Panic gives an update on CandyBar, their OS X app that helps you easily customize icons for the system, apps, and folders. It’s now free, yet unsupported. It’s also finding a new home over at The Iconfactory.
I remember customizing everything I could to follow a theme. I started trailing off on doing that a little over a year ago and keeping things pretty close to default (not sure why). Maybe that’s a good thing, since customizing is getting harder to do.
John Siracusa is Internet famous for his massively exhaustive reviews of OS X releases. Last year, Pat Dryburgh made a video aptly named Preparing for John Siracusa’s Review of OS X Lion. It is hands-down one of the top five funniest videos I have seen.
This year, Pat called upon some fellow heavyweights in Mac culture to produce Preparing for John Siracusa’s Review of Mountain Lion. It is ridiculous and awesome. Ridiculously awesome.
Also, be sure to go read John Siracusa’s Review of Mountain Lion. It weighs in at 26,000 words, so you may want to send that to Instapaper.
Martha C. White reporting for Market Day on NBCNews:
Microsoft, the once-dominant computer software giant that has seen its fortunes wane in recent years, posted its first quarterly loss since emerging as a public company in 1986 Thursday as it took a huge charge for a failed acquisition.
Ouch.
First, let’s set the tone for this little blurb.
Matthew Panzarino poses the question and initial guess:
I think it’s safe to say that, even three years later, the iPhone 3GS still has a draw, especially for ‘free’. And Apple is still very much looking to tap into the pre-paid phone market. Here’s a thought: what if Apple were to cut the iPhone 4 from the lineup, instead of the iPhone 3GS?
The iPhone ‘next’ would be the flagship, the iPhone 4S would offer Siri and take the place of the 4 in the pricing lineup, and the 3GS would remain ‘free’ on contract. But, if the prices were right, Apple could expand the 3GS from a contract device to an off-contract pre-paid model that might finally give the company a horse in the developing nations race.
Marco Arment weighs in:
I bet this is what happens. Apple probably wouldn’t have crammed iOS 6 onto the 3GS if they were about to stop selling it.
And John Gruber sees the bet and raises it:
My guess is that if the 3GS stays around, the lineup would work like this: new iPhone at the top of the market, the 4S slides down to $99 on contract, the 4 slides down to free with a contract, and the 3GS is sold around the world as a low cost (by iPhone standards at least) pre-paid device.
…
The big thing to remember about the iPhone 4 is that it’s the first CDMA iPhone. No way it’s going to disappear from the lineup, because now Apple could offer a “free” iPhone on Verizon and Sprint, too.
If — if — the 3GS were to stick around, I see it happening in the way Gruber paints it. I don’t see the 4 going away at all.
I want to touch on why I greatly disagree with Marco’s logic, though. The reason why Apple would cram iOS 6 on the 3GS is because right up until the day iOS 6 comes out Apple will have been still selling the 3GS. Can you imagine how pissed off people would be if they just got an iPhone 3GS after signing a two-year contract only to have it receive no further updates the next day?
And this brings me to the idea that the 3GS will be riding off into the sunset. If Apple continues to sell it throughout the next year, won’t there be an expectation to try and cram iOS 7 onto it?
Dan Frakes at Macworld has a fantastic guide for getting your Mac ready for Mountain Lion. I highly suggest following his advice.
Chairman Gruber has the best analysis on the "iPad mini" rumors that I've seen yet. He really thought this one out, and it shows.
Apple released the Golden Master (GM) version of OS X Mountain Lion to developers today. The “golden master” designation indicates that this version of the software is intended to be the final version released to the public, barring any last-minute issues. The Build is 12A269.
I’d say it’s a fair bet we’ll be able to buy Mountain Lion next week.
I’ve been using this wallpaper by Tim Van Damme for the past few days on my Mac, iPhone, and iPad. I think it’ll be sticking around for a while.
via TBR
But in versions of OS X prior to 10.7, it was possible to adjust the volume in smaller increments: If you held down Shift and Option before pressing the Volume keys on your keyboard, you could adjust the volume in quarter-steps instead of whole ones. For some reason, Apple removed this ability in OS X 10.7. But reader aGr[j5(6WU noticed that it has returned in 10.7.4—a change not mentioned in the release notes.
Holding shift-option also works for brightness. I used this all the time in OS X Snow Leopard and really missed it when I switched to Lion. Good to see it’s back.
Shawn Blanc on what he has learned from 5 years of writing:
…what I consider to be the most important advice I have for writing a successful weblog it would be consistency and honesty.
Shawn has a fantastic list of insights. Many of them are things I needed to hear.
