MacRumors' Mac Blog: Mac Apps, News and Rumors

Apple is seeking financial incentives within India to make it easier to build a new manufacturing plant within the country (via The Economic Times). The company has asked for incentives specifically from the Department of Revenue and the Department of Electronics and Information Technology in India as a way to offset the high cost of building an entirely new iPhone manufacturing unit in the...

Apple iTunes chief Eddy Cue brought in quite a bit of money this week, according to documents filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Cue cashed in 335,000 Apple shares at an average price of $111.86, netting himself $37,473,100. Cue's windfall follows the September vesting of 525,000 restricted stock units, which were worth approximately $59.6 million at the time. The ...

It's been three months since Apple finally gained approval to build its massive data center just outside of Athenry in Galway County, Ireland, and now "a small handful of locals" have been reported as working to derail Apple's data center project since the company got approval in August. The residents have filed complaints with Galway County Council, local planning body An Bord Pleanála, and...

Apple appears to have removed optical audio output support from the headphone jack on its new 13-inch MacBook Pro with function keys, suggesting it is unlikely to have made the transition in the Touch Bar equipped models either. Optical audio output is used to link Macs to home theater setups and A/V systems capable of multi-channel surround sound, by way of a mini TOSlink adapter connected...

OWC today introduced its latest product, a Thunderbolt 3 USB-C Dock designed to work with the newly announced MacBook Pro. Designed for users who are concerned about the limited number of ports on the MacBook Pro, OWC's Thunderbolt 3 Dock offers a range of different ports for connecting displays, external hard drives, and other accessories. The OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock has a total of 13 ports...

The heated debate over whether an iPad can replace a Mac as a day-to-day workhorse shows no sign of abating. One way of evading the crossfire is to plump for both, but to do that you need a bag that can conveniently accommodate the two devices for when you're on the move. Pad & Quill's Small Briefcase ($219) is one of the Minneapolis company's latest compact leather and canvas solutions for...

Apple today seeded a second version of the initial macOS Sierra 10.12.2 beta, which comes two days after the macOS Sierra 10.12.2 beta was originally seeded to developers. The build number of today's update is 16C32f, while the original 10.12.2 beta build number was 16C32e, indicating a small incremental update that does not count as a full second beta release. Because the new beta is not ...

Adobe's MAX creativity and design conference is set to kick off this morning, and during the MAX event, Adobe plans to show off several upcoming software updates and new software experiences that are coming to its product lineup later this year. All of Adobe's Creative Cloud apps are being updated with new features. Photoshop, for example, is gaining a new universal search bar with visual...

Mojang today launched "Minecraft: Education Edition" for macOS and Windows platforms, allowing educators and administrators to begin introducing the game to students and use its copious tools and in-game systems to teach lessons in science, technology, engineering, math, history, language, art, and more (via TechCrunch). The game will come with a "Classroom Mode" companion app so teachers can...

Apple today released iTunes 12.5.3, which is available for macOS Sierra and OS X El Capitan users. iTunes 12.5.3's changelog lists the same stability and performance improvements as iTunes 12.5.2, including a fix for an issue where albums may play in an unexpected order. A second fix resolves a problem that prevented lyrics from appearing while listening to Beats 1. iTunes 12.5.3 can be...

Apple has done away with the traditional startup chime on its new MacBook Pro lineup because the machines automatically power on when the lid is opened. Pingie.com was first to note the removal of the sound from Apple's new 13-inch and 15-inch laptops – both the models featuring Apple's new Touch Bar (as well as the 13-inch version without a Bar) automatically boot when opened or when...

Softorino today announced the launch of its next-generation WALTR app, introducing WALTR 2 for Mac. WALTR 2 builds on the features introduced with the original WALTR app, making it easier than ever to transfer any file from a Mac to an iOS device. With WALTR 2, you can transfer all kinds of media file types to an iPhone or iPad, even if they're not in a format that's normally compatible with...

Following the launch of the new MacBook Pro with four Thunderbolt 3 ports, LaCie has introduced its new lineup of Thunderbolt 3 storage solutions: the Bolt3 desktop drive and the enterprise-class 6big and 12big RAIDs. LaCie's new Bolt3 desktop drive with Thunderbolt 3 LaCie's Bolt3 combines dual Thunderbolt 3 ports with a pair of the latest M.2 PCIe SSDs, striped together into a 2TB volume,...

Yesterday during its Hello Again event, Apple confirmed that the Microsoft Office suite of apps will be gaining support for Touch Bar on the new MacBook Pro, and now Microsoft has detailed what that will look like for each app. The company said that with Touch Bar support on Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook, it's "continually evolving Office to take advantage of the latest and greatest...

As is traditional for Apple, the company took down its regional online stores globally yesterday in anticipation of the new 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pros. But far from simply updating the sites to showcase the new computers, on its U.K. site at least, Apple took the opportunity to hike its Mac prices across the board. As noted following yesterday's event, rather than position the new...

Shortly after Apple's October 2016 event, where the company debuted the new 2016 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, Microsoft launched a new promotion aiming to convert unsatisfied MacBook owners to either the Surface Book or Surface Pro 4. Today, we are announcing a limited-time “trade up” offer to invite more people to experience Surface. If you have a Mac but want to experience the ultimate...

Belkin today announced the launch of its Thunderbolt 3 Express Dock HD, which is designed to work with the USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports on Apple's new 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pro machines. Created to be a "complete single-cable docking solution," the Express Dock HD features 40Gb/s data transfer speeds, 85 watts of power delivery for charging, and support for a single 5K monitor or two 4K...

Though the new MacBook Pro models equipped with a Touch Bar won't be in the hands of consumers for at least two more weeks, Apple today updated many of its Mac apps with support for the feature. GarageBand, iMovie, Keynote, Numbers, Pages, and Xcode are now able to work with the Touch Bar built into new 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pro machines. In Xcode, the Touch Bar offers up...