MacRumors' Mac Blog: Mac Apps, News and Rumors

Electronic Arts today announced the first expansion pack for SimCity, called Cities of Tomorrow. The expansion is designed to take place 50 years in the future, incorporating new technologies and experimental urban planning techniques for futuristic world-building capabilities. "Will the world of tomorrow be a utopia powered by clean energy or an industrial society consumed by mass...

Apple today began offering refurbished units of its mid-2013 11-inch MacBook Air models in its online store. The move comes a little over three months after they were announced in June, and both stock configurations are currently available. The current 13-inch MacBook Air has yet to appear in Apple's store for refurbished products. Both models include Intel's Haswell processors and "all-day" ...

As part of a new 3.0 update for iCloud Control Panel for Windows, Apple has created new browser plugins for both the Chrome and Firefox Windows apps. Using the plugins, Windows users can now sync their iOS Safari bookmarks with the Chrome and Firefox browsers. Previously, browser syncing was limited to Internet Explorer. iCloud keeps mail, contacts, and calendars up to date between your...

Google is launching a new, entirely separate company called Calico. The firm will be dedicated to tacking major, long-term healthcare initiatives like significantly extending the human lifespan.Calico will be helmed by Arthur Levinson, the chairman and former CEO of biotech firm Genentech. Levinson is also a longtime board member and Chairman of Apple, and a director of Hoffmann-La Roche, a...

The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) has released its annual rankings for customer satisfaction in the category of personal computers, which include both traditional computers and tablets, with Apple’s line of Macs as well as the iPad topping the survey’s rankings for the tenth straight year. Apple’s satisfaction rating of 87 is ranked above other competitors such as...

Apple's newest retail store in Station Park near Salt Lake City, Utah is set to open on Friday, September 20, the same day that Apple will begin selling its iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c in stores. Located in Farmington, Utah, Station Park is an outdoor shopping mall that features a number of upscale retail stores. The Apple Store, which spans approximately 10,000 square-feet, is located in the...

Apple has updated OS X Server, the application that runs on top of OS X Mountain Lion to expand the system's server feature set.The update adds several bug fixes, though the 'What's New' section includes a number of new features that were originally added back in December 2012.What's new- Fix for administering Profile Manager from iPad mini.- Support for using bonded or virtual network...

Unibox, a new Messages-style email client that was first announced in August of 2012, is now available for download as part of a public beta test. The app is designed to make email more "personal" by organizing emails into a contact-centric view. Unibox's interface is divided into two main panes, with the left side displaying contacts and the right side displaying all messages that have been...

Apple is finalizing lease plans for the luxury shopping mall planned for the World Trade Center site, according to a report from IFOAppleStore.IFO claims the mall developer has already signed a lease with Victoria's Secret and negotiations are in process with Michael Kors, Swatch and Abercrombie & Fitch, among other retailers, including Apple.The website for the project contains a number of...

The Humble Indie Bundle 9, a collection of games that are compatible with the Mac including Mark of the Ninja, Brutal Legend, FTL: Faster Than Light, FEZ, Trine 2: Complete Story and a beta for upcoming game Eets Munchies, has been released. As with previous Humble Bundles, the user selects the amount of the purchase and how much money of the purchase goes to chairtable foundations or game...

An internal Apple video depicting the construction of an Apple pop-up store at the 2011 South by Southwest (SXSW) music festival in Austin, Texas has surfaced on YouTube (via Sonny Dickson). Specifically, the video starts with the store’s unveiling and then transitions to the construction of the store, with floor construction, movement of products, and final decoration to match the internals of ...

Apple has begun requiring users to input an Apple ID when making Genius Bar appointments, reports TechCrunch. Previously, Apple only asked for a name, address, and email to book an appointment. According to TechCrunch, the new policy is designed to unify user actions within Apple's ecosystem, provide better customer service to people visiting the Genius Bar, and cut down on no-show...

According to a photo posted on Twitter (via ifoAppleStore), Apple seems to be building a retail store in the center of Shanghai’s new IAPM mall. The store, which appears to be two stories high as it undergoes construction, is blocked off by a gray barricade that sports the Apple logo and the URL which directs Apple’s China retail website. The mall in which the store is located opened two weeks...

An Ohio man, Noam Lazebnik, has filed a class action lawsuit against Apple for failing to provide iTunes users who purchased a "Season Pass" for Breaking Bad with the full season of 16 episodes, reports GigaOM. Season 5 of the show was split into two eight-episode sections that aired in July of 2012 and August of 2013 and iTunes customers were asked to pay $14.99 to $22.99 (Standard and High...

Mac gaming publisher Aspyr has announced on its blog that as of the launch of OS X Mavericks later this year it will begin phasing out support for running titles on Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, which includes future patches for existing games as well as any upcoming titles that the company plans to publish for Macs. The company has also stated that older titles that receive updates or patches...

Apple has asked developers to prepare for Safari Push Notifications, a new feature included in OS X Mavericks, according to Cult of Mac.Safari Push Notifications allow websites to send push notifications to website users even when Safari is not running.OS X Mavericks introduces a powerful new way to keep users engaged with your website. You can now use the Apple Push Notifications Service to...

Apple today seeded build 12F36 of OS X 10.8.5 to developers, marking the ninth developer beta iteration of 10.8.5. The release comes several weeks after the previous OS X 10.8.5 beta, build 12F33. Apple also seeded build 12F35 of OS X 10.8.5 to employees two weeks ago. As with previous betas, the update contains no known issues and can be downloaded via Apple’s Developer page or through the...

Adobe today announced a new $9.99 per month Photoshop Photography Program that includes Photoshop Creative Cloud, Adobe Lightroom, 20GB of online storage and a membership to Adobe's Behance portfolio website.The $9.99 per month price is available to current owners of Photoshop CS3 or higher who sign up by the end of 2013.Since introducing Photoshop CC, we’ve listened to feedback from a...