MacRumors' Mac Blog: Mac Apps, News and Rumors

The Moscow News reports (via 9to5Mac) that Apple is apparently making preparations to begin direct sales of its products in Russia, with retail stores perhaps set to follow in the future.Apple has registered a company Apple Rus and assigned Vitaly Morozko, the corporation’s local legal advisor, as its director general, Kommersant reported. In spring 2011, when Apple top managers travelled to ...

Apple has seeded a new beta of OS X 10.8.1 to developers, exactly a week after the first build came out, according to 9to5Mac. The release has a build number of 12B17 and Apple reports no known issues, but asks developers to focus on a wide variety of areas for their testing. The delta update -- where only items that have changed are downloaded -- weighs in at 43.27MB. According to 9to5Mac...

Apple has released a new beta build of OS X Lion 10.7.5 to developers. The new beta has a build number of 11G36. Apple reports that it has no issues, but asks developers to examine graphics performance and quality, as well as image and media importing, editing or viewing. A previous build of 10.7.5 was released on July...

EA plans to release the next version of SimCity -- the classic city-building game -- on the Mac simultaneously with the PC release this February. EA will also be delivering Origin, its digital download service, at the same time. The game will be available for purchase and download via the service.Mac users will be able to connect to the new multiplayer component in SimCity and appears to be...

Other World Computing has released a 480GB aftermarket SSD upgrade for the Retina MacBook Pro. However, while OWC's upgrades for the MacBook Air are very price-competitive with the storage upgrades available at the Apple Online Store, the 480GB Aura Pro 6G is less clear-cut.In its blog post announcing the release, OWC notes that "when introduced this past June, the MacBook Pro with Retina...

Blizzard Entertainment, the company behind Warcraft, Starcraft and Diablo, today informed customers that their internal security network had been breached.The company doesn't believe that financial information has been compromised but other data including email addresses for all non-China players and scrambled passwords were taken. The company believes it will be extraordinarily difficult for...

Pixelmator 2.1 has arrived on the Mac App Store, bringing support for the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display, iCloud syncing and backup, and more. Pixelmator is a highly rated image editor that was one of the early successes on the Mac App Store. The app generated more than $1 million in revenue in the first 20 days of the Mac App Store's existence. The Pixelmator Team today released...

iFixit today announced the release of 15 new repair guides for the Retina MacBook Pro, giving users instructions on how to perform their own repair and replacement procedures for a number of components. But as iFixit notes, Apple's design direction emphasizing space and weight savings has made it difficult, if not simply infeasible, for several components to be replaced on an individual basis.For...

In the wake of recent stories focusing on iCloud's Find My Mac/iPhone feature -- one positive and one negative -- it's worth noting that there are a number of different services to help locate or erase a lost Mac.TUAW profiles Undercover 5, a $49 service that uses GPS, a new keylogging feature in version 5, the FaceTime camera and a clever "Plan B" to fool technologically inept criminals:After...

Evernote has added the ability to switch between multiple Evernote accounts to the Mac version of the popular note taking and organization app. The update gives power users with more than one account, or those with multiple Evernote users sharing one computer, a simple but useful feature.The update also includes a number of more minor additions:A slew of UI tweaks and keyboard shortcuts have...

Apple may have just released OS X Mountain Lion, moving more than three million units in four days, but that doesn't mean it's done updating the prior version, OS X Lion 10.7. As noted by 9to5Mac, Apple has seeded new versions of OS X Lion 10.7.5 in both server and standard versions to developers. The betas have a build number of 11G30. Apple also released a new beta of the iCloud Control...

Last December, Apple opened a massive new retail store in Manhattan's historic Grand Central Terminal, adding a high-profile presence to the busy commuting, tourist, and shopping hub. Apple's lease agreement with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) was quickly questioned by government officials, who were concerned that Apple had received favorable treatment during the negotiations...

As part of the streamlining of Safari 6, Apple removed a number of items from the main toolbar including the dedicated Google search box and the button that allowed users to easily subscribe to RSS feeds right from the toolbar.The lack of a Google Search box doesn't affect much as users can now search by typing within the address box, much like in Google Chrome. The lack of an RSS button is a...

Autodesk has issued a support document outlining which of its products do not work with the just-released OS X Mountain Lion:The following products are currently NOT supported on the Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) operating system:- AutoCAD 2013 for Mac- AutoCAD 2012 for Mac- AutoCAD LT 2013 for Mac- AutoCAD LT 2012 for MacIf any of these products are installed on Mountain Lion,...

Earlier this week, we reported that the ZEVO solution for bringing the ZFS file system to the Mac had been acquired by storage appliance company GreenBytes. With ZEVO having been pulled from sale with the transition, the future of ZFS on the Mac has been in question, although GreenBytes indicated at the time that it was still committed to the project. GreenBytes has now announced that it will ...

Autodesk's official release of Inventor Fusion has arrived on the Mac App Store, after several months as a technology preview. Inventor Fusion is software that enables advanced 3D mechanical design. The software is free and "makes it easy to open and edit 3D models from almost any source and incorporate them into your design, enabling rapid design changes without limitations."Imagine the new...

Macworld points out that with the launch of OS X Mountain Lion today, Apple has seemingly removed OS X Lion from the Mac App Store. However, users can re-download it -- and then create a Recovery USB Key -- if they have already purchased it.Folks who already bought Lion can in fact re-download it, if they hold down Option when clicking on the Purchased tab. That secret shortcut makes Lion...

Adobe and Avid have reported only minor issues with their applications on Mountain Lion, in a pair of posts on their respective websites.The main issue with Avid's software is related to the Gatekeeper security feature:Avid is in the process of preparing code-signed versions of our applications and plug-ins that are compatible with Mountain Lion. We realize that users will temporarily wish to...