Hasta La Gadget!

Cue the video of 10.7 walking off into the sunset. Today is Mountain Lion day, and with the arrival of the new operating system comes the departure of its predecessor. Clicking the link for Lion will bring up a “The item you’ve requested is not currently available” error message in the Mac App Store. Thankfully, Mountain Lion is just one $20 download away for Lion and Snow Leopard users alike.

Filed under: Software

Apple retires Lion from Mac App Store, there’s a new king in town originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Jul 2012 09:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A lot has changed since early 2001. We’ve got a new president approaching the end of his first term, the US has embarked on two major wars and the words “Lady Gaga” have become much more than just gibberish. Some things, however, don’t change. In nearly each of these intervening years, Apple has issued a major update to its desktop operating system, OS X. This time last year, the company issued OS 10.7 Lion, a king-of-the-jungle moniker many thought would mark the end of Apple’s big cat naming scheme and, by extension, the OS X lineage. In February, however, the old operating system showed she still had some life left in her, when the next edition was revealed, arriving over the summer and called Mountain Lion.

Based on the name alone, you’d think 10.8 would be a modest improvement over its predecessor — not unlike the baby step between Leopard (10.5) and Snow Leopard (10.6). But Apple insists that this latest build is more than just a seasonal refresh — in all, it boasts more than 200 new features. Some are major, including things like a new Notification Center, AirPlay Mirroring and a desktop version of Messages. Others, such as full-screen mode for Notes… not so much. What seems to unite the vast majority of the 200 features, however, is a nod to iOS. So, how easily can Mac users justify that $20 download? Follow along after the break, as we put those 200 features to the test.

Continue reading Apple OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 review

Filed under: Software

Apple OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Jul 2012 08:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It would seem that Apple is in the final stages of preparing for the upcoming launch of OS X Mountain Lion, as an application for its Up-to-Date program when live for a brief period today. The Up-to-Date program, which was announced last month, allows users who purchased a Mac after June 11 to receive a free upgrade to the new OS. However, the application was taken down shortly after it went live, so it appears that Apple isn’t quite ready to roll out the program just yet.

Apple wasn’t quick enough though, with the folks at MacRumors filling out the application and even receiving their codes for the upgrade before Apple managed to take the application offline. The redemption process goes something like this: users are required to fill out the form with information on their eligible Macs, including the date and location of the purchase, personal contact information, and the serial number of the computer that will be receiving the update. After that’s done and sent off, Apple then sends back a pair of emails – one with a password-protected PDF containing the redemption code, and another with the password needed to access the PDF.

Naturally, with Mountain Lion not yet available, MacRumors’ attempt at redeeming the code on the Mac App Store (the only place OS X Mountain Lion will be available) proved fruitless. At the moment, Mountain Lion’s release date is still unknown, but with Apple giving it a release window of July 2012, it has to be coming up pretty quickly here, considering that the month of July ending in just eight short days. If that July release window holds, we’ll likely be seeing the Up-to-Date application go live again soon, so stay tuned.

OS X Mountain Lion Up-to-Date application released, quickly disappears is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

After spending what seems like eons with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, Microsoft has finally given us a release date for Windows 8. We already knew that the next version of Microsoft’s famous OS was going to be hitting shelves in October, but now, thanks today’s announcement from Steven Sinofsky during the company’s annual sales meeting, we have the actual day: October 26, 2012.

So, if you’ve loved what you’ve seen of Windows 8 so far, you don’t have that much longer to wait until you can finally get your hands on the full version. How many different versions of Windows 8 Microsoft will be offering seems to be up in the air at the moment, with recent rumors claiming that Microsoft may be looking to axe the retail version of Windows 8 entirely. If it does that, there’s a chance that Microsoft may choose to only offer the Windows 8 upgrade and an OEM version of the OS.

The good news is that the upgrade to Windows 8 will only cost $40 through January 31, 2013, so long as you’re upgrading from Windows XP or later. This means that the Windows 8 upgrade will cost significantly less than past Windows upgrades, but you’ll have to be fast if you want to take advantage of the low price.

Now that we have a firm release date, more details about Windows 8 will likely start pouring out soon, so keep it tuned to SlashGear for more Windows 8 news.

[via Windows Blog]

Windows 8 release date finally announced is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

No software update is quite so sweet as one that brings improved performance, and that’s exactly what Raspberry Pi users can expect from the latest Debian-based OS known as Raspbian. Optimized specifically for the $35 computer, Raspbian introduces more comprehensive support for floating point operations, and with that, a faster web browsing experience. The latest release also brings improvements to the firmware, kernel and applications, and is recommended as the distribution most appropriate for general users. An SD card image of Raspbian is now available for download, so do yourself a favor and snag it today.

Filed under: Desktops, Software

Raspberry Pi announces Raspbian, an optimized OS upgrade with performance improvements abound originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Jul 2012 20:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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