MacRumors' Mac Blog: Mac Apps, News and Rumors

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...

A number of Black Sabbath's 1970s albums, including Paranoid and Masters of Reality have finally made their way to iTunes with limited exclusivity, according to The New York Times. Previously, only the band's later material was available on iTunes. On Tuesday the band and its label, Warner Brothers, announced that iTunes had started selling its first eight studio albums, along with three...

Apple has launched its annual back to school promotion in Australia and New Zealand, offering education customers free gift cards for the company's digital content stores with the purchase of a new Mac, iPad, or iPhone. Gift cards can be used in the App Store, Mac App Store, iTunes Store and iBookstore, and are available in the following amounts: - Purchase a new Mac except Mac mini or Mac...

Aaron Sorkin, screenwriter of the movie based on Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs biography, has completed his screenplay and submitted it to Sony, according to Variety. Sorkin -- who is well known for his work on The West Wing and The Social Network, was tapped to write the script back in the spring of 2012. Later that year, Sorkin revealed that he was planning to have the movie take place acros...

EA is adding an offline mode to SimCity, nearly a year after saying it would require "a significant amount of engineering work" to do so. It should launch in the "near future", according to EA.SimCity launched on the Mac last August and immediately ran into a number of problems including installation issues and more, but they were resolved fairly quickly -- particular in comparison to the extrem...

Apple has added a number of models of the current 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro to its online store for refurbished products, marking the their first appearance in the store since their October launch. All six of the currently available configurations are listed as shipping in 1-5 business days and are available at a roughly 15% discount compared to brand-new machines. Available models include: - ...

Apple's long-awaited retail store in Brisbane, Australia in the MacArthur Chambers building is finally set to open on Friday, January 17. Though the Brisbane store was announced more than two years ago, problems with contractors and the historical site prevented construction from beginning until 2013. The store is located in the famous MacArthur Chambers building, a 10-story high-rise that was ...

The original Macintosh Development Team, along with the Computer History Museum, is leading a special event at the Flint Center in Cupertino, California on January 25 to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the introduction of the Macintosh. The Flint Center is the since renovated auditorium where Steve Jobs first introduced the Mac. In a series of panel discussions, members of the original...

Apple's Lunar New Year sale kicked off today in several Asian countries, with discounts available on a wide range of Apple products. Unlike the Black Friday sale in held in the United States and other countries in November, today's sale includes price cuts on both the iPhone 4s/5c/5s and the Retina iPad mini. Apple does not typically offer discounts on its iPhones, making this year's Lunar New ...

Apple today requested that U.S. District Judge Denise Cote disqualify Michael Bromwich, the external compliance monitor Apple was ordered to hire to ensure the company complies with all antitrust requirements in the future, from serving in his position, reports Reuters. An attorney for the consumer technology giant on Tuesday asked U.S. District Judge Denise Cote in Manhattan to disqualify...