Back To The Mac

Back to the iPad: What Apple should take from OS X Mountain Lion and give to iOS 6

By Rene Ritchie, Friday, Feb 17, 2012 a 11:44 pm

Apple is clearly bringing the best parts of the iPad to the Mac, but how about bring iOS some of the best parts of OS X as well?

Yesterday Apple released the OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion developers preview, and like OS X 10.7 Lion before it, front and center was a drive to take what worked best in iOS in general, and the iPad in specific back to the Mac. To make an Apple experience that's more consistent across their two platforms.

But how about a little quid pro quo? There are several aspects of OS X, including some of what's being implemented in Mountain Lion, that I'd love to see in iOS 6.

Apple CEO Tim Cook discusses bringing iPad, iPhone experience to Mountain Lion

By Andrew Wray, Thursday, Feb 16, 2012 a 11:33 am

Apple officially announced they'll be pushing OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion to the public later this summer, further integrating the iPad experience with the desktop bringing Messages, Reminders, Notification Center and more. The Wall Street Journal sat down with Apple CEO Tim Cook to discuss some of the reasons Apple chose to bring the iPad experience over to the Mac.

OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion preview video

By Andrew Wray, Thursday, Feb 16, 2012 a 11:00 am

Apple has posted an official preview video showcasing some of the features they plan to include in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. With Mountain Lion, Apple is moving even further into merging the experience between the iPad and the desktop, integrating features like Messages, Notification Center, Reminders and more.

Reminders for Mac brings iOS-style task lists to OS X Mountain Lion

By Andrew Wray, Thursday, Feb 16, 2012 a 10:00 am

Apple announced OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion to be released later this summer, bringing with it a number of new iPad-influenced features. Among the added features will be a new Reminders app that synchronizes reminders across your Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Apple announces OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion preview, 100 new features, huge iPad influence

By Rene Ritchie, Thursday, Feb 16, 2012 a 9:18 am

Apple's drive to bring iOS back to the Mac continues with Messages, Notification Center, AirPlay mirroring and more of OS X

Apple has just announced a preview of the next major version of their Mac operating system, OS X 10.8. It's called Mountain Lion. The preview is available now and the full version, with over 100 new features, will ship this summer.

“The Mac is on a roll, growing faster than the PC for 23 straight quarters, and with Mountain Lion things get even better,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “The developer preview of Mountain Lion comes just seven months after the incredibly successful release of Lion and sets a rapid pace of development for the world’s most advanced personal computer operating system.”

Apple releases Mac OS X Lion developer preview

By Rene Ritchie, Thursday, Feb 24, 2011 a 9:13 am

Apple announced today that the next version of their desktop operating system, Mac OS X Lion -- the one that takes iPhone and iPad features back to the Mac -- is now available for developers to preview.

“The iPad has inspired a new generation of innovative features in Lion,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Developers are going to love Mission Control and Launchpad, and can now start adding great new Lion features like full screen, gestures, Versions and Auto Save to their own apps.”

There are the features they've mentioned before, including the Mission Control system that replaces/unifies Spaces and Exposé, Launchpad which lets you have a grid of apps like iOS, full screen apps also like iOS, more multitouch gestures like iOS (sensing a trend?), and some new ones like a new, iPad-inspired version of Mail, AirDrop which sounds like AirPlay for files, Resume which is saved-state for Mac OS, Auto-Save, a new File Vault, and more.

No mention of 10.7, does that mean Apple thinks version numbers aren't even developer-facing information anymore? Press release after the break and feel free to speculate if we'll see things AirDrop show up for iOS at next week's iPad event...

[Apple.com]

iPhone live podcast 122: Back to the Mac

By Rene Ritchie, Friday, Oct 22, 2010 a 12:11 am

We're taking iOS back to the Mac with FaceTime and App Stores and Folders, oh my! Plus, Steve Jobs tells us what he really thinks about BlackBerry competition and Android openness, and we've got the body-bags to prove it. This is iPhone live!

Back to the Mac event now available via iTunes

By Leanna Lofte, Thursday, Oct 21, 2010 a 8:59 am

For those of you who were either unavailable to watch Apple's Back to the Mac event live, or are a Windows user who couldn't, or simply want to watch it again, the keynote is now available for download via iTunes. However, be warned that at 868.9 MB, the video download is not small.

I was unable to watch the entire event, so I'm downloading for my viewing pleasure at a later time. What about you? You planning to download this one?

FaceTime for Mac beta now available for download

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, Oct 20, 2010 a 2:50 pm

As promised by Steve Jobs during Apple's Back to the Mac event, FaceTime for Mac beta is now up on Apple.com and available for download:

FaceTime for Mac makes it possible to talk, smile, wave, and laugh with anyone on an iPhone 4, iPod touch, or Mac from your Mac over Wi-Fi. So you can catch up, hang out, joke around, and stay in touch with just a click. Sure, it’s great to hear a voice. But it’s even better to see the face that goes with it.

MacBook Air brings iPad attributes back to the Mac

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, Oct 20, 2010 a 2:17 pm

As part of the Back to the Mac event, Steve Jobs wondered what would happen if a a MacBook and iPad hooked up and the answer is the new MacBook Air. It's full unibody, full keyboard, full trackpad. Instant on. Great battery life. Great standby time. There will be both 13.3 inch and 11.6 inch models.