MacRumors' Mac Blog: Mac Apps, News and Rumors

France's Opéra de Lyon is set to begin performing a multimedia opera that combines the history of former Apple CEO Steve Jobs with the story of Shakespeare’s 1599 play Henry V. Written by German composer Roland Auzet, "Steve Five (King Different)" pulls its content from Walter Isaacson’s best-selling Steve Jobs biography and explores the parallels between two kings – one from Silicon Valley...

Blizzard Entertainment's digital card game Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft has publicly launched on the Mac after a brief public beta period. The free-to-play collectible card game is set in the Warcraft universe, allowing players to compete with Magic-style decks in one-on-one fights via Battle.Net -- Blizzard's online gaming platform -- or against the computer.Though it's only launching on...

First introduced at CES in January, LaCie's 1TB Little Big Disk Thunderbolt 2 drive is now available for purchase for $1,299. The Little Big Disk is one of the first external hard drives to support Intel's Thunderbolt 2 specification, delivering transfer speeds of up to 1375 MB/s. Little Big Disk offers two 500 GB PCIe solid state drives from Samsung in a Raid-0 configuration and is able to...

Steve Jobs' great displeasure about the the idea of a multi-button mouse was apparently the driving force behind Apple's push to greatly innovate in the area of input devices, according to a new interview with Apple's former Senior Mechanical Engineer of Product Design Abraham Farag (via Cult of Mac). Farag, who is the current owner of product development firm Sparkfactor Design, says that he ...

Apple recently implemented changes to its loyalty program designed for organizations like schools and businesses, improving the discounts given to those customers, reports TechCrunch. Customers are eligible to receive discounts through Apple Retail's Business Team after spending more than $5,000. Apple's particular program is three-tiered, offering increasingly greater discounts at $5,000,...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Apple CEO Tim Cook for lunch yesterday at Apple HQ in Cupertino, California. Netanyahu is traveling through the United States for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and also met the founders of popular messaging app WhatsApp as well as the president of Stanford University. While it's not clear what Cook and Netanyahu could have ...

Shares of video and pixel processing company Pixelworks have climbed over 40 percent after the company revealed a strategic relationship with Apple that contributed significantly to the company's revenue in 2013 (Via SeekingAlpha). Pixelworks confirmed in a recent Form 10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that Apple, along with Hitachi and NEC, each accounted for more ...

Six Apple executives received more than 30,000 shares of stock in the form of restricted stock units or RSUs according to a series of filings with the SEC. RSUs are typically issued to employees to encourage them to stay with the company. They are awarded in a similar way to stock options, but convert directly into shares of stock upon vesting. At current prices, the awards are worth as much...

Apple is planning to open its first retail store in Turkey on Friday, April 4, reports Turkish Apple blog ElmaDergisi [Google Translation]. Located in the heart of Istanbul's multi-use Zorlu Center between luxury retailers Burberry and Louis Vuitton, the new store will span more than 20,000 square feet. According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the Istanbul store will feature a unique concept that...

CloudyTabs is a new utility for Mac owners who prefer to use Chrome or Firefox for their browser, but don't want to give up one of iCloud's useful features -- iCloud Tabs. Created by developer Josh Parnham, the open source app resides in your menu bar and lets you open your iCloud tabs in any web browser you choose. (Via MacStories) iCloud Tabs was rolled out in OS X Mountain Lion and works ...

Oscar, a new Kickstarter project currently seeking funding, is an Arduino-compatible adapter that's able to connect a high-resolution screen to a computer. The adapter comes attached to the same 9.7-inch display used in Apple's Retina iPads, and uses DisplayPort or Thunderbolt to connect to a computer. When connected to a Mac, the Oscar adapter allows the high-resolution 2048 x 1536 panel to...

Nuance, known for its speech recognition software, today unveiled version 4 of its Dragon Dictate software. The speech recognition software is designed to allow users to dictate text and control desktop and web applications via speech. Version 4 of the software brings better accuracy with improved speech recognition technology and reduced latency due to better memory management capabilities....

A Brussels judge may block access to all Apple websites in response to a complaint filed by Federal Public Service (FPS) Economy, reports Belgian newspapers (Via Tech.eu). Apple is accused of misleading consumers about warranty protections available for products purchased from Apple's retail and online stores. The complaint, filed last year, claims Apple advertises its one-year warranty...

Goldman Sachs Group today announced that Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer will join the banking firm's board of directors, effective immediately. Oppenheimer will become the board's 13th director and will serve on the firm’s Audit, Risk, Compensation and Corporate Governance, Nominating and Public Responsibilities committees. “Peter’s 25 years of broad experience across...

Earlier today, reports indicated Apple's $25 gift card with the purchase of an Apple TV promotion could be an effort to clear out stock ahead of an imminent updated Apple TV launch, but notable Apple journalist Jim Dalrymple has said that is not the case. According to one of his famous "Nope" posts, Apple does not have plans to release a new Apple TV in the immediate future. Specifically,...

Following yesterday's addition of Soundgarden to its SXSW concert lineup, Apple has now announced that Kendrick Lamar will also perform during the iTunes Festival [iTunes Store Link], headlining on March 12. Joining Kendrick Lamar will be ScHoolboy Q and Isaiah Rashad. With the addition of Soundgarden and Kendrick Lamar, Apple's SXSW iTunes Festival lineup is complete with the following acts ...

Apple is preparing to open a new retail store in Dayton, Ohio by the end of the year, according to the Dayton Business Journal and ifoAppleStore. The company is expected to occupy a space formerly held by women's clothing retailer Lane Bryant at The Greene outdoor shopping center, as a black construction barricade was recently spotted at the location. Apple also posted 12 job listings for the...

Apple today released Mac Pro SMC Update 2.0, enabling a Mac Pro to enter Power Nap mode without running the fan for Power Nap activities. The update also includes a fix for an issue that caused a low-speed USB device not to be detected at startup. This update is recommended for all Mac Pro (Late 2013) models. This update enables Mac Pro to enter Power Nap without running the fan for most Power ...