the triple-channel memory bus; it also has unusually fast video for the class with a 768MB GeForce 9600 GS. A base model at $950 comes with a 2.66GHz Core i7, 3GB of RAM, and 500GB of disk space while furthe...
Wolfenstein 3D appears on App Store, Cydia
In tandem with the release of a free developer version, id Software has also released a publicly-accessible App Store edition of Wolfenstein 3D. Players control B.J. Blazkowicz in first-person combat against the Nazis, fighting through a number of indoor environments. The game has over 60 levels divided into six episodes, and sports the original six weapons, including the chaingun....
New Tests of the Mac Pro
Barefeats continues its test of the new Mac Pro comparing it with the previous models. They mostly concentrate on pro applications. Those results indicate that the new Octo Core clocked at 2.26 GHz is faster than the previous high-end Octo Core sporting 3.2 GHz Xeon. The new high-end Mac Pro featuring Nehalem Xeon at 2.93 GHz is defining a new performance reference. In one test, it completes the task in 63 seconds vs. 102 seconds for the previous high-end model. If the new architecture of the CPU has evolved and may contribute to this performance gain, it is mostly linked to the new memory architecture offering better efficiency than the previous FB-DIMM-based system. Barefeats measured that the memory bandwidth is larger if you use 3 modules per processor instead of 4. The Nehalem is optimized with 3 memory channel. The difference is rather huge, as one can reach 9261 MB/s with 3 modules vs. 6195 MB/s if you use 4.
If you are looking for the best performance level you should think about RAM modules when purchasing your new Mac Pro. A model equipped with 6x2 GB RAM modules will be faster than one having 8x2 GB modules, but only if you do not saturate the 12 GB of RAM available, otherwise performance will drop.
Beta Beat: Twitter app Lounge
Filed under: Software, Internet Tools, Beta Beat
In the history of marketing battles, The Cola Wars have nothing on the Twitter App War that's currently raging online. Twitterrific, TweetDeck and others are waging the ground battle, while Twitterrific (mobile), Tweetie and TwitterFon (to name a few) are fighting it out in the air.Today we got our hands on a beta of Lounge, a new client for Mac OS X (and iPhone/iPod touch). It's definitely got a way to go (I saw more beach balls than Memorial Day at Hilton Head), but I see where they're going and I like it.
First off, there's support for multiple accounts, and switching between them is easy. A series of buttons appear horizontally in the left of the window, including "My 2 Cents" (which displays just your tweets), Favorites, Friends, Replies and my favorite, Vanity, which finds all occurrences of your Twitter handle.
Mouse over a user's tweet to see options to re-tweet, copy the URL, open in a browser and more. I really like the option to view user details, which lets you see just that user's tweets, his followers, those being followed and profile and URL.
It is kind of wide (wider than Twitterrific but not TweetDeck, of course) so those with small displays be warned. Also, some may be put off by the pastel-colored icons. Still, it shows promise. Check it out if you're up for it, and provide some feedback to make Lounge better.
TUAWBeta Beat: Twitter app Lounge originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
LANrev 5.1 adds iPhone management, more
LANrev has launched LANrev 5.1, an update to the systems lifecycle suite that adds iPhone management support, on-demand software installation for users and enhanced power management reporting. The new version also adds better Help Desk integration, customized branding for client software distributions, and client versions localized for French, German and Spanish. The new "iPhone/iPod Touch Devices...
Apple ranks high in Brandchannel 2009 awards
Apple has placed high in Brandchannel's 2009 brandjunkie awards. Voters chose Apple as the top brand in several categories, such as best retail environment, in which it faced off against companies including IKEA, Starbucks and Walmart. The ability to not only try out products at a store but attend lectures and talk to technicians is cited as a plus, as is a minimalist but visually appealing inte...
PhysX Physical Engine-based Games Arrived on the iPhone
In February 2008, NVidia acquired a company known as Aegia and put its hand on the PhysX technology allowing applying physical engine to 3D rendering bringing a detail level never achieved so far. NVidia is now offering PhysX licensing to game and applications developers. If Apple does not hold officially such license for the iPhone, some developers started to include this rendering engine in games.
We can mention Big Fun Racing, SpaceRace or Debris.
In theory, NVidia could sue those developers and Apple for using PhysX without license. In practice, Apple is such a good client for NVidia, and the iPhone a successful device, that having one of its technology used with it is a great advertising campaign for NVidia.
iPhone Dev 101: Useful Cocoa Development Resources
Filed under: Features, How-tos, Developer, iPhone, iPod touch
It has been a while since the last iPhone Dev 101 post (and I must apologize for that -- sometime life can get in the way of different things, and this was one of those times). In this Dev 101 post, I want to take you through a few of my favorite resources for Cocoa/iPhone development. Some of these resources are books, while others are sites, but all of the resources are valuable to up and coming developers (and experiences developers) alike. Books
Some books are just invaluable and couldn't be replaced with another. Aaron Hillegass' Cocoa Programming for Mac is just that book. Currently in it's 3rd edition, the book gives you much of the Cocoa programming information that you need to program for both the Mac and iPhone. There are only a few subtle differences in programming for these platforms, namely the use of the Cocoa Touch. If you ever have the chance, going to one of the Big Nerd Ranch Cocoa programming classes gives you the ability to learn Cocoa hands-on.
Another title that is useful to beginning iPhone developers is the Beginning iPhone Development book. This book has a useful approach to stepping into the world that is programming on iPhone. It talks about numerous topics including UI design, Quartz, and OpenGL. Also covered in the book are APIs like CoreLocation and interfacing with the camera.
If you already know Cocoa and a little about iPhone development, Erica Sadun's iPhone Developer Cookbook is a great jumping off point to start development. She assumes, however, that you already understand Cocoa.
Continue reading to learn about more valuable books, websites, and resources for iPhone/Mac developers.
Continue reading iPhone Dev 101: Useful Cocoa Development Resources
TUAWiPhone Dev 101: Useful Cocoa Development Resources originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
HP launches Core i7 tower, four 16:9 LCDs
HP this morning stepped up the performance of its higher-end, mainstream towers with the launch of the Pavilion Elite m9600t. The system is built on Core i7 processors and takes advantage of the triple-channel memory bus; it also has unusually fast video for the class with a 768MB GeForce 9600 GS. A base model at $950 comes with a 2.66GHz Core i7, 3GB of RAM, and 500GB of disk space while furthe...
Wolfenstein 3D appears on App Store, Cydia
In tandem with the release of a free developer version, id Software has also released a publicly-accessible App Store edition of Wolfenstein 3D. Players control B.J. Blazkowicz in first-person combat against the Nazis, fighting through a number of indoor environments. The game has over 60 levels divided into six episodes, and sports the original six weapons, including the chaingun....
New Tests of the Mac Pro
Barefeats continues its test of the new Mac Pro comparing it with the previous models. They mostly concentrate on pro applications. Those results indicate that the new Octo Core clocked at 2.26 GHz is faster than the previous high-end Octo Core sporting 3.2 GHz Xeon. The new high-end Mac Pro featuring Nehalem Xeon at 2.93 GHz is defining a new performance reference. In one test, it completes the task in 63 seconds vs. 102 seconds for the previous high-end model. If the new architecture of the CPU has evolved and may contribute to this performance gain, it is mostly linked to the new memory architecture offering better efficiency than the previous FB-DIMM-based system. Barefeats measured that the memory bandwidth is larger if you use 3 modules per processor instead of 4. The Nehalem is optimized with 3 memory channel. The difference is rather huge, as one can reach 9261 MB/s with 3 modules vs. 6195 MB/s if you use 4.
If you are looking for the best performance level you should think about RAM modules when purchasing your new Mac Pro. A model equipped with 6x2 GB RAM modules will be faster than one having 8x2 GB modules, but only if you do not saturate the 12 GB of RAM available, otherwise performance will drop.
Beta Beat: Twitter app Lounge
Filed under: Software, Internet Tools, Beta Beat
In the history of marketing battles, The Cola Wars have nothing on the Twitter App War that's currently raging online. Twitterrific, TweetDeck and others are waging the ground battle, while Twitterrific (mobile), Tweetie and TwitterFon (to name a few) are fighting it out in the air.Today we got our hands on a beta of Lounge, a new client for Mac OS X (and iPhone/iPod touch). It's definitely got a way to go (I saw more beach balls than Memorial Day at Hilton Head), but I see where they're going and I like it.
First off, there's support for multiple accounts, and switching between them is easy. A series of buttons appear horizontally in the left of the window, including "My 2 Cents" (which displays just your tweets), Favorites, Friends, Replies and my favorite, Vanity, which finds all occurrences of your Twitter handle.
Mouse over a user's tweet to see options to re-tweet, copy the URL, open in a browser and more. I really like the option to view user details, which lets you see just that user's tweets, his followers, those being followed and profile and URL.
It is kind of wide (wider than Twitterrific but not TweetDeck, of course) so those with small displays be warned. Also, some may be put off by the pastel-colored icons. Still, it shows promise. Check it out if you're up for it, and provide some feedback to make Lounge better.
TUAWBeta Beat: Twitter app Lounge originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 25 Mar 2009 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
LANrev 5.1 adds iPhone management, more
LANrev has launched LANrev 5.1, an update to the systems lifecycle suite that adds iPhone management support, on-demand software installation for users and enhanced power management reporting. The new version also adds better Help Desk integration, customized branding for client software distributions, and client versions localized for French, German and Spanish. The new "iPhone/iPod Touch Devices...
Apple ranks high in Brandchannel 2009 awards
Apple has placed high in Brandchannel's 2009 brandjunkie awards. Voters chose Apple as the top brand in several categories, such as best retail environment, in which it faced off against companies including IKEA, Starbucks and Walmart. The ability to not only try out products at a store but attend lectures and talk to technicians is cited as a plus, as is a minimalist but visually appealing inte...
PhysX Physical Engine-based Games Arrived on the iPhone
In February 2008, NVidia acquired a company known as Aegia and put its hand on the PhysX technology allowing applying physical engine to 3D rendering bringing a detail level never achieved so far. NVidia is now offering PhysX licensing to game and applications developers. If Apple does not hold officially such license for the iPhone, some developers started to include this rendering engine in games.
We can mention Big Fun Racing, SpaceRace or Debris.
In theory, NVidia could sue those developers and Apple for using PhysX without license. In practice, Apple is such a good client for NVidia, and the iPhone a successful device, that having one of its technology used with it is a great advertising campaign for NVidia.
iPhone Dev 101: Useful Cocoa Development Resources
Filed under: Features, How-tos, Developer, iPhone, iPod touch
It has been a while since the last iPhone Dev 101 post (and I must apologize for that -- sometime life can get in the way of different things, and this was one of those times). In this Dev 101 post, I want to take you through a few of my favorite resources for Cocoa/iPhone development. Some of these resources are books, while others are sites, but all of the resources are valuable to up and coming developers (and experiences developers) alike. Books
Some books are just invaluable and couldn't be replaced with another. Aaron Hillegass' Cocoa Programming for Mac is just that book. Currently in it's 3rd edition, the book gives you much of the Cocoa programming information that you need to program for both the Mac and iPhone. There are only a few subtle differences in programming for these platforms, namely the use of the Cocoa Touch. If you ever have the chance, going to one of the Big Nerd Ranch Cocoa programming classes gives you the ability to learn Cocoa hands-on.
Another title that is useful to beginning iPhone developers is the Beginning iPhone Development book. This book has a useful approach to stepping into the world that is programming on iPhone. It talks about numerous topics including UI design, Quartz, and OpenGL. Also covered in the book are APIs like CoreLocation and interfacing with the camera.
If you already know Cocoa and a little about iPhone development, Erica Sadun's iPhone Developer Cookbook is a great jumping off point to start development. She assumes, however, that you already understand Cocoa.
Continue reading to learn about more valuable books, websites, and resources for iPhone/Mac developers.
Continue reading iPhone Dev 101: Useful Cocoa Development Resources
TUAWiPhone Dev 101: Useful Cocoa Development Resources originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 25 Mar 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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