MacRumors' Mac Blog: Mac Apps, News and Rumors

For the past several years, I have had my Apple-provided @me.com email address set up as an alias in Gmail, and enabled auto-forwarding of my iCloud emails to my Gmail account. This allows me to use Gmail as my one-stop-shop for sending and receiving emails from both my @gmail.com and @me.com addresses. However, it recently came to my attention that many of my emails sent from my @me.com...

Seagate's LaCie brand is well-known for its line of rugged, durable hard drives that are protected by an iconic orange bumper, and this spring, LaCie unveiled its latest accessory in the rugged lineup, the 4TB USB-C LaCie Rugged RAID Pro. Design If you've seen a hard drive in LaCie's rugged collection before, the Rugged RAID Pro will look immediately familiar. It features an...

In July it was discovered that Apple is planning to discontinue its physical Photo Books printing service on September 30, 2018. With Apple's first-party option disappearing, users will be left to create and buy physical books from third-party companies, and now one such company -- Mimeo Photos -- has announced the release of "identical" formats, templates, and book sizes that Apple Photo Books...

Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced over two years ago in March of 2016. Apple designed the Safari Technology Preview to test features that may be introduced into future release versions of Safari. Safari Technology Preview release 62 includes bug fixes and feature improvements for Intelligent Tracking Prevention,...

Upwork, the largest global freelancing website, today shared a list of the top 20 fastest growing skills in the U.S. freelance job market, providing a closer look at trends in the industry. Apple's design framework for iOS and tvOS apps, UIKit, and its development tool, Xcode, both made the list in the second quarter of 2018:Blockchain Google Cloud Platform Volusion Risk management Product ...

Apple has outlined which of its products are eligible for sales tax holidays in a handful of U.S. states over the coming days. The sales tax holidays run from August 3 to August 5 in Missouri, New Mexico, South Carolina, and Virginia, and from August 1 to August 5 in Wisconsin. Sales tax holidays in Alabama and Tennessee have already ended. Apple will not collect sales tax on eligible...

Logitech has announced its acquisition of Blue, the California-based maker of studio-quality microphones, in a $117 million cash deal. Blue, creator of the popular Yeti and Snowball microphone lines, will join Logitech's portfolio of other brands, which includes Jaybird, Ultimate Ears, and ASTRO gaming. In a blog post, Logitech CEO Bracken Darrell explained how the acquisition would...

Microsoft today launched a much-requested dark mode for its Outlook.com web mail service. The company teased the new mode earlier this month, suggesting it would be reminiscent of last year's Halloween theme for Outlook. The new dark mode actually adopts shades of grey to generate panel contrast, providing a more polished look as a result. You can enable it from the Quick settings menu (the...

Apple reseller B&H Photo today kicked off a new series of promos that let customers get free gift card credit at B&H Photo when they purchase one of Apple's new 2018 MacBook Pros. With the promotion, purchases of a 13-inch MacBook Pro come with a B&H Photo $50 e-gift card and purchases of a 15-inch MacBook Pro come with a $100 e-gift card. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with these...

Over the weekend, Reddit user Nucleam shared photo albums containing archives of all of the different wallpapers that Apple has offered for iOS and macOS, providing an interesting trip down memory lane. There are two separate Google Photos albums for iOS and macOS, with images dating back multiple years. The iOS album, for example, contains wallpapers from iOS 3 and beyond, along with...

The very first Apple Store opened its doors on May 19, 2001, at the Tysons Corner Center shopping mall in McLean, Virginia, near Washington D.C. Now, just over 17 years later, those doors may soon close temporarily. Apple Tysons Corner Planning documents filed with the Department of Planning and Zoning in Fairfax County, Virginia this month, viewed by MacRumors, reveal that Apple plans to...

It has been an eventful few weeks for MacBook Pro keyboards. Last month, Apple finally acknowledged that a "small percentage" of MacBook and MacBook Pro models with butterfly switch keyboards may experience issues with "sticky" or inconsistently functioning keys, and launched a worldwide service program offering free repairs of affected keyboards for up to four years. The issues are...

Apple this week has begun highlighting the impending grand openings of two new retail locations in Milan, Italy and Walnut Creek, California. Apple Piazza Liberty in Milan will see a grand opening on Thursday, July 26, and in celebration Apple has put together a collection of colorful pieces of art and photographs created by twenty Italian artists and designers. On a new webpage on...

Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced over two years ago in March of 2016. Apple designed the Safari Technology Preview to test features that may be introduced into future release versions of Safari. Safari Technology Preview release 61 includes bug fixes and feature improvements for CSS, Dark Mode, Web API, Service...

Popular Mac calendar app Fantastical 2 was today updated to version 2.5, introducing a number of important changes that Fantastical users have been asking for. The updated app includes support for sending and receiving time proposals on Exchange, iCloud, Google, and other CalDAV accounts, which means users that are sent an invite and need to offer up an alternate time can click the new option...

Microsoft today highlighted Skype 8 and recommended that customers upgrade to the new software as the company plans to retire Skype 7, aka Skype classic, later this year. Skype 8 includes free HD video and screensharing calls with up to 24 people, reaction options for messages in conversations and @mentions to get someone's attention in a group chat, a chat media gallery for viewing photos and ...

Best Buy today kicked off its latest discount event, marking down prices on MacBook Pros, Apple TVs, Beats headphones, and more for two days only. For students who don't mind purchasing last year's MacBook Pro models, Best Buy's new sale is particularly noteworthy since you can get as much as $350 off certain configurations and an extra $150 off with Student Deals. Note: MacRumors is an...

If you recently purchased a 2017 MacBook Pro prior to today's announcement of the new 2018 models, it's possible that Apple might allow you to return the machine for one of the updated 2018 MacBook Pros. There's a two-week return policy on all Apple products, so if your 2017 MacBook Pro was purchased within the last 14 calendar days, you can return it no questions asked to purchase a new 2018...