Mac news and reviews, including MacBooks, iMacs, and more

Apple Store announces Reserve And Pick Up program for the holidays

Ramu Nagappan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:12:00 -0800

Apple today announced a Reserve and Pick Up program that allows customers to reserve products online and pick them up at a local retail store between December 15 and 24.

Speedmark 6: Macworld Lab's new benchmark suite

James Galbraith — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:01:00 -0800

The Macworld Lab has been hard at work tweaking Speedmark, our overall system performance testing tool, to better accommodate Snow Leopard and to test the Macs on which it runs.

xGestures updated for Snow Leopard

Jeff Porten — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:52:00 -0800

xGestures is a program that allows mouse movements to trigger menu items, keystrokes, and AppleScripts; it's recently been updated to work with Snow Leopard.

Add more effects to Photo Booth and iChat

Rob Griffiths — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:31:00 -0800

Learn how to add over 20 additional effects to photos taken in Photo Booth and iChat

Skype's legal storm clears up

Juan Carlos Perez — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:28:00 -0800

Skype's cofounders have reached an agreement to withdraw their legal challenges against eBay and Skype's future majority owners.

JavaScript getting faster, could displace Flash

Paul Krill — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:45:00 -0800

JavaScript's creator claims JavaScript has displaced Java as a Web client, outlines projected enhancements

Mac developers band together for One Finger Discount

David Chartier — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:43:00 -0800

Over two dozen Mac developers are participating in a "One Finger Discount" sale to celebrate great Mac software and offer a 20 percent discount to customers.

Secrets pref pane updated for Snow Leopard

Jeff Porten — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:37:00 -0800

The Mac preference pane with hundreds of hidden user interface tweaks is updated for Snow Leopard.

MacHeist offers six Mac apps for free

Jeff Porten — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:22:00 -0800

MacHeist offers six Mac applications for free, in exchange for your email address. And no Twitter spamming this time, either.

Upgrade the Mac mini in six minutes

Dan Frakes — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 07:17:00 -0800

In this week's Macworld Video, Dan Frakes shows how easy it really is to upgrade the hard drive and RAM of Apple's Mac mini, completing the entire process, in a single take, in just under 6 minutes.

Review: Bombia Design The Invoice Machine invoicing software

Jeffery Battersby — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:30:00 -0800

Simple to manage and easy to use, The Invoice Machine is a good web-based invoice application for very small businesses.

Interview with the producers of Warhammer Online

Chris Holt — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:39:00 -0800

A chat with two of the producers of this new MMORPG.

Jitouch adds new gestures to Multi-Touch trackpads

Dan Frakes — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:30:00 -0800

Jitouch is a simple program that adds eight new sets of gestures to the Multi-Touch trackpads on recent Apple portables.

Four hints about Mail and Spaces

Rob Griffiths — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:10:00 -0800

Four hints for the price of one ... learn how to easily switch between open windows of an app across Spaces, how to delete Mail messages without showing a preview of the next, and two tips for working with links in messages in 10.6's Mail app.

Viewfinder aids Flickr searchers

Dan Moren — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:52:00 -0800

Connected Flow's new Flickr browser, Viewfinder, makes finding images of particular license types or sizes a snap.

Vendors scrambling to fix bug in Net's security

Robert McMillan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:01:00 -0800

Vendors are now scrambling to patch a critical flaw in the SSL protocol.

Steve Jobs is Fortune's CEO of the decade

Dan Moren — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:10:00 -0800

In the last ten years, Steve Jobs has revolutionized several industries, including music and cell phones—so it's easy to understand why Fortune has named him CEO of the decade.

Orb for Mac lets you stream your media anywhere

Lex Friedman — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:20:00 -0800

A new Mac version of the popular Orb software streams music, photos, and videos to any Internet device, including iPhone

Steve Jobs disliked ‘iMac,’ had an appalling alternative

Jeff Porten — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:40:00 -0800

An interview with one of TBWA\Chiat\Day's former executives revealed that Steve Jobs wasn't always bully on the iMac.

Novation Launchpad debuts

Jackie Dove — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 07:30:00 -0800

Novation has unveiled Launchpad, an easy-to-use audio controller that works with Ableton Live 8 performance software to let you create musical compositions.

Review: 21.5- and 27-inch iMacs (Late 2009)

Roman Loyola — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:29:00 -0800

The Late 2009 iMacs are really about the new displays—and the displays are impressive.

Review: Studio One Pro 1.0.1

John Brandon — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 04:30:00 -0800

New kid on the block: StudioOne is a powerful new music creation and production app that rivals Apple and Avid offerings.

Flickr plants an App Garden

Ramu Nagappan — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:03:00 -0800

Photo-sharing site Flickr has launched an App Garden to show off all the third-party software that works with its service.

RemoteSight turns an iSight into CCTV

Jeff Porten — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:16:00 -0800

Ben Software's new RemoteSight can turns an iSight—or other video input source—into a video-monitoring system for your home.

NY attorney general files antitrust lawsuit against Intel

Grant Gross — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:49:00 -0800

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against microprocessor maker Intel, alleging that the company engaged in a "systematic campaign" of illegal conduct to protect a monopoly.

New Mac 'game' plays Russian roulette with your files

Tony Craine — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:42:00 -0800

An artist tries to get gamers to think about their actions by creating an arcade-style game for the Mac that purposely deletes files from your hard drive as you score points.

iMac (Late 2009) benchmarks

James Galbraith — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:37:00 -0800

Macworld Lab has the new iMacs and we’ve put them to the test.

Klipsch releases wireless ProMedia 2.1

Dan Frakes — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 08:03:00 -0800

Klipsch has released a wireless version of the company's well-regarded ProMedia 2.1 speaker system.

Keep track of changes in Pages

Kirk McElhearn — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:37:00 -0800

Apple's Pages not only tracks changes and comments in your documents, but also lets you share those changes, even with Microsoft Word users.

Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac arrives

Rob Griffiths — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:01:00 -0800

Parallels Desktop 5 for Mac is shipping, including Aero support in Vista and Windows 7, a new Crystal mode for full Windows/Mac OS integration, OpenGL 2.1 acceleration in Windows and Linux, and more.

New DiskTool Pro update includes CPU meter, improved Snow Leopard support

Roman Loyola — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:38:00 -0800

Macware on Tuesday announced an update to DiskTools Pro, the company’s software utility for hard drive management.

Review: Mac mini (Late 2009)

Dan Frakes — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:15:00 -0800

Just seven months after giving the Mac mini line its biggest update ever, Apple has bumped the performance of the company's smallest desktop computers. While the improvements are modest, the latest Mac minis address a few of our biggest criticisms of the Early 2009 models.

Create pause-zoom-pause effects in iMovie stills

Rob Griffiths — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 11:01:00 -0800

Learn how to show a still image for some time in your iMovie project, then zoom/crop/move that image, and then pause on the final image again before moving on.

Report: Apple Store headed to downtown Philadelphia

Scott McNulty — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:40:00 -0800

Rumors are swirling that Apple is going to open a retail store in downtown Philadelphia.

Introducing Macworld's Total Snow Leopard Superguide

Jason Snell — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:15:00 -0800

Macworld's new Total Snow Leopard is a one-stop guide for everything you want to know about using OS X.

Backblaze opens online backups to businesses

Dan Miller — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:00:00 -0800

Backblaze has been offering online backup services to individual Mac users since last April. Now it's expanding those services to businesses, too.

Delibar makes Delicious bookmarking easy and attractive

David Chartier — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:17:00 -0800

Delibar improves greatly on the experience of sharing, accessing, and creating bookmarks for the popular Delicious bookmarking service.

Consumer Reports readers love the Apple Store

Tony Craine — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 07:20:00 -0800

Respondents to a CR survey rank Apple Stores high among walk-in electronics retailers, even while grousing about the price of the merchandise.

Review: Google Picasa 3.5 photo organizer

Kris Fong — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:30:00 -0800

When it comes to organizing, editing, and sharing photos, most Mac users know iPhoto. But Google offers Picasa, a free photo editing and sharing app that rivals iPhoto ‘09.

Is Spotify the future of music listening?

Kirk McElhearn — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:03:00 -0800

Spotify, hoping to make its way to the U.S. soon, lets you stream music to your computer or iPhone/iPod touch. Will it be worth the wait?

Sorenson Media releases Sorenson Squeeze 6

Jackie Dove — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:15:00 -0800

Sorenson Media has released Sorenson Squeeze 6, an update of its video encoding software. This version is designed to let users more easily encode and publish video to the internet. It adds e-mail and text notification, secure review and approval, optimized video codecs, new filters, and more.

Psystar begs judge to rule it's legit

Gregg Keizer — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:46:00 -0800

Psystar, the Mac clone maker that's been battling Apple for more than a year in federal court has asked a judge to rule that its business is legitimate.

Power and the international Mac

Christopher Breen — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:50:00 -0800

No, you needn't purchase a power converter when you take your Mac traveling.

Report: Apple pitching TV subscription service to networks

Dan Moren — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:12:00 -0800

According to reports, Apple is flogging a $30 per month television service to content providers—but will the networks bite?

Review: Acorn 2.1 image editing software

James Dempsey — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0800

Acorn 2.1 is a great app for digital photography hobbyists, bloggers, or anyone who needs a decent amount of flexibility in editing images but doesn't require the power of a full image editor.

Creating a favicon for your Web site

Chris McVeigh — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:30:00 -0800

Go to any major Web site, and you’ll almost certainly see an icon to the left of the address in your browser. This tiny image is called a favicon (or Favorites Icon), and with a little effort, you can create one of your own.

The Macalope Weekly: Everyone’s got an opinion

The Macalope — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:00:00 -0700

This week, everybody tells Apple how to run their business—and the Macalope tells everybody exactly what they can do with that advice.

Video: Up close with the Magic Mouse

Roman Loyola — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 06:30:00 -0700

In this video, Roman Loyola takes a close look at Apple new Magic Mouse and its Multi-Touch gestures.

Mac mini (Late 2009) benchmarks

James Galbraith — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:58:00 -0700

Macworld Lab has the Mac minis, and we put them through our benchmark tests. Our result show that the new Mac minis are impressively faster than the models they replace.

Camino 2 release candidate sees light of day

Lex Friedman — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:42:00 -0700

It's Safari! No, it's Firefox! No, it's that other Mozilla-based OS X friendly-browser you'd forgotten all about.