Hasta La Gadget!

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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During the company’s Q3 2012 earnings call, Apple announced that tomorrow will be the day that OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion will be formally released into the wild. This software update is made for all computers in the newest generation and will bring on a selection of features outline in our early first look at the system several weeks ago. This system will be just $19.99 USD – this undercutting the price of competitors on several levels.

The $20 software upgrade will have you moving to Apple OS X 10.8 and will be free if you’ve purchased an Apple computer in the last couple of weeks. You’ll need a bit of extra disk space to download this upgrade, but those of you that keep your system relatively clean should have no trouble whatsoever – fair warning though, the last upgrade was a doosie of a download.

Our first look at Apple OS X Mountain Lion can be found at [Meet Apple OS X Mountain Lion] and can be seen in brief in the video below. Also expect us to expand upon this report soon, too – stay tuned!

Apple OS X Mountain Lion release date Wednesday July 25 is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It’s hard to believe its been just three months since we were here last, but it’s true. It’s already earnings season again and, in the feast of financial conference calls, Apple is an entree. Not surprisingly, Cupertino was raking in the big bucks yet again, but it wasn’t quite the windfall of revenue the company has seen in the past. All told the company pulled in $35 billion in revenue, pocketing $8.8 billion of that as pure profit, a record for both in Q3. But, just cause it wasn’t quite as lucrative a quarter doesn’t mean the boys in Cupertino aren’t happy with the results. Profits were up $1.5 billion from Q3 of 2011, once again allowing the company to declare yet another cash dividend for its share holders. During the last three months the company shipped 17 million iPads, an 84 percent increase over the same quarter last year — a simply staggering number. And don’t think that its other premier gadget has plateaued. 26 million iPhones were also sold, representing a 28 percent increase year-over-year. Interestingly, Mac sales slowed, increasing just two percent over last year, largely thanks to a 13 percent drop off in desktop sales.

The biggest money maker for the company continues to be the iPhone and its related products and services, however. More than $16 billion of the total revenue is directly attributable to the smaller member of the iOS family. The iPad is quickly closing the gap, netting Apple over $9 billion in this quarter alone. As a percentage of revenue, the iPod continued to decline, marking the slow death of the once flagship product line.

While revenues were down sequentially, it’s the year-over-year numbers that tell the real story and that explain why, for the second quarter in a row, Apple is able to award its investors a $2.65 per-share dividend. Revenue was up $9.5 billion from Q3 of 2011 and net income by $1.5 billion, as the company has continued to increase its market share and open up to niches to itself. For the next quarter Apple actually expects a small drop in both revenue and earnings per-share, but not enough that we expect Wall Street types to start yelling, “sell, sell, sell!”

Continue reading Apple announces Q3 2012 earnings: $35 billion revenue, $8.8 billion in net profits, declares another dividend

Filed under: Cellphones, Desktops, Laptops, Tablet PCs

Apple announces Q3 2012 earnings: $35 billion revenue, $8.8 billion in net profits, declares another dividend originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Jul 2012 16:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We know you’ve got questions, and if you’re brave enough to ask the world for answers, here’s the outlet to do so. This week’s Ask Engadget inquiry is coming to us from is from Jaime, who’s really just showing off about their new Retina MBP. If you’re looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.

“I recently bought a Retina MacBook Pro and started playing a bunch of games from Steam. I’m wondering if there’s a gamepad I could use to play Portal or Left4Dead on a Mac, I grew up with a NES, so there’s something about the form that feels natural to me. Thanks!”

Okay, so for those of us who do tire of W-A-S-D, what’s the best solution to game on a Mac? Is there a perfect device on the market, or should we all just hack an Xbox 360 controller to do the same job? It’s a fun week, spread some fun in the comments.

Filed under: Gaming

Ask Engadget: best Mac gamepad? originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Jul 2012 22:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has been pushing out updates to Mountain Lion slowly but steadily, and now that the Gold Master version of the update has been seeded, a retail release is just around the corner. 9to5Mac believes that Apple may be planning to release the final version of Mountain Lion to the public on July 25th, pointing to information that shows the company is planning an “overnight” for retail stores on the 24th.

The website also points out how the date would coincide with Apple’s Q3 ‘12 earnings report. Last year, Apple held its Q3 ‘11 results on July 19th and announced the July 20th release date of OS X Lion during the call. Apple’s Q3 ‘12 results are due on July 24th, which may point towards a July 25th launch when paired with the “overnight” information.

So what does an “overnight” entail at an Apple store? The staff will essentially be installing Mountain Lion on all the Macs found in stores. When you think about how many Macs there are in Apple stores, you can imagine how long the process takes. 9to5Mac notes, however, that some retail stores haven’t heard about an “overnight”. Still, Apple has indicated that Mountain Lion will launch “in July”, so there’s not long to go.

Mountain Lion launch expected on July 25th is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.