Hasta La Gadget!

For ‘developers’ willing to shell out $99 for an annual membership in Apple’s group of Mac OS app creators, Lion is old news already. But the rest of you can finally download Apple’s latest operating system — Mac OS 10.7 — by hitting up the App Store on your Snow Leopard (10.6.8)-equipped Mac, assuming it’s powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, i5 or i7 processor. From our experience with the pre-release version, the 4GB download could take over an hour, even on a high-speed connection, but once you have the installer in hand the upgrade process itself should be complete in about 20 minutes. As Apple previously announced, those with slower connections can also download Lion at an Apple retail store, and the company’s also now revealed that it will be offering it on a USB thumb drive as well, which will be available through its online store later this August for $69 (yes, that’s a $40 premium). We’ll be posting a full review of Lion later this week, but you can check out our hands-on preview for a sneak peek at Apple’s latest consumer OS in the meantime.

Continue reading Apple Mac OS X Lion available now in the App Store

Apple Mac OS X Lion available now in the App Store originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 20 Jul 2011 08:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Developers and IT managers have reason to smile today, because it looks like Apple is changing its approach to virtualization. According to Mac Rumors, users who download the client version of OS X Lion will be able to run one or two virtualized copies on a single Mac, using tools like VMware or Parallels. This functionality first surfaced with Leopard, but was only available to users who obtained a pricey OS X Server license. The EULA for 10.7, however, suggests that Lion owners won’t need any extra licenses to tinker away in an alternate OS universe. It’s news that the enterprise community will certainly welcome, but we’ll have to wait a little longer before riding the Lion into a virtual realm, later this month.

Apple to allow license-free virtualization with OS X Lion, developers roar with delight originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Jul 2011 13:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MacRumors was digging through the latest developer beta of Mac OS X Lion when it found a rather intriguing new option — if you choose “Restart to Safari” on the user lock screen, the computer will reboot into a mode which consists entirely of the web browser. If that sounds familiar, perhaps you’ve heard of Google’s Chrome OS, a partially-fledged operating system that runs within the browser itself… but we haven’t heard Apple express a desire for any such thing. Now, certainly we’ve seen a number of Windows desktops and laptops ship with a secondary, browser-centric OS like Splashtop in order to have an instant-on mode, but if you have to boot and reboot the computer to get to Safari, that doesn’t sound like much of an improvement. Perhaps it’s a way to let guests (or children) entertain themselves without giving them access to your files? All we know for certain is that it’s a most mysterious option.

Update: But perhaps not as mysterious as we thought — 9to5 Mac spotted its genesis earlier this week, and it’s a bona fide honeypot. If your Mac gets stolen, the idea goes, it’ll need to be connected to the internet for you to be able to track it with Find My Mac or perform a remote wipe, so you’ll let the thieves browse this guest account to keep them busy without letting them peruse your personal files. Cue the Admiral Ackbar, we suppose. [Thanks, Jamie]

Mac OS X Lion beta reveals “Restart to Safari” browser-only mode (update: honeypot) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 12 Jun 2011 19:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Had some doubts that Apple was heading skyward? Those lingering concerns can now be put to rest. Apple has confirmed that it will be announcing iCloud on June 6th, what it’s calling an “upcoming cloud services offering.” That will be part of the keynote for this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference, known to the cool kids as WWDC. This is, of course, where everyone has come to expect new iPhones to come to light, but this year we’re thinking the focus will be more on software, and indeed Apple’s event notice indicates that the big highlights will be Mac OS X Lion and the next version of its mobile operating system, iOS 5. This is a decidedly non-Apple way to announce something big like iCloud, making us wonder what other surprises Steve Jobs will have for us at the event — yes, he’ll be kicking things off. As ever you can find out as it happens here, live.

Continue reading Apple to unveil iCloud, iOS 5 on Monday, June 6

Apple to unveil iCloud, iOS 5 on Monday, June 6 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 May 2011 08:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In spite of the “Pro” in its name, Apple’s 2011 MBP got off to a bit of a bumpy start for many users. Some encountered problems when outputting video through the Thunderbolt port to their Cinema Displays, while others found the new MacBook Pro freezing up when processing loads got that little bit too intense. The good news is that Apple now has a software update geared to remedying all these maladies, with changes specifically designed to improve graphics stability, 3D performance, and support for external displays and Thunderbolt devices. You can grab the download at the source link below or use Mac OS’ built-in Software Update utility to freshen up your laptop with the latest code.

[Thanks, Mats]

Update: A separate EFI Update (version 2.1) has also been rolled out. This one fixes the perplexing issue some reviewers had reported of seeing Intel’s Turbo Boost disabled on some machines. Turns out the problem was related to Boot Camp and Apple has now resolved whatever was causing it. Click below for more info. Thanks, Francesco!

Continue reading Apple updates 2011 MacBook Pro firmware to v1.4, fixes stability, Thunderbolt, and Turbo Boost issues

Apple updates 2011 MacBook Pro firmware to v1.4, fixes stability, Thunderbolt, and Turbo Boost issues originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 May 2011 05:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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