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iOS 6 review
More Info iOS 5 review Apple unveils iOS 6 at WWDC, launch apps with Siri, Facebook integration, Maps iOS 6 coming to iPhone 4S, 4, 3GS, new iPad, iPad 2 and iPod Touch on September 19th Starting tomorrow, iOS users will be prompted to update their devices to the newest iteration of Apple's mobile operating system. As difficult as it is to believe, we're already onto the sixth version of the OS, which continues to be updated with new features on a yearly basis. After pushing out so many upgrades critical to plugging a few major feature holes, the vast majority of its 200 advertised enhancements are strictly granular, as Apple continues to polish its popular OS. That doesn't mean, though, that this build is coming to the masses without any jarring UI changes: Apple has declared independence from Google by adopting its own Maps, added a few nice features to Mail and iCloud, thrown Facebook integration into the mix and introduced the Passbook for paperless tickets. The question is, how does it stack up against previous refreshes? Read on to find out.
Ubuntu 12.10 adds Photo Lens for searching photos stored locally and online
If Ubuntu is your OS of choice, you've already been enjoying so-called lenses to help you search through your music, videos, apps and documents. So why not a search filter for photos? Why not indeed, said the folks at Canonical. The dev team has just updated the operating system (version 12.10) with a Photo Lens that lets you search your pics by name, tag or EXIF data. What's more, in addition to searching photos stored locally, you can pull in pictures stored on sites like Facebook and Flickr, because who knows how many of your cameraphone photos bypassed your computer and went straight to the web?
Apple OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 review
More Info Apple OS X Lion 10.7 review OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 in-depth preview OS X Mountain Lion: arrives on Macs next month, priced at $20 A lot has changed since early 2001. We've got a new president approaching the end of his first term, the US has embarked on two major wars and the words "Lady Gaga" have become much more than just gibberish. Some things, however, don't change. In nearly each of these intervening years, Apple has issued a major update to its desktop operating system, OS X. This time last year, the company issued OS 10.7 Lion, a king-of-the-jungle moniker many thought would mark the end of Apple's big cat naming scheme and, by extension, the OS X lineage. In February, however, the old operating system showed she still had some life left in her, when the next edition was revealed, arriving over the summer and called Mountain Lion. Based on the name alone, you'd think 10.8 would be a modest improvement over its predecessor -- not unlike the baby step between Leopard (10.5) and Snow Leopard (10.6). But Apple insists that this latest build is more than just a seasonal refresh -- in all, it boasts more than 200 new features. Some are major, including things like a new Notification Center, AirPlay Mirroring and a desktop version of Messages. Others, such as full-screen mode for Notes... not so much. What seems to unite the vast majority of the 200 features, however, is a nod to iOS. So, how easily can Mac users justify that $20 download? Follow along after the break, as we put those 200 features to the test.%Gallery-161032%
Apple introduces Power Nap OS X feature that updates your Mac while it's sleeping
Apple just introduced a new OS X feature here at WWDC 2012 called Power Nap. It lets your Mac update email, notifications and photos in the background, as well as back itself up while charging. Whether or not Apple ever drops the word "Ultrabooks" (and trust us, it won't), this addition is a clear retort to all those Windows-based ultraportables that promise to keep web-based apps up to date. In addition to the new MacBook Pros announced today, the feature will work with the second-generation Air, which makes us think all other legacy Macs might be excluded. Supposedly, too, the technology goes easy on the battery and won't stir up the fans, though Apple claims they're quieter on the new Macs anyway. For more coverage of WWDC 2012, please visit our event hub! Myriam Joire contributed to this report.
Chrome OS review (version 19)
It seems like yesterday that we reviewed the inaugural Samsung Series 5 Chromebook running Google's Chrome OS, an operating system for laptops based on Chrome. It was, from the start, a world in which everything from music playback to document creation happened in browser tabs. Since we last checked in a year ago, Google has addressed some early complaints -- the browser can actually stream Netflix now! -- but it's only just getting around to ticking off some other long-standing grievances, like multitasking. The company just announced two new Chrome OS devices -- the Samsung Chromebook Series 5 550 and Chromebox Series 3 -- and both run a spanking-new build of the OS that ushers in a simplified desktop with customizable wallpaper and the ability to minimize, maximize and close windows -- oh my! More importantly, you can now view multiple windows onscreen, edit docs offline and pin shortcuts to the bottom of the screen -- a combination that promises some seriously improved multitasking. Other goodies: built-in Google Music, Google+ and Hangouts, along with a basic photo editor, redesigned music player and enhanced remote desktop app. So does all this add up to an upgrade meaty enough to make the skeptics give Chrome OS a second look? Could it be time for you to get the low-tech person in your life a Chromebook? Let's see.%Gallery-156285%
EVO Shift 4G getting Gingerbread, Swype on June 20
Shift owners, you didn't think you were chopped liver, did you? On the heels of blessing the EVO 4G with Gingerbread, the Shift 4G is about to get some Android 2.3 lovin' of its own. According to this leaked page of instructions sent in by an anonymous tipster, the package includes not just Gingerbread, but Swype, a downloads application, and a fix for apps that haven't been able to stream media properly. Officially, the update's coming on Monday, though it looks like impatient folks should be able to manually update their phones starting tomorrow. Let's just hope it's a smoother transition than when the EVO 4G stepped up to Android 2.3 -- we got a deluge of tips from disgruntled readers who found the update had rendered Netflix unusable.
Run your own Software Update Server with Reposado
Apple systems administrators can now use non-Apple hardware to host an internal Apple Software Update Service, thanks to Reposado, an open-source project developed by IT admins at Walt Disney Animation Studios. Running your own Software Update Server allows you to test updates for hardware and software conflicts before deploying them across all your machines. It also allows you to economize on bandwidth, downloading each update just once instead of having everyone in the company download it separately. Until now, you've needed to run such a server exclusively on Apple hardware running Mac OS X Server. Now, Disney Animation Studios' Reposado lets you run your Update Server on any hardware and software server you like. Reposado downloads Apple's Software Update catalogs and even the update packages from Apple's servers. Written in Python, the software hosts the updates using the 'curl' binary tool and a web server like Apache 2. You can setup custom branches to organize updates and keep track of those that passed testing. If you work in a mixed environment with some machines running 10.6.7 and others on an older version of OS x, you can also use Reposado to serve different updates to different machines. [via Managing OS X]
10.4.10 on the way
Reports from AppleInsider and other sources indicate that the next Tiger update, ten-four-ten (sounds like a CB radio code) will be seeding to developers as early as next week. As Erica noted back in March, there's been some question of the exact naming for this update (10.4.9a? 10.4.9 SP1?) and it seems like 10.4.10 is the plan.With Leopard's ship date in the autumn, some final patches to the current big cat are certainly in order. At my office we're still waiting for a fix on longstanding issues with WPA2 authentication/Proxim wireless access points on the MacBooks/MBPs... perhaps this update will be the one that clears those nagging problems.
