MacRumors' Mac Blog: Mac Apps, News and Rumors

Bloomberg is reporting that Apple CEO Tim Cook has been ordered by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh to give a deposition in a lawsuit claiming that Apple and five other companies entered deals not to recruit each other's employees.Koh told lawyers yesterday that Apple founder Steve Jobs was copied on e-mails at issue in the case, and that she found it “hard to believe” that Cook, as Apple’s...

Black Pixel today released its first major in-house app, Kaleidoscope 2. The app that helps coders, writers and others to compare the differences in folders, images, text, and more. The app was released as a beta back in November.At the time, The Next Web spoke with former Apple employee Michael Jurewitz and the rest of the Black Pixel team about Kaleidoscope 2:Kaleidoscope 2 is a lovely...

Apple today seeded build 12D54 of OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.3 to developers, marking the sixth beta iteration of the newest version of Mountain Lion. 10.8.3 was first seeded to developers in November. Build 12D54 comes just eight days after build 12D50, and like the previous build, contains no known issues or features. Build 12D50 brought only minor changes, and asked developers to focus on...

Later this year, Other World Computing plans to release a 3.5" SSD drive meant for tower-style PCs like the Mac Pro. The drive, called the "Mercury Viper", will allow OWC to build an SSD with capacities as large as 2TB, as well as transfer rates over 600MB/s over a SATA 3 connection.Currently, OWC makes 2.5" SSD's that can be installed in a laptop or desktop via a bracket, but the extra space...

Former Apple employee Don Melton has been sharing a unique look behind the scenes of the Safari development team. Melton was the team leader on both the Safari and WebKit products that are now used by millions of users on iOS, the Mac, and Windows.Previously, Melton explained how the Safari name came about, and the tale of Safari's User Agent string and the strategies his team used to keep the...

Xerox today announced that Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri is leaving the company to take the position of Corporate Controller at Apple. The move will be effective February 28."Luca is a stellar finance executive whose contributions have brought great value to the transformation of Xerox into a services enterprise,” said Ursula Burns, Xerox chairman and chief executive officer. "He's...

Apple today pushed out a new EFI Firmware Update 2.6 for the mid–2012 MacBook Air, which comes with several bug fixes for the MacBook Airs that were released in June alongside the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro.This update fixes a color issue with HDMI displays connected to MacBook Air, resolves an issue with Windows which can prevent MacBook Air from booting properly, and also resolves an issue...

Twitter has updated its Tweetdeck client with a number of new features, including the ability to get Tweet embed code straight from the application, a new predictive typing feature, and "performance upgrades for displaying multiple high-velocity columns".Reports The Next Web:The update includes changes made to the Chrome version of the app before Christmas, and one of the most visual changes...

Mozilla today released version 18 of Firefox, adding Retina support for Apple's line of Retina MacBook Pros.Safari, Opera, and Google Chrome implemented Retina months ago, leaving Firefox as the last of the major browsers to receive a Retina update. Without Retina support, both website text and images on Firefox appeared fuzzy and hard to read. Firefox 18 also includes the following updates,...

Apple today seeded build 12D50 of OS X 10.8.3 Mountain Lion to developers, the fifth beta release reports 9to5Mac. The first 10.8.3 beta was seeded back in November, and the third and fourth releases were released in December.Though the update comes with no known issues or new features, as before Apple has asked developers to focus on AirPlay, AirPort, Game Center, Graphics Drivers, and Safari ...

LaCie introduced a pair of high-capacity storage devices at CES today.The first, the LaCie 5big is a 10 or 20TB external RAID box connected via Thunderbolt. The box includes five drives with multiple RAID options for backup and speed, as well as a pair of Thunderbolt ports for daisy chaining. The box is $2,199 in 20TB configuration, and $1,199 for the 10TB version.LaCie also introduced the 5b...

IDEO founder David Kelley had a wide-ranging interview on tonight's 60 Minutes in which he speaks about his relationship with Steve Jobs, the creation of the first Apple Mouse and more. Kelley and his company, IDEO, were integral in Apple's early history and designed the first Apple Mouse, the Lisa and more. Kelley talks about Jobs and how he was very specific in wanting things, which isn't a...

Former Apple employee Don Melton is sharing a unique look behind the scenes of the Safari development team. Melton was the team leader on both the Safari and WebKit products that are now used by millions of users on both iOS, the Mac, and Windows.Previously, Melton explained how the Safari name came about, but today he shares the tale of Safari's User Agent string and the strategies his team...

Designboom (via The Verge) today got a hold of some photographs of early Apple computer designs from Hartmut Esslinger's new book, Design Forward. Esslinger founded Frog Design, the company that Apple partnered with in the 1980s and '90s to come up with a design strategy. Frog Design was responsible for the Apple IIc, which led to the "Snow White" design language that persisted in Apple...

Apple is now carrying the Nest Thermostat in its retail stores through the United States and Canada. The development comes as Apple has been carrying it online for several months. The Nest thermostat is priced at $249.95 in the U.S. online store and is just one of a number of products featured in Apple's App-Enabled Accessories section. The thermostat can be controlled via a free universal...

Apple has long supported VESA mounting brackets for its larger displays, including the 27" iMac, the 27" Thunderbolt and 24" and 30" Cinema Displays. With Apple's adapter bracket, the desk stand can be removed and the display can be attached to any VESA-compatible mount.However, the new, thinner 27" iMac, does not support VESA mounting according to an email from Apple obtained by MacTrast....

Former Apple employee Don Melton has shared a unique look behind the scenes of the Safari development team. Melton was the team leader on both the Safari and WebKit products that are now used by millions of users on both iOS, the Mac, and Windows.The name Safari, however, wasn't decided on until less than a month before the browser was originally launched. A number of different names were...

After releasing iOS version 6.0.2 to fix issues with Wi-Fi on the iPhone 5 and the iPad mini, Apple today seeded build 12D43 of OS X 10.8.3 Mountain Lion to developers.Though the update comes with no known issues or new features, Apple has asked developers to focus on AirPlay, AirPort, Game Center, Graphics Drivers, and Safari in their testing.This is the third beta release since the first...