MacShrine

Apple have finally let users purchase the 802.11n enabler for just $1.99 (instead of the rumored $4.99) from the online Apple Store. Alternatively you can download it for free *cough* here.

Users wanting to activate 802.11n technology in their Macs will have to fork out $4.99 for an update patch or purchase the new Airport Extreme 802.11n which will include the patch. But don’t worry, it’ll probably be available at all the *usual places* soon after. Reasons behind the move and such a small fee are not necessarily clear at the moment. So $179.99 or $4.99… or free..

Toshiba’s new 1.8″ hard drive can store 100GB of data whereas current models hold a maximum of 80GB. Toshiba plans to start mass producing the drives in January next year. Updated iPods at Macworld?

According to a thread on the MacRumors forum, the latest series of iMacs are suspected to include a new 801.11n wireless card. A user booted up into Windows Vista and when he went to check the system specs he found that the iMacs wireless card was listed as “Broadcom 802.11n” when Apple lists it as only b/g compatible. The new spec will allow wireless transfer speeds of 100Mbps and should be finalised early next year. This is not the first time Apple has used technologies before being standardized. The Airport Extreme system used the “g” specification before it was finalized. This confirms what we all previously thought - Apple’s Airport system will be updated soon to to support “n” (as will all Macs) and also the upcoming iTV setup box will support this new specification.

Following on from a previous article, we’ve found some more information which does indeed suggest these chips are 64-bit. Intel Sossaman was the codename for a low-voltage Xeon (Dual core 64-bit Intel server chip) and it was expected to be shipped under the Xeon brand, but it got cancelled. Now reports suggest that the cancelled Sossaman was later brought back and is now shipping as the Yonah chip, aka the chips in your MacBook and Intel iMac. This is one of the reasons why Windows won’t run on the Mactel models, you need to use the 64-bit version. So the real questions is, why are 64-bit chips being used with 32-bit operating systems? Is there a flaw?

At least 34 errors have been found in Intel’s new Core Duo chips, used by Apple in the new iMac and MacBook Pro. Apparently this is quite normal so nothing to worry about, the old Pentium 4 has 65 known errors and Intel have no plans for correcting them either.

With the news yesterday that Apple is shipping it’s first round of Intel Macs, some fans were happy to finally be able to dual-boot into Windows or Mac OS X. But it seems that won’t be possible. With the switch to Intel processors, Apple has moved from Open Firmware to EFI, which is an updated BIOS specification developed by Intel.

Intel initially deployed EFI as part of its Itanium architecture. As such, Microsoft only included support for the BIOS replacement in its IA64 and later x64 operating systems. While Microsoft plans to add EFI support in 32-bit versions of Windows Vista, a final release isn’t due until the end of the year.

But there also goes the massive opportunity of users locked into using Windows but wanting to use Apple hardware. Unlucky.

The ExpressCard is a new standard to replace the aging PC Card. ExpressCard will have the theoretical maximum throughput to transfer data at a whopping 250 MBps compared to the now sluggish 132 MBps PC Card. To give a further feel for the speed of the new card here are some other examples: Gigabit Ethernet runs at 125 MBps, FireWire 800 runs at 100 MBps, and USB 2.0 runs at 60 MBps. ExpressCard requires computers to use the Intel Alviso chipset, have USB 2.0 and use PCI Express - all of which the new MacBook Pro has. Hope that cleared it up!