In its efforts to remain relevant in light of Google Chrome's emergence over the past couple of years, Mozilla has continued to pump out the updates to its famed Firefox browser. Today brings another fleet of new features and improvements to the major desktop platforms as well as Android, capped off with an ever-so-slight alteration to the logo. Details after the break.
Good news is amongst us all you game-loving, Mac owning folks. It may be well overdue and a long time coming, but EA has today officially announced that SimCity will be coming to the Mac platform on August 29th, as opposed to the previous SimCity release date. The open-ended, city building game has been an extremely popular addition to a gamer’s arsenal since its original launch, and although the latest version of the series was launched for Windows back in March, it has yet to make an appearance on the Mac App Store. With August 29th only just over three weeks away the time has nearly come.
iMessage, Apple's cross device messaging service for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Mac, has been a relative success since first appearing with iOS 5 and subsequently, OS X Lion. Yet like most fledgling services, it has had its fair share of teething issues, with a notable lack of proper blocking / reporting feature in place for spam messages. iOS 7 will allow users to block Apple IDs causing offence as we already know, but now, the Cupertino has also rolled out a nifty spam reporting feature enabling users to take action against any kind of intrusive or otherwise unwanted behavior.
Apple seems to be busily getting its developer releases out there today after the security breach which resulted in the entire system being dragged offline. Along with the news that iOS 7 beta 4 is finally making its appearance today, iTunes 11.1 has also been released to those registered to Apple's Developer Program. The updated iTunes 11.1 beta 1 is quite limited at this point, given that it only works on the fruit company’s very on OS X, but does include iTunes Radio integration for those living in the United States. More details can be found right after the jump.
Apple has posted its earnings call for the third fiscal quarter leading up to June 29th, 2013, and although the numbers do not generally make for as impressive a reading as this time last year, the company's flagship iPhone smartphone continues to go from strength to strength. The company posted quarterly revenue of $35.3 billion (compared with $35 billion year-on-year), translating to a quarterly net profit of $6.9 billion ($8.8 billion), or $7.47 ($9.32) per diluted share.
Intel's astonishingly efficient Haswell processors have already worked wonders for the 2013 MacBook Air range, and KGI Securities' Ming-Chi Kuo - one of the more reliable Apple analysts out there - seems to believe the iMac could be the recipient of the new chip in a refresh set to roll out as early as next month. Furthermore, Kuo also believes Apple plans to roll out new MacBook Pros in September, which are also expected to be powered by Haswell.
Logic Pro X and MainStage 3 have just been released over at the Mac App Store, with an accompanying Logic Remote app having also been made available via the iTunes App Store. Logic has long since been a big player in the game of music production and audio editing, and the new Logic Pro X, which retails for the recognized price of $199, will be looking build upon this with a host of new and exciting features.
A new OS X malware uses standard extensions such as .pdf and .doc to disguise malicious files as basic, harmless subjects. Discovered by F-Secure, the spoof technique uses a special Unicode character found in file names that gives an app the appearance of a standard document file, and although the threat level is quite low at this point, any malware and outbreak should be treated with a dose of respect and vigilance.
Twitter today went on the update offensive, with both its mobile and desktop apps receiving new version numbers. Not content with giving the Mac version of its app some new features, Twitter has also seen fit to update both its iOS and Android apps also. Twitter on the web is also on the receiving end this time around.
Opera 15 has just been released for PC and Mac, featuring an all-new design and a myriad of new features, including the Discover catch-up menu and Speed Dial, which, as the name implies, allows you to quickly find all of your Internet amenities. There's also a brand-new download manager, and although Opera has been lacking in many departments in the past, the new WebKit-based effort appears to have stepped things up a notch or two.
