Mac - page 77

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX928KC8jiA

Here’s a quick video tour of the new Mail client in OS X Lion. It’s got a three-pane view, nicely threaded “Conversations,” and a goes full screen. It’s very good. Mail alone is a good reason to upgrade to Lion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UC4cguWNFlg

Here’s a quick overview of Mission Control and Launchpad in OS X Lion, Apple’s upcoming major update to OS X.

Mission Control is like Expose, Spaces and Dashboard on steroids: Hit a hot corner and all the open windows fly away. You then get an overview of all the running applications, with thumbnails of open windows. There’s also your Dashboard widgets and virtual desktops in Spaces. When it was first previewed by Apple last year, critics said Mission Control was a mess, but I think it’s pretty good. It works really well. It’s much clearer than Expose, and I can see it becoming a central part of my workflow.

Launchpad, on the other hand, won’t be. Launchpad is like the Home screen on the iPad. Icons for all your apps are displayed in a grid. But it suffers from the same problem as the iPad — it’s hard to find the app you’re looking for among the clutter. Much easier to launch a search. Same in Lion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPzRWca53Is

As you’ve probably heard, touchpad scrolling is backwards in OS X Lion. Instead of pulling your fingers down to scroll down a window, you know push your fingers up.

Confused? You will be. It undoes years of muscle memory. So why would Apple do this?

It’s easy: because of iOS. It’s the same gesture you make on the screen of an iOS device when you scroll up and down the screen. You want to scroll down? You pull the content up.

It’s another example of the influence of iOS on OS X.

Apple’s Developer Forums going crazy about the new way to install OS X Lion through the Mac App Store. There’s complaints about failed downloads, invalid redemption codes and overall installation issues. But once developers get it installed, they say the new OS is awesome and totally opens up the Mac to new possibilities.

The HappyBirthdaySteveJobs.com tribute website is going gangbusters.

Thrown up a couple of days ago, the site has survived attacks from malicious hackers and has seen more than 45,000 visitors from 147 countries.

It is currently displaying more than 13,000 birthday wishes to Steve Jobs, whose birthday is today.

One of the site admins, London student Raoul-Gabriel Urma, says he’s been up for 48 hours trying to keep the site running. Here are the stats:

Apple is adding several auto-saving features to Lion, including Auto Save, Versions and Resume.

“Mac OS X Lion automatically saves your work — while you work — so you don’t have to,” says the company.

One of the most interesting implications is that you may never have to quit an application again, or go hunting for the file you were working on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jbOZvNidCA

Apple has posted video of OS X Lion’s new gesture controls in action. Look how iPad-ish the whole experience is.

Lion features several new multi-touch gestures, including rubber-band scrolling, page and image zoom, and full-screen swiping.

Apple shareholders have voted down a proposal that would have required Apple to disclose Steve Jobs’ succession plan.

The vote came at Apple’s annual meeting today. The proposal was brought by the Laborers’ International Union. Apple’s board also opposed.

Apple has said in the past that it has executive succession plan, though it hasn’t revealed what that plan is.

Steve Jobs wasn’t present at today’s meeting. He continues his indefinite medical leave. This is only the second time in a decade he has missed the annual event.

All Things D: Apple Shareholders Reject Proposal to Disclose Succession Plan

We all know that Steve Jobs is obsessed with crafting top-notch customer experiences. Of course, he’s famous for being dismissive of focus groups, but did you know he spies on customers at his local Apple Store?

If you’re wondering were all the comments went, they’re currently being imposted into Disqus. We’ve switched to Disqus, a commenting platform with all kinds of great features, including great social integration, notifications and multimedia.

When it’s up and running, it promises to be a great system. However, importing the old comments can sometimes take a while: maybe even two or three days.

That’s for existing comments. New comments should post immediately. Fingers crossed it’s up and running quickly. In the meantime, please leave any questions, comments or complaints in — you guessed it — the new comments system.

And thanks for your patience — Leander.

Raoul-Gabriel Urma writes:

We are computing students from Imperial College London and created a website dedicated to Steve Jobs allowing members of the public to leave their birthday comments and this way to support him while he is currently dealing with serious health issues.

Our aim is to allow as many people to wish him a happy birthday this way letting him know he has a back-up of so many.

Leave your best wishes here: Happy Birthday Steve Jobs.

Have you ever seen a great YouTube video that you wanted to download but didn’t know how?

The browser extension FastestTube solves that. The free extension works with Safari, Firefox, Chrome, Opera and even Interent Explorer!

This video will show you where and how to get FastestTube, as well as download a video and save it to your hard drive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph97RbPIh_U

Apple is helping finance a major remodel of Stanford Hospital (where Jobs was photographed by the sleazy National Enquirer). But is Apple also helping design the $2 billion facility, perhaps based on the design of its retail stores?

Check out the rendering of the atrium above. Look familiar? Note the massive skylight, the marble floors. Is that a Genius Bar on the right?

Most important, the brains behind Apple’s stores — Ron Johnson — is intimately involved.

The new MacBook Pros expected later this week will boot off solid-state drives, claims Boy Genius Report, citing unnamed sources.

In addition:

• The new MacBook Pros will feature larger glass trackpads. It’s hard to imagine how this is possible, but they’ve been growing with each successive machine, so maybe so.
• The lower-end models will have 8GB-16GB SSDs for Mac OS X, and will also come equipped with a regular hard drive. This will offer the benefits of SSDs — instant on and super fast performance — while also providing lots of room for power users’ files (video and Photoshop).
• The higher-end models will be SSD only, just like Apple’s new MacBook Air line.
• The new machines will be up to a half-pound lighter than curent models. Again, hard to imagine how this is possible given that Liquidmetal rumors are unlikely.
• The report also note there will be five different SKUs, jibing with previous rumor reports.

Boy Genius Report: New MacBook Pro models imminent; we’ve got some new details

In 1997, Apple was in deep financial trouble. Wired published a now-famous cover story: “101 Ways to Save Apple.”

Some of the advice was prescient, some was silly, but it was a fascinating list of suggestions. And what actually happened between now and then is even more interesting.

Here, for the first time, is a really detailed followup to each and every one of Wired‘s 101 suggestions.

It looks like Apple’s all set to launch new MacBooks next week, but the launch day is — a Thursday?

What’s up with that? Apple’s big product launches are almost always on Tuesdays. (It allows reporters on the East Coast to fly into California on a workday instead of the weekend).

So why would Apple launch new MacBooks on Thursday February 24?

It’s new MacBook Pros next Thursday February 24, according to MacRumors, citing a “reliable” source.

We’ve since heard reliable confirmation that this information is accurate and that the expected release date is next Thursday, February 24th. The move would be a bit unusual for Apple to launch new machines on a Thursday. So, if you are about to buy a new MacBook Pro, wait until next week.

MacBooks were last updated a year ago with Intel Core i5 and i7 chips. The new machines are likely to get Intel’s latest Sandy Bridge processors, which are faster and a lot less power hungry. Rumors that the machines will have cases made  of Liquidmetal are unlikely, but they will probably will be lighter, thinner and have higher-resolution screens. A big price drop is predicted too.

Apple’s said to be releasing five new models, which will include two new 13-inch versions, two new 15-inch versions and one new 17-inch version.

Years ago, the Sun tabloid newspaper kidnapped a donkey and kept it in a Spanish hotel room for a story. Yesterday, Gizmodo hired a plane to take aerial photos of Steve Jobs’ demolished mansion.

Demolition began Monday of the abandoned mansion. Jobs won a long legal battle to have the old pile torn down. He wants to build a smaller, greener place on the property.

More demolition pictures below:

And here are some really beautiful pictures of the Jackling House before it was demolished, courtesy of photographer Jonathan Haeber, who sneaked in one night.

Steve Jobs is sitting next to President Obama. He’s wearing a black turtleneck!

This is an official White House photo. Here it is zoomed in:

It’s unlikely that Apple will use Liquidmetal for the new MacBooks that are expected any day now, but it sure would be sweet. Check out how svelte the machines would be if Apple used the extra-stiff material.

Mockup by designer Dario Crisafulli.

Via SagiaMente.

Who wants one?

Our friends at Hong Kong-based M.I.C. Gadget have received a letter from Apple! It’s not a very nice one though. It concerns the Pineapple CEO action figure, which portrays our favorite technologist as a star-throwing ninja (remember the story about Jobs being stopped at airport security?).

“Mr. Jobs has not consented to the use of his name and/or image in the Product. Unauthorized use of a person’s name and/or likeness constitutes a violation of California Civil Code Section 3344, which prohibits the use of any person’s name, photograph or likeness in a product without that person’s prior consent… The figure and its stand are replications of Mr. Jobs image and Apple’s trademark. The thin attempt to “disguise” the figure in its current iteration does not impact the fact that you are plainly trading on Mr. Jobs image…”

M.I.C. Gadget says it’s sorry and will no longer sell the action figure.

Actually, we are wondering what took the law firm so long to send us an email to request us to cease the marketing and sale of the figure. We reviewed it on January 18, and we received the email on February 8. That’s almost a month time! We believe someone from Apple has bought the figure so the lawyer took so much time to look for us. So, who bought it??

M.I.C. Gadget: Apple Is Not Happy With The Pineapple CEO Action Figure

Imagine this scenario: your Mac crashes and all of your files are gone forever. Do you want this to happen to you? If not, Time Machine is the perfect solution. It automatically backs up your Mac every hour, so you can always have the peace of mind that your files are safe. The video below describes how you can set up Time Machine quickly and easily.

Apple will build a massive store in New York City’s Grand Central Terminal, Cult of Mac independently confirmed.

The store will open in the fall, likely early September — and it will be Apple’s largest retail space in the world.

The store already has a name: Apple Store, Grand Central, according to a source close the company. The source said Apple will be making an internal announcement within the next month or so.

“The company will certainly pull out all the stops on this one,” said the source, who asked not to be named.

This year is the 10th anniversary of Apple retail, and Apple wants to make a big splash, our source said. Apple’s retail operation has been a spectacular success, helping fuel the company’s explosive growth and creating shops that make twice as much money as Tiffany & Co.

Apple’s stock is taking a hit on fresh rumors that Steve Jobs has only a few weeks to live. Apple stock is currently down about three points in after-hours trading. It’s likely to take a big hit tomorrow when the markets reopen. The stock dropped a few points last week on rumors that Jobs was in hospital.

The sleazy rumors, published by the supermarket tabloid National Enquirer, reportedly show photos of Jobs outside the Stanford Cancer Center in Palo Alto, his home town. The pictures don’t seem to be available online, but apparently show Jobs looking very thin and frail. The tabloid says Jobs has dropped from 175lb to just 130lb and has just six weeks to live. The topic is lighting up Twitter.

We don’t know whether the information is correct, but we certainly hope not. Best wishes Steve.

Daily Mail: Paper publishes shocking pictures of skeletal Steve Jobs claiming ‘cancer-stricken Apple boss may have just six weeks to live’

Demolition crews have begun tearing down Steve Jobs’ ramshackle mansion in Woodside.

Preservationists had wanted the historic mansion saved but Jobs wants to build a smaller, modern residence on the property. The 86-year mansion was subject to a long legal battle, which Jobs eventually won. Jobs famously lived in the mansion during the ’80s. It was empty of furniture and he neglected to mow the lawn.

The San Francisco Chronicle talked to a local resident and got a great quote from Jobs’ attorney:

“I just heard a bunch of noise up there and saw it going on,” said Greg Moretti, 37, of Woodside. “Whatever side of the demolition debate you are on, it’s hard to deny that what we are witnessing here today is the loss of a significant piece of California architectural history.”

Jobs’ attorney, Howard Ellman, said, “He applied to demolish the house, we got the house demolition permit, and the demolition started today. What more can I say?”

For a good look on just how run down the mansion was, check out Jonathan Haeber’s amazing photos.