Apple retires Lion from Mac App Store, there’s a new king in town

Cue the video of 10.7 walking off into the sunset. Today is Mountain Lion day, and with the arrival of the new operating system comes the departure of its predecessor. Clicking the link for Lion will bring up a "The item you've requested is not currently available" error message in the Mac App Store. Thankfully, Mountain Lion is just one $20 download away for Lion and Snow Leopard users alike.

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Apple retires Lion from Mac App Store, there's a new king in town originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Jul 2012 09:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 review

A lot has changed since early 2001. We've got a new president approaching the end of his first term, the US has embarked on two major wars and the words "Lady Gaga" have become much more than just gibberish. Some things, however, don't change. In nearly each of these intervening years, Apple has issued a major update to its desktop operating system, OS X. This time last year, the company issued OS 10.7 Lion, a king-of-the-jungle moniker many thought would mark the end of Apple's big cat naming scheme and, by extension, the OS X lineage. In February, however, the old operating system showed she still had some life left in her, when the next edition was revealed, arriving over the summer and called Mountain Lion.

Based on the name alone, you'd think 10.8 would be a modest improvement over its predecessor -- not unlike the baby step between Leopard (10.5) and Snow Leopard (10.6). But Apple insists that this latest build is more than just a seasonal refresh -- in all, it boasts more than 200 new features. Some are major, including things like a new Notification Center, AirPlay Mirroring and a desktop version of Messages. Others, such as full-screen mode for Notes... not so much. What seems to unite the vast majority of the 200 features, however, is a nod to iOS. So, how easily can Mac users justify that $20 download? Follow along after the break, as we put those 200 features to the test.

Continue reading Apple OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 review

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Apple OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Jul 2012 08:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple to release OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion tomorrow

Apple just confirmed in its Q3 2012 earnings report that Mountain Lion is coming tomorrow. The hotly anticipated 10.8 version of OS X brings with it a host of new features, as we've expounded upon in the past. The upgrade will be just $19.99 (unless you've recently bought a new Mac -- in which case it'll be free) and will be available via download on the Mac App Store in 24 hours or less. Better start finding some disk space.

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Apple to release OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion tomorrow originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jul 2012 16:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tweetbot for Mac arrives as free alpha, we give a quick hands-on

Tweetbot for Mac arrives as free alpha, we give a quick handson

Seemingly anyone who's used an iPhone (and often the iPad) knows Tweetbot -- it's often the go-to Twitter app for those who prefer not to go the official route. It's to those users' delight, then, that Tapbots just posted a free alpha version of Tweetbot for Mac. As you'd anticipate, it's an attempt to bring much of the app's power user mojo to the desktop world: you can check just retweets of your content, mute overly chatty people or hashtags, and otherwise get more control than just watching your stream drift by. It's even (mostly) Retina-ready for that new MacBook Pro. Alpha does mean that there will be a fair amount of things missing; it won't tap into iCloud or Mountain Lion's Notification Center until it's official, for example. But if you're willing to deal with that and a few potential bugs, it may be time to brush other apps aside -- just note that you'll need Mountain Lion or newer when the app is ready to face the Mac App Store, even though it works with Lion today.

We've had a quick spin with the app, and it largely does what it says on the tin: it's Tweetbot, on the Mac. The primary differences are changes that make sense when a mouse pointer and a larger screen area are available. You can reply, retweet, or view whole conversations from buttons that appear as you hover, rather than using the myriad taps and swipes of the iOS apps. It's a wonderfully minimalist app, if that's your thing, and you can open multiple windows (currently through a keyboard shortcut) to get some of that TweetDeck-style power user layout. Our main gripe? Tweetbot on the Mac always updates in a live stream, and there's no option for intervals; if you follow a lot of people, there's a chance you might miss something. Still, for an alpha, it's a decidedly polished and useful effort that doesn't leave us wanting like a few clients, including Twitter's own.

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Tweetbot for Mac arrives as free alpha, we give a quick hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jul 2012 13:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple sunsets a few 64-bit Macs with Mountain Lion, video drivers likely the culprit

OS X Mountain Lion About This Mac

Apple is well-known for wanting a close spread in hardware requirements with OS X upgrades, having dropped PowerPC like a hot potato when Snow Leopard arrived just three years after the Intel switch. Whether or not you're a fan of that policy, it's certainly carrying forward with Mountain Lion. When the newly-finished OS hits the Mac App Store, it will rule out the very first wave of 64-bit Macs: certain MacBook Pros, Mac Pros and other early systems will be denied a taste of 10.8. Some sleuthing from Ars Technica suggests that it's a matter of graphics drivers rather than capriciousness on Apple's part, as the Macs excluded from the mix are using 32-bit drivers that won't play nicely with Mountain Lion's 64-bit Utopia short of a wide-scale conversion effort. It's little consolation to those who dropped a pretty penny on certain Macs just a few years ago. That said, Apple is still going the extra mile to support some systems -- if you're reading this on an original aluminum iMac, you're sitting pretty.

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Apple sunsets a few 64-bit Macs with Mountain Lion, video drivers likely the culprit originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jul 2012 11:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple’s WWDC keynote video is up, play along at home (update 2: video for everybody)

Apple's WWDC keynote video is up, play along at home update not quite for all

Next-generation MacBook Pros? iOS 6? The new Maps app? Sure, you watched the whole thing live, but is that really enough? Apple's tossed up the Tim Cook-led WWDC keynote, so now you can experience the magic of liveblogging the whole thing all over again. Check out the video in the source link below.

Update: Looks like it's only Safari users who get a peek at first: if you're on Chrome, Firefox or another browser, you'll have to sit tight for a little while longer.

Update 2: The keynote video now looks to be working for most, so stream away.

Apple's WWDC keynote video is up, play along at home (update 2: video for everybody) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Jun 2012 17:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple slips out new OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion beta, leaves 2007 MacBook Pro in a momentary lurch

Mountain Lion Dev Preview

Apple looks to be stepping up the frequency of OS X Mountain Lion beta updates after initially keeping the pace slow and steady: it just posted a new, unceremoniously titled 12A206J build for developers. What the update fixes in the Developer Preview isn't clear, but there are still glitches with Fast User Switching, Java applets, sharing menus and Notes syncing with iTunes, among a handful of other showstoppers. There's also a major heads-up for those who own mid-2007 MacBook Pros, as they can't properly run Mountain Lion at all until another update. We wouldn't be surprised if there's another fix in store ahead of WWDC next month, and there's still all of the summer left for Apple to put the final polish on the OS and make its release target.

Apple slips out new OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion beta, leaves 2007 MacBook Pro in a momentary lurch originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 May 2012 01:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple inadvertently teases iCloud.com banner notifications, pings your browser iOS 5-style

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Apple already made clear that it was expanding iOS 5-like notifications to the desktop with OS X Mountain Lion, but it now looks as though that's extending to your web browser, too. Some visitors to iCloud.com have reported seeing notifications show at the top of the page that were both based on iOS' look and which were clearly not ready for prime time -- not unless Default Title for English is a new iCloud feature, at least. There's no indication of how advanced notifications might become in Apple's web portal, or if they'll transition from development cocoon to public butterfly at all. In the meantime, though, keep an eye on the top of your browser and let us know if you see anything leap out in the near future.

Apple inadvertently teases iCloud.com banner notifications, pings your browser iOS 5-style originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 May 2012 14:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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