Apple has begun issuing its employees with Apple-branded hoodies as a thank you for all their hard work during a terrific year for the Cupertino company. In addition to a free hoody, employees also got extra vacation time over Thanksgiving, and some departments were given personalized noted from higher-level staff, according to 9to5Mac.
2011 has been Apple’s most incredible year left. Heck, they’ve released more revolutionary products in this year alone than most companies manage in a generation. So we knew it would be difficult when we asked you to help us choose Apple’s best products of 2011. Now the results are in, and we’ve whittled the list down to just the finalists. Check out the finalists below, then help us choose just one of them that we’ll declare to be the best Apple product of 2011 in next week’s Cult of Mac Best Of 2011 awards.
Apple has seeded a new built of the OS X Lion 10.7.3 beta to developers in the iOS Dev Center. Build 11D36 of 10.7.3 can be downloaded now by registered developers.
While there are no known issues in this latest beta, Apple does request developers to focus on areas like iCloud Document Storage, Address Book, iCal, Mail, Spotlight, and Safari.
Never mind a Retina display iPad, Apple has something special up its sleeve for next year. According to sources within the company’s supply chain, a Retina display MacBook Pro with a display resolution of 2880×1800 is coming during the second quarter of 2012.
When Apple announced that it was going to sell OS X Lion exclusively as a digital download, many were skeptical. By not selling physical copies of the operating system, wouldn’t Apple be crippling Lion’s consumer reach?
As it turns out, Lion has already sold more than 6 millions copies in the Mac App Store, making it 80% more popular than Apple’s previous desktop OS, Snow Leopard. The folks in Redmond have taken notice, and Microsoft has announced that its upcoming operating system, Windows 8, will also be offered as a digital download.
We’ve mentioned before that TextEdit’s icon under OS X has Apple’s entire “Think Different” essay written on it, if you blow it up big enough.But this one’s new to us: it also appears in its majority on Lion’s new All My Files icon.
Here’s to the crazy ones indeed… crazy to write an entire essay on an icon meant to be rendered in less than 80 pixels squared. Very cool.
[via Finer Things In Mac]
Apple has seeded OS X Lion 10.7.2 Build 11C71 to developers. The update addresses no major issues and instead focuses on some finishing touches for what will most likely be the public launch of OS X 10.7.2 next week.
This beta build of OS X makes a few slight improvements to the Lion Recovery tool and fixes a firmware password issue with Find My Mac. Earlier today, Apple also released iTunes beta 9 for developers currently testing iTunes Match.
The previous beta build of Lion addressed several issues with iCloud, and Apple will push out an official Lion update to customers with iCloud integration when the service is made available to the public after Apple’s next media event.
Apple has seeded OS X 10.7.2 Build 11C62 to developers with areas of focused testing for iCloud. As we near Apple’s next media event, developers are putting the finishing touches on iCloud integration.
Apple has promised that iCloud will go live alongside iOS 5 to the public sometime “this Fall,” with the event estimated to take place on October 4th.
Microsoft has been showing if its upcoming Windows 8 operating system at its BUILD conference in California this week, and while I may be completely dedicated to my Mac, I can’t help but think Windows 8 looks pretty darn nice.
We’ve already showed you how to install the Developer Preview on a Boot Camp partition on your Mac, but there is an easier method for those of you who just want to play around. In this how-to, we’ll take you through the setup for installing Windows 8 in a virtual machine — in just four simple steps.
VMware has launched a brand new version of its popular virtualization software for the Mac. VMware Fusion 4 boasts more than 100 new features — such as 2.5 times faster graphics — and is now fully compatible with OS X Lion.
If you purchased one of Apple’s latest Mac minis to find you have a massive hatred for the new OS X Lion operating system, then you’ll be disappointed to find that you cannot downgrade to Snow Leopard. However, that may not be the case…
Those who jailbreak their iPhones have access to a plethora of interesting and unusual themes. While some of these themes are less impressive than others, a new theme has popped up that stands out from the rest.
Want to make your iPhone look like it runs OS X Lion? There’s a jailbreak theme for that. And it looks incredible.
Apple has issued a new OS X beta to developers with full iCloud integration. OS X 10.7.2 Build 11C55 is available to developers right now, and iCloud seems to be fully baked into the release for the first time.
Previously, iCloud betas had been available as separate downloads to be used in conjunction with beta OS X Lion developer builds.
Still enjoying Apple’s latest operating system on your Mac? With over 250 new features for $29.99, most of us couldn’t be happier with the upgrade… until we find out that our Macs are now at risk from a major vulnerability in OS X Lion.
No, it’s not. But a quick glance at its box might fool you into thinking so, and that’s because Sony seems to have used Apple’s default OS X Lion wallpaper as the background image on the company’s EX621 BRAVIA TV.
We told you yesterday that Apple had released an update to Lion in Software Update. Version 10.7.1 of Lion fixes several bugs and compatibility issues.
Lion has just now been updated to version 10.7.1 in the Mac App Store, and this news indicates a system for how Lion updates will most likely be pushed to users from now on.
Apple has just released the first public update to OS X Lion since the software’s initial release. OS X 10.7.1 is now available in Software Update for Mac users running Apple’s latest desktop operating system.
The main purpose of OS X 10.7.1 is bug fixes, and it’s recommended that all Lion users upgrade.
For those of you who aren’t able to download your OS X Lion upgrade for any reason, Apple is now selling its $69 Lion USB thumb drives.
Hey, good news! If you’re one of the many people having problems installing Lion on a clean machine, Lion USB media is now shipping!
OS X Lion includes a plethora of new gestures to enhance the user experience. While the majority of these gestures are based around the trackpad, the Magic Mouse still has more than a few new gestures. In this video, I’ll show you how you can use Lion’s new gestures to make the most of your Magic Mouse.
Following the release of OS X Lion last month, some early adopters ran into issues when attempting to install Xcode 4.1 that meant installing the software was rather difficult. Apple has now addressed this in the Xcode 4.1.1 update.
Earlier today, we told you that Apple was looking to discontinue the Magic Mouse in favor for the Magic Trackpad. This report was based off an inside source confirming that Apple was phasing out the Magic Mouse’s part number from its inventory.
Our source in Apple inventory has followed up with us, and it appears that Apple has instead discontinued the Magic Mouse’s old part number in favor for a new one. This move may indicate an update to the Magic Mouse, with the most logical prediction being better integration with advanced gestures in OS X Lion.
Despite Apple’s best efforts, you can make a bootable install disk of Mac OS X Lion… but it’s not for the faint-hearted, or those who aren’t tech inclined.
Luckily, there’s an even easier way to make a bootable OS X Lion disk now. It’s called Lion DiskMaker, and it turns making your own installable Lion USB key drive into a one-click affair.
The new full-screen support in OS X Lion is a dream come true for lifehackers looking to squeeze more productivity out of their apps, but one problem for keyboard users is that there’s just no standardized shortcut.
That seems like something of an oversight on Apple’s part, but luckily, there’s an easy to way assign your own universal full-screen shortcut for every app on your machine, even if the devs didn’t provide their own easy keyboard combination for triggering full-screen on your Mac.
In OS X Lion, Apple redesigned Address Book with a new look that resembles a physical hardcover book binding. This type of design choice is called “skeuomorphic,” because it was, “deliberately employed to make the new look comfortably old and familiar.” Lion’s version of Address Book takes the old look and feel of a physical book and ports that to a virtual application.
While some may like the new look of Address Book in Lion, many have raised complaints. If you’d like to make Address Book look clean and simple again, we’ve got just the trick to unbind Address Book from its brown hardcover.
