I got an interesting piece of junk mail in my inbox this morning. It seems that now that I’ve finally bought a decent Digital SLR, Nikon comes out with a new model that’s even better. I bought the D50 earlier in the year because it’s relatively cheap, (for a DSLR) and would let me achieve my goal of being able to get into astrophotography. (that’s when you mate your camera to a telescope and take pictures of things in space..) I love my D50, and it seems this new model is everything the D50 is, plus an extra 4.1 megapixels of resolution. (you’ll also pay about $100/megapixel more for the upgrade…) The D80 isn’t officially available until September, so if you’re looking for a DSLR, you may just want to wait for this one. If you’re really interested, check out this review for more info.
Apple completes Intel switchover
The big news at WWDC, aside from the forthcoming release of Leopard (the latest revision of OS 10) is the completion of Apple’s switch to Intel hardware. With today’s launch of the Intel Xeon-powered Mac Pro and Xserve, the last pieces of the puzzle have been placed on the board. This brings an end to Apple’s PPC-based products, and begins a new era under the Intel banner. On the bright side, these new machines are sure to bring a better performance per-watt than previous models. It will also be interesting to see what position Apple takes on virtualization now that their server line has moved to x86/x86_64 hardware.
Tie in 1st round of NSA/AT&T spy case
Other AT&T wiretapping suit dismissed
Last week, the Judge in the EFF case against AT&T overruled the government’s use of the state secrets priviledge. This week a Chicago court threw out a similar case brought against the company by the ACLU. While this might seem contradictory, it’s not. The ACLU had no hard evidence that their clients rights had actually been violated. The EFF case has physical evidence in the form of documents to support their case as well as at least one eye witness. In all likelihood, the case will eventually be dismissed on the basis of National Security, however it is good to see that the judge is willing to explore this case rather than dismiss it outright.