Apple Announces OS X 'Mavericks'

At today's WWDC keynote event, Apple announced the next version of its Mac operating system, dubbed "Mavericks" after a surfing area north of Half Moon Bay in California. Mavericks will feature many new Finder features including tabs, full-screen capability, tagging, and independent handling of multiple displays. 

Tagging items allows users to categorize and search for files more easily. With multiple displays, Finder will display a menu bar in each to allow easier control of all apps. Mission Control has also been modified to allow easy transfer of apps between displays, and Mavericks can display apps through a connected Apple TV. 

A new feature called Timer Coalescing will reduce CPU activity by smoothing out active processes and idle time while another new feature, Compressed Memory, will compress inactive memory to make free space available to running apps. 

Safari gets a revised Top Sites page and a sidebar with direct bookmark and Reading List access. Also visible in the sidebar are links shared by friends through social networks. The browser's memory and energy usage has also been improved in Mavericks. 

Keychain moves to iCloud in Mavericks to enable cross-device synchronization of passwords for use within Safari and other apps. Keychain will be able to suggest strong passwords and will remember credit card information to make online shopping easier. 

Notifications also get an overhaul with the ability to respond to iMessages or even decline Facetime calls right from the notification banner. After waking from sleep, notification banners for alerts received during sleep will appear on the lock screen. 

A Maps app will come to the Mac in Mavericks, offering search capabilities, Flyover views, turn-by-turn directions and the ability to send directions directly to an iOS device. 

iBooks is coming to the Mac as well, with direct access to content available in the iTunes Store. Reading features include bookmarks, a night mode, and access to embedded multimedia elements. 

Registered developers can preview Mavericks starting today and the final public release of the OS is planned for the fall.

Source: Mac Rumours

Apple Announces New MacBook Airs with Haswell Processors and 'All-Day' Battery Life

At today's WWDC keynote in San Francisco, California, Apple announced new 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Airs, which have been designed with battery life in mind. As expected, the new Airs use Haswell processors that offer enhanced performance and significantly improved battery life, but feature no cosmetic changes. 

With the new Haswell processors, The 11" MacBook Air will now have nine hours of battery life while the 13" MacBook Air will have a stunning 12 hours of battery life.

In addition to Haswell processors, the new MacBooks feature 802.11ac compatibility, with support for the "Gigabit WiFi" 802.11ac specification. Gigabit WiFi offers speeds up to three times as fast as existing 802.11n wireless networks. 

The 11" MacBook Air starts at $999 with a 128GB hard drive and the 13" MacBook Air with a 128GB hard drive starts at $1099. Apple's MacBook Airs are available today from Apple's Online Store and at retail locations.

Source: Mac Rumours

Apple Unveils iOS 7 with Major Design Overhaul, Multitasking and Control Center

At today's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, Apple unveiled the latest iteration of its mobile operating system. As expected, iOS 7 features a major design overhaul that removes many of the skeuomorphic elements found in previous versions of iOS, instead favoring a clean and gloss-less "flat" look. 

"It's the biggest change to iOS since the introduction of the iPhone," said Tim Cook. "It has a whole new structure that is coherent and that is applied across the entire system," said Jony Ive in a video showing off the new operating system. "We've considered the tiniest details like refining the typography to much larger ones like redesigning all the icons..."

Read the full story here. Source: Mac Rumours

Apple Tease with New Mac Pro Coming

Today, Apple Inc gave us details of their new Mac Pro coming later this year. The radical new redesign sees many new features including a cylindrical form-factor, next gen Xeon processors, memory with 60GBps bandwidth and all PCIe flash based storage. In addition to these new performance winners, we also get some little design touches, like the built in handle and a back panel that lights up "tron style" to show us the ports. No pricing yet, with later this year not coming soon enough. Full details here.

Wave-Themed OS X Banner Goes Up at Moscone West for WWDC 2013

9to5Mac has posted a new photograph showing a wave-themed banner with an X in the middle, similar to the iOS 7 banner that was revealed earlier today. The spartan and minimalistic banners are significant change from the style used in previous years, particularly the OS X banner below.

The X appears to use the Helvetica Neue Ultra Light font, an extremely thin variant of Helvetica and the same font as the iOS 7 banner.

Source: Mac Rumours 

Apple Planning 'Something Really Different' for New Mac Pro

The new Mac Pro model, expected later this year, is "something really different" according to a video professional who says he spoke with the Mac Pro product manager.

Writing on the RedUser.net forum, Andrew Baird says he spoke to Mac Pro project manager Douglas Brooks on the phone after emailing CEO Tim Cook with his concerns about the lack of a new professional tower from Apple over the past few years.

Baird told MacRumors that the call didn't include any specific details about when the new machine would be released, nor its specifications -- however, he was assured several times that the new Mac Pro would be worth the wait. Brooks told him that the machine would be released later this year.

Somewhat corroborating Baird's phone call, Lou Borella -- administrator of the 'We Want a New Macpro' Facebook group -- wrote on the page that he heard the new professional Mac would be "heavily reliant on Thunderbolt" with "no internal expandability", and would have support for dual-GPU's and no FireWire or optical drive.

In mid-2012, after a minor update to the Mac Pro was announced at WWDC, Tim Cook confirmed to a fan that new Mac Pros were coming in 2013, which was later reiterated by an Apple spokesman. It has also been rumored that the new Mac Pro would be the first Apple computer in years to be 'Made in the USA'

Source: Mac Rumours

Pricing Leak Suggests MacBook Air Release at WWDC, Retina MacBook Pro Update Shipping Later?

 

 9to5Mac has received information from a source that suggests the MacBook Air updates that are expected at WWDC will ship soon after the keynote, perhaps with updated AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule wireless base stations that support a new, faster wireless standard.

These leaks line up with a report from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo who said in April that the MacBook Air update expected at WWDC would ship very soon after the event, while the Retina MacBook Pro would ship later due to production bottlenecks on the advanced displays.

The site also says it received pricing for three new accessories that could be new AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule models. If accurate, these would likely support the new 802.11ac-wireless standard.

As we wrote in our WWDC rumor roundup earlier today, the notebook updates are likely to be the hardware highlight of WWDC, with new MacBook Air and Retina MacBook Pro models announced.

Expected upgrades include a shift to Haswell processors, a possible slimmer design for the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, a new full HD (2.0-megapixel) FaceTime camera on the Retina models, and a dual-microphone system on the MacBook Air. 

Source: Mac Rumours

Apple Releases OS X 10.8.4 with Safari 6.0.5, iMessage Bug Fix

After a beta period spanning several weeks, Apple today released the final version of OS X 10.8.4. The update, which can be accessed via the Mac App Store, includes several notable bug fixes including a fix for an issue that caused iMessages to display out of order along with Microsoft Exchange and Calendar compatibility improvements. 

 - Compatibility improvements when connecting to certain enterprise Wi-Fi networks 

- Microsoft Exchange compatibility improvements in Calendar 

- A fix for an issue that prevented FaceTime calls to non-U.S. phone numbers 

- A fix for an issue that may prevent scheduled sleep after using Boot Camp 

- Improves VoiceOver compatibility with text in PDF documents 

- Includes Safari 6.0.5, which improves stability for some websites with chat features and games 

- A fix for an issue that may cause iMessages to display out of order in Messages 

- Resolves an issue in which Calendars Birthdays may appear incorrectly in certain time zones 

- A fix for an issue that may prevent the desktop background picture from being preserved after restart 

- A fix for an issue that may prevent documents from being saved to a server using SMB 

- Addresses an issue that may prevent certain files from opening after copied to a volume named “Home" 

- A fix for an issue that may prevent changes to files made over NFS from displaying 

- Resolves an issue saving files to an Xsan volume from certain applications 

- Improves Active Directory log-in performance, especially for cached accounts or when using a .local domain 

- Improves OpenDirectory data replication 

- Improves 802.1X compatibility with ActiveDirectory networks 

- Improves compatibility when using mobile accounts

The update also includes Safari 6.0.5, which improves stability for websites with chat features and games. 

After eight different beta builds, Apple closed its 10.8.4 Beta Testing Program last Friday. During the beta, Apple had asked users to focus on Wi-Fi, Graphics Drivers, and Safari. The public version of OS X 10.8.4 is the same 12E55 build that was seeded to developers on May 24. 

- OS X Mountain Lion Update v10.8.3 (342.33 MB) 
- OS X Mountain Lion Update v10.8.3 (Combo) (809.98 MB) 

Alongside OS X 10.8.4, Apple has also released security updates for OS X Lion and Snow Leopard: 

- Security Update 2013-002 (Lion) (57.69 MB) 
- Security Update 2013-002 Server (Lion) (105.61 MB) 

- Security Update 2013-002 (Snow Leopard) (329.85 MB) 
- Security Update 2013-002 Server (Snow Leopard) (404.83 MB)

Source: Mac Rumours

Apple: We wanted a 'level playing field' for publishers

NEW YORK -- Apple argued that it had fought for equality among publishers big and small as it provided a rare glimpse into its negotiating tactics during the second day of the government's e-book price-fixing trial.

Kevin Saul, one of the key attorneys tasked with making deals for Apple's music, TV, books, and similar businesses, faced more grilling on Tuesday from U.S. Department of Justice attorney Mark Ryan over whether Apple knew and cared about the pricing of its competitors -- a key factor in the case, which accuses Apple of conspiring to control e-book pricing.

"We wanted to treat everybody on a level playing field such that big publishers would be treated the same as small publishers," Saul argued. "It was all about Apple and our ability to launch a bookstore that would be the best on the planet."

During the round of questioning in which he repeatedly answered, "I don't know" or "I don't recall," Saul portrayed Apple as "indifferent" to pricing deals publishers reached with other retailers. He also testified that negotiations with publishers were "difficult" and "challenging" and that many initially rejected some of Apple's "must-have" provisions, including a so-called "most-favored nation" clause that would allow Apple to meet the lower pricing of e-books by any other retailer...

Read the full story here. Source: CNET

Apple Launches WWDC 2013 iOS App With Session Video Integration

One week ahead of the start of its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, Apple today launched a new WWDC iOS app to help attendees stay on top of the latest news and events going on at the conference. 

New this year is video integration, with all Registered Apple Developers able to watch session videos from the conference as they are posted daily. Apple has been posting session videos increasingly quickly after WWDC, and for the first time the company will this year be making videos available during the conference.

 Make the most of the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference with the WWDC app. Even if you can’t join us in San Francisco, you can still follow along each day — session videos are just a tap away for all Registered Apple Developers. 

- Browse times, locations, and descriptions for sessions, labs, and special events 

- Mark schedule items as favorites with a simple double-tap 

- Watch session videos, available daily 

- Start watching on one iOS device, and pick up where you left off on another 

- Keep up with the latest news, get important notifications, and see daily snapshots 

- View maps to find your way around Moscone West 

- Provide feedback on session content and speakers within the session details view 

- Add your attendee information to Passbook for speedier on-site registration

WWDC 2013 kicks off with Apple's traditional keynote at 10:00 AM Pacific Time next Monday, June 10. Apple's WWDC app is available free of charge from the App Store. 

Source: Mac Rumours

Study shows Android users spend larger percentage of time browsing than their iOS counterparts

Are you reading this on your smartphone? If so, you’ve got about 14 minutes to finish up.

A new study by Simmons Connect finds that smartphone users spend about 14 minutes a day looking at websites. They also compared Android to iOS users, and found some interesting statistics which may cast doubt on previous claims of iOS usage over Android. Interestingly enough, this all comes to light the day after Tim Cook noted (again) that iOS users spend more time visiting websites than their Android counterpart.

Android users spend about 49 minutes on their mobile device daily, whereas iOS users spend a whopping 75 minutes a day squinting at their screens. That averages out to about an hour, which is a good median number for comparison. We’ll keep in mind, though, that percentage of use versus overall time will have an integral part of the discussion...

Read the full story here. Source: Android Authority

Apple Slashes Prices on Refurbished iPad Mini and iPad 4 Models

iPad mini 

- 16 GB Wi-Fi: $279, down from $299 previously and $329 brand-new 
- 32 GB Wi-Fi: $359, down from $389 previously and $429 brand-new 
- 64 GB Wi-Fi: $439, down from $489 previously and $529 brand-new 

- 16 GB Wi-Fi + Cellular: $389, down from $429 previously and $459 brand-new 
- 32 GB Wi-Fi + Cellular: $469, down from $519 previously and $559 brand-new 
- 64 GB Wi-Fi + Cellular: $549, down from $619 previously and $659 brand-new 

Fourth-generation iPad 

- 16 GB Wi-Fi: $419, down from $449 previously and $499 brand-new 
- 32 GB Wi-Fi: $499, down from $549 previously and $599 brand-new 
- 64 GB Wi-Fi: $579, down from $649 previously and $699 brand-new 

- 16 GB Wi-Fi + Cellular: $529, down from $579 previously and $629 brand-new 
- 32 GB Wi-Fi + Cellular: $609, down from $679 previously and $729 brand-new 
- 64 GB Wi-Fi + Cellular: $689, down from $779 previously and $829 brand-new 

Introduced last October, the iPad mini and fourth-generation arrived in Apple's online store for refurbished products in mid-March at modest discounts. The company's 128 GB fourth-generation iPad models introduced in early February have yet to appear in the refurbished store. 

Rumors have indicated that Apple is unlikely to launch its next versions of the iPad and iPad mini until late this year, but the company has apparently still decided to reduce pricing on refurbished units of the current generation in order to attract more buyers as its supply of refurbished units has undoubtedly grown over the past several months. 

Update: Apple has also knocked $30 off of the price of its refurbished Thunderbolt and LED Cinema Displays, bringing the prices down to $799 compared to $999 brand-new.

Source: Mac Rumours