Released in 2011 and 2012, Mac OS X Lion and OS X Mountain Lion were the last paid software updates for the Mac. Ten years ago, users needed to pay Apple $19.99 for the latest version of its OS X, and now you can finally download these two for free.
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Update: The glitch may be related with the latest versions of Find My Mac and iTunes, according to testing by The Mac Observer.
Since upgrading to OS X 10.9.3, some users are reporting that their /Users folder is now hidden. This means the folder is no longer visible when looking at the root of the hard drive in the Finder, which is inconvenient for Macs with multiple users installed.
With OS X Lion, Apple took the liberty to hide the Library folder from OS X users. However, it does not seem like hiding the /Users directory is an Apple design decision. Many users are still seeing this folder after updating and the behaviour is consistent. The most likely conclusion is that is simply a bug that slipped through to final release, despite Apple’s new beta testing program. If you are affected by this bug, you can find out how to make your /Users folder visible again after the break …
From 9to5Toys.com:
MacConnection offers the base model MacBook Air that was replaced this summer, new in box, for $699. This Air includes an Intel Core i5-2467M 1.6GHz Sandy Bridge dual-core processor, 11.6″ 1366×768 LED-backlit display, 2GB RAM, 64GB SSD, AirPort Extreme (802.11n wireless), Bluetooth 4.0, Facetime camera, Thunderbolt port, and Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. Ground shipping is free.
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We’ve received word from AppleSeed testers that the first 10.8.1 Betas are on the way.
There has been some concern over excessive battery drain in recent days as well as Apple’s curious new “Save as” behavior which also overwrites the current version which will hopefully be addressed in upcoming releases.
[tweet https://twitter.com/9to5mac/status/233282559855976448]
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 purported launch would be July 25th, a date that we speculated when Apple announced that its Q3 2012 earnings would be announced on the 24th. For OS X Lion’s launch last year, Apple announced the July 20th release at its July 19th Q3 2011 earnings announcement. It appears that Apple may follow that same pattern this year.
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.
We told you about our affection for Hackintoshs before. With the recent Mac Pro spec refresh disappointing many and not taking advantage of modern technology such as Thunderbolt, USB3, SATA3 or just about anything less than three-years-old, maybe it is time to consider building one.
Lifehacker’s Adam Dachis compiled a long list of parts that will allow you to build a Hackintosh that matches or exceeds the new Mac Pro’s specs on the cheap (though we are not sure how a Core i7 3.4GHzis going to do versus a Mac Pro Xeon!). Here are the parts to build the base Mac Pro for only $1,148 instead of $2,499:
Check out Lifehacker’s post for the mid-range and high-range prices. Or, head over to Tonyx86 and formulate your own Mac PRO.
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Nuance announced it is releasing the Dragon Express Mac App Store app today to seven new countries in three new languages. Originally released last year, the app is now available in the following countries for around $50:
Dragon Express 1.1 now supports the French language in Canada, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland, the German language in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, and the Italian language in Italy.
Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Switzerland (French), Switzerland (German)
According to iPhonehellas [translated], Nuance also held a press event today in Greece to announce the availability of Dragon Dictation for June 6.
The full press release from Nuance is below:
Nuance’s Dragon Express for Mac OS App Store Now Available in French, German and Italian Languages
BURLINGTON, Mass., – May 31, 2012 – Nuance Communications, Inc., (NASDAQ: NUAN) today announced that its Dragon Express App, an introductory voice recognition app for Mac OS X Lion, has debuted in seven additional countries, supporting three additional languages. Dragon Express 1.1 now supports the French language in Canada, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland, the German language in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, and the Italian language in Italy. Available exclusively for download from Apple’s Mac App Store, Dragon Express is an easy and fun way to put words to work without the hassle of typing, allowing users to do more in less time.
Released in late 2011, Dragon Express quickly rose to the top of the charts in the Mac App Store. It’s a fast, hands-free way to quickly turn speech into text, whether sending email, surfing the Web or posting an update to Facebook and Twitter. Dragon Express is priced to provide people with an opportunity to experience the power and performance of speech recognition.
“The excitement for Dragon Express has been overwhelming, and we’ve heard our customers’ requests for additional language support,” said Peter Mahoney, chief marketing officer, senior vice president and general manager, Dragon, Nuance Communications. “We know that people around the world are embracing speech as a useful and fun interface, and we’re excited to bring the Dragon Express app to a broader worldwide audience.”
Dragon Express can be conveniently accessed from the menu bar at any time and doesn’t require a network connection. Users dictate directly into the Dragon Express window, using the internal Mac microphone or a USB headset microphone (which can be purchased via http://www.nuance.com), and the text instantly appears in the Dragon Express window. When finished, Dragon Express places the transcribed text into the application of choice. The download comes with a short enrollment so that the app can better recognize a user’s unique voice.
Dragon Dictate, the most full-featured and advanced speech recognition software for Mac OS, was recently updated to version 2.5. Dragon Dictate 2.5 includes many features beyond those in Dragon Express. These features include the ability to dictate directly into applications, edit, format and correct recognition errors by voice, open and close applications by voice, control the mouse by voice, create custom voice commands and support for the Dragon Remote Mic app for iPhone.
Apple has released software updates to both of their already acknowledged, unreleased Mac OS X updates: Mountain Lion and Lion 10.7.4. The OS X Mountain Lion is a not a full new Developer Preview, but is simply an update to the already released Developer Preview 3. Changes are currently unknown, but please send in anything you find to tips@9to5mac.com. The update weighs in at 1.45GB on a MacBook Air, but that may vary on other machines. Similiarly, Apple released a few minor developer preview updates during the OS X Lion beta period.
In addition, Apple has seeded a new build of 10.7.4 to developers. The build number is 11E53, and this is notable as this is only a single build shift from last week’s release of 10.7.4 build 11E52. A slow down in build number changes often means an imminent release of whatever OS X update is being tested. Augmenting this possibility is that Apple has added the 10.7.4 change log to the installer application for the beta. Apple says the build has no known issues but asks developers to focus their testing on graphics, iCal, Mail, Printing, and Time Machine.
Apple has also released Developer Preview 4 of Xcode 4.4. The Xcode preview requires either OS X Mountain Lion or OS X Lion.
From 9to5Toys.com:
The Spring 2012 Mac SuperBundle is one of the better Mac Software bundles we’ve seen. If you want to burn DVDs or even Blu-rays on your Mac, you are getting Toast Titanium 11 for half its $99 list price and get 9 other solid apps to boot.
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The Spring 2012 Mac SuperBundle includes:
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From 9to5Toys.com:
The Spring 2012 Mac SuperBundle is one of the better Mac Software bundles we’ve seen. If you want to burn DVDs or even Blu-rays on your Mac, you are getting Toast Titanium 11 for half its $99 list price and get 9 other solid apps to boot.
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The Spring 2012 Mac SuperBundle includes:
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A number of users flooded Apple Support Communities forums following yesterday’s release of the Mac OS X Lion 10.7.3 update to complain about dreaded CUI errors. In addition to a bunch of minor issues, some people reported being greeted with unexpected app crashes after rebooting into 10.7.3. For them, attempting to launch any application would produce the above (and below) prompt saying:
The application unexpectedly quit after trying to restore its windows. Do you want to try to restore its windows again?
Log files reveal that the affected users are often unable to use their computer normally as a large number of crashes are being logged. Luckily, there are several easy workarounds to fix this annoying bug…
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From 9to5Toys.com:
Nova offers its MacSuperbundle Winter Deal for $49. We are picky about our bundles, but Parallels alone makes this one worth noting. There are some solid extras here as well.
Valued at over $470 if purchased separately, the nine software titles and exciting bonus app in the new 2012 Mac SuperBundle are available for just $49, an 89% savings, and offer innovative solutions no Mac user should be without. Nova’s biggest bundle to date and best consumer deal yet features the award-winning and #1 selling virtualization software Parallels Desktop® 7 for Mac, (a $79.99 value alone), and includes essential Mac maintenance tools and organizational apps, plus audio, video and digital creativity software and much more. The Mac SuperBundle launches on January 25th, 2012 and will be available for 14 days only.
Other applications include:
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Apple seeded its registered developers last night with a new version of Mac OS X Lion 10.7.3. The software carries a build number of 11D46 and arrives just a week following the 11D42 build. It has no known issues, indicating that public release is around the corner. Developers are asked to focus on iCloud Document Storage, Address Book, iCal, Mail, Spotlight and Safari. The Delta update weighs in at 996.98MB and combo update is a 1.26GB download. The OS X Lion Server 10.7.3 build 11D46 is also available for download (Delta:1GB, Combo: 1.34GB, Server Admin Tools: 202.59MB). Additional build notes after the break.
(We’re offering a $10 discount/free Parallels MacBook Air contest this week)
If you are not new to Parallels, you will already be familiar with its ability to run Windows in a virtual machine within OS X. You might also be familiar with its Coherence view mode that allows you to run Windows and Mac OS applications side by side, rather than a full-blown Windows 7 in a separate window. However, Parallels Desktop 7 takes it to the next level with some of the deepest Windows/OS X integration yet.
The name of the game for the new Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac is definitely OS X Lion integration. Pretty much every new UI feature incorporated into Lion has been integrated into Parallels, and thus Windows 7. We put the new version to the test with both Windows 7 and Windows 8 developer preview on last year’s iMac with 4GB of RAM.
Apple released OS X 10.7.3 build 11D36 to developers this evening, and it is available on the Developer Center. Apple asked developers to focus on iCloud Document Storage, Address Book, iCal, Mail, Spotlight, and Safari. The delta update of this build tops out at 986 MB and the combo update weighs in at 1.25 GB. The OS X 10.7.3 should roll out to Lion users in the coming weeks, so sit tight.
Apple is hiring dozens of talented people on a daily basis, but this one deserves your attention. Jan-Michael Cart, a mass media arts student from Georgia, is the brains behind a bunch of very insightful iOS interface concepts you’ve likely seen on the web, as noted by iPhoneinCanada.ca. This includes the notification center and application switcher mockup videos below.
As Apple is always on the lookout for young blood, Cart’s work caught the company’s attention and they decided to hire him as an intern, he announced in a blog post:
Soon I will be embarking to California, where I will be interning at a fruit company for seven months. I will be updating this to chronicle my adventures and misadventures in the Bay Area for my family, friends, and followers online. Stay tuned, I leave in less than a month!
“And like that, my time has come — I am now a member of the Apple community”, he confirmed on the front page of his personal web site. Congrats to Cart on his new gig! We sure are looking forward to seeing some of his great concepts implemented in iOS.
Heck, even the BlackBerry maker Research In Motion hired the Astonishing Tribe design shop to make the PlayBook tablet’s operating system aesthetically appealing. Watch Cart’s Dynamic Icons and Speech Recognition user interface concepts right after the break and don’t forget to check out his YouTube channel.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rn4wt-6KRI0]
Apple has just seeded iOS 5.1 to developers, a pre-release version of iOS that runs on the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. In addition, Apple has released Xcode 4.3 beta to developers, a required version of Xcode for those wishing to develop and test their applications with iOS 5.1 devices. This iOS 5.1 release is crucial. The 5.1 beta brings along an under-the-hood change for alternative interpretations for Dictation input in different apps. We’re looking into this API change.
We’ve also found some references to a new iPad in the code.
iOS SDK 5.1 provides support for developing iOS applications and includes the complete set of Xcode tools, compilers, and frameworks for creating applications for iOS and Mac OS X. These tools include the Xcode IDE and the Instruments analysis tool among many others.
With this software you can develop applications that run on iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 5.1. You can also test your applications using the included iOS Simulator, which supports iOS 5.1. There are two Xcode iOS SDK 5.1 images, one for installing on a Macintosh computer running Mac OS X 10.6.7 (Snow Leopard) or later, the other for installing on a Macintosh computer running Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion).
This version of iOS is intended only for installation on devices registered with Apple’s developer program. Attempting to install this version of iOS in an unauthorized manner could put your device in an unusable state.
Along with the release notes, you can also find some new features we’ve found in iOS 5.1 after the break:
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For those who missed out on the Black Friday specials, Amazon still offers the entry level Core i5 MacBook Air for $849.99 plus free shipping. That’s a significant $150 off of retail and the lowest price available. This latest MacBook Air includes an Intel Core i5 1.6GHz “Sandy Bridge” dual-core processor, 11.6″ 1366×768 LED-backlit display, 2GB RAM, 64GB SSD, AirPort Extreme (802.11n wireless), Bluetooth 4.0, Facetime camera, Thunderbolt port, and Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.
Amazon also still has the lowest prices on the entry level MacBook Pro ($1049). Other price lows (mostly from MacMall) can be found here.
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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdDrAWxkscM&feature=player_embedded]
Samsung’s Series 7, originally intended for Windows 7, has been hacked to run a Hackintosh version of OS X Lion, a user on the tonymacx86 forums highlighted today. Awkward, considering the whole Samsung vs Apple fight. As you can see in the video above, the version of Lion runs relatively smoothly, but the big issue is an external monitor is needed to display the video. The user highlights the tools needed:
8GB USB KEY, mini-HDMI to HDMI cable/adapter, USB Keyboard and mouse. After you make a UniBeast USB key you have some space still left on it so I made a folder and downloaded MultiBeast 4.1.0: Lion Edition.
If you’ve got a Series 7 laying around and are tired of the bleh Windows, you should definitely try this hack out (if you’ve got the technical know-how). With specs close to the MacBook Air — an 11.6-inch display, 64GB SSD, and i5 processor — this device seems pretty perfect to run full on OS X in a mobile setting. It also gives you a little more horsepower than an iPad 2, though that’s like comparing Apples and Oranges.
For all of the technical details, hit up the tonymacx86 forums. We’ve already shared our thoughts on the Hackintosh community, and we’re certainly proponents of what they’re doing. We’re going to keep an eye out as this project gets more bug fixes, specifically the screen issue. Luckily, the developer says he is committed to working on this project.
The 13-inch MacBook Air of today
Had Apple’s “next-generation of notebooks” announcement in October 2010 played out as planned, the MacBook family of today would look very different. In October 2010, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs took the stage at the Apple Cupertino campus to unveil a preview of OS X Lion, FaceTime for Mac, iLife ’11 and the latest MacBook Air design as the closing “one more thing” announcement. That MacBook Air brought with it an all-new and thinner form-factor, a higher-resolution display, an incredibly light body, a large Multi-Touch single-button trackpad, flash SSD storage, and battery life improvements.
Those aforementioned features, according to Apple, are what constitute the future of notebooks. This notebook announcement not only brought the successor to the previously available 13-inch MacBook Air, but brought along with it an 11-inch MacBook Air for the first time.
But these new notebooks weren’t the only planned pieces of the late 2010 MacBook Air story, though. Reliable sources have told us that not only were 13 and 11-inch models planned, but a groudbreaking new 15 inch MacBook Air was scheduled for a late 2010 release. Read on to learn about what could have been:
Apple has just begun seeding OS X Lion 10.7.3 (11D16) to developers this afternoon. The set focus areas for this release are iCloud document storage, Address Book, iCal, and Mail. 10.7.3 weighs in at 633MB, and has no known issues right now. OS X Server 10.7.3 is also accompanying today’s update, with the same focus areas and build number.
Release notes after the break:
I was in New York City for a Samsung event focused on SSDs and gaming on PCs last month. There wasn’t much in the way of new information, but Samsung gave me one of their SATA III 256GB 830 SSDs to try out. These are within a few bytes per second of the fastest SATA3 SSDs money can buy, so I was pretty excited to get home and throw it in a Mac.
The problem is that I don’t have a worthy Mac to test it out on. I’ve been using an Air as my exclusive machine for a year and my wife is tired of me testing stuff on her MacBook Pro. We have a bunch of old Macs laying around the house but nothing with a SATA III connection.
Luckily, I’ve been in the market for a new Mac desktop since I replaced my MacBook Pro with an Air last year, but to my surprise, I haven’t really found myself in need of one. The Air drives my 30-inch display pretty well and most of my media has been offloaded to a Gigabit NAS. Since I already have a 30-inch display, an iMac doesn’t really appeal to me. Apple’s headless desktops don’t make sense in my situation either. A Mac Mini isn’t going to be much faster than my Air and the Mac Pro hasn’t been updated in over a year and doesn’t even have SATA 3 on board.
I also have some USB3 and eSATA peripherals that I get for testing and can’t use these products on standard Mac hardware.
I decided to give into temptation and build a Hackintosh…
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From 9to5toys.com:
Getting the holiday shopping season started a little early this year, MacConnection is offering 9to5Mac readers the base model MacBook Air for the lowest price we’ve ever seen it: $899 (10% off) when bundled with a significantly discounted AppleCare which is just $199 (20% off). The total $1099 price is $150 below the $1250 you’d pay at the Apple Store and over $60 less than we could find it anywhere else.
This latest MacBook Air includes an Intel Core i5 1.6GHz Sandy Bridge dual-core processor, 11.6″ 1366×768 LED-backlit display, 2GB RAM, 64GB SSD, AirPort Extreme (802.11n wireless), Bluetooth 4.0, Facetime camera, Thunderbolt port, and Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. AppleCare provides Apple’s three year warranty.
Use code 9-5AIRCARE at checkout to get the deal. Limit 2 per customer, and this will run out soon.
Mac OS 10.8 testers both inside Apple’s HQ and in the surrounding area of Silicon Valley have been spotted in Web Logs by MacRumors. Indeed, looking at our own logs (above), 10.8 users have been hitting our servers since mid-August, though only in numbers that probably could have been faked.
More recently, however, 10.8 testing has grown more abundant, with testers hitting our site every day including on weekends from non-Apple IP addresses throughout October.
Similar patterns emerged in testing OS 10.7 which leads us to conclude that this is still very early testing and it is likely more than a year before we’ll see even public betas of the OS.
Still, very nice to see Apple’s already working on the next big cat.
