Back in August, Parallels Desktop 8 was released, and many vented their frustration at the company's decision to only offer support the Retina display to those who'd bought the previous version of Parallels after Apple released Mountain Lion OS X. Today, Parallel's 8 has been updated once again, and steering clear of controversy, actually brings a bunch of useful new features.
When Clear for iOS was released earlier this year, it not only managed to bring about a wave of clones, but it totally changed the way that developers and users thought about user-interfaces and interacting with on-screen elements. The extremely clean and clinical interface required the user to navigate through it using swipes, pinches and various other gestures that revealed differing menu structures. The developers behind that extremely popular app have fulfilled their promise of platform expansion by releasing Clear for Mac OS X.
Angry Birds is already preparing to take over the world thanks to its many iterations and multi-platform support, but the upcoming Star Wars version of the game is set to take things to a whole new level.
In an effort to convince existing smartphone owners to switch to Windows Phone 8, Microsoft has released an update to Windows Phone sync tool for OS X. Check it out after the jump.
It's been an extremely busy week so far for Apple, with the announcement of the iPad mini, the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display, an all-new line-up of iMacs and Mac minis, and the surprising introduction of the fourth-generation iPad. Not wanting to take their foot off the gas, the company has now announced their Q4 earnings of 2012, and once again, it makes extremely pleasant reading for company executives and shareholders.
Apps on mobile platforms like iOS and Android that allow users to save content for viewing offline have proven to be extremely popular over the last few years, none more so than the fantastic Pocket app that started out life known as Read It Later. Pocket is an extremely well used and loved app for mobile devices, but things have been taken a step further with the introduction of the official Pocket app on the Mac App Store.
With scarcely 24 hours having passed since Apple announced a glut of product updates at its specially-arranged keynote event in San Jose, it was almost inevitable the knockoff makers wouldn't be too far behind. While the first plausible iPad mini knockoff has already reared its head, it's not so common for us to see bootleg Macs unveiled so soon after the official announcement.
Today's media event from Apple in San Jose has, by all accounts, gone pretty well. We anticipated an iPad mini, tweaked Mac mini, iMac, 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display, along with alterations to the third-gen iPad and some sort of update to iBooks, and that's pretty much what we got.
In the days and weeks leading up to today's event, it was widely presumed Apple would, aside from announcing the iPad mini, also announce a refresh to its iMac and Mac mini computers. The rumor mill has proven itself to be on-point once again, and both desktops have been offered a substantial spec bump in line with the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro back in June.
After the critical success of the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display, Apple has announced a similarly spec’d 13-inch model at their event in Cupertino, CA. It’s one hell of a portable notebook and everything about it is awesome. We’ve got the most important specifications, pricing and availability ready for you to read after the jump!

