Well, the next big cat has a name, and that name is Lion. Here’s is Apple’s introduction of OS X 10.7:
We took our best thinking from Mac OS X and brought it to the iPhone. Then we took our best thinking from the iPhone and brought it to iPad. And now we’re bringing it all back to the Mac with our eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system.
Well, it’s happened. The Mac App Store is coming to the Mac in the next 90 days:
The Mac App Store is just like the App Store for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. So it’s as easy to find and download Mac apps as it is to add your favorite magazine to iPad or a new game to iPod touch. You can browse Mac apps by category, such as games, productivity, music, and more. Or do a quick search for something specific. Read developer descriptions and user reviews. Flip through screenshots. When you find an app you like, click to buy it.
Earlier today, Ben Brooks and I had a conversation on Twitter:
This whole thing of a small Mac raises an interesting set of questions. Do people need a smaller Mac OS X device, as I suggested to Ben? Can a small Mac survive in an iPad world?
One problem that has always plagued the MacBook Air is that it can’t really serve as a stand-alone computer for most Mac customers. I think most people use an iMac or a MacBook Pro as their machine machines — and for good reasons. These machines are powerful, with large amounts of storage available for photos, music and more.
Get it while it’s hot, folks.
Be sure to read this little nugget of information from that page:
Whenever someone tries to reach you, the call rings through on every Mac you own even if FaceTime isn’t running. So you never have to worry about making yourself available. If you don’t want to receive calls, just turn FaceTime off in Preferences.
Very cool, but I have one big question — why is this not just part of iChat? Or will these two apps combine in OS X 10.7?
During today’s “Back to the Mac” event, Steve Jobs asked:
What would happen if an iPad and a MacBook hooked up?
The new MacBook Air is the answer.
The biggest story here I think here is price. Yes, it’s neat1 that Apple is building their own flash-based storage. Yes, it’s awesome that they are finally shipping a sub–12" notebook again. But all of that pales in comparison to the price.
The 11.6″ MacBook Air starts out at just $999 for a 1.4GHz Core2Duo and 64GB of storage. Bumping up to 128GB of storage is an additional $200. The 13.3″ Air starts at $1299 with 128GB of storage and a 1.86Ghz Core2Duo. Bumping to 256GB is an additional $300.
Like last time, it requires Safari 4 or 5 on Mac OS X 10.6 or Safari on iOS 3 or later.
Things should get going in just under an hour.
Genius tips for the Microsoft and the Apple trolls of the world.
Despite some issues, webOS 2.0 is probably neck and neck with iOS4 when it comes to polish and ease of use, and that’s a pretty huge thing for Palm. This isn’t just a good OS, it’s a great OS, and the updates in this version have made it even better. It’s obvious that when combined with even slightly better hardware, it’s also a fast experience that makes it easy to get real work done. And that’s the problem with webOS 2.0, really. Palm is still hampered by last-generation, underpowered hardware. The Pre 2 is nice, but it’s not cutting edge, and it doesn’t hold a candle to the iPhone 4 or G2. If Palm wants to survive in this game – let alone truly compete – it needs to push killer hardware into the marketplace now. The faithful are dwindling, and the smartphone race is getting more crowded every day – webOS 2.0 is a big improvement, but if this and the Pre 2 are Palm’s hail mary, they just lost the game.
Twitter’s Carolyn Penner to Macworld on the beloved Mac app:
We aren’t actively planning Tweetie for Mac 2, but we maintain the app for current users. For example, over the summer we updated the client to use OAuth and improved MagicMouse support. We also made the app available for free.
Tweetie is one of the best designed programs for the Mac, however it is already behind the times, lacking both native retweet support and lists. While there are some other great Mac Twitter apps out there, it’s sad to see this one begin what will surely be a long, painful death.
Mac Rumors has a great post up summarizing today’s call.
Also from today’s call:
This size isn’t sufficient to create great tablet apps, in our opinion. While one could increase the resolution of the display to make up for some of the difference, it is meaningless unless your tablet also includes sandpaper, so that the user can sand down their fingers to around one quarter of their present size.