After releasing 12D74 late last month, Apple released OS X 10.8.3 build 12D76 to developers today with no major changes. Apple isn’t listing any known issues, and the company once again asked developers to focus on AirPlay, AirPort, Game Center, Graphics Drivers, and Safari.
We’ll let you know if developers report any changes in today’s build. Full release notes below:
Thanks, Anonymous!
Update: As noted by MacRumors, build 12D76 appears to include support for NVIDIA’s Quadro K5000 graphics card that the company announced for the Mac Pro in September but is yet to ship. Yesterday we told you about the new Sapphire HD 7950 graphics card shown for the first time at CeBIT, while support for the AMD 7000 series was first discovered in a 10.8.3 beta back in November.
Apple has seeded a new release of OS X 10.8.3 to developers today with build number 12D68. Apple, once again, told developers to focus on AirPlay, AirPort, Game Center, Graphics Drivers, and Safari. The build comes one week after Apple released build 12D65 to developers on Feb. 6 with a fix for the “File:///” bug.
We’ll let you know if developers report any changes in today’s build. The full release notes are below. Thanks, Anonymous.
1. Data Rescue 3 ($99.99)
* 2. Espresso 2 ($75.00)
* 3. Snapz Pro X 2.5 ($69.00)
4. TotalFinder ($18.00)
* 5. TotalSpaces ($15.00)
* 6. Mac DVDRipper Pro 4 ($24.95)
* 7. PopChar X 6 ($38.00)
8. MoneyWell 2 ($49.99)
* 9. Swift Publisher 3 ($29.95)
* 10. Company of Heroes ($29.99)
* 11. Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 Platinum ($29.99)
* BONUS. Live Interior 3D Pro ($129.95)
Available to first 12K.buyers only.
* = has never been in a bundle before (at least for the version that we’re selling, which are all paid upgrades from previous ones — like version 4 of Mac DVDRipper Pro)
Today only, Woot! has the base model 2011 MacBook Air new in box for $759.99+$5 shipping and tax where applicable (Apple charges roughly the same for a refurbished unit). That’s the lowest price we’ve seen for this MacBook Air that was replaced at WWDC in June.
“Wow, that was fast.” With MacBook Air, you’ll find yourself saying that a lot. Because flash storage is up to two times faster than a conventional hard drive,5 everything you do is more responsive and immediate — starting up, browsing a large photo library, launching applications, and opening files, for instance. When you combine the speed of flash storage with a fast dual-core processor and power-efficient graphics, your entire MacBook Air experience feels turbocharged. And flash storage doesn’t have any moving parts, which means it’s more reliable and quiet. Lightning fast, durable, silent — qualities that make sense in a notebook tasked with keeping up with you.
High-Speed Thunderbolt I/O
The breakthrough I/O technology pioneered on MacBook Pro and iMac now comes to MacBook Air, letting you connect multiple high-performance devices — such as external hard drives — through a single port. With two 10-Gbps data channels, Thunderbolt lets you transfer data at rates up to 12 times faster than FireWire 800 and up to 20 times faster than USB 2.0. Thunderbolt technology gives MacBook Air capabilities it’s never had before. Like attaching FireWire peripherals or connecting to Ethernet networks at gigabit speeds — two big gains from one tiny port.6
Long-lasting battery. Instant on. Even after a month off.
Since space-saving flash storage leaves room for a bigger battery, you can devote more time to the things you enjoy most. Things like browsing the web, editing photos, and watching videos. Get up to 5 hours of battery life on a single charge on the 11-inch model. Put MacBook Air to sleep, and it enters standby mode to conserve battery life for up to 30 days.7 When you come back to your MacBook Air and open it up, it’s on in an instant.
DVD or CD Sharing
With the Mac App Store, getting the apps you want on your Mac has never been easier. No more boxes, no more discs, no more time-consuming installation. Click once to download and install any app on your Mac. But if an app you need isn’t available from the Mac App Store, you can use DVD or CD Sharing. This convenient feature of OS X lets you wirelessly “borrow” the optical drive of a nearby Mac or PC. So you can install applications from a DVD or CD and have full access to an optical drive without having to carry one around.
Backlit keyboard
As incredibly compact as MacBook Air is, it still manages to fit a full-size keyboard that makes typing as natural as it is comfortable. And now the keyboard is backlit, so you can type with ease in even the dimmest light. A built-in ambient light sensor detects changes in lighting conditions and adjusts the display and keyboard brightness automatically. From a seat in a sunny café to a seat on a cross-country red-eye, you’ll always have the perfect lighting for any environment.
Ars put Parallels 8 against VMware Fusion this week and found there is not much of a contest between the two virtualization powerhouses. Parallels 8 out-gunned VMware across the board (as previous benchmarks have shown) performance-wise and adds full support for Retina displays and dictation among other features.
Neither Parallels Desktop 8 or VMWare Fusion 5 are loaded to the gills with new features, so the PD8 update from version 7 is only a must-have if you are looking for Windows 8 or retina MacBook support in Windows 7 or 8. If you need retina support, this is your best option since Parallels did the extra work and made it a better retina experience than in VMWare Fusion 5. The Mountain Lion dictation and experimental DirectX 10 support show that, while Parallels tends to have more frequent paid updates and a higher price-tag, they try to earn the extra value with well thought out features and engineering. Apart from the bugs I saw in Mountain Lion 8, I think Parallels Desktop 8 earns that extra cost with its solid performance, far superior Linux OpenGL support, and existing feature set. But if your needs are more big-business-oriented, VMWare Fusion 5 Pro might be more your thing.
VMware Fusion might fit better into cross-platform installations or for folks with legacy VMware images.
Update: Commenters pointed out the update is not going well…so proceed with caution.
As Roxio’s Toast moves from burning DVDs and BluRays to a “media toolkit” that allows easy social sharing and converting of audio/video (as well as burning/archiving), it is also getting updated with new Macintosh features. Today, Roxio’s Optical media burning software goes to 11.1 and adds the following updates:
Toast has been fully Cocoa-ized – Hundreds of changes and fixes implemented as a part of this effort
Added OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion compatibility
Added support for recording to 100GB and 128GB BDXL media
Implemented Gatekeeper Support
Web-Video feature improvements
Requires using Safari to capture web-video
YouTube users may need to OPT OUT of HTML5 Trial
Mountain Lion users will need to update to 10.8.1 or later to publish video to YouTube
Parallels just announced the availability of its next generation of virtualization software for the Mac. Although details are scant at this point, it is safe to assume it is optimized for Mountain Lion and Windows 8.
Notable: If you purchase/purchased Parallels 7 after July 25 (Mountain Lion’s release date), you are eligible for a free copy of Parallels 8. Not too shabby.
When Microsoft updated Office 2011 for Mac for Mountain Lion late last month, Retina display users quickly noticed Outlook was the only app to receive updated Retina graphics. One user described the remaining Office apps as “very blurry and tough on the eyes” on the new Retina MacBook Pro. Unfortunately, it does not look like Microsoft plans a fix anytime soon. A response from the Office for Mac Team explained Word, Excel, and PowerPoint would continue to run in the same resolution as on non-Retina Macs:
Outlook for Mac 2011 already supports Retina Display and the remaining apps will have the same viewing quality as on any non-Retina device. Unfortunately at this time, we cannot comment on any future updates regarding supporting Retina on Word, Excel or PowerPoint… Hope that helps!
Things 2.0: One of the leading iOS and Mac productivity apps was updated today to version 2.0 with a ton of new features. Included in the update is “Things Cloud”. It is a cloud service that syncs your to-dos across Macs and the iOS client. A new Daily Review feature makes important to-dos appear when you need them, and a “revolutionary scrolling Date Picker makes selecting dates more natural than ever.” The UI has also been updated along with a new engine that provides “blazingly fast Things Cloud performance.” These and other new features and improvements are included in the Things for iPad app.
Things 2.0 (Mac App Store): In addition to free updates to the iOS versions of Things, the Mac App Store client was updated today to version 2.0. The update includes the “Things Cloud” service mentioned above, allowing you to sync across platforms, while other new features include a “Daily Review” that presents important to-dos for the day, full Mountain Lion support, Retina graphics, full-screen mode, a number of other enhancements.
Pixelmator version 2.1: Popular image editor Pixelmator was updated on the Mac App Store today with a much needed Retina-ready UI and image-editing engine, iCloud support to keep projects up to date on multiple machines, as well as a new effects browser containing “new Vintage, Miniaturize, Black and White, Rain, and Snow effects.” Also included in the update is full OS X Mountain Lion support and alignment guides to “quickly position, align, and evenly distribute objects in your Pixelmator compositions with pinpoint accuracy.”
Tweetdeck version 1.5.3:Today’s massive update to the popular Mac Twitter client brings a slew of user-interface enhancements such as the ability to use the Columns button to quickly jump to any position. Users can also navigate the arrow buttons to scroll left and right several columns at a time, use swipe gestures on the trackpad to scroll, access key user and Tweet actions from the new actions menu, and fit more columns on screen by enabling Narrow Columns in Settings. The update also boasts improved animations for tweets and column management, performance improvements, and many bug fixes.
Pomodorable version 1.0: Released on the Mac App Store today, Pomodorable is a task management app that its developers said takes a “fresh approach to managing to do lists” by taking full advantage of Notification Center, Notes, Reminders, and other Mountain Lion features. While at first glance it might appear to compete with Things, the app actually includes support for Things and OmniFocus. It allows you to view tasks from those apps within the Pomodorable, and the app is 50 percent off for a limited time following today’s launch.
PDF Expert version 4.2:Readdle’s PDF Expert app was updated recently with a new “Presentation Mode” that allows you to connect an iPad to a projector ” and make interactive non-linear presentations” with content from PDFs, videos, and images. The update also includes live annotation tools, new annotation colours, and a number of other improvements. Expand Expanding Close
For pros, Adobe offers CS6 Creative Cloud for $29.99/month for your first year of membership ($360 for the year or under $1/day). Offers end August 26th and 31st.
INDIANAPOLIS, Aug. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — To support Apple’s announcement of the release of their latest operating system, OS X Mountain Lion, John Wiley and Sons, Inc. is bringing to market a series of new instructional books covering the topic for every level of user. Seven titles are publishing from Wiley on the topic of OS X Mountain Lion including:
“With over 200 new features in OS X Mountain Lion, users will be able to quickly gain knowledge on everything the new operating software has to offer through Wiley’s latest books,” said Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus, author of OS X Mountain Lion For Dummies, “From For Dummies guides to the OS X Mountain Lion Bible, Wiley is one of the first publishers to market with their extensive list of books on Mountain Lion, offering something for every level of end user.”
Wiley’s new OS X Mountain Lion books will be available for purchase online and at retailers nationwide in both print and all e-book formats. For additional information, visit http://lp.wileypub.com/osxmountainlion/. Expand Expanding Close
Just 24 hours after Apple released Mountain Lion, over half of our readers are already on the slightly smaller, big cat. That is an impressive feat for a desktop OS, and it is one made easier by the Mac App Store. We had a bit of a head start with 10 percent grabbing the developer download over the past weeks, and obviously the general Mac populations is probably a bit behind.
Apple officially enabled its Up-to-Date program after launching the new operating system, but some who tried to receive their free upgrade to OS X Mountain Lion immediately ran into problems. Many redemption codes were apparently coming up invalid, so Apple said it would replace the invalid codes over the next three days.
At least a half dozen commenters in the MacRumors Forum claim Apple sent the replacement codes today, but, unfortunately, the codes are for the “OS X Server components of Mountain Lion rather than Mountain Lion itself.” One commenter specifically said an error message appeared that warned the “OSX Server cannot be downloaded”:
[tweet https://twitter.com/snackdog/status/228534270673698816] Expand Expanding Close
One of the big new features in OS X Mountain Lion is the Game Center. This Game Center is cross platform between OS X and iOS. Unfortunately, only a few compatible titles have made their way into Mac App Store for today’s launch. However, some of them are very notable. Some of our favorites include Real Racing 2, Sky Gamblers, and Cut the Rope.
Apple will not offer a USB or Optical Disk external installer to Mountain Lion (as far as we have heard). That does not mean you cannot sneaker net the install around your home, office or lab like Apple Store employees do (sometimes). Lion Diskmaker has been updated to allow you to make a bootable USB or SD Card installer on a 8GB piece of media.
Following this morning’s launch of 10.8 Mountain Lion on the Mac App Store, Apple just launched a separate app as an OS X Server for Mountain Lion. It allows users to add sever functionality to the OS for $20. It is definitely a significant price drop from the $49 Lion server and the $500 or so it cost to add the functionality before that.
OS X Server is the next generation of Apple’s award winning server software. Designed for OS X and iOS devices, OS X Server makes it easy to share files, schedule meetings, synchronize contacts, host your own website, publish wikis, configure Macs, iPhones and iPads, remotely access your network, and more.
Server is now an application you can add to Mountain Lion right from the Mac App Store. Anyone can quickly and easily turn a Mac running Mountain Lion into a server that’s perfect for home offices, businesses, schools, and hobbyists alike.
As Apple previously announced during its Q3 2012 earnings call yesterday, Mountain Lion is officially available for download in the Mac App Store for $19.99. The download is exclusive to the Mac App Store this year, as we mentioned before, because Apple will not sell the OS via USB sticks or optical discs. The $20 price tag is a $10 drop from Lion, however, and the single purchase will is good for up to five macs via the Mac App Stores purchased apps feature.
Tomorrow, after much excitement, Apple will officially launch OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion for $19.99 to the public on the App Store. A new operating system certainly brings a ton of new features. However, there is always the lingering possibility that your favorite app may not be compatible. Just before the launch of Lion last year, we told you about a website called RoaringApps. As Mountain Lion is unleashed from its cage tomorrow, here is a little reminder on exactly why RoaringApps is so useful.
RoaringApps is a free website that allows you to check the compatibility of your apps with Mountain Lion. The website provides a long table of apps (it is a ton) that displays what apps are supported on the new OS X and whether the app is available on the App Store. If you are planning to upgrade to Mountain Lion tomorrow, this is definitely a website worth checking. The website organizes apps by name, and it has a search function to make things easy. [RoaringApps]
On a related note, how many of you plan to purchase Mountain Lion tomorrow? Is anyone holding off?
Update 2: After a brief time online, Apple appears to have taken down the form to request a copy of Mountain Lion. You’ll still be able to request a copy at Apple’s original link following Mountain Lion’s official release.
Update: As noted by MacRumors, Apple’s form to request a free copy of Mountain Lion for new Mac owners is already live on the company’s website. After entering details about your purchase, personal details, and the serial numbers of your new Mac, Apple sends two emails —one with a password protected redemption code and another containing the password— to open it. The redemption code is not yet working in the Mac App Store.
Apple previously confirmed, when it unveiled the new Retina MacBook Pros and refreshed Mac lineups, that Mountain Lion would be available for free to those who purchased a Mac after June 11 through the Up-to-Date program. Since then, Apple has updated its website to confirm the free copy will be available to new Mac owners for 30 days from the release date, which will likely be sometime after tomorrow’s Q3 earnings call. Those who purchase a new Mac following Mountain Lion’s release will also have 30 days to claim their copy on Apple’s website.
We’ve heard a few whispers (3 and counting) that Apple Stores both in the United States and overseas have planned overnights for Tuesday, July 24th. With OS X Mountain Lion launching “in July”, according to Apple, we believe that it is sensible to speculate that this overnight may point to a public launch the following day.
This year, Mountain Lion isn’t being launched alongside hardware (last year new Minis and Airs launched with Lion) so there is less setup required and accordingly, we’re hearing that the overnights will be smaller. One employee tells us that it is basically just a few guys running around with the master image installing it on every Mac. Notably, some stores we’ve spoken to haven’t heard of any overnight…yet.
On the other hand, Apple often holds Tuesday overnights, so this July 24th overnight may simply be a coincidence, and Apple may not launch OS X Mountain Lion on the 25th. But, there is already under two weeks left in July, and with last year’s launch pattern prime for repetition (launch announcement during the upcoming earnings call), we’d say a July 25th launch is increasingly likely.
OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion will be a $19.99 upgrade which will hit the Mac App Store on launch day. Developers already have what is likely the Golden Master – build number is 12A269, a 4.34 GB Mac App Store download.
Since Apple unveiled its new in-house Maps app for iOS 6, we have discovered bits and pieces of what it has planned for the final release this fall. Apple already showed off Yelp integration, turn-by-turn navigation, and the 3D flyover mode, and it appears to be utilizing a new Avenir typeface. Today, Techpp posted a code dump from the iOS 6 maps app courtesy of developer Cody Cooper who found some interesting evidence of potential Maps integration with OS X:
Our developer friend, Cody Cooper has now stumbled upon an interesting code dump in iOS 6 maps application which hints at the possibility of Apple Maps coming to Macs in the near future.
During his routine investigation of Maps app, Cody found some interesting bits in the file altitude_manifest.xml
In this XML file, there is a reference to a set of Intel based graphics chipsets for which certain features like Shading are disabled.
While this is not solid proof that Apple is working on a full-blown Maps app for Mac, it could hint at possible integration between core apps and features in Mountain Lion and Maps on iOS. For example, location features in iPhoto could integrate with iOS Maps. As noted in the report, the code refers to shading being disabled for older Intel chipsets, which Cooper guessed could likely not support the app’s shading features. We will do some digging, and then update you if we discover anything new. The public release of Mountain Lion is scheduled for this month. Expand Expanding Close
Skype updated its Mac client today to version 5.8 to add full support for 10.8 Mountain Lion and a number of features that aim to bring the app up to par with the current Windows version. Perhaps the most notable new feature included in the update is a refined contact list that replaces the old floating menu. Accessible from the “Window” menu, the new Contacts Monitor (pictured right) provides a simplified view of your contacts in a window that can be repositioned and resized. Skype said it is meant to be much like older versions, such as Skype 2.8, that users seemed to prefer. The new contact list also has filters such as “Friends” and “Family,” and the ability to right-click to start a call or new message.
Another new feature for Skype 5.8 on Mac previously only available to Windows users is access to group screen sharing. The feature is for premium subscribers, but it supports up to groups of 10 with only one member of the group required to have a premium subscription. You will also now be able to share your video feed simultaneously while screen-sharing with multiple users.
A few other updates we noticed in the latest release:
After giving a demonstration for some of the new features in Mountain Lion today, Apple confirmed during its Worldwide Developers Conference keynote that Mountain Lion would ship in July for just $19.99. That price is good for Lion and Snow Leopard users who want to upgrade all their personal Macs. Apple also noted it would be free for all developers attending WWDC. Apple will ship a developer preview today.
