Mac

Apple has promoted two new executives to the inner circle of its management, and put them in charge of its two most important products at present.

Scott Forstall is now senior vice president of iPhone Software, and Bob Mansfield is now senior vice president of Mac Hardware Engineering. AppleInsider spotted the moves, which come as Apple is getting ready to talk about both the iPhone and the Mac during its annual Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday.

Forstall is familiar to Apple watchers new and old; he's the executive who introduced the particulars of the iPhone's software development kit … Read more

Expect to hear new details about the future of Apple's Mac OS X and Web business next week at the Worldwide Developers Conference--and we think there might be a new iPhone, too.

On Monday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs will take the stage at the Moscone West Convention Center in San Francisco to address a gathering of Apple's developers and the media. This year's WWDC is sold out to the development community, who will be hearing formal presentations by Apple on both Mac and iPhone development during the week's sessions and meetings.

Anyone with even a passing … Read more

It's hard to believe that no one in the "Me Generation" beat them to it, but Apple has apparently registered Me.com as a possible replacement for its .Mac service.

John Gruber of Daring Fireball has assembled a list of evidence that Apple is holding onto the domain, with the likely scenario that the company wants to launch a new Internet service. The domain is currently held by a company called MarkMonitor, but the administrator of Me.com bears an Apple e-mail address. Last month, Network World noticed that Apple had snapped up a bunch of Montenegro'… Read more

Apple may be getting ready to overhaul its .Mac service--or at least change the name.

A Russian site called Deep Apple noted that code within the Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.3 software update contains placeholders for the .Mac name that would allow Apple to drop in a new name at a later date. Dmitry Chestnykh of Coding Robots also noticed similar code within Mail and Safari applications.

Apple's .Mac service is designed to help Mac users extend the capabilities of their iLife software to the Internet by publishing Web pages, sharing photos, and storing data, among other … Read more

If you were contemplating the purchase of a new MacBook to take back to school in the fall, take the weekend to think about it.

AppleInsider thinks Apple is about to launch a new educational promotion in the coming days, perhaps as soon as Monday. The report says hefty incentives will be offered to those eligible for Apple's educational discount program, which includes students, teachers and faculty members.

Last year Apple offered a rebate on the cost of an 4GB iPod Nano to any student who purchased both a Mac and a iPod Nano or video iPod, and it … Read more

Apple has released the latest version of Mac OS X Leopard, just weeks before its annual developers' conference.

Mac OS X 10.5.3 is now available for downloading from Apple's site or through the Software Update process. Dozens of bugs are fixed with the new release for products like iCal, Mail, Time Machine, and others.

Apple is getting set to host its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco the week of June 9, where we might learn more about the yet-unnamed Mac OS X 10.6, assuming they aren't skipping ahead to Mac OS XI, or … Read more

If you're buying a computer to get onto the Internet, don't you think you'd be interested in a service that makes that computer much easier to use with the Internet?

Over the last five years, people have grown more accustomed to storing personal photos, documents, and files in the "cloud," rather than on a hard drive in their home. At the same time, they are buying Apple's Macs in larger numbers than ever. The company's answer to this trend has been its .Mac service, a $99-a-year collection of online tools released in 2002 … Read more

If you bought a replacement power adapter for one of Apple's PowerBook and iBook notebooks--and you managed to hang onto the receipt for all these years--you'll soon be eligible for a refund.

Bloomberg notes that Apple has settled a lawsuit filed in 2001 over the tendency of power adapters sold with PowerBooks and iBooks to spark or overheat. Apple recalled some power adapters in 2001, but some customers felt the company didn't come clean about the full extent of the problems.

Cash refunds of between $25 and $79 will be issued by Apple to owners who bought … Read more

I'm writing this post on Psystar's Open Computer running Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.2.

The Open Computer arrived Wednesday, and I spent some time this morning setting it up. The plan for now is to use it as my main work system (at least while I'm in the office) for about a week and see how it goes. For a full review, check out what my CNET Reviews colleague Rich Brown had to say, but I've noticed a few tidbits in the early going.

For one, the fan is much, much quieter than I … Read more