MacRumors' Mac Blog: Mac Apps, News and Rumors

After previewing its Radeon HD 7950 Mac Edition graphics card at CeBIT earlier this month, Sapphire Technology today officially announced the launch of the new card. Exclusive to SAPPHIRE, the HD 7950 Mac Edition is based on AMD’s latest Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture. This highly acclaimed architecture delivers a significant graphics performance boost for Mac Pro users in a wide...

The trendy Aloft Hotel in Cupertino, which is located a mere two blocks from Apple's headquarters, has ">installed an Apple TV in each of its 123 rooms. Using the Apple TVs, hotel patrons can access television shows and movies via iTunes, and use Netflix and Hulu in addition to the Apple TV's other apps. AirPlay is available for playing videos and music, and according to Square International, ...

Apple has announced a new UK retail store in Leeds opening this Thursday, while also posting job ads in Germany for a store in Düsseldorf [Google translation] and a second store in Munich [Google translation]. Apple typically advertises for staff 6-9 months before a store opens, suggesting that the German stores could open late this year. The unusual Thursday opening for the new store in...

John Sculley, Apple's CEO from 1983 to 1993 and the man famously responsible for Steve Jobs leaving the company in 1985 to form NeXT, has said that although he considers Apple to be experiencing a "lull in innovation", he thinks this is an industry-wide issue and that Apple will be the first to spot the next big trend. Interviewed in the Huffington Post, Sculley was asked about his comments i...

As noted by 9to5Mac, Apple yesterday added the latest iMac to its Employee Purchase Program, supporting earlier suggestions that production constraints have now eased. Apple CEO Tim Cook had warned in a January analyst call that iMac shipments would be constrained through Q1, but improving shipping estimates and the company's decision to allow employees to purchase them at a discount...

Career site Glassdoor today released the results of its annual CEO approval rating survey, showing a four percentage-point drop for Apple CEO Tim Cook that resulted in a decline from the top spot in last year's survey to 18th in this year's version. Glassdoor's results are based on over 500,000 company surveys submitted by employees over the past year that ask whether they approve of how their...

Apple today released Security Update 2013-001 for Snow Leopard, Snow Leopard Server, Lion and Lion Server users, on the heels of the release of OS X 10.8.3.The company didn't specify what changes were made, other than saying it was recommended for all users and it improves the security of Mac OS X.Apple's website that details the contents of security updates has yet to be updated with the...

After a beta period that began in December, productivity and search app Alfred was today updated to version 2.0. Alfred, which is a Mac replacement for Spotlight, is now equipped with a new feature called Workflows. Workflows are designed to allow users to automate and execute multi-step tasks with a single keystroke, using a simple visual editor. The app offers support for launching...

One of the first analysts to to turn bearish on Apple last year, correctly predicting lower-than-expected revenues, has upgraded the stock to a Buy, giving it a 12-month target price of $540 against a closing yesterday of $428.35. BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk is cited in Business Insider as suggesting that Apple's earnings per share will be flat or slightly down this year but will climb in 2014. ...

Microsoft has issued updates for both Office for Mac 2008 and 2011 to fix a security issue in which opening a malicious HTML email could result in an attacker "[overwriting] the contents of your computer's memory with malicious code" and potentially gain access to information stored on the Mac. The update to Office for Mac 2011 additionally contains a range of bug fixes: Contacts that were ...

An upcoming manga comic book series from Japanese artist Mari Yamazaki will feature the life story of Steve Jobs, as told by Walter Isaacson in his best selling biography of the former Apple CEO. According to Pocket-lint, the officially licensed series will appear in a "female comic" magazine called Kiss, published by Kodansha, Japan's largest manga publisher. Yamazaki has been chosen to...

Evernote has upgraded its menulet item to enhance the workflow of its users who take notes frequently. Users can click the Evernote icon in their menubar from within any application and immediately begin typing a note, or can even drag files directly to the icon to upload them to the service.Use Quick Note to: - Create a text note instantly. Pop it open with CTRL-CMD-N, type your note....

Dropbox today released an update for its Mac client, offering a redesigned drop down interface and improved file sharing capabilities. With version 2.0 of Dropbox, users can share files with one another using a link from the Desktop menu. File sharing notifications are sent out in real time, to the desktop application and the iOS app. Introducing a shiny new feature: a new tray popup that...

One week after the previous seed, Apple today released a new build of OS X 10.8.3 to developers. The latest version, which arrives as build 12D78, represents the 13th developer seed since Apple began developer testing last November. As with previous builds, Apple is asking developers to focus their testing on AirPlay, AirPort, Game Center, Graphics Drivers, and Safari. We had previously...

The 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro beat 18 Windows 8 laptops in a battery-life test conducted by Which?, the UK consumer test organization with a reputation for the most detailed testing in the industry. In the web-browsing test where most laptops performed best, the Acer Aspire M5-581T was the longest-lasting Windows 8 machine at 358 minutes, while the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro lasted 30...

As noted in our forums, Apple's latest OS X 10.8.3 beta seeded to developers as build 12D76 yesterday contains new drivers for NVIDIA's high-end Quadro K5000 graphics card. NVIDIA announced the Quadro K5000 for the Mac Pro last September, but has yet to actually release the product. The first developer build of OS X 10.8.3 seeded last November added AMD Radeon 7000-series drivers, so it...

Apple today seeded build 12D76 of OS X Mountain Lion to developers, marking the twelfth beta iteration of the newest version of Mountain Lion. 10.8.3 was first seeded to developers in November of 2012. Build 12D76 comes less than a week after build 12D74 and features no listed changes. Registered developers can download the update on Apple’s Developer Page. Update: We've heard that...

As reported by The Vancouver Sun, three men discharged bear repellant during a robbery of Apple's Oakridge Centre retail store in Vancouver while the store was full of customers last night. Photo: @CTVBCBRK Police say three men entered the store shortly before 7:00 PM last night while around 40 customers were in the store, discharging the spray and stealing "a small number of electronics...