MacRumors' Mac Blog: Mac Apps, News and Rumors

Old school Apple-fan Thomas Brand has used Apple's cloud services -- iTools, then .Mac, then MobileMe, and soon iCloud -- for nearly 10 years. He says the most important part of the service was the identity that came with having an @Mac.com email address -- a way to differentiate from the @hotmail.com and @yahoo.com email accounts of the world. Brand points out that even though there were free ...

The Apple Store is a pretty laid back place, with friendly staff who will help you pick out a computer -- or, if you'd prefer, leave you alone to write an entire book on the store's computers. But just how far can you push it before the staff get fed up? New York-based comedian Mark Malkoff decided to test the limits of the Apple Store's friendliness. ...

Apple's stock price today briefly touched $400/share during standard trading hours for the first time ever, before falling back slightly to close at $398.50 today. The 52-week, and thus all-time, high is currently $400.00 exactly. The most likely cause for the 'bounce' off the $400 ceiling are sell limit orders -- semi-permanent orders to sell a certain stock at a certain price. In this...

The New York Post reports that Apple and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) have signed a deal to bring a 23,000 square-foot Apple retail store to Manhattan's historic Grand Central Terminal. The initial ten-year deal will reportedly see Apple paying $800,000 per year in rent, and potential extensions after the ten-year period would see the annual rent increase to over $1 million.Tec...

Since Lion's release, we've been collecting tips on reverting changes found in Lion back to behavior found in Snow Leopard. Now some might argue its better to get used to the stock installation, but if that's not you, here are the tips we've seen. • Natural Scroll: This change seems to have generated the most outcry. In Lion, Apple has reversed the normal scrolling direction for trackpads ...

Speech recognition firm Nuance today announced the launch of Dragon Dictate for Mac 2.5, bringing a number of new features including compatibility with the company's recently-released Dragon Remote Microphone app for iOS devices. Nuance is of course also apparently working closely with Apple on its "Assistant" function currently under development in iOS 5. Among the other key additions in...

Steve Jobs' penchant for bluntness is legendary. In 2006, Disney bought Pixar for $7.4 billion. This made Steve Jobs the Mouse's largest shareholder and gave Jobs a seat on the Disney board of directors. According to Those Guys Have All The Fun: Inside the World of ESPN, a book about ESPN (which is owned by Disney), at the first board meeting after the acquisition, the president of ESPN...

As noted by Italian site iSpazio [Google translation], Apple has quietly tweaked its standalone Apple Keyboard with Numeric Keypad for OS X Lion. One minor change is a slight adjustment to the icon displayed on the F3 key to remove the frame around the collection of windows. The F3 key had been used to activate Exposé, but with that feature now being folded into the broader Mission Control ...

Apple today released Apple Server Diagnostics 3X109, a new version of the company's software that will allow owners running OS X Lion Server components on Mid 2010 Mac Pro and Mid 2011 Mac mini server configurations to test their machines for hardware issues.Apple Server Diagnostics tests your server for hardware issues. Apple Server Diagnostics version 3X109 is compatible with Lion server on the ...

DigiTimes reports that Apple is off to an aggressive start with its new MacBook Air models, having already pushed out 400,000-500,000 units in June and continuing with strong production through at least the end of August. Sources within Apple's supply chain also indicate that Apple is shooting for total notebook shipments of 13-14 million in 2011, with the possibility of hitting 15 million units....

With the introduction of Lion, Apple moved -- or removed entirely -- numerous options and settings. For more advanced users, the old Expose & Spaces preference panel included controls to adjust what "Spaces" -- now called Desktops -- apps would appear in. For example, I had my Mail program set to display in Space 2, while iTunes would only appear in Space 4. With Expose & Spaces gone, it...

Apple's OS X Lion Up to Date program which allows qualifying customers to get a free copy of Lion is now active. Customers who purchased a Mac after June 6th can receive a free redemption code for OS X Lion from the Mac App Store. The program was activated yesterday, but there had been reports that the activation server was having issues resulting in serial numbers being initially...

It's not just counterfeit iPads and iPhones that turn up in China. There are knockoff Apple Stores as well. The anonymous writer behind the BirdAbroad blog ran into a fake Apple Retail Store -- complete with wood floors, blue t-shirts and lanyards -- in Kunming, China. It’s an Apple store! Or is it? RP and I went inside and poked around. They looked like Apple products. It looked like...

Resume is one of the main new features to OS X Lion, one taken directly from iOS: Now apps you close will reopen right where you left off, so you never have to start from scratch again. And when you install software updates, you no longer need to save your work, close your apps, and spend valuable time setting everything up again. With Resume, you can restart your Mac and return to what you...

Apple today released a pair of updates to its Apple Remote Desktop management system aimed at administrators who oversee large numbers of computers, allowing them to assist users remotely, administer their systems, and deploy software updates. Apple Remote Desktop 3.5 Admin (25.27 MB) and Apple Remote Desktop 3.5 Client (3.74 MB) improve the stability of the software and also add new...

Along with the release of OS X Lion this morning, Apple also served up version 4.1 of development suite Xcode, available for free from the Mac App Store [App Store Link]. The prior version of Xcode was offered for $4.99 on the App Store to non-developers when it was released earlier this year. Apple has traditionally included updated developers tools for free on the OS install DVD. With...

With today's release of OS X Lion, Apple has also pushed out a software update to its existing iWork suite of productivity apps, bringing support for new features found in Lion.This update adds support for Mac OS X Lion and takes advantage of the following features: - Full Screen - Resume - Auto Save - Versions This update is recommended for users of iWork 9.0 and later. For detailed...

Apple has sent this missive to Apple Resellers and Apple Retail Stores discontinuing the boxed versions of several different software titles, presumably in favor of Mac App store versions:Effective July 20, 2011, the following select boxed software products are end of life (EOL) for resellers and Apple Retail Stores: - Mac OS X Snow Leopard - Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server - iLife - iWork...