Apple’s OS X Lion was downloaded more than 1 million times during its first day of availability, Apple said on Thursday. The Cupertino-based company made the announcement just as Microsoft announced its earnings results for the fiscal fourth quarter — merely a coincidence, we’re sure. Presuming these were paid OS X purchases and upgrades, Apple grossed more than $30 million from Lion in just one day. “Lion is off to a great start, user reviews and industry reaction have been fantastic,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s SVP of Worldwide Product Marketing, in a statement. “Lion is a huge step forward, it’s not only packed with innovative features but it’s incredibly easy for users to update their Macs to the best OS we’ve ever made.” OS X 10.7 Lion is available now in the Mac App Store for $29.99. Apple’s full press release follows below.

Lion Downloads Top One Million in First Day

CUPERTINO, California—July 21, 2011—Apple® today announced that in just one day, over one million users bought and downloaded Mac OS® X Lion, the eighth major release of the world’s most advanced operating system. Available through the Mac® App Store™ for $29.99 (US), users are buying Lion faster than any other OS release in Apple’s history.

“Lion is off to a great start, user reviews and industry reaction have been fantastic,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Lion is a huge step forward, it’s not only packed with innovative features but it’s incredibly easy for users to update their Macs to the best OS we’ve ever made.”

Lion introduces more than 250 new features to the Mac, including Multi-Touch® gestures; system-wide support for full screen apps; Mission Control, an innovative view of everything running on your Mac; the Mac App Store, the best place to find and explore great software; Launchpad, a new home for all your apps; and a completely redesigned Mail app.

Available in 123 countries, the Mac App Store brings the revolutionary App Store experience to the Mac so you can find great new apps, buy them using your iTunes® account, download and install them in just one step. The Mac App Store offers apps in Education, Games, Graphics & Design, Lifestyle, Productivity, Utilities and other categories. Users can browse new and noteworthy apps, find out what’s hot, see staff favorites, search categories and look up top charts for paid and free apps, as well as user ratings and reviews. The Mac App Store is built right into Lion and available for Snow Leopard® users through Software Update as part of Mac OS X version 10.6.8.

Apple news site MacRumors on Friday discovered images of a new LED Display on Apple’s website. While the OS X Lion wallpaper could have meant that these are simply new product shots as opposed to an updated model we’re looking at, the URL of the image features the recently revealed part number “MC914.” This part number corresponds with a number seen in a recent leak that identified multiple forthcoming refreshed Apple products. The new LED Display will be nearly identical to the current model, though it will include a Thunderbolt I/O port for connectivity to Mac computers. Apple’s upcoming mid-2011 MacBook, MacBook Air and Mac mini refreshes are all expected to include new Thunderbolt ports as well.

[Via MacRumors]

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We’ve already heard that new MacBook Air and Mac Pro models are on the way, and now there’s a report that Apple is poised to refresh its MacBook and Mac mini computers in the near future, too. According to 9to5 Mac, Apple will soon launch a new MacBook, part number MC914LL/A, with Thunderbolt I/O ports and a faster processor. Similarly, the Cupertino-based firm is expected to refresh its Mac mini line with new server model and standard models. There’s a possibility that a third built-to-order model will be available with a faster processor, too. According to 9to5 Mac the model numbers are:

MC936LL/A – J40, ULTIMATE – USA – Mac mini Server
MC815LL/A – J40I, BETTER – USA – Mac mini standard configuration
MC816LL/A – J40, BEST – USA Faster Mac mini

The last time we heard this rumor we learned that the Mac mini refresh could happen as soon as this August.

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Apple on Thursday released the latest public build of its Mac OS X operating system, version 10.6.8. Release notes are as follows:

The 10.6.8 update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including fixes that:

- Enhance the Mac App Store to get your Mac ready to upgrade to Mac OS X Lion
- Resolve an issue that may cause Preview to unexpectedly quit
- Improve support for IPv6
- Improve VPN reliability
- Identify and remove known variants of Mac Defender

For detailed information on this update, please visit this website:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4561.
For information on the security content of this update, please visit:http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222.

The new Snow Leopard build is available for all modern Apple PCs, and the highlight is clearly the first bullet item listed above: “Enhance the Mac App Store to get your Mac ready to upgrade to Mac OS X Lion.” Apple is expected to release OS X Lion next month.

Apple just took the wraps off of its new 3TB Time Capsule automatic wireless backup hard drive. The company said that it will continue to offer a 2TB version of its Time Capsule alongside the new 3TB version, and it doesn’t look like there are any other differentiating specs. Apple appears to have also quietly updated its Airport Extreme product with support for up to 450Mbps file transfers over both 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequency bands, and the website has also been refreshed a bit. The 2TB Time Capsule drive is now available for $299 and the new 3TB model will set you back $499.

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Apple is poised to release updated models of its Mac Pro and Mac mini computers at the end of July or the first week of August, according to Tweets from one CNET editor. Both families are expected to be updated with Intel Sandy Bridge processors as well as the new Thunderbolt I/O ports. Unfortunately, there still isn’t a whole lot of information on what other hardware or changes will be offered in the refresh, but CNET does say that the new computers will be preloaded with OS X Lion. The rumor is in line with the Cupertino-based firm’s past refresh history: Apple last updated its Mac Pro line on July 27th, when it introduced its new 12-core models, and the Mac mini was last refreshed on June 15th, 2010.

[Via 9to5 Mac]

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If you are a user who measures their computers performance in flops, then listen up. Apple has announced that they will be refreshing their lineup of Mac Pro computers this August. The new machines will have up to twelve, count em’ twelve, processing cores and offer a 50% speed increase over the current line. Pricing starts at $2,499. We’ve got the full press release below…

Apple Unveils New Mac Pro With Up to 12 Processing Cores

CUPERTINO, California-July 27, 2010-Apple® today unveiled a new Mac® Pro line with up to 12 processing cores and up to 50 percent greater performance than the previous generation.* Featuring the latest quad-core and 6-core Intel Xeon processors, all-new ATI graphics and the option for up to four 512GB solid state drives (SSD), the new Mac Pro continues to deliver amazing performance and expandability for the most demanding consumers and professionals.

“The new Mac Pro is the most powerful and configurable Mac we’ve ever made,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “With up to 12 cores, the new Mac Pro outperforms our previous top-of-the-line system by up to 50 percent, and with over a billion possible configurations, our customers can create exactly the system they want.”

At the heart of the new Mac Pro’s performance are next generation quad-core and 6-core Intel Xeon processors running at speeds up to 3.33 GHz. These multi-core processors use a single die design so each core can share up to 12MB L3 cache to improve efficiency while increasing processing speed. These systems feature an integrated memory controller for faster memory bandwidth and reduced memory latency; Turbo Boost to dynamically boost processor speeds up to 3.6 GHz; and Hyper-Threading to create up to 24 virtual cores. The Mac Pro now comes with the ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics processor with 1GB of memory and customers can configure-to-order the even faster ATI Radeon HD 5870 with 1GB of memory.

For the first time, Mac Pro customers have the option to order a 512GB SSD for the ultimate in reliability and lightning fast performance. With the ability to install up to four SSD drives in the system’s internal drive bays, the new Mac Pro can provide ultra high-speed disk bandwidth and random disk performance, two times faster than the average performance of a standard disk drive.** Mac Pro also now features two Mini DisplayPorts and one dual-link DVI port. The additional Mini DisplayPort output allows customers to connect two LED Cinema Displays without an additional graphics card or adapter and the dual-link DVI port supports legacy DVI-based displays up to a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels.

Every Mac Pro comes with Apple’s innovative Magic Mouse and customers can also order Apple’s new Magic Trackpad as an option. The Magic Trackpad brings the intuitive Multi-Touch™ gestures of Mac notebook trackpads to the desktop. With its glass surface, the wireless Magic Trackpad allows users to scroll smoothly up and down a page with inertial scrolling, pinch to zoom in and out, rotate an image with their fingertips and swipe three fingers to flip through a collection of web pages or photos. The Magic Trackpad can be configured to support single button or two button commands and supports tap-to-click as well as a physical click. Magic Trackpad is available separately for $69.

Continuing Apple’s commitment to the environment, Apple’s desktop lineup is a leader in green design. The Mac Pro meets stringent Energy Star 5.0 requirements and achieves EPEAT Gold status.*** The Mac Pro enclosure is made of highly recyclable aluminum and the interior is designed to be more material-efficient. The Mac Pro uses PVC-free internal cables and components and contains no brominated flame retardants. The new Apple Battery Charger provides a convenient and environmentally friendly way to always have a fresh set of batteries for your Magic Trackpad, Magic Mouse and Wireless Keyboard. The Apple Battery Charger is available as an option for $29 and comes with six long shelf life rechargeable batteries.

Every Mac also comes with Mac OS® X Snow Leopard®, the world’s most advanced operating system, and iLife®, Apple’s innovative suite of applications for managing photos, making movies and creating and learning to play music. Snow Leopard builds on a decade of OS X innovation and success with hundreds of refinements, core technologies and out of the box support for Microsoft Exchange. iLife features iPhoto®, with breakthrough ways to organize and manage your photos by who appears in them and where they were taken; iMovie® with powerful easy-to-use features such as Precision Editor, video stabilization and advanced drag and drop; and GarageBand® which offers a whole new way to help you learn to play piano and guitar.

Optional Apple professional applications include Aperture®, Final Cut® Express, Final Cut Studio®, Logic® Express and Logic Studio®.

Pricing & Availability
The new Mac Pro will be available in August through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.

The new quad-core Mac Pro, with a suggested retail price of $2,499 (US), includes:

one 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon W3530 processor with 8MB of fully-shared L3 cache;
3GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory, expandable up to 16GB;
ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
two Mini DisplayPorts and one DVI (dual-link) port (adapters sold separately);
1TB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
18x SuperDrive® with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
four PCI Express 2.0 slots;
five USB 2.0 ports and four FireWire® 800 ports;
AirPort Extreme® 802.11n;
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR; and
Apple Keyboard with numerical keypad and Magic Mouse.

The new 8-core Mac Pro, with a suggested retail price of $3,499 (US), includes:

two 2.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon E5620 processors with 12MB of fully-shared L3 cache per processor;
6GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory, expandable up to 32GB;
ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
two Mini DisplayPorts and one DVI (dual-link) port (adapters sold separately);
1TB Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
18x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW);
four PCI Express 2.0 slots;
five USB 2.0 ports and four FireWire 800 ports;
AirPort Extreme 802.11n;
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR; and
Apple Keyboard with numerical keypad and Magic Mouse.

Configure-to-order options include:

one 3.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon W3565 processor for the quad-core Mac Pro;
one 3.33 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon W3680 processor for the quad-core Mac Pro;
two 2.66 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon X5650 processors (12-cores) for the 8-core Mac Pro;
two 2.93 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon X5670 processors (12-cores) for the 8-core Mac Pro;
two ATI Radeon HD 5770 cards with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
one ATI Radeon HD 5870 card with 1GB of GDDR5 memory;
up to 16GB of DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory for the quad-core Mac Pro;
up to 32GB of DDR3 ECC SDRAM memory for the 8-core Mac Pro;
up to four 512GB solid state drives (SSD); or
up to four 1TB or 2TB Serial ATA hard drives running at 7200 rpm;
Mac Pro RAID card;
dual-channel or quad-channel 4Gb Fibre Channel card; and
up to two 18x SuperDrives with double-layer support.

Accessories include: Magic Trackpad, Apple Battery Charger, wired Apple Mouse, wireless Apple Keyboard, Mini DisplayPort to DVI Adapter, Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter (for 30-inch DVI display), Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter, the AppleCare® Protection Plan; and pre-installed copies of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server; iWork®, Logic Express 9, Final Cut Express 4 and Aperture 3. Complete options and accessories are available at www.apple.com/macpro.

*Testing conducted by Apple in July 2010 using preproduction Mac Pro 12-core 2.93 GHz units and shipping Mac Pro 8-core 2.93 GHz units, all configured with 6GB of RAM. Based on render performance of Maxwell Render 2.0.3 using Benchwell’s sculpture.mxs. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

**Testing conducted by Apple in July 2010 using preproduction Mac Pro 12-core 2.93 GHz units configured with 6GB of RAM, 1TB 7200-rpm hard disk drive and 512GB solid-state drive. Testing conducted using Iometer 2006.07.27 with a 30-second ramp-up, 5-minute run duration, 128KB request size, 8 outstanding IOs, and 150GB test file. Average rotational media performance calculated by creating the test file on the outer, middle and inner sectors of the drive and averaging the results from all three measurements. Performance tests are conducted using specific computer systems and reflect the approximate performance of Mac Pro.

***EPEAT is an independent organization that helps customers compare the environmental performance of notebooks and desktops. Products meeting all of the 23 required criteria and at least 75 percent of the optional criteria are recognized as EPEAT Gold products. The EPEAT program was conceived by the US EPA and is based on IEEE 1680 standard for Environmental Assessment of Personal Computer Products. For more information visit www.epeat.net.

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.

When the Apple Store went down this morning, we were expecting to see several things: an updated Mac Pro, an updated iMac, and a new 27-inch cinema display. Well, the Store is back… and here’s what the gang in Cupertino came up with:

• iMac — Both the 21.5-inch and 27-inch models have received a fairly significant processor bump. The 21.5-inch iMac will be available with a 3.06 GHz or 3.20 GHz Core i3 processor, the 27-inch model will also be available with the 3.20 GHz Core i3 as well as a 2.8 GHz Core i5 quad-core offering. All models will come standard with 4 GB of RAM, at least a 500 GB hard drive, and will have a hand-full of configurable options if ordered online; including a Core i7 processor.
• Magic Trackpad — Rumored some time ago, the Magic Trackpad allows you to click, scroll, and swipe on your desktop machine just as you would on your laptop. The device is 80% larger than the trackpad on the Macbook Pro and runs on two AA batteries. Here’s Apple’s take on the new device: “Magic Trackpad gives you a whole new way to control what’s on your Mac desktop computer. When you perform gestures, you actually interact with what’s on your screen. You feel closer to your content, and moving around feels completely natural. Swiping through pages on screen is just like flipping through pages in a magazine, and inertial scrolling senses the momentum in your fingers as you move up and down a page.” The device ships in 24-hours and is priced at $69.
• Battery Charger — An Apple branded AA battery charger was also released today, for… you know, environmental reasons and stuff. Not to much to report on it, but it looks cute.

There you have it, let us know what you think. Anyone going to be busting out the credit card today?

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Happy Tuesday morning everyone. If you’ve wandered over to the online Apple Store today, you may have notice that… well, it’s down. Tuesday typically is the day that Apple will update or refresh products and rumors have been circulating the interwebs about a new 27-inch cinema display, an updated iMac, and a refresh to the aging Mac Pro line. The good news about these rumors? We won’t have to wait very long to figure out if they’re true or not!

Developing…

Alright, Apple fans. Time to drop everything and rush to your Mac of choice, as Apple has just released OS X 10.6.4. Ranging in size from 314MB to 641MB, the update brings forth a bunch of assorted fixes that “enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac.” We’re not expecting any surprises with this one, but if we spot anything you know we’ll be back. Hit the jump for the official changelog.

The 10.6.4 Update is recommended for all users running Mac OS X Snow Leopard. It includes Safari 5 and general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac, including fixes that:

• resolve an issue that causes the keyboard or trackpad to become unresponsive
• resolve an issue that may prevent some Adobe Creative Suite 3 applications from opening
• address issues copying, renaming, or deleting files on SMB file servers
• improve reliability of VPN connections
• resolve a playback issue in DVD Player when using Good Quality deinterlacing
• resolve an issue editing photos with iPhoto or Aperture in full screen view
• improve compatibility with some braille displays

It’s no secret that the star of this year’s WWDC keynote will be the next-gen iPhone, but what else could it potentially bring to the table? According to a note issued to investors by Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu, the answer is iTunes.com, a cloud-based music service, and a refresh of the Mac Pro and MacBook Air. Apple has long been rumored to want in on the cloud-based music business, and its purchase of Lala in December of 2009 only served to add fuel to the fire. Add to this the fact that Apple has ordered Lala be shut down on May 31st and it seems there is quite a bit of evidence to support these claims. Turning our attention to the Mac Pro, the scuttlebutt is that it will pack a pair of 12 core Westmere-based processors from Intel’s Xeon 5600 series. As for the MacBook Air, rumors of a refresh have been fairly consistent over the past few months. The most recent came a few weeks ago and claimed that the travel-friendly notebook would be equipped with a Intel Core i3 processor and 4GB of RAM (although back in January the word was it would be getting a Core i5 processor). Would this be enough to satiate your need for shiny, new Apple gear?

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The iPad is such a hot commodity that, according to RBC Capital Markets analyst Mike Abramsky, U.S. sales of the slab-let have likely outpaced sales of Apple’s Mac computers. After a series of retail checks, which found most iPad retailers out of stock of the 3G model and very few Wi-Fi models left, Abramsky believes Apple is moving approximately 200,000 iPads a week versus 110,000 Macs. Abroad, where only recently customers were able to put in pre-orders, Abramsky believes Apple received orders for over 600,000 units. When all is said and done for calendar year 2010, the RBC analyst is predicting that Apple will have sold some 8,130,000 iPads. Not bad for gadget that costs, at the very least, $499. Could the iPad eat into Mac sales? Yes, to the tune of 25% according to the analyst. However, the drop in Mac sales didn’t diminish Abramsky’s price targets: $350/share with revenues of $59.7 billion for 2010. Yikes!

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Apple may be bringing two heavy hitters to the market early this summer according to some rumors fresh from the pages of AppleInsider. First up is a potentially gorgeous 27 inch, 2560 by 1440 resolution LED-backlit Cinema display which will be a handsome upgrade from the current 24 inch model. The 27-incher has reportedly been gracing the halls of Apple for some time now, waiting for market prices to drop to an affordable level for launch. For those with a cash flow that seemingly has no end, there will also reportedly be a new Mac Pro on tap for June which will feature not one, but two Xenon 5600 hexacore chips from Intel. This dodeca-core monster machine will be accompanied by a single chip Mac Pro model which is expected to launch in 2.66GHz, 2.8GHz, 2.93GHz, and 3.33GHz  configurations. Those rumored Core i7-980X Mac Pros are not off the table but that configuration is highly unlikely given the recent release of the Xenon 5600 processor line and the compatibility these processors offer with the current generation of Mac hardware.

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We’d say so! From $59 to $7,000, if you want an Apple product, there’s a pretty darn good chance you’ll be able to pick something in your price range. Simply brilliant. Full size image link after the break…

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Gartner issued its computer sales numbers yesterday evening and we’re sure no one will be overly shocked by the following: Sales are down. Overall, PC sales dipped 6.5-percent with 67.2 million units shipped during the quarter. Things certainly could have been worse of course, and there is a bright spot amidst the darkness — HP managed to push its way into the number one sales slot in the US by a pretty wide margin, selling 13.3 million units to second place Dell’s 8.8 million. As far as Apple goes, its steadily-rising market share began descending in Q109 as was expected. The growth it spent the year achieving in 2008 was quickly erased; Apple started off 2008 with 7.5-percent of the market in Q1 and finished the year with over 8-percent of the market in Q4. Q1 2009 saw the company’s share drop back down to 7.4-percent. Eh, it was a good run.

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