Applying a three-fingered tap on any word in a Mac OS X 10.7 Lion native apps brings up a pop-up dictionary, thesaurus, and even a Wikipedia entry on that word. If the summary isn’t enough information, you can select to read more directly from the QuickLook-esque popup.

This is a students dream, but it should be useful to anyone reading things on the web or elsewhere when they run into a word they want some more information on, whether it be just a simple definition or the entire Wikipedia backed entry on a topic. Yet another reason to upgrade to Lion.

Encyclopedic pop-ups appear to work on any Mac with a multitouch trackpad and in all native Lion Cocoa apps – Safari, TextEdit, Pages, etc – it’s probably an OS-level feature that developers can include in their apps too.

Read more »

The next time you hear someone talking trash about the iPhone or Apple’s future in the mobile world, present this impressive fact: Apple has enough cash that it could buy outright most of it’s hardware competitors in the mobile phone industry.

Yes, as ridiculous as that sounds, Apple could buy most of the industry, that means Apple could pay cash and acquire HTC, Nokia, RIM, LG, Motorola Mobility, and Sony Ericsson, the only remaining competitor in the mobile vendor space would be Samsung, which is worth $53 billion.

This impressive data and graph come from Asymco, who says that it’s entirely feasible that Apple’s $70 billion in cash and liquid assets could soon be worth more than the entire mobile phone industry:

The more remarkable thing is that as market values of phone vendors continue to decline, Apple’s cash will continue to grow dramatically. Indeed, a time may soon come when Apple’s cash will be worth more than the entire phone industry.

I wonder what Apple’s competitors think about that?

The iOS line is gearing up to be a viable contendor in the video game console world, thanks largely to the new wireless AirPlay video mirroring feature coming in iOS 5.

It works like this: an Apple TV2 becomes a wireless receiver that an iOS 5 equipped iPad 2 can then export it’s screen to, the TV can then either mirror the iPad 2 display, or if an supports it, the TV can display different images than what is on the iPad 2, turning the iPad 2 into a controller. Yes, that means the feature is currently limited to iPad 2 in beta 1 of iOS 5, but I suspect that will broaden to the rumored A5 equipped iPhone and possibly other iOS hardware through some jailbreak tweaks.

Watch these videos to see the potential here:

Read more »

If you run iOS 5 beta 1 on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, you might be interested to know the beta includes an automatic expiration date of August 4th.

For those with proper access to the newest beta releases from iOS Dev Center, this won’t be an issue as long as you upgrade to the newest betas as they become available from Apple. This leaves those who had a friend activate their UDID or who used the VoiceOver tweak to run iOS 5 on an iPhone without a dev account – this could very well effect you. If you are running the beta without a dev account, I suggest downgrading from iOS 5 beta before this becomes a potential problem, you don’t want to be stuck with a useless iPhone on August 5th.
Read more »

Did you just get a new Mac? Maybe you upgraded your hard drive and went with a clean Mac OS X install, but you want to maintain all of your Steam saved games from the old drive so you can pick up where you left off.

Instead of redownloading everything, you can preserve your bandwidth and copy the files directly. Steam makes this easy to do by storing all game files in a central location, you just need to copy the game files to the new drive and then reauthorize through Steam. First off you’ll want to make sure the Macs are either networked together or that the new hard drive is mounted on the system where Steam files are stored.

Now, here’s how to move the Steam game data:

Read more »

Sometimes the best way to avoid distraction when trying to work is to isolate other components and hardware, so I really like the simplicity of this Mac setup. It’s just the essentials, a MacBook Air 13″, some school books, and coffee, nothing to pull your attention away.

Most students are out for the summer, but if you are taking summer classes or just prepping for Fall term, don’t miss out on Apple’s 2011 Back to School Promo which gives you a free $100 App Store gift card with a discounted purchase of any Mac. There are some rumors suggesting the Air will get an update soon though, so if you’re looking at Apple’s ultralight waiting another month could be to your benefit.

Picture via Flickr

Apple has started to air a new iPad 2 commercial on TV, it’s titled “Now” and follows a similar theme to the other two recent iPad 2 TV ads.

“Now we can watch a newspaper, listen to a magazine, curl up with a movie, see a phone call, now we can take a classroom anywhere, hold an entire bookstore, and touch the stars. Because now, there’s this.”  iPad 2

In classic Apple style, it shows people what they can actually do on an iPad, and manages to convey quite a bit in just 30 seconds. All in all, it’s an enjoyable commercial, and if you watch TV you’ll probably see airing soon if you haven’t already.

Apple has provided Mac OS X 10.7 Lion volume licensing information for education and business customers looking to upgrade to the newest version of the Mac operating system. The pricing and licensing information differs from the generous personal licenses, and is only relevant to those who require group licenses.

Business Licensing

Once Lion is released, business customers will be able to purchase Lion and Lion Server directly from Apple by calling 1-800-854-3680 or by purchasing through the Business Store on Apple.com.

• Volume licensing contracts are $29.99 per license, with a minimum purchase of 20 licenses
• Maintenance contracts that include the next version of OS X after Lion are $49.99, also with a minimum purchase of 20 licenses

Education Licensing

Schools and education customers will have the option to either buy Lion online through the Education Store, or to contact their Apple Education Account Representative directly. An addition bonus for education customers is that Lion comes as part of a software collection, which includes Mac OS X Lion, iLife, and iWork.

• Lion volume licenses start at $39 per license, with a minimum of 25 licenses

Anyone who currently holds a volume license will apparently receive one redemption code for each contract, which can then be used to download Lion from the Mac App Store. That copy of Lion can then be used to install Lion on other Macs throughout the volume licensing. There is no specific mention of DVD’s, but anyone can make a Lion install DVD rather easily.

Update: Here is the information repeated directly from Apple’s “OS X Lion for Business and Education” document:

Read more »

OK so Mac OS X Lion won’t be released until next month, but if you do a little preparation now you should be able to save at least 15% off the already low $29.99 price. How? Simple, buying iTunes Gift Cards on sale and redeeming them on the Mac App Store.

Here’s the deal with eligible gift cards, they’re labeled a million different things, ranging from iTunes Store gift cards, to App Store gift cards, to iBooks gift cards, but they’ll all redeem on the App Store, just make sure they have that Apple logo.

Here’s a few sale examples:

• RiteAid is currently offering $25 iTunes Gift Cards for $20
• Best Buy was recently selling all iTunes cards at 15% discounts both in store and online
• Target frequently has iTunes, iBooks, and App Store gift cards on sale for 20% off
• Walmart has sold $50 iTunes gift cards for as little as $35

This is one of the unseen advantages to Lion, or anything else for that matter, being distributed exclusively through the Mac App Store, easy discounts!

You’ll probably need to shop around a bit and check your local newspaper (you know, those stacks of thinly sliced trees) or even your good old fashioned snailmail junkmail, thats where I found the RiteAid offer that I took advantage of. I heard that Target is discounting packs of them right now, but this probably varies by store and their website doesn’t indicate any such sale.

So grab a couple iTunes gift cards on sale, add the balance to your Apple ID now, and wait for Lion to come out. If you’re not thrilled with the App Store distribution model, don’t forget you can burn a Lion installation DVD yourself too.

The latest version of iTunes includes the great “Automatic Downloads” ability which automatically syncs your new app, music, and book purchases to all of your other iOS devices. This is the first part of iCloud that is available free to iTunes users, but most users won’t see the benefit because it’s not enabled by default. Let’s change that.

Enable iTunes & iCloud Automatic Downloads

You’ll need to download iTunes 10.3 which includes iCloud beta support, and you will also need to use the same iTunes / Apple ID on the devices that you want Automatic Download to work with.

• Open iTunes Preferences
• Click on the “Store” tab
• Check the boxes next to what you want to automatically download and sync between your iOS devices: Music, Apps, Books

Once this is enabled, iTunes will automatically sync new purchases to your iOS devices. This means you can buy a song, app, or book on your Mac or work PC and it will automatically transfer to the iPhone in your pocket and your iPad at home, as long as you’re connected to the internet through Wi-Fi or 3G.

This is obviously a great feature, just keep an eye on data usage if you’re on a limited data plan and downloading via 3G frequently. iCloud itself is free, but your cellular data plan isn’t.

Update: this feature seems to be limited to iTunes users based in the USA for now, this will likely change as iCloud rolls out of beta.