MacRumors' Mac Blog: Mac Apps, News and Rumors

Houston NBC affiliate KPRC reports that five businesses along Westheimer Road in Houston were hit by random gunfire early Monday morning, with Apple's new Highland Village retail store being one of the targets.The Houston Police Department confirms it is investigating five random shootings at business in southwest Houston. Between 4:40 and 5:40 a.m. Monday, several windows were shot out. The...

ifoAppleStore reports that Apple is planning to open a new retail store in the Cornwall Centre shopping mall in Regina, Saskatchewan. The location is a notable one for being the first in the vast province in the heart of Canada, with no other Apple retail stores located within a 300-mile radius. Cornwall Centre is located in city center and has 90 retailers in an enclosed mall. City planning...

A pair of filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reveal that Apple executive Scott Fortsall and board member Mickey Drexler each sold off tens of thousands of shares of Apple stock on Friday, netting millions of dollars each. Forstall, who serves as senior vice president of iOS Software and has been a fixture in Apple's keynote presentations and media events, sold off 64,151...

Apple closed a number of U.S. retail stores last week, and is closing another half dozen more this week for undisclosed renovations. All of the stores closing are street-level locations and the most likely reason is to retrofit the stores with Apple's new security grate system. Apple closed a number of other stores last fall for the same reason. Security grating barely visible at Apple's 4th ...

Progress continues on the independent film "Jobs", which will see Ashton Kutcher play the role of the Apple co-founder and CEO. According to Variety, actor Josh Gad is in talks to portray Steve Wozniak in the film, which will focus on the early days of Apple.Written by Matt Whiteley, pic chronicles Steve Jobs from wayward hippie to co-founder of Apple, where he became one of the most revered...

The critically acclaimed Deus Ex: Human Revolution has finally arrived on the Mac, after being promised in September of last year. Unlike some games released for the Mac recently, Human Revolution was just released for PC and consoles last summer. Some game titles new to the Mac were originally released as many as 6 years ago. When former SWAT commander Adam Jensen is forced to undergo...

Earlier this week, we noted that Microsoft had pulled its Office for Mac 2011 Service Pack 2 from Microsoft AutoUpdate after users reported issues with Outlook database corruption. While the issues could be fixed and the update remained available for those looking to manually rebuild their databases and install the software, Microsoft opted to remove SP2 from AutoUpdate in order to protect those ...

The next version of iPhoto will be redesigned to be more like the iOS version of iPhoto, according to Belgian website Apple Weetjes [Google Translate]. The report includes a couple of details about potential new features. The new Mac version of iPhoto is said to gain the excellent iPhoto Journals feature and a redesigned photo retouching system, both inspired by the iOS version of iPhoto. The...

Last week, we noted that Apple had begun sending emails to at least some current MobileMe users offering them free copies of Mac OS X Snow Leopard in order to assist them with ultimately upgrading to OS X Lion in advance of MobileMe's discontinuation at the end of June. Lion is required for full compatibility with iCloud, Apple's free service that replaces many of MobileMe's features....

Following last week's retail store opening in Rome, Italy, Apple has announced another international grand opening this week with the debut of the Gran Plaza 2 store in Madrid, Spain. Centro Comercial Gran Plaza 2 under construction Rather than the traditional Saturday grand opening, the Gran Plaza 2 store will open to the public at 10:00 AM on Friday, April 27 to coincide with the opening...

Apple is continuing its roughly biweekly release cycle for developer builds of OS X 10.7.4, pushing out Build 11E52 for testing yesterday. As with the last several builds, Apple lists no known issues. The company is also asking developers to focus their testing on Graphics, iCal, Mail, Printing, and Time Machine. Work on OS X 10.7.4 continues as Apple is also pushing forward on OS X 10.8 ...

Following the release of Office for Mac 2011 Service Pack 2 earlier this month, a number of users began reporting issues with corruption of Microsoft Outlook databases. In response, Microsoft early last week acknowledged the issue, providing a workaround for those who had yet to update their Office installations and a fix for those who had already updated and were experiencing problems with...

Ahead of its May 15th launch date, Blizzard is >opening its Diablo III beta test to all comers as a stress test on the game's servers. The free open beta weekend runs from now through Monday morning. We're pleased to announce the Diablo III open beta weekend, which offers open access to all players with a valid Battle.net account! Beginning this Friday everyone is invited to log in and help us ...

Quake 4, a game which originally shipped on the Mac in 2006, is now available on the Mac App Store for $19.99. Earth is under siege by the Strogg, a barbaric alien race moving through the universe consuming, recycling and annihilating any civilization in their path. In a desperate attempt to survive, an armada of Earth’s finest warriors is sent to take the battle to the Strogg home planet.More...

An Apple lawyer has said it wants a trial to defend itself in an antitrust lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice over the pricing of e-books. Apple's attorney said the company "would like the case to be decided on the merits". Apple Inc wants to go to trial to defend itself against U.S. government allegations that it conspired with publishers to raise prices of electronic books, a...

MacRumors has received a number of reports today from users who have been unable to access their iCloud mail accounts, and a growing thread in Apple's discussion forums is documenting the growing complaints. According to user reports, iCloud mail went down around 9:30 AM Eastern Time this morning, and it remains out some seven hours later. Apple updated its iCloud System Status page at 10:08...

The first half of each year is a slow time for Apple retail store openings, but the company does continue to schedule sporadic additions to its network of stores as new locations come online. For its latest addition, Apple will be holding a grand opening for its second store in Rome, Italy this Saturday, April 21 at 10:00 AM. The new Porta di Roma store is located in the shopping center of the...

AllThingsD reports that Zane Rowe, executive VP and Chief Financial Officer for United Continental -- the company behind the merged United and Continental airlines -- has joined Apple as one of the vice presidents of sales at Apple. “We are thrilled that Zane Rowe will be joining us as one of our vice presidents of sales,” Apple spokesman Steve Dowling told AllThingsD. “He built a great...