lion

Apple could be planning to launch OS X Mountain Lion on July 25, according to a new report.

According to 9to5Mac, citing sources, Apple has informed some employees at its retail stores that they'll need to plan for an "overnight" on July 24. Overnights have become a key indicator that something new is coming to Apple's retail stores. Overnights mean that employees work outside their stores' open hours to prepare their location for the next day's new sale. Generally, that means Macs, iPhones, or iPads -- but not always.

If 9to5Mac's sources are to … Read more

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week readers wrote in with questions on whether an SSD or a larger HDD would be a better option especially for upgrading to Mountain Lion, how to manage calendars locally and on iCloud, managing the recovery HD partition when upgrading to Mountain Lion, and the 32-bit support options for Mountain Lion. We welcome views from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, post them in the comments!

Question: Upgrading to an SSD or a larger HDD? MacFixIt reader … Read more

Apple recently issued the golden master release of OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion to developers and testers, indicating that if no outstanding bugs are found in the current build then it will very likely be the final release of the operating system that will soon be issued to the public. Through the testing of the four preview releases of Mountain Lion, developers have noted that even though the operating system is 64-bit, Apple has excluded some early 64-bit-capable Mac systems from being included.

While this limitation was at first suggested as a possible temporary limitation during the initial phases … Read more

Apple's next major release of OS X, dubbed Mountain Lion, is in its final testing stages.

Apple today gave developers the same version of the software that will be released to consumers later this month.

Mountain Lion is the followup to last year's Lion, and represents the eighth iteration of OS X. Apple first debuted the software in late-February with a preview release, and has since followed with a handful of beta versions that squashed bugs and introduced new features.

As a quick recap, Mountain Lion brings a handful of iOS features to Macs, including the notes and … Read more

Since installing the beta version of Messages (on day one), I have quite enjoyed its capability to sync with my iOS device messages as well as Google Chat, AIM, and other Jabber accounts. Today though, Messages did not open as expected.

At first I thought it had something to do with the beta version running out. Recently, Apple took down the capability to download Messages, so perhaps disabling the beta version was part of the plan all along. But, that doesn't really make sense without a clear replacement intact.

With Mountain Lion still being tested, I needed to find … Read more

If you have upgraded your OS X Lion system to version 10.7.4, you may run into an issue where the log-in screen might appear black and not show the standard usernames and icons and the area to present your password. When this issue happens, if you move your mouse the system will reveal a small square of the log-in window underneath the mouse, and subsequent movement of this square will erase more of the black mask and further reveal the log-in window.

While perhaps confusing and odd for the user, this issue does not break the functionality of … Read more

Yesterday OS X developers and testers received a new build of the Mountain Lion developer preview, which implements a new emphasis on security by enhancing updating procedures. In prior versions of OS X, Apple offered options to download updates in the background and automatically check for updates, but has now provided the option to both check for important software updates daily over an encrypted connection and have them install automatically.

This new development in OS X mimics the "silent update" approach that Adobe recently added to Flash, and is a great way to enhance the security of OS … Read more

Apple store employees can now join the party of people testing OS X Mountain Lion before it hits the streets next month.

In an e-mail to store workers revealed by 9to5Mac, Apple has invited its Genius Bar members and Creatives to partake in the AppleSeed testing program. Available to select customers as well as employees, this program gives participants access to pre-release software so they can test the products and provide feedback to the company.

Those who join the program adhere to a confidentiality agreement that prevents them from sharing the software with anyone else. Apple provides various tools for … Read more

Replacing a hard drive on a Mac may sometimes be necessary to either upgrade to increase its capacity, replace a faulty drive, or upgrade your Mac with a faster solid-state drive (SSD), which will often breath new life into an older system. While swapping out an older hard drive for a newer one is generally fairly simple to do, in Lion the upgrade may take a few more steps.

There are several ways of migrating data to a new drive for your Mac, but generally it involves either cloning the system or restoring from a backup (either by migrating or … Read more