MacRumors' Mac Blog: Mac Apps, News and Rumors

For this week’s giveaway, we’ve teamed up with G-Technology to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win either a 1TB G-Drive Slim USB-C SSD or a 1TB G-Drive Mobile USB-C hard drive. The G-Drive Slim USB-C SSD is an ideal accessory to use with either the MacBook or the new MacBook Pro, both of which are equipped with USB-C ports. Available in 500GB or 1TB capacities for $229.95 or $379.95,...

Lenovo recently announced a pair of docks in its "ThinkPad" accessory line, including one equipped with Thunderbolt 3 and one with USB-C (via Anandtech). The ThinkPad Thunderbolt 3 dock includes a Thunderbolt 3 port, two DisplayPort options, HDMI, VGA, Gigabit Ethernet, a headphone jack, and five USB-A 3.0 ports, with one that is always powered. Both images show the ThinkPad Thunderbolt 3 dock ...

Cross-platform video transcoder Handbrake reached a milestone over the holiday break with the release of version 1.0.0 of the app after over 13 years in beta. Despite the lengthy beta-test format and the demise of the built-in DVD drive in Apple's Mac line-up, the free open source transcoder has remained the go-to application for converting video files for playback on iOS devices and Apple...

As 2016 winds down, Matthew Roberts has uploaded one last update on Apple Campus 2 for the year, providing fans with the usual coverage on progress made to the central spaceship building and the land surrounding it. The video, representing the work on Apple Campus 2 for December 2016, was taken yesterday on Christmas. Solar panel installation is believed to be 65 percent complete now, up from...

The Spotify Mac app was recently updated with support for the Touch Bar on the new MacBook Pro. Now, when Spotify is open users will be able to search, shuffle and repeat tracks, use traditional play/pause/skip controls, and adjust the app's volume. When in the background, the Touch Bar will update with a Spotify playback scrubbing tool as well as play and pause buttons similar to iTunes....

We're doing a series of holiday giveaways ahead of Christmas, and for today's giveaway, we've teamed up with Flexibits to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win a copy of Fantastical 2 for Mac. Fantastical is one of the most popular calendar apps in the Mac App Store, with a clean, easy-to-use layout and the ability to use natural language like "lunch with Eric at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday" to...

After first testing out a new update to the Photos web app on the iCloud beta website earlier this month, Apple has now rolled out the update to all users (via Mac Generation). The overhaul to the app on iCloud.com introduces a macOS-like Photos experience with a sidebar that can be toggled on and off, and a scrollable thumbnail view of every photo in an album at the bottom of the site when...

Uber has removed its fleet of self-driving cars from San Francisco streets on Wednesday after the California Department of Motor Vehicles revoked its vehicle registrations (via Reuters). Earlier this week, the DMV ordered Uber to shut down its self-driving car test program and comply with regulations requiring a permit to test the autonomous vehicles on public roads. The order came after an...

Apple has announced its Northshore retail store in Peabody, Massachusetts, an outer suburb of Boston, will be relocating to MarketStreet, an open-air shopping and entertainment center in nearby Lynnfield, Massachusetts. The new location will be open starting Saturday, January 28, which is presumably around the time when Apple Northshore will permanently close. No exact time was specified, but...

Finance and budgeting software Quicken for Mac was updated to version 4.4 this week, adding a handful of useful new features ranging from auto backup to improvements to summary reports. With Auto-Backup, Quicken will back up five files at a time to a user-set location whenever someone logs out of the app, preventing data from being accidentally lost. A new Transaction Sidebar indicator has...

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming macOS Sierra 10.12.3 update to public beta testers, one week after seeding the first public beta and one day after seeding the second 10.12.3 beta to developers. Beta testers who have signed up for Apple's beta testing program will receive the 10.12.3 macOS Sierra beta through the Software Update mechanism in the Mac App Store. Those who...

Apple today released a new update for Safari Technology Preview, the experimental browser Apple first introduced 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 20 includes bug fixes and updates for Visual Viewport, Touch Bar, JavaScript, Web API, Security, CSS,...

The first U.S. customers who placed orders for an UltraFine 5K Display from LG will begin receiving their shipments over the next few days, with Apple starting to send out pre-shipment notifications this afternoon. MacRumors reader Jesse, who placed an order for an UltraFine 5K Display order when orders were briefly accepted in late November, has got a notice that his order will ship out soon...

Duet Display, the app that turns an iPad into a second display for a Mac, was today updated with a handy new feature that gives you iPad Touch Bar access, even when you don't have a Mac with a Touch Bar. The Duet Display app is able to tap into the MacBook Pro's Touch Bar software, displaying a virtual Touch Bar on your iPad's screen. The iPad Touch Bar mirrors the MacBook Pro's Touch Bar on a ...

Apple has reportedly offered a three-digit million amount to acquire an underground bunker in Stuttgart that it wanted to convert into a retail outlet similar to its iconic New York 5th Avenue Store. The city of Stuttgart is still without an Apple Store, with the nearest one in Sindelfingen about 12 miles away. Apple has reportedly been searching for a suitable retail home in the city for some ...

Apple is in talks with India to explore the possibility of making products locally, according to The Wall Street Journal (via Reuters). The negotiations come as Prime Minister Narendra Modi tries to boost his 'Make in India' initiative, with Apple eager to make deeper inroads into the world's second largest mobile market. In June, Modi ordered his government to exempt foreign retailers...

Former smartphone company BlackBerry opened a new autonomous driving research center on Monday in Ottawa, Canada, according to Reuters. BlackBerry is betting its future on the self-driving car business following its 2010 acquisition of QNX, a company which develops software for multiple in-car infotainment systems and whose software became the foundation of the BlackBerry 10 mobile operating...

For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with iSkelter to offer MacRumors readers a chance to win one of iSkelter's Slate 2.0 Lap Desks or Magic Trackpad 2 Stations. For those unfamiliar with iSkelter, the company makes a range of handmade high-quality wooden lap desks and desk accessories. The Slate 2.0, designed for Apple's line of MacBooks, is a lap desk with a built in MacBook holder and...