Tag: Mac OS X

Apple Announces Mac OS X El Capitan [WWDC]

Apple unveiled its latest version of Mac OS X at its Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday. It’s called El Capitan. The company said the previous version – Yosemite – had the best adoption rate of any PC operating system ever, before showing off features that it hopes will help top that with the new one.

El Capitan includes enhancements to Spotlight, built-in apps, and window management, including a new mission control interface and split view. There are also some new gestures, such as a quick action to delete a message in Mail.

Safari gets some big improvements with the release, including the ability to pin web pages to the top bar as well as tabs that let you know where sound is coming from (like Chrome) and let you mute the sound from a button in the address bar.

“With Pinned Sites in Safari, the sites you check often are always available and up to date in a tab,’ the company says.

Spotlight Search gets some big updates enabling users to bring up sports, weather, and stock info, as well as personalized search results for native content.

There’s an enhanced full-screen view in Mail that lets you add tabs to a new message window, and the Spaces bar makes it easier to create multiple desktops.

The OS also comes with big improvements to performance. Some stats given: 1.4X acceleration in app launching; 2X in “snappiness of switching apps;” 2X speed improvement for getting mail messages, and 4X speed improvement for open PDF previews.

“El Capitan is more powerful than ever, with advancements under the hood and smarter ways to do the things you do most,” the company says.

El Capitan available to developers today. A public beta will come in July, and it will roll out to everyone in the fall.

Image via Apple

June 8, 2015
Mozilla’s Open Web Apps Have Made Great Progress

When building apps for Firefox OS, developers use modern Web tools like HTML5, JavaScript and CSS to deliver apps with near native performance on mobile devices. Now Mozilla is helping those same developers bring their Firefox OS apps to other platforms.

A while back, Mozilla introduced a new technology called Open Web Apps that would help developers bring HTML5 apps to platforms like Android, Windows and OS X. The best part was that these apps would require no additional development as Mozilla’s tools would automatically convert the HTML5 app into a native app upon being downloaded to a non-Firefox OS platform.

Here’s a video demo that shows how an app built for Firefox OS is automatically converted into a native app on Android, Windows and Mac OS X.

Mozilla notes that privileged apps will also seamlessly install from the Firefox OS marketplace to an Android device. Just like in the Google Play store, the app will ask for a number of permissions upon being installed. All of this is accomplished without any further code being written.

So, what about Open Web Apps on iOS? At the moment, that’s not possible as Open Web Apps requires a platform that supports Gecko, Mozilla’s Web rendering platform. The non-profit does not, however, that it’s working with Cordova to allow Open Web Apps packaged by Cordova to run on iOS. You can read more about that here.

The above video demo may have you itching for a native app experience for your Open Web Apps, but Mozilla isn’t quite ready yet. At the moment, it only supports hosted, unprivileged apps on desktops using Firefox 16 or newer, and mobile apps on Android via Mobile Firefox Aurora. Mozilla notes that the native app experience is not available on Android just yet, but it should hit Mobile Firefox Nightly in December.

[Image: Mozilla Hacks]

October 29, 2013
Mac OS X Mavericks Introduces Performance Updates, Available Today For Free

At today’s Apple event, the company shared an update on the new Mac OS X Mavericks. The new operating system was first introduced back in June, and Apple has remained largely quiet about it since. Now it’s ready to share more about its latest desktop operating system.

Apple started out with a look at how Mavericks will help Mac users get more out of their hardware. For example, Mavericks will reportedly increase power efficiency by helping your computer get up to an hour more battery life when browsing the Web. A more impressive feature is called “Compressed Memory” which allows Mavericks to fit up to 6GB of active memory into 4GB of RAM.

Unless you have a MacBook or Mac Pro with a discrete graphics chip, you will have an Intel CPU with integrated graphics. Intel’s integrated graphics aren’t that great, but Mavericks allows the OS to get more performance out of it. It does this through a system that will automatically allocate the needed VRAM required for graphic intensive tasks. Mavericks will also utilize OpenCL to increase the graphics speed.

In terms of general software, Mavericks also has a number of new features, including file tags. These tags will allow you to create custom color-coded tags for files. For example, you can mark school project files with tags like “Mars” or “Space” to know which files correlate to which part of the project it belongs to.

Other software improvements and additions include better support for multiple displays, Apple’s infamous Maps app, iBooks including iBooks Textbooks.

On a final note, Apple announced that Mavericks will be a free download for any iMac and MacBook Pro made in 2007 onward. It will also be made available today.

[Image: Apple]

October 22, 2013
Apple Announces Logic Pro X, Available Today For $199

Apple doesn’t need to hold a press conference for every major product unveiling to make sure people pay attention. Case in point – Apple made a lot of musicians very happy today with the release of Logic Pro X.

Apple announced today that Logic Pro X – the latest version of its Logic Pro music creation software – is now available for musicians to purchase through the Mac App Store. This latest version brings with it a number of enhancements, new features and even some new instruments.

“Logic Pro X is our most powerful version yet, with advanced tools and a modern new interface designed to streamline the process of creating professional quality music,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Musicians are going to love creative new features like Drummer, Flex Pitch, Track Stacks and the Arpeggiator.”

Drummer is the big new feature in Logic Pro X. It adds “professionally produced, realistic drum tracks that respond to your direction.” Apple boasts that its Drummer software can “perform millions of unique grooves in rock, alternative, songwriter and R&B genres.” There’s also a new Drum Kit Designer that allows musicians to create their own custom drum kit from all the available professionally recorded drum sounds.

Some of the new tools and enhancements available include Flex Pitch and Track Stacks. Flex Pitch allows users to fix out-of-tune vocals, and adjust melodies by changing individual notes. Track Stacks lets users organize multiple tracks into one. It also can be used to create layered instruments.

As for new sounds, Apple has added over 1,500 instrument and effect Patches into Logic Pro X’s sound library. You’ll also be able to take advantage of nine new MIDI plug-ins, including the Arpeggiator, Retro Synth, Vintage Keyboards and Bass Amp Designer.

Apple is bringing the iPad into the Logic Pro family with the latest release as well with Logic Remote. The app turns the iPad into a virtual instrument allowing musicians to record from anywhere in the room.

Finally, Apple will also be releasing MainStage 3 today alongside Logic Pro X. The latest version of MainStage features a new UI that makes it even easier to perform live concerts using your Mac.

Logic Pro X and MainStage 3 are both available from the Mac App Store starting today for $199.99 and $29.99 respectively. Logic Remote is available for free from the iOS App Store.

July 16, 2013
Apple Adds Yandex As Safari Search Choice In Some Countries

Apple is giving its users more search choices with its upcoming operating system releases – iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks. Both were unveiled at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday.

In the iOS 7 demo, it was revealed that Siri has some new features, and among them are Bing web search results, not to mention Twitter search and Wikipedia content. In addition to potentially making Bing more of a factor in users’ search habits, the features also help Apple better compete with Google’s (and Android’s) conversational search and Knowledge Graph.

But that’s not all that Apple has done with search. While the company didn’t exactly announce it, it has also made Russian search engine Yandex available as an option in Safari in both iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks. This is the case in Russia, Ukraine and Turkey, where that search engine already has a substantial user base.

Now, Apple hasn’t gone so far as to make Yandex the default search in these countries, at least not in the beta that developers have gotten their hands on.

This signals that Apple isn’t ready to completely abandon Google just yet, despite the increasingly rocky relationship between the two companies. If you’ll recall, Apple recently dropped Google Maps for its own Maps product, and some have speculated that it’s only a matter of time before Google is no longer the default search on Apple products.

That could still happen, and we could just be in the early stages of Apple phasing it out. TechCrunch reported earlier this year, however, that Google could pay Apple $1 billion next year to remain the default search engine on iOS. How much would Microsoft pay? Or Yandex?

[via GigaOm]

June 11, 2013
You May Soon Have Siri And Apple Maps On Your Mac

It appears that Apple is expanding some of its iOS services to the Mac ecosystem in a forthcoming version of Mac OS X.

Apple blog 9to5Mac is reporting, citing reliable sources, that early builds of OS X 10.9, expected to launch next year, include Siri and Maps integration. The Siri integration, according to the report, would be similar to that of iOS 6 on the latest iPad models.

As the publication notes, the early build including the features is no guarantee that they’ll be present when the OS is launched. It’s possible that they will not make it past testing phases, but it’s noteworthy enough that they’re in consideration for the Mac operating system. The presence of these features could go a long way in securing user adoption, as there are no doubt plenty of Mac users who are not using iPhones or iPads.

Competition isn’t exactly decreasing for either Siri or Maps, so utilizing its hugely popular Mac lines should be a major step for Apple in this regard.

Apple will obviously continue to improve upon both features in the meantime. The maps product has been highly controversial among iOS users, and word is that Google is getting closer to having its Maps app on the operating system. A forthcoming update to iOS is expected to have Siri improvements, including the ability to purchase movie tickets.

November 19, 2012
Windows 7 Finally Dethrones XP As Most Popular Operating System

Thanks to the poor performance of Windows Vista, XP has enjoyed a decade long rule over the operating system landscape. Many people switched over to Windows 7 when it launched, but XP still had a lot of faithful users. The holdouts may finally be making the switch.

The latest operating system statistics from Net Applications came out yesterday and the results are unexpected, but welcome. They show that Windows 7 has finally overtaken XP as the most popular operating system on the planet. It’s not much of a victory though as Windows 7 commands 42.76 percent of the market whereas Windows XP still has 42.52 percent.

The difference between marketshare may not be that big now, but it signals the end of an era. It’s been over a decade since Windows XP launched. Since then, the operating system expanded quickly thanks to the popularity of the Windows PC in the early to mid-2000s. The launch of Windows Vista did little to reinvigorate Windows and now sits at only 6.15 percent of total marketshare.

We can only hope that Windows 7’s marketshare will continue to grow. Microsoft dropped official support for Windows XP a few years ago and the operating system is now susceptible to numerous security threats. Businesses running Windows XP should make the switch to 7 soon lest they be hacked.

In the world of Mac OS X, 10.7 still holds the lion’s share with 2.45 percent of the market. Version 10.6 holds a smaller 2.38 percent of the market. The stats don’t take the recent release of Mountain Lion into account yet, but I expect it to overtake Lion next month if Apple’s report of its popularity is to be believed.

It will be interesting to see where things stand next month. Windows XP’s marketshare can only go down from here and Windows 7 can only go up. Things will get really interesting once Windows 8 joins in as well. Microsoft’s new operating system is going to spread primarily through PC sales instead of upgrades. It’s initial marketshare will give us a good idea of how well Windows 8 PCs are selling.

September 4, 2012
Apple OS X Mountain Lion Update Now Available

Apple’s first update for its OS X Mountain Lion operating system is now available. The update became available on Thursday afternoon and includes mostly minor bug fixes for the OS that “improve the stability and compatibility of your Mac.” The details can be seen on Apple’s support page concerning the update.

Issues that have been fixed or improved with the update include Migration Assistant unexpectedly quitting, playing audio through a Thunderbolt display, iMessages that are prevented from being sent, system lock-up when using Pinyin input, connecting to SMB servers with long names, and Safari not launching when using a Proxy Automatic Configuration (PAC) file.

The update also improves 802.1x authentication with Active Directory credentials and improves compatibility between the Mail app and Microsoft Exchange servers.

Apple recommends that OS X Mountain Lion users back up their system using Time Machine before performing the update. After that, it’s as simple as clicking the software update option under the Apple menu.

August 23, 2012
Mountain Lion Is Apparently Really Popular

We all knew that Apple’s new OS, Mountain Lion, was going to be popular, but we didn’t know exactly how popular. With stricter system requirements, it was going to be interesting to see how well Mountain Lion performed in its first week. Turns out it performed better than anybody expected.

Apple announced that Moutain Lion had been downloaded more than three million times in only four days. Such a massive initial showing puts it as the most successful Mac OS X launch in the company’s history. Apple attributes the strong showing to the massive amount of new features that Mountain Lion introduced.

As you probably know by now, Mountain Lion contains over 200 new features. Many of these features go a long way to making Mac OS X more user friendly and more social. The built-in integration of Facebook joins the built-in integration of Twitter to make OS X the most social centric OS to date.

Apple was also quick to point out that the success of Mountain Lion can also be attributed to the Mac App Store. Many users upgraded because they wanted to take advantage of the new features in Mountain Lion with their pre-existing apps alongside new apps that are being added all the time. Couple that with synchronous gameplay across all Apple devices and you have an app heavy machine that Mac fans are going to go nuts over.

As more people buy the new MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs, it will be interesting to see how well Mountain Lion performs over the next few months. Macs are still immensely popular and Mountain Lion is going to be a must for all new Mac buyers. I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple announced well over 50 million downloads of Mountain Lion before the end of the year.

August 3, 2012
Mountain Lion Is Available Today: Here’s What To Expect

Apple surprised everyone by announcing the launch date of their new operating system, Mountain Lion, during their earnings call yesterday. Even more surprising was that the launch date was today, July 24. Most Apple fans have probably already downloaded Mountain Lion and are already playing around with it to find its secrets. For those who still haven’t upgraded, here’s what you’re missing.

First and foremost, Mountain Lion is Apple’s next step in combining iOS with Mac OS X. That doesn’t mean that Mountain Lion is like the experience you get on your iPhone, but a lot of the features popularized in iOS are now present in Mac OS X. That’s undeniably a good thing as iOS is arguably the best thing Apple has going for them right now.

So what’s new in Mountain Lion that’s worth getting excited about? The answer is pretty much everything. I realize that blanket statements serve no one, but it’s true in the case of Mountain Lion. Apple has gone back and pretty much fixed all the major complaints people had with Lion while adding a host of new features that you never knew you wanted.

One of the biggest new features for Mountain Lion is the addition of dictation. A little known feature of iOS is now on Mac OS X and it’s pretty handy. OS X typing what you speak is not only cool, but it’s incredibly useful in certain situations. There are third-party applications that offer the same thing like Dragon, but Mac OS X has it built in. That’s a pretty incredible value for such a feature. Dictation also supports four languages which hopefully means that Siri on Mac OS X is not too far behind.

iOS 6 is bringing Facebook integration to the platform in a big way. A small preview of that integration is available in Mountain Lion. The biggest is most definitely single sign-on. With this, you can sign in to Facebook once and all Facebook compatible apps on your Mac are ready to go. It also sets up the Notification Center to work with Facebook so you can post to the social network without having to sign in. That also means Facebook notifications will be sent straight to your desktop.

To prove that Apple is getting serious about gaming, they have added Game Center from iOS to Mac OS X. Gamers can set up matches with each other across the numerous games built for iOS and Mac OS X. Yes, you heard that right, cross platform play between Mac OS X and iOS is now a thing. It’s going to take Microsoft another few months before their first title that’s playable across both Windows 8, Xbox 360 and Windows Phone comes out.

Another feature making the leap from iOS to Mac OS X is iMessage. Now you’ll be able to send messages not only to those on iOS devices, but Macs running Mountain Lion as well. Mac users will also be able to message people using only their phone number. Another great feature is that users will be able to send large attachments over iMessage – up to 100MB in size to be precise.

You already know that the Notification Center is the place to be for Facebook crazed individuals. Mac OS X also makes the Notification Center the place for Twitter fans as well. You’ll be able to send and receive Tweets right from the desktop without having to open a separate app or Web page.

Power Nap also gets beefed up with the addition of push notifications while the computer’s asleep. That means that you won’t have to sync your mail box or Tweets when the computer is turned on again. They’ll be available right when the Mac is turned on again. It will also download software updates to Mac OS X while the computer is asleep.

The new Safari for Mountain Lion has a number of new features as well including a Smart search field. In reality, it’s just Safari playing catch up to Chrome. In other good news, Safari also supports the “Do Not Track” mode for better privacy.

These features are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Mountain Lion has over 200 new features just waiting for you to try out. For the full list, check out Apple’s site for Mountain Lion. If you find yourself wanting to upgrade, you can do so from the Mac App Store. It’s only $19.99 and you can install it on all your Macs. That’s the best deal you’re going to find on an operating system anywhere.

July 25, 2012
Mountain Lion Comes Out Wednesday, Apple Says

Apple released its quarterly earnings report today. More on that here, but within that report, CEO Tim Cook just happened to mention that Mountain Lion will be released tomorrow.

“We’re thrilled with record sales of 17 million iPads in the June quarter,” Cook said. “We’ve also just updated the entire MacBook line, will release Mountain Lion tomorrow and will be launching iOS 6 this Fall. We are also really looking forward to the amazing new products we’ve got in the pipeline.”

The latest version of OS X will cost $19.99, and will be available on the Mac App Store. It’s worth noting that this is ten dollars less than the current version, Lion.

Here’s Apple’s promo for the OS:

Mountain Lion has over 200 new features, according to Apple. Peruse them here.

More Mountain Lion coverage here.

July 24, 2012
Apple Announces That They Still Make More Money Than Anybody Else

We knew for a while that Apple was going to reveal that they made a lot of money today. We just didn’t know to what extent. Thanks to Apple releasing their third quarter results, we can confirm that the company continues to make a lot of money.

Apple announced today that the company made $35 billion in quarterly revenue with $8.8 billion of that being net profit. Compare that to the $28.6 billion made a year ago and you have a company that seems like it can’t do no wrong. Part of that is thanks to Apple expanding into international markets which accounted for 62 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

So how well did their flagship products, the iPhone and the iPad, do? Apple sold 26 million iPhones in the last quarter, which represents a growth of 28 percent over Q3 2011. The company sold 17 million iPads, which represents an even more impressive 84 percent increase over Q3 2011. As for Macs, the company sold 4 million units with the iPod selling 6.8 million units. The Mac business grew two percent while the the iPod business declined 10 percent.

Remember that stock dividend that Apple announced a while back? Shareholders are getting their due on August 16 with a payout of $2.65 per share. You still have a chance to jump on that bandwagon as those who own stock before the market closes on August 13 will receive the payout. Considering that stocks for Apple are going for $600 right now, that might not be the best decision.

“We’re thrilled with record sales of 17 million iPads in the June quarter,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’ve also just updated the entire MacBook line, will release Mountain Lion tomorrow and will be launching iOS 6 this Fall. We are also really looking forward to the amazing new products we’ve got in the pipeline.”

Wait, what? Did Tim Cook just announced Mountain Lion for tomorrow? Indeed, Apple will launch the much anticipated Mountain Lion OS for Mac computers tomorrow, July 24. You’ll be able to download the update or buy a copy from your local Apple Store. Just be sure your Mac is up to snuff first.

“We’re continuing to invest in the growth of our business and are pleased to be declaring a dividend of $2.65 per share today,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the fourth fiscal quarter, we expect revenue of about $34 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $7.65.”

Between the launch of Mountain Lion tomorrow and iOS6 this fall, Apple has a pretty busy year ahead of them. Couple that with the rumored launch of the iPhone and iPad Mini in September and Apple will be making more money than even Scrooge McDuck.

July 24, 2012
Want Mountain Lion? Better Make Sure Your Mac Has The Right Specs

I’m not the biggest fan of Apple, but I do commend their dedication to simplicity. I have to go through a long list of checks before I can install a new version of Windows or a new piece of hardware on my PC. Macs are just simpler by default, but it seems that they might be getting a little more complicated with the release of Mountain Lion.

When Mountain Lion, the latest version of Mac OS X, launches later this month, it will have certain system requirements that must be met. On the official specs page, Apple lists OS X v10.6.8 or later, 2GB of memory and 8GB of available space as being the necessary requirements needed to run Mountain Lion. 512 Pixels compares these system requirements with those of past versions. Apple only listed the processor as a necessary system requirement. Why the change? Macs are more uniform than Windows PCs so it makes sense to refer to things that can change between models – RAM and hard drive space.

To make things easier for those who don’t know their RAM from their HDD, Apple has listed the following models as being the only ones that are supported:

iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
Xserve (Early 2009)
MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)

That’s a good range of products to support. Apple is obviously making it as easy as possible for people to know if their Mac is up to snuff or not by even including models. As a Windows guy, this would never work on my platform of choice because there has never been uniformity. That’s where Macs can become the ultimate user friendly device by letting people exactly which model they need to run the latest operating system.

What if you forgot what year you bought your Mac in or perhaps you bought it second hand? How do you find out how much RAM you have? It’s simple enough – just click on About This Mac underneath the Apple menu and it will bring up the processor and RAM information. Clicking on More Info will bring up the specifics of the machine including the specific model you have.

Looks like I’m ready for Mountain Lion, are you? If not, 512 Pixels reports that the Mac Store will reject your bid to download Mountain Lion. It has only done so for the beta, however, so Apple could still potentially screw over people buying the public release. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.

July 10, 2012
Coming Off Proview, Apple Faces A New Lawsuit In China

After a lengthy legal battle, Apple and Proview finally settled over the rights to the iPad name for a cool $60 million. It was smart for Apple to settle because it looked like Proview wasn’t going to give up until it got something. You would think Apple’s troubles in China would be finished after that, but things are never that simple.

MIC Gadget is reporting that Chinese household chemical company Jiangsu Xuebao is suing Apple over the Snow Leopard name. So how does Apple infringe on their trademark? The company claims that they applied for the Xuebao trademark, which is Snow Lepoard in Chinese, back in 2000. Apple released the Snow Leopard OS in 2009 so it was obviously late to the game.

The company is seeking around $80,000 and an apology from Apple. Compared to what Proview wanted, these demands don’t seem exploitative. The bad part is that Jiangsu Xuebao is also suing four Chinese retailers that advertise and sell Apple’s OS X.

What makes this case really interesting is that Apple apparently applied for the Xuebao trademark back in 2008 in China and was rejected. The company feels that this is proof that Apple tried to infringe on their trademark and then went to the English spelling of Snow Leopard when they were denied the native Chinese spelling.

That rejection may be what saves Apple in the end though. A Chinese lawyer says that Jiangsu Xuebao has little chance to actually win because Apple advertises Snow Leopard in English on their Web site. If they had used Xuebao, the company would probably win their complaint. While both the Chinese and English Web sites use the English spelling for Snow Leopard on the Web site, the actual marketing in China appears to only use Chinese whereas Apple uses English.

Either way, the case goes to a Shanghai court on July 10. Here’s hoping it doesn’t last as long as the Proview case. Apple would be smart to just settle and let them have their $80,000 – it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the company’s cash reserves.

July 3, 2012
Skype For Mac OS X Updated to 5.8

Ethiopian citizens may never know it, but Skype today released an update for its Mac OS X client. The new version brings Skype for the Mac up to version 5.8. The latest version has a few improvements and a streamlined interface. Krishna Panicker, product manager of Skype for Mac at Skype, announced the update in a post to The Big Blog – Skype’s official blog.

The most major change in Skype 5.8 for Mac is the ability for users to resize and reposition their contact list. This is an ability that the client had had previous to version 5.0’s full-screen interface, and one that Skype users have been requesting to have back. Skype Premium members will get the benefit of broadcasting their video call while also screen sharing during a Skype call. It was also announced that Skype 5.8 will be included with Apple’s new OS X Mountain Lion.

A small, but noticeable change is that when users are chatting with iPhone, iPad, or Android users who are using the Skype app, the video screen on the first user’s Mac will now rotate when the mobile device user rotates their device between portrait and landscape orientations. This was a feature only Windows Phone versions of the Skype app have had until now.

One requested feature that is not yet in Skype was also confirmed today, though it is not a part of the 5.8 update. The ability for users to keep chats in separate windows and hold simultaneous chats was promised for Skype for Mac “real soon.”

June 15, 2012
Apple Announces 26 Million Mac OS X Lion Copies Sold

Lost among the hardware specs and announcements of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote, a huge fact was floated with little fanfare accompanying it. It turns out that there are now more than 66 million Mac users worldwide. Of those users, 26 million of them have already purchased Mac OS X Lion.

That fact means almost 40% of Mac users have already adopted Apple’s latest operating system, which has been out for less than one year. Indeed, the presenter who stated these facts said that Mac OS X Lion is both the fastest-selling and best-selling Apple OS of all-time.

It was also mentioned that Mac OS X Lion outpaced Windows 7 in terms of sales and adoption. OS X Mountain Lion is due out sometime in July, meaning it will beat the Windows 8 launch date by months. Considering Apple’s smooth demonstration of its upcoming operating system, and the looming disaster that is Windows 8, it’s likely that this scenario will be repeated over the next year.

However, these numbers can be seen another way. OS X Mountain Lion will be released less than one year after its predecessor, Mac OS X Lion, which less than half of Mac users have yet. Is Apple iterating its software too fast for consumers to keep up? The average consumber, maybe, but die-hard Apple fans will pounce on OS X Mountain Lion like a hungry Puma. Pushing software out quickly is certainly part of Apple’s strategy to keep ahead of the market. It pushes out newer, better hardware on a yearly basis while dropping support for older devices, thus forcing customers to upgrade.

June 11, 2012
Apple Quietly Drops “Mac” From OS X’s Name

When Apple unexpectedly announced OS X Mountain Lion this morning, they trumpeted a host of new features. Mountain Lion is getting Messages (which is already available in beta), Reminders, and Notification Center from iOS. It’s getting Gatekeeper for security. It’s getting deep Twitter integration. One change that Apple didn’t talk about, though, was the new software’s name. The change is so subtle that a lot of early reporting – my own included – missed it: Mountain Lion isn’t “Mac OS X” anymore. It’s just OS X. Apple has carefully – and completely without fanfare – dropped the “Mac” branding from OS X. They’ve been so thorough, in fact, that there are no references to “Mac OS X” even on Apple’s pages concerning Lion, the current version of OS X. You have to go to the online Apple Store and look for Snow Leopard (10.6) to find any the phrase to “Mac OS X.”

The change was first noticed by David Connell of Techmeme, who posted about it on Twitter:

It’s OS X, not Mac OS X twitter.com/david_connell/…

— David Connell (@david_connell) February 16, 2012

It’s not clear what, if anything, this change signals. What is clear is that the “Mac” branding now appears to apply only to hardware, and not to software. The last time Apple separated a software’s branding from its associated hardware was when they renamed iPhone OS to iOS in 2009 with the launch of the iPhone 3GS (and iOS 3). The reason for that change became clear a few months later with the launch of the iPad and the Apple TV 2, both of which run iOS as well. What this change means, if anything, is anybody’s guess at this point. Apple could have some major new product in the works that will run OS X but will not be a Mac computer, or they could be preparing to re-brand the Mac computer line, or they could just want to differentiate hardware and software branding. At this point, any speculation would be about as reliable as shaking a Magic 8 Ball.

What do you think this change in branding means? Does it mean anything at all? Sound off in the comments.

February 16, 2012
Apple Sued for Patent Infringement

Apple is being sued by Operating Systems Solutions for patent infringement. OSS claims that Apple is selling computer systems “including but not limited to the MacBook Pro, that utilize the Mac OSX operating system that infringes,” on a claim in its patent.

The abstract of the patent itself says:

“A method for quickly booting a personal computer system using boot configuration information on memory and the attached devices that was created and saved in a hard disk at the preceding boot process. The method for a quick boot process includes the steps of performing a power-on self test POST) operation when a personal computer system is powered on or a reset button is pressed; performing a normal boot process after the POST operation; saving the contents of memory and the status of the attached devices to a hard disk; checking if a reboot is requested; restoring the saved boot configuration information from the hard disk, after POST is completed during the reboot process; checking whether or not an initial device configuration file and/or an automatic batch file were changed; and executing commands in the two files and saving a newly created boot configuration information to the hard disk for future boot. The personal computer system, may reboot quickly because of omission of execution of the initial device configuration filed and the automatic batch file.”

Interestingly enough, the patent was originally owned by LG. Hat tip to PatentlyApple, which says it can’t determine if LG has any stake in the case against Apple, noting that a new LG tablet uses Google’s Android.

Google of course has been very vocal about patent issues of late. Last week, the company posted to its official blog, calling out Microsoft, Apple and Oracle, which turned into a very public war of words, mainly between Google and Microsoft.

Entrepreneur Mark Cuban has since put out a post calling for the end of software patents.

In other Apple news, the company has reportedly launched a $999 iMac for educational institutions, while the rumored Netflix competitor from the company appears to be further away than originally speculated.

August 8, 2011
Mac OS X Lion Hits Mac App Store

During Apple’s earnings call yesterday, the company announced that Mac OS X Lion would become available today, and sure enough it has.

The OS was demoed at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in early June, when the company said that Mac has outgrown the industry every quarter for the last five years with sales at 3/4 those of notebooks. Yesterday in the new earnings report, Apple said it sold 3.95 million Macs last quarter – up 14% from the same quarter a year ago. Mac sales, the company said were driven largely by Macbook Pro and Macbook Air.

Mac OS X Lion is the 8th major release of the OS, and has over 250 new features, as well as 3,000 new developer APIs.

It features multi-touch gestures and fluid animations that let you interact directly with content on the scree. New gestures include momentum scrolling, tapping or pinching your fingers to zoom in on a web page or image, and swiping left or right to turn a page or switch between full screen apps.

All new Mac notebooks will now ship with multi-touch trackpads and desktop Macs can use Apple’s Magic Trackpad.

The Mission Control feature combines Exposé, full screen apps, Dashboard and Spaces.You can swipe to get your desktop to zoom out to display open windows grouped by app thumbnails of your full screen apps and your Dashboard.

The Launchpad feature makes it easier to find and launch apps, and with a multi-touch gesture, all of your apps are displayed in a full screen layout. You can organize apps into any order or into folders and swipe through unlimited pages of apps.

There is a also a redesigned Mail app with widescreen layout. It has a new conversations feature that groups related messages into a scrollable timeline. It also has a new search reassure that lets you refine searches and suggests matches by person, subject, and label as you type. The app inludes support for Microsoft Exchange 2010.

Mac OS X Lion also includes Resume, which lets you bring apps back to how you left them when you restart or relaunch the app. In addition to that, apps will automatically save as you work. A feature called Versions records the history of your documents as you create them, and gives you a way to browse, revert, and copy/paste from previous versions.

An AirDrop feature lets you find nearby Macs and set up P2P wireless connections.

Snow Leopard users can upgrade fro $29.99. The upgrade is about 4GB (the size of an HD movie from the iTunes store). It’s available by download through the Mac App Store.

MacRumors reports that Apple has also updated its MacBook Air line with Sandy Bridge, Thunderbolt and Backlit keyboards.

July 20, 2011
Mac OS X Update Provides Bridge to Lion
At Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month, the company demoed Mac OS X Lion, the next version of its flagship Mac operating system. It’s set to become available in July, but Apple has released another update to Mac OS X to tide Mac users over.

Apple announced the release of Mac OS X v10.6.8, which affects Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). “The Mac OS X v10.6.8 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac,” the company says.

Here’s what’s included, via Apple’s update page:
Mac OS X v10.6.8 also includes fixes provided in the Mac OS X v10.6.7 Snow Leopard Font Update:

Addresses an issue in which some OpenType fonts don’t display correctly in certain applications.

Resolves issues printing from Preview.

Addresses an issue with PDF files not opening in third-party PDF viewing applications.

Resolves invalid font errors when printing to PostScript printers.

You may notice on that list, a fix for Final Cut Pro. Apple just released Final Cut Pro X earlier this week, claiming it “revolutionizes” video editing, though it’s gotten a lot of not-so-glowing reviews.

Also notice that first one. This update gets your Mac ready for the Lion update. Lion will provide users with over 250 new features and developers with 3,000 new APIs. It features multi-touch gestures and fluid animations that let you interact directly with the content on the screen.

For more on this (and other recent Apple announcements, read 114 Things You Should Know About Apple’s New Offerings.

To update your system, Apple says to back up your system before installation using Time Machine, and not to interrupt the installation process once you’ve started it. “You may experience unexpected results if you have third-party system software modiﬁcations installed, or if you’ve modiﬁed the operating system through other means,” Apple says.

Just go to Software Update from the Apple menu to check for the latest update.

Mac OS X Lion will be available for $29.99 via the Mac App Store.
June 24, 2011
Steve Jobs, iCloud Will Appear at Apple Worldwide Developers Conference

Apple made a couple of significant announcements in regards to its upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference today. For one, CEO Steve Jobs will be keynoting. This is significant given his medical leave.

Secondly, the company announced the topics of keynote, which include its upcoming cloud services, named iCloud. The iCloud name had been expected based on recent findings that Apple had purchased the iCloud.com domain name, but the company has now made it official.

Specifically, Apple says, “At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software – Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch; and iCloud, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering.”

Apple made no secret that it would be unveiling the next versions of Mac OS and iOS, but much of the interest will be around Apple’s cloud offerings.

Apple obviously has a tremendous advantage on the music front with its hugely successful iTunes. Adding a cloud service should only serve to cement this advantage (along with the increasing success of iOS-based devices). Competition is ramping up in this space with players like Google and Amazon recently both launching new products. With Google’s inability to launch with record label deals, Apple might be able to get a leg up there, based on its iTunes experience.

Last week, it was reported that Apple was close to deals with all four major labels.

Since the announcement came out, Apple shares have been on the rise.

May 31, 2011