IDIFF présentera du 30 janvier au 1er février 2008 sa 6e édition.

L’IDIFF (International Digital Film Forum) est un salon destiné à informer les professionnels du cinéma et de l’audiovisuel des évolutions technologiques de l’ensemble de la chaîne de création (production, post-production, diffusion). Créé en 2003 par la société CN Films, l’IDIFF présentera du 30 janvier au 1er février 2008 sa 6e édition.

Depuis sa création, la manifestation a su fidéliser une communauté d’experts internationaux, rassembler les acteurs de la filière du cinéma et vous proposer chaque année un programme de conférences et d’ateliers varié et novateur.

À l’occasion de sa 6e édition, l’IDIFF vous proposera :

• Une exposition
• Des ateliers permettant l'expérimentation des nouveaux matériels
• Un cycle de conférences de niveau international
• Des projections de films en avant-première
• Un recensement des films européens disponibles en numérique (avec le soutien de la commission européenne).
• 
  

Durant les 3 jours d'IDIFF, des conférences aborderont les mutations technologiques de la prise de vues, de la post-production et de la diffusion en salle.

 

 IDDIF

MacBook Air recommendation: 10 reasons to wait

As the Macintosh guru in my group of friends and colleagues, the question on everyone's mind over the past week (other than "what happened to Apple's stock price!?") is "what do you think of the MacBook Air? - and should I buy one?" Rather than answer everyone separately, let me share my pre-1st hand knowledge/thoughts. Keep in mind, I've been called an Apple Fanboy enough times for me to think it might be true....

The MacBook Air is an amazing piece of machinery. It is ahead of its time on a lot of fronts. However, some details certainly are cause for concern.

1. The processor. Intel is late on their delivery of their ultra-low power 45nm laptop chips. Clearly, the MacBook Air is the exact computer that these types of chips belong in. So Apple and Intel spun it as going out of their way to do something special. That something special was jimmy-ing a 65nm chip onto a board that was made for a 45nm one. The 45 nm chips will be arriving by mid-year and will likely be put in rev 2 of the MacBook Air. They will use less power per CPU cycle and that five hour battery life could easily turn into six - and with the reduced power consumption, they might be able to crank the processor speed up to and beyond 2 Ghz or maybe even fit in some more wireless options..
2. Wireless. I am not talking about Wifi which the Air has in spades, I am talking about 3G/WiMAX here. It isn't built in. For the road warriors that this device is made for, having 3G Internet access is almost a prerequisite. Of course you can get a decidedly unsexy USB 3G "dongle", but Apple is going to eventually have to cave to pressure and start including these things in its products. Dell, HP and others have included this functionality for years! Apple could even partner with their iPhone buddies, AT&T on this and offer a seamless package. Or how about WiMAX with Intel? Intel is building WiMAX into its next round of CPUs. Again. Rev 2. More on the missing 3G here.
3. As much as I hate to say it about Apple - or any company - Rev 1 parts are glitchy - especially the first ones off of the assembly line. I pre-ordered/picked up one of the first MacBook Pros out of the factory a few years ago. Over the course of that first year, nearly every part on it had to be replaced (Motherboard, HD, battery, etc). It is almost a whole new machine after all of the part swaps. That doesn't mean Apple wasn't quick and happy to replace everything - and it is still a solid machine: I am typing on it now as a matter of fact. However, it was a pain to lose it for a few days at a time and my early impressions of it shot my confidence in its quality. These MacBook Airs are going to be going to the people who don't really have that much patience and desire to send it back to Apple for a few days while they swap defective parts - especially at the price premiums.
4. Option 1: 80GB Hard Drive. I've booted my MacBook Pro from an iPod before. It isn't fast - I wouldn't want to have to do this on a regular basis - especially on a brand new, expensive machine. Apple may have added a few tricks, but the bottom line is that the 80GB hard drive is still a 1.8 inch 4200 rpm iPod hard drive - which is not only significantly slower than 2.5 inch drives at 7200RPM but also more prone to damage from shock. (UPDATE: The 80GB hard drive model has been tested) Apparently there is not enough room in there for the 160GB iPod hard drive either - it isn't an option. That is tight! The next round of 1.8 inch drives will be faster, smaller and store more information. Me? I don't want to be using an iPod drive on my laptop - which leads to...
5. Option 2: That $1000 64GB SSD drive. It is the top of the line, fastest 1.8 inch form factor solid state drive out there. But this is an area that is growing by leaps and bounds. Soon there will be 128GB (or 96GB - there is a 48GB SSD drive afterall) sized drives available for this thing. By midyear or earlier they should be hitting the same price points at the current 64GB SSDs. Meanwhile the 64GB drives will cost about half of what they do now. Those price points seem a lot more digestible to me.
6. Docks. Right now there isn't much in the way of docking stations for this thing. With the exception of Kensington's USB dock not much comes close. This is definitely a problem in need of a solution. I'd like to see something that plugs into the MicroDVI port as well - and include a superdrive in a sexy package - these laptops aren't going to the aesthetically challenged.
7. Overall speed. The specs of the MacBook Air pretty much line up with a last generation (Rev B) Mac Mini or 1st generation Rev A MacBooks. Some specs are lower, some are higher. So you'd expect a similar experience from this machine. For the high-end target market to which this is obviously aimed, that speed may not sit well.
8. Expandability. Everyone has been talking about the lack of expandability of the MacBook Air - which overall I think is unfair, concessions had to be made. However, some things do stick out. RAM. It doesn't take up much space and I want as much as possible. Apple, make a 4 GB option! Street prices say this should be $300 more (Rev 2?) but Apple charges 2-5 times more than street costs. Realistically, pricing details this small won't matter to high end users. Battery. There have to be more options. I am sure someone will make a MagSafe adaptable external battery/crank/solar charger - but until then, once you use your 4-5 hours, you are SOL until an AC/DC outlet avails itself. Think ten hour overseas flights without power - believe me, they exist.
9. Size. "Thin! thin! thin!" If Apple had its way, that is all you'd hear about. Well that isn't the only dimension that matters. The truth is that this is hardly an utraportable. It has roughly the same footprint as a MacBook - with the same wasted space around the edges of the screen and keyboard. As such, it won't fit in a standard purse like a Sony TZ and won't open as comfortably on a tight airplane ride as a true ultra-portable. Think about it as a MacBook sliced in half. Perhaps Apple will offer a 14 inch screen in Rev 2 that actually goes to the edges of the device or shrink the footprint to the edges of the screen/keyboard. Here is the MacBook Air compared to a full sized MacBook Pro.
10. Price drops. As this is an Apple/early adopter device, the price will drop significantly for the next round. We saw this in the iPhone and we see it every time Apple astounds us with new products. It isn't just component costs - which will be significant - it's also the ramp up of production numbers which will bring prices way down. This could easily be late 2008 or 2009's MacBook.

Blog Computerworld

Premiers benchs d'un MacBook Air

On a tout entendu sur le MacBook Air, des éloges ou des critiques sur sa taille, sa forme, son seul connecteur USB... En revanche, ses performances sont restées au second plan, certainement parce que l'habitude veut qu'un ordinateur "ultra portable" soit pénalisé sur ce plan.
Gizmodo a pu comparer le modèle 1,6 GHz doté d'un disque dur de 80 Go avec un MacBook Pro 2,2 GHz (ancien modèle) et un MacBook 2 GHz (également ancien modèle).
Contre toute attente, le Macbook air est loin d'être ridicule et talonne le MacBook 2 GHz dans la plupart des tests. Il se permet même d'être le plus rapide des ordinateurs et de loin dans un test d'encodage MP3.
Il est ici très certainement aidé par son bus mémoire à 800 MHz (contre 667 pour les autres). On notera qu'il n'est pas non plus ridicule dans les processus faisant appel à son disque dur, certainement aidé dans ce cas par la mémoire cache de 8 Mo de ce dernier. En effet, Apple a choisi de lui rajouter le seul disque dur 1,8" ayant une cache de 8 Mo au lieu des 2 Mo habituels.
Il restera cependant pénalisé par son manque de connecteurs et la taille de son disque dur pour l'imaginer en machine principale de ceux qui n'ont pas de besoins particuliers de puissance, surtout en 3D.

 

Macbidouille.com 

And the winner is...

AirMail: the manila folder MacBook Air sleeve gets real

Sure, we all got a chuckle when Steve casually pulled the MacBook Air out from within a manila envelope on stage, but we didn't exactly expect to-be owners to snag one from the supply cabinet and put it to use. Nevertheless, the quick-thinking duo that is Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans had an idea to riff on Apple's and create -- surprise, surprise -- a fully functional case resembling a manila folder. Reportedly, this sleeve is handmade from "durable upholstery-grade vinyl and lined with fuzzy, soft fleece," which should protect your forthcoming MBA from all but the nastiest of bumps. Supposedly, you can pre-order one now for $29.95 and expect it to arrive right alongside your new micro-rig, but if these truly are handmade, we'd go ahead and expect a backlog.

 

EnGadget.com 

 

 

Le Macbook Air manque un peu d'épaisseur

Le bijou d'Apple est une réussite au niveau design, mais souffre de quelques défauts rédhibitoires 

A qui s'adresse le Macbook Air, l'ultraportable d'Apple annoncé ce mardi lors du MacWorld de San Fransisco ? On peut légitimemement se poser la question. Vu son prix : au minimum 1.700 euros, on imagine que les professionnels sont les premiers visés. Il faut dire que cette cible recherche de plus en plus des machines ultra-légères et autonomes. Ce qui est le cas du Macbook Air. Mais les cols blancs y trouveront-ils leur compte face à des machines concurrentes et moins chères ?

Pas sûr. Car si le Macbook Air une réussite au niveau du design et de l'ergonomie, tout en affichant de bonnes performances il souffre de nombreux défauts qui pour certains pourront apparaître rédhibitoires.

On l'a dit, les pros ont besoin d'autonomie et Apple annonce une batterie tenant 5 heures. Mais petit problème, la batterie n'est pas amovible : impossible donc d'en changer en cours de route, lors d'un long voyage en train par exemple. Et que se passe-t-il en cas de panne ?

On pourra aussi reprocher au disque dur d'afficher une vitesse un peu moyenne (4.200 tours par minute), ce qui pourrait pénaliser la rapidité d'accès aux données. Apple propose bien une version avec SSD (mémoire flah) de 64 Go mais il faudra vraiment être motivé puisque la bête sera vendue 899 euros de plus ! Ce qui nous fait un total de 2.600 euros...

Si l'on peut accepter l'absence de lecteur de galettes (absence indispensable pour parvenir à cette taille de guêpe), on peut s'étonner de la présence d'un seul port USB. Un choix vraiment critiquable, notamment en milieu professionnel. Même chose pour l'absence de port Ethernet, un comble. D'autant qu'Apple le propose aussi en option, à 29 euros...

On pourra également s'étonner de l'absence de port Firewire, pourtant porté par Apple, d'entrée audio et de slot Express Card.

Bref, les pros pourraient très vite souligner les limites de cet Macbook Air qui finalement pourrait un peu manquer d'épaisseur alors que son prix n'en manque pas.

Mais gageons qu'Apple nous gratifiera très vite d'une nouvelle version de son bijou (ce qui devrait assez vite arriver), qui intégrera par exemple plusieurs ports usb... tout en respectant le formidable design de la machine.

 

Silicon.fr 

Mac Book Air is born

It's real. The fabled MacBook Air actually exists. It's ultra-thin, can have normal hard drive or a solid state one and, except for a couple ports, it's all about wireless connectivity. It's an stunning .16 inches thick at the bottom and .76 inches on the top. The black keyboard (reminds me of some of those black-over-aluminum Braun designs) is LED backlit, sightly recessed MacBook-style, with rounded edges all around. The latch is magnetic and has a gorgeous 13.3-inch screen with ambient-light sensor and, get this, multitouch trackpad. Check the full specs, 20-image gallery and continuous updates after the jump:

http://gizmodo.com/345051/apple-macbook-air-looks-absolutely-amazing

 

 

Pandora vous manque? Plus maintenant

Pandora, n’est plus accessible en dehors des Etats Unis depuis un moment. C’est aussi le cas en Angleterre depuis quelques jours. Il y avait bien des moyens pour accéder astucieusement au service soit en jouant avec les proxy (compliqué et peu fiable) soit en utilisant un service comme HotSpotShield qui crée un environnement virtuel avec une nouvelle adresse IP permettant d’accéder à ce service (mais aussi à d’autres services réservés aux USA).

Je me demandais quand même combien de temps il faudrait attendre avant qu’un petit malin, en utilisant l’un de ces techniques, créé un site permettant d’utiliser Pandora sans casse tête. Voilà que c’est désormais le cas avec GlobalPandora.

Il n’y a rien à faire: Il suffit d’accéder à l’URL et tout fonctionne à merveille y compris en vous identifiant avec votre compte existant. J’ai hésité longuement avant de publier cette note car j’imagine que ce service va vite être utilisé par de nombreux fans de ce services et que Pandora va vite réaliser le problème et essayer de bloquer le service. Mais je ne pouvais pas m’empêcher de le partager avec vous

Une chose est certaine sur internet: comme à l’époque de la prohibition, plus vous interdisez plus la consommation augmente. Et sur internet il est très difficile d’interdire.

Le site dont on ne connaît pas les créateurs (visiblement hollandais selon le whois) est aussi utilisé comme relai pour une pétition pour faire baisser le prix les licenses des radios sur Internet, l’une des raisons invoquées par Pandora pour couper l’accès international. Les créateurs sont certainement anglais

 

News TechCrunch

Apple designs look like reworkings of 1960s Braun designs

Nice story showing how parallel evolution (or design borrowing!) ends up with current and perhaps future Apple products, with ideas inspired by old Braun gear.

 

gizmodo.com

Google Sees Surge in iPhone Traffic

Of all the iPhone’s features, none had reviewers gushing more than its Internet browser. It was the first cellphone browser that promised something resembling the experience of surfing the Internet on a PC. Santa helped deliver on that promise.

On Christmas, traffic to Google from iPhones surged, surpassing incoming traffic from any other type of mobile device, according to internal Google data made available to The New York Times. A few days later, iPhone traffic to Google fell below that of devices powered by the Nokia-backed Symbian operating system but remained higher than traffic from any other type of cellphone.

The data is striking because the iPhone, an Apple product, accounts for just 2 percent of smartphones worldwide, according to IDC, a market research firm. Phones powered by Symbian make up 63 percent of the worldwide smartphone market, while those powered by Microsoft’s Windows Mobile have 11 percent and those running the BlackBerry system have 10 percent.

The iPhone has taken the frustration out of browsing on a mobile phone, said Charles Wolf, an analyst with Needham & Company.

Other companies confirmed the trends, if not the specific data, observed by Google. Yahoo, for instance, said iPhones accounted for a disproportionate amount of its mobile traffic. And AdMob, a firm that shows billions of ads on mobile Web sites every month, said it saw traffic from iPhones surge drastically around Christmas.

“Consumers are going to demand Internet browsers” as good as Apple’s, said Vic Gundotra, a Google vice president who oversees mobile products.

Mr. Gundotra said Web browsers as capable as the iPhone’s could also prove a boon for developers of mobile software, who have long struggled to adapt their programs to different types of phones. As it does on the PC, he said, the browser could provide a more homogeneous “layer” for programmers.

“The reason no one considered this seriously is that the Web layer on mobile devices was terrible,” he said. Google has taken advantage of the capabilities of the iPhone browser to create a product, internally called Grand Prix, that it says provides easy access to many of the company’s services, including search, Gmail, Reader and Picasa.

Google, which developed the first version of Grand Prix in six weeks, is introducing a new version on Monday, just six weeks after the first one. That is a speed of development not previously possible on mobile phones, he said.

 

The New York Times