Posts in news

Apple Releases OS X 10.6.6 and Mac App Store

A few minutes ago Apple released OS X 10.6.6 with access to the Mac App Store in Software Update. It is available now as a free 114 MB download for Snow Leopard users. As noted by Macworld, the Mac App Store already includes some apps from Apple such as the iLife ‘11 suite with standalone apps sold at $15 each. Sadly, there’s no iWork ‘11 in the Mac App Store – the iWork ‘09 apps are sold at $20 each.

Aperture and Apple Remote Desktop are also on sale in the Mac App Store, both available at $79.99.

Full changelog and first screenshots of the Mac App Store below.

Update: here are the direct links to the OS X 10.6.6. update.

Update #2: And here’s everything you need to know about the Mac App Store.

Read more

You Can Buy Hacked iTunes Accounts in China

According to a report from AFP, hacked iTunes accounts complete with credit card information are available for sale on Chinese online retailer Taobao. The hacked accounts give you “free” access to music, TV shows, movies, apps – anything you can buy in the iTunes Store. AFP is reporting that hacked accounts are sold starting at 30 yuan ($4) but, as noted by the Global Times, price may go up to 200 yuan, too. Around 50,000 accounts are being sold on Taobao.

“At this time, we have not received any information from Apple or any other principal related to the iTunes accounts indicating that these products either violate our listing rules or infringe on the IP of others,” the company said.

Experts said hackers either hack foreign users’ iTunes accounts, which keep credit card numbers on file, or steal details of overseas credit cards to register several iTunes accounts that are then put on sale.

It is unclear whether or not this sale of hacked accounts has been going around for months. Either way, sometimes the best solution to prevent your account from being hacked is very simple: keep a strong password. [AFP via 9to5]

Hint At iWork ‘11 Coming Tomorrow On The Mac App Store?

As noted by 9to5mac, some graphic files found in the latest update to Keynote Remote, released today together with new Keynote features for iWork.com, hint at the presence of the iWork ‘11 suite on the Mac App Store tomorrow. Rumors of a new version of iWork have been going around since November, when AppleInsider suggested that, according to their sources, iWork ‘11 should have been released together with iLife ‘11 but was put on the shelf at the last minute and saved for a Mac App Store launch in January.

Today’s update to Keynote Remote includes two slightly changed Keynote icons that have “2011” on them. Traditionally, Apple updates the Keynote icon with a new year on it as a new version is released – it happened in the past with Keynote ‘09 as well, for example.

Of course, Apple might just have included these updated files and then release iWork ‘09 as standalone apps in the Mac App Store tomorrow. With all the rumors that have been going around recently, though, and the fact that Apple has heavily featured iWork apps in its Mac App Store promo material, there might be the possibility of seeing iWork ‘11 showing up tomorrow as a digital download in the new Store.

Echofon Acquired By PostUp (Who’ve Previously Acquired Twidroyd)

When Tweetie started to fall on the feature front, I immediately switched to Echofon and haven’t looked back. Why would you settle with an old, featureless, and bulky Twitter client like Tweetie when you can have a fast, streamlined, and full fledged app like Echofon? (It looked pretty, but I was never a fan of the original Tweetie.) Once the Streaming APIs hit the client a few months ago, it’s been one of my favorite apps on the Mac. Today, the company who develops Echofon, Naan Studio Inc., has been acquired by PostUp to compliment their previous purchase of Android’s Twidroyd. PostUp has a Twitter search algorithm that’s implemented on many sites to watch topics (our source TechCrunch uses it for example), and we can’t wait to see what exciting changes PostUp plans to make to improve Echofon.

[via TechCrunch]

iWork Update 5 Includes iWork.com, Keynote Updates Galore

Time to head over to Software Update iWork users: There’s a huge iWork 5 update in queue with your name on it. Most prominently featured is a major Keynote upgrade which allows you to play presentations over iWork.com with support for fifteen Steve Jobs’ approved animations. Keynote Remote 1.2 gets an upgrade as well, so you can playback hi-def slides on your iPhone during those killer presentation (eyeballs rejoice!). Some improvements have been made to the export of ePub files on Pages, but most importantly we’ll have public and private sharing options available for all iWork documents via iWork.com. You can read more about version 9.0.5 here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4386

Native Union Is Perfect For Cranky CEOs, Moms Who Want A Wireless House Phone

Remember those wireless house phones? Me neither. Native Union thinks you’ll want to take calls with the familiar shape and feel of a household handset through the power of bluetooth. Coming out of the 90s, we might fondly remember the angry clack of the phone as your mother hung up on your step-dad, or the times we spent talking to the girl down the street until the batteries went dead. Well you can relive those moments and charge your iPhone at the same time, and possibly power some wicked desktop speakers thanks to the 3.5mm output jack. Even more badass is your color choice of black or white, but unfortunately for Native Union, that white model might not sell until a matching white iPhone makes an appearance. This plastic block is $150, which I think is way overpriced for what you get. I’m calling it: “dead on arrival.”

[via Engadget]

Rumor: iPhone 5 Taken Apart, Shown Naked On Video?

The Boy Genius Report has uncovered an iPhone video from Youtube via Global Direct Parts, who claim to have the parts for the next generation iPhone. If this report is true, internally some of the changes could be speed bumps (such as we saw between the 3G and 3GS). On the outside, the steel band will see a relocation of the dividers that separate the antennas. Externally, we don’t imagine a visual difference between the iPhone 4, and the iPhone 5 (4G?). There’s been slight internal retooling of the next generation iPhone antenna, which may give customers with dropped calls some relief. Lastly, we can expect incremental improvements all around the board, but as you’ll see in the video after the break, we haven’t seen everything yet.

Read more

Mac App Store and OS X 10.6.6 Coming Tomorrow at 12 PM ET

We know the Mac App Store is launching tomorrow, on January 6. We also know that Mac OS X 10.6.6 will be required to use the Mac App Store. Jim Dalrymple over at The Loop, however, confirms that according to his sources (and when Jim says “my sources tell me” he always means “someone at Apple told me”) the Mac App Store is launching tomorrow at 12 PM ET, 9 AM Cupertino time.

According to my sources, the Mac App Store will be available at 12:00 pm (noon) ET on Thursday. That puts it at about 9:00 am PT where Apple is headquartered in Cupertino, Calif.

Of course, this means that come 12 PM tomorrow we should fire up Software Update and find a 10.6.6 update that, among fixes, will include the Mac App Store as a new system app. It is still unknown whether or not Apple will also offer a standalone Mac App Store download for 10.6.6 users on its website.

So anyway, get your credit cards ready: we’re 23 hours away from the Mac App Store.

Skype 5 Out of Beta?

As noted by a poster on Italian forum Italiamac, it appears that Skype 5, launched as beta in November, has now gone “public” – out of beta – for everyone. When trying to download Skype for Mac from its usual download page, the website doesn’t return a download of Skype 2.8 (which is still featured as the latest public release for Mac) but “forces you” to download a new version of Skype 5.

The beta version, indeed, has build number 5.0.0.6378, while the new version we just downloaded is 5.0.60.7598. Build number aside, there doesn’t seem to be anything new in the Mac app. This is a direct link to the download of the new version of Skype 5 for Mac.

Of course this might just be an error on Skype’s end, but with the recent release of video calling for iPhone and iPad we’re hoping for an announcement of Skype 5 final later today. Read more