April 4th, 2008
Creative backs down on modded Vista drivers
Question for you. If a company releases a product with drivers that are, how can I put this kindly, lacking, and someone else decides to mod those drivers to add new features and fix broken stuff, should that be allowed or is the company right to kick up a fuss?
Here the story. Creative released products that were labeled as “Vista Ready.” Problem is that many users found the drivers to be buggy and sorely lacking in features. To make matters worse, Creative seems to redefine the word “slow” when it comes to updating drivers. A talented member of the Creative support forum called Daniel_K decided to take matters into his own hands and developed a modded set of drivers that fixed problems and added new features. Creative was unhappy about this and removed all the links. The story got Slashdotted and a week later Creative backed down and reinstated the links (The Register has more coverage).
Loading …I’m going to say that while I understand Creative’s concerns, Daniel_K did seem to be doing the company a favor. As long as he made it clear that these drivers were and the fact that they weren’t officially sanctioned, I can’t see that he was causing any harm.
Thoughts?
April 4th, 2008
The $155 iPhone
That’s true. You can now pick up an 8GB iPhone for $155. There are a few catches. You have to live in Germany, sign up to T-Mobile, and take out a monthly contract that costs almost as much as the iPhone itself.
How long until Apple starts to subsidize a cheaper US iPhone?
Some are taking these price cuts to mean that a new 3G iPhone is on the way, but I’m not too sure that I buy that. After all, if Apple or T-Mobile wanted to get rid of inventory it could drop the price in the US and achieve the same result. My gut says that this has more to do with stalling sales than a new model. The normal evolution for cellphones is for the price to drop over time. There’s no reason to think that the iPhone was somehow immune to the same effect.
It’s now going to be interesting to see what other European carriers do. If we next see Orange and O2 start to drop prices then this is a sign that the carriers are treating the iPhone like any other premium cellphone - hype it, sell it high while they can and then dump the price once the shine wears off.
But when will the US see a price cut? My guess is that it’s not going to happen any time soon. While the Europeans might be getting bored with the iPhone, sales still appear to be strong this side of the Atlantic. Strong sales mean no cheap iPhones.
Loading …Thoughts?
April 4th, 2008
Friday Rant: Let XP die!
So, Microsoft has set the XP cut off date. June 30, 2008. That’s fine with me. It’s time for XP to die.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I didn’t like XP, but that time has passed. Long passed. The last few XP installs that I’ve carried out have shown me how painful the process is compared to Vista. First, the install process demands that you stand around the system for an extended period of time to answer a variety of questions. With Vista the process has been cut down to a few choices at the beginning of the installations process and afterwards I can walk away and leave it to finish on its own. Then there’s finding all the necessary drivers. A system that needs me to find half a dozen or so drivers with XP installed doesn’t need any with Vista. That’s a hassle I’m happy not to have any more
Also, as I increasingly move over from 32-bit to 64-bit, with Vista I finally have a 64-bit platform that works reliably and allows me to break the 4GB barrier without having to suffer much in the way of downsides. XP Pro 64-bit couldn’t deliver me that no matter how often I tried.
It seems that XP has, over the years, collected a pretty big fan club. I guess that’s understandable given how long XP has been around, but all this “Save XP” stuff is starting to sound like little more than a few people howling at the moon. It’s not as if these people haven’t had clear notice that Vista is on the way in and XP is on the way out. How long do they realistically think Microsoft should offer XP? Another six months? A year? Two years? Indefinitely? Folks, it’s time to let it go and move on.
Maybe SP3 will rejuvenate XP a bit, maybe it won’t. Either way, I doubt that the service pack will change the fact that XP is long in the tooth on a number of fronts. It’s time for me to put my XP CDs into the drawer of doom.
Loading …Thoughts?
April 3rd, 2008
Firefox 3.0 Beta 5 faster on Mac OS X than Safari 3.1
Previous benchmark tests that I’d carried out on my Mac mini had shown that Safari 3.1 was the fastest browser for the Mac OS X. Firefox 3.0 Beta 5 changes that.
Using the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark test my testing shows that Firefox 3.0 Beta 5 holds a 7% lead over Safari 3.1.
Firefox 3.0 is shaping up to be a fine browser.
Thoughts?
April 2nd, 2008
Firefox 3.0 Beta 5 - Fastest browser yet!
I’ve had a little hands-on time with Firefox 3.0 Beta 5 now and initial testing shows it to be the fastest browser available.
Over the past few weeks I’ve carried out a number of browser benchmark tests using the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark and I’ve now added Firefox 3.0 Beta 5 to the lineup.
Note: The hardware platform remains unchanged from the previous tests, but to confirm that there were no changes I re-ran some of the tests using browsers already on the list and saw a deviation of less than 2% in the results between the results from today and those carried out previously.
Previously the speed list stood as follows:
- Firefox 3.0 Beta 4
- Safari 3.1
- Opera 9.50 Beta 1
- Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1
- Firefox 3.0 Beta 3
- Safari 3.0 Beta
- Opera 9.26
- Firefox 2.0.0.12
- Internet Explorer 7
SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark
Well, with the release of Firefox 3.0 Beta 5 we have a new winner. In the benchmark test that I carried out Beta 5 is 15% faster Read the rest of this entry »
April 2nd, 2008
It’s official! Firefox 3.0 Beta 5 released
[UPDATE: It’s now official.]
Just a quick note - Firefox 3.0 Beta 5 has been released and distributed to mirror download sites.
There’s no official announcement yet (I expect this to be made within the hour) but the release notes have been uploaded to the Mozilla website.
Firefox 3 Beta 5 includes more than 750 changes from the previous beta, improving stability and web compatibility, providing platform and user interface enhancements, and resulting in the fastest Firefox ever. Many of these improvements were based on community feedback from the previous beta.
The download site hasn’t been updated yet but if you’re creative with the download link you’ll find it (here are the US English downloads for Windows, Mac and Linux).
I’ll have more on this latest Firefox beta soon …
[UPDATE: Download page updated.]
April 2nd, 2008
Is Ubuntu becoming the generic Linux distro?
Has anyone else noticed an increasing number of Linux newbies who seem to think that Ubuntu is Linux and Linux is Ubuntu?
Over the past year or so I’ve noticed an increasing number of newbies (a term which I use affectionately) interested in taking Linux for a spin - for example, the number or emails I’m getting on the subject from zero a year ago to several dozen a week. The reasons for their interest in Linux are many and varied, as is the level of commitment to making the switch from Windows or Mac. However, one thing stands out from all the conversations - the number of people who seem to confuse Ubuntu for Linux. I can tell because they will either use both terms interchangeably or be using the name Ubuntu in a generic sense. Moreover, it seems to be confined to Ubuntu. I’ve not seen the name of another distro used in the same way.
I have to admit that I like Ubuntu. Like it a lot. I’ve handled dozens of Linux distros over the past year to eighteen months and I always come back to Ubuntu. While I don’t put myself into the Linux n00b category, I know that I’m not a million miles away Read the rest of this entry »
April 1st, 2008
Five April Fools’ Day-esque headlines I wish were true
Today, in case you need reminding, is April Fools’ Day. If someone hasn’t already tried to ensnare you in some practical joke or hoax, keep looking over your shoulder, because it’s a-coming.
The web is a breeding ground for gags, and I expect that many of the sites that I visit will try to pull some kind of stunt. Some will be good, but mostly they’ll be lame.
Rather than subject you to more foolery, I thought that I’d compile a short list of April Fools’ Day-esque headlines I wish were true. Alas, sadly, they are not.
- AMD announce Intel-beating chip
AMD beating Intel - You just know that has to be a gag. - Linux market share overtakes Mac
As disruptive as Apple is, it’s still just another multi-billion dollar corporation trying to make more money. - Apple and Microsoft to collaborate on thought-controlled media player
Yeah, just what I want - a sucky interface beamed directly into my mind! - DRM to become a thing of the past
Yeah, riiiight. - New device allows recipients of spam email to deliver painful electric shocks to the spammer
I wish! I’d buy three or four of these, and amp them up a bit.
Right, that’s me done for today. I’m keeping my head down and going off the grid for the rest of today so that I avoid all the jokes, gags and pranks. I’m going to spend the time building and setting up my new dual quad-core Xeon system - more on that later.
Before I go let me leave you with this bit of April Fools’ Day fun … there are so many fools out there, try not to be one of them!
Open mike time - Feel free to share your favorite April Fools’ Day pranks or gags!
March 31st, 2008
Could Apple sell 45 million iPhones a year?
Today the web is alight with speculation as to how Apple will sell 45 million iPhones in 2009. The catalyst for this speculation is Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster who continues to stand by a prediction made in June 2007 (weeks before the iPhone went on sale) that by 2009 Apple will be shifting iPhones at a rate of 45 million a year.
How could Apple achieve these stratospheric targets? Munster offers the following roadmap:
- Release a 3G iPhone in 3 - 6 months
- Expand the iPhone range to include two or three models, including a lower-priced model
- Keep entering new countries
- Adding new features
Even compared to iPod sales, 45 million iPhones a year is an ambitious target
45 million is a big number no matter how you cut it. Even compared to iPod sales, 45 million iPhones a year is an ambitious target. Last year Apple sold around 50 million iPods.
To me the 45 a million a year by 2009 figure comes across as wildly speculative, especially given that we know that by Q1 this year Apple had sold fewer than 4 million iPhones. Not only that but this sort of wild speculation could be highly Read the rest of this entry »
March 31st, 2008
New 3D workstation graphics card from AMD: ATI FireGL V7700
Today AMD has announced a new 3D workstation graphics card for the FireGL line. The ATI FireGL V7700 is the first commercially available 3D workstation graphics card to support DisplayPort (specification here).
The FireGL V7700 supersedes the FireGL V7100 and adds a number of key features and improvements:
- Display Port support - 10-bit image quality output
- DisplayPort output combined with a Dual Link enabled DVI output generates a multi-monitor desktop over 5000 pixels wide from a single card
- 512MB of memory
- Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista and Linux support
- ATI FireGL cards are tested and certified to work with major CAD (Computer Aided Design) and DCC (Digital Content Creation)applications
- DirectX 10.1 and OpenGL 2.1 support
- 320 unified shaders
- Intelligent management of graphics power to deliver processing power when it’s needed
- PCI Express 2.0
The ATI FireGL V7700 3D workstation graphics card is expected to begin shipping April 2008.
MSRP is $1,099 USD.
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Right to Reply: Should any industry representatives wish to comment on any posts on Hardware 2.0, I will be happy to publish their reply verbatim on this blog.
Adrian is a technology journalist and author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology. He also also runs a popular blog called The PC Doctor. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
Recent Entries
- Creative backs down on modded Vista drivers
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