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The makers of Rhino have just release a new iPad & iPhone application to allow you to look at your models on your coveted portable apple devices.

There is nothing like showing your designs and ideas in 3-D. Pan, zoom, and rotate with a tap or drag of your finger. The handy navigator lets you scroll through thumbnails, so you can quickly jump to any model you want. Load Rhino models from web sites, Google Docs, email attachments (iPad only), or from iTunes (iPad only). Save views as images for markup and emailing.

Available in the store for only $3.99, could be worth checking out if you show your Rhino models to users.

via iRhino 3D – View native Rhino 3DM files on your iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.

Graphics apple, ipad, iphone, rhino

Not 100%, but I think they’ve messed up their “Power Usage” plot, as they start at a mere 6W and end at 85W, but the line barely moves.

Evolution of the Apple Laptop |. via Visual Loop

infographics apple, timeline

All of the Apple-lovers in your life have a reason to be happy today, as this is the Launch Day of Valve Software’s Steam platform for Mac (which we’ve been anxiously awaiting for 3 months!).  Not only the game distribution platform, but some of their most popular games.  On launch (today) they have Portal, and a 3rd party title named Torchlight.  They plan to release new games every Wednesday as they continue to port their library of games to the new platform.  But games aren’t the only thing:

In addition to bringing the online functionality of Steam to the Mac, Valve will also make its Steamworks suite of publishing and development tools available on the Mac platform. These include product key authentication, copy protection, auto-updating, social networking, matchmaking, anti-cheat technology, and more. The features and services available in Steamworks are offered free of charge and may be used for both electronic and tangible versions of games.

Head on over to SteamPowered.com and download it today!

Graphics apple, mac, steam, video game

The war of words and technology wages on between Apple and Adobe about getting Flash and Flash-based technology onto the iPhone and iPad, but the intertwined history of the two companies can make it a bit difficult to separate the reality and the rhetoric.  A new infographic from Enrique Serrano tries to break it down for us.

Since so much has been said about not having Flash support in the devices of Apple (mainly the Apple iPhone and the iPad) I put together as much facts as possible about Apple, Adobe, the iPhone and Flash, plus some on video codecs including Theora, H.264 and HTML 5 video.

I hope these infographics help you better understand the big picture with the current situation of these technologies and companies.

It’s a HUGE graphic, see it after the break.

via Treble Click: Apple and Adobe – infographics. via Cool Infographics

Read more…

Hardware adobe, apple, flash, infographic

No doubt that Apple has singlehandedly created and owned the MP3 player market since the first iPod launched in 2001, and a new infographic by OnlineSchools for Mashable catalogs the growth.

Apple sold 125,000 iPods by the end of 2001; it sold a flabbergasting 225 million by 2010. Coupled with the music management/online music store one-two punch that was iTunes, the iPod turned out to be one of the most successful gadgets of all time.

In the amazing infographic below, you can see the rise of the iPod and iTunes (and how they’ve affected our lives) in the last nine years. It’s true: the rest of the MP3 market never stood a chance.

I’m not so sure I would call it ‘amazing’, but it does a good job compiling the iPod’s explosive growth.

Fullsize after the break.

via How iPod Took The World By Storm [INFOGRAPHIC].

Read more…

Graphics apple, infographic, ipod

One of the problems with the new MacBook Pro is that a user could not manually switch back and forth from the Intel HD graphics chip and the Nvidia GeForce GT 330M graphics card. The Intel HD graphics chip could be disabled so that the Nvidia GeForce GT 330M graphics card was the only one running. The problem was that consumed more power, and reduced battery life. Ideally a user should be able to switch back and forth manually. Anandtech has found a possible solution to this with gfxCardStatus, which is currently at version 1.6.1.

With version 1.6 comes the ability to manually change GPUs on the fly, whenever users desire. That’s right, you can manually change from the discrete GT 330M back to the more energy-efficient Intel HD graphics even from applications that otherwise cause an automatic switchover. This is a huge boon to mobile road warriors that want to wring every last minute out of their batteries if need be.

Via : gfxCardStatus 1.6 enables 2010 MacBook Pro GPU Switching @ Anandtech

Hardware apple, laptop, mac, nvidia

Recently we have talked about Apple’s new MacBook Pro line. What is interesting about the new laptops is that they can switch from Intel’s graphics chips (which are low power and thus are good for long battery life) to Nvidia’s GeForce GT 330M. The Nvidia chip uses more power, which cuts down on battery life, but it is also more powerful in terms of graphics capability. Anandtech has looked at this graphics switching technology, and found some problems with it.

The fact that the new MacBook Pro’s discrete GPU won’t power down if you have an application like Photoshop open flies in the face of this leave-your-apps-open usage model.

In other words, if you leave an application open, even if it is idle and in the background, that is using the Nvidia GPU, then your battery life will suffer. This can occur not only with Photoshop, but also sometimes happens with a web browser like Firefox.

via Apple’s 15-inch 2010 MacBook Pro: More Battery Life Tests, High Res Display Evaluated @ AnandTech .

Hardware apple, mac, nvidia

Cnet has posted an article with their take on the recent updates to the MacBook Pro update. The article comments on the recent graphics switching capability that Apple has included in the new lineup. They also note that on the 13 inch MacBook Pro, Apple updated the graphics chip but did not update the Intel CPU. This dovetails nicely with what Nvidia has been preaching for some time now: that many workloads can be offloaded to the graphics chip.

“Incremental [processing] workloads are being driven more by video and graphics and that’s where Nvidia comes into play,” said Ashok Kumar, an analyst at Rodman & Renshaw. Says Bajarin: “Apple is strategically writing software that is able to harness the GPU.”

Nvidia, Intel vie for lead role at Apple @ CNET

Hardware apple, intel, nvidia

Anandtech has posted a review of the Apple 15-inch Core i5 MacBook Pro. One of the interesting bits of technology that is incorporated into the new MacBook Pro line is the ability to switch from Intel’s graphics chips (which are low power and thus are good for long battery life) to Nvidia’s GeForce GT 330M. The Nvidia chip uses more power, which cuts down on battery life, but it is also more powerful in terms of graphics capability.

With the new MacBook Pro, Apple implements an automated switching system similar to NVIDIA’s Optimus technology. Instead of relying on application profiles, OS X looks at the functions called by any running application and determines whether the Intel HD Graphics is sufficient or the GeForce GT 330M is needed. Applications like video playback are low key enough to run exclusively on the Intel HD Graphics, while 3D games and applications that take advantage of GPU acceleration appear to wake up the GT 330M.

The switching process is seamless and there’s no indication of what GPU is being used at any given moment. That’s both good and bad. You don’t have to muck with any software switches, but you also rely on Apple to make the right decision based on your current workload. Without a way of telling what is making the discrete GPU wake up, there’s no way to know whether something as simple as leaving an application open is causing you to have lower-than-ideal battery life.

There is more in the article on the GPU switching technology, so I heartily recommend that you read it.

Apple’s 15-inch Core i5 MacBook Pro: The One to Get? – AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News.

Hardware apple, nvidia

Steve Jobs is somewhat famous for his 1-word responses to emails that crop up all over the internet every time there is one.  In a surprising turn of events, he sends a 3-sentence response to a user curious about the current lacking state of Final Cut Pro, which hasn’t seen significant updates in a while.  His answer?

“We certainly do. Folks who left were in support, not engineering. Next release will be awesome.”

Will it be named “Final Cut Awesome” ? I doubt it, but looks like we may have something to look forward to at the next Apple event.

via Steve Jobs responds to customer’s email about Final Cut Pro.

Graphics apple, finalcut