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Continue reading Shocker! Microsoft commands 79 percent of worldwide OS revenue (update)

Shocker! Microsoft commands 79 percent of worldwide OS revenue (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Apr 2011 15:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As recently as a year ago, Windows XP was the kingpin of PCs in the US with 43.1 percent market share. But that’s rapidly changing. StatCounter shows that while Mac OS X is creeping up slightly and Windows Vista continues its death march, Windows 7 is on the rise, steadily closing the gap with trusty ole’ XP. Last month, XP’s share sank to 32.17 percent, while Windows 7’s edged up to 30.84 percent, leaving the latter poised to overtake XP — something the much-maligned Vista never did. And if early numbers are to be believed, it’s already happened: StatCounter says that for the first week in April Windows 7’s share (among desktops, at least) totaled 31.71 percent, compared with XP’s 31.56. Either way, it seems Microsoft has convinced consumers that it’s finally safe to upgrade.

Windows 7 closes gap with XP, is poised to steal top market share this month originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 11:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bertrand Serlet, Apple's senior VP of Mac software engineering, developed the Mac OS X operating system. Photo courtesy Apple.

Apple announced Wednesday that Bertrand Serlet, lead developer of Mac OS X, is leaving the company, just a day before the operating system turns 10 years old.

Though less publicized than Apple executives Steve Jobs and Tim Cook, Serlet is a legend at the company. He was basically the Jony Ive of Apple’s software design. Mac OS X, which originally released March 24, 2001, has played a crucial role in driving the success of Apple’s Macs and mobile products.

“I’ve worked with Steve for 22 years and have had an incredible time developing products at both NeXT and Apple, but at this point, I want to focus less on products and more on science,” said Serlet, Apple’s senior VP of software engineering, in a press statement. “Craig has done a great job managing the Mac OS team for the past two years, Lion is a great release, and the transition should be seamless.”

Serlet has a lot to brag about. His baby, Mac OS X, not only powers Apple’s Mac computers, but also the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch — all blockbuster products.

After Apple fired Jobs in a power struggle in 1985, the exiled CEO founded NeXT to build a Mac-like computer for education that would put Apple out of business. Serlet, a former Xerox PARC employee, was on the NeXT team.

Then when Apple nearly went bankrupt in 1996, the company acquired NeXT to build a new Mac OS. That brought both Jobs and Serlet on board at Apple, and the two have been working together for 22 years.

When Mac OS X debuted in 2001, it had a somewhat rocky start: Many features were missing, and there were some compatibility problems with external hardware. Over the past decade, Apple pruned out OS X’s issues and polished the OS. Apple released iOS in 2007. It’s a specialized version of Mac OS X for the iPhone, and later the iPod Touch and iPad.

The next version of Mac OS X, dubbed Mac OS X Lion, is due for release sometime 2011.

Apple announced Mac OS X Lion with considerable fanfare at its Back to the Mac event last October, and now it’s dropped the first developer preview on the world — giving us a chance to sample some of the big cat’s new features and UI concepts. We installed the dev build on one of our MacBook Pros and used it over the weekend, and while we won’t be able to see any huge changes in day-to-day workflow until our favorite apps are updated to take advantage of Lion, we did see plenty of interesting system-level features and additions — and yes, iOS’s influence is all over the place. Read on for a full breakdown of what’s new!

Continue reading Mac OS X Lion hands-on preview

Mac OS X Lion hands-on preview originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 19:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We tinkered with the OS X build of the browser on our Macbook Pro and although pages appear to render quickly, we can’t quite figure out how to navigate backwards. You can pinch-to-zoom with the trackpad and scroll with the d-pad, but once you’ve loaded a page, it seems you need to be on a mobile device do any further navigation. Of course, as you’ll see in the gallery below, the beta comes packed with the usual — preferences, downloads, add-ons, bookmarks and Firefox Sync. If you want to give the software a whirl, hit the source link to grab the build of your choice.

Firefox 4 beta 5 for mobile released, available on Android, N900, your computer originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 25 Feb 2011 10:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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