Written by Benny Ling | 05 December 2011
Posted in Apple

MacRumors says a new beta graphics driver in Mac OS 10.7.3 reveals evidence of new Mac Pros, which means there might be a Mac Pro refresh sooner rather than later. They support their theory with the anecdotal evidence that new models of graphics cards are usually introduced with newer models first, then made to work with any previous machines that support the newer graphics hardware.

Hot on the heels of a potential Mac Pro refresh is the definitely-going-to-be-updated iMac lineup, with new Intel processors leading the way for Apple to introduce them into their machines in the near future. The Ivy Bridge Intel processor refresh is expected to hit sometime in Q2 2012, after delays preventing it from being released during the original release schedule.

Written by Benny Ling | 05 December 2011
Posted in Apple

Floods in Thailand a few months back have caused shipping delays with Apple products, leading to shipping estimates blowouts on the Apple online store. These shipping estimate blowouts don't seem to have affected the NZ or Australian online stores, but the hard drive shortages mostly affect larger-capacity drives such as the 2TB option as found on the iMac range, but even buying hard drives directly from retailers has resulted in severe price hikes. Now is a pretty bad time to be buying extra storage, and the situation doesn't seem likely to improve anytime soon.

Apple seeded the Mac OS X 10.7.3 update (build 11D24) to developers. This is the second such release of 10.7.3 since the first was released just last week, which asked developers to focus on areas such as iCloud document storage among other things — the new update now adds Spotlight and Safari to the list of focus points for testing. It's currently unknown when the update will appear in Software Update.

Written by Benny Ling | 02 December 2011
Posted in Apple

It's a fairly slow news week for Mac news, but there is something that is somewhat related: Apple now ships more iPads than Dell sells PCs. A few years ago, such a feat would have been unheard of, and what's more, AppleInsider says the iPad is disrupting the wider DRAM market due to the number of iPads being shipped, making DRAM manufacturers lose millions of dollars on factories that won't see much usage.

There's a few crazy (and admittedly iOS-based) patents from Apple that have passed through the US Patent Office recently, and Patently Apple take a look at a patent to control a remote drone using an iOS device (similar to the Parrot AR Drone), a patent for an iPad-based robot that interacts with its environment and has built-in cloud computing integration, as well as a patent for a guitar accessory that your iPad can hook into to create a touch-screen based guitar.

Written by Benny Ling | 01 December 2011
Posted in Apple

9 to 5 Mac have some plausible specifications on the newly rumoured Apple TV that was discovered in the latest iOS beta. They're saying the new Apple TV might include Bluetooth 4.0, which brings lower power consumption than any of its predecessors. It also happens to be the same spec Bluetooth found in the iPhone 4S, which leads 9 to 5 Mac to hypothesise that eventually the two (or any other future devices, for that matter) could communicate and exchange information.

In new software releases today is the release of Alfred, the personal assistant for your Mac. Alfred has been along for a while now, but it only hit version 1.0 very recently — and if you enjoy using Spotlight but wish it had just a few more features, or a little extra functionality, Alfred might just be the butler on your Mac you've been looking for.

Written by Benny Ling | 30 November 2011
Posted in Apple

A beta release of iOS 5.1 has been released to the public, and a reference to a previously-undiscovered model of Apple TV has been found among the new features and bug-fixes. The new Apple TV, for now known as J33, is rumoured to be an Apple TV refresh that contains the same A5 dual-core processor that powers the current iPad 2, which might mean the next Apple TV you buy will be more than capable of 1080p video playback.

There are all kinds of docking stations available for the other MacBook (Pro) models — the Henge dock and BookEndz comes to mind — but until now, there hasn't really been any sort of alternative for people who carry a MacBook Air as their portable machine of choice. Fortunately, there's a project on Kickstarter that aims to change all that — a product named the LandingZone might be exactly what you've been looking for.

Written by Benny Ling | 29 November 2011
Posted in Apple

DigiTimes all but confirm something we already knew: that there will be a MacBook Air refresh sometime next year, probably in the first quarter of 2012. They say that a new model will be introduced — the 15" MacBook Air that has been rumoured for a few months now — along with an update to the existing 11 and 13-inch models. As for whether the new model will be an expansion of the current lineup or a scaled-down MacBook Pro, your guess is as good as mine.

Compared to other companies, Apple stock does very well on the stock exchange. However, compared to other companies, Apple as a company does very well — astronomical growth rates and massive profits could very well mean that Apple stock is actually undervalued, at least compared to other companies.

Written by Benny Ling | 28 November 2011
Posted in Apple

A somewhat concerning story from Krebson Security is that Apple took over three years to fix a hole in their software. The hole, first exploited by the FinFisher trojan, was in relation to a vulnerability which allowed malicious software to alert the user of an update to legitimate software which didn't protect its updates via signing, therefore allowing the malicious software to download and install compromised copies of the most popular software available, even software like iTunes on Windows.

Over at the New York Times, Nick Bilton has interviewed Walter Isaacson, author of the Steve Jobs biography you might have heard of lately. Isaacson is also the author of an Albert Einstein biography, and while he thinks that Einstein was in a different orbit to Jobs, he says that Jobs was probably more similar to Pablo Picasso or Walt Disney.

Written by Benny Ling | 25 November 2011
Posted in Apple

ICloud has been released for a few weeks now, and besides a few teething issues when it launched (and many MobileMe accounts were migrated across), for the most part, it's been fantastic so far. The next step is for Apple to start expanding on their success and start building some new things, whether those things be in the form of new web apps or new services, and to that end, they've started looking for senior level execs so they can get started.

If you look at it from the right angle, and have something of a good imagination, you can see the command symbol as a stylised castle. The command key was originally used in Swedish campgrounds to denote an interesting sightseeing destination, and now it's universally recognised as synonymous with the Mac. These facts (and many more) have been revealed in the sketchbook of Susan Kare, an artist who designed icons for computing as we know it.

Written by Benny Ling | 24 November 2011
Posted in Apple

Sales of the Mac in the ever-important enterprise sector grew by 44% last quarter, continuing the trend of impressive growth in enterprise sales from previous sales quarters. Even so, the 44% increase only represents a portion of the Mac's 5.2% worldwide market share even though that number represents a 15-year high for Apple, showing that there's still plenty of room to improve even further.

Horace Deidu from Asymco puts forward an interesting point: is innovation valuable? Or are companies such as Apple only as valuable as their product line? He goes so far as to say that Apple are a small collection of (successful) product bets, but what happens when the well runs out? Does history repeat itself, or are Apple just going to churn out hit after hit until the end of time?

Written by Benny Ling | 23 November 2011
Posted in Apple

Apple has teased a one-day shopping event on it's online store to coincide with the traditional Black Friday sales in the US. The teaser, accessible from the Apple online store, says that it will be a special shopping event — presumably we'll see better-than-average discounts on all Apple gear and accessories, even though Apple discounts directly from Apple are incredibly rare. But that's not even the best news: the sales will be worldwide, and not just limited to the US.

Just yesterday I was telling you about the new VMware feature that allowed you to run virtualised instances of the non-Server versions of Snow Leopard and Leopard. The new feature worked by simply popping up a license check window that let you make sure whether you're license-compliant or not. As it turns out, TUAW got in contact with VMware, who are now saying that that particular feature was a mistake, and will probably be removed in a subsequent update.

Greg Joswiak, worldwide VP of iOS product marketing, has the four keys to Apple's success: it's about focus. It's about simplicity. It's about courage, and it's about being the best.

There's a nice infographic over at visual.ly that shows just how large Apple is. It's called "what's smaller than Apple", and it's yet another eye-opener into just how large Apple has become.