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Apple has seeded a new beta of its upcoming OS X Yosemite 10.10.2 this afternoon. The update, labeled build 14C94b, is available through the Update tab in the Mac App Store and the Dev Center for all registered Mac developers.
Today’s release comes a few weeks after the previous OS X 10.10.2 beta, and Apple has once again asked developers to focus their testing efforts on Wi-Fi connectivity—a long-standing Yosemite issue—as well as Mail and VoiceOver.
Anyone who has used a Mac for more than a minuscule amount of time has more than likely come across Quick Look, the pop-up window that is invoked with a press of the space bar when a file or folder is highlighted on the desktop or in Finder. Quick Look's usefulness becomes evident when file names aren't descriptive enough by allowing users to view the contents of many different types of files without having to open them in a full-fledged application like Pages for documents or Preview for images.
By default Quick Look can only display a static view of a file that only grants users a peek at the contents without any real function. Imagine, however, being able to copy a document's text without having to open it in TextEdit or Pages. This is incredibly useful in a variety of situations, from dealing with templates to Word documents to code snippets, where having multiple applications and documents opened shouldn't be necessary for copying from one location and pasting to another. The good news is that this functionality is completely possible and perfectly easy to enable.
For years now, Alfred has been a staple of OS X workflow applications, enhancing search on the Mac and adding many features in the process. Spotlight search remained rather antiquated in comparison until Apple revived it with OS X Yosemite, but there's still much to be desired. While Alfred will continue to hold its well-deserved position as a staple Mac app, Flashlight has the potential to reach far beyond the abilities of Alfred to make OS X's native Spotlight search an incredibly powerful and useful tool.
Imagine using ⌘+SPACE as a text-based Siri, in which typing the phrase "remind me to Write Flashlight review at 2pm" or "text Mike I'm on Steam, wanna play?" will do exactly as expected. However, Flashlight not only allows reminders to be made and messages to be sent directly from Spotlight – its potential reaches much further.
Details of the long-rumored 12-inch MacBook Air surfaced today, as 9to5mac broke specifics surrounding the device's dimensions, edge-to-edge keyboard, and lack of traditional ports. Although the device's screen size is larger and of a higher pixel density than that of the 11-inch MacBook Air, its dimensions are narrower than its smaller counterpart by approximately a one-fourth inch. It is, however, slightly taller due to the larger screen size, with an approximate one-fourth inch increase in height.
Bezels have been reduced around the entire screen of the device, as well as surrounding the keyboard, and the keyboard itself has been made narrower by reducing the space between each individual key. The 12-inch MacBook Air's function keys, as well as arrow keys, have also been tweaked in order to reduce the keyboard's overall footprint.
Apple has raised the price of the iOS and Mac Developer Programs in the UK and Germany on Thursday, probably not a coincidence on the first of the year. In Germany, Apple has raised price to €99/year ($120) from €80/year ($97) in 2014, and in the UK pricing has been adjusted from £60/year ($93) to £79/year ($123).
Apple's rumored ultra-thin MacBook Air model with a 12.2-inch screen is reportedly entering mass production in the first quarter of 2015, Taiwanese trade publication DigiTimes reported Monday citing sources from the upstream supply chain.
The Wall Street Journal said in October that production of the ultra-slim notebook with “a higher resolution” screen would commence in December of this year. DigiTimes also added that the Apple Watch is on track for a Spring 2015 release.
Although Duet Display is not the first app to allow your iOS device to act as an extra display for your Mac (Shape's $10 iDisplay comes to mind), it's the first app to have done screen extending right.
Built by ex-Apple engineers who worked at the company for three years on the iPad and iMac, the software delivers a Retina display at a smooth sixty frames per second with no lag whatsoever.
Featuring touch control, Duet Display makes interactions with your Mac fun and smooth while taking advantage of the fact that an additional display increases productivity by giving you up to 48 percent more pixels to work with.
German developer Algoriddim on Thursday completed its suite of apps for DJs by releasing djay Pro for Mac. Building on djay 2 for the iPhone and iPad, the Pro edition brings 4-deck support and the full power of Algoriddim's low-latency mixing engine.
The app has some rather advanced features such as Spotify and iTunes integration, support for professional DJ hardware, high-definition waveforms, audio effects, meta data and FX purchases from iOS versions of djay and much more.
Jump past the fold for the full overview of djay Pro for Mac.
Apple seeded Safari 8.0.3 for Yosemite to developers on Wednesday, along with Safari 7.1.3 beta for Mavericks and Safari 6.2.3 for Mountain Lion. The new version of Safari joins the new OS X 10.10.2 beta that was released to developers last Friday.
Available starting today for Mac and Windows PCs and Android tablets, Scrolls from Minecraft maker Mojang takes the best bits of collectable card games and combines them with the most interesting strategy elements of tactical war games.
More than two years in the making, the mash-up game invites you to build your army, develop strategies and take control of the hexagonal battlefield by defeating your friends in online multiplayer challenges, no matter which platform they’re playing on.
If you prefer playing alone, Scrolls have you covered with single player challenges along with casual play. A free demo version of Scrolls is available to try before you buy it.
After releasing then pulling a update for the desktop Safari browser on OS X last week, Apple on Thursday posted Safari 8.0.2 for Yosemite.
In addition to allowing Yosemite users to import username and passwords from Mozilla's Firefox browser, Safari 8.0.2 fixes a few annoying issues, among them history not syncing across devices if iCloud Drive is disabled and another one prevent a saved password from being autofilled after two devices are added to iCloud Keychain.
The update is available through the Mac App Store's Updates tab. A standalone installer should be available shortly from the Apple Support website. Safari 7.1.2 for OS X Mavericks and Safari 6.2.2 for OS X Mountain Lion were also released on Thursday.
Welcome to Wednesday. As we prepare for an onslaught of new arrivals that will be hitting the App Store midnight, a number of apps and games have been updated with new features and we're here to tell you what's changed.
We also want to make sure you stay on top of recent discounts as some apps get slashed by as much as eighty percent with the others going all the way down to zero bucks.
And it wouldn't be a roundup without taking a look at some of the forthcoming releases due later this month or sometime next year. This is App Recap, an app-focused column by iDownloadBlog.