New and Noteworthy: Merom Core 2 Duo Benchmarks; Apple "better at maximizing OS profit"; G5 inferior to Xeon?; more

Merom Core 2 Duo Benchmarks ExtremeTech has some benchmarks for the Core 2 Duo, a potential successor to the Core Duo found in all Intel-based Macs except the Mac Pro. "The difference in clock rates between Yonah (Core Duo) and Merom (Core2 Duo) is slightly less than 8%. The difference in SYSmark Office Productivity scores is over 25%, while the difference in the Internet Content Creation test suite is just shy of 15%, so clock rate is not the key differentiator in performance. This gives us the first clue that the new CPU is a substantially better performer than the older Core Duo." More.

Apple "better at maximizing OS profitability" eWeek surmises that by releasing its operating system more often and at a slightly higher cost, Apple Computer is better able to maximize its profitability in the OS field compared with its rival, Microsoft. "That conclusion is according to a new analysis released Aug. 28 by Gene Munster, a senior researcher at Minneapolis-based Piper Jaffray and Co. Since 2001, Apple, of Cupertino, Calif., has released a new version of its operating system about once a year. These new versions cost users either $129 for the full version or $107 for an upgrade. Microsoft, on the other hand, averages a little more than two years between releases of its Windows operating system. The average cost to users for a full upgrade is $114 or $48 for an upgrade." More.

G5 truly inferior to Xeon? ZDNet comments on some Ars Technica performance comparisons between a dual-G5 PowerMac and a Quad Xeon Mac Pro, noting that the performance difference is (currently) not striking. "Now look closely at these two configurations and note the most important thing: that's two G5 cores at a cumulative 5.0 Ghz being compared to four 'Woodcrest' cores at a cumulative 10.64Ghz. And yes, the new machine won on most tests -but generally by margins of 25% or less. Specifically by 25% on ripping and 17% on Quicktime encoding - but it got drubbed by an average of 30% on Arstechnica's extremely simple Rosetta code tests, and established a high water mark of only 23% on the XBench CPU test component - terrible for a machine with more than twice the CPU cycles available." More.

Japan reports Apple notebook fire CNET reports that The Japanese government said Tuesday that it knew of one case in Japan of a Sony made battery used in an Apple Computer notebook overheating and catching fire. "The incident, resulting in a minor burn to the person's finger, happened in April. The government said last week there had been two cases of Sony-made batteries used in Dell notebooks catching fire in Japan, but no one was injured." More.

Foxconn sues journalists VNUNet reports that the company which makes Apple's iPod media players has persuaded a court to freeze the bank accounts of two journalists who alleged that it mistreated workers in China, it was claimed yesterday. "Legal observers have criticized the manufacturer, Foxconn, for attacking the journalists directly, rather than suing the newspaper which published the reports. Property, cars and bank accounts belonging to a reporter and an editor on the China Business News were frozen by the courts in mid-July after they were sued by Foxconn." More.

Previously on MacFixIt:

• No audio in Flash content: Workaround
• Mac Pro (#9): Problems caused by third-party, old Apple keyboards; Sound output issues; more
• PowerBook G4/iBook battery recall (#3): Replacement may take a month or more; Serial number ranges now exclude some models; more

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