Panasonic adds two 1080p, low-light camcorders

post from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network on 09 February 2010 11:50:00 PM. © MacNN | The Macintosh News Network

Panasonic in a late-night launch extended its 3MOS camcorders with a pair of top-tier models. Toget...

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REAL Studio 2010 R1 improves ActiveX support,
adds languages

post from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network on 09 February 2010 10:30:00 PM. © MacNN | The Macintosh News Network

REAL Software has released an update to its development utility, Studio 2010. The software was previ...

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Briefly: MonitorMyMac made free, iPhone video
chat engine

post from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network on 09 February 2010 09:45:00 PM. © MacNN | The Macintosh News Network

Arten Science has announced that its MonitorMyMac software will now be offered as a free download. T...

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Google Maps 4 integrates Buzz status updates

post from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network on 09 February 2010 09:15:00 PM. © MacNN | The Macintosh News Network

Google on Tuesday released a new version of its Maps utility for mobile phones, less than a week aft...

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Microsoft e-mails show Gates' praise for Jobs and
iTunes

post from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network on 09 February 2010 08:15:00 PM. © MacNN | The Macintosh News Network

Following the stir created by ex-Microsoft executive Dick Brass, who recently claimed the company ha...

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The Tangled Web: PA Semi, Processors, and Magic

post from TheAppleBlog on 09 February 2010 07:15:00 PM. © TheAppleBlog

New details have emerged which suggest chip maker Palo Alto Semiconductor (PA Semi) might not be the hive mind behind the iPad?s ?A4? processor as was widely expected.

In case you missed it, the A4 is the diminutive custom silicon that lies at the heart of Apple?s new iPad. It?s the wee beasty that has the raw power to make Magic Move work so smoothly in the upcoming Keynote app, while providing the intelligence to manage energy efficiently enough to squeeze 10 hours of actual use out of the iPad between charges. Oh, and it runs at 1Ghz and is fuelled by unicorn tears, or something.

Anyone with an iPhone (and everyone who has ever relied on laptops to do a days work) knows that there?s usually a big difference between a mobile device?s advertised and actual battery life. So, unless Steve Jobs is lying through his teeth, how exactly does the iPad?s A4 processor manage to deliver its number-crunching goods over such a long period of time?

Certainly Apple?s developments in battery design help a lot, but it?s thought that the real magic happens in the custom-designed processor itself. Venturebeat.com?s Paul Boutin has been investigating the A4, and pushing chip engineers for answers. In an article published on the weekend, he offers the following (possible) explanation;

Apple has invested heavily in OpenCL and LLVM, which are technologies to distribute work across multiple CPUs and multiple GPUs. In this Apple is different than other mobile devices: other vendors want video decoding and 3D games at a good rate, but often leave the GPU mostly idle.
Apple is looking to drive a lot of work through the GPU all the time, as part of any application. For Apple, it makes sense to put a lot of GPU cores in the chip. It even makes sense to put in so much GPU that the chip would overheat, but throttle back the ARM clock speed to leave more thermal envelope for the GPUs to run.

Ah, right then. Magic. Got it.

Terribly Clever

This all sounds plausible, and makes Apple?s 2008 purchase of PA Semi (a snap at only $278 million) seem like a terribly clever move. And since we have yet to see a new custom brain in any iPhone, the iPad offered the most likely candidate as the first recipient of the chip maker?s special silicon.

Only, it?s not. Boutin adds the following;

A very trusted source tells me: PA Semi didn?t do the A4. It was the existing VLSI team. Apple has made custom chips for years like the Northbridges for G4 and G5.

So, if the iPad didn?t get the PA Semi treatment as we originally thought, what?s going on? $278 million is an awful lot of money (even for a company with billions in the bank), and I?d have thought we?d start seeing the results of that purchase by now.

If we haven?t yet seen the full might and majesty of PA Semi?s magic in Apple?s mobile offerings, that might all change soon. After all, we?re just months away from the anticipated 4th generation iPhone…

Back to Front

Maybe I’ve got this all back to front? Was the acquisition of PA Semi — like the more recent acquisition of music streaming service Lala — not so much about Apple getting its hands on new technology, but more about securing the mad skillz of new engineers? If that?s the case, the iPad may be the fruits of that acquisition after all.

Either way, if the next generation iPhone inherits any of the genetic characteristics of its iPad big brother, what might we expect from Apple?s next smartphone? A blistering-fast processor, perhaps, light-years ahead of the best competing handset? Insanely long battery life, perhaps two or three days between charges?

One thing is for sure; last month Steve Jobs very deliberately redefined Apple as a mobile devices company. In the last few years, the company has aggressively enhanced the processing performance and battery life of all its products, from MacBooks to iPods to iPhones and now, of course, the iPad. A breakthrough advancement in one device ultimately migrates across product lines into another, until we?re left with an ecosystem of devices that offer unrivalled power and interoperability. It?s those refinements that have helped sell MacBooks at record levels in spite of a global recession, and allowed the iPhone to steal valuable market share from well-entrenched competitors.

So with all these remarkable advancements in battery life, power management, custom silicon and hardware/software interoperability in mind, ask yourself ? what can we expect to see in the next iPhone? Looking at the iPad?s A4 processor as a guide, I?m beginning to think it?ll be the most significant iPhone revision Apple has ever made. And we don?t have very long to wait before we?ll know for sure.

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Apple seeds second iPhone SDK 3.2 beta to
developers

post from MacNN | The Macintosh News Network on 09 February 2010 06:50:00 PM. © MacNN | The Macintosh News Network

Apple on Tuesday released a second beta version of the iPhone 3.2 SDK to developers. The first beta ...

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SD Card Reader Coming to the iPhone

post from TheAppleBlog on 09 February 2010 06:49:00 PM. © TheAppleBlog

I often wish the iPhone and iPod touch supported memory extension via external modules. It would make my old iPod touch much more useful, which I suppose is why Apple doesn’t allow it (it’s a good reason to buy a new one). Soon, you’ll be able to use external SD cards with your devices, though probably not in the memory expansion capacity I’ve been dreaming of.

Still, you should be able to do at least as much as you can with the SD camera connector accessory that Apple’s officially releasing for use with the upcoming iPad. There’s no indication of whether or no that device will also work with the iPhone and iPod touch, but a third-party device by capitalization-challenged company zoomMediaPlus definitely will.

The accessory in question, called zoomit, will plug into your iPhone’s dock connector, and features an SD card slot that’s compatible with all currently available SD classes and capacities. Using a free app available from the App Store, you’ll then be able to access the data found on any card you insert.

A careful examination of zoomMediaPlus’ overly wordy press release reveals that you won’t be able to transfer files from your device to the SD card or vice versa, but you can view movies and photos, listen to music and preview documents stored on your external media. You can also share said media with others via email and various social networks, including Facebook. The only condition is that all of said media has to be in a format supported by iPhone OS 3.0 or higher, so those DivX files will definitely still require conversion.

At the very least, it should be incredibly useful for photogs on the go. You’ll be able to view and share you photos with others via the iPhone’s screen, which is undoubtedly better than the back of your camera in almost all cases. You should also be able to then create Facebook albums and post those photos to social network sites without first having to connect to a computer.

zoomMediaPlus envisions a future where content providers will sell specialized SD cards for use with the system:

In the future the zoomIt application will also support, among other things, protected content types enabling streaming of licensed music, videos, and other forms of protected content.

I wouldn’t count on this becoming a groundswell movement or anything, but it is an interesting possibility. Still, I see the value of being able to access documents anywhere without having to connect wirelessly to any kind of network. You take a look at soft proofs at an impromptu client meeting, or check out someone’s demo as long as they have it stored on SD media, which is fast becoming the only really strong player remaining on the flash card scene.

zoomit will retail for $59.95 when it is released in April 2010. You can save $10 now by pre-ordering, and get a free Kingston 4GB SDHC card in the bargain, but personally I prefer to wait until units actually begin shipping before putting down any kind of commitment.

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HTC planning 1.5GHz ultimate phone with Android
2.2

HTC may be in the earlier stages of developing an extremely high-end Android smartphone, says a code...

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Apple updates RAW support, fixes Aperture
SlideShow bug

Following on the heels of the Aperture 3 introduction, Apple on Tuesday also released maintenance up...

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