MacRumors' Mac Blog: Mac Apps, News and Rumors

Adobe today announced the launch of its latest Creative Cloud updates, bringing new tools and more "Adobe Magic" to a range of apps including Photoshop CC, After Effects CC, Premiere Pro CC, Illustrator CC, and more. There are several new features available in Photoshop CC, including Content-Aware Crop, Face-Aware Liquify, and Match Font, plus a new workspace for selections and masking....

The Supreme Court yesterday made it a few steps easier for technology companies like Apple to challenge lawsuits from "patent assertion businesses," or patent trolls. The decision implemented part of a 2011 law that created "quicker and cheaper" avenues into contesting patents with the Patent Office, instead of having to delve into a lengthy court battle or face a federal judge (via The Wall...

Last week Adobe issued a security advisory for Flash Player, indicating that version 21.0.0.242 and earlier had a critical vulnerability that could potentially cause a crash and allow an attacker to take control of the infected system. Adobe issued a fix a couple days later. Apple today published a support document explaining that users with out-of-date versions of the Adobe Flash Player...

Apple CEO Tim Cook plans to co-host a fundraiser for House Speaker Paul Ryan next week in an attempt to strengthen Apple's relationship with key Republicans, reports Politico. The announcement comes following news Apple has decided not to donate money and Apple products to the Republican National Convention, reportedly because of comments made by presumptive nominee Donald Trump. Cook and Ryan ...

The Indian government today announced a few changes to its rules on foreign direct investments (FDI) within the country, which previously required 30 percent of goods sold by a foreign company to be manufactured or produced within India (via The Times of India). The rule stagnated Apple's retail store growth within the country due to most of its products being created in China. Now, Apple is...

Apple has informed Republican leaders it will not be supporting the party's 2016 presidential convention in Cleveland next month, according to sources who spoke to Politico today. The decision is reportedly due to comments made by presumptive nominee Donald Trump which the company takes issue with, in particular his controversial positions on the subjects of minorities, women, and immigrants. ...

In celebration of Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, Pad & Quill, the maker of premium MacBook, iPhone, and iPad cases and other accessories, is generously offering an 'Everyday Developer Carry Kit' package where one winner can choose a briefcase bag, iPad case, iPhone case, and an Apple Watch band from the company's entire product line-up. Pad & Quill offers several briefcase bag...

Along with expanding its free Beats promotion to Europe, Apple has quietly changed its education incentives for students in the United Kingdom. As of this week, Apple's online higher education store in the U.K. now offers up to 10 percent off Macs and other qualifying purchases, whereas the discount was previously up to 15 percent off. The base model 13-inch MacBook Pro now costs £898.80...

The University of Cambridge has awarded seven "distinguished individuals" with honorary degrees -- known as the highest honor bestowed by the University -- in fields like law, business, and medical science. One of those honored was Apple's own Jony Ive, who received a doctorate in science for the "elegance, purity and beauty" he brought to personal computers in his time at the company. The...

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...