MacRumors' Mac Blog: Mac Apps, News and Rumors

Apple appears to have quietly discontinued the 17" MacBook Pro today amid the flurry of updates and announcements at WWDC today. Apple's newly updated MacBook Pro product page mentions the new Retina Display-equipped 15" Pro, as well as the new 13" and 15" Pro's, but is silent on the 17". The 17" PowerBook G4 was first released in January of 2003 and has received a number of updates over the...

Apple's announcement to move their Macs from PowerPC to Intel processors in 2005 was a huge surprise at the time. Serious reports about the plan hit the web only two days before the official announcement at WWDC 2005. The immediate reaction on MacRumors included a 2936 comment thread with some very strong reactions to the switch-up. Now, a post by the wife of a former Apple employee at...

The keynote Video is available With Apple's WWDC 2012 Keynote kicking off on Monday, some users are interested in avoiding all of the announcements and waiting until Apple posts the recorded video of the event so as to experience it without already knowing the outcome. For those individuals, we've posted this news story, which will be updated with the link to the presentation once it...

Earlier today, a Chinese forum post on Weiphone claimed to have the specs for the new 13" MacBook Pro revision. Disappointingly, the changes were minor with no evidence of a new design or the use of any high resolution Retina display. The original poster has since edited his post with additional claims for the 15" MacBook Pro update. The specs listed include: New Macbook Pro 15 inch: i7...

Apple today released MainStage 2.2.2 [Mac App Store], an update to the company's software for bringing virtual instruments and effects to live performances. According to the full release notes, the update addresses 14 different issues, with the company highlighting the following:The MainStage 2.2.2 update addresses overall stability and performance issues including:• Addresses a stability...

Drobo says it will soon have Thunderbolt-enabled data storage products, as well as adding support for solid state drives. The setup, while extremely pricey, would allow data to run 20 times faster than with USB 2.0 alone. Drobo CEO Tom Buiocchi wrote in a blog post that "customers have been very clear to us about their desire for Drobos with Thunderbolt support". I was brought up on the east...

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the latest installment in the massively popular Counter-Strike series, will be arriving on the Mac on August 21. The game will launch the same day across all four supported platforms -- Mac, PC, Xbox 360, and PS3 -- according to a tweet from Polygon.The most significant feature for Mac users will be full cross-platform multiplayer between gamers on both the...

Fantastical, an OS X natural language calendar assistant, has been updated to version 1.3 today. The new version includes support for iCal and iOS reminders. MacStories describes the new feature:Fantastical can create, edit, and delete reminders with natural language recognition. In testing the app, I told Fantastical to “remind me to take out the trash”, and the app intelligently...

Apple has released a minor bug fix update to its Aperture photo editing and management software.What's New in Aperture 3.2.4- Improves stability on Mac OS X Snow Leopard.- Addresses an issue that could prevent the Viewer from updating correctly after editing a photo using an external editor.The app weighs in at 635.54MB and is available through Software Update, Apple's software update website,...

Accessory maker Moshi has released a new ultra-thin plastic shell protective case for the 11" and 13" MacBook Air models. This type of plastic case tends to be especially popular among students, protecting their machines from bumps and scratches. Moshi claims its case offers better heat dissipation than competing cases because it doesn't block the rear heating vent.Many MacBook Air cases...

Blizzard Entertainment said this week that it sold more than 3.5 million copies of Diablo III on launch day, setting the record for fastest-selling PC game. The company also sold 1.2 million copies of the game to subscribers of the World of Warcraft Annual Pass, meaning 4.7 million copies of the game were in the hands of gamers on day one.There were a number of server slowdowns and issues for...

Hard drive maker Seagate has announced it will purchase data storage device maker LaCie for roughly $186 million. The company plans to buy the controlling stake owned by Philippe Spruch, Lacie's chairman and CEO, followed by a cash-offer for the rest of the outstanding shares, reports Forbes. Spruch is expected to join Seagate as the head of the company's consumer storage products group. "The...

Apple today released Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 3.13, bringing RAW image support to Aperture and iPhoto for a number of new cameras. This update adds RAW image compatibility for the following cameras to Aperture 3 and iPhoto '11: - Canon EOS-1D X - Nikon D800E - Nikon D3200 - Olympus OM-D E-M5 - Panasonic LUMIX DMC-GF5 - Sony Alpha SLT-A57Full details on RAW support are...

As noted by ifoAppleStore, Apple is continuing its trickle of retail store openings this week with a new location opening on Friday, May 25 in Paris. The new Les Quatre Temps store will be Apple's sixth in the Paris metropolitan area. The huge store will be located on Level 1 adjacent to the Gap store. The five-level mall is located in the La Défense district of Paris, along the north...

Binary Nights has dropped the price of its file-transfer app ForkLift to $0.99, down from $29.99, for a limited time.ForkLift is a well-reviewed file management app that offers FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, Amazon S3, iDisk, SMB, AFP, and NIS support, as well as a dual-pane, tabbed file management window -- it works as a Finder replacement for power users as well.ForkLift is a robust and elegant file...

As highlighted by TidBITS (via Macworld), Apple has informed the last holdout users still on the company's MobileMe service that they will be able to continue using their Me.com even after MobileMe's June 30 discontinuation, even if they do not fully convert to iCloud. The option, which is detailed on Apple's MobileMe transition guide, will be of particular benefit to those users whose devices...

The casting of Ashton Kutcher in the role of Steve Jobs in an upcoming independent film focusing on the Apple co-founder's life has certainly generated a significant amount of attention for the project, despite the fact that the film is a completely separate effort from the high-profile planned Sony Pictures film to be based on Walter Isaacson's authorized biography of Jobs. With filming on...

Spotify has updated its Mac app to version 0.8.3, bringing Pandora-like playlist-based radio stations to the music service. Users can start a new radio channel from any playlist or album in order to listen to similar songs.Among other new features, users can now get HTML embed codes to easily share Spotify songs on websites, as well as new sharing links to post songs directly to Facebook,...