Apple has decided to do something it hasn’t done in a very long while – that is, release a public beta of an upcoming version of its operating system for computers.

Mac OS X Yosemite, which was announced last month at WWDC, will be available to test as a public beta starting tomorrow. There’s a catch, though: only the first 1 million people who sign up for the beta on Apple’s dedicated website will actually get access to it. So in case you’re interested, add yourself to the list as soon as possible. Read more »

Apple has greatly expanded the availability of its 2-step verification process for Apple IDs. While it was only available in 11 countries previously, the feature is now available in 59 countries worldwide.

For those not aware, 2-step verification or authentication puts an extra step between entering your ID and password and logging in. It sends a verification message with a code to a preset device or number and only upon entering that code will the person be allowed to log in. This way, even if someone gets access to your password, they still can’t access your account unless they have access to the special code. Read more »

This year will see another big rise among smart devices shipped to retailers and sold to customers – by its end more than 2.43 billion units will have left the manufacturing facilities which compares nicely to to 2013′s 2.34 billion.

The numbers come from Gartner which breaks them down by traditional PCs, ultrabooks and premium laptops, tablets and mobile phones. Interestingly the PC market will account for 308 million devices with tablets closing in at 256 million. Gartner’s projection for 2015 is that tablets will overtake PCs with roughly 4 million more shipments. Read more »

It was apparently time for Angry Birds Seasons to get yet another update. This time, Rovio added 24 new levels to its insanely popular game. These take you on a trip to South HAMerica, where your mission is, as always, to stop those pesky pigs.

There are even three bonus levels inside, and everything is packed with relics, artifacts, ancient statues, and rope bridges – all making for a pretty exotic twist to the game. Read more »

When Apple announced iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite at the WWDC ’14 keynote, one of the features listed on one of the slides was Flyover City Tours in Maps.

Flyover City Tours uses the Flyover data for select locations around the world and gives you a bird’s eye view of the major landmarks in the area by zooming in and spinning around. Apple has some highly detailed 3D models of major cities around the world and the City Tour feature makes good use of them. Read more »

When we discussed some of the best new features in iOS 8, we did mention that there will be a lot more in the OS that Apple forgot to mention and will be revealed as people use the OS. One such new feature (for iOS) that has come to light is the presence of FaceTime audio conference calls.

It’s pretty much what it sounds like. Instead of just having a call with one person, you can now add other people with iOS or OS X devices to the call. Unfortunately, there is no support for FaceTime video conference call yet. Read more »

We’ve got the live coverage from Apple’s Worldwide Developer’s Conference, where Apple has just announced the latest version of its desktop operating system, Mac OS X Yosemite.

Continuing the naming scheme of famous California landmarks introduced with OS X Mavericks, Yosemite introduces translucent windows menus, redesigned dock icons, an updated Spotlight search feature, iCloud Drive cloud storage integration, and a new widget bar. Read more »

On stage today, at the WWDC 2014 keynote speech Apple announced that they’ve got 40 million copies of their latest OS X release Mavericks on their users computers. As their proudly claim, this represents a good 51% adoption rate among the Mac OS user base.

These numbers reportedly make the OS X Maverics the fastest growing computer operating system in the world. Read more »

We are now hours away from Apple’s WWDC keynote, where the company will be showcasing the next version of its iOS and OS X operating system. That usually doesn’t stop people from leaking new information, however, and so we have these to look at.

What we have above are photos of the next version of OS X. As you can see, the iOS 7 influence is clear here. Read more »

Angry Birds Star Wars II is getting an update today. The new episode is called Rise of the Clones and brings over 40 new levels.

The first platform to get the update is iOS, but Rovio promises other platforms will join the fun shortly. Read more »

Apple has released an update to OS X Mavericks that brings the version number to 10.9.3. The update is now available to download through the Mac App Store.

One of the major changes in this update is improved support for 4K monitors. What this means is that now if you connect a 4K monitor to a compatible Mac (the 2013 Mac Pro or the 2013 MacBook Pro with Retina display) you will get the HiDPI ‘Retina’ option instead of standard 1:1 scaling. Read more »

Apple Stores in the US have started getting stock of a newer version of the MacBook Air that should go on sale soon. Unfortunately, this isn’t the major update we have been waiting for but just a tiny spec bump, perhaps the last update for this generation before the major update by the end of the year.

The latest update features a very slightly faster version of Intel’s CPU, with the standard clock speed getting boosted from the current 1.3GHz to 1.4GHz. The Turbo Boost speed has gone up from 2.6GHz to 2.7GHz. Read more »

The new Mac Pro from late 2013 supports only Windows 8 and above installation via Boot Camp. Apple has updated the Boot Camp requirements on its support webpage and the latest generation Mac Pro is the first to drop Windows 7 support.

This means if you want to install Windows 7 you won’t have such an option. You’ll have Windows 8, 8.1 or later version of the Microsoft’s OS. Read more »

Microsoft has released a Mac version of their powerful note-taking application service, OneNote. For those not aware, OneNote is the Swiss Army knife of note-taking applications with more features than you’ll ever need. And with it’s native OneDrive integration, it also syncs your notes across multiple devices.

OneNote was previously available on Windows, Windows Phone, iOS and Android but now those on the Macs can also join in the note-taking fun. But to make sure more people on Windows can also take part, Microsoft has released a standalone OneNote app for Windows, free of charge, that was initially part of the Microsoft Office suite. Read more »

In a rather odd turn of events, it seems Titanfall may just be coming to the Mac. Responding to a tweet on whether the game could be arriving on Apple’s desktop platform, co-founder of Respawn Entertainment (the people who developed Titanfall for Windows and Xbox) Vince Zampella said that they are talking to Aspyr, publisher of games for Mac, and that “they should do it”.

In case you haven’t heard of it yet, Titanfall is the biggest release of 2014 so far and a landmark game for Microsoft. The company managed to get exclusive rights to the game, which is why it is only available on Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Windows. This is exactly why the news of the game arriving on Mac seems so odd. Read more »