MacRumors' Mac Blog: Mac Apps, News and Rumors

Apple has begun inviting its retail store employees to try pre-release versions of macOS Sierra, the latest version of its Mac software platform and renamed successor to OS X El Capitan. Staff who sign up to the voluntary AppleSeed program are set to receive pre-release versions of macOS Sierra to install on their personal computers for use on their own time. Apple is hoping that staff...

Apple has extended its Back to School promotion to countries in Europe, offering a free pair of Beats Solo2 Wireless Headphones with eligible purchases. At the beginning of June, Apple launched its annual Back to School promotion in the U.S. and Canada, offering the headphones to qualifying students and select others that purchase an eligible Mac, iPhone, or iPad Pro with education pricing. ...

A U.S. appeals court yesterday upheld landmark federal rules preventing internet service providers from obstructing or slowing down consumer access to web content (via Reuters). The backing for the Federal Communications Commission's net neutrality rules came in a 2-1 decision by a three-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. The outcome reaffirms the...

Apple today announced macOS Sierra, the latest version of its Mac software platform and renamed successor to OS X El Capitan. The first beta of the update was seeded to developers earlier today, while a public beta will be released in July. macOS Sierra will be available as a free software update for compatible MacBook, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini, and Mac Pro models in the fall....

At its WWDC keynote today, Apple confirmed that Siri would be coming to the Mac with macOS Sierra. Siri's icon will sit in the top menu bar next to the Notification Center toggle. Siri can handle context-sensitive searches for things such as files, allowing users to search for files they worked on in the last week or just the files an individual co-worker sent a user. Siri for Mac, which can ...

With only a few hours remaining until Apple's WWDC 2016 keynote at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, a tipster informed us that Personal Pickup is no longer available for the Thunderbolt Display on Apple's online storefront. A quick spot check reveals that Personal Pickup has indeed been removed on the Thunderbolt Display product page in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Canada,...

Apple's WWDC keynote will be kicking off in a matter of hours, and as is tradition, some MacRumors readers who can't follow the event live are interested in avoiding all of the announcements and waiting until Apple posts the recorded video of the event so as to experience it without already knowing the outcome. For those individuals, we've posted this news story, which will be updated with...

Bethesda Softworks has revealed it is working on a brand new entry in the Quake franchise called Quake Champions. A spiritual successor to first-person shooter Doom, Quake appeared 20 years ago and was the first FPS to focus on arena-based multiplayer combat and frenetic team-based game modes. Tim Willits of iD Software and co-designer of the original Quake, revealed the news of the...

At WWDC 2016 next week, Apple will unveil the next major versions of iOS and OS X. Based on Apple's historic naming pattern, the operating systems are presumptively referred to as iOS 10 and OS X 10.12. However, there is evidence to suggest that Apple may instead rebrand OS X as macOS, in line with iOS, tvOS, and watchOS. Ahead of the keynote, MacRumors readers have been sharing their iOS 10...

Apple today added four new channels to its universal search functionality on the fourth-generation Apple TV, including support for Bravo, E!, Syfy, and USA. The feature lets users find specific media content across multiple apps using the Apple TV's text or Siri voice search. Users can keep up-to-date with which apps are carrying support for universal search in the company's dedicated...

A new DevMate survey recently polled around 700 Mac developers to get responses on how they feel working on OS X, and the lack of app visibility on Apple's Mac App Store. As The Next Web reports, the developers' responses highlight a stark difference in the iOS and OS X platforms, with a majority of DevMate's surveyed developers dissatisfied with Apple's 30/70 revenue split and poor distribution...

Thieves in New York City are reportedly posing as company employees in order to steal thousands of dollars of hardware from Apple Stores. According to DNAInfo, last week a man dressed as an Apple staff member walked into the company's SoHo store and gained access to a backroom, stealing iPhones worth a combined $16,130. Similar incidents occurred back in March when a store on the Upper...

Ahead of the 2016 Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple's Maps team is working hard to expand transit directions to additional locations. Starting this morning, transit information in the United Kingdom has expanded to encompass the National Rail, which represents several public transportation systems across Great Britain. In the United States, transit directions are now available in Atlanta...

Apple today updated its professional audio editing software Logic Pro X to version 10.2.3, introducing a range of bug fixes, performance improvements, and feature additions to bring it in line with updates recently introduced in GarageBand. The update includes three new traditional Chinese instrument Patches for pipa, erhu, and percussion, along with more than 300 new Chinese instrument Apple...

Earlier this week, Apple tweaked the language on its Safari website to remove the claim that its web browser is the only one to offer non-tracking search engine DuckDuckGo as a built-in option. The original wording was added to Apple's website in October 2014 and remained unchanged until Tuesday night. Before:For example, it’s the only browser to offer DuckDuckGo — a search engine that...

Ride hailing company Uber has held talks with Fiat Chrysler about a potential partnership involving self-driving car technology, according to The Wall Street Journal. The discussions are reported to be at a preliminary stage and a deal is yet to be confirmed, cautioned people familiar with the matter. Google uses Chrysler Pacifica Minivans in its self-driving initiative (Image: Chrysler) ...

Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced on March 30. Apple uses Safari Technology Preview to test features that may eventually be introduced in the release version of Safari. Safari Technology Preview release 6 includes bug fixes and updates for JavaScript, CSS, Web APIs, Web Inspector, and Media. The Safari Technology ...

Popular team communication service Slack today launched a voice call feature for its Mac and iOS apps, significantly expanding upon its previously text-only chat environment. The real time messaging and file sharing platform has become a favorite among professionals for its one-to-one and group conversation tools, and the addition of voice calls comes after months of beta testing by the...