MacRumors' Mac Blog: Mac Apps, News and Rumors

Apple is aiming to encourage Mac usage to its business consumers by displaying iMacs running a copy of Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system within Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac in the business section of its stores, according to a report from 9to5Mac. Apple Retail Stores will also train business specialists on using Parallels and Windows software as part of the initiative. Apple currently...

Apple senior vice presidents Phil Schiller and Dan Riccio recently exercised and sold more than 40,000 combined common stock shares worth over $20 million, according to documents filed today with the SEC. Schiller sold 37,172 shares of common stock at a price of $500 for a total haul of $18.6 million. Riccio sold a total of 3,754 shares of common stock over the course of 11 trades with prices ...

Apple has seeded a second beta version of iTunes 11.1 to developers, several weeks after the debut of the first iTunes 11.1 beta. The second beta comes after an emergency update to iOS 7 and the release of iTunes 11.0.5, both of which fixed an issue with iTunes in the Cloud, so it is probable that this update addresses the same issue. Apple's iTunes 11.1 includes iTunes Radio, which is...

Primate Labs has announced on its blog that it has released Geekbench 3 – the first major update to the popular benchmarking service since 2007. This third iteration of Geekbench features 15 completely new benchmark tests that are designed to mimic real-world processor tasks, such as image and signal processing, encryption, and physics simulation that aim to give a more accurate score of...

Apple has released AirPort Base Station and Time Capsule Firmware Update 7.6.4.The update is available for all Apple 802.11n Wi-Fi base stations including AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme, and AirPort Time Capsule.AirPort Base Station Firmware Update 7.6.4- Resolve an issue that may cause AirPort Time Capsule to report that the backup disk is in use- Resolve an issue that may cause an IPv6...

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...