MacRumors' Mac Blog: Mac Apps, News and Rumors

For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with ioSafe to give away one of their Solo G3 fireproof, waterproof external hard drives. The ioSafe Solo G3 is a rugged, heavy external hard drive that's made to hold up against disaster and look nice on a desk. The Solo G3 is not a small hard drive, measuring in at 7.1 x 5 x 11 inches and weighing 15 pounds, but that's because of all of the equipment ...

Apple yesterday quietly removed all mentions of PayPal Credit from its U.S. Online Store, signaling its decision to stop allowing customers to use PayPal Credit payment plans for purchases in the United States. On the financing section of its website, where customers can get information about their payment options, Apple is now only offering financing through Barclaycard Visa, which allows...

Country music singer Kenny Chesney is the focus of the latest Apple Music advertisement, which aired last night during the Country Music Association awards on ABC. Taking a glimpse behind the scenes of Chesney's "No Shoes Nation" tour, the ad shows the singer going through a day of preparing for his next concert by creating a "Show Day List" playlist on Apple Music and touting the service's...

A handful of technology giants -- including Apple, Amazon, Google, PayPal, and Intuit -- have announced a partnership in the formation of the Financial Innovation Now coalition (via Re/code). The group aims to promote tech-friendly policies and changes within the financial services sector in Washington, D.C. Those behind the group will work to alter the political debate on relevant issues like...

EmojiWorks is today debuting the first hardware-based emoji keyboard, which is designed to make it easier for users to quickly type their favorite emoji using built-in shortcut keys. The keyboard looks like a standard Apple-style keyboard, but it includes emoji symbols. Each key on the Emoji Keyboard from EmojiWorks includes an emoji in addition to a letter, which can be inserted by pressing ...

Apple announced yesterday that the company has opened up its cryptographic libraries so that third-party developers can build more "advanced security features" into their apps (via VentureBeat). The cryptographic libraries being opened to developers are the same ones Apple uses to protect iOS and OS X, as Apple notes on its updated site. Developers will have access to two of the company's...

Apple's latest 4K and 5K iMacs support a 10-bit graphics driver on OS X El Capitan, allowing for smoother color transitions, according to German website Mac & i. The 10-bit color output enables 1024 gradations per color channel, a significant increase from 256 with 8-bit depth on previous iMacs. 30 bit pixel depth — 10 bit for each RGB color (Image: cinema5D) Digital filmmaking news website ci...

Apple has reportedly declined an offer made by the British singer-songwriter Adele to stock her newest album, 25, in Apple retail stores (via The Daily Mail). Meanwhile, the singer's agents at William Morris Endeavor -- a talent agency -- have pitched the Cupertino company on a possible $30 million tour sponsorship after the album debuts on November 20. It's not currently clear where the status...

Apple's 12-inch Retina MacBook eschews all ports and traditional charging methods for a single USB Type-C port, which is used for charging and to connect peripherals to the machine. With just a single port to work with, hub solutions are a must for anyone who wants to attach more than one accessory at once and use older accessories that aren't compatible with USB Type-C. Popular Apple...

The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) yesterday announced that it has officially published the Embedded DisplayPort (eDP) Standard version 1.4b, which brings the previous 1.4a iteration into the final stages of production-ready status for future notebook and all-in-one desktop displays. This final revision of the eDP 1.4 standard includes a few "key protocol refinements and...

Apple today updated its Maps app for Mac and iOS with new Flyover locations in number of cities and "Nearby" location listings in Australia, Canada, France, and Germany. Introduced in iOS 9, the Nearby feature displays restaurants and stores that are located close by. When searching in the Maps app, Nearby shows up as a list of categories like Food, Drinks, Shopping, and Fun. Nearby was...

With the recent release of OS X El Capitan, Mac users can now take advantage of full-screen apps in a split screen view. That is, a compatible app will zoom to take up an entire half of the screen and you can do the same with a second one, giving you two apps side-by-side in full-screen mode. While the basics of Split View are simple, there are a few aspects you might want to get familiar with ...

The Pure Group today announced that its Pure Fitness gym located at Knightsbridge, a four-storey luxury shopping center in Singapore, will be closing on December 15, 2015 to make space for the first Apple Store in the country opening late 2016, per Tech in Asia and multiple Singaporean news outlets. Pure Fitness is located at 270 Orchard Road in Singapore (Google Maps) Pure Fitness will...

Apple today announced two clean energy programs aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of its manufacturing partners in China. Apple says the programs will avoid over 20 million metric tons of greenhouse gas pollution in China between now and 2020, which is equivalent to taking 4 million cars off the road for a year. “Climate change is one of the great challenges of our time, and the time...

At its Twitter Flight developer conference, Twitter today announced plans for a redesigned and updated Twitter for Mac client, reports TechCrunch. The new Twitter for Mac app will include support for several newer Twitter features such as in-line Vine, video, and GIF playback, group Direct Messages, photo Direct Messages, and in-line replies. Image via TechCrunch The app, which will be...

Along with updates for iOS, OS X, and watchOS 2, Apple today released a new version of iTunes, iTunes 12.3.1. The update is a minor one, with the release notes only saying it improves overall stability and performance. The iTunes update can be downloaded from the software update function in the Mac App Store. iTunes 12.3.1 comes just over a month after the release of iTunes 12.3, which...

Ruben Profit, a 24-year-old employee at an Apple Store in New York's Queens Center Mall, has been charged with grand larceny and faces up to fifteen years in prison for an illegal scheme he ran while using his privileges as an Apple retail employee (via NBC). Profit used re-coded Visa and American Express debit, credit, or gift cards to purchase numerous Apple gift cards, which he would then...

San Francisco-based accessory manufacturer Waterfield Designs today unveiled a new line of protective cases for the newly announced Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad 2. The company promises that the custom-fit cases protect the new Apple accessories from everyday drops and dings, and are thin and light enough to slip into bigger bags. The Waterfield Magic Keyboard Slip case The Magic Keyboard ...