Tag Archives: Mac

WWDC: Apple brings big updates to its four major platforms, including Siri for Mac

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Apple kicked off its World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) this year by introducing big updates to its four major platforms: watchOS, which powers Apple Watch; tvOS, the driver behind Apple TV; OS X, the desktop operating system running all Macs; and iOS, the mobile operating system that gives life to iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches. These platforms see updates on a regular basis every year, but with WWDC in town, they aim to change the game in ways in could only imagine. You may be disappointed to hear there were no hardware unveils this time around, but fret not because these software updates demoed today are worthy of their own stage. The breakdown is after the break. Continue reading WWDC: Apple brings big updates to its four major platforms, including Siri for Mac →

Macintosh turns 30

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The Macintosh was introduced to the world on January 24, 1984. This year the Mac turns 30 years old and Apple is celebrating this major milestone with a special new portal on their website featuring an interactive, nostalgic and knowledgeable Mac Timeline. You can scrub through every year from 1984 to 2014 and discover how the Mac has made such a significant impact in the world. There’s also a section called My First Mac and you can share your story with the Apple community and learn what people did with their revolutionary computers.

And it wouldn’t be a proper Apple celebration without awe-inspiring video to go along with it. Embedded after the break are three. In “Thirty years of innovation” creative types like Moby and Hans Zimmer wax poetic about the Mac and how it changed their lives and even more so the world. The next video is even more powerful; on January 24, 2014–on the Mac’s 30 year anniversary–Apple sent 15 camera crews armed with iPhone 5s’ all around the world and the end result is pretty incredible. Over 70 hours of footage was edited down to a 1 minute 27 second clip that acknowledges the sheer power and capability of modern technology. Watch it–along with a behind-the-scenes video narrated by director Jake Scott (son of filmmaker Ridley Scott)–after the break.

Truly remarkable stuff. Happy Birthday, Mac. Continue reading Macintosh turns 30 →

Office for Mac 2011 available today

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Office for Mac 2008–be gone!  This week Microsoft announced that a refreshed version of its productivity suite is finally available for Mac OS X users.  The most significant update?  Microsoft has trashed Entourage and replaced it with the real thing–Outlook!  That’s right, full Outlook integration the Mac.  Oh happy day.  In addition, the new Office will play nice with Office Web Apps and other cloud-based applications; also, new co-authoring tools “let users edit the same Word document or PowerPoint presentation simultaneously with other people in different locations who are using Office on a PC or a Mac” and users can “quickly share their presentations with anyone who has browser access by broadcasting their presentation.”  Pretty neat, huh?  And it doesn’t end there; the new version packs a whole slew of new features–and not to mention welcome aesthetic tweaks.  There are two version of Office for Mac 2001 available today: the Home & Student version ($149.99) and the Home & Business version ($179.99).  They both pack Word, PowerPoint, and Excel, and I think you can guess which one includes Outlook.

[Via OfficeForMac; Engadget]

Back to the Mac: iLife ’11, FaceTime, Mac OS X Lion, MacBook Air

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Today Steve Jobs hosted an Apple keynote presentation appropriately titled Back to the Mac.  In it he demonstrated the new version of iLife ’11, highlighting major upgrades to iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand; introduced FaceTime for the Mac; previewed the next version of Mac OS X; and unveiled two new MacBook Air notebooks.  It’s breakdown time.

iLife ’11: The latest version of iLife packs the usual suspects–iPhone, iMovie, GarageBand, iWeb, and iDVD.  The former three have been given major upgrades in functionality.

iPhoto ’11 features a new full-screen mode.  With a click of a button (the green [+] located at the top left corner of the window), desktop applications, the menu bar, and other distractions disappear.  In full-screen mode you take advantage of more screen real estate when viewing pictures in Events, Faces, Places, Albums, and Projects.  Projects is a new way to view your collection of books and letterpress cards on a wooden bookshelf.  The ability to create custom letterpress cards is a new feature; 15 distinct themes are at your disposal to customize and order directly from Apple to send to relatives and friends.  When you go to create a book or letterpress card, a new dynamic theme browser in carousel style will be presented to you.  There are also a bunch of new slideshow themes including Holiday Mobile, Reflections, and Places.  Want to email a group of photos to a friend?  Now you can create and send an email message within iPhoto; no need to jump out and into a mail client.  You can choose from eight themes to customize how you want your pictures to be presented in the email.  And lastly there’s Facebook enhancements.  Within iPhoto you can now publish photos directly to your wall or to an existing album, and if your friends leave comments on your photos you’ll be able to view them in iPhoto.  You can also tag faces and browse all of your Facebook albums in iPhoto; no need to jump out and into a browser.

iMovie ’11 features new audio editing tools.  Detailed wave forms are color coded, so now you can see where audio levels are too loud or quiet and adjust them properly.  Also there’s a new single-row view that shows you your entire movie project in one horizontal row, making it easier to edit your soundtrack.  One-step effects are also at your disposal.  Adding visual effects like instant replay, flash and hold, and jump cuts at beats can be done with minimal amount of clicks.  The new People Finder feature works similarly to Faces in iPhoto; the software will analyze your video to identify the parts with people in them.  It also finds the close-ups, medium shots, or wide angles making it easier to find these specific shots during an edit session.  There are two new themes: sports and news.  And now you can publish your movies directly Vimeo,CNN iReport, and Apple Podcast Producer in addition to iTunes, YouTube, Facebook, and your mobile devices.  Last there’s movie trailers.  You can choose from 15 templates to create professional-looking movie trailers out of your clips.  Apple commissioned the London Symphony Orchestra to record (in Abbey Road Studios) and perform original tracks for you to use when creating movie trailers.  Outline and storyboard views make it simple to put together a movie trailer in no time.

GarageBand ’11 includes two new features called Flex Time and Groove Matching.  Flex Time allows you to fix timing mistakes on the fly; you can literally click and drag any part of a waveform to change the timing of a note or beat.  Groove Matching is described as “an automatic spell checker for bad rhythm.”  If one (or multiple) instruments appears to be out of rhythm, all you have to do is select the one instrument that has the perfect rhythm (called the Groove Track) and all the other instrument tracks will instantly match it.  A new feature called “How Did I Play?” gives you the opportunity to play along with a piano or guitar lesson, record yourself, and test how you’re doing in real time.  Like Guitar Hero, the GarageBand lesson will keep track of your performance with a performance meter and show you missed notes in red to help you perfect your skills.  A track progess bar will show you how better (or worse) you’re performing a particular song by date.  Finally, there’s new lessons for piano and guitar, as well as new guitar amps and stompbox effects.

iLife ’11 is available for purchase today at $49.  A family pack, which includes 5 licenses, goes for $79.  Keep in mind iLife ships free with every new Mac. Continue reading Back to the Mac: iLife ’11, FaceTime, Mac OS X Lion, MacBook Air →

Apple reports 2010 Q1 earnings: $3.38b profit, Macs up 33%, iPods down 8%, iPhone sales double

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Apple recently announced their first quarter financial results and per usual, they made quite a hefty profit.  $3.38 billion to be exact (or $3.67 profit per share).  They brought in revenues of $15.68 billion.  Note that these numbers are up from last quarter’s profit of $2.26 billion on $11.88 billion in revenue.  More to the point, this is the best quarter they have ever had.  Let’s break it down by product: Apple sold 3.36 million Macs (representing a 33 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter), 8.7 million iPhones (representing 100 percent unit growth), and 21 million iPods (representing an eight percent unit decline).  No surprise there; iPod sales have been declining for some time now.  Note that this decline factors general iPod sales; iPod touch sales were up 55 percent.

According to the earnings PR, “The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we’re really excited about.”  *Cough–Apple Tablet–cough.*  Sorry, I was just clearing my throat.  Might as well throw in a possibility of seeing the next iLife, iPhone OS 4.0, and maybe even witness AT&T’s iPhone exclusitivity fall by the wayside to Verizon.  Remember to check back here tomorrow night for all Apple announcements.

Every quarter seems to surpass the last financially for Apple.  With Steve Jobs at the helm, what else more could you expect?  The man is an inspiration, and his company is his vision.  “Apple at the core, its core value, is that we believe that people with passion can change the world for the better.”  Watch as Steve Jobs (in shorts!) motivates the industry in a video captured about ten years ago when he returned to Apple.

[Via Apple; Engadget; Gizmodo]

Apple: What recession?

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Today Apple held their fiscal 2009 thrid quarter conference call with investers and analysts.  Apparently Apple had the “best non-holiday quarter [in terms of] revenue and earnings.”  From their official press release:

The Company posted revenue of $8.34 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.23 billion, or $1.35 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $7.46 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.07 billion, or $1.19 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 36.3 percent, up from 34.8 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 44 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

Apple admitted that “we expect traditional MP3 players (read: iPod classic, nano, and shuffle) to decline over time as we cannibalize ourselves.”  Basically, Apple points out here that all iPod models (except for the touch) are “walking dinosaurs.”  Apple sees the iPod touch and iPhone continuing to dominate the market well into next year, while the traditional iPods will continue to decline in sales.  More from the offiicial press release:

The Company sold 10.2 million iPods during the quarter, representing a seven percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhones sold were 5.2 million, representing 626 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.

If you’re wondering about Mac sales: Apple sold 2.6 million Macintosh computers during the quarter, representing a four percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter.

Other notable mentions include…Apple on its relationship with AT&T: “I think it’s an excellent relationship and we’re very happy with it.” …Apple on the netbook rumors: “At this point we don’t see a way to build a great product for this $399, $499…for this kind of pricepoint unit. Some customers, maybe many customers buying these become disappointed and disenchanted buying these.”  …Apple on the recent tablet rumors: “…without discounting anything for the future, I think most customers buying a portable want a full-featured notebook.”  And “many people won’t be happy” with the crappy experience of a netbook, so Apple is “only going to play in something that’s very innovative that we’re very proud of.”

The title of the official press release summarizes it best: Apple Reports Third Quarter Results – Best Non-Holiday Quarter Revenue and Earnings in Apple History.  Way to go, Apple!

[Via Apple; Engadget; quotes from Gizmodo]