We’re back from our Memorial Day hiatus last week with a double-sized issue, thanks to Apple’s numerous keynote announcements at this week’s Worldwide Developer Conference. Adam looks at what these announcements and Apple’s public numbers say about the company’s place in the industry, and we cover the basics of what Apple revealed about Mac OS X Lion, iOS 5, and iCloud. (It was a tough day at the keyboards for all of us!) Security news also pushes its way into this issue, with an important Flash Player update you should download, along with more on the increasingly serious MacDefender situation. Last, but by no means least, we’re extremely pleased to bring you three important new Take Control books: Joe Kissell’s “Take Control of Speeding Up Your Mac” and “Take Control of Troubleshooting Your Mac, Second Edition,” and Michael Cohen’s “Take Control of TextExpander.” Notable software releases in the last two weeks include Growl 1.2.2, Data Rescue 3.2, Logic Pro 9.1.4 and Logic Express 9.1.4, Moneydance 2011, Fantastical 1.0, DEVONthink and DEVONnote 2.1, Sparrow 1.2, and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.4.1.
With the WWDC 2011 keynote, Apple showed off just how powerful the company has become, both by announcing not one, not two, but three full-fledged platforms, and by sharing numerous statistics that paint a pretty picture of Apple’s current and future business prospects.
Joe Kissell’s “Take Control of Speeding Up Your Mac” completes his Mac Fitness Trilogy with a comprehensive collection of tested tweaks and tips to get your Mac firing fast on all cores — and if slow performance is not your Mac’s only problem, Joe’s just-released “Take Control of Troubleshooting Your Mac, Second Edition” provides helpful diagnostic and repair techniques. Finally, “Take Control of Maintaining Your Mac, Second Edition” helps you keep problems from happening in the first place.
TidBITS contributor and Take Control author Michael E. Cohen has fallen under the spell of Smile’s 5-star rated text expansion software, TextExpander. His latest ebook, “Take Control of TextExpander,” explains why.
Adobe has released an update to Flash Player that both fixes an important security vulnerability and provides automatic update notification for the future.
At the Worldwide Developer Conference, Apple provided a few new details about Mac OS X Lion, while committing to a July delivery date and a price tag of just $29.99.
In addition to Apple’s clearing the decks of some long-standing gotchas and complaints about iOS, the big news is that iOS 5 will cut the cord and allow iOS devices to operate entirely separately from a Mac or PC. And there’s some other cool stuff in iOS 5 as well.
Apple’s upcoming iCloud service promises to make you forget about having to sync devices using cables to share data. Download songs you’ve purchased but not synced (even those you ripped or purchased somewhere other than the iTunes Store), update documents on multiple devices simultaneously, store an ongoing photo stream, and more with Apple’s MobileMe replacement.
In an unusual about-face, Apple has gone from telling AppleCare reps not to help callers remove MacDefender infections to releasing a support document explaining how to do it along with a security update to Mac OS X 10.6.7 to stop MacDefender and its variants. Hopefully it will also stop MacGuard, the new variant Intego has found that doesn’t even require an admin password to install.
Apple has updated Mac OS X 10.6.7 to remove and prevent infections of the MacDefender malware.
Notable software releases this week include Growl 1.2.2, Data Rescue 3.2, Logic Pro 9.1.4 and Logic Express 9.1.4, Moneydance 2011, Fantastical 1.0, DEVONthink and DEVONnote 2.1, Sparrow 1.2, and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.4.1.
We have a couple of podcasts from TidBITS staffers for you this week, along with the continuing saga of the Lodsys patent brouhaha, news of a MacBook case replacement program, Apple’s release of iWork for the iPhone and iPod touch, and Gmail’s new people widget.