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Chris Foresman: However, a number of readers have alerted Ars that it seems the battery life isn’t living up to the promises, and many suspect that the automatic graphics switching is the culprit. So we set out to investigate the issue. and: While it’s no surprise that Aperture, iMovie, or Photoshop cause the system to…
Chris Foresman:
However, a number of readers have alerted Ars that it seems the battery life isn’t living up to the promises, and many suspect that the automatic graphics switching is the culprit. So we set out to investigate the issue.
and:
While it’s no surprise that Aperture, iMovie, or Photoshop cause the system to switch on the NVIDIA GT 330M in the Core i5 and Core i7 MacBook Pros, some rather “pedestrian” apps can cause the discrete GPU to turn on as well: Tweetie, Transmit, PathFinder, Skype, and NetNewsWire, to name a few. These apps aren’t graphics intensive, but they are the kind of apps that most people leave running all the time.
Ars concluded that the use of Apple’s Core Animation is what is causing these relatively small applications to turn on the high-powered graphics cards. My guess is that they are right, the fix though does not seem to be that simple. I would like to see Apple make a seamless fix for this, however if they can’t here is an idea: take a Spaces approach.
Currently with Spaces (Apple’s multiple desktop preference) you can select which apps show up on which screen, or every screen. Why not build in a preference for the auto graphics switching that allows the user to essentially ignore an app when it wants to switch to the higher powered card? That’s what I would do short-term.
Mac Daily News is reporting that they have tip that MobileMe will become free. I would not doubt it, I have the service and it is hardly worth paying for. iDisk is almost not useable. However MobileMe would be a perfect compliment to the iPad, all they have to make is some tweaks to the…
Mac Daily News is reporting that they have tip that MobileMe will become free. I would not doubt it, I have the service and it is hardly worth paying for. iDisk is almost not useable.
However MobileMe would be a perfect compliment to the iPad, all they have to make is some tweaks to the service. If MobileMe were tweaked and made free, it would become something that propels the iPad forward very quickly.
Peter Kafka: The consumer research shop says U.S. sales of smartphones using Google’s mobile operating system climbed past Apple in the first three months of this year. Google (GOOG) nabbed 28 percent of the market, while Apple (AAPL) claimed 21 percent, NPD says. Less surprising is that BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIMM) still leads…
Peter Kafka:
The consumer research shop says U.S. sales of smartphones using Google’s mobile operating system climbed past Apple in the first three months of this year. Google (GOOG) nabbed 28 percent of the market, while Apple (AAPL) claimed 21 percent, NPD says. Less surprising is that BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIMM) still leads the market, with 36 percent.
I am waiting for my Verizon loving friend to call and boast. Here is the thing though, it doesn’t matter. Competition is great, it propels platforms forward. I don’t believe Apple is in it for market share, they are in it to be the best, and they are.
Om Malik: U.S. cable companies expect that by 2015, nearly 100 million of the nation’s homes will be able to send data upstream at speeds of around 20 Mbps. This will eventually be followed by further upgrades to 50 Mbps, by way of enhancements to DOCSIS 3.0 tech. That compares to current upstream speeds of…
Om Malik:
U.S. cable companies expect that by 2015, nearly 100 million of the nation’s homes will be able to send data upstream at speeds of around 20 Mbps. This will eventually be followed by further upgrades to 50 Mbps, by way of enhancements to DOCSIS 3.0 tech. That compares to current upstream speeds of 6-28 Mbps (shared).
Oh yeah.
MG Siegler (best TechCrunch Reporter) has a great read about speculating on the AT&T contract with Apple. Basically it is believed that at the end of 2010 no more iPhone exclusivity, but maybe getting Apple products first. I have no clue. However I still stand by the fact that the iPhone on Verizon would be…
MG Siegler (best TechCrunch Reporter) has a great read about speculating on the AT&T contract with Apple. Basically it is believed that at the end of 2010 no more iPhone exclusivity, but maybe getting Apple products first.
I have no clue. However I still stand by the fact that the iPhone on Verizon would be less than stellar. If you can’t get simultaneous data and voice on the iPhone, then there is no way I switch from AT&T, even though I dropped 3 calls already today.
Updated [5/10/10 @ 6:57pm]:
Engadget seems to think that it is still until 2012 unless they cancelled or modified it. The only reason this would happen is if Apple got out of it because of service quality issues, I doubt AT&T would want to shorten the deal.
Miran Pavic: The i-Limb Pulse is customizable with software. Doctors and users can tweak i-Limb Pulse’s behavior, programming it with specific grip patterns to fit the customer’s needs. They then beam the new patterns to the hand with Bluetooth. Looks really cool, and it is great to see advances made in this field given the…
Miran Pavic:
The i-Limb Pulse is customizable with software. Doctors and users can tweak i-Limb Pulse’s behavior, programming it with specific grip patterns to fit the customer’s needs. They then beam the new patterns to the hand with Bluetooth.
Looks really cool, and it is great to see advances made in this field given the elongated wars our country is involved in.
Chris Foresman: Ars decided that if Apple was too preoccupied with mobile devices to recognize noteworthy software on the Mac, then we would pick up the torch. As such, we are announcing the first ever Ars Design Awards. We are giving you, our readers, the opportunity to nominate your favorite Mac OS X applications to…
Chris Foresman:
Ars decided that if Apple was too preoccupied with mobile devices to recognize noteworthy software on the Mac, then we would pick up the torch. As such, we are announcing the first ever Ars Design Awards.
We are giving you, our readers, the opportunity to nominate your favorite Mac OS X applications to receive an award in one of five categories: Best New App, Best User Experience, Most Innovative App, Best K-12 Education App, and Best Student-created App. We will accept nominations until Friday, May 21.
Very cool.
Ernesto for TorrentFreak.com: Not only can downloaders choose the amount they want to pay, they can also decide whether they want the money to go to the developers, charity or any combination of both. The minimum amount required to get a download link is a penny. Thus far the project has been a great success.…
Ernesto for TorrentFreak.com:
Not only can downloaders choose the amount they want to pay, they can also decide whether they want the money to go to the developers, charity or any combination of both. The minimum amount required to get a download link is a penny.
Thus far the project has been a great success. The games have been downloaded more than 80,000 times and have raised $683,090 at the time of writing. Linux users have been the most generous with an average donation of $14.01, while Windows users are stuck at $7.31.
Very interesting that even though all you have to pay is a penny, there are still a lot of people pirating the software. Also it is very cool how well this model is working for them.
Boy Genius: According to an HP insider, by way of The Examiner, HP will be releasing a webOS-based tablet in Q3 of this year. Presumably featuring better hardware than the poorly reviewed HP Slate — recently scrapped by HP — the webOS tablet is said to be codenamed “Hurricane.” As noted in the report, try…
Boy Genius:
According to an HP insider, by way of The Examiner, HP will be releasing a webOS-based tablet in Q3 of this year. Presumably featuring better hardware than the poorly reviewed HP Slate — recently scrapped by HP — the webOS tablet is said to be codenamed “Hurricane.”
As noted in the report, try to remember that the acquisition has yet to be finalized. And as Boy Genius says:
…unless HP is already working hard on the Hurricane — or simply believes it wouldn’t be all that hard to slap together a decent tablet in a few month’s time — we find this whole “Q3″ business a bit hard to believe.
Agreed. More likely a year from the acquisition being approved.
Graham Bowley and Edward Wyatt for the New York Times: After a weekend of analysis, many specialists at the major exchanges no longer believe that a single large sell trade in one stock, like that of Procter & Gamble, was the trigger, according to the people familiar with the investigation. Instead, they suspect that a…
Graham Bowley and Edward Wyatt for the New York Times:
After a weekend of analysis, many specialists at the major exchanges no longer believe that a single large sell trade in one stock, like that of Procter & Gamble, was the trigger, according to the people familiar with the investigation. Instead, they suspect that a mismatch in rules between the older New York Stock Exchange and younger electronic exchanges set off a frightening sequence of events.
It is not known exactly what caused the initial sell-off in the blue chips, but investigators say the earliest sign of trouble they have found was a sudden drop in the value of a futures contract on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, based on the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index. That pushed down a broad array of stocks in that index, all of them traded on the New York Exchange and other major exchanges, and sent many stocks on the New York Exchange into slow mode.
Now it wasn’t a typo, but rather a much larger problem. All the exchanges are not in sync, which can cause quite a ripple in stock prices it would seem.
Charlie Sorrel: In fact, you can even wander down the street and use the Vaio P as you obliviously bump into fellow pedestrians, just like you can with a cellphone, thanks to an optical trackpad and mouse buttons either side of the screen, for “two-handed operation while standing or walking.” The cellphone/iPad comparisons fall down…
Charlie Sorrel:
In fact, you can even wander down the street and use the Vaio P as you obliviously bump into fellow pedestrians, just like you can with a cellphone, thanks to an optical trackpad and mouse buttons either side of the screen, for “two-handed operation while standing or walking.” The cellphone/iPad comparisons fall down with the battery life. Sony claims just five hours, which should be halved to get the real time. You can, if you like, pop on a bigger pack for double the life.
Yeah, don’t waste your money.
Antone Gonsalves: The iPhone accounted for 16.1% of the market in the quarter, compared to 10.9% the same period a year ago, IDC said in releasing its quarterly report Friday. In terms of shipments, Apple shipped 8.8 million units, a 131.6% increase from the 3.8 million shipments a year ago. RIM, meanwhile, saws its share…
Antone Gonsalves:
The iPhone accounted for 16.1% of the market in the quarter, compared to 10.9% the same period a year ago, IDC said in releasing its quarterly report Friday. In terms of shipments, Apple shipped 8.8 million units, a 131.6% increase from the 3.8 million shipments a year ago.
RIM, meanwhile, saws its share drop to 19.4% from 20.9% a year ago. Nevertheless, the company shipped 10.6 million units, a 45.2% increase from the 7.3 million units shipped a year ago.
Guess RIM was right, no one likes those ‘funky’ touch screen keyboards.
New frequency in the 60ghz range is going to be used to deliver some serious speed to WiFi. The drawback? Line of sight is needed for connects. Yay for Infrared!
New frequency in the 60ghz range is going to be used to deliver some serious speed to WiFi. The drawback? Line of sight is needed for connects. Yay for Infrared!
David Carr: So Thomson Reuters is trying to change television. Its new product, Reuters Insider, is a Web-based video service that captures myriad streams of information produced by the company’s reporters and 150 partners. The service, which will begin Tuesday, is something like a You Tube for the financially interested, albeit one that is available…
David Carr:
So Thomson Reuters is trying to change television. Its new product, Reuters Insider, is a Web-based video service that captures myriad streams of information produced by the company’s reporters and 150 partners. The service, which will begin Tuesday, is something like a You Tube for the financially interested, albeit one that is available only to Reuters subscribers, who pay as much as $2,000 a month.
Interesting approach. This is a 50/50 swing here, either it will be a home run or a strikeout.
Rob Walker: Even if Spies won the object, created by a young artist named Caleb Larsen, his ownership would be tentative: the technical innards of “A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter” carried a program that would relist the thing on eBay every week, forever. Indeed, the terms and conditions for submitting a bid clearly stipulated…
Rob Walker:
Even if Spies won the object, created by a young artist named Caleb Larsen, his ownership would be tentative: the technical innards of “A Tool to Deceive and Slaughter” carried a program that would relist the thing on eBay every week, forever. Indeed, the terms and conditions for submitting a bid clearly stipulated that the device must be connected to the Internet, constantly trying to resell itself at a higher price to someone else.
Very neat, if this is still on display I might have to go take a gander.
Joseph Plambeck: In many ways, the quality of what people hear — how well the playback reflects the original sound— has taken a step back. To many expert ears, compressed music files produce a crackly, tinnier and thinner sound than music on CDs and certainly on vinyl. And to compete with other songs, tracks are…
Joseph Plambeck:
In many ways, the quality of what people hear — how well the playback reflects the original sound— has taken a step back. To many expert ears, compressed music files produce a crackly, tinnier and thinner sound than music on CDs and certainly on vinyl. And to compete with other songs, tracks are engineered to be much louder as well.
Mark this down as “it is only a matter of time, until it changes”.
Dustin Curtis: The concept of a “file” as a container to hold a piece of content is dying. The contents inside the files are becoming the central actors for creating user interactions. Computers are becoming more human, and part of the evolutionary process requires them to more closely complement the human brain’s built-in systems for…
Dustin Curtis:
The concept of a “file” as a container to hold a piece of content is dying. The contents inside the files are becoming the central actors for creating user interactions. Computers are becoming more human, and part of the evolutionary process requires them to more closely complement the human brain’s built-in systems for interacting with the world.
Agreed.