Archive for: OS X
For several iterations now, OS X’s “About this Mac” panel has been rather Apple-like in that it’s basically endless lists of text. For a company that lives by visual elegance and eye candy, it was odd to say the least. But new leaked images compliments of Softpedia show a much more user friendly, visually dynamic About this Mac section.
Initially, you’re presented with two options: Mac OS X Lion and your current hardware. Clicking on one will give you specific menus for either software or hardware. From there, it’s a nicely designed trip through several tabs in the typical Apple-esque style. The most interesting aspect of the new design, however, is the storage tab for hardware informaiton — it features an iTunes approach to categorizing data on your hard drive into audio, movies, photos, apps, other, and free.
For portable users, a special battery tab is present that gives detailed (and graphical) information about your laptops battery.
Overall, the importance of this redesign is rather small. (How often do you actually venture to that part of the OS?) Nevertheless, it is just one more small piece to the overall puzzle that is OS X Lion. Hop inside for a few more screenshots.
Today, January 7th via press release, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that the freshly launched Mac App Store for OS X has already surpassed 1 million downloads in a mere 24 hours after going live. While it may pale in comparison to other sales figures such as billions downloaded by the iOS App Store, we must remember that the iOS App Store has been around for almost 3 years now.
For Apple, breaking 1 million downloads on launch day is a positive signal that the desktop app store will enjoy a healthy amount of success, even if sales slow down after the initial wave of early adopters.
In closing, Steve Jobs expressed his delight with Mac App Store sales figures, saying: “We’re amazed at the incredible response the Mac App Store is getting. Developers have done a great job bringing apps to the store and users are loving how easy and fun the Mac App Store is”.
Have you tried out the new Mac App Store yet?
Everyone’s favorite pig smashing, bird-slinging game, Angry Birds is officially live in the Mac App Store. Even though it trails the PC version by a few days, somehow I don’t think it will matter in the slightest bit. If you’re new to the Angry Birds chaos, just know that it is awesome and you should buy it.
Angry Birds costs £2.99 (~$4.63 USD) and as of writing holds the #1 spot for paid apps. You should probably get this…like right now.
- December 28, 2010 9:39 am
If you’ve made a new home with one of the popular services and products including but not limited to iOS devices, OS X-powered computers, and location-based services such as Foursquare, the world is going to end in 2011. McAfee (recently acquired by Intel) released a forecast today naming various popular services and products that while currently low on the threat list, will grow increasingly murky as 2011 trudges on. Of course, coming from an arguably struggling virus software developer, such news of “impending attack” on numerous exploding platforms isn’t exactly all that surprising. In fact, it’s almost a cheap attempt to drum up fear and publicity in hopes of wooing a few new customers.
At this point, it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out that when tech products and services become popular and therefore increase in user base and potential cash flow, so do attempts to crack/hack them.
Should you be careful with your shiny new iPad while you update Foursquare? Of course. But don’t resort to fear mongering and paranoia. Security will become a growing issue with popular consumer electronics and services, though nowhere as much as McAfee is hyping. Be at ease.
- December 20, 2010 9:34 pm
Apple isn’t generally the company you see exhibit overlapping qualities. Each product and service has a distinct purpose. This point could of course be argued for the rest of eternity, but for the sake of time and this article, we’ll assume Apple’s products are always unique. With that said, Apple announced tonight in an email sent to OS X developers that the Apple.com/downloads/osx web page will soon be no more. On the same day that the Mac App Store is set to go live — January 6th — the aforementioned link will go dark.
It’s really not all that surprising. If we take the previous statement about overlapping, Apple, and distinct to heart, we’d quickly come to the conclusion that Apple would never intend to have two store fronts open catering to the exact same market with the exact same product.
Still, it’s sad to see it go. As you wipe away the tears filled with memories of years past, hop inside and check out the official email from Apple themselves…
- December 16, 2010 9:09 am
In 2008, Apple’s App Store revolutionized the way we interact with our smartphones. Now at well over 100,000 apps and billions of downloads, the mobile app store is solidified in smartphone history. But can the same success be found on the desktop? Apple thinks so, as they recently announced plans to launch a Mac App Store featuring applications exclusively for OS X. And now, we have an official launch day from Cupertino themselves: January 6th in 90 countries worldwide.
Like the iOS App Store, the OS X version will house all app updates in one, easy-to-use store front. Similarly, the Mac App Store will also feature in-house favorites, top sellers, and highest rated, categories among others. On the developers’ side of things, the same 70/30 split of app revenue will be shared in the form developer/Apple respectively. Check back January 6th to see our thoughts on Apple’s latest App Store experiment.
**Developers interested in developing apps for the Mac App Store can head over to http://developer.apple.com/programs/mac for more information.
- December 16, 2010 7:12 am
While the populous here in the U.S. still can’t experience the awesome services of European-based music streaming service Spotify, we can at least sit back and watch from afar, watching, waiting, and hoping. With that said, the company has announced today OS X, iOS, and Windows Spotify apps will be receiving updates.
The general bug fixes and performance improvements across all platforms are a given. But the best updates, however, went to the iOS platform:
- A much faster start up speed, Spotify loads 6 times faster than previously.
- Spotify will not start playing after you hangup a call if you have removed your headphones during the call.
- Retina display graphics for iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4G.
- Attach a message when sharing to your Spotify friends.
- Improved how Spotify reloads your position after a restart. You no longer have to wait until you get online or tap to cancel before you can use Spotify.
- Stability fixes related to log out, opening links, changing songs, login, and others.
- December 15, 2010 7:23 pm
In all the awesomeness that makes up the 2,560 x 1,440 pixels-worth that is the 27-inch Apple Cinema Display, some users haven’t had the rosiest of times. Most importantly, a persistant bug regarding speaker problems has been plaguing a small subset of users. The specific problem is reportedly distorted or completely non-functioning speakers. To fix the issue, users have reported that simply unplugging and replugging the USB cord in to all-out restarting their Mac has fixed the sound issue. Though that’s understandably far from “a fix”.
The update weighs in at a feather-light 957KB and can be downloaded from Apple’s support download site. Let us know if it fixes your speaker issues.
- November 24, 2010 6:41 am
We’ve seen a couple of Apple iPad patents crawl through the USPTO already, showing amongst other things, a dual-dock design. That’s interesting because thus far, all Apple devices have featured a single dock on the bottom of the device. It’s also intriguing because a second dock on the side would hint at new iPad docks for gen 2.
As is always true with new features and designs in patents, however, they’re far from final. Many times over we’ve seen new things appear in patents that never make it into a finished product. This dual-dock iPad 2 design could be another example of that. But with three patents passing by now over the last 5 months all featuring the dual dock design, it’s looking more and more believable. I certainly wouldn’t mind. A choice of dock orientation would be a pretty nifty feature for an already great tablet. What do you guys and gals think?
