Apple Customers Report Flawed iMacs

By Antone Gonsalves December 14, 2009

Apple customers are complaining of problems with the 27-inch iMac, including flickering, cracked, or yellow-tinged screens. More than 80 pages of complaints were listed on Apple's iMac support forum on Monday. The company did not respond to an InformationWeek request for comment in time for this writing. However, resellers have reported to media delays in shipments of the 27-inch iMacs due to screen problems. On its Web site, Apple says orders for its largest all-in-one computer won't ship for two weeks. A spokesperson for the company told PC Magazine that the company was "working hard to fulfill orders as quickly as possible." Apple did not acknowledge that there were any iMac flaws. Nevertheless, the company's support forum indicated that flickering screens were among the most widespread problems. Some customers posted video of the problem on YouTube. "My iMac arrived 2 days ago and yesterday I saw some flickering with sections going black for an instant, then one case where the whole screen went black momentarily," customer MarkyJ reported. Others reported unpacking their new iMac only to find a cracked screen. "I unpacked the i7 iMac just as you did," Macfrenzie said in response to another customer's complaint. "Box upright, and lifted it from the bottom edge of the screen panel -- on the aluminum base edge. The bottom packing foam on the bottom corners came up with the iMac. When I removed the foam -- then you see the crack. The crack is below the foam line border which leads me to think it's a production line defect."

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iPhone users are delusional, consultants say

by Chris Matyszczyk Dec. 14, 2009

Many people I know are frightfully attached to their iPhones. They treat them as if they were a peculiar and exotic lover, one they can hardly believe they have managed to seduce. The finely calibrated minds at Strand Consult have taken this analysis to a particularly simple conclusion: iPhone users are, the consultants say, really quite nuts. The Strand thinkers released an opinion entitled "How will psychologists describe the iPhone syndrome in the future?." It focuses on the sorts of people who buy into Apple's great success. Here's a flavor of the somewhat-skeptical nature of Strand's feelings: "Apple has launched a beautiful phone with a fantastic user interface that has had a number of technological shortcomings that many iPhone users have accepted and defended, despite those shortcomings resulting in limitations in iPhone users' daily lives." The consultants' likening of iPhone buyers to kidnapped hostages may raise more than the eyebrows of many an Apple fanboy (fanperson?). Indeed, it already has the Mac world aflutter.

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iPhone's Connection Problems Could Be Self Inflicted

By Ed Hardy, 12/14/2009

Many iPhone users love their smartphone, but they hate AT&T's network, which they blame for their beloved device's weak data connections and dropped calls. But experts say that the real source of the iPhone's woes is the iPhone itself. According to Roger Entner, the head of telecommunications research at Nielsen, Apple's smartphone does not communicate well with cell towers, which causes problems that "affect both voice and data." This could help explain the results of some recent research by Root Wireless. This company compared the 3G networks of all four of the top wireless carriers, and found that AT&T's came out on top in most ways, including average download speed and more consistent coverage.

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Seagate dives into solid state drive market

by David Lawsky Dec. 10, 2009

Seagate Technology, the world's No. 1 producer of disc drives, unveiled its first solid state drive on Monday, getting into a nascent but potentially lucrative market a step behind rivals such as Stec Inc. Seagate's offering -- called the Pulsar -- is for use in data centers, where thousands of servers act in concert to power systems for companies and agencies from Google Inc and Amazon.Com Inc to the Pentagon. Seagate, whose new solid state drive (SSD) has up to 200 gigabytes of capacity, is entering a market where others already have a toehold. "Seagate is late to the game, but it's not like the game is over," said Joseph Unsworth, an analyst with Gartner who was pre-briefed on the product release. Many industry experts view solid-state drives as the future of the industry. They are faster and, unlike traditional hard drives, have no moving parts and are thus more rugged. Analysts say their prices should come down as the technology improves.

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Nvidia Prepares To Take 3D Ecosystem Mainstream

By Greg Tarr, 12/9/2009

As the 3D specification for the Blu-ray Disc format nears formalization, Nvidia said Wednesday that it is preparing to bring 3D video entertainment to the home in a big way this year. The company will offer a complete 3D ecosystem, consisting of active-shutter glasses, hardware support for multiple displays including 120Hz projectors, 120Hz DLPs, 120Hz LCD TVs, and new 1080p 120Hz LCD monitors from Acer and others, as well as support for more than 400 games. The company said it also recently extended its ecosystem to netbooks. Nvidia noted that LCD display manufacturers are preparing 3D-Vision-ready, 1920-by-1080, 120Hz 1080p LCDs for introduction in 2010. Acer is expected to be one of the first to market with 3D LCD monitors, including the forthcoming GD245HQ and GD235HZ models that are positioned for gaming, videos and other home entertainment uses, including viewing 3D Blu-ray content. Consumers will have the ability to view videos and photographs from the new devices and others using Nvidia's 3D glasses, the company said.

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Sixth LCD Manufacturer To Plead Guilty In Price-Fixing Case

By Rick Whiting, Dec. 10, 2009

LCD manufacturer Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp. (CMO) of Taiwan has agreed to plead guilty to charges of price fixing and will pay $220 million in fines. The company is the sixth LCD maker to plead guilty in the case. CMO, in a brief statement released Thursday, said it reached the plea agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, which has been investigating allegations of anticompetitive pricing activities among many of the world's largest manufacturers of thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) panels. CMO said it would pay the $220 million fine in installments over five years and has agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department's ongoing antitrust investigation. The company said the price-fixing applied to TFT-LCD panels manufactured between September 2001 and December 2006. The Justice department has charged the LCD manufacturers with conspiring to charge pre-determined prices for the products. Other LCD manufacturers that have already pleaded guilty in the case include Epson Imaging Devices Corp. and Hitachi Displays, while Chungwa Picture Tubes Ltd., LG Display and Sharp Corp. have reached plea agreements with the Justice Department similar to the CMO deal.

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Intel Drops Larrabee GPU Plans

By Techtree News Staff, Dec 07, 2009

Intel has announced that it will dump its plans to launch discrete GPU codenamed Larrabee. As of now, both AMD and Nvidia will be happy to hear that no consumer version of Larrabee graphics chips would be out. Intel spokesperson Nick Knupffer justified this move by stating that Larrabee's silicon and software development was lagging behind than where it was assumed to be at this point in the project. ATI's new Evergreen family of Radeon HD 5000 series graphics cards is being pointed to have destroyed Intel's plans. The all new dual-GPU on single PCB (printed circuit board) based ATI Radeon HD 5970 boasted of beastly over 5 teraFLOPS (teraFLOPS is one trillian Floating point Operations Per Second). While Intel's Larrabee was supposed to feature two teraFLOPS of performance and would never would make up to that performance at low price point. Hence, Intel decided not to launch an uncompetitive product while the counterparts are already leading. However, Intel plans to release Larrabee product as software development platform for high performance computing and graphics development segments. At the recent Intel Developer Forum 2009, a ray tracing demo over Larrabee was shown and this shows that when out, Larrabee can be used for gaming-graphics development.

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AMD Advances 3D Entertainment: Demonstrates Blu-Ray Stereoscopic 3D Playback at 2010 International CES

By AMD 12/7/2009

AMD today announced that it will demonstrate the forthcoming Blu-ray stereoscopic 3D standard at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show, showcasing how consumers will soon get to enjoy high-fidelity 3D entertainment once reserved only for theaters. * A new way to enjoy Blu-ray entertainment: Expected to hit store shelves in the second half of next year, Blu-ray stereoscopic 3D combines the crisp, high-definition images the format is known for with high-quality 3D visuals that seem to jump from the screen. As a contributing member of the Blu-ray Disc Association, AMD is working closely with technology partners as the format specifications are finalized over the coming year in order to help ensure compatibility with upcoming AMD hardware. * Seeing is believing: At the upcoming 2010 Consumer Electronics Show, AMD and CyberLink will jointly preview Blu-ray stereoscopic 3D entertainment for those in attendance. AMD will be located in the Grand Lobby (GL-8 and GL-10) of the Las Vegas Convention Center. The new standard is one of many 3D technologies AMD openly supports, along with 3D DLP televisions, dual-panel and line interleaved 3D monitors, and is part of AMD’s initiative to further both the art of 3D entertainment, and its adoption in homes worldwide through close collaboration with 3D technology partners, including OEMs, software developers and content distributors. * Continuing a proud tradition of technology leadership in graphics: Stereoscopic 3D for HD gaming and multimedia joins a long list of technologies that AMD has led the way in. Most recently AMD launched its series of next-generation ATI Radeon™ graphics cards, delivering the industry’s first and only support of DirectX 11 gaming currently, and multi-display entertainment made possible by AMD’s ground-breaking ATI Eyefinity technology.

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