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Aug

Does Snow Leopard Actually Downgrade Performance?

Posted by Published in 21, CultOfMac, MacBook Pro, News, Object, Snow Leopard, ad, ads, ard, benchmarking, book, db, double, ds, ea, feed, it, leopard, mac, mac pro, macbook, os, os-x, true, upgrade

Snow Leopard is being widely touted as a performance increase, but the OS upgrade resulted in a 10-15% performance DECREASE on both my Mac Pro as well as my MacBook Pro — at least, according to the Xbench benchmarking tool. Now of course, that could just be things that Xbench measures, perhaps it doesn’t account or

Tags: ads, apple ipod accessories, ard, benchmarking, book, CultOfMac, double, feed, leopard, mac, mac pro, macbook, MacBook Pro, News, os-x, shopping apple ipod, Snow Leopard, true, upgrade

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Aug

Google Chrome: Still Smokin

Posted by Published in IL, News, Object, Software, ad, art, benchmarking, cnet, competition, developer, ea, ftw, google, mac, new, pet, safari, uk

In recent benchmarking tests performed by CNET , the latest version of Google’s Chromium (its developer title) buried the competition. read more

Tags: apple ipod nano, apple ipod touch, art, benchmarking, chrome, cnet, competition, developer, ftw, google, mac, new, News, pet, safari, Software

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Mar

JavaScript 3-10x Faster On iPhone OS 3.0

Posted by Published in 20, 2008, 21, MIT, News, Object, Software, Web, ad, app, apple, apple.com, bed, benchmarking, beta, block, cat, ces, cute, db, desktop, development, ds, ea, faster, feed, ftw, god, iPhone, image, improvements, information, iphone os, javascript, loo, mac, mobile safari, post, pre, ram, release, safari, system, tco, tea, testing, time

There has been a reasonable amount of speculation surrounding JavaScript speed improvements in iPhone 3.0. Testing carried out on the iPhone Simulator bundled with the SDK didn’t lead to a conclusive outcome, but benchmarking done by Wayne Pan would seem to suggest that iPhone 3.0 handles JavaScript 3x-10x faster than iPhone 2.1. Last year the WebKit development team released information about a new JavaScript engine, slated to have a dramatic improvement in performance. Originally dubbed SquirrelFish (now called ‘Nitro’), to date it has not been included in any major release of the iPhone OS. Expectations are that the performance enhancements found in iPhone 3.0 are due to the inclusion of the SquirrelFish engine, leading to faster web site browsing and snappier web app performance. The new Nitro engine has gradually been improved by the WebKit team over the past year, and is included in the latest Safari 4 Beta . This new engine accounts for the dramatic performance improvement in Safari 4, which Apple states as enhancing both JavaScript and HTML rendering: Using the new Nitro Engine, for example, Safari executes JavaScript up to 30 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and more than 3 times faster than Firefox 3 based on performance in leading industry benchmark tests: iBench and SunSpider. In addition to superior JavaScript performance, Safari offers top-flight HTML performance — the best on any platform — loading pages 3 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and almost 3 times faster than Firefox 3. While Nitro is certainly responsible for the improved JavaScript performance, better HTML loading times may be due to other browser enhancements. Hopefully these will also make the move to Mobile Safari, increasing performance and page loading speed. This is even more important on a mobile device, where connection speed is far more limited than on most desktop machines

Tags: 2008, ads, app, apple, apple mac computers, apple safari, benchmarking, beta, cat, ces, computer, cute, deal, desktop, display, faster, feed, ftw, google, image, improvements, iPhone, iphone app, mac, MIT, mobile safari, nitro, pic, picture, post, pre, ram, safari, Software, sweet, testing, time, tumblr

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Mar

Apple Begins Selling Contract-Free iPhones at Retail Stores

Posted by Published in 20, 21, 6gb, Articles, MIT, News, Object, ad, app, apple, apple stores, art, book, books, buy, cat, ces, cost, db, deal, ds, ea, feed, fortune, free, god, hardware, iPhone, image, iphones, locked, mod, money, netbook, number, pic, picture, ports, post, pre, price, prices, pricing, purchase, report, reports, retail, rts, store, stores, tech

First it was AT&T selling iPhones off-contract, which suggested a stock clear-out, and now it’s Apple, which all but confirms the sell-off. Apple began selling contract-free iPhones at their brick-and-mortar retail locations on Thursday, a fact reported by AppleInsider and confirmed by Apple’s flagship Fifth Avenue store in New York, via CNNMoney.com . Buying from Apple apparently carries less restrictions than buying from AT&T, but the phone is still technically locked to the only official U.S. iPhone carrier. Pricing is also still the same as what we’ve seen from AT&T. The entry-level 8GB model will cost you $599, while the 16GB version will set you back $699. At those prices, the iPhone costs more than most netbooks, but to some, the additional freedom the extra $400 buys is worth the price of admission. According to reports, customers will be able to purchase unlimited numbers of iPhones from Apple stores, and won’t have to be AT&T customers to get one. If Apple isn’t actively encouraging unlocking, they know that it’s going to happen, and they’re clearly turning a blind eye in the interest of moving stock. There’s no word on whether this deal will come to other international stores, or when they’ll actually be stocked at Apple retail locations. It’s unclear how many people will go for this, since that’s an awful lot of money to part with for a product that’s soon to become previous generation technology. Personally, I’m just hoping it drives down the price of the used iPhone market so that I can pick up an unlocked 8GB for less than $400 via craigslist.

Tags: 6gb, apple, apple safari, Articles, benchmarking, beta, cat, computer, feed, free, ftw, improvements, iPhone, iphone app, iphones, MIT, pic, pre, prices, report, retail, tech, time, tumblr

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Nov

New MacBook Pro benchmarked within Boot Camp

Posted by Published in 3d-performance, Articles, Gaming, MacBook Pro, Media, News, Software, Web, app, apple, art, benchmarking, boot-camp, cat, chips, competition, cpumark, crysis, feed, games, graphics, hardware, mac, macbook, mpb, online, pet, software update

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion , Gaming , Hardware , Software , Odds and ends , Apple Finally, someone with more money that I have (I want a new MacBook Pro, but haven’t yet convinced myself to shell out the dough to replace my old yet trusty G4 12″ Powerbook) has put the new MBP and those shiny graphics chips to the test, and drummed up some real benchmarking numbers in Boot Camp. It turns out to be PC World, strangely enough. And the verdict? Well, it’s not quite so great. The good news is that the MacBook Pro is faster than ever, and graphics have significantly improved. And trust us, any improvement over the old chips is a step in the right direction. The bad news is that in a practical situation (like playing the Crysis demo , which is actually about a year old at this point), a MacBook Pro in Boot Camp at the highest settings isn’t actually playable, and the 15 fps you might squeeze out of it on a good day still can’t compare to the 50 fps you can get out of even average video cards in a Windows PC. If the graphics are turned down, it’s a different story — we’ve seen a new MBP run games well in Boot Camp already, so it’ll play, but Apple still has a ways to go to be competitive with brand new games. But let’s keep this all in perspective — it’s very good news when you compare the new MacBook Pros to the old ones. Apple is at least realizing that 3D performance needs an upgrade in their units

Tags: 3d-performance, app, apple, apple ipods, art, Articles, benchmarking, boot-camp, cat, chips, colored apple laptops, competition, cpumark, crysis, feed, games, Gaming, graphics, hardware, mac, macbook, MacBook Pro, Media, mpb, News, online, pet, Software, software update, Web

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