Written by Benny Ling | 17 November 2011
Posted in Apple

MacRumors reports the 15" MacBook Air is drawing ever closer, with DigiTimes also saying that small numbers of components for a super-thin 15" ultra-thin notebook are beginning to ship this month, with mass shipments of the final product expected to begin some time in March next year. It is currently unknown whether this 15" MacBook Air will just be the current-style MacBook Air with a larger display, or a more powerful machine altogether.

Apple are searching for a replacement for Ron Johnson, the man behind the success of over 350 Apple Retail stores worldwide. The search for a replacement is proving daunting, however, as only 64 companies globally qualify as global retailers for doing business in at least two continents and at least $1 billion in sales. What's more, of those 64, just five have total revenue in same space as Apple.

The Next Web has a good piece on mastering the keyboard in OS X, from making your own custom keyboard shortcuts for all your apps, and even newer OS X features, such as text substitution and special characters (as introduced in OS X Lion).

If you've been reading the Steve Jobs biography at all, then you would know that Steve Jobs cried. A lot. Ars Technica has the review.

Written by Benny Ling | 16 November 2011
Posted in Apple

ITunes Match has officially been launched now, some two weeks after the official launch date but now available to the public. The launch of iTunes Match brings a new version of iTunes with iCloud support, but that's just about where all the good news ends — for one, iTunes Match isn't (yet) available outside of the US, and, it's currently limited to those with music libraries of 25,000 tracks or less.

The MacBook Air now represents a quarter of Apple's notebook shipments in the US, which speaks volumes about how popular the MacBook Air actually is, and how right Intel are about going to copy it with their Ultrabook series. Consider that MacBook Air shipments are up from just 8% earlier this year, and you know Apple are on to a winner — perhaps the first model wasn't hugely successful, but this revision definitely seems to be.

Written by Benny Ling | 15 November 2011
Posted in Apple

If you haven't already heard, Growl underwent some pretty big changes recently when it debuted on the Mac App Store not too long ago. Growl is no longer free, Growl doesn't have to be installed for apps to give notifications, Growl now supports sandboxed applications, out of date apps won't work with Growl, and Growl is still open source. As much as it's a hassle for app developers to make these changes, it seems the Growl team has done the right thing.

A new iTune beta has suggested that iTunes Match is finally approaching public release. Developers in the US are now testing beta 3 of iTunes 10.5.1, and after Apple wiped iTunes Match libraries on November 12th, we probably are closer to a release than you might think — especially seeing as Apple has already missed the original release date.

Written by Benny Ling | 14 November 2011
Posted in Apple

From what I'm reading so far, there's been a little bit of backlash against the upcoming Mac App Store sandboxing policy. People have said that sandboxing will severely decrease the quality of apps available on the App Store by simply not allowing them the same privileges as they are allowed now, and others still have said sandboxing isn't the approach Apple should be taking in order to achieve security. Now, Ars Technica says Mac OS X has its own sandboxing security hole.

Apple has released a few firmware updates — first there's a MacBook Pro update in order to resolve some unexpected shutdown issues when the machine is being plugged in and heavily used, and also an AirPort firmware update which fixes AirPlay audio streaming performance along with a few other things.

Written by Benny Ling | 11 November 2011
Posted in Apple

ZDNet bring up a really good point: where the heck is iWork '12? For the last few versions Apple has simply been adding features in an ad-hoc fashion to iWork 09, tacking on extras like support for features introduced with Lion, such as Versions and Auto-Save. Arguably iWork '12 isn't something that's explicitly required as the current version works just fine, but eventually we'll get to the point where an upgrade is needed. Perhaps we'll even see a Final Cut Pro X-style reboot, as suggested by ZDNet.

Yet another question this morning, this time from GigaOM, who ask the question of what's next for Apple after the MacBook Air. The thing about the MacBook Air is that it is such a great machine — so great that Intel have tried to copy it with their Ultrabook scheme — all this for a machine that was ridiculed at launch for not having an optical drive.

Written by Benny Ling | 10 November 2011
Posted in Apple

If your MagSafe connector exhibits an issue known as strain relief, you may be eligible for a free replacement. The new MagSafe Replacement Program only applies to the older-type MagSafe connectors, that is the T-shaped connectors that were in widespread use up until earlier this year, as the T-shaped connectors were the ones that displayed evidence of fraying the most. The only thing you need to do if you want your frayed MagSafe adapter checked for free replacement eligibility is to bring the adapter (and computer it was used with) to your local Apple Authorised Service Provider.

Security is one of the main ideas behind the (some would say very bad) idea of sandboxing for Mac App Store apps. Will Shipley (who wrote the code behind Delicious Monster) describes how there are few different approaches to security — and perhaps how sandboxing isn't the best solution to achieve security on the Mac platform, especially when Apple already have all the necessary tools to do the job properly.

Written by Benny Ling | 09 November 2011
Posted in Apple

Two new Adobe apps are now available in the Mac App Store. There's the popular "lite" version of Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, and also the "lite" version of Premiere, Premiere Elements. Both apps are roughly $105 each, and weigh in at 1GB downloads.

The thing about this upcoming Mac App Store sandboxing requirement, though, is that it's going to severely limit  apps. With Apple pushing the Mac App Store as one of the major ways to acquire Mac software out of the box (even going so far as to make the standard iLife applications available for download, and not pre-installed), there's a good blog post by Paul Ojala that explains exactly why the Mac App Store sandboxing policy makes him sad.

Written by Benny Ling | 08 November 2011
Posted in Apple

There's a little controversy surrounding the upcoming sandboxing rule that will govern all Mac App Store apps in the near future. Sandboxing is a pretty big deal because it means that apps will have far less privileges on the system than they had before — being restricted even further, and in some cases, being denied access to peripherals altogether. Ars Technica has a breakdown on why Apple's Mac App Store sandboxing requirement isn't in the interests of developers and users alike — if only for the sole reason that apps won't be able to do as much.

Apple Design Awards aren't just handed out to any developer of any old app — fart app or otherwise. No, an app has to exhibit a certain quality, a certain something to be considered for an Apple Design Award, and that special something may just be a few special somethings, as revealed by UX Magazine.

Written by Benny Ling | 07 November 2011
Posted in Apple

It's been a while, but Winamp has reared its ugly head again — and this time, it's on the Mac. Preferred by many Windows for music playback, Winamp (now for the Mac) was released a few days ago, mostly to enable music syncing to Android phones using the Winamp for Android app, by allowing Winamp for Mac users to sync their iTunes library, something that some similar apps also do.

Apple may want to kill off the Mac Pro, and BareFeats have compared the Mac Pro (now a few revisions old) to the current iMac to see how the two machines stack up in terms of performance when using pro apps. The gap is definitely closer with the latest Intel CPUs, but it's probably worth noting that a big part of the Mac Pro appeal is its expandability — four hard drive bays goes a long way when thinking about upgrades.

Written by Benny Ling | 04 November 2011
Posted in Apple

It seems like 2012 is already shaping up to be a big year for Apple, as multiple product rumours start circling. We already know there's going to be new iOS products (the iPad 3, possibly with Retina Display, and of course an as yet un-rumoured iPhone 5 or 6) and now there's a rumour from Digitimes that says Apple will completely overhaul the iMac and MacBook Air lines, too. But that's the thing: with the exception of the MacBook Air, which is the most recent Mac to receive any kind of redesign, how much more different could the iMac really get?

If you're using Lion 10.7.2 and use iCloud, there's a hidden folder that, if used correctly, allows you to sync files with iCloud across Macs. The cool thing about this folder is that you can use it to invisibly sync any files across Macs, anything from common documents and photos to even whole folders. The system even supports conflict resolution, and is a pretty neat trick (that is, if you're not already using something like Dropbox to do the same).