MacRumors: Mac News and Rumors - Mac Blog

Apple Kills Off White MacBook as Educational Institution Distribution Halted

Eric Slivka — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:16:39 PST

Last July, Apple discontinued the white MacBook from its consumer lineup, pushing consumers toward the company's popular MacBook Air line or the 13-inch MacBook Pro. The company didn't kill off the MacBook entirely though, as it continued to offer it to educational institutions.

Apple has now notified resellers that it has ended that distribution channel as well, classifying the MacBook as "End of Life". It is unclear at what point Apple ceased production on the MacBook, as it is likely that the company's manufacturing partners wound down their work on the machine some time ago, with the company continuing to sell through its final batch to its limited educational institution market since that time.

Apple Adds Another 150,000 SF to Sunnyvale Real Estate Footprint

Eric Slivka — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:42:22 PST

Last month, we noted that Apple had signed a pair of leases for over 300,000 square feet of space in Sunnyvale, the company's first venture into the city next door to its home in Cupertino, California. The leases were said to be part of a larger effort in which Apple was looking to secure 700,000-800,000 square feet of space in Sunnyvale as it continues to grow and to tide it over until its massive new headquarters campus opens several years from now.

According to a press release (PDF) from the City of Sunnyvale, another piece of that plan has fallen into place with Apple's commitment to lease a new 156,000 square foot building in downtown Sunnyvale. Apple is said to be planning to move 400 employees to the building, which sits directly adjacent to a similar building where Nokia just last year consolidated the majority of its Bay Area operations.

Sunnyvale City Manager Gary Luebbers has announced that Apple will join the ranks of high-tech businesses located in downtown Sunnyvale. Apple will occupy the new 156,000 square-foot Town Center Office building at Mathilda and McKinley avenues.

“This is an important step forward,” said Luebbers. Our entire community will benefit as we see yet another large gain in the Town Center redevelopment project.”

Apple plans to occupy the new building in the third quarter of this year.

Apple's planned "spaceship campus" in Cupertino is set to offer 2.8 million square feet of space, but the structure will not be complete until 2015. In the meantime, Apple has continued to snap up real estate leases wherever it can in Cupertino and the surrounding area to accommodate its rapidly-growing workforce. Apple currently employs roughly 25,000 full-time non-retail employees, the vast majority of which operate out of or near the company's Cupertino headquarters.

Apple Seeking to Bring Store-Within-a-Store Concept to Sam's Club?

Eric Slivka — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 07:16:11 PST

9to5Mac reports that Apple is in "early discussions" with Sam's Club to bring the Apple store-within-a-store concept to the popular warehouse club chain that operates as a division of Walmart.

Sam’s Club and Apple are not only in early discussions for the Apple store-in-store program, but a backup plan is also being discussed. This plan consists of Sam’s Club simply selling Apple’s Macs, but without the Apple Store features. Since the discussions are still early, sources could not comment on a timeframe for such partnerships, but we know the store-in-stores will likely not be coming soon—or at all if the discussions fall flat. While Sam’s Club is said to be considered, it is unknown if its parent company Walmart is, too.

Apple has operated its store-within-a-store concept in partnership with Best Buy for a number of years and appears to be working hard to expand that program with Target confirming a pilot program to bring Apple shops to 25 of its stores and Apple reportedly looking to open a location inside London's famous Harrods department store.

The scope of any Sam's Club move for Apple seems unclear, as the original report claims that Apple would bring the shops to "the 47 United States retail warehouse chain locations", while Sam's Club actually operates over 600 U.S. stores. The warehouse chain has been a preferred partner for Apple, carrying a number of iPhone, iPad, and iPod models and serving as a launch-day partner for both the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S.

Id Software's RAGE Arrives on Mac App Store

Jordan Golson — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:52:22 PST

As the Mac becomes more popular, the arrival of A-List titles to the platform is beginning to become a more common occurrence. The latest top-shelf game to hit the Mac is Id Software's RAGE, which has gone live both on the Mac App Store [Direct Link] and on publisher Aspyr's GameAgent online store.

The game takes place more than 100 years after the impact of an asteroid destroys most life on earth. The player awakens after being frozen in cryo-stasis without any memory of who he is or what he is supposed to do. The game plays out in a world similar to Mad Max and the like, with the player fighting enemies, making allies, and trying to find his place in an utterly wrecked planet.

Potential purchasers should note that the game is titled the "Campaign Edition" because it only includes the single player campaign, not the multiplayer components. Priced at $39.99, the well-reviewed post-apocalyptic shoot-em-up has some hefty system requirements, asking for at least OS X 10.7.2 and an Intel Core 2 Duo and a long list of graphics cards -- most significantly, however, integrated video chipsets are not supported.

RAGE: Campaign Edition is $39.99 on the Mac App Store and weighs in at nearly 13GB. Purchasers are strongly encouraged to double check their system requirements before purchasing. [Direct Link]

Safari 5.1.4 with JavaScript and PDF Handling Improvements Seeded to Developers

Eric Slivka — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 10:47:46 PST

As noted by 9to5Mac, Apple today began seeding Safari 5.1.4 to developers for testing, signaling the next round of improvements for Apple's browser software. Safari 5.1.4 is available in versions for OS X Lion, Mac OS X Snow Leopard, and Windows, and the release notes ask developers to focus their testing on JavaScript performance, interactions between plug-ins and zooming, and PDF printing.

JavaScript Performance Enhancements
Safari 5.1.4 on Lion includes many ﬁxes that enhance JavaScript performance. Please test webpages that use JavaScript and look for compatibility issues.

Plug-Ins & Zooming
Please test interaction with plug-ins and the appearance of plug-in content
while zooming. Please test zooming using gestures and keyboard shortcuts.

Printing PDFs
Please test printing PDFs loaded into Safari as well as PDFs displayed in iframes.

Using PDFs Printed from Webpages
Please test links in PDFs created from webpages using Safari 5.1.4.

Safari 5.1.3 was released just yesterday as part of OS X 10.7.3 and is a Lion-only release for now, as Safari 5.1.2 remains the most up-to-date version available for Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Windows users.

Apple Hardware Chief Bob Mansfield Cashes in Nearly $12.5 Million in Stock Options

Eric Slivka — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 07:37:32 PST

As revealed in a regulatory filing yesterday, Apple senior vice president for hardware engineering Bob Mansfield on Monday exercised a set of stock options he has held for a number of years, immediately selling off the stock for a gain of nearly $12.5 million. Under the stock option program, Mansfield was eligible to purchase 30,000 of Apple stock at a price of $36.54 per share and immediately sold them off in several batches averaging $452.28 per share.

Mansfield's stock options dated back to an award made in June of 2005 as an enticement for him to stay with the company over the next several years. Those options fully vested by June 2009, but Mansfield has been holding onto them since that time as Apple's stock has continued to surge. With the options set to expire in June of this year and Apple's stock continuing to perform well, Mansfield undoubtedly thought that this would be an excellent time to exercise those options.

Mansfield has been a relatively active participant in Apple's stock option and grant award programs for its senior executives, regularly cashing in his shares while continuing to hold only a small amount of stock. With the quick sale of this week's shares obtained through the options, Mansfield owns only 501 shares of Apple stock.

His stock sales do not mean that he is not invested with the company, however, as Mansfield currently holds one restricted stock unit grant that would see him earn 100,000 shares in 2014 and a second grant of 150,000 shares that will vest in two equal portions in June 2013 and March 2016. All of those grants, which together would be worth roughly $114 million at Apple's current stock price, are contingent upon Mansfield remaining with Apple.

Intuit Releases Quicken Essentials on Mac App Store

Jordan Golson — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:46:55 PST

Intuit has begun offering its entry-level financial management software Quicken Essentials for Mac on the Mac App Store. This is the standard edition of Essentials that has been on sale for quite a while, not a new version -- something Intuit is quick to point out in the description for the software. It's merely a new distribution point.

Quicken Essentials for Mac, a basic starter edition, helps you manage all of your personal finance in one place, so you can see where you’re spending and where you can save. Quicken automatically categorizes your financial transactions, stay on top of bills and helps you set goals so you can save more.

**For Quicken Essentials for Mac users: Please note, this is not a new release of Quicken Essentials for Mac. **

Quicken Essentials does work under OS X Lion, but it is a far cry from Quicken for Mac 2007, which was the last fully-featured version of Quicken released for the Mac platform. Intuit promised last month that a Lion-compatible version of Quicken 2007 would be available for customers by "early spring."

Quicken Essentials for Mac is available for $49.99 on the Mac App Store. [Direct Link]

Thanks Ahan!

Apple Offers Statement on Warranty Disclosures to Italian Customers

Eric Slivka — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:09:40 PST

Back in late December, Apple was fined $1.2 million by Italian regulators over allegations that the company promoted its AppleCare extended warranty program to customers without adequately disclosing that many of the program's benefits were already included in the standard two-year warranty required by Italian law.

As noted by @setteBIT, Apple has now added to its Italian online store a prominent link sharing the court decision (PDF). The document outlines the requirement that Apple modify the marketing terms for its AppleCare services in Italy within 90 days from the December 21 decision to properly reflect what is covered under standard two-year warranties and to widely publicize that information to consumers.

It is unclear whether Apple will continue to appeal the fine, with today's posting of the decision perhaps designed to meet the court's requirements while the case remains ongoing.

Apple Seeds OS X 10.7.3 Build 11D50 to Developers

Arnold Kim — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:46:41 PST

Apple has pushed out Build 11D50 of OS X 10.7.3 to registered developers. Apple continues to report no known issues in the seed notes, and asks developers to focus their testing on Address Book, iCal, Mail, Spotlight and Safari.

The previous builds had appeared to be close to a final release, but Apple is clearly still making some final tweaks to the update. The release description has indicated that the main improvements in OS X 10.7.3 will be support for several new languages and fixes for issues related to smart cards, directory services authentication, and Windows file sharing.

EFI Firmware Update Brings Lion Internet Recovery to Mid-2010 13-Inch MacBook Pro [Updated]

Eric Slivka — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 20:30:04 PST

As noted in our forums, Apple today pushed out a new firmware update specifically targeting users of the company's Mid-2010 13-inch MacBook Pro model. The new MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 2.5 brings compatibility with Lion Internet Recovery, allowing users of OS X Lion to reinstall the operating system from scratch on a brand-new hard drive without the need for physical recovery media.

About MacBook Pro EFI Firmware Update 2.5

This update enables Lion Recovery from an Internet connection on MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010) models.

For more information about Lion Recovery, please visit this website: http://www.apple.com/macosx/recovery/.

The update has not yet appeared on Apple's support downloads site, but weighs in at a small 2.9 MB for the user who posted the Software Update screenshot.

Lion Internet Recovery debuted alongside OS X Lion on new MacBook Air and Mac mini models introduced last July. The feature adds a minimal bootable install onto a machine's firmware to allow it to connect the Internet and download the full Lion operating system for installation. OS X Lion by default installs a recovery partition on the machine's hard drive for this purpose, but for users who are installing a blank hard drive or whose recovery partition becomes inaccessible, Internet Recovery provides yet another fallback option for Lion installation.

Following the July introduction of Internet Recovery on the current MacBook Air and Mac mini models, Apple extended the feature in mid-September to the then-current Early 2011 MacBook Pro models that had been released in February 2011. One month later Apple brought the feature to Apple's current-generation iMac line, leaving only the aging Mac Pro without support for Internet Recovery.

With today's firmware update, Apple has for the first time reached back to a previous-generation model to bring Lion Internet Recovery to the 13-inch MacBook Pro that was offered from April 2010 through February 2011.

Update: Users are also reporting that similar EFI firmware updates are available for the Mid-2010 white MacBook and the Mid-2010 Mac mini.

Virgin America Names Jet After Steve Jobs

Jordan Golson — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:49:24 PST

Virgin America has named one of its fleet after Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, emblazoning a popular Jobs quote "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish" on the side of this Airbus A320.

Steve mentioned the phrase in his 2005 commencement address at Stanford University, noting that it was originally used in The Whole Earth Catalog in the 1970's:

On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

A Virgin America spokesperson explained to MacRumors that the name was chosen as part of an internal plane naming competition. The plane, with tail number N845VA, first flew last fall.

Virgin America is the only airline based in Silicon Valley, with 2,200 employees based in Burlingame.

(Photo courtesy Virgin America)

Apple Opening Store-Within-A-Store Inside London's Harrods Department Store?

Jordan Golson — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:21:00 PST

Apple is planning to open a new store-within-a-store concept at the legendary Harrods department store on Brompton Road in London, according to 9to5Mac.

Harrods boasts more than 1 million square feet of selling space across 330 departments -- plenty of room for an Apple Store of sorts. The store-in-store concept will feature wooden tables and signage but won't have the signature feature of any standalone Apple Store: the Genius bar.

9to5Mac claims the store will be smaller than the typical standalone Apple Store, but will be larger than the standard store-within-a-store at Best Buy or the new pilot program at Target stores in the US.

The richly detailed interior of Harrods
Harrods is perhaps the best-known department store in the world and is visited by more than 300,000 customers on its busiest days. The store is owned by Qatar Holdings, the nation of Qatar's sovereign wealth fund; it was sold by Mohamad Al-Fayed for £1.5 billion in 2010.

(Images courtesy Flickr/sonewfangled and Flickr/Herry Lawford)

Apple Seeds OS X 10.7.3 Build 11D46 to Developers

Eric Slivka — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 06:27:13 PST

One week after the previous developer seed, Apple late yesterday pushed out Build 11D46 of OS X 10.7.3 to registered developers. Apple continues to report no known issues in the seed notes, and asks developers to focus their testing on iCloud Document Storage, Address Book, iCal, Mail, Spotlight and Safari.

The file size has once again grown slightly, with the delta version of the new build for updating from OS X 10.7.2 weighing in at 996.98 MB and a combo version good for updating from any previous version of OS X Lion weighing in at 1.26 GB.

The previous 11D42 build had appeared to be close to a final release, but Apple is clearly still making some final tweaks to the update. The release description has indicated that the main improvements in OS X 10.7.3 will be support for several new languages and fixes for issues related to smart cards, directory services authentication, and Windows file sharing.

Das Keyboard Releases Model S Professional for Mac

Jordan Golson — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 10:19:50 PST

Das Keyboard, a popular keyboard manufacturer that specializes in "clicky" mechanical keyboards like the Apple Extended Keyboard or the IBM Model M, has announced a Macintosh-edition of its Model S Professional keyboard.

Das's keyboards are a favorite of many computer users, including MacRumors chief Arnold Kim. The Model S Professional for Mac is the same keyboard as the Model S that Das Keyboard has been selling, but with the appropriate "control", "option", and "command" keys for the Macintosh, plus function keys for sleep, brightness +/-, mute, volume +/-, eject, play/pause, next and previous track.

CNET gave the Model S Professional 4/5 stars, praising its "tactile feel and satisfying clack" and noting that "power typists will find comfort, utility, and nostalgia in the Model S Professional's sleek design and springboard performance." The keyboard "brings back the same mechanical key switches and provides tactical and audible feedback that might even improve your typing speed and accuracy." The mechanical key switches of the 2.6 lb. Model S are designed to withstand more than 50 million strokes.

The Model S Professional for Mac will be priced at $133 when it's released, but is available for pre-order for $113. Das Keyboard says it has a limited quantity available for immediate shipping, but the keyboard will be shipped in volume on April 16, 2012.

ITC Rules Against Apple in Motorola Patent Case

Jordan Golson — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:32:48 PST

In a preliminary ruling (PDF) today, the ITC ruled that Motorola's smartphones do not violate the Apple patents at issue, though the decision still needs to be approved by the full six-member ITC panel.

On this date, the ALJ issued an initial determination on violation of Section 337 and recommended determination on remedy and bond in the above-referenced investigation. It is held that no violation of section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, 19 U.S.C. § 1337, has occurred in the importation into the United States, the sale for importation, or the sale within the United States after importation of certain mobile devices and related software by reason of infringement of one or more of Claims 1, 2, 10, 11, 24-26, and 29 U.S. Patent No. 7,812,828 ("the '828 Patent"), claims 1-7 and 10 of U.S. Patent No. 7,663,607 ("the '607 Patent"), and claims 1, 3, and 5 ofthe U.S. Patent No. 5,379,430 ("the '430 Patent").

The case goes back to November 2010, when the International Trade Commission agreed to investigate Apple's claims of patent infringement lodged against Motorola.

CES 2012: BulletTrain eXpress Enclosure for Magic Trackpad and Apple Keyboard

Arnold Kim — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:55:17 PST

At CES, Bullettrain announced their new eXpress keyboard platform that offers a single enclosure for the Magic Trackpad and Apple Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard.

The enclosure mimics the layout of an Apple laptop, placing the trackpad below the keyboard. This gives it a bit more of a familiar feel for those transitioning between a notebook and a desktop setup. Both the keyboard and Magic Trackpad snap into place, and can be easily removed from the eXpress.

The enclosure will be shipping in March and will cost $79 for silver version and $99 for colored versions, a couple of which are shown above.

Update: This post originally described the enclosure as aluminum per a description on BulletTrain's website. BulletTrain has informed us that yesterday's announcement actually concerned a new lower-cost line constructed of glass-reinforced polycarbonate and available in ten colors. The new product is an alternative to the company's existing aluminum enclosure priced at $139.

Adobe Releases Beta of Photoshop Lightroom 4

Eric Slivka — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 08:40:18 PST

Adobe today announced the release of a free public beta of Photoshop Lightroom 4, the company's digital photo management and post-production software. The software is the primary competitor to Apple's Aperture and a popular option for photographers.

New Features in Lightroom 4 Beta

- Highlight and shadow recovery brings out all the detail that your camera captures in dark shadows and bright highlights.
- Photo book creation with easy-to-use elegant templates.
- Location-based organization lets you find and group images by location, assign locations to images, and display data from GPS-enabled cameras.
- White balance brush to refine and adjust white balance in specific areas of your images.
- Additional local editing controls let you adjust noise reduction and remove moiré in targeted areas of your images.
- Extended video support for organizing, viewing, and making adjustments and edits to video clips.
- Easy video publishing lets you edit and share video clips on Facebook and Flickr®.
- Soft proofing to preview how an image will look when printed with color-managed printers.
- Email directly from Lightroom using the email account of your choice.

The free public beta expires on March 31, with the final release of the software planned for "early 2012". Pricing is yet to be announced. The current Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 carries a recommended retail price of $299 and an upgrade price of $99, although many retailers offer the software at substantially lower prices.

With Aperture's move to the Mac App Store upon the marketplace's debut one year ago, pricing for Apple's software has now dropped to $79.99.

Apple Signs Deal to Bring iTunes Match to the Netherlands

Eric Slivka — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 08:00:33 PST

Last month, Apple launched its first major international expansion of iTunes Match, expanding on the November U.S. debut by bringing the feature to Brazil in mid-December and then sixteen additional countries just a few days later.

Apple is clearly continuing to press forward in its efforts to expand iTunes Match to new countries, as the Dutch collecting society Buma/Stemra today announced [Google translation] that it has reached a deal with Apple for iTunes Match.

The negotiations between copyright organization Buma/Stemra and Apple about a license for iTunes Match have been completed. The contracts have been signed.

To date, Buma/Stemra has licensed over 50 legal online content providers, and is committed to future development of the legal online market, on terms that are optimal for composers, lyricists and publishers affiliated to Buma/Stemra.

As Buma/Stemra notes, the company serves as the representative organization for composers and music publishers in the Netherlands.

(Translation via @DouweM)

Reality TV Producer Bunim/Murray Drops Final Cut For Avid

Jordan Golson — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:35:09 PST

Television production company Bunim/Murray, the company which pioneered reality television with MTV's the Real World, has dropped Final Cut Pro in favor of an editing system from Avid, according to a press release from Avid.

Avid today announced that renowned television production company, Bunim/Murray Productions, has selected Avid Media Composer® 6 and Avid Symphony® 6 editing software for all of its programs beginning in early 2012. Bunim/Murray joins a growing number of professional users who have returned to using Avid solutions from Final Cut Pro to meet their production workflow requirements. Additionally, as part of this implementation, Bunim/Murray also plans to deploy an Avid ISIS® 5000 shared storage system to effectively store and share media across its organization.

[...]

“Due to the large volume of media generated by our reality shows, we needed to re-evaluate our editing and storage solutions. At the same time, we were looking for a partner who would understand our long-term needs,” said Mark Raudonis, senior vice president of Post Production at Bunim/Murray. “As we talked with Avid, it was clear that the company has really forged ahead since we worked with them years ago. Their commitment to the needs of their professional customers, like us, is clear. And, with the introduction of Media Composer 6, they really raised the bar and have a vision for the future that makes them the right choice for our business.”

Apple introduced a completely rewritten version of its Final Cut Pro video editing suite earlier this year to mixed reviews, especially amongst professional editors. The reception was so poor that Apple put its legacy version of Final Cut Studio back on sale in September.

Site Sends SMS Message When WWDC Tickets Go On Sale

Jordan Golson — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 14:18:45 PST

In 2011, less than 12 hours after passes went on sale, Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference had already sold out. To help would-be attendees get a chance to purchase tickets, developers Anthony Herron and Aaron Wardle created WWDC Alerts, a website that lets users sign up to be sent a text message when WWDC tickets for 2012 finally go on sale.

For 2012, Moscone Center's event calendar lists a generic "Corporate Meeting" from Monday, June 11th through Friday, June 15th. It seems likely that this year's WWDC will take place during those dates.