Hasta La Gadget!

Bugs in software are usually annoying and they range from being small annoyances to possibly rendering the software unusable entirely, but we guess once in a while a bug does pop up that we can’t help but smile at. It seems there are several reports on the internet about an OS X bug that will basically transform your Launchpad into an abstract looking piece of art. Apparently the way the bug works is that instead of applying the blur effect when opening up Launchpad, it instead applies the crystallize effect which results in the screenshot above. It’s weird, it’s sort of beautiful and it goes away after a while. We’re not sure what exactly causes it but it does not seem to be a widespread problem. If you own a Mac computer and come across the bug, be sure to capture a screenshot and send it to us! Anyone else experience this bug for themselves yet?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Mac OS X 10.8.3 beta being prepared, OS X Mountain Lion Error 100 has solutions in sight,

Apple has never actually sold all-out musical instruments directly before, but the company has partnered up with Fender to bring a full-size iOS-enabled Squier Stratocaster guitar to Apple’s online store. The guitar is fully playable and includes the traditional 1/4-inch jack so you can still plug into an amplifier to jam, but it also includes the capability to plug directly into an iOS device.

The $199 guitar has USB and iOS connectivity built-in, and it’s designed to allow recording directly into GarageBand on an iPhone and iPad, and even a Mac. The USB output on the guitar is a Mini-B connection and a USB-mini to 30-pin adapter is included with the package, meaning users with a newer iOS devices that use Lightning will need a Lightning to 30-pin adapter.

Also included with the guitar is a 3.5mm headphone jack and “a high-quality headphone amp so that you can monitor the processed guitar signal right from the guitar itself.” It’s clear Fender is aiming this product directly at Garageband iOS and Mac users, but you’ll have no problem using it as a traditional guitar with the 1/4-inch output.

Unfortunately, you can only buy the guitar online, since Apple isn’t selling them at retail stores just yet, so if you’re nervous about buying a guitar online and don’t necessarily trust shipping companies to handle a full-size guitar, then you may want to wait to see if Apple will sell them at physical locations.

[via 9to5Mac]

Apple now selling iOS-enabled Fender Squier Stratocaster guitar is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple may have just released OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion a few months ago, but that doesn’t mean the next version isn’t being worked and tested on. According to several websites, they have been noticing visits from users with machines listed as running OS X 10.9, which would be Apple’s next major OS X update.

Obviously, not a large number of hits are coming from these supposed OS X 10.9 machines. AppleInsider said they have received over 30 total visitors that were marked using “Intel 10.9″, and other websites have reported a few visitors with OS X 10.9 machines as well. However, we at SlashGear haven’t spotted any OS X 10.9 activity yet.

The small number of computers that are supposedly running OS X 10.9 could mean that Apple is already testing very early betas of the next major OS X update, and only a select handful are trying it out at the moment. Of course, these statistics can be faked, so it’s definitely something to take with a grain of salt.

However, it’s obvious that Apple will release a major update to OS X at some point in the future, and they’ve been on a yearly release schedule recently, so it could be as far ahead as summer 2013 before we see 10.9 pop up. The only other question remains, however: What cat will Apple give its next major OS X update this time around?

[via AppleInsider]

Apple OS X 10.9 appears across the web is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It seems that from today onward, Apple has started to invite developers to give the next update to the Mountain Lion operating system a go, which more or less points toward the viability of a OS X 10.8.3 beta version in the pipeline. It seems that industry insiders claimed that only select members of Apple’s developer community were given invitations ahead of the new beta’s introduction. Apple has been pretty good at keeping a lid on things this time around, where we have absolutely no clue whatsoever as to the kind of features that one can find in OS X 10.8.3. During this pre-release beta period, developers are able to give OS X 10.8.3 a thorough grinding, making sure that one’s applications are up to snuff while weeding out potential bugs before the update is finally made available for public consumption.

Just a little bit of history lesson here – the last update to Mountain Lion, known as OS X 10.8.2, was introduced sometime in the middle of September, where it introduced system-wide integration with Facebook. All new Macs will have Mountain Lion pre-installed within, and if you are interested, you can always pick it up from the App Store as a $20 upgrade.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: OS X Mountain Lion Error 100 has solutions in sight, Apple security update bypasses Snow Leopard and Windows users,

This week Microsoft’s own CEO Steve Ballmer stepped on stage at Build 2012 and let it be known that they’d sold 4 million Windows 8 upgrades in the three days it’d been on the market. Compared to what Apple has asserted with their install base for their own desktop operating system OS X Mountain Lion, this number might not seem quite so impressive – by percentage of installed base, that is. If you consider how many installs of Mac there were compared to how many people upgraded to Mountain Lion against the number of installs of Windows there were compared to how many upgrades there were to Windows 8, the difference is staggering.

According to Microsoft back in December of 2011, they had an install base of 1.25 billion Windows PCs – that includes all versions of Windows. It was also asserted back then, according to business insider, that 500 million Windows 7 licenses had been sold in the last two years (again, this was reported in December of 2011). Interestingly enough, Ballmer also let it be known that 670 million machines are now running Windows 7, that falling relatively in-line with the idea that Windows 7 adoption has been slowing down since Windows 8 was announced.

Apple on the other hand has slightly different numbers as far as OS X installs and upgrades to Mountain Lion, their newest system. Back at WWDC 2012, Apple let it be known that there were 66 million installations of Mac on the market.

Ballmer announced that 4 million Windows 8 upgrades had been sold in the three days since it’d been launched. In the same amount of time, Apple announced more than 3 million OS X Mountain Lion upgrades. If you take the total amount of machines with Windows installed on them and compare it to the upgrade numbers for Windows 8, you get about 1/3 of one percent of the total. If you take the total amount of machines with a Mac OS on them and compare it to the Mountain Lion upgrade numbers, you get 4.5% of the total.

The rate of adoption between these two ecosystems is drastically different – which do you consider more successful? A better question might be: do you consider the adoption rate to be more important, or the total number of machines that now work with one system or the other?

Windows 8 adoption percentage clobbered by OS X Mountain Lion is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.