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.
Although Apple themselves have been the center of attention for most of the last few weeks due to the imminent announcement and launch of the new iPhone, there has been an organization that has dared to try and steal Apple's thunder in the last week. Those guys are the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and have taken it upon themselves to thwart the hype around the new iPhone by blasting the Curiosity Rover onto the red planet to send images back to earth that document its findings.
When we talk about Apple, the first products springing to mind are the MacBooks, iPhones, iPads, and iPods, devices of which have all had a hugely significant impact on their respective markets over the past 10-12 years. That said, before the last decade, Apple was nothing more than a computer company, competing with fierce rivals Microsoft while creating plenty of innovations of its own.
In a similar fashion to the iOS App Store, Apple's official home for OS X apps can sometimes prove to be a bit of a software jungle with so many categories and apps being available that it can be a bit tricky to find things that will actually be useful to you. Investigating the top charts list gives an insight into what other users are downloading, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you as an individual will find it useful or appealing.
It's difficult to remember what we all used to do to handle our increasingly busy schedules and work loads before we had such capable computers and mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad. Being able to be permanently connected to our diaries, appointments and task lists through the use of mobile hardware and scheduling software has proved to be an invaluable resource for those who have busy professional and personal lives, but the real power is needed when we knuckle down to actually sift through our list of tasks.
OS X Mountain Lion has been with us for long enough, and users can form their own opinions on Apple's latest cutting edge operating system and certainly decide themselves if they feel it is an improvement over OS X Lion, or even the latest version of Snow Leopard if they refrained from upgrading to Lion. Judging by the fact that Mountain Lion notched up over three million downloads in twenty four hours and the Mac App Store is littered with positive reviews, it would seem that the majority have greeted OS X 10.8 with positivity.
Although companies like Apple and Microsoft are continuously tweaking existing versions of their operating systems and building next-generation software to power PCs and Macs, it would all be pretty much useless without a connection to the internet. You would actually be extremely surprised at how much of your day-to-day computing activity actually relies on being connected to the world wide web, meaning there is nothing more infuriating than a poor or dropped wireless connection.
