Xmarks Sold To A “New Owner”, Definitely Not Dead

Good news, Xmarks fans: the service is not dead. Actually, it’s definitely alive and looking forward to introducing free and premium plans under a new owner, the official Xmarks blog reports.

I’m pleased to announced that we’re in the final stages of completing a sale of Xmarks to a new owner who is 100% committed to keep our great browser sync service running smoothly.

The Xmarks service will evolve to have both a free component and a premium component – we’ll share all the details once the deal is done.

Many doubts and questions arose when Xmarks announced it was shutting down back in September due to the impossibility to find a feasible plan to keep things going. Loyal and regular users of the free bookmarking service signed dozens of petitions to keep the service alive and pledged thousands of dollars through unofficial campaigns to save Xmarks.

We look forward to the future of Xmarks.

Mac App Store Name Squatters Already A Problem for Developers

Yesterday Apple opened app submissions for the Mac App Store, which as promised at the Back to the Mac event by Steve Jobs will be opening in less than 90 days – around February 2011. Developers can now submit their applications for Apple’s approval – something you want to do now as we still don’t know what policies Apple is going to adopt on the Mac.

When a developer submit an app for Apple’s approval, he has to pick up a name. But the App Store always had a problem with name reservations: developers were able to register a name, block it so no other developer could use it and never upload an actual application for approval. The name was there, frozen, but no app with that name was ever submitted. This practice is known as “name squatting”. After thousands of complaints by frustrated developers who had seen their app’s name “stolen” by suspicious individuals, Apple acknowledged the problem in mid-September and introduced a new policy: you can register an application name, but if you don’t upload anything in 90 days you’ll receive a notification informing you that in 30 days that name will no longer be assigned to you and it’ll be “unlocked” once again. With people sitting on unused names for 2 years, that was a quite welcome change. Read more

Skype 5 Beta for Mac Now Available

A few minutes ago Skype released the long awaited version of Skype 5 for Mac, a new iteration of the world-leading communication tool that brings a lot of new features and a redesigned interface to OS X. Skype 5 for Mac is labelled as a beta product for now.

Skype 5 for Mac brings complete Address Book integration, group video calling (finally, as this was one of the best features of the Windows counterpart), a new mini control bar, support for offline instant messaging, user profiles and a floating dialpad.

Check out the demo video above.

Intel’s Light Peak Is Coming - Will Apple Use It?

According to an industry source contacted by CNET, Intel’s Light Peak technology development is nearing completion and it should be ready to go public in the first half of 2011 – earlier than initially expected. Light Peak is faster than USB 3.0 and can transfer up to 10 Gigabits per second in both directions simultaneously. USB 3.0 is not supported by Apple and a very few other PC makers have implemented the technology in their computers. Most of all, Intel itself hasn’t released chipsets compatible with USB 3.0 yet.

On the other hand, Light Peak has the chance to be backed next year by two major computer makers in the industry, Apple and Sony. Back in 2009, in fact, Intel stated that they had showed early prototypes of Light Peak to third parties and incorporated the feedback they got into their next designs, adding that Apple is an “an innovating force in the industry”. The demo Intel run on stage was based on a Mac, and Sony showed its appreciation for Light Peak in the past, too.

Even though Intel claims that, actually, they’re committed to the USB 3.0 project, it is clear that the money’s on the table with Light Peak, which is faster and lightweight enough to be implemented in new computers without adding bulk or extra space. Apple is expected to reveal new MacBook Pros in the April - June 2011 timeframe – that would be a good time to announce Light Peak coming to the next generation of OS X, wouldn’t it?

With Lion coming next summer, new MacBook Pros and a developer conference in June, the pieces might be coming together pretty soon.

Leaked Apple Document Confirms MacBook Air Issues, Software Update Coming

Looks like BGR has managed to find a good source amongst Apple Geniuses: according to a new leaked internal document, Apple has acknowledged the MacBook Air bugs we talked about two days ago.

Apple hasn’t publicly addressed the issues yet, and the document clearly says the information are not to be disclosed externally. The document mentions the display flickering issues many users have experienced, together with colors fading to light after waking from sleep. The suggested solution? Close the lid, wait 10 seconds and open the computer again.

Apple also confirms an upcoming software update will fix the issues.

Interface Artist Builds A Real OS X Home Icon

Some things in life are so cool, geeky – let me just say it, awesome – that you’ve got to see them with your own eyes to believe. I’ve always been attracted by the “digital becomes real” experiments (there’s this video on Vimeo about Facebook, Twitter and OS X created with cardboard I can’t find anymore), and what “interface artist” Johannes P Osterhoff has come up with is just too cool to not end up here in the late night geek coverage of MacStories.

He basically took the standard OS X home icon, created a wooden version and carried it around on his shoulders. I know, insane. He’s the same guy that painted images using Aqua graphical elements and created actual shields out of the UI of Windows Vista.

Please, go check out his post about the “project” here.