10.8

Questions rise over Skype wiretapping

It's time to tap into the juiciest tech conversations for Monday:

Microsoft has not given a straight answer about whether its Skype service can facilitate law enforcement wiretapping of conversations. Previously, the online chat service was so heavily encrypted that the company went on the record about not being able to participate with wiretapping.

But Skype just made a change to its technology, and some say the changes make it possible to intercept a call. But when asked, Microsoft didn't admit if wiretapping was possible. It told Slate that Skype "co-operates with law enforcement agencies as much … Read more

Older 64-bit Macs out of the picture for Mountain Lion

Apple recently issued the golden master release of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion to developers and testers, indicating that if no outstanding bugs are found in the current build then it will very likely be the final release of the operating system that will soon be issued to the public. Through the testing of the four preview releases of Mountain Lion, developers have noted that even though the operating system is 64-bit, Apple has excluded some early 64-bit-capable Mac systems from being included.

While this limitation was at first suggested as a possible temporary limitation during the initial phases … Read more

Third Mac OS X Mountain Lion developer preview released

Available only to registered Mac developers, build 12A178q of Mountain Lion comes with a laundry list of fixes and minor tweaks. The release notes also list the known issues that are still being worked on by Apple (including issues with both Quicktime and Game Center) and directions for developers to submit bug reports as they explore the new build.

Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion (read our first take from February) is expected to be launched to the public sometime this summer, only one year after the release of OS X Lion, making it Apple's fastest major OS … Read more

Parallels update brings Windows 8 and Mountain Lion support

With two new desktop operating systems on the horizon from the big hitters, you might be wondering how best to check them out. Microsoft's Windows 8 was just made available as a public preview, and Apple has released its own developer preview of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion to a select group of testers.

Unfortunately, as with any prerelease software, these previews are likely to be fraught with bugs and other details that must be tested and ironed out, so even if you have the option of installing these operating systems, you might not want to do so … Read more

Will your Mac run Mountain Lion?

With the release of the Developer Preview of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion came a list of system requirements that excludes more Intel-based Mac systems from running the new operating system, including a few models such as the first Mac Pro that seem like they should run the new OS just fine.

Given the first Mac Pro's processing capabilities, with its multicore 64-bit-capable CPUs with plenty of RAM and advanced graphics card, it ought to be more than capable of running Mountain Lion. After all, the difference here is not like Apple's switch to a new architecture … Read more

How to get Mountain Lion-style Growl notifications

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Apple is bringing Notification Center to OS X Mountain Lion, looking to replace the need for popular notification app, Growl. While developers are able to get a taste of the overall look and feel of the new OS, who's to say those of us without access to Mountain Lion can't as well?

Well, thanks to a creative individual who took it upon himself to create a Mountain Lion Growl style, you can experience the general look of the upcoming Notification Center alert right now.

You can download the Growl style from this Dribbble page. The link … Read more

Apple to drop in-house X11 support and more in Mountain Lion

When Apple introduced OS X, it was exploring where the new OS would take the Mac platform. In doing so, and to promote development and compatibility for its OS, Apple included support for a number of popular existing technologies that were appealing to developers. A couple of these were its Unix underpinnings and inclusion of a Java runtime, making it compatible with a plethora of existing Unix and Java tools.

Along with the new OS, Apple promoted its native Cocoa development environment, but also included a library of programming tools called Carbon that allowed older code built for the Classic … Read more

Mac OS X 10.8 requirements omit more Intel Macs

If you've taken a look at Apple's sneak peek of its upcoming revision to OS X, you might wonder if your system will be able to run the operating system. In recent versions of OS X, some requirements have resulted in older hardware no longer working properly, including the drop of PowerPC support in Snow Leopard, and Lion not installing on some of the earliest Intel-based Mac systems.

Unfortunately Apple has not yet officially released the system requirements for the new OS, but the developer release that is being issued to members of its Mac development community does … Read more

What's left for Apple's OS X to grab from iOS?

Apple's upcoming Mountain Lion software update for the Mac certainly isn't bashful about borrowing features from iOS, but what the company chose not to add is a story in itself.

As we covered before, the release is largely a collection of new software that came as part of iOS 5, software Apple released for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch in October. That includes software like Reminders, iMessage, and Notification Center, all of which now come pre-installed on the Mac and ready to sync up with their iOS counterparts.

But not everything came along for the ride. There … Read more