Posts in news

Apple Updates MacBook Pro Lineup: Ivy Bridge, USB 3, New Kepler GT650M, and More

Apple announced a major update to their MacBook Pro line at today’s WWDC 2012 opening keynote.

Featuring an nVidia GeForce 650M with the Kepler architecture and up to 1 GB of video memory, graphics performance improves over 60%. Connection possibilities include two USB 3.0 slots, FireWire 800, Gigabit Ethernet, a Thunderbolt port, audio line in/out (separated in the 15” model), SDXC card slot, and a 8x SuperDrive (they cancelled the Superdrive for the NextGen MacBook Pro with Retina display). In terms of wireless connectivity, Apple update the MacBook Pros to Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11n as the remaining Wi-Fi standard.

The 13” starting model features a 2.5GHz dual-core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB hard drive, starting at $1199. The second, bigger version comes with a 2.9GHz dual-core i5 processor, 8GB of memory and a 750GB hard drive starting at $1499.

The 15” starting model comes with a 2.3GHz quad-core i7. 4GB of memory, Intel HD4000 graphics and NVIDIA GeForce GT650M, and 500GB hard drive, starting at $1799. The upgraded 15” Macbook Pro features a 2.6GHz quad-core i7, 8GB of RAM, Intel HD4000 graphics and NVIDIA GeForce GT650M, and a 750GB hard drive starting at $2199.

Other extra configurations include faster i7 processors up to 2.7GHz, additional hard drive capacity up to 1TB, up to 8GB RAM, and SSDs up to 512GB. The 15” models can also get glare or antiglare displays with 1680-by-1050 resolution.

All these MacBook Pro models start shipping today. There is no 17” model. MacBook Pros, shipping today, come with Lion, and new customers will be able to upgrade to Mountain Lion for free. Below you can investigate the price and main hardware changes in comparison to the old MacBook Pro line (with the 17” model included). Past the break, we’ve also included the full press release.

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Apple Announces New MacBook Airs: Ivy Bridge, USB 3, and More

Today at Apple’s WWDC 2012 Keynote, Phil Schiller announced the updated MacBook Air, featuring Intel Ivy Bridge processors, more RAM, a pair of USB 3 ports, faster flash storage for high speed performance (500 MBps read speed), 60% faster graphics, and an updated FaceTime camera that can record up to 720p.

The 11-inch base model MacBook Air starts with a 1366x768 display, 1.7 GHz dual-core i5 processor, 4 GB RAM, 64 GB of flash storage, Intel HD Graphics 4000, and 5 hours of battery life, starting at $999.

The larger 13-inch base configuration features a 1440x900 display, 1.8 GHz dual-core i5 processor, 4 GB RAM, 128 GB of flash storage, Intel HD Graphics 4000, and 7 hours of battery life, starting at $1199.

The MacBook Airs can be updated with a 2 GHz core-i7 processor (with Turbo Boost up to 3.2 GHz), 8 GB of RAM, and 512 GBs of flash storage.

The updated MacBook Airs start shipping today. Customers who purchase a MacBook Air will be eligible for a free upgrade to Mountain Lion when it’s released. You’ll find the full press release after the break.

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Liveblog: WWDC 2012 Edition

It wouldn’t be right if we didn’t write WWDC as dubbya-dubbya-DC at least once this year, so we’re going to get that out of the way before we’re slapped in the face with a case of the Mondays. Although, Monday doesn’t have to be all that bad — this year we’re going to try to deliver the goods live from 4th and Howard streets as we hold @SteveStreza hostage to do the dirty work of live blogging and taking pictures while we sleep in late, hang out in our PJs, and drink fancy coffee. Only once the pot is empty and our live blogger escapes our clutches will we finally sit down to bring you all day coverage of Apple’s latest product announcements. You dig?

Cool, because we’re going to be right here Monday morning as WWDC 2012 kicks off with this year’s Keynote. See you tomorrow!

Apple WWDC 2012 Keynote Time Zones:

13:00 — New York, New York
10:00 — San Francisco, California
07:00 — Honolulu, Hawaii
03:00 — Sydney, Australia
02:00 — Tokyo, Japan
01:00 — Shanghai, China
22:30 — New Delhi, India
21:00 — Moscow, Russia
19:00 — Rome, Italy
18:00 — London, England

Note: We’ll provide all day coverage of WWDC announcements on MacStories’ homepage and through our WWDC 2012 hub. We’ll have a liveblog in this post 30 minutes before the keynote kicks off, tweet text updates as @MacStoriesLive, and announce new articles and updates as @MacStoriesNet.

Liveblog and updates (in reverse chronological order) after the break.
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iOS 6 Confirmed: New Banners Up at Moscone West

It’s been a couple days since we last checked in on the progress at Moscone West, and today it appears that new banners at WWDC are confirming expected discussion around iOS 6, Apple’s next iteration of their mobile OS. Banners in the halls of Moscone West are showing off a slick blue logo with a silver 6 inside, perhaps signifying that fresh coat of paint Rene Ritchie discussed as a possibility on iMore. We’re looking forward to Monday’s Keynote, and in the meantime we’ll continue updating our Moscone West 2012 post with great photographs as they come in.

The first floor layout of Moscone West is different from last year — in the photo above you can see the iOS 6 signage in comparison to last year’s open floor with rope lines. Banners have been hung on the 2nd floor of Moscone West, and there’s different banners for Mac Messages, Mac Notification Center, and for a Mac Game Center. WWDC 2012 is already shaping up to be a big event, and we’ll have more photos soon.

Past the break, we have a couple more photos for your viewing pleasure. Thanks again to @SteveStreza for the amazing pictures!

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New iPhone UI Concept Shows Mission Control, Dynamic Notification Badges, And More

It’s pre-WWDC speculation time. This year, like most, many people think about what new features and capabilities the next version of iOS could include. After watching some concept videos (including one by Jan Micheal Cart) and reading some iOS 6 wish lists, designer Joost van der Ree also decided to present some of his ideas on how Apple could improve the usability of iOS in a short YouTube video.

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Apple Agrees It Misled Consumers With “WiFi + 4G” And Accepts AU$2.25M Penalty, Judge Yet To Approve Settlement

UPDATE: The Court has been adjourned and Justice Bromberg will receive confidential information from Apple (currently unclear what that will include, but presumably some sales and/or refund numbers) by next Wednesday. A decision about whether or not the penalty is appropriate can then be made.

In Australian Federal Court today, Apple has told the court it is willing to accept a AU$2.25 million penalty after agreeing it misled consumers by initially marketing the new iPad’s cellular capabilities as “with WiFi + 4G” in Australia. Apple accepted the penalty that the ACCC proposed which also requires Apple to contribute $300,000 to the ACCC’s legal fees. Colin Galvan, who is representing the ACCC noted that the ”substantial” penalty would amount to a warning to the computer industry that “such conduct will not be condoned”.

Although both Apple and the ACCC have now agreed on a proposed settlement, Judge  Mordy Bromberg must yet approve the deal. Judge Bromberg has said that he wants more information about the extent of misleading advertising after Apple has so far refused to provide any information about how many iPads have been sold, returned and how much revenue and profit Apple has earnt.

“I have some concern… that the agreed facts might be a little thin to allow me to do what I need to do and that is determine whether the proposed penalty is appropriate,”

Timeline of Events

  • On March 27th the ACCC announced it would initiate legal action against Apple for making misleading 4G claims in its marketing of the new iPad in Australia. The issue arose because although the new iPad supports US and Canadian 4G networks, the hardware in the new iPad does not support any of the Australian 4G networks.
  • Across Europe a few countries began to keep an eye on the issue and consider investigations into the issue after fielding complaints from consumers.
  • On March 30th, Apple clarified its iPad marketing in Australia by explicitly noting that “it is not compatible with current Australian 4G LTE networks and WiMAX networks.
  • On April 5th, Apple gave Australian customers the ability to get a full refund of the new iPad if they purchased it under the assumption of it supporting Australian 4G networks up until the 25th of April. They also informed Australian resellers to update marketing to explicitly mention the incompatibility with Australian 4G networks.
  • On May 12th Apple decided to rename the WiFi + 4G model to WiFi + Cellular - across the whole world (including the US and Canada), eliminating the confusion over whether the iPad supported 4G in a particular country like Australia, where it did not.

[Information via @NorrieRoss, @LucyBattersby, @_kate_osborn and The Australian]

TestFlight Introduces their TestFlight Desktop App Beta for Developers→

TestFlight Introduces their TestFlight Desktop App Beta for Developers

This afternoon, Hjalti Jakobsson (@Hjalti) announced the availability of the TestFlight Desktop App private beta.

TestFlight Desktop App, now in private beta

We’re really excited to share an early version of TestFlight’s Desktop App. We think this will be a significant and much needed change in developers’ beta release workflow. Since we’re still in beta, we’d really appreciate you testing the app and providing feedback.

TestFlight’s Desktop App brings TestFlight’s powerful management features to the desktop, resulting in iOS archive detection from the menubar, the ability to set permissions for testers, automatic dSYM detection, and faster upload speeds. Developers can simply visit https://testflightapp.com/desktop/ to download the beta app and provide feedback before TestFlight’s public release.

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Airfoil Speakers Touch is Back in the App Store, But…

Paul Kafasis on Apple’s takedown of Airfoil Speakers Touch and its reintroduction into the App Store:

We’re pleased that Airfoil Speakers Touch is once again available in the iOS App Store, enabling you to use Airfoil to send audio from your Mac or PC to Airfoil Speakers Touch running on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad. However, in order to get Airfoil Speakers Touch back into the store as a receiver for Airfoil, we had to remove its ability to receive audio directly from iOS and iTunes via AirPlay. This was quite disappointing to us, as we’d provided a feature that thousands of users found quite useful.

Airfoil Speakers Touch was removed from the App Store on May 24th, specifically for its Enhanced Audio Receiving feature which turned your iPhone or iPod into an AirPlay receiver. For instance, you could stream audio from iTunes to an iOS device that was connected to your home audio equipment. The feature was sold as an in app purchase — Kafasis states that over 7,000 customers paid extra for the functionality.

We now know that Apple’s issue with Airfoil Speakers Touch was specifically related to its recently-added ability to receive audio directly from iOS devices and iTunes. This was not properly conveyed in our initial conversations prior to the removal of Airfoil Speakers Touch from the store, and Apple’s representatives apologized for the fact that the entire process was “poorly handled”.

Apple’s problem with Enhanced Audio Receiving stems from Rogue Amoeba’s use of AirPlay in the app — Apple hasn’t made available any APIs for iOS devices to act as AirPlay receivers. Rogue Amoeba made clear that they weren’t using any Private APIs in their implementation. As John Gruber speculated, perhaps it wasn’t the issue of an API, but rather that Apple simply didn’t want a high profile AirPlay Receiver in their App Store.

John Gruber:

I think the bottom line is that Apple is saying that apps are not allowed to act as AirPlay receivers on iOS, but there’s no App Store guideline that explicitly forbids that. So they’re citing App Store Review Guideline 2.5:

Apps that use non-public APIs will be rejected.

Kafasis specifies what guidelines Apple used to remove Airfoil Speakers Touch from the App Store:

Regardless, Apple is using the authority they provide themselves in the guidelines and program license agreement to remove apps they don’t like. Specifically, they cited a provision in the App Store Review Guidelines which allows them to reject apps “for any content or behavior [they] believe is over the line”. That’s certainly disappointing, and frustrating, but it’s the nature of the system Apple has created.

Kafasis is upset, and rightfully upset, this his customers paid for a feature that was swiftly taken away without good reason. It’s also frustrating for customers, who may have specifically downloaded the app to pay for and use this feature. Instances like this can have negative impacts on the reputation of the developer if customers are unaware that the removal of a feature they paid for was mandated by Apple. Kafasis writes that Apple licenses AirPlay to lots of vendors, and that Apple might not want their own products to compete with AirPlay enabled hardware sold in stores. Rogue Amoeba had no choice but to comply and do the best they can to provide the remainder of the app’s functionality for existing customers. As far as outcomes go, I think it was the best compromise, but certainly not ideal.

[via Rogue Amoeba, The Next Web]

Can a command line shell be Mac-like?→

Can a command line shell be Mac-like?

Introducing a new command line shell from Ridiculous Fish (@ridiculous_fish):

The new fish is a POSIX command line shell with delightful, intuitive features like autosuggestions, 256 color syntax highlighting, web based configuration, and lots more. Best of all, these features just work, out of the box. No arcane syntax, no twiddling obscure knobs.

It’s easy to install and integrates seamlessly into iTerm or Apple’s Terminal. Fish (fishfish) is optimized for speed and is packed with easy-to-use features that allow newbs like me to customize my environment to my liking. Setting up and using fish is simple:

Edit /etc/shells as root, and add the line (if missing): /usr/local/bin/fish
Then run: chsh -s /usr/local/bin/fish

You can download fish here.

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