MacBook Pro - page 64

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.

Our Mountain Lion Megasode is here, and on this minty-new CultCast, we’ll tell you what we like, what we love, and which hidden features we’ve discovered in Apple’s new big kitty.

Plus, should you upgrade or do a clean install of Mountain Lion? We ponder that very question, then tell you when a clean install makes more sense and how to do it the right way on this all-new megasode.

Subscribe to The CultCast now on iTunes, or easily stream new episodes right on your iPhone or iPad with Apple’s newly updated and freshly debugged Podcasts App.

Show notes up next!

Steam, the online computer gaming portal, keeps track of what hardware its players are using to access the many games in its service.

Of interest in the exhaustive list of specs is the fact that 49.46 percent of Mac gamers on Steam game on a Macbook Pro. Which makes sense, of course, as that’s a pretty powerful laptop. From there, we see the iMac coming in at 28 percent, plain-jane MacBooks garnering 9.49 percent, and the MacBook Air, my personal machine, used by 6.29 percent of Mac Steam gamers. The MacBook Pro and MacBook Air both rose in the hardware charts, with an increase of .44 and .89 percent, respectively.

Apple has updated Xcode this morning to introduce compatibility with OS X Mountain Lion, which was released earlier today, and iOS 5.1. The update also brings support for the new MacBook Pro’s high-resolution Retina display.

Fantastical is one of our favorite Mac apps here at Cult of Mac, because it makes managing your calendar a breeze — unlike Apple’s built-in Calendar application. Today it got a massive update that introduces support for OS X Mountain Lion (coming today!), Retina graphics for the new MacBook Pro, and more. It also has 50% off its price tag for a limited time.

The title really says it all: Flower, a baby alpaca over at the Insight Ranch in Southern California, spends her time making farting sounds with her mouth, trembling almost faster than the speed of video and scrolling through photos on her MacBook Pro.

The title screams cute; the video screams something halfway between surrealism and nightmare. This could have been directed by David Lynch on a dare.

Source: YouTube
Via: Laughing Squid

Apple is finally preparing high resolution graphics for its online store to accommodate the Retina displays on the new iPad and the next-generation MacBook Pro. Although the Cupertino company has already overhauled most of its website, the online store still includes plenty of old graphics that appear fuzzy on its latest devices. But not for long.

Back in June, Cult of Mac reported that Apple was set to introduce a new requirement for iOS apps that meant every single one had to ship with an icon measuring a whopping 1024×1024 pixels for Retina display devices. Developers are now reporting that the same requirement has been applied to Mac apps being sold through the Mac App Store, and that they cannot physically upload their apps without them.

If you use your MacBook with a Thunderbolt Display at home or at the office, and you don’t use your MacBook’s display as a secondary monitor, then a Henge Dock is a great way to keep your desk neat and tidy.

Available for all recent MacBooks, MacBook Airs, and MacBook Pros from 11 to 17 inches — with prices ranging from $55 to $75 — it provides you with a place to dock your MacBook in a vertical position so that it takes up as little space as possible. Its integrated ports mean you can still all of your notebook’s USB ports, its MagSafe connector, audio jack, and more.

The Henge Dock promises to be the “first truly comprehensive docking station solution for Apple’s line of notebook computers” There are some things it could do better, however.

Apple and the EPEAT have had quite the back and forth over the past week or so. It was discovered that Apple had suddenly withdrew all of its products from the EPEAT’s environmental registry, and Apple’s Bob Mansfield later explained the company’s decision to abandon the EPEAT’s outdated standards. Due to the initial concern and outcry, Apple did something it hardly ever does: backpedaled. Now Apple’s products are certified by the EPEAT again.

Despite the fact that all of Apple’s other MacBooks boast the EPEAT’s highest gold ranking, it was assumed that the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display wouldn’t qualify. After all, Apple’s new creation is the “least repairable” MacBook ever made. And yet, according to Apple’s website, the new MacBook Pro earns a stellar gold ranking as well.

Let’s keep this simple. We all would love a new Retina MacBook Pro. So, how’d you like to win one?

It’s very simple. Go to the Retina MacBook Pro Giveaway page and enter your email address. Then once the iStack Mac Bundle is done (you’ve checked it out, right?) a winner will be picked.

There’s no way to be nice about it: Microsoft is not cool. Their products aren’t cool (sans Xbox!). Their logo isn’t cool. And then there’s their dancing, prancing, screaming, bear of a man slash CEO: Steve Ballmer. And on our brand new CultCast, we have to ask: could Microsoft bring their sexy back with a CEO who isn’t the official jester of the tech community?

And then, don’t miss our discussion on how one simple hardware upgrade can transform your aged Macbook Pro into an unholy speed demon! That’s right, you don’t need a Retina Macbook, just $200 and ten minutes can bring you a renewed computing power that would make even Tim Cook’s glasses start to fog!

Subscribe to The CultCast now on iTunes, or easily stream new episodes right on your iPhone or iPad with Apple’s brand new Podcasts App.

Full show notes coming up next!

Sick of plugging and unplugging cables from your MacBook Pro every time you get back to your desk? Hate wasting one of the two USB ports just to keep your iPhone connected? And finally: don’t want to spring for a $1,000 Thunderbolt Display?

Then the KwikDock might be right up your alley: It’s a simple (and cheapish) pass-through dock with some handy extras.

Sparrow, my favorite mail client on both Mac and iOS, just received a new update that will be particularly exciting to those of you with the new MacBook Pro. In addition to support for OS X Mountain Lion and Notification Center, Sparrow 1.6.2 brings high-resolution graphics for the new MacBook Pro’s Retina display. It’s also on sale for just $4.99 until Monday, July 16.

The shipping delay for the new MacBook Pro with Retina display has decreased for customers in the United States the first time since the notebook made its debut on June 11. What was once a 3-4 week wait has now decreased to 2-3 weeks.

Parallels 7, arguably the best desktop virtualization tool for Mac, has been updated to take advantage of the new MacBook Pro’s high-resolution Retina display. Its cousin, Parallels Mobile for iOS, has also received the same treatment, and now supports the Retina display in the new iPad.

Mujjo makes high quality cases and accessories for iOS devices, and the company is announcing the first sleeve for the brand new 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display. The hand-crafted sleeve is made in The Netherlands, and you can pre-order it now from Mujjo now for €64.95 ($80). Shipments go out on August 28th.

We conducted a brief chat with Mujjo about their new sleeve, and the product looks fantastic.

Is your Retina MacBook Pro seeing less than half the seven hours of battery life that Apple promised you? Well, this may not be because you keep watching high-resolution videos over and over again on its Retina display (though that is certainly not helping). Instead, it could be thanks to a corrupt file created by Migration Assistant that needs removing with a simple terminal command.

Here’s how to do it and boost your Retina MacBook Pro’s battery life.

Struggling to find beautiful wallpapers for your new MacBook Pro’s high-resolution Retina display? With Wallpaper Wizard for Mac OS X, you can browse over 100,000 high-definition wallpapers with resolutions up to 2880 x 1800 all in one place, saving only the images ones you want to keep. And best of all, Wallpaper Wizard is today’s Two Dollar Tuesday pick, meaning it has 80% off its normal $9.99 price tag.

Although a new iPhone didn’t show its face during Apple’s WWDC keynote back in June, the Cupertino company did release a number of new products, including refreshed MacBook Airs, MacBook Pros, and Mac Pros; a new “next generation” MacBook Pro, and more. But according to one analyst, the Cupertino company’s fall event will be even bigger, with a new iPhone, a new iPad, and a new Apple TV all on their way.

Apple’s new MacBook Pro features a stunning 2880×1800 Retina display that makes any other screen look like pixelated junk. Because the next-gen 2012 MacBook Pro packs so many pixels in an insane resolution on a 15-inch display, it can be difficult to find great wallpapers that are optimized correctly. Luckily, we’ve collected the best resources on the internet to help you find the most beautiful wallpapers possible.

Apple is clearly working towards making solid-state storage a standard for its MacBook line, which means our notebook computers have never been speedier. The only problem is, the flash storage Apple uses is still pretty expensive, and so most of us have to settle for less of it when we’re buying a new MacBook.

That means we either need to come up with ways to decrease our data consumption, or add cheaper external storage for things like our iTunes libraries and torrent archives. If you’re going for the latter (the easier option) then you need the Nifty MiniDrive, an SD card specifically designed for MacBooks that you’ll hardly ever notice.

Tried of staring at Apple’s default galaxy wallpaper on your brand new MacBook Pro with Retina display? Need a change of pace on your iPhone and iPad? How about a gorgeous, minimal wallpaper that’s been crafted for each of Apple’s Retina devices?

Instagram designer Tim Van Damme decided to create a multicolor wallpaper design and give it away for everyone to enjoy. “Inspired by the gorgeous screen of the new Retina MacBook Pro, I wanted to design a new wallpaper for all my Retina devices (MacBook Pro, iPhone and iPad), and my 27″ Cinema Display.”

I have to say, the 2880×1800 MacBook Pro version is stunning. Head over to Tim’s Dribble account to download each wallpaper. I’m rocking them on all of my devices, and I couldn’t be happier.

Over the years, Apple has increasingly put more and more moisture sensors inside their laptops: little stickers that tell Apple Geniuses when a device has been exposed to liquid, useful for denying you warranty coverage for the iPhone you dropped in the toilet, or the MacBook you spilled a beer on top of.

No surprise, then, that the Retina MacBook Pro has moisture sensors inside the chassis, but what is more surprising is how many it has: ten in total, two more than the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.

I suppose it makes sense: the Retina MacBook Pro is an expensive piece of kit, and Apple doesn’t want to have to replace any more than they need to. You may want to watch out for your drool hitting the keyboard when you first check out that Retina display, though: Apple’s not going to fix that.

Source: Hardmac

Based on its less than reliable track record, we always take DigiTimes reports with a hefty helping of salt. We wouldn’t advise you to read too much into this one, then, but it’ll certainly be interesting to those of you who are awaiting the new iMac refresh.

According to sources in Apple’s “upstream supply chain,” the Cupertino company’s new all-in-one desktop will enter production this month, ready for its debut “possibly around October.” Despite recent reports, the sources also claim that there is a “high chance” the machine will follow the new MacBook Pro and ship with a high-resolution Retina display.