News Bits: MacBook Speed Exaggerated, WiFi 802.11n, Laptop Undervolting, Alienware Game Site

Apple MacBook Pro and iMac Core Duo Not as Fast As Claimed

Wishes do come true -- or do they? (view larger image)

While Apple claims their new Intel based MacBook is 4x faster than the G4 PowerBookand thenewiMac Core Duo is 2x faster than the G5 processor, real world benchmarks aren't exactly playing that claim out. So did Steve Jobs lie to the world? Well, maybe. According to MacWorld their lab tests"do show that the new Intel-based iMac is faster than the iMac G5 when running native applications. However, we found that those improvements are generally much less than what Apple claims is a 2x improvement in speed."

MacWorld found that for the Intel-native applications that have been ported the iMac ran about10% - 30% faster than the G5 (that's not 2-times as fast!) but for applications that hadn't been ported properly to the Intel platform the applications ran half as fast as the same application running on the iMac G5 -- that's 50% slower.

Full iMac Core Duo benchmarks can be found in this MacWorld article: http://www.macworld.com/2006/01/features/imaclabtest1/index.php

Here Comes 802.11n -- Support for up to 600Mbps Wireless Transfer Rates and Greater Range

Streaming media or files over your home wireless network can often be a time consuming task with the current 802.11b (11 MBps) or faster 802.11g (54 MBps). How about a wireless standard that offers a theoretical maximum of 600 MBps? That would get things moving. Good news, the IEEE this week approved the 802.11n standard that will enable higher performance wireless networking (up to 600 MPps theoretical) and greater range than existing Wi-Fi.

Belkin already has some existing "Pre-N" products on the market that were developed before the 802.11n standard was completely finalized, so they are not 100% compatible with the final standard 802.11n.

Broadcom and Marvell, two U.S. wireless product vendors, are the first to claim to have a 100%802.11ncompatible product, it's likely Belkin and Linksys will try to make a firmware update to make their existing products completely compatible.

More: http://www.digitimes.com/systems/a20060123PR208.html

More: CNet Review of Belkin 802.11 Pre-N Router

Undervolting Your Laptop Article

Why would you want to undervolt your laptop? That question is answered in an article by NordicHardware.com -- hint, if you don't need top performance and want better battery life and less heat from your notebook then this could be a good move:

More: http://www.nordichardware.com/Articles/?page=2&skrivelse=465

Alienware Launches Digital Download Store forDownloading PC Games

Alienware has opened a new digital download store located at http://downloads.alienware.com to provide quick and easy access to purchasing, downloading, and playing the latest PC games. The Alienware Digital Download Store features a growing catalog of PC games ranging from your favorite classics to the newest titles, strategy guides, and other gaming content, all available for immediate download.

A lot of people associate Alienware with gaming notebooks so this seems like a logical move on the part of Alienware.

Dell and Vodafone Bring 3G Wireless Broadband to Laptops forUK, France and Germany

Dell has announced it will bring Vodafone's third generation (3G) wireless broadband technology to Dell's notebook customers in the UK, France and Germany. With its build-to-order capability, Dell aims to expand customers' wireless connectivity options by delivering built-in access to Vodafone's high-speed wireless data network in these countries. This new service will mean users will have readily available access to email, Internet and servers through the Vodafone mobile broadband data network.

Dell will offer notebook computers with optional integrated High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) wireless broadband capability, which will boost current 3G download speeds by approximately four times. The Latitude notebooks with this technology will launch in Europe sometime during Q1.

The built-in mobile broadband technology will also be backwards compatible with Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS -- also known as 3G) technology and General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) wireless data networks.

Dell continues to set the pace in ensuring mobile users have the widest choices in wireless connectivity by integrating optional mobile broadband capability in future notebook products. It is the first major personal computer supplier to announce multiple wireless carrier partnerships in multiple regions, including agreements with Vodafone initially in France, Germany and the UK.

Sony Cybershot DSC H1 Digital Camera Review

Our sister site DigitalCameraReview.com has a review of the cool new Sony H1 Digital Camera that has an incredible 12x optical zoom at a price of around $400. From DCR:

"The Sony Cybershot DSC H1 is a perfect example of that consumer driven product evolution. The H1's 5.1 megapixel resolution, 2.5 inch LCD screen, and Super Steady Shot (image stabilized) 12X optical zoom provide photographers with an incredible increase in performance, flexibility and creative potential when compared to the cameras of five years back -- and the H1 costs about a hundred bucks less than consumers shelled out for the C3000 in 2001!"

New Sony DH1 Digital Camera (view larger image)

 

I thought the article about undervolting was good. I undervolt my IBM T40 and I shave off approx 6 to 8 degrees.

Question, will the current undervolting utilities work with the new core duos ??

 

That seems somewhat disappointing that Apple would claim a 2x and not deliver on those claims. I wonder what benchmarks they ran in order to get those numbers, though.

 

I think it is just number crunching test basically. Not practical test like actual day to day program uses.

 

I didn't believe those performance claims right off the bat.

I want that camera! Mine only has 3X zoom, and is practically unable to take closeups, even from 3 feet away.

 

I went to an Apple store last year and the salesperson told me that a 1.2GHz G4 was the equivalent of a 3GHz Pentium 4. Macheads have been making ridiculous claims for years. And now, the biggest Machead in the world, Steve Jobs, is claiming that somehow, Intel processors have suddenly become much faster than the G5, when only a few months ago, it was quite the opposite. No surprise here.

 

Cheers to you mate.... finally the mac fans are forced to face reality. Go back to that same mac saleshead and raise your eyebrow this time.

 

In any case the switch to intel is the best thing mac did in recent years. The Intel Duo is just a mobile chip for laptops and much inferior to the heavy weight Pentium 4 - HT. So mac can now use the P4 chips on their desktops if they want and get real blistering performance.

The specs given by Mac is clearly identified in Steev's keynote. I don't remember what tests, but i did visit the website of the company, whos benchmarking product Mac used for the tests. What it goes out to say is that the Intel's mobile chip has more computing muscle than IBM's heavy weight desktop chip in G5. It all depends on how effeciently the programs are written to utilize the dual core architecture of intel. If you take a horse and use it like a donkey, its no better than using a donkey.

Like I said, Intel's heavy weight is still to be explored by Mac. I guess they did not want to use the P4 Ultimate Eddition chip and stun the Macheads by a 5X performance increase over the G5's, which till a few months ago was supposedly much superior to the P4s

 

not surprised to see the benchmark result.
Usually, two cpus SMP system is 1.6x as fast as one cpu system. And if the application does a lot of parallel computation, SMP will be even faster, and close to 2x as fast as a single CPU. Power 750(G5's cpu) is indeed fast. If Intel CPU and G5 run at the same clock( like 2Ghz), I think at most Intel's CPU is slight faster. so dual core can not be 2x faster than iMac G5. As for Macbook pro, unless one CPU in dual core is more than 2x as fast as G4, 4x fast could be true. Let's assume one cpu from dual core is as fast as Pentium M 2.0G. Then Pentiume M 2.0G is as 2x fast as G4 1.67G in a 17 inch powerbook. Could it be true?

 

To clarify, IEEE approved the first draft 802.11n - it might yet be a long time before the standard is truly finalised. It seems inevitable that most of the big players will release kit based on the draft standard though.

 

Not to be confused with a mac-head, though I do own a powerbook and several windows machines, it seems only fair to clarify something...

I saw steve jobs keynote where he announced the intel machines. After he stated the statistics about the new imac core duo being 2-3x faster he said something to the effect: "obviously the entire machine is not going to be 3x faster--the disks aren't 3x faster, the buses aren't 3x faster, but in this--one of the most important processor benchmarks, these new imacs are 2-3x faster."

Point #1: Having said that, the same applies to the macbook pro

Point #2: The iMac Core Duo is not ALL AROUND 2-3x faster than the iMac G5, the MacBook Pro is not ALL AROUND 4-5x faster than the PowerBook G4, the G5 chip is an awesome performer at what it is stated to be good at, as are the latter Pentium 4s.

Point #2: Be careful not to become victim to ignorance and confuse this round of Apple's marketing with any other tactic used by Intel, Microsoft, Apple, blah, blah co, in the past. (Sheesh, does no one posting on the internet know anything about business, marketing, or history anymore?)

Point #3: If you're a mac person, are considering buying a mac (switch or upgrade), are dissatisfied with windows, or have been underwhelmed with the performance of the G4 powerbooks, then now may just be the right time for you to buy. If you're a gamer, an MS fan-boy, Anti-Apple activist, or run some proprietary software that requires windows, obviously any of the new computers from apple won't satisfy you.

:buyIBM: :apple:

Do your homework, and try not to spin it. Attention to detail, and thorough research beats the "reality distortion field" any-day, and you just might end up starving the hate-machine (from either side).

/rant off

oh yeah, doesn't 2 beat 1 most of the time?