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OS X

Apple continues to tweak the upcoming version of its Mac desktop operating system, OS X Mountain Lion. The changes made recently to the developer preview are good indications of what we’ll see when the final version goes live this summer. Here’s an overview of those changes. Read More »

Microsoft’s effort to merge the Windows Phone look and feel with Windows 8 will pay off in the form of causing Google Android to “fade away” says a mobile market watcher. That’s possible because Microsoft — and Apple, as well — have something that Google doesn’t. Read More »

Apple will host its annual June 11 through June 15 at San Francisco’s Moscone West, the company announced today. The five-day conference will give developers a peek into the future of iOS and OS X. The tickets for the event are going to cost about $1,599. Read More »

OwnCloud 2012 service lets IT pros move and manage corporate data in their cloud of choice while giving end users a “Dropbox-like” experience, according to OwnCloud CEO Markus Rex. The software supports WIndows, Linux and Mac desktops and iOS and Android mobile devices. Read More »

Cloud computing, mobile computing and the consumerization of IT combine to create another force that overwhelms IT departments: complexity, including complexity of devices and applications, physical and virtual computing environments, and related challenges for IT staff.

Cloud computing, mobile computing and the consumerization of IT are changing the game for IT departments. Section one of our three-part report describes and quantifies each of these trends, demonstrating that they are real now, growing rapidly and perilous to ignore.

What’s behind Apple’s decision to require sandboxing in OS X apps? It is not a far stretch to consider that this shift in approach might have a connection to Apple’s long-term plans to make iCloud the center of their strategy for the next decade. Read More »

More Must Reads

The major new features in Apple’s OS X Mountain Lion are what everyone is talking about, but with every release of OS X, the company makes some smaller changes that escape the notice of most. We take a look at some of those changes. Read More »

There are two ways to think about securing information: Enabling access to information you want to keep, and disabling access to information you don’t. For information Mac users no longer want, it’s not as easy as moving a file to the trash and emptying the … Read More »

Many school districts are rolling out student programs, where most computing is done with the iPad. By more closely integrating with iOS, the upcoming OS X Mountain Lion release should help in schools that make heavy use of iPads and still want to use Macs. Read More »

After running OS X 10.8, or Mountain Lion, for the past few days, I am reaching more for my iPhone than my Galaxy Nexus. The “grand unified user experience” approach of Apple has everything to do with that, and it could blunt Android’s momentum. Read More »

Apple’s OS X Mountain Lion, which should arrive some time this summer, has finally brought true feature parity between iOS and OS X for Notes, Reminders and Notifications. We spent some time with the new features, and here is what we found. Read More »

OS X Mountain Lion looks to improve on Lion with UI refinements and some significant changes for developers. Most of those changes appear to be out in the cloud. Here’s a list of changes that Apple is rolling out, and how they will affect developers. Read More »

One of the new features of OS X Mountain Lion, coming this summer, is Messages for Mac, which replaces iChat. Apple’s iMessage service is available as a beta version to download for use with OS X Lion today. Here are our first impressions. Read More »

Apple on Thursday released a developer edition of Mountain Lion, the next upgrade of it’s operating system that will go on sale sometime in summer this year. As part of the news, the company shared some metrics about OS X Lion (version 10.7). … Read More »

Seven months after Mac OS X Lion, Apple is releasing its first developer preview of what comes next for its desktop OS, which will be called Mountain Lion. Like its predecessor, Apple’s upcoming desktop OS is starting to bear more than a passing resemblance to iOS. Read More »

We’ve already talked about some key highlights from the Macworld | iWorld 2012 show, particularly from the prosumer and developer angles. But my focus here is on those products average Apple users might be interested in, for both Mac and iOS devices. Read More »

While the target audience for Macworld | iWorld is your typical consumer, there are a few vendors in attendance that are focused on reaching developers. If you’re a developer yourself, or work with developers, you might want to stop by the following vendors during the show. Read More »

iTunes may be great for syncing your iOS devices, or buying songs, movies, apps and books, but it’s not exactly the most nimble music player anymore. Here are five great Mac-compatible alternatives that focus on the music, without the bloat that iTunes brings. Read More »

Snapstream is making its TV monitoring capabilities available to Mac users, with a Web-based video player and client that will let its customers search, view and clip live and recorded TV feeds. That could increase help its potential customer base, while making its existing base happier. Read More »

It might seem like the small Apple Remote that used to come with new Macs is a one-trick pony for controlling iTunes or DVD playback, but there are actually some hidden ways to use it. Here are a few that may surprise you. Read More »

Is the PC “dead”? Of course not, but if you don’t see the trend moving away from local / desktop computing and towards mobile / cloud computing, you’re missing the sales figures for each market: Nearly 50 percent of recent device sales are mobile. Read More »

Snapseed, Apple’s iPad app of the year for 2011, is available on the Mac as of Thursday via the Mac App Store. It’s more expensive than the iOS version, but cheaper than a lot of the photo editing competition. So how does it stack up? Read More »

A common New Year’s resolution is getting more organized, and email is often very much in need of organization. I’ve long been a fan of the “Inbox Zero” philosophy. It’s easier than you think to accomplish, and these simple tips will help you get there. Read More »

A new year is a perfect time to talk about ways to protect your data. You should be backing up and you know it, and if you are already backing up, it’s time to test your strategy and include things you may be forgetting. Read More »

Since I use multiple mobile devices on various platforms, it sometimes gets to be a chore trying to read saved web pages when offline. I’ve been bouncing back and forth between two great solutions: Instapaper and Read It Later. But both might be trumped by Evernote. Read More »

In its fight with Android hardware-makers, Apple almost seems to see itself as a noble hero fighting a nefarious villain bent on stealing its identity and reputation. But just or not, is the fight one that makes sense to Apple from a practical and business standpoint? Read More »

Traditionally, the Mac has made up an extremely small sliver of corporate PC purchases, but over the last few quarters, more and more of them have been incorporated into the workplace. And on the heels of this trend was an announcement from the analysts over at …

The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play smartphone, aimed at mobile gamers, has a new twist that could add more appeal: OnLive’s cloud gaming service now supports the slide-out gaming controls on the Android smartphone. Touchscreens certainly work for games, but button-mashing is best done on…. buttons. Read More »

Siri isn’t on the Mac (yet), but that doesn’t mean you can’t use it there, and in a way that should prove a considerable time saver. In combination with Mac launcher software Alfred and iOS app TouchPad, you can easily issue voice commands to your Mac. Read More »

Unhappy with Lion’s new iCal interface? You’re not alone. While some fixes exist, I’ve found BusyCal not only retains all the good stuff from iCal for Snow Leopard, but also adds many new features that make it a great purchase for anyone. Read More »

Apple sees its highest share of desktop and laptop shipments in 15 years. But growth is coming not only in the consumer space, where it grew 24.6 percent compared to overall PC market’s 5.3 percent, but in the enterprise market too. Read More »

We’ve heard about and been excited by the possibility of iMessage coming to the OS X desktop, but there are hints that the Mac’s iChat application could jump the other way and become part of Apple’s Messages app on iOS devices. Read More »

Apple officially launched iTunes Match on Monday. I managed to sign up, and take the service for a test ride using a small iTunes library to see how it would handle iTunes purchases, ripped tracks and anything else I could think to throw at it. Read More »

On both iOS and OS X, there exists an URL scheme that Safari supports that will launch FaceTime directly. It’s a great way to let you provide others with a quick and easy way to get in touch via video chat, or to manage FaceTime contacts. Read More »

Nuance, the maker of industry-leading voice-recognition tech, released Dragon Express via the Mac App Store on Thursday. The app is basically a streamlined version of Nuance’s powerful Dragon Dictate software, and it brings some features that Siri fans might appreciate to OS X computers. Read More »

Whether you use iCloud, MobileMe or Google to sync your contacts and calendars — no matter how careful you are — glitches occur. Fortunately, Spanning Tools helps clean up your contacts and calendars, making sure your syncs go as planned and correcting errors after the fact. Read More »

You may have found that since upgrading to OS X Lion, your browsing experience with Safari has changed slightly. Your web page could be jumping out at you for no obvious reason due to increased touch sensitivity. Here are some possible fixes. Read More »

Rumors are circulating that features from iOS, like iMessage and AirPlay Mirroring, are on their way to Mac computers via OS X. That’s great, but Apple should think about taking things one step further, and bring the core update philosophy behind iOS to its desktop predecessor. Read More »

While Apple delivered an overwhelming batch of updates, new features and new software in recent weeks, there are still some loose ends it could stand to tie up. Read on to discover why features like iMessage, Siri and AirPlay mirroring still feel somewhat incomplete. Read More »

Along with major OS updates for both OS X Lion and iOS, Apple released a boatload of software today in the form of new apps and updates to old favorites. Here’s a quick look at what’s new, what’s changed, and what we think about that. Read More »

I last looked at Windows gaming options on OS X in 2010; the choices haven’t gotten any better. However, Parallels 7 was recently released and boasts improved Windows performance in a virtualized environment, so it’s time to take another look. Read More »

Apple finally talked about when people can expect to get their hands on iTunes Match, and it’s later than iCloud in general. Later in October is as specific as the company got to putting a release date on the cloud-based subscription music service. Read More »

Since the release of the first developer preview of Windows 8, Mac users have been downloading it to run in virtualization software such as Parallels and VMware Fusion. You can do it using Boot Camp, too, and experience Windows 8 at full speed. Read More »

It seemed like a no-brainer when Apple first unveiled iMessage for iOS devices: Why not build it into OS X, too? Well, turns out we may soon see iMessage work across nearly all Apple hardware, if new code discovered in Lion’s iChat is any indication. Read More »

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