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Apple set to launch Sandy Bridge Mac Pro and Mac mini this fall

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, PC / Laptop, Rumors,

Mac Pro sandy bridge

It wouldn't be a weekend without a brand-new Apple rumor to feast upon. And today's no exception: According to Cnet's Brian Tong, unidentified sources have told him that Apple's going to launch an upgraded Mac Pro and Mac mini this fall.

Details on the configurations are scant, save for the two obvious upgrades that Apple would want to put in a refreshed system line: Intel Sandy Bridge CPUs and Thunderbolt connections. The timeline for the systems is a little nebulous as well—the systems could appear in late July or early August, though Tong claims that an August launch is the more likely scenario. Expect the refreshed systems to feature Mac's latest operating system iteration, OS X Lion.

Tong's source is allegedly the same individual that correctly predicted an early May refresh of Apple's iMac line—lo and behold, new iMacs sporting Intel's quad-core Sandy Bridge processors and Thunderbolt support hit stores on May 3.

Click to continue reading Apple set to launch Sandy Bridge Mac Pro and Mac mini this fall


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Apple Store: Here are the secrets of its amazing success

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Corporate News,

Apple Store Galleria

What's the real inside dirt on how Apple runs its equally successful and secretive Apple Stores? The Wall Street Journal claims to be privy to Apple's secret sauce after poring through Apple Store training manuals, a recording of a store meeting, interviews with current and former store employees, and conversations with outside analysts.

In a report published yesterday, the Journal serves up the dish on everything from Apple's store design strategy to the granularity of employee sales training. Some of the information the newspaper dug up is fairly obvious—for; example, Apple doesn't do cookie-cutter designs for its Apple Stores, but rather "constantly evolves its stores' look and feel."

But some of the reported Apple Store skinny touches on areas that may have been guessed at, but have now been apparently confirmed. To wit, current and former Apple Store employees say store techs aren't allowed to "prematurely" acknowledge product glitches that are already widespread, and writing about Apple online will get you fired from an Apple Store.

The Journal also layers in plenty of Apple Store stats—did; you know that more people now visit Apple Stores in a single quarter than went to Disney's four biggest amusement parks last year?

Here's a quick look at some more interesting Apple Store tidbits that the paper either uncovered, confirmed, or highlights in the article.

Click to continue reading Apple Store: Here are the secrets of its amazing success


OS X Lion Developer Preview 4 update now available

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, PC / Laptop, Software,

Lion Developer Preview 4 update

Hot on the heels of the release of OS X Lion Developer Preview 4 at WWDC 2011, Apple has already released the next update to the Lion build. No details yet on the fixes/additions/improvements in this one, but if you are running the latest OS X 10.7 Preview, you can find this update waiting for you in Software Update. Go ahead and run it, and if you find anything interesting, do let us know, mmkay?


Tip: Use Dropbox to replace discontinued iDisk

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Internet, PC / Laptop, Software,

DropboxWe've been hearing from quite a few disgruntled MobileMe subscribers who are wondering what the heck they're supposed to do now that Apple will seemingly be discontinuing the iDisk service with the launch of iCloud. As awesome as iCloud is, we do agree that iDisk is definitely a nice feature, and it's a shame to see it go away. However, Dropbox is a great alternative, and we've actually found that it often works better than iDisk does. You can sign up for free and you'll get 2 GB of space right off the bat. If you want more, you can upgrade...but it certainly doesn't hurt to try it out. Dropbox integrates right into your Finder, similar to iDisk, and gives you updates on syncing across all your devices, plus you can access your files from through the Dropbox mobile apps as well.

Read More | Dropbox

OS X Lion Developer Preview 4 now available

Lion Developer Preview 4 beta

For all you peeps out there with Mac Developer accounts, you'll wanna grab the latest OS X Lion Developer Preview 4 build that Apple just released. This morning at its WWDC 2011 keynote, the company re-introduced us to many of the OS X 10.7 Lion features that we were already familiar with, but this time things have a lot more fit and finish on them. Lion will launch next month at $29.


Mac OS X Lion launches in July for $29, Mac App Store exclusive

Lion launch $29

We've been updating you on the progress of Lion as the updates have been fairly often in the Developer Preview. Today at WWDC 2011, Phil Schiller announced that OS X 10.7 Lion will be launching next month, exclusively on the Mac App Store, for the amazingly low price of $29. An updated Developer Preview of the next big operating system from Apple will be available later today.


Unboxing Live 070: OnLive Game System

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Features, Video Games, Videocasts,

In this episode we open up the OnLive Game System. If you are unfamiliar, OnLive offers streaming gaming, similar to the way Netflix offers streaming movies. You fire up the OnLive service on your PC, Mac, or on the Microconsole (featured in this video), choose a game you want to play, and it works on demand. The library of titles availabie is absolutely huge, and you can pretty much play them all for one fee. We give you a look at the OnLive Microconsole, as well as their wireless controller in this episode of Unboxing Live with Andru Edwards.

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Lion + iOS 5 + iCloud = WWDC 2011

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Software,

WWDC 2011 banners icloud

Just in case you weren't sure how influential iCloud would be next week at WWDC 2011, here's a look at one of the banners that is going up at the Moscone Center. Yep, iCloud gets top billing, right next to Mac OS X Lion and iOS 5. Apple must see iCloud as a pretty big deal, and it already told us as much. Now, we wait.


Amazon launches their own Mac App Store

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Hot Deals, Software,

Amazon Mac Download Store

Following up on the Lady Gaga album sale earlier this week, Amazon continues their digital download battle against Apple with the launch of their own Mac app download store. They've got quite a variety of available titles (though, not as much as the Mac App Store of course,) which include big games like Civilization V, productivity suites like Microsoft Office, and a bunch of others. Right now they are offering Airport Mania for free, and your first paid download will be $5 off. We like it.


Apple releases Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Developer Preview 3 11A459e

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, PC / Laptop, Software,

Lion developer preview 3

All you Apple devs out there (meaning, anyone who coughed up $99 for a Mac dev account,) hit Software Update when you get a chance because Apple just released Lion Developer Preview 3. The update, which is build 11A4593, weighs in at 1.07 GB, and looks to be an actual seed build this time around. We are keeping our eyes out for any new features or enhancements. Also, for those interested, Xcode 4.1 Developer Preview 5 is also available.


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