MacRumors' Mac Blog: Mac Apps, News and Rumors

Apple is currently holding a sale on movie bundles in the U.S. iTunes Store, offering heavy discounts on collections of both SD and HD versions of films. The bundles include film collections of popular franchises such as the Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Spider Man. Last week, Apple launched movie support for iTunes in the Cloud in eight new countries, including Japan and Italy. The...

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, who was a close friend of Steve Jobs, hinted that Apple may have a bleak future without Jobs in an interview with CBS News' Charlie Rose (via AllThingsD) where he was asked how he thought the company would do without its co-founder."Well, we already know," Ellison told Rose. "We saw — we conducted the experiment. I mean, it's been done. We saw Apple with Steve Jobs. We ...

Pixar founder John Lasseter accepted Steve Jobs' Disney Legends Award yesterday at the D23 Expo, an annual Disney event held for fans. In a video from YouTube channel WDWINFO, Lasseter can be seen emotionally talking about how Jobs had become like a brother to him after he lost his own brother to AIDS, going on to share several stories about Jobs' involvement with the animation company over the...

Security researchers from Webroot have revealed a malicious email campaign attempting to trick users into thinking they’ve received a $200 Apple Store Gift Card. But rather than being a simple phishing effort as is common with such emails, the malicious emails contain malware that can be used to compromise targets' Windows-based machines. Specifically, when the user clicks on a hyperlink...

Apple today seeded build 12F33 of OS X 10.8.5 to developers, marking the eighth beta iteration of 10.8.5. The release comes exactly one week after the previous OS X 10.8.5 beta, build 12F30. As with previous betas, the update contains no known issues and can be downloaded via Apple’s Developer page or through the software update tool of the Mac App Store. Apple’s OS X 10.8.5 beta is being ...

After launching in a beta capacity earlier this year, Copportino’s Vox 1.0 music player is now officially available for download from the Mac App Store. The Vox player was first released in 2007, but has since seen a major redesign and functionality overhaul. The app, which offers a minimalistic design, is designed to be a replacement for playing music within iTunes. It supports a wide variety ...

SimCity for Mac will be released on August 29th after being delayed several times in order to "ensure a great experience" for players, EA said today.The Mac version was originally set for a February release, but was delayed to June 11th and then again delayed until August. The PC version of Sim City was released back in March.SimCity's PC launch was more than a little rocky, largely because...

As reported by The Wall Street Journal, Chinese government officials are investigating Apple suppliers and electronics manufacturers UniMicron and Foxconn after local environmental groups accused both of dumping large amounts of toxic heavy metals into nearby rivers. The area in question is an industrial district 40 miles west of Shanghai that has been a longtime area of electronics development,...

Digitimes reports that Apple may shift some of its iMac production from supplier Quanta to electronics manufacturer Pegatron, a longtime Apple supplier. Currently, Quanta is the original design manufacturer (ODM) for much of Apple's Mac lineup, including the MacBook Pro, MacBook Pro, and iMac, while Pegatron currently produces one-third of the world's iPhones and iPads. The iMac was last...

Earlier this week, Apple subsidiary FileMaker Inc. announced that it was discontinuing its consumer-friendly Bento database software to focus on its flagship FileMaker line. Now, AppleInsider is claiming that the company has laid off 20 employees and is undergoing the process of restructuring, according to sources from within the company. Sources say Thursday's rumored job cuts are associated ...

BioShock Infinite, the third game in the first-person shooter series, is set to be released for the Mac on August 29 through a collaboration between Aspyr Media, developer Irrational Games, and publisher 2K Games. Originally released for consoles and PCs in March of this year, BioShock Infinite is set in 1912 in the floating city of Columbia. In the game, players take on the role of former...

Best Buy has launched a new promotion that includes a free third generation Apple TV with the purchase of a 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro. The company is also currently offering a $200 discount off of the retail price all of its Retina MacBook Pros, including both the 13-inch and 15-inch versions. - 15-inch with 8GB RAM, 256GB Storage - $1,999.99 - 15-inch with 16GB RAM, 512GB Storage -...

Earlier this year, the trade organization behind the USB 3.0 specification proposed a new version of USB 3 that supports 10Gbps of data transfer over a backwards compatible connector.The spec has now been finalized, and the first developer sessions will begin later this month.SuperSpeed USB 10 Gbps uses a more efficient data encoding and will deliver more than twice the effective data...

Apple directors Bill Campbell and Millard Drexler recently exercised and sold more than 42,000 Director Stock Options according to documents filed today with the SEC.Drexler, the chairman and CEO of clothing retailer J. Crew, exercised a series of Director Stock Option grants from 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010, for a total of 32,562 shares at exercise prices ranging from $113.62 to $202. He then...

Apple today seeded build 12F30 of OS X 10.8.5 to developers, marking the seventh beta iteration of 10.8.5, dating back to the first release on June 19th. The release comes exactly one week after the previous OS X 10.8.5 beta, build 12F26. As with previous betas, the update contains no known issues and can be downloaded via Apple's Developer page or through the software update tool of the Mac...

With a number of U.S. states preparing to host "sales tax holidays" in which certain items can be purchased without being subject to sales taxes, Apple has begun sending out emails to customers in those states reminding them of the potential to save significant amounts of money on purchases such as computers and accessories. Sales tax holidays are typically held in early August as back to...

FileMaker Inc, a subsidiary of Apple, has announced in a statement that it will stop offering Bento, the consumer-friendly version of its popular Mac and iOS database software, in order to focus on its flagship FileMaker product line.FileMaker, Inc. is increasing its focus on FileMaker Product Line software. Thanks to the ease of creating iPad and iPhone solutions, our customers' use of FileMaker ...

Late last week Apple commercials from the 1980s began resurfacing on YouTube channel EveryAppleAds, offering an extensive look at Apple advertising during that time period. Now, the same YouTube channel has uploaded a video of late film critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert reviewing similar ads. The video appears to have been recorded at a special Apple event in 1986, as indicated by the Apple...