Alex Heath - page 77

iMore reported this morning that Apple will hold its next media event on September 12th and launch the new iPhone alongside the rumored iPad mini on Friday the 21st. Another report said today that Apple is planning to launch multiple new products in September, and now AllThingsD confirms that Apple will indeed hold an event on September 12th. Although Apple hasn’t officially commented, AllThingsD’s word is pretty much considered to be a confirmation.

What will Apple announce in two months? Rumors say we’ll see the next iPhone, new iPod touch, and iPad mini. Judging by Apple’s huge spike in component orders overseas, it looks this this fall is going to be a very busy time for the folks in Cupertino.

We’ve seen some pretty crazy stories of iPhone theft and sweet retribution. Remember when a cruse line employee stole a passenger’s iPhone and revealed his own identity by taking pictures that were uploaded to Photo Stream for the world to see? Or how about when an 8-year-old used Find My iPhone to locate over 300K worth of stolen goods?

There’s nothing quite like a good ol’ citizens arrest. In Manhattan, a would-be thief was run down and tackled by two New Yorkers before he could make off with a woman’s iPhone. 

OS X is designed to run seamlessly on Mac hardware, but did you know that you can actually install Apple’s desktop operating system on a Windows PC and make what’s called a “Hackintosh?” Apple released OS X Mountain Lion in the Mac App Store last week, and it has already been downloaded 3 million times. But if you’re stuck with a PC, you can’t taste the forbidden fruits… until now. UniBeast, the tool used for creating a Hackintosh, has been updated with support for Mountain Lion.

Hackintoshing is not for the faint of heart, but if you’re up to the challenge, it’s possible to get Mountain Lion up and running on your PC.

Leading up to an iPhone announcement, there’s a very select group of people who have seen—much less held—the new phone in private. Apple is known for its thick veil of secrecy, and only the top employees know the comprehensive details surrounding future products. Only the highest of the highest employees get to take one home, as was the case with Steve Jobs and the original iPhone.

How many people got to see the original iPhone leading up to Apple’s announcement at Macworld in 2007? Only the privileged few. A random FedEx delivery man did come close, however, when he delivered a package to Steve Jobs’s doorstep one afternoon.

Algoriddim, creators of popular music player djay on the Mac, iPhone and iPad, today announced a huge update for the Mac version. Not only has djay been updated with support for the newly-released OS X Mountain Lion, but Algoriddim has also optimized the app for the new MacBook Pro with Retina display. Thanks to the enhanced AirPlay functionality in Mountain Lion, djay users can also wirelessly stream audio from the Mac app to any AirPlay-enabled speakers or Apple TV.

Since Apple unleashed Mountain Lion, we’ve been showing you tips and tricks for customizing the new OS down to the gritty details. A neat app called Lion Tweaks allows you to access a host of hidden settings in the previous version of OS X, and the developer has now updated the app for Mountain Lion.

Jony Ive is responsible for overseeing the birthing of Apple’s entire product line, including the iPhone and iPad. Steve Jobs was his best friend, and he is considered a legend in the design community. Heck, the Queen of England has even knighted him twice!

So, when Ive talks, the world listens. Speaking at the British Embassy’s Creative Summit recently, Ive shared some of his own philosophies, including a core belief he shares with Apple as a company: the desire to not make money, but a good product.

We just heard that Apple plans to announce the next iPhone, iPod lineup, and iPad mini at an event on September 12th, and now more rumors have surfaced regarding Apple’s iPhone and iPad roadmap, including the iPad 4 and some new cases.

While Apple is expected to ship the iPad mini by November, it’s currently unclear if the smaller tablet will ship at the same time as the iPhone 5 or not. The next major version of the current iPad is rumored to be a more of an evolutionary upgrade to the third-gen iPad, and Apple is expected to implement the same smaller dock connector that will be in the new iPhone.

The patent war between Apple and Samsung is just starting to heat up, with both tech giants scheduled to appear in U.S. court today. Apple accused Samsung of copying the iPhone and iPad back in April 2011, and Samsung countersued with similar accusations. In the months leading up to the trial, there have been treasure troves of previously hidden information uncovered, including hundreds of early iPhone and iPad prototype designs.

One design in particular, aptly named “Jony,” sparked an accusation from Samsung saying that Apple borrowed from Sony’s designs to create the first iPhone. To combat Samsung’s claim, Apple has since produced an early (and possibly first) prototype design of the iPhone from circa 2005.

Over the weekend, The New York Times reported that Apple was in talks to invest a significant amount of cash into Twitter. The multi-million dollar investment would raise Twitter’s company valuation to a healthy $10 billion.

But that doesn’t really sound like something Apple would do, does it? If you thought that when you first read this rumor, then you had the right hunch. Apple and Twitter have talked, but not recently. Beyond the current Twitter integration in iOS and OS X, the two companies are merely friends.

We thought about simply updating our original post on this story, but a separate article to debunk the former seemed more appropriate in this case.

Rumors surrounding Apple’s next-gen iPhone are started to pick up steam leading up to the device’s rumored release this fall. We know that the sixth iPhone will probably have a 4-inch display, slimmer design, smaller dock connector, and launch before November.

Leaked snapshots of purported next-gen iPhone parts have surfaced in recent months, but nothing as complete and authentic-looking as a series of images published over the weekend.

One of the new features in OS X Mountain Lion is called Power Nap. Touted as a tool that get things done while your Mac is sleeping, Power Nap enables a Mac running Mountain Lion to download email, sync with iCloud, check for system updates, etc. while in sleep mode. There is a big caveat, however. Power Nap will only run on Macs with an internal solid-state hard drive (SSD).

During the developer beta phase of Mountain Lion and continuing into its public release stage, it was noticed that certain compatible Macs didn’t have Power Nap installed by default on the final release of Mountain Lion. Apple has since issued a firmware update to bring Power Nap to the MacBook Air, and now a new update today has been issued for the new MacBook Pro with Retina display.

Apple isn’t known for attending trade shows. Apple especially isn’t known for attending conferences that revolve around security research and the hacking community. That’s why it was a huge surprise when it was revealed that Apple would be making its first ever appearance at the Black Hat security conference this year. Dallas De Atley, Apple’s head security guru, was slated to give a talk on iOS, the company’s mobile operating system.

You’d think that De Atley’s talk would be pretty interesting, right? Unfortunately, attendees weren’t very impressed.

Can’t find Mountain Lion’s Power Nap feature anywhere on your MacBook Air? Apple has issued a new firmware update to bring the feature to 2011-2012 models. In case you didn’t know, Power Nap is a system management feature in Mountain Lion that silently fetches your emails, iCloud data, software updates, etc. while your Mac sleeps. For Power Nap to work, your Mac must be connected to a power source. The Mountain Lion feature works only on Macs with an internal SSD drive, like the MacBook Air and mid-2012 MacBook Pro models.

Power Nap doesn’t seem to be included on all Macs running the newly-released Mountain Lion OS, but this new firmware update should restore any issues for MacBook Air users.

Rumors of Facebook rebuilding its official iPhone app have been circulating since The New York Times reported the news last month. Instead of an aesthetic redesign, Facebook was said to be focusing on fundamental improvements under the hood. The update was said to launch this summer. Interestingly, Facebook has also been hiring former Apple engineers who worked on the iPhone and iPad to help build a Facebook-centric smartphone with HTC as a device partner.

A new report today reiterates that Facebook is indeed building a speedier iPhone app, and that former Apple talent is helping build up Facebook’s mobile presence.

As reported earlier today, Apple has indeed updated its relatively new Podcasts app for iOS with a number of major bug fixes and stability improvements. It’s gracious to say that the original version of Podcasts had some… issues. Namely, podcasts wouldn’t always sync via iCloud between devices and the app as a whole was super sluggish.

With this new 1.0 update, many of the issues plaguing current users should be addressed.

If you’re worried about Microsoft’s 2011 Office Suite not working with Apple’s latest jungle cat, don’t sweat it. The guys and gals in Redmond have confirmed that both the 2011 and 2008 versions of Office are indeed fully compatible with the newly-released OS X Mountain Lion.

Microsoft wants its users to make sure Office for Mac’s AutoUpdate is enabled “to make the most of the upgrade to Mountain Lion” with future updates. Mountain Lion’s Gatekeeper security means that you’ll need to use Microsoft’s AutoUpdate tool to keep Office for Mac current. 

As you probably know already, Mountain Lion was released this morning, and we at Cult of Mac have been digging through the beta versions for months. There are some subtle and hidden things in Mountain Lion you may not notice, like the fact that Apple has actually included a stealthy “do not disturb” setting for Notification Center. You can mute all notifications from bugging you for a day at a time by flipping a switch that sneakily sits at the very top of the Notification Center window.

Apple only sells OS X Mountain Lion as a digital download in the Mac App Store. The installer weighs in at a hefty 4.05GB, but the good news is that you can install your copy of Mountain Lion on all of your Macs for no extra charge. Technically, the Mountain Lion installer can be used on an infinite number of Macs once you have it; you just need to make a bootable disk or drive.

See, the Mountain Lion installer is set to self-destruct once it’s used. When your Mac reboots running Mountain Lion, the installer will be gone and you’ll have to re-download it if you want to use it again. Another reason to create a bootable copy of Mountain Lion is if you want to do a clean install. Apple’s installer will keep your files and personal setup intact while installing Mountain Lion, but a bootable disk will allow you to erase your Mac and start completely anew.

The good news is that creating a bootable disk or USB drive of Mountain Lion is pretty simple.

Now that Apple has released OS X Mountain Lion into the wild, millions of Mac users have a shiny new operating system to play with. If you haven’t been closely following our Mountain Lion coverage over the past several months, you may not know some of the marquee features Apple has added in its latest Mac OS.

But you’re in luck! Whether you just need a Mountain Lion refresher or you’re getting a glimpse of it for the first time, we’ve got 10 killer features for you to check out first.

Apple’s latest jungle cat is called Mountain Lion, and the new version of OS X is available as a $20 purchase in the Mac App Store. If you’ve updated to a new version of OS X before, you know that getting everything in order isn’t always as easy as Apple makes it out to be. In this how-to guide, Cult of Mac will show you how to get your Mac ready to install OS X Mountain Lion the right way.

Apple has updated its iWork suite (Pages, Keynote, Numbers) with Retina graphics for the new MacBook Pro and iCloud documents for OS X Mountain Lion. Documents in the Cloud allows you to access and manage synced documents across the iOS and OS X versions of the iWork apps. The functionality is baked into TextEdit and Preview in Mountain Lion, and Apple lets developers build iCloud document support into third-party apps as well.

Another Mountain Lion feature, Dictation, is also available when using the iWork suite. Like Siri on iOS, you can speak into your Mac’s mic and have your voice transcribed automatically.

The new versions of Pages, Keynote, and Numbers don’t appear to be live in the Mac App Store yet, but we’ll update this post when they are available. [Update: They’re out!] Sadly, iWork hasn’t received a major upgrade since 2009.

A friendly reminder for those of you downloading Mountain Lion: Facebook integration will not be added until this fall. Apple has said that Facebook in OS X “will be available in an upcoming software update to Mountain Lion.” If you’ve been following the news, you know this already, but we thought it was worth reiterating today.

While we don’t know for sure why it’s taking longer to add Facebook to the mix, our gut tells us Apple’s deal with Facebook got a little more complicated than both parties expected. Facebook in Mountain Lion is currently being tested by developers. So it’s coming, but not right out of the gate.

Apple has released OS X Mountain Lion for $19.99 in the Mac App Store. The OS comes with over 200 new features, including added iCloud integration, Messages, Reminders, Notes, Notification Center, Power Nap, Dictation, Sharing sheets, Twitter integration, AirPlay Mirroring, Game Center, Gatekeeper, Safari improvements, and more.

Apple revealed its ninth desktop operating system to the world on February 16, 2012, and Mountain Lion has been in developer beta since. The final GM version of the Mountain Lion beta was seeded to developers on July 9th.

Cult of Mac’s full review of Mountain Lion will be published in the next couple of hours, but for now, stay tuned to Cult of Mac for breaking coverage of Mountain Lion all day.

You can purchase and download OS X Mountain Lion now in the Mac App Store.

Apple just released the numbers for its 2012 third quarter earnings. The company made $35.0 billion in revenue and a quarterly net profit of $8.8 billion, up from revenue of $28.6 billion and a net profit of $7.3 billion this time last year. Apple sold 26 million iPhones, 17 million iPads, 6.8 million iPods, and 4 million Macs in Q3. A cash dividend of $2.65 per share for investors has been announced and will be payed out on August 16th, 2012.

Apple CEO Tim Cook also just announced that OS X Mountain Lion will ship to customers tomorrow.