[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHg6JL5sdaI]
Microsoft has had a great idea for making the next version of Windows better for power users: copy more trackpad gestures from OS X …
Expand
Expanding
Close
Autodesk has announced the release of AutoCAD for Mac 2015 with a feature-set that for the first time brings it close to that of the Windows version. The lower-cost AutoCAD LT for Mac version has also been updated.
Autodesk is emphasizing cross-platform compatibility for companies using a mix of OS X and Windows machines. The ability to save layer information like color and line type has been added to the Mac version in line with the Windows edition.
The company also says AutoCAD for 2015 is faster at the same time as offering improved stability …
Expand
Expanding
Close
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84NI5fjTfpQ
I keep my Parallels Windows VM around to do stuff like Quickbooks, upgrade Mifi Firmware and occasionally check websites in IE (see our PArallels 10 review here) not to experiment with the latest versions of Redmond’s OS.
But if you want to check out what’s coming down the pike in Windows-land without leaving your trusty Mac, Parallels has an Installation guide for you. First step: if you haven’t already, download Parallels 10 (free Trial)…
Data from the NPD group indicates that MacBook sales grew 16 percent year-on-year during the 10-week back-to-school period, measured from 4th July to Labor Day week. The most significant sales were seen during the last three weeks of the period, where sales were up 27 percent.
Overall Mac back-to-school market share climbed from 24.2% last year to 26.8% this year, while Windows fell from 72.3% to 64.8%. The most dramatic growth, though, was seen in low-cost Chrome OS devices, up from 0.2% in 2012 to 3.3% last year and 4.5% now.
It’s interesting to see Mac sales continue to climb despite competition from low-cost notebooks. IDC data last month showed that iOS market share declined slightly due to competition from low-cost Android devices.
While developers are warning iOS 8 and Mac users to avoid upgrading to Apple’s new iCloud Drive feature before the release of OS X Yosemite, Windows users now have access with an updated iCloud for Windows utility released by Apple. With the update, Windows users can now view and edit content stored in iCloud Drive through File Explorer (via Ars Technica).
As for Mac users, Apple explains in its support document: “If you upgrade to iCloud Drive before OS X Yosemite is available, documents on your Mac won’t be kept up to date with documents on your devices with iOS 8, or on iCloud.com.” Apple allows users to upgrade to iCloud Drive on devices running iOS 8.
Windows users can download the latest iCloud for Windows here to access the new iCloud Drive features, while Mac users will have to wait for the OS X Yosemite release this fall.
Last week, Parallels launched the upgrade to v10 of their software and today, you can now get the full version online.
Parallels Desktop has long been one of the go-to applications for using your Mac to virtualize a wide variety of operating systems, and many considered its previous version 9 as more than sufficient for getting this job done. While the software shining point has always been its ability to run Windows truly parallel to the standard Mac OS X desktop, this version of Parallels Desktop 10 for Mac takes multiple strides forward, making it even easier than before to incorporate Windows-only applications—or applications from other x86 operating systems including Android, Chrome, Linux, etc.—into your Mac-based workflow.
Perhaps most importantly, Parallels again ups the ante in speed both in launching and runtime, turning virtualization into a native-feeling experience.
Parallels Desktop has been with the Mac almost as long as it has run on Intel hardware.
Today, the company announced the 10th major release of its industry-leading virtualization software for Macintosh and mobile. It has more of what makes Parallels so special: Performance, integration and features.
Parallels has an important place in Apple history because it allowed many people who needed a few Windows applications over the last decade to buy and enjoy the Mac OS. In effect, it helped deal with Microsoft’s monopoly on software in the desktop era.
For many people that continues today. Microsoft still makes its Office suite a little bit handicapped on the Mac. Gamers know that to get a wider variety of games you need to run Windows. Developers need different environments, browsers and OSes to test their software on. And, probably most painful, many companies still require Windows to run proprietary apps or connect to antiquated network servers.
Speaking of Windows, Microsoft has made it harder for Parallels to integrate the Windows installation so you’ll have to do it yourself from with a Optical media or a USB port. In v9 of Parallels, you could buy the image from Microsoft and then install from an image in a matter of minutes.
The new Parallels 10 offers the following performance improvements:
Lenovo’s $2.91 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility from Google is still pending regulatory approval, however it looks like the company is already mapping out a new strategy. Despite being one of the world’s largest PC makers, Lenovo is halting the development of Windows tablets under 10 inches in size and migrating its remaining inventory to markets like Brazil, China and Japan where there’s more of a need for low-cost slates.
Apple, in turn, has had a huge success with the 7.9-inch iPad Mini which quickly became one of its best sellers after its introduction almost 2 years ago.
Wall Street seemed pretty unmoved by Apple’s announcement of its partnership with IBM, the pre-market share price barely twitching, and analysts pointing to the high level of existing iOS usage in the enterprise sector, suggesting that only trivial gains would result.
Part of the reason for that impression is the hype Apple has given to the penetration level of iOS devices in enterprise. Back in January, Tim Cook described the numbers as “unbelieveable,” stating that the iPhone is used in 97 percent and of Fortune 500 companies and the iPad in 98 percent.
It doesn’t sound from these impressive figures that there’s much room for growth. But I think the reality is somewhat different …
Expand
Expanding
Close
Photo: in.com
Microsoft is planning its own entry into the wearable market, but won’t make it exclusive to Windows devices, according to a report from Paul Thurrott. The device won’t be a watch, but a simple fitness band that can sync with multiple smartphone platforms, including Windows, iOS, and Android.
The company is said to be aiming for a Q4 release with pricing similar to that of Samsung’s Galaxy Gear. No word yet on whether the hardware will work with Apple’s own Health software or will require an app created by Microsoft.
The name Parallels is synonymous with software for running the Windows OS on a Mac, but over the past couple of years, the company has turned into so much more. Last year, we reviewed Parallels Access, an application for the Apple iPad that allows the iPad to serve as a conduit for remotely accessing either a Mac or Windows machine. In our review, we noted how blown away we were with the speed and performance of Parallels Access. The software makes accessing and using a computer via the iPad’s touchscreen a breeze, and it provides a huge convenience factor for those times when you need to access something on your home computer but do not have the machine with you.
The application is far and above other remote desktop client applications because of its integration with iOS, OS X, Windows, its speed, and its overall reliability. Parallels Access utilizes gestures, iOS’s native keyboard with autocorrect and editing, “SmartMagnification” and “SmartTap” to make the computer feel responsive and alive on the iPad’s display. The application allows you to use your Mac swiftly and connects over the internet. Now, Parallels is bringing the Parallels Access experience to the smaller screen of the iPhone. In some ways, since it is not a computer replacement like an iPad is for some people, the iPhone feels like a more logical device for using Parallels Access…
Retro Apple Store <a href="http://www.aredesignawards.com/award_winner_detail.cfm?key=2009129">Back to School display</a>
Apple could be planning to launch its annual Back to School sales promotion within the next two weeks. Apple Stores, according to several employees, will be changing the front of store glass window displays overnight on June 30th. This is the usual timeframe in which Apple launches a promotion to boost Mac, iPad, and iPhone sales in anticipation of the new school year in the fall.
Last year, the Back to School promotion consisted of $100 App Store gift cards for Mac purchases and $50 cards for iPad and iPhone purchases by students with their Student IDs. Of course, this June 30th window change could be connected to another promotion or a new product, but based on the timing, the Back to School program being in the wings seems most likely.
A day after it released an SMC update to address MacBook Air battery issues, Apple has issued an EFI update for the same mid-2013 and early-2014 models to address various other issues:
This update is recommended for MacBook Air (mid 2013 and early 2014) models.
This update improves reliability when waking from sleep and when booting while certain USB and Thunderbolt devices are connected.
This update also addresses a rare memory issue that may cause the system to randomly reboot, and an issue where the system may not properly sleep the built-in display when an external display is connected while running Windows using Boot Camp.
The update can be downloaded directly from Apple’s support website or it can be found via the Software Update tab in the Mac App Store.
I’ve written about apps from Squirrels in the past. It makes the AirParrot and Reflection apps that let you mirror your Mac or PC screen to an Apple TV or your iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch screen to a Mac or PC. Today it’s launching a new product that utilizes technology from both of those previous apps called ‘Slingshot.’ The cross-platform apps let you share your iOS screen with others on iOS, Mac OS X, Windows, or Android, and provides some slick collaboration tools in the process:
Expand
Expanding
Close
Photo: mashable.com
I’m sure most of us have at some point had Windows- and Android-using friends ask us why we pay the ‘Apple tax’ – the price difference between an Apple product and what they perceive to be an equivalent competitor product.
A large part of the answer, of course, is that the competitor product isn’t equivalent at all. You can’t compare a MacBook with its premium materials, build-quality, high-spec components, screen quality and aesthetics with a low-end Windows laptop with plastic casing, low-spec innards and cheap and cheerful display. No more than you can compare an iPhone with a budget ‘droid. When you do genuine like-for-like comparisons with truly equivalent products, the Apple premium shrinks considerably.
But to get an accurate idea of the effective purchase cost, you also need to take into account both the replacement cycle and resale value …
Expand
Expanding
Close
Firefox today released the latest version of its desktop browser for Mac, Linux, and Windows and in the process added one much welcomed feature for Mac OS X users: support for Notification Center. This means that web apps and sites taking advantage of Firefox’s web notifications feature will now also appear for Mac users in the Notification Center.
Version 28 of Firefox also introduces a few new behind the scenes improvements including VP9 video decoding, volume control for HTML5 audio/video, and a number of other fixes.
Firefox 28 for Mac is available to download from the Mozilla website now.
Some sums done by ComputerWorld show that Mac users are four times more likely to upgrade to the latest available version of the operating system than Windows users.
Microsoft has convinced just 11.6 percent of Windows users who acquired their system since 2001 and still actively use it to go online to migrate to the current edition of its operating system […]
Apple’s convinced 41.6 percent of Mac users who acquired their system since 2001 and still actively use them online to adopt the current edition of the OS.
A large part of it is cost, of course: Mavericks was a free upgrade, and previous upgrades have been priced far more competitively than Windows.
But Apple has also offered a simpler upgrade path, adding features rather than making major changes to the core user-interface. OS X also operates more efficiently, allowing Mavericks to run well on far older hardware than is the case for Windows 8.
When it first launched in 2005, the Mac mini was almost unimaginably small. The original aim of the machine was to convert owners of desktop Windows machines. Because those people already owned monitors, keyboards and other peripherals, selling them just the computer itself would enable them to switch to Mac for far less than the cost of buying an iMac.
The typical Windows desktop box of that era looked like this:
A system unit that measured just 6.5 inches square and only 2-inches thick was an incredible feat of engineering. Today, however, it looks rather less impressive …
Expand
Expanding
Close
PC manufacturers seem to be dropping like flies at present. Shortly after Sony confirmed it was selling its PC business and Vaio brand, LG is rumored to be planning its own exit from traditional PCs, to focus on smartphones, tablets and ‘convertible’ PCs (touchscreen Windows tablets that flip round into a laptop).
Other manufacturers are witnessing falling sales, prices and profits – with The Guardian calculating that the average profit per PC in the third quarter of 2013 fell to just £14.87 ($24.09). One manufacturer of conventional-format PCs, however, has remained almost immune to the trend: Apple …
Expand
Expanding
Close
If you need occasional access to Windows and don’t want to install it from a DVD, a how-to guide by Sam Power may have the perfect solution. It talks you through exactly how to create a Bootcamp-compatible USB key installer for either Windows 7 or 8 compatible.
A 4GB USB key is sufficient, and the complete process can be done in 20-40 minutes.
(Update: sorry for the confusion. You can’t install Bootcamp onto a USB Key yet. You’ll need Paralllels or VWMware for that.)
Following the announcement last August that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was out the door as soon as the company could find a new captain to lead the ship, the Board finally announced today that it has found its guy: Satya Nadella.
As part of the changes, founder and former CEO Bill Gates has agreed to step down from the Board and into a new role as ‘technology advisor’. Gates says he will step up his time at the company meeting with various groups and helping with future products at the request of Nadella.
Expand
Expanding
Close
The total number of Apple devices sold will equal the number of Windows PCs by some point this year, predicts Asymco’s Horace Dediu in an interesting piece of analysis.
The dark shaded area compares all Apple hardware – Mac plus iPad plus iPhone – with Windows PCs, and shows that by last year there were only 1.18 more Windows PCs than Apple devices. It’s of course a somewhat artificial comparison, as Dediu is including iPhones while excluding Windows Phones and tablets, but given the very limited success of Windows mobile devices to date, correcting that wouldn’t change the patterns too much.
What’s particularly interesting here, as John Gruber notes, is that the dramatic reversal kicked in well before the launch of the iPhone. Dediu and Gruber between them put forward a number of theories for this, and of these I think three are likely key …
If ever there was a simple visual to illustrate just how slow Microsoft was to wake up to the shift into mobile, it’s this one: a full 70 percent of Windows users also own at least one Apple product.
While there will be some joint Windows/OS X users in there, the majority of them will be people with Windows PCs and either an iPhone, iPad or iPod.
Via Business Insider
From 9to5toys:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKdcQtnKF54]
(note: 3 other bundles are currently running: Parallels 9, Adobe Photoshop CC $10 extended unti l Dec. 8th and Stack Social)MacUpdate just launched their Winter Mac app bundle this morning. This bundle contains 10 apps + 2 bonus apps for early buyers. Together, the 12 apps are worth nearly $400 (or about $360 without the 2 bonus titles), but the bundle is priced at just $39.99.
The bundle includes:
Expand
Expanding
Close
