MacRumors' Mac Blog: Mac Apps, News and Rumors

Apple has won approval to build a $1 billion data center in the west of Ireland, successfully fending off an environmental legal challenge brought by local residents (via Reuters). Ireland's High Court on Thursday ruled that the proposed data center in Galway county, planned by Apple since February 2015, could proceed despite locals' various environmental concerns for the area if Apple...

Microsoft has officially ended support for Office for Mac 2011 as scheduled, nearly seven years after the software suite was first released. 2011 versions of Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint will no longer receive feature or security updates as of October 10, 2017. Any form of paid or free technical support from Microsoft has also ended indefinitely. Microsoft Lync for Mac 2011 still...

Apple today announced it will be opening two so-called "Mac Labs" at the KM Music Conservatory's campuses in the Indian cities of Chennai and Mumbai. The labs will teach students how to create music using Logic Pro X. Apple also said it will fund 10 full time musical scholarships at the learning institution for students from underprivileged backgrounds. Great to be in Mumbai w/ @KMMC_Chenn ...

A fraudulent browser extension was downloaded by 37,000 Chrome users after it sneaked past Google's Web Store vetting processes, it emerged on Tuesday. The fake extension was listed on the official Web Store until today and masqueraded as popular legitimate extension AdBlock Plus, which has over 10 million users. Once installed, the fake reportedly swamps infected computers with adverts and...

After raising over $100,000 on Kickstarter earlier this year, The Iconfactory today has released an all-new, completely reimagined version of Twitterrific for Mac priced at $19.99 on the Mac App Store [Direct Link] in the United States. The Iconfactory said its goal was to deliver a minimal Twitter client, like the original Twitterrific for Mac, but with a feature set that caters to how...

Apple CEO Tim Cook will meet French president Emmanuel Macron on Monday, according to the Élysée Palace's official published agenda. Cook has been invited to the head of state's Paris residence for an afternoon meeting, but the reasons for the visit have not yet been made public. Topics up for discussion could include Apple's code-learning drive in schools, or perhaps more likely, the issue...

Eric Billingsley, director of internet services operations at Apple, is leaving the company, reports CNBC. Billingsley is responsible for running data center infrastructure and some internet services, including the operating infrastructure for iCloud services like iCloud Drive. His current responsibilities are being handed over to senior engineering director Patrick Gates, who already...

For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with CalDigit to offer MacRumors a chance to win one of the company's TS3 Thunderbolt Station 3 docks. The TS3, designed to connect to Apple's most recent Thunderbolt 3 Macs, features a sleek ribbed aluminum enclosure and adds a range of functionality to machines like the MacBook Pro with its wealth of ports. At the back, the TS3 offers two USB...

Pixelmator has been updated for Mac to include support for the new HEIF image standard in macOS High Sierra. Once users have updated to Pixelmator 3.7, they'll also be able to make full use of the new Photo app integration available in Apple's latest desktop operating system. In macOS High Sierra, it's possible to open a photo in a third-party app right from within the Photos Library using...

Parallels Desktop 13 for Mac received an update on Thursday to include full compatibility with the new Apple File System (APFS) and HEVC video standard included in macOS High Sierra. With APFS support, Parallels Desktop 13.1 can take advantage of Apple's cross-platform replacement for HFS+, bringing more security and better performance on devices with flash memory. New HEVC video support...

Racing title F1 2017, the official game of the 2017 Formula One World Championship, is available for purchase and download from the Mac App Store starting today. Published by Feral Interactive, F1 2017 was released for Mac in August, but has previously only been available from the Feral Store and Steam, with the Mac App Store taking longer to release. F1 2017 is based on the 2017 Formula...

Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced one year 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 41 includes fixes and improvements for CSS, WebRTC, Drag and Drop, Web API, JavaScript,...

Adobe today released new versions of Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements, the company's more affordable photo and video editing software aimed at casual home users who want to improve their images and videos. Both Photoshop and Premiere Elements 2018 offer a range of new tools and enhancements to existing features to streamline and improve the editing process. Photoshop Elements 2018...

Eight Apple executives this week received 125,494 shares of stock each after restricted stock units or RSUs first awarded in 2014 vested. Apple issues RSUs, which vest after a set amount of time so long as an employee stays with the company, to its executives as bonus compensation. Luca Maestri, Craig Federighi, Eddy Cue, Angela Ahrendts, Jeff Williams, Bruce Sewell, Phil Schiller, and Dan...

Eternal Storms Software today updated its popular drag and drop Mac app Yoink with several improvements, including clipboard support. Mac users can now add the contents of their clipboard to Yoink by opening the app's dropdown menu from the menu bar and clicking "Add from Clipboard." If you copy an image from a website, for example, you can essentially paste it into Yoink and it will appear...

Alongside its UltraFine 4K and 5K displays developed in partnership with Apple, LG offers an LG Screen Manager app for Mac that serves to manage various functions of the display, including handling firmware updates for the display itself, accessing windowing features such as automatic splitting of the desktop into up to four sections, and more. LG Screen Manager includes a menu item for quick...

Apple today updated its investor relations page to announce that the company will share its earnings for the fourth fiscal quarter (third calendar quarter) of 2017 on Thursday, November 2. The earnings release will provide a look at iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus sales during their first week of availability. Apple has not provided launch weekend sales for the new devices, so this will be the...

macOS High Sierra adds integrations with several third-party apps that let you do all kinds of fun things with your photos, from making photo books to putting them on t-shirts and coffee mugs. Third-party apps supplement the existing built-in tools that allow you to make prints or create books, slideshows, cards, and calendars You can use these tools directly in the Photos app without...