MacRumors' Mac Blog: Mac Apps, News and Rumors

For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Elevation Lab to give MacRumors readers a chance to win some MagicGrips that are designed for Apple's Magic Mouse. MagicGrips, made from a solid silicone rubber, are designed to make the Magic Mouse a lot more comfortable to work with by making it wider and giving you more to hold onto. MagicGrips cover 75 percent of the sides of the Magic Mouse,...

Western Digital's My Cloud Home is a network-attached personal cloud storage solution, designed to combine the convenience of cloud storage with the privacy and security of local storage. It's available in capacities ranging from 2TB to 16TB, to meet the needs of both families and small businesses, and with apps for the Mac, PC, iOS devices, and a cloud website, content can be accessed from...

Apple's Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad is now estimated to ship in 6-7 weeks in the United States and several other countries, fueling speculation that a refreshed model could be released alongside the iMac Pro in December. The extended wireless keyboard was just released alongside WWDC 2017 in June, so any possible update could be relatively minor. The eject key could be replaced...

Logitech's MX Sound 2.0 Bluetooth speakers are the audio offering in its latest desktop accessory range, which includes the MX ERGO mouse and CRAFT keyboard. Like most stereo speakers around the $99 price point, they're positioned as a decent upgrade over typically lifeless-sounding integrated monitor and laptop speakers. The company says it focused on design quality and audio performance...

Apple has pledged to donate $1 million to fire relief efforts in Northern California, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. In addition to donating $1 million, Apple will also match employee donations two-for-one. Image via the SF Chronicle Tim Cook on Tuesday said Apple would donate to relief efforts, but at the time, he did not specify a dollar amount. Our thoughts are with our Bay ...

Apple employees Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre this week broke ground on The Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation, a new academy named after the two men opening at the University of Southern California in 2019 (via USC News). The academy will focus on four areas of study: art and design; engineering and computer science; business and venture...

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,...