It's becoming increasingly obvious that the technology world is accelerating at an unprecedented pace, something that is occurring with both hardware and software. That has never been more evident when Mozilla released Firefox 15 to the general public a few days ago, and a beta build of version 16 is already available for testing. Those millions of web users around the world who choose Firefox as their main desktop or mobile browser have barely had a chance to familiarize themselves with version 15 and now Firefox 16 beta is here to be played with.
We first brought you the Parallels Desktop 8 announcement last week, and although the creators of the desktop virtualization software - Parallels Inc. - has already stated the eight edition will be arriving on September 4th, it is now available as an upgrade for those running Parallels Desktop 7.
If you happened to have saved up all of your hard earned dollars in order to eventually get rid of your virus magnet Windows-based PC and move across to a gorgeous but rather expensive OS X toting Mac, hoping to never worry about malware or viruses again, then it may be time to update your views and stop listening to internet chatter about how Macs can never get infections.
Prior to this year's WWDC keynote, it was widely presumed Apple would add a Retina display to each of its MacBooks, as well as possibly the iMac. Of course, considering history, we should have been wise to Apple's plan; Include the Retina in one model, add a couple of extra perks, and slap an extortionate price tag on it, and see how many consumers can resist until said features are added across the board.
Although Windows is still considerably ahead of OS X when it comes to total consumer reach, it's a fact that more and more people are running on a Mac, and there are plenty of people out there who require both operating systems, such as app developers.
Following hot on the footsteps of the official OS X 10.8.1 release to the public via the Mac App Store today, Apple has now pushed out the first developer seed of OS X 10.8.2 Mountain Lion to registered developers on the Mac Dev Center. Build number 12C31a is now available to download through the official Mac Dev Center for those who are registered, a release that will see developers acting as guinea pigs for us all in order to report and iron out any bugs that may exist.
Although the iOS App Store is overflowing with apps for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, the Mac equivalent doesn't have nearly as many apps living within it, meaning OS X users have significantly less choice when it comes to extending the functionality of their machines. With that said, I tend to find that my personal taste of OS X apps come in two forms, either extremely simple creations or apps that actually go all out and provide fantastic functionality that makes my life a lot easier. An example of the former is Live Wallpaper that offers dynamic backgrounds and an example of the latter is Xcode or Pixelmator that offer grunt and power.
OS X Mountain Lion, Apple's latest desktop operating system, has seen mass adoption since launching at the tail end of last month, and after shifting some two million units in the first 48 hours alone, a large ensemble of Mac users are currently getting to grips with the new features.
If you can bring yourself to look past the fact that you have just spent a whole heap of money on excellent Apple hardware to run OS X, then it actually makes sense to be able to install a version of Windows alongside the default operating system. This is especially true when we consider the new Retina MacBook Pro and those who want to use PC software or games in the full 2880 x 1800 resolution.
A significant refresh of the Mac Pro was expected to arrive at WWDC '12, but the speculation never reached fruition, and the somewhat neglected device still pines for its first changes since 2009. Intel's long-awaited Ivy Bridge chip finally reached the Cupertino company's famed MacBook range at the annual developers conference, and both the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro were grateful recipients. Meanwhile, Apple also introduced the first MacBook Pro to ditch the optical drive while also including a beautiful Retina display, and we took this as a sure sign of things to come.
