MacRumors' Mac Blog: Mac Apps, News and Rumors

As part of its publicity push ahead of its interview with Apple CEO Tim Cook tonight, ABC News has posted an excerpt of Cook's discussion with ABC News reporter David Muir.In the clip, Cook discusses the NSA's surveillance operations and says that the Government does not have any direct access to Apple's servers and that "they would have to cart us out in a box" for that to happen.DAVID MUIR:...

In honor of the Mac's 30th anniversary today, iFixit has partnered with Cult of Mac and The Vintage Mac Museum to tear down an original Macintosh 128K. Analysis of the well-known vintage hardware obviously reveals no surprises, but does highlight just how far technology has come in the past 30 years. Thirty years of progress yields some impressive changes to input peripherals. Keyboards and...

In celebration of the Mac's 30th anniversary, Apple today added a new "Happy Birthday, Mac" section to the App Store. The section, which features apps and games from both Apple and third-party developers, is intended to "capture the spirit" of what makes the Mac extraordinary.When the Macintosh debuted on January 24, 1984, it fundamentally changed what a computer was – and what it could do....

Jonathan Zufi, author of the coffee table book "Iconic: A Photographic Tribute to Apple Innovation" and the man behind the Shrine of Apple site, has created a new website that includes photos of Macintosh computers and portables from Apple's early years. To celebrate Mac's 30th birthday, I've created this micro site for all the world to enjoy. In 2009, I started taking photos of every Apple...

Last year's hit game Tomb Raider, which was critically praised for successfully re-imagining iconic video game character Lara Croft for modern times, is finally available on Mac. The Mac version of the action adventure game, which was ported by Feral Interactive, arrives just under a year after it first launched on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. When a young Lara Croft is shipwrecked on an...

Apple today seeded build 13C44 of OS X 10.9.2 to developers, marking the third developer beta iteration of 10.9.2. The release comes a week after the second OS X 10.9.2 beta, build 13C39, and a month after the first OS X 10.9.2 beta. The update is available to registered developers through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store as well as through the Mac Dev Center. Apple...

Pixelmator has updated its image editing software to version 3.1, adding full support for the new Mac Pro, including 16-bit per channel images, full GPU support, and optimizations for the multi-core processors in the new machine. The app now uses both Mac Pro GPU's simultaneously for composition rendering and uses lots of background computing to speed up zoom and other tasks, with the...

Apple has released a minor update to its iTunes software, improving support for Arabic and Hebrew, adding the ability to see a Wish List while viewing the iTunes library, and "additional stability improvements". The last update to iTunes occurred back in early November, fixing issues with the equalizer and improving issues when switching views in large libraries. iTunes 11.1.4 This version ...

Activist investor Carl Icahn has just tweeted that his investment firm has acquired an additional $500 million in Apple stock over the past two weeks, pushing his stake to over $3 billion. Calling continued investment in Apple a "no brainer" at current prices, Icahn also continues to believe that Apple needs to significantly increase its stock buyback program. A more in-depth letter from Icahn on ...

Major tech companies like Apple, Google, and Facebook often use private buses to ferry employees from living areas in San Francisco and the bay area to company campuses in places like Cupertino, Mountain View, and Menlo Park. Previously, the city was not receiving any income from the campus buses, even though they often used city bus stops. Today that changed as the San Francisco Municipal...

Blizzard's newest game, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft has entered open beta, which means it is now available for all Mac and PC users in North America. Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is a free-to-play collectible card game that is set in the Warcraft universe and focuses on 1v1 matches. In the game, each player chooses a hero with a specific skill set. Heroes are all based on Warcraft lore, ...

Apple today seeded build 13C39 of OS X 10.9.2 to developers, marking the second developer beta iteration of 10.9.2. The release comes almost a month after the first OS X 10.9.2 beta, build 13C32, was seeded to developers. The update is available to registered developers through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store as well as through the Mac Dev Center. The first seed of OS X ...

Adobe today announced several updates to its Creative Cloud suite of apps, including a significant upgrade to Photoshop with the addition of support for 3D printing. With today’s release of Photoshop CC, designs can be printed to a locally connected 3D printer or via built-in access to popular online 3D print services. Photoshop CC supports the most popular desktop 3D printers, such as the...

A UK Court will allow a group of privacy experts to sue Google over the company's circumvention of privacy settings in Apple's Safari browser, reports Gigaom. Following this ruling, the activists can pursue a tort claim that alleges Google misused their private information. The Honourable Mr Justice Tugendhat writes in his decision: "I am satisfied that there is a serious issue to be tried in...

Originally a 2012 Kickstarter project, Mindsense's long awaited Mail Pilot email client is now available from the Mac App Store following a beta testing period that began in June. Mail Pilot focuses on the idea that email is action-based, providing users with a number of ways to deal with email messages. Taking a cue from most standard email apps, Mail Pilot organizes emails into a two column...

Google Now is a personal assistant service that is considered to be Google's counterpart to Siri. Available on iOS and Android devices, the service is now making its way onto the desktop via Chrome Canary, the experimental build of Google's Chrome web browser. As reported by the Google Operating System blog, the latest build of Chrome Canary allows users to receive Google Now cards directly ...

Following the appearance of 15-inch models of the latest Retina MacBook Pro in Apple's online store for refurbished items over the weekend, 13-inch models have now debuted in the store, again offering discounts of roughly 15% compared to brand-new units. While a number of different configurations were available when the 13-inch machines first appeared late yesterday, Apple is currently listing...

Apple is creeping closer to opening a new flagship store in Toyko's well-known Omotesando district. Previously reported to be scheduled for a March 2014 opening, an image of the store published by Mac Otakara shows significant progress has been made on the store. Although wrapped in a black shroud, the exterior of the building is starting to take shape, with the building appearing to bear a...