Nobody outside of Cupertino's privileged bunch knows the future of the Mac Pro line for sure. Despite Apple's reluctance to tell us what the line holds, there are a large number of machines in service all getting a bit long in the tooth, relatively speaking. As production Mac Pros have been replaced with new iMacs and even the Mac mini, IT departments are looking for creative ways to repurpose some of the older machines to preserve dwindling budgets and continued expansion of needs. Regardless of generation, the Mac Pro makes an excellent server for the home or business, limited only by the drive capacity. Macintosh upgrade purveyors MaxUpgrades has a one-of-a-kind custom engineered solution for the 2006 through 2008 Mac Pro optical bay called the MaxConnect for Mac Pro Optical Bay. Using it, up to four 3.5-inch drives can be installed in the bay, in lieu of lightly-used opticals. Whether or not cramming all these drives in the space is a good idea remains to be seen -- check our review to find out!
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Sat May 18, 2013 | Posted in: industry
Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have discovered that the US fire ant population is being pushed out by "tawny crazy ants," with an affinity to the interior of electronic devices. The ants are capable of nesting in nearly any container, and as they travel, they disrupt other ant populations.
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Fri May 17, 2013 | Posted in: industry
In a court motion filed earlier today, MetroPCS is dropping its net neutrality opposition lawsuit against the Federal Communications Commission. The company filed a motion for voluntary dismissal, leaving Verizon to willingly fight the decree and US government on its own.
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Mozilla is delaying plans to start blocking third-party tracking cookies in Firefox by default, according to an announcement. The company states that more work is needed for the anti-tracking feature. "The idea is that if you have not visited a site (including the one to which you are navigating currently) and it wants to put a cookie on your computer, the site is likely not one you have heard of or have any relationship with," explains Mozilla's Brendan Eich. "But this is only likely, not always true."
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Yahoo is holding a "product-related" event on May 20. The New York City event will see CEO Marissa Mayer speaking on an undisclosed topic for about an hour at 5PM EST, which the company calls in an mass email "something special."
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Fri May 17, 2013 | Posted in: industry
Amazon has cancelled two television pilots, after poor screenings. The television version of Zombieland will not be made into a series by the internet retailer, nor will Bebe Neuwirth's musical comedy Browsers about interns at a Huffington Post-esque website. Amazon has picked up John Goodman's Washington DC satire Alpha House, and Silicon Valley sitcom Betas.
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Apple has removed a well-publicized iPhone hookup app from the App Store after just one week of it going live, Valleywag notes. Bang With Friends, still accessible via Android and the web, lets people indicate if they'd like to have sex with a Facebook friend. Notifications are sent out only if the feeling is mutual. Since launching in January, the service has already accumulated about 1 million users.
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Podcast and radio streaming service Stitcher has released an important update of its iOS app, v5.3.0. The major addition is a selectable Car Mode for the iPhone, which brings up a simplified interface. The mode works in both portrait and landscape views.
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A report by market analysts App Annie and IDC continue to show that mobile devices such as the iPhone or the Nexus 7 control a clear majority of mobile gaming interest and dollars spent on purchases, with portable handhelds fading rapidly. The first quarter of 2013 saw another milestone achieved for the Android platform, with it seeing more downloads and consumer spending on games than iOS for the first time.
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Fri May 17, 2013 | Posted in: computers
Third-party vendors are starting to run out of stock of the 13-inch MacBook Air, says AppleInsider. Amazon, B&H, MacConnection, and MacMall are all out of a common configuration, a system with a 1.8GHz processor and a 256GB SSD. Another reseller, J&R, is saying that it only has the configuration at retail stores. Best Buy continues to have some units.
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Fri May 17, 2013 | Posted in: industry, Apple
Apple's mired negotiations with the music industry may prevent it from announcing an "iRadio" service at WWDC on June 10th, industry sources tell The Verge. The people note that Apple is having trouble not just with Sony/ATV, but also BMG. At the same time they suggest there's still a lot of "market momentum" behind iRadio, and that major players such as Universal want to see it launch as soon as possible.
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Moshi has released its new line of Lightning cables for Apple's latest iOS devices. Encased in aluminum, the 3.2 foot cables are fully certified for use with the iPhone 5, iPod touch (5th gen), iPod nano (7th gen), iPad (4th gen) and iPad mini. Moshi's USB Cable with Lightning is sold online in two color variants, black and white, for $20.
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This week in the MacNN forums, one Professional Poster was trying to get to the bottom of a problem they had with their Retina MBP shutting down while in sleep mode, a solution has yet to be found. Fresh-Faced Recruit "frozentundra" is wondering when Apple will update the Mac Pro line.
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Fri May 17, 2013 | Posted in: computers, Apple
A vast selection of refurbished 15.4-inch MacBook Pro models are available at Apple's Online Store. The 15.4-inch MBP with a 2.3GHz Intel quad-core i7 processor, 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive has been reduced to $1,489, a savings of $310. A $420 price cut is offered on the 15.4-inch Retina MBP with 2.3GHz quad-core i7 processor, 4GB of RAM and a 750GB hard drive, now $1,679.
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Currently JR.com has the Mac Pro for the reduced price of $3,599.99, that's $199.01 off the list price of $3,799 and the lowest price we have seen on this Mac model, brand new, anywhere. Free shipping is included and sales tax applies for residents of New York and California. The Mac Pro features a 2.4GHz 12-Core Xeon processor, 12GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive. A one year warranty on parts and labor is included from Apple.
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Apple's iPhones, iPads and other devices running iOS 6 or higher are officially cleared for use on the US government's secure networks, the Department of Defence announced on Friday. The final approval, which we first reported on in March, also grants Samsung Android devices that are running the Korean company's Knox security lockdown, as well as BlackBerry devices running BB10 the ability to be used on secure networks. The move is expected to further hurt BlackBerry, as it faces competition in the military space for the first time.
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