"She'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes… she'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes!" We speak, of course, of OS X Mountain Lion, Apple's latest and greatest version of Mac OS X which is expected later this month from the Mac App Store. And the furry gal is now closer than ever, with word that the gold master is now being pushed out to developers today. Didn't hear the news? Then be sure to read on and find out what else is making news for Monday, July 9, 2012...
We can't say this is much of a surprise, but a "GM seed" of OS X Mountain Lion turned up in the Mac Dev Center today. Tagged as Build 12A269, the "GM" stands for "gold master" -- as in, most likely the final version we'll all be installing when The Artist Formerly Known as Mac OS X 10.8 is released to the public later this month. No clue on exactly when that will be, but now that developers are downloading the gold master, it's looking like sooner rather than later.
Well, well, well… what have we here? 9to5Mac is reporting that the iOS 6 beta version of the App Store has leaked a forthcoming update to the official Twitter app, and it looks like a doozy. Among the changes in Twitter for iOS 4.3 are a more interactive Tweet view experience, "selected event" Tweets that are highlighted, a "major push notifications enhancement," personalized trends, improved performance and the ability to "receive unobtrusive Twitter notifications" like those in Tweetbot. (Seriously, it says that right in the update history.) Looks pretty slick, but no word on when they're coming -- the release notes were posted on July 6, but the update is MIA at this writing.
BGR is reporting that Microsoft will be releasing Windows 8 at the end of October, according to an announcement made earlier today at the company's Worldwide Partner Conference. While no exact date was specified, the Metro-style refresh will be released to manufacturers the first week in August. If you purchase a Windows 7 PC today (and seriously, like, why would you?), you can nab Windows 8 for a mere $14.99 after its release -- otherwise we'd advise holding out for that $39.99 downloadable upgrade deal for users of Windows XP, Vista or Win7 we reported about recently.
Apple's new iOS 6 Maps app looks pretty great, but does that mean we're stuck with Google Maps on the desktop? According to a report from TechPP.com, that may not be the case. Developer Cody Cooper has done some digging into the latest iOS 6 beta and noticed that one XML file makes reference to "a set of Intel-based graphics chipsets for which certain features like Shading are disabled." Not exactly a smoking gun, we know, but Cooper views this data as evidence that OS X will also get access to Apple's swanky new Maps eventually.
Ape Entertainment today announced a tie-up with indie video game developer The Game Bakers which will see the release of the latter's Squids game series turned into a series of original digital comic books and graphic novels. The Squids games have already racked up more than a million players worldwide on iOS, Mac, PC and Android, so the license agreement with Ape is a natural, following in the heels of the company's popular Pocket God and Cut the Rope comic book apps. "In terms of graphics and storytelling, the Squids games already have a lot in common with comics, so continuing and expanding the adventure in comic books is a natural step," says Audrey Leprince, The Game Bakers' COO and co-founder. "Ape Entertainment has a proven track record within the comics industry and we're excited to partner with them to bring our hungry fans more of the Squids stories they love." No word on exactly when Squids will arrive in comic book form, but the titles will be available in full-color print form as well as a standalone app from the App Store when the momentous occasion finally arrives.
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