Wondering what the cost of making OS X, iLife and iWork free is for Apple? Horace Dediu thinks he knows.
Category: Apple
OS X Mavericks: The Review
WWDC 2013 was crazy: iOS 7, OS X Mavericks and a new, magical insane Mac Pro were all unveiled on stage, after one of the weirdest keynote moments I can remember seeing in a long time.
I was fortunate enough to be in San Francisco this year for the event. As one might imagine, iOS 7 dominated every conversation I had — and overheard — the rest of the week.
iOS 7 was the star of the show for good reason. The release is an insanely significant jump forward for Apple’s mobile operating system. From the re-vamped design to the new backgrounding APIs, it is clear that Apple had been hard at work on the release for some time. While the fact that iOS 7 has been re-built for the 64-bit A7 didn’t break until months later, the amount of work Apple showed off in June was impressive.
Today however, Apple’s other, much less popular operating system is the star: the one that powers things called “desktop computers” and “notebooks.”
I’m being a little sarcastic, but there’s no getting around it: Mac OS X is getting old. The first public beta landed on September 13, 2000, with Mac OS X 10.0 going on sale on March 24, 2001. While Mavericks is very different than Cheetah, there’s no doubt that the two are related.
The bones haven’t changed all that much over the last 13 years, but every time Apple updates OS X, it continues to improve and refine features and the underlying technologies that make them possible.
I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. I firmly believe that OS X is the best consumer desktop operating system on the planet. It has undergone some major changes over the years, but it’s the same OS under the hood. OS X is still as stable, powerful and resilient to viruses and other malware as it has always been.
As with other OS X releases I’ve reviewed over the last few years, Mavericks packs features I’ve become attached to after using the first time.
However, features aren’t always enough to keep a nerd like me happy. In fact, I closed my Mountain Lion review with this:
Mountain Lion smoothes over most of the issues I’ve had with 10.7, but that isn’t enough to make me want to throw Mountain Lion a parade. The truth of the matter is this: Mountain Lion is a feature release. No matter how great or useful those features may be to the masses of iCloud users, it feels a little lazy. The new operating system is nice, but it’s not ground-breaking.
So how does Mavericks fit in with recent releases of OS X? Does it drive OS X further down the road Apple started on in 2011 with Lion? Or, like Mountain Lion, is it more about refinement? How many more rhetorical questions can I ask about things? Let’s dive in to Mavericks and see what all of the waves are about.
Sorry. I won’t make that joke again.
Art of the RSVP⇢
Jacob Kastrenakes has put together ten years’ worth of Apple invite events. It’s a nice trip down memory lane.
Apple Opens MacBook Air SSD REP⇢
Apple Support:
Apple has determined that certain 64GB and 128GB flash storage drives used in the previous generation of MacBook Air systems may fail. These systems were sold between June 2012 through June 2013.
Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP) will replace affected flash storage drives, free of charge.
On iMessages and Spying⇢
Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller, in a statement to AllThingsD:
iMessage is not architected to allow Apple to read messages. The research discussed theoretical vulnerabilities that would require Apple to re-engineer the iMessage system to exploit it, and Apple has no plans or intentions to do so.
The research Muller references can be read about here.
October 22⇢
The Beard has spoken; prepare your credit card.
On Intel Iris Pro and Crystalwell⇢
There’s a lot more to the newest iMacs than meets the eye.
Siri, Define ‘Drama’
Atlanta resident and veteran voice actress Susan Bennett has claimed in an interview with CNN that she is original voice of Siri, Apple’s popular iOS voice assistant that was first introduced with the iPhone 4s two years ago today. While Apple has not confirmed the information, the report states that professionals within the technology industry are familiar with her voice, and cites an audio forensics expert with 30 years of experience who is certain that Bennett’s voice and the voice of Apple’s digital personal assistant are the same.
Apple To Launch Mac App Store Volume Purchase Program⇢
Apple:
We’re pleased to announce that Mac apps will soon be eligible to participate in the Volume Purchase Program for Business and Education. The Volume Purchase Program allows businesses or educational institutions to purchase multiple copies of your app at once.
You may also offer a discount to educational institutions for multiple purchases. If you choose to offer a volume discount for an app, institutions that purchase 20 or more copies of that app in a single order will receive a 50-percent discount.
On the Los Angeles iPad Hack⇢
Fraser Speirs breaks down the “hacking” of iPads in the giant California rollout.
Spoiler alert: kids are smarter than most tech journalists.
How to Clean Apple Products⇢
Apple Support:
The materials used to make Apple products vary; in some cases each product may have specific cleaning requirements, which may vary by the part you are cleaning. Here are some tips that apply to all products to get you started.
Spoiler alert: don’t spray things directly into your computer’s vents.
As a bonus, if you’re worried about such things, here’s how to deal with dander in your keyboard.
Coca-LOLa⇢
John Ribeiro, IDG News Service:
Apple has emerged as the most valuable brand in the world, passing Coca-Cola which held the top position for 13 years, according to a report released by brand consultancy Interbrand.
The maker of high-profile products like the iPad and iPhone, which was ranked second last year, saw its brand value grow 28 percent this year to $98.3 billion. Other tech companies that figured in the top five rankings for 2013 were Google at number two and IBM and Microsoft at fourth and fifth place, respectively. Google was number four in 2012, while IBM was third and Microsoft held the fifth position last year.