SE51 > /dev/null > Mac

There appears to be no real 3D benchmarking tool for Macs out there. Or at least I have not found anything like 3DMark for Mac. The only thing that gets kinda close is a tool named “Cinebench” from Maxon. They are the guys who make Cinema 4D. Since this tool is free, I grabbed it and did a little test with it. Well around 3:15 for a super complex render of a motorcycle is not necessarily bad I think (dual core test render - took longer on single core).

I took a screenshot but also a shot with my camera so that you believe that it actually has run on the MacBook. I have no idea what those numbers of the result stand for. Maybe someone can enlighten me. But all in all, I don’t think the 3D performance is bad.

Shot of the results - it’s actually the new MacBook

The all-new MacBook. With aluminum casing. Incredible speed and looks. All glass screen and multi touch mouse pad. It’s here, it’s real, it’s amazing. And take it from me… it really is as cool as it looks on Apple’s website and Steve’s demo. Wow.

So one of my colleagues wanted to buy an iPhone 3G. Now here in Dublin that is a pretty demanding project which requires skill, time, and a very well laid out plan of attack. Other than most countries in Europe where you could in theory buy the Jesusphone in pallets, here you have to be very precise. You have to know when it is where, and then make your move.

He didn’t get one. He got upset. So instead he then went ahead and bought the new iPod nano. I saw it in its new box before, didn’t really believe how small it was. Today I got the chance to have a quick look at it… Shake To Shuffle works! Awesome.

In case you haven’t seen it yet, here’s a little comparison between a standard bank card, and the new nano. It’s a bit thin… =D

nano-chromatic. Click to enlarge.

Bruises
Chairlift
Does You Inspire You

When Leopard was released, it came with over 300 new innovations. Today, I wanna share with you how you could use one of those innovations to entertain yourself in the office if you’re bored.

In my previous post I have spoken about the fact that I have gotten my hand on the second coming of Apple’s smartphone, the iPhone 3G. All in all, I’m really really satisfied with the machine, works all as Steve-ified.

However the 3G coverage in Dublin and Ireland for that matter, is a different kettle of fish. Not in all areas I have taken the device to there was coverage for it, especially outside the city. Interestingly though, in Cavan, about 150 km from Dublin, there is 3G coverage with 4 or even 5 bars. But outside those areas, it’s pretty much 3G-less.

I tested the device on different configurations. Once with Wi-Fi on, 3G on, and check mail every 15 minutes. On top of that I played around with the GPS. Unsurprisingly the battery kissed bye-bye pretty quickly.

Then turned off Wi-Fi, but left 3G on. As it turns out with normal usage like music, some web, some email, and some Maps, the battery still drained fast.

Well right now I’m on a more or less skeleton configuration, which is probably enough for most users. I’m doing almost anything on 2.5G better known as EDGE, which works very well in most cases. Here’s my advise on what to do to get the most of your battery:

- Turn off 3G. Only turn it on when you really need it (App Store, big mail attachments). This will force the device to switch to EDGE. Funny to turn off the one thing what the iPhone 3G is about - but trust me… Battery life will increase dramatically. If you need it for huge downloads, you can enable it at anytime and turn it off once you’re done. Settings / General / Network / Enable 3G / OFF.

- Turn off Wi-Fi. Use it only when required and don’t let the device constantly scan and check for a network if you’re not gonna join anyways. Wi-Fi is a significant drain - however it can be a saver if you use it quite often, so it’s your call. My advise is to leave it off until you need it. Settings / Wi-Fi / OFF.

- Only use the (A-)GPS when you really need it. By the way, a sort of Turn-By-Turn navigation is available when you let it calculate the route and ask it for the steps The GPS is using some good juice.

- Set the brightness of the display to 50% (on the centre of the slider) and use the function to automatically adjust brightness. Settings / Brightness / Auto-Brightness / ON.

- Set the mail check to “Hourly” or turn it off altogether if you prefer to check manually.

- The camera processor is using some juice when you use the camera. Only use when you really need it.

Do these things, and you can observe an increased battery life on your iPhone 3G. And to be honest… I made some tests with websites and loading them on EDGE instead of 3G - for me the speed really is good enough, same for email. You are on a mobile device at the end of the day, not a super broadband machine (except on Wi-Fi). If you gonna follow these steps is ultimately up to you, I have found these to work pretty well.

So the Jesusphone with 3G integration makes its debut in the entire world… today. Contrary to previous popular assumption of the stores starting to sell the units at 6 PM, they started doing so at opening of the stores. In my case 9.30 AM.

To be honest I was expecting a bunch of people queuing for the Jesusphone the iPhone at the O2 Experience Store in Henry Street, here in Dublin. Surprisingly, at around 7.30 AM, not a single human soul. Well I had something to drink and checked other shops in the meantime.

Eventually one man showed up, he tried his luck on getting one without prior registering. The manager of the store showed up to do some preparations, and I asked him:

How many iPhone units do you have in stock?

After a little evading the question, he revealed that a whole 11 units were there.

And only who registered would get one today, and only those who got a call from the store yesterday (July 10) would get one. Fortunately for me, I had registered on July 1 and got a call last night. They even asked me which color. I went for black of course.

I felt sorry for the man who also came to get one, we had a good talk. He left after he learned that only pre-registrars would get one today.

Later on I met another older nice gentleman who also hoped on his chances. I told him the same, like only pre-regs and only those with a call. He also went away sad. However from him I learned that Carphone Warehouse also has the iPhone 3G, and people would be queuing there. He apparently went there.

Things got interesting around 8.45 AM, many many people showed up at once to form a queue. Since I had been there for 2 hours already, I was honored the number 1 spot.

In the queue I met this other nice young guy, who also pre-regged. Well kinda… anyways, we had a good talk

Right. Now for some boring photos. =p

The O2 store in Henry Street, Dublin. Come too early, and it looks like this.

His name is Sean. I met him randomly while I was waiting for the iPhone. Cool guy, we had a good talk. I told him about my blog and he wanted me to put it up. So here you are

Da’ Box man, da’ box.

Open up the box, and the iPhone is straight on top! The other stuff is below. The user manual inside is titled “Finger Tips”. Cool.

Unpacked, connected, iTuned, and showing its glory. Yes - it indeed is OS X iPhone 2.0, as there is the App Store available.

At last. I have it.

A tribute to a company that touched the lives of millions.

Ireland is one of these countries which always gets things more at the bottom of the list. Even UK got the iPhone earlier than the country inside which I live in. The iPhone - or Jesusphone - continues its winning streak in Ireland, starting today. O2 is - as expected - the carrier of the almighty multi-touch phone, and it is landing in its 8GB and 16GB configurations. EUR 399 for 8GB, and EUR 499 for 16GB, respectively.

Visual Voicemail is not here yet, but they are working on this - at least that’s the last I heard. Rates start from EUR 49 per month, which includes 1 GB of data transfer. So if you’re not necessarily downloading movies all the time, this should be plenty of transfer for websites and email. Be careful with YouTube though. H.264 codec is higher quality than what you see on YouTube’s players on the website normally.

Well if you are looking to get one, you better run to the store NOW. As before, same restriction applies: a maximum of 2 iPhones per customer, only credit card / Laser payment.

With a slight delay of just a few days, Your Steveness is pretty close in keeping the promise of deliviring the Source Development Kit for the iPhone and iPod touch. It is being released on March 6 on a special event. The SDK for Apple’s handhelds is paving the way to all sorts of natively supported applications on the multitouch powered gizmos. With a fair certainty my prediction still stands that Apple is gonna put native iPhone and iPod touch apps into iTunes, into a new section, and iTunes 7.7 should be on its way.

Alongside this announcement Apple has posted the new iPod touch and iPhone firmware updates to version 1.1.4. The update is pretty big in size, so prepare to wait a while. So what’s new? There has to be something new - or not? So what’s new? Well, uhm… nothing. There is no apparent change in applications, screen, functionality, everything is the same. I can only assume with a high probability that code has been added for the upcoming SDK.

So the second last Friday of this month is here. With February coming to a close very quickly, Apple is yet to announce the exact release date for the software package that would open up the iPhone and iPod touch to developers. It has been rumored that Apple is holding a secret, yet unannounced event for this matter. Linkin Park was rumored to play at this event. As it turned out, they did play for Apple, but for iTunes Live (expect to see this as a new iTunes Originals in the iTunes Store).

If Apple is indeed holding an event for the SDK release of the mobile devices, then they MUST send out an invitation today, as Apple always sends out invites one week in advance. If we don’t see an invite today, then there won’t be an event, but it is possible that the SDK is still getting released in a press release.

Either way, it’s gonna be cool. The only thing I can predict with a fair certainty is that the SDK will probably require Firmware 1.1.4, and new apps - free or for purchase - will appear in the iTunes Store.

Stay iTuned.