EA and Maxis have today announced that their latest SimCity game is coming to the Mac on June 11, and pre-purchasing will begin tomorrow, April 11. The title will be available to download through Origin for Mac — which launched earlier this year — and those who have already bought the title on PC will get the Mac version for free.
OS X Mountain Lion Now Accounts For 32% Of Mac Web Traffic
Apple’s newest version of OS X – 10.8 Mountain Lion – has been the fastest adopted Mac operating system in history and it’s continuing to dominate. A new web traffic survey has concluded that Mountain Lion is now the most popular version of OS X used to browse the web.
OS X 10.9 Called Lynx? Probably Not [Rumor]
With Mac OS X now in its ninth edition, one of the biggest hurdles Apple must overcome for its OS X 10.9 release is which cool cat it will be named after. We’ve had Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion, and Mountain Lion so far. So what next?
Well, according to one rumor, it’ll be named OS X 10.9 Lynx. But we’re a little skeptical.
Apple’s Messages Beta Program For OS X Lion Ends December 14th
Apple has just sent out the following Email to OS X Lion users, alerting them that the Messages Beta program for OS X Lion will end on December 14th. Messages for Mac, originally launched as a beta application before the release of OS X Mountain Lion, was available for free to users until it officially launched as part of 10.8 in summer.
Rename Safari 6 Bookmarks Like Renaming Files In The Finder [OS X Tips]
Safari 6 comes bundled with OS X Mountain Lion and is available for download for Mac OS X Lion. It comes with a host of new features, several of which we detailed in this past weekend’s Safari tips roundup.
Today, however, we note a little addition to the interface that involves renaming bookmarks. In earlier versions of Safari, you’d need to rename your bookmarks by right clicking (or control-clicking) on the name of a bookmark and then choosing the “Rename bookmark” pop-up menu item. This is no longer your only choice.
Make Sure Your Mac Asks If You Want To Save Changes To Your Documents [OS X Tips]
So, Apple likes to change things; this much is a given. The software developers behind the operating system, OS X, are no different. They’re constantly changing the way things work from iteration to iteration of Apple’s computer software.
In Snow Leopard, when you made changes to a document and tried to close that document, you’d be asked by your Mac, in essence, “are you sure you want to do that?” and you could tell it to save the changes you made, or discard them. It was a way to let us know that there had, in fact, been changes to the document, whether we meant them or not.
In Lion, that little “feature” went away. Documents in Lion were always saved, regardless. This is a neat feature, in some ways, but it keeps you from knowing if you’ve made any unintended changes.
Luckily, Mountain Lion lets you choose the way you want it to work. If you want to have that failsafe “are you sure” save changes dialog, you can enable it. If you don’t want it, you can disable it.
Classic RPG Game, The Witcher, Gets Lion And Mountain Lion Support In New Update
If you’ve been wanting to play The Witcher, CD Projekt’s well-regarded RPG based on the book series by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, now might be a great time to do so. The game has just been patched with support for Lion and Mountain Lion, letting more modern Macs join in the fun.
Kindle For Mac Update Brings Support For Lion Gestures, Kindle Format 8 Books & More
After unveiling its latest Kindle lineup last week, Amazon has updated its Kindle app for Mac OS X to introduce support for new books that employ the Kindle 8 format. It also adds OS X Lion gestures and a number of improvements.
New IT Guide From Apple Details How FileVault 2 Works
Apple has released a new white paper for CIOs, IT leaders, and IT professionals. This one targets FileVault 2, which was introduced in Lion and remains present as a high security feature in Mountain Lion. The 42 page document joins a growing collection of white papers and guides available from Apple that detail the mechanisms and best practices for integrating Macs into Windows-centric enterprise environments.
Only One Month After Launch 10% Of All Macs Are Running Mountain Lion
Apple’s latest desktop operating system, OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, launched just over a month ago, but its usage is spreading like a raging forest fire. 48 hours after its release the OS was already running on 3.2% of all Macs, but new data is showing that 10% of all Mac users are now running Mountain Lion on their machines.
Chitika has been tracking the adoption of Mountain Lion via their ad network, and says that the usage of Mountain Lion has been increasing steadily with no sign of letting up. The new OS is on track to outpace OS X Lion, which took three months to gain 14% use on all Macs.
Apple Seeds Latest OS X Lion 10.7.5 Build To Registered Developers
Apple has seeded a new OS X Lion 10.7.5 build to registered developers through the Apple Dev Center. It comes with build number 11G36, and weighs in at 1.15GB for the delta release, or 1.92 GB for the combo update.
Thunderbolt + Lightning = Fast And Easy Mountain Lion Installs For Business, Education [Video]
FileWave launched a new free app called Lightning this week. The new app makes quick and easy work of deploying Mountain Lion (and Lion) to multiple Macs, particularly recent Macs with Thunderbolt. It can be used to roll out existing master images that a business or school has already created as well as a base OS X install that can be customized with a range of files and applications.
Microsoft Has No Plans To Update Office 2011 For Retina Display Macs
Microsoft Office 2011 looks awful on the new MacBook Pro’s Retina display. But unfortunately for its customers, it seems Microsoft has no plans to add high-resolution graphics. While Outlook 2011 does have Retina graphics, the company has confirmed that the rest of the suite will have “the same viewing quality as on any non-Retina device.”
Apple Begins Offering Mountain Lion Training And Certification Options For IT Pros
Apple has launched its first Mountain Lion training guide and certification for IT professionals. The certification is the Mountain Lion edition of the Apple Certified Associate – Mac Integration certification, which can be viewed as the introductory Mac IT certification.
Apple began offering the certification following last year’s launch of Lion. Unlike Apple’s other certification options, Apple provides a free guide to the material on the Mac Integration Basics Exam on its training site. You can also register and take the exam online for $65. Should you fail the exam, Apple will let you retake the exam at no additional charge.
Apple Seeds New OS X Lion 10.7.5 Developer Beta And iCloud Control Panel For Windows
Although OS X Mountain Lion has been just recently released, Apple today seeded to registered developers a new build of OS X Lion, version 10.7.5. This new seed has a build number of 11G30.
Cats On The Prowl: The Evolution of Mac OS X From Cheetah To Mountain Lion [Gallery]
The year is 2012, and the March of the Big Cats continues. Apple is about to release Mountain Lion, the latest iteration of (Mac) OS X, and citizens of the Appleverse are eager to explore what this new feline has to offer. How far we’ve come in just over a decade.
Back in 2001 Apple introduced their new, long awaited replacement to the Classic Macintosh System Software: Mac OS X. As Mountain Lion goes on the prowl, Cult of Mac reviews the Evolution of OS X and once again presents our look back at Apple’s Big Cats over the years – from Cheetah and Puma through to Apple’s current Felidae offerings.
How To Install Mountain Lion On Your Mac The Right Way [Feature]
Apple’s latest jungle cat is called Mountain Lion, and the new version of OS X is available as a $20 purchase in the Mac App Store. If you’ve updated to a new version of OS X before, you know that getting everything in order isn’t always as easy as Apple makes it out to be. In this how-to guide, Cult of Mac will show you how to get your Mac ready to install OS X Mountain Lion the right way.
Upgraded To Mountain Lion? There’s No Going Back To Lion Now
If you rushed off to the Mac App Store to download OS X Mountain Lion as soon as it was released this morning, then I hope you like it. Because once you’ve handed over your cash, there’s no going back. Apple has now pulled OS X Lion from the Mac App Store, and once you’ve purchased Mountain Lion, it will be removed from your “Purchased” list.
Single-Click Boot Drive Creator Lion DiskMaker Gets OS X Mountain Lion Support
Shortly after OS X Lion made its debut last year, we told you about a terrific utility called Lion DiskMaker, which creates bootable disks and drives in just one click. The free application just received an update that makes it fully compatible with OS X Mountain Lion.
Mac App Store Won’t Let You Download OS X Mountain Lion If Your Mac Can’t Handle It [Rumor]
When Apple releases OS X Mountain Lion to the public later this month, the software will be available exclusively to the Mac App Store, just like its predecessor. However, this time around, the Mac App Store will confirm your system is capable of running the software before it allows you to purchase and download it.
Another Way Windows 8 Was Inspired By Apple: Pricing
One thing Apple has done really well over the past few years is eliminating fragmentation in its operating systems. The install base of iOS 5 is over 75%; OS X Lion is around 50%. That’s in less than a year for both operating systems.
To put those numbers in perspective, consider this. Google’s latest operating system, Ice Cream Sandwich, still runs on just 1% of all Android devices after a year, and Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system hovers at around 50% after almost three years.
Apple’s secret is simple. They charge as little as possible for their operating systems, giving it away free if they can. It’s a good strategy that prevents Apple from having to endlessly support older OSes. And now, Microsoft’s finally going to take a page from Apple’s book.
Work Around For Save As… In Lion [OS X Tips]
When Lion debuted, the Save As… function had been removed from the File menu, and an interloper – Duplicate – was put in its place. The problem is that if you use Duplicate, you end up with two documents, one with “copy” appended to its name. In addition, Duplicate has no keyboard shortcut. This has made a lot of us sad.
While we’ve reported that Save As… functionality is coming back in OS X Mountain Lion, that doesn’t help those of us using plain-old Lion right now. However, with a little work around, we can get the same functionality until Mountain Lion comes out.
iCloud’s OS Integration Illustrates The Future Of Personal Cloud Services
Cloud storage accounts for just 7% of our digital content according to Gartner the industry research firm. Given the ubiquity of cloud services and their ability to sync personal data, photos, documents, and just about everything else with our iPhone, iPads, Mac, PCs, and other devices, that number may sound a bit small. After all, the range of content that iCloud is capable of syncing in Lion and iOS 5 isn’t exactly minor.
Gartner also predicts that the percentage of the average user’s digital property will grow to more than five times that by 2016. At that point, the firm sees most users store more that a third (36%) of their digital content in various clouds. That news isn’t exactly surprising for Apple customers. Apple is making a major push for seamless iCloud integration in Mountain Lion and iOS 6. That said, the firm’s report digital storage does have a few surprises in it. In some ways the report shows that Apple is leading rather than following the personal cloud industry.
OS X Mountain Lion To Hit Mac App Store On July 19 [Rumor]
Apple confirmed at its Worldwide Developers Conference earlier this month that its next major update to Mac OS X, dubbed Mountain Lion, would be released to the public sometime during July. The Cupertino company is yet to make that release date more specific, but according to one report, we can expect Mountain Lion to pop up in the Mac App Store on July 19.
Mountain Lion’s New Notes App Contains Hidden Tribute To Famous Apple Ad
It’s not uncommon for Apple to hide little treats within the icons of its Mac apps, but it’s always nice when we stumble across a new one. The latest comes with the new Notes application that will launch in OS X Mountain Lion next month, and it contains a famous quote used in Apple’s Think Different ad campaign.