MacRumors' Mac Blog: Mac Apps, News and Rumors

Apple continues to defend its proposed data center in Galway County, Ireland, during an oral hearing brought together from an appeal by independent planning body An Bord Pleanála. This time, those against the company's site in Derrydonnell Forest argued that it is planning to build in a location that's too close to a local nuclear power plant (via Business Insider). Oscar Gonzalez, who works...

Apple is set to issue bonds in Taiwan with the aim of raising $1 billion, according to Reuters. The news signals the company's first attempt to sell bonds on the island where many of its supply chain partners operate, such as iPhone manufacturer Foxconn, contract chipmaker TSM, and camera lens producer Largan Precision. The move would place Apple alongside a number of big global names...

Over a year after announcing its plan to spend $2 billion on new data centers in Ireland and Denmark, Apple is now defending its decision for the former location amidst rising concern that its state-of-the-art facilities will have negative effects on local animal populations, and could lead to potential flooding concerns on a neighboring golf course (via Business Insider). Irish planning body...

Apple shares have soared 9 percent since American business magnate Warren Buffett revealed his company's $1.2 billion stake in the company on May 16 (via Fortune). Apple stock looked to be on the wane following Apple's earnings call at the end of April, when the company announced its first ever drop in iPhone sales and its first year-over-year revenue drop in 13 years. Shares of Apple...

Popular image editing app Pixelmator was today updated to version 3.5, adding two impressive new tools to improve selections and a new Pixelmator Retouch extension for the Photos app. Pixelmator's new Quick Selection Tool, which is smarter than the existing tool, makes it much easier to select large areas of an image with a single brushstroke. The tool is designed to analyze color, texture,...

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 5 includes a bug fixes and updates for JavaScript, CSS, web APIs, Web Inspector, media, security, networking, and...

Kanex has introduced a new GoPower rechargeable 15,000 mAh USB-C battery pack capable of delivering one full charge to the 12-inch Retina MacBook. The slim aluminum battery pack also has a traditional USB port that can provide multiple charges to iPhones, iPads, and other USB devices. USB-C to USB-C and USB-C to USB-A cables are included for charging the GoPower itself. A four-LED status...

Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming OS X 10.11.6 beta to public beta testers, just a day after releasing the first OS X 10.11.6 beta to developers and one week after releasing OS X 10.11.5, the fifth update to the OS X 10.11 operating system. The new beta is available through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store for those who are enrolled in Apple's beta testing...

Apple today released a new firmware update for all of its 802.11n Wi-Fi base stations, including the AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme, and AirPort Time Capsule. According to Apple's release notes, the update includes bug fixes and is designed to improve the stability and performance of the products.This update: - Fixes an issue which may prevent communication between clients on the same network ...

Cloud-based services like iCloud and Dropbox are useful because they make documents, photos, and other media easily shareable and accessible anywhere, but there is a downside -- that content is stored offsite on an unknown server not under an individual user's control. With Apollo, a new personal cloud device launching today, Promise Technology aims to combine the cloud's ease of use with the...

Apple CEO Tim Cook admitted that iPhones are too expensive in India, during an interview with Indian news channel NDTV on Monday, the last day of his weeklong visit to the country (via TechCrunch). According to a recent report from Deutsche Bank, India is among the most expensive places in the world to buy an iPhone. Prices there average 31 percent higher than the U.S., with only iPhones in...

Airmail, the third party email client for Mac, has been updated to version 3, bringing some major new features to the popular application and a redesigned interface. The new update adds Smart Folders for enhanced message filtering and organization, VIP contacts, OS X notifications, and support for the "send later" feature available to Gmail and Exchange account holders. The Mac update...

Apple CEO Tim Cook continued his week-long visit to India today by meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss manufacturing and retail opportunities, as well as launch a new state mobile app (via The Times of India). During the meeting at the Prime Minister's official residence, Modi explained his Digital India initiative and asked Apple to support its key objectives of e-education, ...

Uber has announced it is currently testing self-driving car technology with a view to completely remove the need for drivers from its ride-hailing service. According to a statement by the company posted online yesterday, the initial testing phase is being conducted on the streets of Pittsburgh, using a hybrid Ford Fusion fitted with various sensors including radar, laser scanners and cameras. ...

Apple CEO Tim Cook and Lisa P. Jackson, vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives, are currently in India on a multi-day trip meeting various business leaders, politicians, developers and more. Yesterday, Cook visited the famous Siddhivinayak Temple in Mumbai before proceeding to a series of meetings. Meanwhile, Jackson made her way to the Indian state of Rajasthan to meet the...

Earlier this month, Tweetbot for iOS was updated with a new "Topics" feature designed to link multiple related tweets together in a cohesive way, and now the Tweetbot app for Mac has been updated with the same feature. Topics are built around the Twitter feature that links conversations. Tweets composed as a topic in Tweetbot are linked together via Twitter's conversation threading mechanism...

OWC announced today that it has released new software drivers that expand Boot Camp support to its entire SSD lineup. The "Dual Boot Enablers" are available as free downloads on OWC's website for multiple previously unsupported SSDs, including the OWC Aura SSD for Mid-2013 and later MacBook Air and Retina MacBook Pro models, OWC Aura SSD for the 2013 or newer Mac Pro, and the Mercury...

Twitter has plans to stop counting photos and links within the 140-character limit allowed for each tweet, reports Bloomberg. Removing photos and links from tweets will allow tweets with media to contain more text. At the current time, photos take up 24 characters and links take up 23 characters, eliminating 47 available characters when both are included in a tweet. Twitter is reportedly...