Mac OS X
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According to the website Appletell, Apple may be gearing up this week to launch the Mac App Store a week from today. According to the site's "insider source," this move would give the Mac an extra boost moving into the final weeks of Christmas shopping. A launch this early would be before the self-procliamed deadline of 90 days, which Apple set during the OS X Lion preview event. It is unclear if the Mac App Store will require 10.6.6 or not, which is still in development and hasn't been shipped to ... more
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As reported last week, Apple has removed a feature from AirPrint that would allow users to print from any iOS device running 4.2 or higher to any printer, as long as it was shared from a Mac or PC. Since then, several people have posted possible workarounds, which included some rather questionable things — including downloading old beta builds of 10.6.5 and tinkering the command line — neither of which are super user friendly. Collobos Software has released an $8 utility that promises to restore this function in a ... more
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A patent filed by Apple in Europe last week revealed two potential new features in the upcoming OS X Lion release- scrollable menus and toolbars. The menus and toolbars familiar to OS X users are ancient, having been in use since the advent of the graphical user interface (GUI). The most common menus are dropdowns, such as the "File" option in nearly every program. Toolbars usually take the form of palettes (think Inspector in iLife/iWork). The issue with both GUI elements (and why Apple wants to improve them) has to do with ... more
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Today Apple announced that they would be taking some of the best features from iOS and moving it to OS X 10.7 Lion. While the application won't support touch screens, it will have a number of multi-touch gestures. Steve Jobs said that they will be focusing on using the MacBook Trackpads and Magic Trackpads as the primary input devices for multi-touch functionality on the Mac lineup. Multi-Touch Gestures Steve stresses that touch-based vertical screens do not work well. They'll be sticking with touch-based pads for Macs – no touch screens. App Store Hell ... more
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Yojimbo, the venerable "catch-all" software for the Mac has been updated to version 3. While the change notes are lengthy, the headline features are built-in scanning support and the ability to sync with a new iPad app. The new iPad app — the first for Bare Bones — syncs with Yojimbo on the Mac via Bonjour, but it just syncs one way. Information in the iPad app is read-only. In an interview with Cult of Mac's Giles Turnbull, Bare Bones' Rich Siegel said two-way sync is coming:
Two-way data sync is a ... more
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Over the years, there have been several examples of Windows-only programs that have kept people from switching to the Mac. This week, that list got a little shorter, when Autodesk released AutoCAD for the Mac. While the program sports the same features as its Windows-based counterpart, this version takes advantage of OS X features like Cover Flow and Multi-Touch. The system requirements are pretty steep — the software requires a late model Mac with at least 3GB of RAM and a 64-bit Intel processor. If your machine is more than ... more
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So, you want to use Mac OS X Mail with Gmail? While Snow Leopard makes the default setup very easy, there are some rough edges of Google’s somewhat-wonky IMAP setup that need to be smoothed off for a better experience. Like that pesky [Gmail] thing, or the fact you can end up with 17 "Deleted Messages" folders for no apparent reason. I’ve written out the steps to reach “Gmail IMAP in Mac OS X Mail” nirvana. While that doesn’t roll off the tongue, it does soothe the soul of the Gmail-using ... more
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In this episode, Josh and Grant discuss the Dock. Download >> [powerpress image="http://www.macgasm.net/macgasm-podcast.jpg"]
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As Apple gains market share, they are going to see their competitors become more aggressive in their advertising. Currently, Dell and Microsoft are each independently running their own ads on their sites depicting why a PC is a better choice than a Mac when purchasing a new computer. My guess is that these ads are targeting the back to school shoppers more than anyone else. Out of the two companies I want to talk about Microsoft. First off, I want to point out that their reasons for purchasing a PC ... more
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ComputerWorld is reporting that Mac OS X's market share has dropped in five of the months in 2010. OS X has fallen back to the 5% share that it was back in February. In contrast, it's highest point was 5.3% in October 2009. That said, these numbers don't necessarily reflect the actual sales. Gregg Keizer notes "two weeks ago Apple reported it sold a record 3.5 million Macs in the second quarter." These numbers might not mean anything in the big picture, but it is certainly something to ... more
