MacRumors' Mac Blog: Mac Apps, News and Rumors

With the court date for the iPhone unlocking case between Apple and the FBI just over a week away, United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch decided to speak on the issue during an episode of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert last night (via TechCrunch). After Colbert asked about her likely stance on the topic, Lynch said that she has "had a number of great conversations with Tim Cook on...

Adobe has released security updates for Flash Player that address critical vulnerabilities that "could potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system." Adobe is aware of "limited, targeted attacks" on OS X, Windows, and Linux. Adobe lists the affected Flash Player and AIR versions in a security bulletin on its website. Mac or PC users running an affected version should...

Ten One Design today announced the "Blockhead," a side-facing plug for Apple chargers that will allow users to place the large wall adapters flush and parallel with a wall to save space, and open up more possibilities for charging behind large furniture. The accessory replaces the detachable prongs that ship with Apple products, and Ten One Design promises Blockhead will fit "every MacBook" and...

The man who inspired Steve Jobs to bring multiple typographic styles to the Mac, the Trappist monk and calligrapher Rev. Robert Palladino, died late last month at the age of 83. Palladino taught calligraphy classes at Portland's Reed College, which Jobs attended during his dropout year. Yesterday The Washington Post published a retrospective highlighting the development of Palladino's art, the ...

In January it was announced that Nerds, a musical about the rivalry between Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, would begin its Broadway run on March 31, 2016. Today, producer Carl Levin announced that the production would have to cancel its Broadway run, reports Variety. “On behalf of my fellow producers and investors, it is with great disappointment that we...

Apple today seeded the sixth beta of an upcoming OS X 10.11.4 update to developers and public beta testers for testing purposes, less than a week after seeding the fifth OS X 10.11.4 beta and more than a month after releasing OS X 10.11.3. OS X 10.11.4 has been in testing since January 11. The sixth OS X 10.11.4 beta, build 15E61b, can be downloaded through the Apple Developer Center or via...

A decision in the European Commission's probe of Apple's tax affairs in Ireland may not be reached soon, according to EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager (via Bloomberg).“Don’t hold your breath,” she told reporters in Brussels on Monday about the timing of decisions targeting Apple and online shopping giant Amazon.com Inc, whose tax affairs in Luxembourg are also under intense scrutiny. ...

Back in February, Apple's Worldwide Developer Certificate, designed to verify third-party apps and services, expired, requiring Apple to issue a new certificate for developers to use. As pointed out by TidBITS (via Ars Technica) a side effect of the replacement of the certificate causes older OS X installers to fail to launch. OS X installation files downloaded from the Mac App Store before...

Disney today announced that the newest film in the popular Star Wars saga, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, will be available on iTunes, Disney Movies Anywhere, and other Digital HD sources on Friday, April 1, several days ahead of a planned April 5 Blu-ray and DVD release. Star Wars: The Force Awakens takes place 30 years after Return of the Jedi, pitting new characters like scavenger Rey and...

A new musical centering around the founding of Apple Computers by Steve Jobs is debuting this month in New York. Developed at the New York Musical Festival, the Musical Theatre Factory, and the New York Theatre Barn, "The Crazy Ones" is billed as "a thrilling new original pop-rock musical" that aims to depict Jobs' genius as well as his "very powerful demons." In 1982, Steve Jobs was in control. ...

Apple could be ready to move into its new 76,000-square-foot leased office space in San Francisco by late summer 2016, according to Reuters. The new office, located at 235 2nd Street in the city's expensive South of Market neighborhood, will reportedly have enough space for about 500 workers upon completion. Apple currently has offices throughout the South Bay suburbs, including Cupertino,...

Sony has announced that its forthcoming Remote Play app for streaming PlayStation 4 games on Mac or Windows PC will be available "soon." PlayStation 4's latest 3.50 system software update launches in beta tomorrow, but Sony says the Remote Play functionality will not be available in the beta. Last November, Sony executive Shuhei Yoshida tweeted that it is working on an official Remote Play app ...

Apple has updated its "Think Different" trademark in a new European Patent and Trademark Office filing, covering it for use across the company's growing line of products. The filing expands the International Classes to which the trademark can be applied from one to eight. Those classes now cover Apple Watch, Apple Pay, Apple Pencil, iPad, games, business management, subscription services,...

As reported on the MacRumors forums and Reddit, a recent Apple security update has disabled the ethernet port on some iMacs and MacBook Pros. zorinlynx writes:This software update was pushed via the silent "security updates" to my iMac today: 031-51913 | Incompatible Kernel Extension Configuration Data 3.28.1 After rebooting my ethernet didn't work. Turns out that it added an exclusion...

Apple today released a new 7.2.1 software update for the third-generation Apple TV. It is not clear what is new in the update, as Apple has not provided release notes, but it includes several security improvements. The update is available for all versions of the third-generation Apple TV. It can be installed through the software update mechanism in Settings, or delivered automatically for...

StarTech's latest Dual-Monitor Docking Station debuted in December, with a feature that sets it apart from other docking stations: dual DisplayPort 1.2 connections. The Docking Station has a Falcon Ridge quad-channel Thunderbolt 2 controller for 20GB/s data transfer speeds. It can power two 2560 x 1600 displays through its DisplayPort connections, allowing for a dual-monitor setup that...

Privacy campaigners held organized rallies across the US yesterday to protest the FBI's demands that Apple unlock the iPhone at the center of its San Bernardino shooter investigation. Following on from limited protests in California last week, rallies extended from Albuquerque to Washington DC to support Apple's insistence that complying with the bureau's demands risked compromising the...

Earlier this month, Apple quietly introduced a new "Podcasts Connect" tool for people who upload their podcasts to iTunes. Previously, podcasters uploaded their content using the "Submit a Podcast" link in the iTunes Podcast Store, but now there's a dedicated portal for managing podcast uploads. As described by Libsyn, the Podcasts Connect portal lets users submit new podcasts and manage...