Got a tip for us? Share it...
• • RSS

Id Software's RAGE Arrives on Mac App Store

Thursday February 2, 2012 11:52 am PST by Jordan Golson
As the Mac becomes more popular, the arrival of A-List titles to the platform is beginning to become a more common occurrence. The latest top-shelf game to hit the Mac is Id Software's RAGE, which has gone live both on the Mac App Store [Direct Link] and on publisher Aspyr's GameAgent online store.


The game takes place more than 100 years after the impact of an asteroid destroys most life on earth. The player awakens after being frozen in cryo-stasis without any memory of who he is or what he is supposed to do. The game plays out in a world similar to Mad Max and the like, with the player fighting enemies, making allies, and trying to find his place in an utterly wrecked planet.

Potential purchasers should note that the game is titled the "Campaign Edition" because it only includes the single player campaign, not the multiplayer components. Priced at $39.99, the well-reviewed post-apocalyptic shoot-em-up has some hefty system requirements, asking for at least OS X 10.7.2 and an Intel Core 2 Duo and a long list of graphics cards -- most significantly, however, integrated video chipsets are not supported.


RAGE: Campaign Edition is $39.99 on the Mac App Store and weighs in at nearly 13GB. Purchasers are strongly encouraged to double check their system requirements before purchasing. [Direct Link]
[ 75 comments ]

Safari 5.1.4 with JavaScript and PDF Handling Improvements Seeded to Developers

Thursday February 2, 2012 10:47 am PST by Eric Slivka

As noted by 9to5Mac, Apple today began seeding Safari 5.1.4 to developers for testing, signaling the next round of improvements for Apple's browser software. Safari 5.1.4 is available in versions for OS X Lion, Mac OS X Snow Leopard, and Windows, and the release notes ask developers to focus their testing on JavaScript performance, interactions between plug-ins and zooming, and PDF printing.

JavaScript Performance Enhancements
Safari 5.1.4 on Lion includes many fixes that enhance JavaScript performance. Please test webpages that use JavaScript and look for compatibility issues.

Plug-Ins & Zooming
Please test interaction with plug-ins and the appearance of plug-in content
while zooming. Please test zooming using gestures and keyboard shortcuts.

Printing PDFs
Please test printing PDFs loaded into Safari as well as PDFs displayed in iframes.

Using PDFs Printed from Webpages
Please test links in PDFs created from webpages using Safari 5.1.4.

Safari 5.1.3 was released just yesterday as part of OS X 10.7.3 and is a Lion-only release for now, as Safari 5.1.2 remains the most up-to-date version available for Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Windows users.
[ 9 comments ]

Apple Hardware Chief Bob Mansfield Cashes in Nearly $12.5 Million in Stock Options

Wednesday February 1, 2012 7:37 am PST by Eric Slivka
As revealed in a regulatory filing yesterday, Apple senior vice president for hardware engineering Bob Mansfield on Monday exercised a set of stock options he has held for a number of years, immediately selling off the stock for a gain of nearly $12.5 million. Under the stock option program, Mansfield was eligible to purchase 30,000 of Apple stock at a price of $36.54 per share and immediately sold them off in several batches averaging $452.28 per share.

Mansfield's stock options dated back to an award made in June of 2005 as an enticement for him to stay with the company over the next several years. Those options fully vested by June 2009, but Mansfield has been holding onto them since that time as Apple's stock has continued to surge. With the options set to expire in June of this year and Apple's stock continuing to perform well, Mansfield undoubtedly thought that this would be an excellent time to exercise those options.

Mansfield has been a relatively active participant in Apple's stock option and grant award programs for its senior executives, regularly cashing in his shares while continuing to hold only a small amount of stock. With the quick sale of this week's shares obtained through the options, Mansfield owns only 501 shares of Apple stock.

His stock sales do not mean that he is not invested with the company, however, as Mansfield currently holds one restricted stock unit grant that would see him earn 100,000 shares in 2014 and a second grant of 150,000 shares that will vest in two equal portions in June 2013 and March 2016. All of those grants, which together would be worth roughly $114 million at Apple's current stock price, are contingent upon Mansfield remaining with Apple.
[ 69 comments ]

Intuit Releases Quicken Essentials on Mac App Store

Friday January 27, 2012 2:46 pm PST by Jordan Golson
Intuit has begun offering its entry-level financial management software Quicken Essentials for Mac on the Mac App Store. This is the standard edition of Essentials that has been on sale for quite a while, not a new version -- something Intuit is quick to point out in the description for the software. It's merely a new distribution point.

Quicken Essentials for Mac, a basic starter edition, helps you manage all of your personal finance in one place, so you can see where you’re spending and where you can save. Quicken automatically categorizes your financial transactions, stay on top of bills and helps you set goals so you can save more.

**For Quicken Essentials for Mac users: Please note, this is not a new release of Quicken Essentials for Mac. **

Quicken Essentials does work under OS X Lion, but it is a far cry from Quicken for Mac 2007, which was the last fully-featured version of Quicken released for the Mac platform. Intuit promised last month that a Lion-compatible version of Quicken 2007 would be available for customers by "early spring."

Quicken Essentials for Mac is available for $49.99 on the Mac App Store. [Direct Link]

Thanks Ahan!
[ 50 comments ]

Apple Offers Statement on Warranty Disclosures to Italian Customers

Friday January 27, 2012 7:09 am PST by Eric Slivka
Back in late December, Apple was fined $1.2 million by Italian regulators over allegations that the company promoted its AppleCare extended warranty program to customers without adequately disclosing that many of the program's benefits were already included in the standard two-year warranty required by Italian law.


As noted by @setteBIT, Apple has now added to its Italian online store a prominent link sharing the court decision (PDF). The document outlines the requirement that Apple modify the marketing terms for its AppleCare services in Italy within 90 days from the December 21 decision to properly reflect what is covered under standard two-year warranties and to widely publicize that information to consumers.

It is unclear whether Apple will continue to appeal the fine, with today's posting of the decision perhaps designed to meet the court's requirements while the case remains ongoing.
[ 30 comments ]

Apple Seeds OS X 10.7.3 Build 11D50 to Developers

Tuesday January 24, 2012 7:46 pm PST by Arnold Kim
Apple has pushed out Build 11D50 of OS X 10.7.3 to registered developers. Apple continues to report no known issues in the seed notes, and asks developers to focus their testing on Address Book, iCal, Mail, Spotlight and Safari.


The previous builds had appeared to be close to a final release, but Apple is clearly still making some final tweaks to the update. The release description has indicated that the main improvements in OS X 10.7.3 will be support for several new languages and fixes for issues related to smart cards, directory services authentication, and Windows file sharing.
[ 55 comments ]

EFI Firmware Update Brings Lion Internet Recovery to Mid-2010 13-Inch MacBook Pro [Updated]

Monday January 23, 2012 8:30 pm PST by Eric Slivka

As noted in our forums, Apple today pushed out a new firmware update specifically targeting users of the company's Mid-2010 13-inch MacBook Pro model. The new MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 2.5 brings compatibility with Lion Internet Recovery, allowing users of OS X Lion to reinstall the operating system from scratch on a brand-new hard drive without the need for physical recovery media.

About MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 2.5

This update enables Lion Recovery from an Internet connection on MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010) models.

For more information about Lion Recovery, please visit this website: http://www.apple.com/macosx/recovery/.

The update has not yet appeared on Apple's support downloads site, but weighs in at a small 2.9 MB for the user who posted the Software Update screenshot.

Lion Internet Recovery debuted alongside OS X Lion on new MacBook Air and Mac mini models introduced last July. The feature adds a minimal bootable install onto a machine's firmware to allow it to connect the Internet and download the full Lion operating system for installation. OS X Lion by default installs a recovery partition on the machine's hard drive for this purpose, but for users who are installing a blank hard drive or whose recovery partition becomes inaccessible, Internet Recovery provides yet another fallback option for Lion installation.

Following the July introduction of Internet Recovery on the current MacBook Air and Mac mini models, Apple extended the feature in mid-September to the then-current Early 2011 MacBook Pro models that had been released in February 2011. One month later Apple brought the feature to Apple's current-generation iMac line, leaving only the aging Mac Pro without support for Internet Recovery.

With today's firmware update, Apple has for the first time reached back to a previous-generation model to bring Lion Internet Recovery to the 13-inch MacBook Pro that was offered from April 2010 through February 2011.

Update: Users are also reporting that similar EFI firmware updates are available for the Mid-2010 white MacBook and the Mid-2010 Mac mini.
[ 42 comments ]

Virgin America Names Jet After Steve Jobs

Monday January 23, 2012 1:49 pm PST by Jordan Golson

Virgin America has named one of its fleet after Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, emblazoning a popular Jobs quote "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish" on the side of this Airbus A320.

Steve mentioned the phrase in his 2005 commencement address at Stanford University, noting that it was originally used in The Whole Earth Catalog in the 1970's:

On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

A Virgin America spokesperson explained to MacRumors that the name was chosen as part of an internal plane naming competition. The plane, with tail number N845VA, first flew last fall.

Virgin America is the only airline based in Silicon Valley, with 2,200 employees based in Burlingame.

(Photo courtesy Virgin America)
[ 33 comments ]

Apple Opening Store-Within-A-Store Inside London's Harrods Department Store?

Thursday January 19, 2012 1:21 pm PST by Jordan Golson

Apple is planning to open a new store-within-a-store concept at the legendary Harrods department store on Brompton Road in London, according to 9to5Mac.

Harrods boasts more than 1 million square feet of selling space across 330 departments -- plenty of room for an Apple Store of sorts. The store-in-store concept will feature wooden tables and signage but won't have the signature feature of any standalone Apple Store: the Genius bar.

9to5Mac claims the store will be smaller than the typical standalone Apple Store, but will be larger than the standard store-within-a-store at Best Buy or the new pilot program at Target stores in the US.

The richly detailed interior of Harrods

Harrods is perhaps the best-known department store in the world and is visited by more than 300,000 customers on its busiest days. The store is owned by Qatar Holdings, the nation of Qatar's sovereign wealth fund; it was sold by Mohamad Al-Fayed for £1.5 billion in 2010.

(Images courtesy Flickr/sonewfangled and Flickr/Herry Lawford)
[ 66 comments ]

Apple Seeds OS X 10.7.3 Build 11D46 to Developers

Wednesday January 18, 2012 6:27 am PST by Eric Slivka
One week after the previous developer seed, Apple late yesterday pushed out Build 11D46 of OS X 10.7.3 to registered developers. Apple continues to report no known issues in the seed notes, and asks developers to focus their testing on iCloud Document Storage, Address Book, iCal, Mail, Spotlight and Safari.


The file size has once again grown slightly, with the delta version of the new build for updating from OS X 10.7.2 weighing in at 996.98 MB and a combo version good for updating from any previous version of OS X Lion weighing in at 1.26 GB.

The previous 11D42 build had appeared to be close to a final release, but Apple is clearly still making some final tweaks to the update. The release description has indicated that the main improvements in OS X 10.7.3 will be support for several new languages and fixes for issues related to smart cards, directory services authentication, and Windows file sharing.
[ 63 comments ]

Das Keyboard Releases Model S Professional for Mac

Monday January 16, 2012 10:19 am PST by Jordan Golson

Das Keyboard, a popular keyboard manufacturer that specializes in "clicky" mechanical keyboards like the Apple Extended Keyboard or the IBM Model M, has announced a Macintosh-edition of its Model S Professional keyboard.

Das's keyboards are a favorite of many computer users, including MacRumors chief Arnold Kim. The Model S Professional for Mac is the same keyboard as the Model S that Das Keyboard has been selling, but with the appropriate "control", "option", and "command" keys for the Macintosh, plus function keys for sleep, brightness +/-, mute, volume +/-, eject, play/pause, next and previous track.

CNET gave the Model S Professional 4/5 stars, praising its "tactile feel and satisfying clack" and noting that "power typists will find comfort, utility, and nostalgia in the Model S Professional's sleek design and springboard performance." The keyboard "brings back the same mechanical key switches and provides tactical and audible feedback that might even improve your typing speed and accuracy." The mechanical key switches of the 2.6 lb. Model S are designed to withstand more than 50 million strokes.

The Model S Professional for Mac will be priced at $133 when it's released, but is available for pre-order for $113. Das Keyboard says it has a limited quantity available for immediate shipping, but the keyboard will be shipped in volume on April 16, 2012.
[ 78 comments ]

ITC Rules Against Apple in Motorola Patent Case

Friday January 13, 2012 4:32 pm PST by Jordan Golson
In a preliminary ruling (PDF) today, the ITC ruled that Motorola's smartphones do not violate the Apple patents at issue, though the decision still needs to be approved by the full six-member ITC panel.

On this date, the ALJ issued an initial determination on violation of Section 337 and recommended determination on remedy and bond in the above-referenced investigation. It is held that no violation of section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, 19 U.S.C. § 1337, has occurred in the importation into the United States, the sale for importation, or the sale within the United States after importation of certain mobile devices and related software by reason of infringement of one or more of Claims 1, 2, 10, 11, 24-26, and 29 U.S. Patent No. 7,812,828 ("the '828 Patent"), claims 1-7 and 10 of U.S. Patent No. 7,663,607 ("the '607 Patent"), and claims 1, 3, and 5 ofthe U.S. Patent No. 5,379,430 ("the '430 Patent").

The case goes back to November 2010, when the International Trade Commission agreed to investigate Apple's claims of patent infringement lodged against Motorola.
[ 60 comments ]