It wouldn’t be an OS X release without a lengthy, detailed review at Ars Technica from the hypercritical John Siracusa. Siracusa’s tenth OS X review weighs in at 24,008 words, 110 images, and 24 pages in the Web version. You can load page after page of the “canonical” Web version for free, or for $4.99, you can purchase an ebook version from the iBooks Store or Amazon’s Kindle Store.
Four years after its last significant update, the Mac Pro has at last been redesigned, and Apple has finally announced details about specs, price, and availability. Don’t get too excited — there’s still a wait.
With iOS 7.0.3, Apple finally adds the touted iCloud Keychain feature and fixes many of the redesigned operating system’s most annoying problems.
Say hello to near-universal Retina displays as Apple refreshes its powerful laptops with a thinner, lighter industrial design, new processors, and lower prices.
Just in time for the holiday season, and as expected, Apple has announced a thinner, lighter, faster iPad Air with a full-sized 9.7-inch Retina display, along with a similarly specced new iPad mini with Retina display.
The flash storage drive in certain mid-2012 models of the MacBook Air could fail at any time, but if a firmware update doesn’t resolve the problem, Apple will replace it for free. Josh Centers explains how to find out if your drive is affected.
If you’re looking for something spooky to play in the run-up to Halloween, Limbo is a creepy platform game for thinkers that raises the bar for touchscreen controls.
Much fuss has been made over the inaccuracy of the iPhone 5s positioning sensors, but it turns out that the problem is neither new nor unusual.
Level Money is a minimalistic budgeting app for the iPhone. Josh Centers explains why it’s perfect for him, and for many others who need more awareness of their financial standing.
Much noise has been made about Google’s Shared Endorsements, but as Josh Centers explains, it’s both limited and easily turned off.
Apple has snagged Angela Ahrendts, the lauded CEO of luxury retailer Burberry, to be its Senior Vice President of Retail and Online Stores — a new position created to replace the vacant SVP of Retail position, last occupied by John Browett in October 2012. At Burberry, Ahrendts became the highest-paid CEO in the UK, increasing annual revenue by 250 percent and driving up the stock price by 300 percent. Ahrendts also spearheaded new technology at Burberry, lining stores with video screens broadcasting runway shows and installing RFID tags in clothing that customers can scan for information. Ahrendts is the second fashion CEO to join Apple’s current executive team, following Yves St Laurent CEO Paul Deneve’s hire in July 2013.
The Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g), a user experience firm founded by usability gurus Jakob Nielsen and Don Norman, has appraised iOS 7, and the verdict isn’t great. “Early experience with applications redesigned for iOS 7 is fairly negative: several have worse usability than their iOS 6 versions.” In particular, NN/g cites action labels that are indistinguishable from content, the confusing date picker, confusing swipe actions (for example, activating Notification Center when you wanted Spotlight), and the redesign of many icons, of which NN/g said, “Apple has demolished millions of hours of user learning by changing the icons.” However, NN/g said that iOS 7’s design isn’t fatally flawed, and praised how controls are hidden in Safari, global font size controls, and the streamlined Settings app.
Following the recent release of 1Password 4 for Mac, AgileBits has updated the iOS version of 1Password to support the resurrected Wi-Fi Sync feature.
Apple has overhauled the way its various apps handle podcasts, leading to much confusion. Josh Centers brings some sense to the new status quo, at least to the extent that’s possible.
Rogue Amoeba’s Intermission is like an audio TiVo for your Mac, recording live audio and letting you go back in time to play anything from the last three hours. Read on to find out why it’s a great business tool and iTunes Radio accessory.