Microsoft today confirmed that the two most recent versions of its flagship Office productivity suite for Mac are fully compatible with OS X Mountain Lion. Office users are advised to ensure that Microsoft AutoUpdate is enabled so that their installations can be updated as needed to take full advantage of the new operating system.
- Make sure you have Office for Mac’s AutoUpdate enabled – some updates will be needed to make the most of the upgrade to Mountain Lion. Initiate AutoUpdate in any Office for Mac application by going to your toolbar, then selecting “Help” and then “Check for Updates.”
- Mountain Lion ships with a new feature called Gatekeeper. Gatekeeper helps protect users by allowing you to choose to only download and install software from known developers, like Microsoft. Please note that due to the Gatekeeper architecture, updates will not run when you download and initiate them on your desktop; instead please use Microsoft AutoUpdate to keep your copies of Office for Mac current.
After Apple's Podcasts app was released last month, many users had complaints about bugs, crashes and other issues. All Things D says that an update should debut later today that will fix the problems and "vastly improve it":
Podcasts users take note: Apple has been hard at work tweaking the app to fix the problems that currently plague it and sources say the company expects to post an update to it this afternoon that should vastly improve it.
Nearly two-thirds of reviews for the Podcasts app on the App Store gave it a one - or two-star review, with the app having a two-and-a-half-star review overall -- one of the lowest of all Apple's apps.
Podcasts had traditionally been housed in the iTunes app on iOS devices, but Apple has been working to streamline the user experience by breaking out some categories into their own apps, including Podcasts and iTunes U.
Update: As noted by Jim Dalrymple, Apple has released an update to the Podcasts app with these changes:
Podcasts 1.0.1 provides a number of improvements, including:
• Significant improvements to performance and stability • Podcasts in your library now show the number of unplayed episodes • Top Stations now show the podcast title if artwork is missing • Playback speed is now remembered when playing the next episode • Fix for a problem where the Subscribe button is inactive • Resolution of an issue where Top Stations artwork may not appear
Podcasts is a free download for the iPhone and iPad on the App Store. [Direct Link]
With today's launch of OS X Mountain Lion, Apple's Up-to-Date program has officially gone live. The program allows any user who purchased a Mac on or after June 11 to receive a free upgrade to OS X Mountain Lion if their system came with OS X Lion preinstalled. Customers who purchased server models such as the Mac mini server and Mac Pro server configurations can also receive free upgrades to Apple's latest server tools released alongside Mountain Lion.
Apple is apparently experiencing some early difficulties with the program, however, with some users reporting that their Mac App Store redemption codes for OS X Mountain Lion are not working and others still waiting to receive their codes. Some users were able to obtain codes earlier this week when the program briefly went live prematurely, but the redemption difficulties appear to be affecting both early recipients and new applicants.
Apple support staff have acknowledged the difficulties and are advising customers that they may need to wait up to three days to receive replacement codes, although some replacement codes are reportedly already coming through without any action required by the users. Submitting the up-to-date program application a second time fails to generate new codes, as Apple's systems recognize that the machine serial numbers have already been used and thus refuse to complete the repeat applications.
Customers who purchased new Macs between June 11 and today have until August 24 to claim their redemption codes for OS X Mountain Lion, but many are undoubtedly anxious to install the new operating system as soon as possible. Users who purchase new Lion-equipped Macs starting tomorrow will have 30 days from the date of purchase in which to claim their free upgrades to Mountain Lion.
Blizzard has announced that the fourth expansion for World of Warcraft, Mists of Pandaria, will be released for Mac and PC on September 25.
Unlock The Mysteries of Pandaria
You've ended Deathwing's destructive rampage and saved the dragonflights from extinction.
Now you must unlock the mysteries of the lost continent and discover the dark secrets of Pandaria's past. Explore ancient kingdoms hidden since before the Sundering, plunder vast treasures from the depths of the forgotten vaults, and rise to defend Pandaria from the shadow of a long buried evil - before it's too late.
As is typical for Blizzard, it will be offering two versions of Mists of Pandaria: a standard edition for $39.99 and a deluxe edition for $59.99 that includes a unique in-game mount, pet, and banner.
Users can pre-purchase Mists of Pandaria via Blizzard's Battle.net service and begin playing at midnight on release day.
Apple has released updated versions of the Keynote, Pages and Numbers iOS apps, adding support for iCloud's Documents in the Cloud feature. iCloud now backs up documents automatically and syncs versions between the iWork apps on iOS and the Mac.
OS X Mountain Lion is required to sync documents between the Mac and iOS versions of Keynote, Numbers and Pages.
What's new
Keynote/Numbers/Pages 1.6.1 works with iCloud to make presentations automatically available between your iOS device and Keynote on your Mac*. Changes made to a presentation on one device are instantly available on the other.
*Requires Keynote 5.2 or later installed on OS X Mountain Lion
Apple has been working on removing the hierarchical file system for several years, something that should make finding files easier for computer novices. Apple's marketing specifically highlights this as a feature: "You don’t have to manage your documents in a complicated file system or remember to save them to a special folder."
Keynote, Pages and Numbers are universal apps, available for $9.99 each on the App Store.
Along with the release of OS X Mountain Lion, Apple today also released an updated version of its iTunes U learning app for iPhone and iPad. iTunes U was originally released this past January as part of an increased education push for the company.
The new iTunes U adds a note-taking component and a much improved search function, as well as a mechanism for sharing courses via Twitter, Mail or Messages.
iTunes U 1.2 now makes it easy to take notes while watching or listening to a lecture. This update also adds the ability to search within posts, assignments, notes, and materials — from any of your subscribed courses — using the improved Search feature in iTunes U. It is also now simple to share your favorite courses with friends using Twitter, Mail, and Messages.
During the earnings call with analysts yesterday, Apple revealed that 14 million users have downloaded iTunes U with 700 new K-12 schools and 125 colleges and universities enrolling in the program. 750 new courses have been added recently as well.
With today's release of Safari 6, there has been some confusion over the fate of Safari for Windows. Apple's Safari download page that previously allowed users to download versions for Mac or Windows now redirects to the main Safari page highlighting Safari 6 for Mac, with no mention of Safari for Windows anywhere in Apple's revamped Safari feature pages.
But while Safari for Windows has not been upgraded to version 6 and thus has not received the many new features included for Mac in that release, Apple does appear to be planning to continue quietly offering Safari for Windows. Listings for Safari updates in Apple's support download pages had previously summarized all available Mac and Windows version and provided a link to the general download page, but Apple has now placed Safari for Windows on a dedicated page linking directly to the download.
Safari for Windows remains at version 5.1.7 initially released alongside OS X 10.7.4 in early May. The software is clearly not a high priority for Apple, as evidenced by the removal of all mentions of the Windows option from the main Safari product pages, but the company is keeping the most recent version available for download. It is unclear, however, whether Apple has plans to bring additional feature updates to the browser.
Update: Apple has pulled the standalone Safari 5.1.7 for Windows download page, redirecting visitors to the previous version that links to the now-discontinued general Safari download page. As a result, it appears that Safari for Windows is now not directly linked anywhere in Apple's official download pages.
Mountain Lion is the second release of OS X to be delivered via the Mac App Store. Like with Lion, users can create their own bootable USB key installer to use as a recovery disk or to install Mountain Lion on multiple Macs without needing to download the 4GB installer multiple times.
Ars Technica has an excellent walk-through using either the Disk Utility application that is included on every Mac, or the newly updated Lion Diskmaker app that automates the process of creating a bootable install key.
The biggest catch to the whole process is to make a copy of the Mountain Lion installer before actually installing Mountain Lion, otherwise the installer will need to be redownloaded from the Mac App Store.
- Fixes an issue related to third-party QuickTime components that could cause iMovie to quit unexpectedly - Resolves stability issues when previewing MPEG-2 video clips in the Camera Import window - Fixes an issue where audio was not included when importing MPEG-2 video clips from a camera
For those users who received a redemption code for OS X Mountain Lion while the Up to Date program was temporarily live, it appears that many of the original codes are invalid.
Users are reporting receiving errors while trying to redeem codes. Errors include "The code you entered is not recognized as valid code" and errors that the code has already been used.
Several users are tracking the issue in our forums and have been told by AppleCare representatives that new codes will be issued shortly:
I got my code 2 days ago and mine is invalid also. I just called up applecare about 30 minutes ago and told the guy my situation and he had me try to redeem it again but it said it had already been redeemed. He then said that his system had a note in it saying that anyone who redeemed their serial number and got one of the invalid codes should recieve another email within one business day after mountain lion was released (already happened so the time is ticking now).
Alongside today's launch of OS X Mountain Lion, Apple has updated a number of its Mac applications to take advantage of new features and ensure compatibility with the new operating system. One of the key updates is to Apple's iWork suite, which has seen the addition of support for iCloud and Dictation.
For those who installed iWork from a disc, Apple is offering iWork 9.2 Update via Software Update.
Keynote 5.2, Pages 4.2, and Numbers 2.2 are updated to take advantage of the following features available on OS X Mountain Lion:
- iCloud: Store documents in iCloud, and keep them automatically up-to-date across your Mac, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, and the web. Changes made to a document on one device, automatically appear on all your other devices. This requires iWork for iOS 1.6.1 or later to be installed on your iOS device. - Dictation: Speak words, numbers, or sentences, and watch them appear in your presentation, document, or spreadsheet.
The iWork apps are also enhanced to take advantage of the Retina display on new Mac hardware, so presentations, documents, and spreadsheets appear sharper and more vibrant.
With Apple having launched OS X Mountain Lion to the public today, reviews of the company's latest Mac operating system have begun pouring in. Many of the reviews are quite extensive, but we've selected a few choice excerpts to highlight general reaction to the release.
The Mac is a platform in transition. In Lion, OS X began shedding the well-worn trappings of traditional desktop computing at an accelerated rate. This trend continues in Mountain Lion. Where Lion stumbled, Mountain Lion regroups and tries again—while still forging bravely ahead in other areas.
As the second major refinement-focused release, it's easy to view OS X 10.8 as "what 10.7 should have been." The flip side of this argument is that the real-world mileage we’ve all put on Lion has helped Apple make the right kinds of adjustments in Mountain Lion. If we'd had to wait for two years after 10.6 for the next major release of OS X, chances are good that the worst of the missteps in Lion would just be landing on our doorsteps today. I'll take 10.8, thanks.
All told, I found Mountain Lion to be a stable, solid release. Even prerelease builds were far more stable than I’ve come to expect from OS X betas, leading me to wonder if Apple’s new annual schedule is leading to more careful incremental updates (with fewer bugs) rather than great leaps (with more, nastier bugs).
Ultimately, this is pretty easy: you should spend the $20 and upgrade to Mountain Lion, especially if you have a newer Mac. You’ll gain a handful of must-have features, and everything will get faster and smoother. I haven’t really missed Snow Leopard at all since upgrading, which is remarkable considering how much I disliked Lion.
Taken as a whole, the features mark a fairly aggressive bid to fold the best of OS X and iOS into one product -- a strategy we first saw with the introduction of the Mac App Store on Snow Leopard, and with the arrival of Launchpad last year in Lion. [...]
That said, it seems time for Apple to make a bold new pronouncement on the desktop front. The company appears to have most of its resources invested in the mobile side -- and there's no question as to why: the iPhone and iPad have reinvigorated the company, making it a computing player on a scale that no one (save, perhaps, for Jobs himself) could have predicted a decade ago. Still, it might be hard for OS X users not to feel neglected -- many of the latest new features feel a bit like iOS hand-me-downs. When and if Apple rolls out a new operating system this time next year, hopefully we'll be seeing a very different side of Mac OS.
There will be tens of thousands of words published on Wednesday when Mountain Lion hits the Mac App Store, but let’s face it, what you really want to know is whether Mountain Lion is worth the upgrade. Let’s get that out of the way now — yes, it is definitely worth it.
Mountain Lion costs $19.99 and comes with more than 200 new features — that’s a bargain at twice the price.
If Apple doesn't want Microsoft to steal their innovation crown with Windows 8 Metro, they urgently need a new vision that breaks with this unholy mix of obsolete 1980s user interface heritage and iOS full screen skeumorphism.
It feels like Apple has run out of ideas. Or worse, that Apple is too afraid to implement new concepts, fearing it will kill the company's golden goose. Too afraid to change the world once again, as Steve Jobs used to say, one desktop at a time.
It must be said that Mountain Lion isn’t really all that different from Lion — hence, the variation of the name (even though mountain lions are technically cougars — insert joke here). But unlike the jump from Leopard to Snow Leopard, which focused on performance and tightening code rather than features, the jump from Lion to Mountain Lion does pack some new goodies. [..]
In a time when Microsoft is just about to upend their entire OS with their biggest change (and bet) yet in Windows 8, Apple has taken a much more refined approach. Perhaps they take some criticism for this, or perhaps they’re just being savvy. OS X remains a great OS, and sprinkled with some of the best elements of iOS, it still feels pretty fresh. Not bad for an eleven year old big cat.
Alongside OS X Mountain Lion 10.8, Apple has released the updated version of Safari to OS X Lion (10.7). It is available in OS X Lion's Software Update. According to Apple, the new Safari contains new features, including:
- Smart Search Field. Safari now has one field for typing both searches and web addresses. - Offline Reading List. Safari saves entire webpages in your Reading List so you can catch up on your reading even when you don’t have an internet connection. - Do Not Track. Safari can send the websites you visit a request not to track you online. - Password pane. Manage your saved website logins with the new Password pane. - Baidu. The leading Chinese search engine Baidu is now a built-in option for Chinese users. For more information about Safari, please visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5275
Safari 6 for OS X Lion also includes improvements to stability, compatibility, usability and security, including changes that:
- Make the swipe to navigate gesture work with PDFs. - Restore the state of Reading List when Safari is launched. - Fix an issue that affected full screen video in webpages that have positioned content. - Restore the user's previous cookies after Private Browsing without requiring a Safari relaunch.
Alongside Mountain Lion 10.8, Apple released the server component as a separate generic app called OS X Server.
OS X Server is the next generation of Apple’s award winning server software. Designed for OS X and iOS devices, OS X Server makes it easy to share files, schedule meetings, synchronize contacts, host your own website, publish wikis, configure Macs, iPhones and iPads, remotely access your network, and more.
Server is now an application you can add to Mountain Lion right from the Mac App Store. Anyone can quickly and easily turn a Mac running Mountain Lion into a server that’s perfect for home offices, businesses, schools, and hobbyists alike.
OS X Server requires Mountain Lion 10.8 and adds server functionality to OS X. [Mac App Store]
OS X Mountain Lion brings a number of new features and enhancements to the Mac, including improved iCloud integration with support for Notes and Reminders, iMessage support via the new Messages application, Notification Center, Power Nap updating during sleep, Dictation, enhanced sharing tools, Game Center, improved security with Gatekeeper, and more.
“People are going to love the new features in Mountain Lion and how easy it is to download and install from the Mac App Store,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “With iCloud integration, Mountain Lion is even easier to set up, and your important information stays up to date across all your devices so you can keep editing documents, taking notes, creating reminders, and continue conversations whether you started on a Mac, iPhone or iPad.”
For users looking to deploy server capabilities, Apple will also be releasing OS X Mountain Lion Server as a $19.99 add-on via the Mac App Store.
Update: Many users are reporting difficulties purchasing and downloading OS X Mountain Lion, undoubtedly due to heavy load on Apple's servers.
Apple held its Q3 2012 financial results conference call this evening. We have posted a full transcript of the call.
From the call, Apple discusses their expectations for the next quarter which runs through July, August and September. In particular, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer expects gross margins to decline in the next quarter due to a "Fall transition". He was unwilling to provide more details on direct questioning:
A: "Fall transition" that I spoke about is driving most of the decline that we see sequentially in gross margin. Not something that we're going to talk about in any level of detail today. We could not be more confident in our new product pipeline.
Apple uses such terms as "Fall transition" to represent changes to their product lines. Lower expected gross margins could point to new products with lower prices. The obvious speculation would point to the much rumored smaller/cheaper 7.85" iPad. Whatever the "fall transition" is, Apple expects it to take place before the end of September in order for it to impact the next quarter.
Apple was also asked about the impact of rumors and speculation on their sales
Q: Rumor and speculation, how much does it hurt sales in the quarter?
A: There's a lot of speculation out there. It's difficult to sort out but I'm fairly convinced that there's an incredible anticipation out there for future products. As you would expect given what we've been able to deliver in the past. I think it's a reasonable amount.
And later...
Try very hard to keep our product roadmap secret and confidential. We go to extremes to do that. That, however, doesn't stop people from speculating or wondering and they'll never do that. The great thing about this country is that people can say what they think and so-forth. I'm not going to spend any energy trying to change that. I'm glad that people want the next thing. I'm super happy about it. There are obviously quite a few that want what we're doing now as well. I'm not going to put any energy into trying to get people to stop speculating. I don't think it would amount to anything.
Finally, Apple is still optimistic about the Apple TV, and continues to believe in it despite it being a comparably smaller market.
Q: Did you give an Apple TV number and updated thoughts?
A: Sold 1.3 million last quarter, up more than 170% year over year. Brings fiscal year to 4 million units. This is pretty incredible. Still at a level that we would call a "hobby" -- continue to pull the string to see where it takes us. Not one to keep around projects that we don't believe in. Lot of people here that believe in Apple TV. Continue to invest.
Q: Don't do hobbies to be hobbies -- do it to make something bigger?
A: We do it because we think it'll lead us somewhere. We'll see. 4 million isn't a small number and there are a lot of believers in it.
In Apple's earnings press release issued just moments ago, Apple CEO Tim Cook officially announced that OS X Mountain Lion will indeed be launching tomorrow, July 25.
“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.”
OS X Mountain Lion will be priced at $19.99 and will be available via the Mac App Store.
Apple today announced financial results for the second calendar quarter and third fiscal quarter of 2012. For the quarter, Apple posted revenue of $35.0 billion and net quarterly profit of $8.8 billion, or $9.32 per diluted share, compared to revenue of $28.57 billion and net quarterly profit of $7.31 billion, or $7.79 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.
This will be considered a big "miss" for Apple, as it is dramatically weaker than what analysts were expecting. The company did beat its own guidance, however. Last quarter, Apple said it would make $34 billion in revenue and earnings of $8.67 per share.
Gross margin was 42.8 percent, compared to 41.7 percent in the year-ago quarter, and international sales accounted for 62 percent of the quarter's revenue. Apple's quarterly profit and revenue were both company records for the June quarter. Apple also declared a new quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share payable on August 16 to shareholders as of the close of trading on August 13.
Quarterly iPhone unit sales reached 26.0 million, up 28 percent from the year-ago quarter, and the company sold 17.0 million iPads, up 84 percent year-over-year. Apple sold 4.0 million Macintosh computers, a unit increase of 2 percent over the year-ago quarter. The company also sold 6.8 million iPods, representing a 10 percent unit decline year-over-year.
“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.”
Apple's guidance for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012 includes expected revenue of $34 billion and earnings per diluted share of $7.65.
Apple will provide live streaming of its Q3 2012 financial results conference call at 2:00 PM Pacific, and MacRumors will update this story with coverage of the conference call highlights.
After Apple's Podcasts app was 
For those users who received a redemption code for OS X Mountain Lion while the 
Alongside today's launch of OS X Mountain Lion, Apple has updated a number of its Mac applications to take advantage of new features and ensure compatibility with the new operating system. One of the key updates is to Apple's iWork suite, which has seen the addition of support for iCloud and Dictation.
Alongside 
Alongside 
