During the IDF 2009, Intel made a demo of a hardware based on Nehalem EX. The current Xeon Nehalem powering the new Mac Pro belongs to the EP series. The Nehalem EX will be available up to 8 core CPU, but one can install 4 or 8 units on the same motherboard. Hereafter is the task manager on Windows for a computer powered by four Octo Core Xeon Nehalem EX; in other words, 32 physical cores or 64 logic cores thank to hyperthreading. In order to feed such CPUs, there are interconnected with 4 QPI link, and each CPU is able to manage simultaneously 4 RAM modules (for a total of 16 in the current example)
One can now better understand the dilemma and the problem currently faced, and to be a growing concern in the forthcoming months, for application and OS developers: how to code and/or design their software/OS in order to fully benefit from such raw power? It will also be true for Larrabee, the graphical solution developed by Intel, initially based on 8 to 64 cores, and which will need to be managed and feed with data/request to be fully effective and to fully deliver.
Apple to Stock 4 Millions of the New iPhone Prior its Launch in June
According to Slashphone, quoting sources from manufacturers, Apple has ordered 4 millions units of its new iPhone. Three models will be available: one EDGE, one 3G and one dedicated to the chinese market, compatible with the TD-SCDMA format. The new iPhone should be launched mid-June (might be during the WWDC).
Let your tweets incubate with Birdhouse for iPhone
Filed under: Software, Internet Tools, iPhone
For these types, a tweet isn't something that's typed and quickly posted a few seconds later -- it's a chance to make his/her followers chuckle. To that end, they take great care to ensure that each tweet is finely honed and worded to deliver the maximum amount of gag within the 140-character limit. Birdhouse is an application for these people.
Dubbed by its creators as "A Notepad for Twitter," Birdhouse isn't your typical Twitter client. Instead of reading, replying to and favoriting your buddies' tweets, it focuses on composition. Got an idea for a really hilarious joke? Plug the idea into Birdhouse, then come back to it when you have time. Tweak and refine it until you've got just what you want, and hit publish.
There's no hard limit to the number of drafts you can keep at once, and it maintains a timestamped history of all of the tweets you've published. You can rate each message using a 5-star system, and it also allows you to email yourself a complete list of all pending and published tweets in case you're staring at the business end of an iPhone restore and you don't want to lose that truly golden mom joke you've been working on.
Birdhouse [App Store] is available now for $3.99US.
TUAWLet your tweets incubate with Birdhouse for iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
New iPod Shuffle Contains $22 Worth of Parts
BusinessWeek reports on a teardown of the new iPod shuffle by research firm iSuppli, revealing that Apple's diminutive player contains approximately $22 worth of parts.
All told, the cost of the shuffle's components, the headphones, a...
iPhone App Of The Day - Zombieville USA
If you’re looking for some brainless, gun toting fun then you can’t go wrong with Zombieville USA. This iPhone/iPod Touch game has you playing as a gun wielding redneck trying to survive a zombie apocalpyse. The game play is tight, and it has a wonderful design behind it. The game is on sale for $0.99 right now, so get on it.
Bluetooth 3.0 to Be unveiled on April 21st
According to the last information from the web, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group will officially unveil the third version of this wireless format on April 21st. The main improvements are based on the software, and only minor modifications have been made on the hardware part. Indeed, the version 3.0 will work on the hardware currently used in version 2.1, and the new software layer will allow access to the Wi-Fi chips of computers and devices to optimize the transfer speed. It will be possible to use both wireless protocols depending on the amount of data to be managed as well as on power consumption settings.
The BT 3.0 should be quickly integrated in all devices, eventhough its main interest will be to take advantage of Wi-Fi larger bandwidth and data transfer speed, so it will not make sense for all devices, so customers will have to pay attention not to consider it as a must have as it could of course be used as a strong marketing point to extend lifetime of aging products.
We now have to wait for Apple to update/upgrade to BT 3.0. new models as well as current models should be ready to get it, as soon as Apple release a compatible BT firmware version. It could give users the ability to get ride of their wire-based connection to synchronize their iPhone/iPod Touch, if Apple is finally ready to allow it...
iPhone developers will need servers to push
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
Former TUAW blogger Erica Sadun has a cautionary post for developers regarding the pending push notifications coming to iPhone OS 3.0: better get yourself some reliable servers. The implication, delivered via headline, is that smaller developers won't be able to afford push notification. Indeed, as Erica says, coding for an app that can run in the background is one thing -- you may need to scale things down a bit for resource management -- but deploying a reliable push notification system is a tall order by comparison.Instead of coding once and deploying, developers will now have to manage servers to handle the load of users who will be receiving push notifications. This ongoing server maintenance issue is the sort of thing we used to laugh about when digg first started, or Twitter, or MySpace, or any number of services that grew a little ahead of server capacity. After speaking to one of the network engineers at Twitter during SxSW this year, I don't envy the task of staying ahead of these curves. But push, in my opinion, isn't as onerous as that.
Push notifications aren't serving entire pages. The difference in data throughput overall is much slimmer than even the light pages Twitter serves. Erica correctly points out that in aggregate, the push server might be hit pretty frequently; however, and there's more of a concern with reliability for a finance or medical app than something like Twitter or digg. But even when you throw in the added hurdle of security I'm guessing the resources for this are available at a reasonable cost.
I get that this is more work for developers, but Erica makes it sound a little threatening, like developers' only resolution will be to cobble together a mighty datacenter from spare computer parts. My assertion is that developers who wish to play the push game will simply need to look for outside resources and factor that into their price. Maybe fewer $.99 apps is a good thing? You certainly don't need 30 apps trying to alert you during the day -- how would you get anything done?
In the end, push notifications are welcome, and I'd rather have that than a one-hour battery life for the day. Plus, I would agree that some smaller developers will have to forget push because the potential costs are too high. Guess what? That's as it should be. If your product requires it, your cost should reflect it. There's no shortage of service providers out there, and as we've seen in the past (look at the podcast services that popped up when that blew up a few years ago) the market will fill the needs of the developers if they aren't in the business of making their own server farms. It's certainly a new twist to the iPhone dev game, and it's an opportunity for someone who can deliver a reliable push framework at a reasonable price -- perhaps one running atop Amazon's EC2, Google's App Engine or even Microsoft's Azure cloud service.
TUAWiPhone developers will need servers to push originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Update your ancient Quark on the cheap
Oh, QuarkXPress. My fondest Mac memories are tied in with you. It was one of the first programs I ever learned on the Mac. It was also the most frustrating piece of design software ever -- guaranteed to crash the computer at least once an hour, and don't even think about using the Auto Backup feature on the early versions. I learned Quark back in version 3.1.1 and cursed its existence through the next decade ... until Quark 7. It did something that it had never done before -- not crash on my Mac. It was a stable piece of software and while definitely not my preferred design software, it doesn't make me want to cry in a corner if I have to use it. Quark Inc. is offering to upgrade any version of QuarkXPress - going back to version 3 - to the latest version (8.0.2) for a single upgrade price of € 399/£ 279/$299.
- So what if you don't have a serial number? Let Quark know. They have a database of serial numbers and will do their best to find the missing serial number so you can upgrade. Same if you never registered your license to begin with. Quark will also accept a fax or scan of the original installation CD, disks, or receipts as proof of purchase.
QuarkXPress 8.0.2 requires OS X 10.4 or higher, G5 PowerPC or Intel processor, 1GB of RAM and 1GB of hard disk space.
TUAWUpdate your ancient Quark on the cheap originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 13 Apr 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
New iPod Shuffle: 72% Margin for Apple!?
As usual, iSupply has dissected the component used in the new iPod Shuffle in order to evaluate its true manufacturing cost as well as Apple's margin. According to their evaluation, Apple could save 72% out of the current retail price. In details, the 4 GB memory chip will cost 6 USD, while the entire electronic part will be less than 6 USD. Once assembled, equipped with the earphones and properly packed, it should not cost more than 22 USD... So it is a rather substantial margin for Apple, even if you add the not evaluated shipping, localization, design and R&D costs. For sure such figures will give ammunition to the usual suspects prone to attack Apple for any piece of information. We indeed would have preferred to have a cheaper new iPod Shuffle if Apple's margin is so ... substantial...
Verdict on Consumer Reports iPhone app: Helpful but incomplete
Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, App Review
I enjoy Consumer Reports magazine, even though sometimes the camera and electronics reviews drive me crazy. The ratings seem sometimes arbitrary, and don't always take what I think are the 'right' features into account and don't weigh those features the same way I would. Nevertheless, I find their reviews useful and another data point to throw in when I'm about to make a purchase.Some months, ago, Consumer Reports launched an iPhone/ iPod touch app, and updated it again recently. The app, appropriately called Consumer Reports, [App Store link] is free, and has a lot of interesting info, but you don't really get links to the wealth of data back at the magazine. Even if you are a subscriber, you can't log in from the app and see magazine content.
You do get a lot of worthwhile news about consumer products, leaning heavily toward Electronics, Cars and products or services for the Home. You also get videos that are sometimes interesting, sometimes bizarre. I didn't make it all the way through the toilet paper tests.
There is some up to date reporting on topics of interest to consumers, like retailer bankruptcies, and what I would call 'tip' articles, like how to shoot a panoramic photo or tips on buying a Netbook.
There is a bit of Mac coverage, most recently a test to see if the MacBook Pro really lasted for 8 hours running on batteries. It didn't in the CR test.
Strangely, the app doesn't have any kind of search function, so if you are looking for just news about Mac laptops, for example, you're out of luck.
I still find the app full of beneficial news, and I give it a browse a couple of times a week. I wonder how Consumer Reports would rate this app? 'Recommended', 'predicted reliability good', but 'could be much better with a few changes'. On the app store users gave it an average rating of 2 stars out of 5. A bit harsh, perhaps. It's generally downgraded because there is no access to the magazine content.
Also interesting is that CR has not been a great fan of the iPhone, complaining, for example, about call quality when it first came out, but they did feel compelled to do this iPhone app. Funny old world.
Here are some screen captures:
TUAWVerdict on Consumer Reports iPhone app: Helpful but incomplete originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Nehalem EX in Action
During the IDF 2009, Intel made a demo of a hardware based on Nehalem EX. The current Xeon Nehalem powering the new Mac Pro belongs to the EP series. The Nehalem EX will be available up to 8 core CPU, but one can install 4 or 8 units on the same motherboard. Hereafter is the task manager on Windows for a computer powered by four Octo Core Xeon Nehalem EX; in other words, 32 physical cores or 64 logic cores thank to hyperthreading. In order to feed such CPUs, there are interconnected with 4 QPI link, and each CPU is able to manage simultaneously 4 RAM modules (for a total of 16 in the current example)
One can now better understand the dilemma and the problem currently faced, and to be a growing concern in the forthcoming months, for application and OS developers: how to code and/or design their software/OS in order to fully benefit from such raw power? It will also be true for Larrabee, the graphical solution developed by Intel, initially based on 8 to 64 cores, and which will need to be managed and feed with data/request to be fully effective and to fully deliver.
Apple to Stock 4 Millions of the New iPhone Prior its Launch in June
According to Slashphone, quoting sources from manufacturers, Apple has ordered 4 millions units of its new iPhone. Three models will be available: one EDGE, one 3G and one dedicated to the chinese market, compatible with the TD-SCDMA format. The new iPhone should be launched mid-June (might be during the WWDC).
Let your tweets incubate with Birdhouse for iPhone
Filed under: Software, Internet Tools, iPhone
For these types, a tweet isn't something that's typed and quickly posted a few seconds later -- it's a chance to make his/her followers chuckle. To that end, they take great care to ensure that each tweet is finely honed and worded to deliver the maximum amount of gag within the 140-character limit. Birdhouse is an application for these people.
Dubbed by its creators as "A Notepad for Twitter," Birdhouse isn't your typical Twitter client. Instead of reading, replying to and favoriting your buddies' tweets, it focuses on composition. Got an idea for a really hilarious joke? Plug the idea into Birdhouse, then come back to it when you have time. Tweak and refine it until you've got just what you want, and hit publish.
There's no hard limit to the number of drafts you can keep at once, and it maintains a timestamped history of all of the tweets you've published. You can rate each message using a 5-star system, and it also allows you to email yourself a complete list of all pending and published tweets in case you're staring at the business end of an iPhone restore and you don't want to lose that truly golden mom joke you've been working on.
Birdhouse [App Store] is available now for $3.99US.
TUAWLet your tweets incubate with Birdhouse for iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
New iPod Shuffle Contains $22 Worth of Parts
BusinessWeek reports on a teardown of the new iPod shuffle by research firm iSuppli, revealing that Apple's diminutive player contains approximately $22 worth of parts.
All told, the cost of the shuffle's components, the headphones, a...
iPhone App Of The Day - Zombieville USA
If you’re looking for some brainless, gun toting fun then you can’t go wrong with Zombieville USA. This iPhone/iPod Touch game has you playing as a gun wielding redneck trying to survive a zombie apocalpyse. The game play is tight, and it has a wonderful design behind it. The game is on sale for $0.99 right now, so get on it.
Bluetooth 3.0 to Be unveiled on April 21st
According to the last information from the web, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group will officially unveil the third version of this wireless format on April 21st. The main improvements are based on the software, and only minor modifications have been made on the hardware part. Indeed, the version 3.0 will work on the hardware currently used in version 2.1, and the new software layer will allow access to the Wi-Fi chips of computers and devices to optimize the transfer speed. It will be possible to use both wireless protocols depending on the amount of data to be managed as well as on power consumption settings.
The BT 3.0 should be quickly integrated in all devices, eventhough its main interest will be to take advantage of Wi-Fi larger bandwidth and data transfer speed, so it will not make sense for all devices, so customers will have to pay attention not to consider it as a must have as it could of course be used as a strong marketing point to extend lifetime of aging products.
We now have to wait for Apple to update/upgrade to BT 3.0. new models as well as current models should be ready to get it, as soon as Apple release a compatible BT firmware version. It could give users the ability to get ride of their wire-based connection to synchronize their iPhone/iPod Touch, if Apple is finally ready to allow it...
iPhone developers will need servers to push
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
Former TUAW blogger Erica Sadun has a cautionary post for developers regarding the pending push notifications coming to iPhone OS 3.0: better get yourself some reliable servers. The implication, delivered via headline, is that smaller developers won't be able to afford push notification. Indeed, as Erica says, coding for an app that can run in the background is one thing -- you may need to scale things down a bit for resource management -- but deploying a reliable push notification system is a tall order by comparison.Instead of coding once and deploying, developers will now have to manage servers to handle the load of users who will be receiving push notifications. This ongoing server maintenance issue is the sort of thing we used to laugh about when digg first started, or Twitter, or MySpace, or any number of services that grew a little ahead of server capacity. After speaking to one of the network engineers at Twitter during SxSW this year, I don't envy the task of staying ahead of these curves. But push, in my opinion, isn't as onerous as that.
Push notifications aren't serving entire pages. The difference in data throughput overall is much slimmer than even the light pages Twitter serves. Erica correctly points out that in aggregate, the push server might be hit pretty frequently; however, and there's more of a concern with reliability for a finance or medical app than something like Twitter or digg. But even when you throw in the added hurdle of security I'm guessing the resources for this are available at a reasonable cost.
I get that this is more work for developers, but Erica makes it sound a little threatening, like developers' only resolution will be to cobble together a mighty datacenter from spare computer parts. My assertion is that developers who wish to play the push game will simply need to look for outside resources and factor that into their price. Maybe fewer $.99 apps is a good thing? You certainly don't need 30 apps trying to alert you during the day -- how would you get anything done?
In the end, push notifications are welcome, and I'd rather have that than a one-hour battery life for the day. Plus, I would agree that some smaller developers will have to forget push because the potential costs are too high. Guess what? That's as it should be. If your product requires it, your cost should reflect it. There's no shortage of service providers out there, and as we've seen in the past (look at the podcast services that popped up when that blew up a few years ago) the market will fill the needs of the developers if they aren't in the business of making their own server farms. It's certainly a new twist to the iPhone dev game, and it's an opportunity for someone who can deliver a reliable push framework at a reasonable price -- perhaps one running atop Amazon's EC2, Google's App Engine or even Microsoft's Azure cloud service.
TUAWiPhone developers will need servers to push originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Update your ancient Quark on the cheap
Oh, QuarkXPress. My fondest Mac memories are tied in with you. It was one of the first programs I ever learned on the Mac. It was also the most frustrating piece of design software ever -- guaranteed to crash the computer at least once an hour, and don't even think about using the Auto Backup feature on the early versions. I learned Quark back in version 3.1.1 and cursed its existence through the next decade ... until Quark 7. It did something that it had never done before -- not crash on my Mac. It was a stable piece of software and while definitely not my preferred design software, it doesn't make me want to cry in a corner if I have to use it. Quark Inc. is offering to upgrade any version of QuarkXPress - going back to version 3 - to the latest version (8.0.2) for a single upgrade price of € 399/£ 279/$299.
- So what if you don't have a serial number? Let Quark know. They have a database of serial numbers and will do their best to find the missing serial number so you can upgrade. Same if you never registered your license to begin with. Quark will also accept a fax or scan of the original installation CD, disks, or receipts as proof of purchase.
QuarkXPress 8.0.2 requires OS X 10.4 or higher, G5 PowerPC or Intel processor, 1GB of RAM and 1GB of hard disk space.
TUAWUpdate your ancient Quark on the cheap originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 13 Apr 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
New iPod Shuffle: 72% Margin for Apple!?
As usual, iSupply has dissected the component used in the new iPod Shuffle in order to evaluate its true manufacturing cost as well as Apple's margin. According to their evaluation, Apple could save 72% out of the current retail price. In details, the 4 GB memory chip will cost 6 USD, while the entire electronic part will be less than 6 USD. Once assembled, equipped with the earphones and properly packed, it should not cost more than 22 USD... So it is a rather substantial margin for Apple, even if you add the not evaluated shipping, localization, design and R&D costs. For sure such figures will give ammunition to the usual suspects prone to attack Apple for any piece of information. We indeed would have preferred to have a cheaper new iPod Shuffle if Apple's margin is so ... substantial...
Verdict on Consumer Reports iPhone app: Helpful but incomplete
Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, App Review
I enjoy Consumer Reports magazine, even though sometimes the camera and electronics reviews drive me crazy. The ratings seem sometimes arbitrary, and don't always take what I think are the 'right' features into account and don't weigh those features the same way I would. Nevertheless, I find their reviews useful and another data point to throw in when I'm about to make a purchase.Some months, ago, Consumer Reports launched an iPhone/ iPod touch app, and updated it again recently. The app, appropriately called Consumer Reports, [App Store link] is free, and has a lot of interesting info, but you don't really get links to the wealth of data back at the magazine. Even if you are a subscriber, you can't log in from the app and see magazine content.
You do get a lot of worthwhile news about consumer products, leaning heavily toward Electronics, Cars and products or services for the Home. You also get videos that are sometimes interesting, sometimes bizarre. I didn't make it all the way through the toilet paper tests.
There is some up to date reporting on topics of interest to consumers, like retailer bankruptcies, and what I would call 'tip' articles, like how to shoot a panoramic photo or tips on buying a Netbook.
There is a bit of Mac coverage, most recently a test to see if the MacBook Pro really lasted for 8 hours running on batteries. It didn't in the CR test.
Strangely, the app doesn't have any kind of search function, so if you are looking for just news about Mac laptops, for example, you're out of luck.
I still find the app full of beneficial news, and I give it a browse a couple of times a week. I wonder how Consumer Reports would rate this app? 'Recommended', 'predicted reliability good', but 'could be much better with a few changes'. On the app store users gave it an average rating of 2 stars out of 5. A bit harsh, perhaps. It's generally downgraded because there is no access to the magazine content.
Also interesting is that CR has not been a great fan of the iPhone, complaining, for example, about call quality when it first came out, but they did feel compelled to do this iPhone app. Funny old world.
Here are some screen captures:
TUAWVerdict on Consumer Reports iPhone app: Helpful but incomplete originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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