Apple does have an Apple TV box at the moment and there are rumors that there will be some sort of iTV in the future, but it’s become apparent especially today that Apple does not have the same amount of power pushing into the smart TV world as they do the mobile and desktop world – it only stands to reason, of course. As Cook noted today:

“Apple doesn’t do hobbies as a general rule. I can’t live without [my Apple TV] – we’ve always though there was something there, and that if we kept following our intuiting and kept pulling that string, we might find something larger. … Something that could go more main market for it to be a serious category.” – Cook

Does this mean we’re going to continue seeing string pulling through 2012? You can bet on it. Will the iTV be revealed inside the next few months? That’s much more up to debate than the idea that Apple will stay in the smart TV business.

What this means for the rest of the users out there looking to buy an Apple computer in the near future is this: MacBook may be coming back as a basic name for the low end of high. Your MacBook Pro lineup in smaller sizes very well could be the MacBooks of tomorrow while the MacBook Air keeps its lofty name. Or the opposite could be true: perhaps the “Air” moniker will float away with the White plastic of yesterday and yesteryear.

Either way, the stock is up, Apple no longer has MacBooks in plastic available to anyone officially, not even educational institutions, the last group whose name brought them the ability to continue accessing the line long after Apple stores cut them from the showroom. Now the status symbol war can continue with the white MacBook looking outdated entirely and the metal glory of the Pro and Air models looking like the only choice for the hipster elite. Watch out, collectors, you’re next!

[via MacRumors]

Schaap managed to get OS X Snow Leopard “booting into a multi-user prompt” on the Marvell chipset, though there were lingering hardware issues that persisted. In the process, he needed to build a filesystem and kernelcache from the ground up, as well as work around old code in the existing ARMv5 branch of XNU.

A proper release, he suggested, would first require significant reworking of elements of code, along with new drivers to “fully utilize the potential” of Apple’s hardware. Apps themselves would also need to be re-written – or ported from ARM-based platforms – as well.

Nonetheless, it adds to ongoing suspicions that Apple is at least considering using ARM-based chips – such as the company’s own A5 and upcoming A6, as currently used in the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S – in notebooks as well as tablets and phones. At least one prototype MacBook Air running on an Apple A5 chipset has been reported, performing ”better than expected”, though it was not specified whether it was running iOS or OS X.

[via Apple Insider]

As for chroma key support, the new update adds more advanced controls including color sampling, edge adjustment and light wrap. Apple says users can now use more comprehensive chroma key setups without resorting to third-party software, as well as benefiting from real-time previews of the results.

If you do want to use third-party apps, however, Final Cut Pro X now has more complex XML support for using external software for color correction, media management and more. Apple has coerced firms such as GenArts and Red Giant to create motion-graphics plugins that each support the editing software’s realtime support..

Meanwhile, broadcast monitoring has been added – albeit in beta form – with support for waveform displays, vectorscopes, and calibrated, high-quality monitors. They can be connected via Thunderbolt I/O devices or third party PCIe cards.

Existing owners of Final Cut Pro X can download v10.0.3 as a free update. Those new to the app can try a 30-day trial, available through the Mac App Store. Whether the upgrade will satisfy those power-users frustrated by Apple’s apparent “consumerization” of its video editing platform remains to be seen.

The AirPort Base Station and Time Capsule Firmware is being upgraded to version 7.6.1 and will allow you to get remote access to an AirPort disk or a Time Capsule hard drive with your own iCloud account. This upgrade will be to your Firmware and should be done only AFTER you grab AirPort Utility 5.5.3. Additionally, you should have AirPort Utility 6.0 at least (this being the other part of the upgrade) as well as Mac OS X Lion version 10.7.2 or later so that you might work with iCloud. Update all of this via your Software Update screen under the apple in the upper-left of your screen.

AirPort Utility 6.0 for Mac OS X Lion will bring you the power of being able to manage your Wi-fi network and all manner of AirPort base stations, those being of course your Time Capsule, AirPort Extreme, and AirPort Express. You’ll be able to change base station and network settings, manage advanced features including wireless channels, security modes, and more, and all of it from this download site. Grab it all now and wifi your way into the future!

According to some reported numbers coming straight out of USA Today, there were somewhere around 44,000 attendees at the 2007 Macworld where Steve Jobs introduced the very first iPhone. This compared to last year’s 22,000 attendees says something major about how far the event has gotten from its heyday. That said, Macworld | iWorld this year will be continuing to move forward with not just manufacturers showing off their wares. Instead this year there’s much more focus on demonstrations by artists and musicians who are showcasing their talents with works created using Apple products exclusively.

Developer Christopher Allen, a veteran in the world of creating applications for Mac products, having created his first in 1984 and having written several iOS books since, compared the event to CES, in sorts:

“At its height, Macworld was starting to take on some of the challenges of CES, where it was getting so huge it was hard for a small company to get visibility. But now that we’re a smaller Macworld, it might be a little easier to get the word out. … Before, small developers could basically show up and pay for their booth through sales but now I’m not quite as confident that’s possible. Now it’s more of a pure marketing expense for a small developer, although they have made some good strides to improve that, like opening up on Saturday for more consumers to come through.” – Allen

We’ll see how this all plays out as the event unfolds. What do you think? Are you attending Macworld this year? Have you attended in the past?

[via USA Today]

Outputs for this device include Spring-loaded right and left channel connectors as well as an RCA subwoofer connector. Sensitivity can be bumped up to 0.34 dBFS for 20 watts when the volume control is set to max. Power is up at 20 watts per channel into 8 ohms @0.08% THD with both channels driven. Signal to noise ratio is 95 decibels and crosstalk is -71 decibels. If all that makes sense to you – continue on!

You’ve also got some lovely subwoofer output with both left and right sub-bass audio and autoswitching when your powered subwoofer is detected. Your high-pass filter is 80 Hz 2nd order Linkwitz-Riley applied to L+R channels and your low-pass filter is 80 Hz 2nd order Linkwitz-Riley applied to subwoofer output. Plug it in and get your wireless audio on.

Analyst Mark Moskowitz, Executive Director at J.P. Morgan, spoke on how even though the MacBook Air isn’t the cheapest laptop on the market – not by a long shot – its form factor and early launch into what the competitors have called the “Ultrabook Market” will continue to attract users of all breeds. The threat comes from a future where price is such a factor that Apple will have to drop. Until that happens, there’s just no killing what cannot be killed. As Moskowitz said this week:

“Ultrabooks are not a competitive threat, yet. In general, we think that ultrabooks are highly discretionary devices, and pricing on competitive offerings must fall below $800 before posing a viable threat to Apple’s MacBook Air. In our view, emerging markets have not been a big contributor to MacBook Air results thus far given the pricing premium on the product. However, we expect this to change as pricing on the MacBook Air decreases over time. Also, as the iPhone and iPad continue to penetrate emerging markets worldwide, we expect the Apple halo effect and Apple ecosystem to drive incremental Mac sales worldwide, including the MacBook Air.” – Moskowitz

Does this happen to you? Do you get halo’d in your love for the big Apple ecosystem that’s forever expanding and embracing us all? Inside the USA and the region containing Europe, Middle East, and Africa, aka EMEA, are accounting for a total of 73.9 percent of all units sold around the world. In China, on the other hand, the third quarter of this year proved to be a big one for Apple’s MacBook Air, with sales of units growing 339 percent over the same quarter last year – this compared with 76.5 percent growth in the same period for all other Mac models.

In other words, its not just the competition outside of Apple that’s not keeping up – people want the thinnest notebook from the company best known for bringing such a product to the market. Apple’s made a notebook here that looks and feels the part of the king of its category, and compared to the rest, J.P. Morgan says its the best.

“In contrast, we think that the first round of ultrabook offerings lacks the right blend of features and attractive price points to grab market share from Apple.” – Moskowitz

[via Cnet]

In that respect, the Mac App Store has a little way to go to catch up to its fast-paced mobile sibling. Still, “in just three years the App Store changed how people get mobile apps, and now the Mac App Store is changing the traditional PC software industry,” Apple worldwide marketing chief Philip Schiller insists. “With more than 100 million downloads in less than a year, the Mac App Store is the largest and fastest growing PC software store in the world.”

Apple has pulled out some of the Mac App Store success stories to comment on the download potential for developers. AutoDesk, Pixelmator and djay have all been rolled out to say how well their apps have been doing, though none have actually given download stats nor compared them to previous rates of adoption.

You can access the Mac App Store on OS X Snow Leopard and OS X Lion, and you’ll need an iTunes account in order to download and/or purchase software.

The virus first decrypts the paths of the XProtectUpdater plist files and unloads the XProtectUpdater daemon. It then overwrites the XProtectUpdater files with a blank character and also overwrites the plist and binary for the XProtectUpdater.

This process wipes out certain files and prevents XProtect from automatically receiving updates in the future. This makes your computer vulnerable to future attacks since definitions cannot be updated. Although it’s common for viruses to attempt to disable anti-malware safeguards, this may be the first Mac-oriented malware that targets XProtect.

[via MacNN]

The promise, and Apple’s demo, is compelling: forget packing a bigger screen into a chunkier handset, and instead allow a personal assistant to help you manage your messages, multimedia, schedule and social life. Siri was Apple’s middle-finger gesture to the hardware arms-race that epitomizes the Android smartphone market today. Don’t just make a phone that runs 1-percent faster, make one that actually works better with users’ needs.

Sadly, the reality suggests that Apple’s beta label is deserved; my real-world experience fell well short of the hyperbole. Siri’s limitations outside of the US are undoubtedly a factor in my disappointment. Whereas US users are able to ask for suggestions on nearby restaurants and other location-based services, seeing results close to them and rated by Yelp, here in the UK (just as in Canada, Japan, Australia, France and Germany) there’s no interaction with Maps whatsoever. That’s coming sometime in 2012, Apple says. Maps and local searches are one of the most common tasks I turn to my smartphone for, though, leaving Siri feeling somewhat half-baked.

Still, the missing functionality is not the only reason I wasn’t convinced. I was left unimpressed with what Siri can still do, too. I’m not exactly a BBC newsreader, but even with just the vaguest of accents I don’t usually have issues being understood. Some of my more memorable interactions with Siri were down to odd misunderstandings, however. One command you can give is to ask Siri to call you by a certain name, and so I tried “Call me Chris.”

“Okay, I’ll call you Cress, is that right?” Siri cheerfully replied. Not being a small green plant useful for bulking out egg sandwiches, I told Siri no and to call me Chris. “Okay, I’ll call you Crest, is that right?”

Part of the value proposition is that, as an AI not just a voice-recognition system, Siri can respond to natural speech rather than canned instructions. Unfortunately, I had trouble with that, too. All too often my questions – such as currency or world clock conversions – would be misunderstood, or lead to the generic “Would you like to search the web for that?”

Sometimes a web search would indeed turn up an answer, sometimes not, but I was never sure whether Siri had misunderstood me, didn’t have the functionality to respond to that particular type of question had I been understood, or if I should’ve phrased myself differently to get the right answer. The handful of suggested instructions offered when you hit the help button is useful, but falls well short of explaining everything Siri is supposed to be able to do. Instead it’s trial and error, never quite knowing if it’s your voice or Apple’s system which is leading to frustration.

The voice recognition, Apple says, improves over time, and it’s entirely possible that as Siri grew more familiar with my speech patterns I’d have better results. There’s no indication on how long that actually takes, however, and after several days of intensive use there seemed little rhyme or reason around what would be recognized and what would be confused. One of Apple’s biggest strengths has always been consistency, and Siri seems to lack that reliability which otherwise makes the iOS experience so strong.

So, score one for Android, right? Well, not quite. Although my first impressions haven’t led to a conclusive win for iPhone, I can readily envisage a time that Siri’s appeal could see me dumping my ‘droid. iOS leaves me cool, but I use OS X every day. If Siri could jump the divide and take a role in my desktop use, that would be a compelling reason to go with Apple for both my computing and mobile needs.

Apple already has one such closed “ecosystem” in the shape of iTunes, with media downloads and rentals, streaming and features like AirPlay. I’ve not bought into that – Spotify and on-demand streaming TV take care of most of my digital media needs – but I might buy into an iPhone being the intelligent remote control for my desktop.

We’ve already written about the technical logistics behind how that could happen: Apple is quietly upgrading its various devices to support Bluetooth 4.0, a low-power implementation that could mean a permanent, active connection between iPhone and MacBook, say, wouldn’t mean instant battery drain. When you’re at home, Siri could be another method of interacting with your Mac. Dictation, loading apps, bypassing clicks and gestures by asking your computer to do tasks instead: in short, the next usability step beyond trackpad gestures.

When you’re away from home or the office, meanwhile, Siri would be the perfect remote desktop tool. No more squinting and tapping at a tiny replica of your Mac display on the iPhone’s 3.5-inch touchscreen: instead you could simply ask Siri for key files, to begin tasks and to send over documents and other content.

Latency might be an issue along the way. Siri was generally lag-free in its current implementation, either over WiFi or on Vodafone’s 3g network, but adding in a trip across your home or office network to your Mac could well extend the delay. Still, as Apple migrates Siri out of beta and tightens up performance, that shouldn’t necessarily take any longer than a regular remote desktop setup.

As it stands, then, the iPhone 4S – and Siri specifically – isn’t enough for me to abandon Android. Like many outside the US, I imagine, I’ll have to revisit that when Apple finally enables location-based services for international users. Still, it’s the promise of what Siri could deliver down the line that has me really curious; much is often made of Google’s combination of mobile and search, but its Chromebook experiment hasn’t had the huge impact on computing it perhaps expected. That leaves Apple leading the field for potentially integrating mobile/desktop computing – Microsoft has Windows, of course, but Windows Phone lags far behind iOS and Android for voice control systems – and, until we live fully in our browsers, it’s something Google may struggle to compete with.

If Apple can leverage that lead, it stands a huge chance of pushing iPhone to users who, like me, haven’t been caught in the iTunes multimedia snare. Siri’s comedic and tongue-in-cheek answers to offbeat questions may be what grab headlines today, in the iPhone 4S’ honeymoon period, but it’s the potential for a paradigm shift in computing usability that could have us talking to our phones tomorrow.

Remember now that this is the summer of 1996. Apple isn’t doing so hot, Jobs is currently only working with Pixar, and PBS’ Wall $treet Week with Louis Rukeyser has invited the future ex-CEO of Apple to speak on several topics. The interviewer is the late Rukeyser, American financial specialist having worked for decades at that point on Wall Street in money matters. His first question is “What can we expect next from Pixar?” to which Jobs replies that they’ve had some great success with the then brand new Toy Story film, then letting us know that the Toy Story franchise will expand with “some new CD ROMs” that will set the benchmark for what can be done with CD ROMs.

It’s as if Jobs would have taken whatever he worked with to the next level even if he’d never gotten back together with Apple. Just think what would have happened if he’d headed a breakfast cereal corporation – the possibilities! Jobs goes on to mention that their (Pixar’s) business model is to create a film then surround it with a suite of products. Sound familiar?

This is exactly what George Lucas did (and continues to do) with Star Wars, this is exactly what Jobs then did with Apple on so many levels, most recently with the iOS mobile platform, the iPhone, the iPad, the iPod Touch, and the apps and accessories and the entire ecosystem that makes them the centerpiece of an undeniably successful world of oneness.

Rukeyser then hits Jobs up with the question of all questions, receiving then the answer of all answers, of course.

Rukeyser: You first came to public attention with Apple. In recent weeks it’s been one of the failure stories of Wall Street, and indeed of the American economy. What went wrong at Apple?

Jobs: Oh gosh. You know I haven’t been there in a long time. My perception may not be complete. But from the way I see it, Apple was a company that was based on innovation. When I left Apple ten years ago, we were ten years ahead of anybody else. It took Microsoft ten years to copy Windows.

The problem was that Apple stood still. Even though it invested cumulatively billions in R&D, the output has not been there. People have caught up with it, and its differentiation has eroded, in particular with respect to Microsoft.

And so the way out for Apple — and I think Apple still has a future; there are some awfully good people there and there is tremendous brand loyalty to that company — I think the way out is not to slash and burn, it’s to innovate. That’s how Apple got to its glory, and that’s how Apple could return to it.

Sound like the future to you? Sounds like the future to me.

View the above mentioned bits of the interview here, and go back to the forward:

[via InvestorVillage]

As you’ll see in the hands-on video we’ve filmed below, you’ll first of all see that you’re able to run *Windows 7 inside your Mac inside a separate window. Now those of you familiar with newer Mac systems’ ability to run Windows through Bootcamp will immediately start comparing this method to that, of course. You can then run Windows apps inside this windows – but who wants to do that, that’s much too complicated, right? Instead you can use what they call Coherence Mode in which you can run Windows apps on your Mac desktop with Windows running completely in the background. You’ll know which apps are native to Windows by the tiny red double column, the Parallels, that is, sitting on the lower right-hand side of the icons for each Windows app.

What’s neat about this working with Lion is that not only do your Windows apps sit inside your Launchpad aside the rest of your Mac apps, they’re able to fly back and forth with your normal set of gestures once you’ve got them open as well. Simple and totally correct.

Then there’s something wild – similar to how you’re able to virtualize running Windows inside a window (as stated above), you’re also able to virtualize an instance of OS X Lion. That means you’re running Lion inside a window inside of Lion, in this case, a situation which of course leads everyone in the internet world to think of the film Inception – how deep can we get? Developers can of course make use of this by working inside this window without the fear of busting up their OS with buggy apps.

Then there’s something extra sweet – the iOS app. Alongside the launch of Parallels Desktop 7 comes the iOS app which works on both iPads, iPhone, and iPod Touch which allows you to run instances of Windows so you can run Windows app or even your whole desktop from your Mac – this being a mirrored copy of your desktop now running seamlessly on your iOS device. Slick! This works wherever you have an internet connection – this meaning it works over Wi-fi, of course. The first thing one thinks of when they see this situation is, of course, can I run Flash videos? Yes, yes you can run Flash videos. It appears that Parallels has sort of beat Adobe to the punch. Winning?

The final thing you’ll see in the video is a couple of rows of software boxes (they still sell software in boxes?!), one of them a row of “for Mac” editions and the other “Switch to Mac Edition”, the latter being different simply in its addition of some tutorials for Mac for people who’ve never before used the platform. It all sounds pretty fabulous, yes?

Also note that we filmed this hands-on look at the software at Pepcom’s 2011 Holiday Spectacular – you can see all hands-on videos we’ve filmed for the event by heading to our big [Pepcom Holiday Spectacular 2011 portal] if you like to look at brand new awesome gadgets and software.

A bigger price tag isn’t the only drawback to using the thumb drive option, however. According to Apple’s warning, “When you install OS X Lion using the USB thumb drive, you will not be able to reinstall OS X Lion from Lion Recovery. You will need to use the USB thumb drive to reinstall OS X Lion.” That seemingly means no access to the clever online recovery system which Lion users who downloaded the OS can take advantage of to boot their broken Macs from a working copy on Apple’s own servers.

Still, if your bandwidth is metered or you feel Apple deserves more than $29.99 for all that big-cat goodness, the USB drive is now an option. We’re guessing it’ll show up in the US Apple Store later today, as well as being available in brick & mortar Apple retail locations, though it’s worth remembering that you can take your Mac into those stores and use their connection instead.

[via TNW]

Counter-Strike’s newest expansion will be released in what its developers at Valve are saying is early 2012 and on several platforms. Global Offensive will come out on PC, Mac, PlayStations 3, and Xbox 360 eventually, though we’re not sure if they’ll all be out simultaneously at the moment. New maps, characters of all varieties, weapons, and game modes will be offered in this newest look at the game from whens the term HEADSHOT became a universal nomenclature for doing something extremely successfully.

This newest game will be developed by Valve as well as a second group: Hidden Path Entertainment, one known for the games Counter-Strike Source and Defense Grid: Awakening. Cost is not yet revealed by Valve, and additional details are forthcoming. Whether this game will be released as a disk or as a download only is also not known at the moment.

Are you excited? Have you ever played Counter-Strike before? If you did, were you part of the massive group of LAN party players that were busting up skulls in the early 2000′s and listening to friends of mine yelling obscenities as they busted your kneecaps in everlasting CS glory? Let us know!

The scroll bars are still there, but Apple has, by default, hidden them in many apps. You can make them reappear by hunting through the settings menu and turning them back on, but when they do come back, they are much thinner than they used to be, without the arrows at the top and bottom. They are also a bit buggy at the moment. If I try to click and drag the scrolling indicator, the page often jumps around, as if I had missed and clicked on the empty space above or below the scroll bar instead of directly on it. This doesn’t always happen, but it happens often enough that I have trained myself to avoid using the scroll bars this way.

So, the scroll bars, for now, are simply a visual indicator of where my view is located on a long or wide page. Clearly Apple does not think this information is terribly important, or else scroll bars would be turned on by default. As with the scroll bars, you can also hunt through the settings menu to turn off the new, so-called “natural scrolling.” This will bring you back to the method preferred on older Apple OSes, and also on Windows machines.

Some disclosure: my day job is working for Samsung. We make Windows computers that compete with Macs. I work in the phones division, but my work machine is a Samsung laptop running Windows. My MacBook is a holdover from my days as a tech journalist. When you become a tech journalist, you are issued a MacBook by force and stripped of whatever you were using before.

I am not criticizing or endorsing Apple’s new natural scrolling in this column. In fact, in my own usage, there are times when I like it, and times when I don’t. Those emotions are usually found in direct proportion to the amount of NyQuil I took the night before and how hot it was outside when I walked my dog. I have found no other correlation.

The new natural scrolling method will probably seem familiar to those of you not frozen in an iceberg since World War II. It is the same direction you use for scrolling on most touchscreen phones, and most tablets. Not all, of course. Some phones and tablets still use styli, and these phone often let you scroll by dragging scroll bars with the pointer. But if you have an Android or an iPhone or a Windows Phone, you’re familiar with the new method.

My real interest here is to examine how the user is placed in the conversation between your fingers and the object on screen. I have heard the argument that the new method tries, and perhaps fails, to emulate the touchscreen experience by manipulating objects as if they were physical. On touchscreen phones, this is certainly the case. When we touch something on screen, like an icon or a list, we expect it to react in a physical way. When I drag my finger to the right, I want the object beneath to move with my finger, just as a piece of paper would move with my finger when I drag it.

This argument postulates a problem with Apple’s natural scrolling because of the literal distance between your fingers and the objects on screen. Also, the angle has changed. The plane of your hands and the surface on which they rest are at an oblique angle of more than 90 degrees from the screen and the object at hand.

Think of a magic wand. When you wave a magic wand with the tip facing out before you, do you imagine the spell shooting forth parallel to the ground, or do you imagine the spell shooting directly upward? In our imagination, we do want a direct correlation between the position of our hands and the reaction on screen, this is true. However, is this what we were getting before? Not really.

The difference between classic scrolling and ‘natural’ scrolling seems to be the difference between manipulating a concept and manipulating an object. Scroll bars are not real, or at least they do not correspond to any real thing that we would experience in the physical world. When you read a tabloid, you do not scroll down to see the rest of the story. You move your eyes. If the paper will not fit comfortably in your hands, you fold it. But scrolling is not like folding. It is smoother. It is continuous. Folding is a way of breaking the object into two conceptual halves. Ask a print newspaper reporter (and I will refrain from old media mockery here) about the part of the story that falls “beneath the fold.” That part better not be as important as the top half, because it may never get read.

Natural scrolling correlates more strongly to moving an actual object. It is like reading a newspaper on a table. Some of the newspaper may extend over the edge of the table and bend downward, making it unreadable. When you want to read it, you move the paper upward. In the same way, when you want to read more of the NYTimes.com site, you move your fingers upward.

The argument should not be over whether one is more natural than the other. Let us not forget that we are using an electronic machine. This is not a natural object. The content onscreen is only real insofar as pixels light up and are arranged into a recognizable pattern. Those words are not real, they are the absence of light, in varying degrees if you have anti-aliasing cranked up, around recognizable patterns that our eyes and brain interpret as letters and words.

The argument should be over which is the more successful design for a laptop or desktop operating system. Is it better to create objects on screen that appropriate the form of their physical world counterparts? Should a page in Microsoft Word look like a piece of paper? Should an icon for a hard disk drive look like a hard disk? What percentage of people using a computer have actually seen a hard disk drive? What if your new ultraportable laptop uses a set of interconnected solid state memory chips instead? Does the drive icon still look like a drive?

Or is it better to create objects on screen that do not hew to the physical world? Certainly their form should suggest their function in order to be intuitive and useful, but they do not have to be photorealistic interpretations. They can suggest function through a more abstract image, or simply by their placement and arrangement.

In the former system, the computer interface becomes a part of the users world. The interface tries to fit in with symbols that are already familiar. I know what a printer looks like, so when I want to set up my new printer, I find the picture of the printer and I click on it. My email icon is a stamp. My music player icon is a CD. Wait, where did my CD go? I can’t find my CD?! What happened to my music!?!? Oh, there it is. Now it’s just a circle with a musical note. I guess that makes sense, since I hardly use CDs any more.

In the latter system, the user becomes part of the interface. I have to learn the language of the interface design. This may sound like it is automatically more difficult than the former method of photorealism, but that may not be true. After all, when I want to change the brightness of my display, will my instinct really be to search for a picture of a cog and gears? And how should we represent a Web browser, a feature that has no counterpart in real life? Are we wasting processing power and time trying to create objects that look three dimensional on a two dimensional screen in a 2D space?

I think the photorealistic approach, and Apple’s new natural scrolling, may be the more personal way to design an interface. Apple is clearly thinking of the intimate relationship between the user and the objects that we touch. It is literally a sensual relationship, in that we use a variety of our senses. We touch. We listen. We see.

But perhaps I do not need, nor do I want, to have this relationship with my work computer. I carry my phone with me everywhere. I keep my tablet very close to me when I am using it. With my laptop, I keep some distance. I am productive. We have a lot to get done.

Among the suggestions made for the demise of Front Row, a growing shift to baking digital media directly into the OS seems the most likely justification. Lion is all about streaming, the cloud and the iTunes ecosystem, with the imminent arrival of iCloud and iOS 5 only adding to that. Many users never used Front Row and, indeed, didn’t even know the functionality was present; the Apple Remote no longer being included in the box with Apple notebooks (in 2008) and desktops (in 2009) shifted emphasis away from media center duties.

Of course, that leaves the Mac mini – which many deploy as an HTPC – in something of a limbo situation if you’re looking for out-of-the-box media center use. The good news is that there are third-party apps which can do a better job than Front Row, such as Boxee, Plex and XBMC, thoroughly up to speed with streaming internet video like YouTube and Hulu.

If you’re dead-set on Front Row and Lion, however, there’s salvation to be had with a minor hack that brings the UI back to life. Detailed at the Apple Support forum by user “radiv78″, by copying the files below from a Snow Leopard Mac to one running OS X Lion (and then restarting), you can once again have Front Row access.

/System/Library/CoreServices/Front Row.app
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/BackRow.framework
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/iPhotoAccess.framework
/System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.RemoteUI.plist
/Applications/Front Row.app

However, while the capabilities might still be there, it seems Adobe has been slow to take advantage of them. Flash Player can still use greater amounts of CPU processing than the same video would require on a Mac running Snow Leopard, as Adobe is yet to update the software to support Lion. Nonetheless, the company does say that it will “continue to work closely with Apple” on a fix.

“The final release of Mac OS X Lion (10.7) provides the same support for Flash hardware video acceleration as Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6).  The previous “Known Issue” described in a tech note suggesting that video hardware acceleration was disabled in Lion was incorrect and based on tests with a pre-release version of Mac OS X Lion that related to only one particular Mac GPU configuration.  We continue to work closely with Apple to provide Flash Player users with a high quality experience on Mac computers” Adobe

The Knowledge Base article that had prompted the acceleration speculation has since been updated with the same comment as from the blog. Apple dropped Flash Player from the default OS X Lion install, instead suggesting that users should download the latest version from Adobe if they required it, in what is described as a move to phase out “legacy” software.

There’s also an improved privacy control panel, for more granular control over what sites have left behind on your system, along with boosted stability and responsiveness. More minor tweaks include an update to AutoFill which keeps your details private, filtering for Find commands that can limit results to those only at the start of sentences, and drag-and-drop downloads to pull items out of the Downloads window onto the desktop or elsewhere.

Finally there’s full-screen webpage support, along with support for HTML5 media caching, MathML, Web Open Font Format, CSS3 Auto-hyphenation, CSS3 Vertical Text, CSS3 Text Emphasis, Window.onError and Formatted XML files. Apple has even thrown in a few security updates.

Safari 5.1 is a 47.47MB download for Snow Leopard users and 36.06MB for Windows users, and can be grabbed here. If you’re running OS X Lion, which was released yesterday, you’ll already have it.

Both 9 to 5 Mac and MacRumors have heard that Apple stores have received LaCie drives loaded with installation copies of the OS X Lion Golden Master seed, ready to be installed onto all of the showroom computers. There’s also talk of a preconfigured Mac Pro being delivered, already running Lion. Meanwhile, posters and other printed materials are in sealed tubes, ready to be opened up and displayed.

That process will supposedly take place overnight tonight, at least one source claims. AppleInsider‘s source suggests the company will release the new MacBook Air – and, presumably, OS X Lion at the same time – at 8.30am Eastern on Wednesday, July 20. Although Apple had previously confirmed that Lion would be launched sometime in July, it did not specify dates.

Meanwhile, on Friday last week a new Thunderbolt-packing Apple LED Cinema Display was spotted on the company’s site, before being pulled down. The new monitor could daisy-chain from a single Thunderbolt port on a MacBook Pro, the same port that’s expected to show up – as well as Sandy Bridge processors and an increased amount of minimum RAM – in the refreshed MacBook Air.

The Air is expected to see a new batch of Intel Sandy Bridge processors installed, replacing the current Core 2 Duo chips, as well as the addition of a Thunderbolt port like its MacBook Pro siblings. That will allow for high-speed connectivity with external storage and A/V interfaces, which are slowly beginning to appear on the market.

Another, more minor change is the expected introduction of a Facetime HD webcam, replacing the current MBA’s lower-resolution camera and allowing for 720p video calls between the updated ultraportable, the latest MacBook Pro and the latest iMac. Most recently, there’s been talk of a faster NAND flash technology being used for storage, which would make the MacBook Air even faster.

The July 14 OS X Lion date was first mentioned last week, though rumors of a mid-July Air refresh have been circulating a little longer. Meanwhile, the Mac mini and Mac Pro are tipped to be in line for an update in mid-August.

That’s because Apple has only enabled TRIM support for Macs with its official SSDs, rather than for third-party drives. So, if you’ve swapped out your original hard-drive for an SSD rather than pay the somewhat hefty upgrade charges to Apple in the first place, you won’t get TRIM. Apple had actually enabled the feature in a custom build of OS X 10.6.6 for SSD-equipped early 2011 MacBook Pro models, but now its been extended to all those with official solid-state drives.

TRIM is basically an automated garbage collection system for SSDs, feeding information back to the operating system from the drive as to which data blocks are no longer in use and as such can be wiped. Without it, drives can become progressively more sluggish. Although Windows users have enjoyed TRIM support for some time now, Mac users have had to do without – or pick up one of the SSDs which has its own system of garbage collection, such as some from OCZ‘s range.

As TRIM is a part of the SATA standard, there seems to be no reason beyond self-interest for Apple to limit support to only its own SSDs. Hopefully the company will have a change of heart by the time OS X Lion arrives.

Apple used the WWDC 2011 keynote to introduce both platforms officially, with iOS 5 adding in support for the new iCloud service, a far improved notifications system for the iPhone and iPad, and iTunes Match. Meanwhile, OS X Lion – which will arrive in the Mac App Store for $30 next month – gets a whole load of new features, including a new Mail app.

The keynote video itself is already available to watch online, and our super wrap-up of the whole thing is here.

You’ll need an Apple developer account in order to access the newly posted videos, though registration is free. More on our coverage of WWDC 2011 here.

[via Daring Fireball]

Although Apple’s primary intention appears to be encouraging those taking a MacBook to get online and thus give the Find My Mac feature an opportunity to “phone home,” it should also find favor among users who want to give temporary internet access to others while not necessarily opening up all of their files to access. Since OS X Lion has Auto Save and Resume functionality, even after a restart all of the user’s files and apps would be reopened just as they’d left them.

With the growing number of web-based apps in common use, the browser-only feature could also replace the use of local accounts for families: rather than giving every Mac user their own account, each person would simply log in this new way, use Gmail and other web apps, and then sign out without leaving any trace on the computer itself. That should minimize maintenance tasks as well as prevent “where did I save that file?” confusion.

OS X Lion is expected to hit the Mac App Store for download in July, priced at $30. For more information, check out our keynote summary from last week.

That would mean iCloud users could access their desktop files from their smartphone while out and about, even if the desktop is turned off at the time, with automatic synchronization of any updated documents when the desktop is powered on again. “Your computer gets backed up to Time Capsule anyways,” the source pointed out. “Now it’ll serve up your content when you want it, where you want it, right there on your iOS device.”

OS X Lion – also expected to be detailed later today – already has such support built in, with Versions for handling multiple copies of files and Resume for getting you back up to speed with the documents you were working on previously. It’s not the first time we’ve heard of such file-sync functionality; rumors back in April suggested Apple’s software engineers were busily working on beta versions of iOS 5 and OS X Lion to test the system internally.

As before, the malware – now going by the name Mdinstall.pkg – prompts an installation without requiring an administrator password. Although Apple’s security update could initially block MacDefender, with File Quarantine popping up a warning and suggesting the user shift the app to the trash, since the updated build was in the wild that no longer takes place.

Now, it’s not unusual for virus authors and security experts to play a cat-and-mouse game with each other, by turns trying to infect and block, and this is certainly a situation familiar to Windows users. The method of SEO poisoning used to lure users to infected pages also has plenty of potential to be used to impact Windows machines, too; in fact it’s been in use for some time. It remains to be seen how well Apple’s system can scale to handle what’s only likely to be a growing issue in online security.

The exact nature of iCloud is currently unknown, but we’re expecting a significant refresh of MobileMe with new backup and other features. That’s also expected to include an online cloud media service which will mirror local stores of music and allow them to be accessed while on the move.

iOS 5, meanwhile, should bring with it new widgets and a revamp of the current notifications system, one of the more frequent points of complaint of iPhone and iPad users. OS X Lion has been well-previewed, too.

The announcement is an unusual move by Apple, with the company normally announcing when the keynote would take place and, perhaps, who would be presenting it, but then leaving content to be revealed on the day. SlashGear will be liveblogging the whole WWDC 2011 keynote, so join us on Monday, June 6 at 10am Pacific for all the details as they happen!

Press Release:

Apple to Unveil Next Generation Software at Keynote Address on Monday, June 6

CUPERTINO, California—May 31, 2011—Apple® CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software – Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS® X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers the iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch®; and iCloud®, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering.

WWDC will feature more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers. Mac® developers will see and learn how to develop world-class Mac OS X Lion applications using its latest technologies and capabilities. Mobile developers will be able to explore the latest innovations and capabilities of iOS and learn how to greatly enhance the functionality, performance and design of their apps. All developers can bring their code to the labs and work with Apple engineers.

For more details, visit the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2011 website at developer.apple.com/wwdc.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced iPad 2 which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

As before, the initial downloader finds its way onto unsuspecting Mac users’ machines via specially crafted sites that attempt to score high-ranking Google results through sneaky SEO. The “avSetup.pkg” package automatically begins downloading and, if Safari is set to automatically open files OS X considers “safe” after they’re on the Mac, the installer will load without any user-clicking required. It’s also set to auto-delete once its work is done.

“Means of protection: the first thing to do is make sure that when seeing a web page that looks like a Finder window, and purports to be scanning your Mac, you know that this is bogus. Leave the page, and quit your web browser. If anything has downloaded, and the Installer application has opened, quit it right away; look in your Downloads folder for the file, then delete it. Next, users should uncheck the “Open ‘safe’ files after downloading” option in Safari’s General preferences.” Intego

We’re expecting Apple to update its instructions to accommodate this new version, and the company has also promised a software fix that will lend OS X some extra protection. However, until users learn not to necessarily click everything that pops up and/or type in their password without compunction, malware will be out there to take advantage of them.

[via ZDNet]

The memo also insists that AppleCare staff should neither confirm nor deny that the malware has been installed, should not attempt to assist customers in removing it, and should not escalate cases to Tier 2 support. Neither should they be referred to the Apple Store, which “does not provide any additional support for malware.”

Apple is yet to comment on the leak, though it certainly looks like the company is attempting to tread water while it investigates the malware. Despite growing popularity of OS X, the platform is still in the minority when it comes to the attentions of virus and other malware authors. That privileged position may well have left the company wrong-footed today.

It’s unclear if Apple would promote the Mac App Store method by releasing Lion there first; nonetheless, many OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard users are likely to opt for the easier download route, already being familiar with the concept of downloading sizable updates and bugfixes. Of course, those running earlier versions of OS X do not currently have Mac App Store access, so they would need physical versions of any Lion upgrade.

The move is being seen as further evidence of Apple’s shift to as close a purely digital software world as possible. Back in February it was suggested that the company planned to do away with boxed software in its stores; while that is yet to happen, the space allotted to software has been reduced. Meanwhile, Apple is also expected to drop optical drives from its future notebooks, saving space – and allowing for sleeker hardware – as well as power. A significant design overhaul is tipped for the next MacBook Pro refresh, which could well include deleting the SuperDrive.

In fact, long-clicking causes all the icons to “jiggle” just like on iOS devices, and then after a quick “Are you sure?” dialog the app is gone. It only apparently works for software downloaded and installed using the Mac App Store – you’ll have to drag regular apps out of the Applications folder and to the trash as normal – but it’s another sign of Apple’s mobile paradigms crossing over to the desktop.

To be fair, OS X’s existing system isn’t exactly difficult, but users migrating from Windows can end up confused by the absence of a “Add/Remove Programs” dialog. Since the iOS range is acting as a gateway-drug to Mac ownership for many, carrying across the same interactions certainly makes sense.

[via MacRumors]

The allure is the opportunity to get up close and personal with the Cupertino mothership, with a week of coding workshops, access to Apple engineers and the opportunity to bump ideas up against other Apple developers. There’s also the Apple Design Awards, which every year rewards the best in iOS and Mac apps.

For the rest of us, meanwhile, there’ll be the usual WWDC opening keynote, with Apple promising a preview of what’s coming next in iOS and OS X. That likely means iOS 5.0 and OS X Lion, and you can bet SlashGear will be there to cover all the juicy details.

Last year, Apple used WWDC 2010 to officially announce the iPhone 4, prompting speculation that the company will unveil the fifth-generation smartphone at this year’s developer event. Meanwhile, we’re also expecting to see a third-generation iPad later in the year, complete with a higher-resolution display amid other changes. Finally, mid-2011 might be around the time that high-end users are calling out for a Mac Pro refresh; the last significant update was back in September 2010.

However, various sources are suggesting that the software-themed event won’t be the time for shiny new hardware. The Loop has heard from sources that it’s definitely software-only, which might mean the iPhone 5 has to wait a little longer; after all, it’s not been long since the Verizon iPhone 4 went on sale.

Among the focus this year will be coding for Mac OS X Lion, the next significant update for Mac on the desktop, which itself is expected sometime over the summer. There’ll also be the usual attention paid to iOS, as on the iPad 2 and iPhone; Apple is expected to preview iOS 5.0 complete with new cloud-services and streaming media.

Tickets for WWDC 2011 are available now, with the show running from June 6 to June 10. They’re priced at $1,599.

Press Release:

Apple Worldwide Developers Conference to Kick Off June 6 at Moscone West in San Francisco

CUPERTINO, California—March 28, 2011—Apple® today announced that it will hold its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) June 6 through June 10 at San Francisco’s Moscone West. At this year’s five-day conference Apple will unveil the future of iOS and Mac OS®, including exciting demonstrations of the new kinds of apps that developers can build using Apple’s advanced frameworks and more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers.

“At this year’s conference we are going to unveil the future of iOS and Mac OS,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “If you are an iOS or Mac OS X software developer, this is the event that you do not want to miss.”

Mobile developers will be able to explore the latest innovations and capabilities of iOS and learn how to greatly enhance the functionality, performance and design of their apps. Mac® developers will see and learn how to develop world-class Mac OS X Lion applications using its latest technologies and capabilities. Developers can even bring their code to the labs and work with Apple engineers, applying development techniques and best-practices to enhance their apps.

Activities at Apple’s WWDC 2011 include:

more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers on a wide range of technology-specific topics for developing, deploying and integrating the latest iOS and Mac OS technologies;
over 1,000 Apple engineers providing developers with code-level assistance, insight into optimal development techniques, and guidance on how they can make the most of iOS and Mac OS technologies in their apps;
the opportunity to connect with thousands of fellow iPad®, iPhone® and Mac developers from around the world; and
Apple Design Awards which recognize iPad, iPhone and Mac apps that demonstrate technical excellence, innovation and outstanding design.
Go to the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2011 website (developer.apple.com/wwdc) to purchase tickets, as well as for updates and more information.

If the bugs are truly absent then it could mean Apple’s release schedule accelerates, however that’s unlikely to be the case. OS X Lion is expected to see its full release in the summer, potentially around WWDC 2011 which is expected in early June. A developer preview was pushed into the wild last month, complete with full-screen app support, pinch and double-tap zoom in Safari and a document saving system called Versions.

“At this point, I want to focus less on products and more on science” Serlet said; the executive holds a doctorate in Computer Science, but is yet to confirm his next project.

The news will likely refuel controversy over Apple’s intentions toward OS X, which many have predicted will “dumb down” to the point where a more structured platform, like iOS, replaces it. The company is expected to release OS X Lion (aka OS X 10.7) later this year, having pushed out a developer preview back in February.

Press Release:

Bertrand Serlet to Leave Apple

CUPERTINO, California—March 23, 2011—Apple® today announced that Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of Mac® Software Engineering, will be leaving the company. Craig Federighi, Apple’s vice president of Mac Software Engineering, will assume Serlet’s responsibilities and report to Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. Federighi is responsible for the development of Mac OS® X and has been managing the Mac OS software engineering group for the past two years.

“I’ve worked with Steve for 22 years and have had an incredible time developing products at both NeXT and Apple, but at this point, I want to focus less on products and more on science,” said Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “Craig has done a great job managing the Mac OS team for the past two years, Lion is a great release and the transition should be seamless.”

Federighi worked at NeXT, followed by Apple, and then spent a decade at Ariba where he held several roles including vice president of Internet Services and chief technology officer. He returned to Apple in 2009 to lead Mac OS X engineering. Federighi holds a Master of Science degree in Computer Science and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Serlet joined Apple in 1997, and has been involved in the definition, development and creation of Mac OS X, the world’s most advanced operating system. Before joining Apple, Serlet spent four years at Xerox PARC, then joined NeXT in 1989. Serlet holds a doctorate in Computer Science from the University of Orsay, France.

In Lion, they’re described as “HiDPI display modes”, and they basically work in the same way as the high-DPI graphics on the iPhone 4 and latest-gen iPod touch. Graphics will be twice as detailed, but intended for double-resolution panels: they’d be the same size on a 2880 x 1800 MacBook Pro screen as on a 1440 x 900 version, but have twice the number of pixels and so be smoother, more information-dense and generally more beautiful.

Now, software support for HiDPI display modes is the first step, but it will take high resolution panels for notebooks and desktops to actually deliver those graphics to the end-user. That might take some time, at least if we want them to be affordable. Still, with Apple rumored to have invested $3.9bn in displays for its various product lines, it looks like the company is taking high-resolution graphics very seriously.

AirDrop is added as a new icon in the Finder sidebar, and when clicked OS X Lion automatically scans for nearby users also using AirDrop. If they’re in your Address Book then you’ll see profile photos, too; otherwise it will be a MacBook name.

Files to be shared – whether music tracks, documents, images or something else – can be dragged from the Finder window straight onto the AirDrop contact’s name and, after the transfer request has been accepted by that person, automatically shuffle over and straight into the person’s Downloads folder. Closing the Finder window automatically turns off AirDrop, so that you won’t inadvertently show up in other people’s search results.

What remains to be seen is what happens to existing apps using the AirDrop name: there’s already an iOS game called AirDrop [iTunes link] as well as a company making a podcast downloading app [iTunes link].

There’s also Resume, which automatically brings you back up to speed with the apps and documents you had open after a reboot, along with Mission Control, a bird’s-eye view of of open windows grouped by app, thumbnails of full-screen apps, and Dashboard. Mail 5 has an updated UI to take advantage of widescreen displays, and there’s Conversations (Apple’s name for threaded messages).

“With AirDrop in Mac OS X Lion, you can send files to anyone around you —  wirelessly. AirDrop doesn’t require setup or special settings. Just click the AirDrop icon in the Finder sidebar, and your Mac automatically discovers other people nearby who are using AirDrop. You’ll even see contact photos for those who are already in your Address Book. To share a file, simply drag it to someone’s name. Once accepted, the file transfers directly to the person’s Downloads folder. When you’re done with AirDrop, close the Finder and your Mac is no longer visible to others.” Apple

Apple has also integrated OS X Server into a single SKU; Lion Server is built into the client version of the updated OS. If you’re a developer you can check out all the changes and new features here at the updated checklist; the release itself will be seeded through the Mac App Store.

Press Release:

Apple Releases Developer Preview of Mac OS X Lion

CUPERTINO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Apple® today released a developer preview of Mac OS® X Lion, which takes some of the best ideas from iPad™ and brings them back to the Mac® for the eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system. Lion features Mission Control, an innovative new view of everything running on your Mac; Launchpad, a new home for all your Mac apps; full screen apps that use the entire Mac display; and new Multi-Touch™ gestures. Lion also includes the Mac App Store℠, the best place to discover, install and automatically update Mac apps. The Lion preview is available to Mac Developer Program members through the Mac App Store today, and the final version of Lion will ship to customers this summer.

“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.”
“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.”

Mission Control is a powerful, entirely new feature that unifies Exposé®, Dashboard, Spaces®, and full screen apps to give you a bird’s eye view of every app and window running on your Mac. With a simple swipe, your desktop zooms out to display your open windows grouped by app, thumbnails of your full screen apps as well as your Dashboard, and allows you to instantly navigate anywhere with a click.

Launchpad makes it easier than ever to find and launch any app. With a single click, Launchpad displays all your Mac apps in a stunning full screen layout where you can launch, re-order or organize apps into folders. You can also arrange apps into multiple pages and swipe between them.

Lion brings the full screen experience that iPad users love to the Mac. With one click, your application window goes full screen, taking advantage of your Mac’s brilliant display. You can swipe from one full screen window to another and even back to your Desktop or Dashboard.

New Multi-Touch gestures and fluid animations give you a natural and intuitive way to interact with your Mac. New gestures include pinching your fingers to zoom in on a web page or image, swiping left or right to turn a page or switch between full screen apps and swiping up to enter Mission Control.

Lion also includes the Mac App Store, where you can find great new apps, buy them with your iTunes® account, and download and install them in just one step. Apps purchased from the Mac App Store are installed directly into Launchpad.

Additional features in Lion include:

A new version of Mail, with an elegant, widescreen layout inspired by the iPad; Conversations, which automatically groups related messages into one easy to read timeline; more powerful search; and support for Microsoft Exchange 2010;
AirDrop, a remarkably simple way to copy files wirelessly from one Mac to another with no setup;
Versions, which automatically saves successive versions of your document as you create it, and gives you an easy way to browse, edit and even revert to previous versions;
Resume, which conveniently brings your apps back exactly how you left them when you restart your Mac or quit and relaunch an app;
Auto Save, which automatically saves your documents as you work;
The all new FileVault, that provides high performance full disk encryption for local and external drives, and the ability to wipe data from your Mac instantaneously; and
Mac OS X Lion Server, which makes setting up a server easier than ever and adds support for managing Mac OS X Lion, iPhone®, iPad and iPod touch® devices.
Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple is reinventing the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

Both incoming and outgoing video calls are supported, and you can also chat between Macs. Up to 720p HD quality is possible, and we’re expecting the app to be preloaded onto the new MacBook Pro models and use their rebranded FaceTime-HD webcams. You can download FaceTime for Mac 1.0 from the Mac App Store.

[Thanks Greg!]