You guys asked for it, so here it is; the awesome space galaxy wallpaper from Versions in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Developer Preview.

Click here or the image above for the full 1920×1080 version.

If you’re wondering, the original filename is “NSRevisionsBackground.png” and it’s from the Versions package, unlike the Mac OS X 10.7 default Fuji Mountain wallpaper that we posted yesterday which is found in /Library/Desktop Pictures/ in the Developer Preview.

The galaxy wallpaper is the background image in Versions, the new document versioning utility included in Lion that behaves much like a Time Machine for individual documents. You can see it in this screenshot from Apple’s Lion preview:
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It’s hard to imagine a nicer looking screen than the Apple Cinema Display, and it fits with this MacBook Pro 15″ and iPad perfectly. Makes you want one doesn’t it?

This great Mac setup is from the author of MinimallyMinimal.

If you use your Mac at night or in the dark, you need to do your eyes and brain a favor by downloading Flux. The idea behind Flux is simple; when the sun is down you shouldn’t be staring at the immensely bright computer screen, whose intensity is made to emit as much light as possible and practically mimic sunlight. Instead, your displays lighting should become warmer and softer, mimicking the lighting in your room.
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Benchmarks of the MacBook Pro 2011 refresh are coming in, and they are incredibly fast. Maybe incredibly fast is an understatement:

• The new top of the line MacBook Pro 2011 is faster than the existing Mac Pro desktop
• The new ‘low-end’ base MacBook Pro 2011 13″ model is just as fast as last years top-end MacBook Pro models

Below are some GeekBench scores for the MBP 2011 refresh… to put these numbers in perspective, my MacBook Pro 13″ 2010 with 8GB RAM and a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo scores a 3128 in GeekBench:
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Mac OS X 10.7 Lion will support the TRIM function for SSD’s, this should significantly boost the lifespan and performance of SSD drives. Hints for support were first discovered last year by Anandtech, but now HardMac has confirmed that support is included in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Developer Preview.

TRIM is important because it allows the operating system to notify an SSD which blocks of data are no longer in use on the drive, allowing them to be wiped and written over more efficiently. Without TRIM, an SSD drive can become gradually slower over time as blocks that were once in use become slower to write new data over.

Somewhat lost in the hubbub of the MacBook Pro 2011 refresh and Mac OS X Lion 10.7 Developer Preview was the launch of FaceTime HD, which is now finalized and available for all Mac users to download from the Mac App Store. The new version supports 720p video calls, but in order to make 720p calls you’d need a Mac with an HD camera (like the new MacBook Pro’s), otherwise you’ll maintain the current VGA quality video.

FaceTime costs $1 now? I thought it was free? What gives?
While the beta release of FaceTime was free, the final release of FaceTime costs $0.99. Apparently charging for FaceTime is due to an accounting requirement (MacGasm explains this if you’re interested), but I think it also serves the purpose of getting Mac users familiar with downloading apps from the Mac App Store. I say this because I think the upgrade to Mac OS X 10.7 Lion will be available as a paid download through the Mac App Store, but this could just be wishful thinking on my part too.

Get it now from the Mac App Store for $0.99 (direct link)

Mac OS X Lion debuted to developers with a gorgeous wallpaper of Mt Fuji in Japan as the default desktop background picture.

Well, who wouldn’t want that gorgeous picture on their Mac?

We know a few of our readers wanted the Fuji wallpaper out of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Developer Preview, so here it is in high resolution glory (2560×1600).

Click for the full version, it’s a rather large 5MB JPEG.

Just save the picture to your Mac desktop and set it as usual. It looks really great.

You can also get the gorgeous Mac OS X Lion space galaxy wallpaper from Versions if you want it.

Thanks for sending this in S.E.!

The entire MacBook Pro lineup has had it’s first refresh of 2011. The specs and and prices for default builds are as follows:
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Apple released a Developer Preview of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, included are many features that were seen in the October “Back to the Mac” event, in addition to several new ideas.

Highlighted features of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Preview

Many Lion features are borrowed from iOS:

• Launchpad – iOS style app launching and folder management
• Full-screen apps
• Mission Control – Encompasses Dashboard & Expose as a super window manager
• Gestures & animations – extensive multi-touch support
• Auto-Save
• Versions – built-in version control of all documents, in an interface similar to Time Machine
• Resume – saves your Macs last state after reboot, all apps, sites, and documents included
• Mail 5 – very similar to Mail on iPad
• AirDrop – instant wireless document transfers
• Lion Server – now built into Mac OS X Lion, no longer a separate OS

The Developer Preview requires a 64-bit Core 2 Duo processor or newer, and you must currently be running 10.6.6 in order to download the preview release.

Downloading & Installing Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Developer Preview

If you’re a registered Apple Developer, go to Mac Dev Center to download your copy of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Developer Preview, it weighs in at a hefty 3.6GB.

Each installation of Mac OS X Lion seed requires a redemption code from the Mac Dev Center, preventing unauthorized users from running the developer release software.

Want to hide the Mac menu bar? You can do that and set a few more options to automatically hide and show the menu bar with a free utility called MenuEclipse, the end result is pretty similar to the way you can automatically hide and show the Dock. In the screenshot above, I have the menubar completely hidden, but it will activate if I move the cursor over the menu bar.

If you rely on the menu bar often, hiding it from view isn’t the most practical thing in the world, so instead you can give it a subtle shade that automatically dims when it’s not in use. Below is the Mac OS X menu in the dimly “hidden” mode, but it’s still visible:

The effect is actually closer to auto-dimming and auto-highlighting of the menubar, since the menu bar shades and then brightens again when you hover over it with your cursor. Below is the screenshot of when the cursor is over the menubar, which brightens it up to be usable again:
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Ever wondered when Steve Jobs birthday was? It turns out Steve was born February 24 in San Francisco in the year 1955.

Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs turned 56 on the day this was originally published, 2/24/2011, and every one of his birthdays from here on out he will be missed. February 24 is a special day for Apple fans indeed.
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Believe it or not, that’s not an iPhone 3GS you’re looking at, that’s the Meizu M8, a popular Chinese iPhone knock-off that looks practically identical to iPhone 3GS. The only problem of course is that unlike the iPhone, the Meizu doesn’t run iOS at all, it runs Microsoft Windows CE 6.

That whole OS problem is being resolved though, according to a thread on Meizu forums the iPhone lookalike has been hacked to run the now outdated iOS 3.0.1. Not everything works yet, even call features aren’t reliable due to issues with microphone drivers. But phone calls or not, you can go so far as to access and download things from the iTunes App Store, and the hackers are actively working to get voice and everything else functioning as you would expect.
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Yesterday several rumors floated about that iPad 2 will be released on March 2 and today invites went out to select members of the press to cover an Apple event scheduled for March 2 at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts at 10:00 am. The invite, sent to Jim “The Beard” Darymple, shows the page of a calendar being torn away from an iPad, leaving little to guess as to what the events intention is.

Now we’re just left to wonder what the iPad 2 specs will be. Most recent reports suggest the iPad 2 will be thinner and lighter with a more powerful CPU and GPU, but maintain the existing iPad screen resolution.

Update: The MacBook Pro 2011 refresh is out, check out specs and prices, all Pro models have been updated.

The MacBook Pro 13″ 2011 refresh hardware specs have been leaked. Most notable is the addition of Core i5 processors to the 13″ lineup, and the new Thunderbolt (Light peak) high speed I/O port that doubles as the Mini-Displayport. Despite the rumors, there is no case redesign.

MacBook Pro 13″ 2011 Refresh Specs

These specs are transcribed from the above image:

• 2.3GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 Processor with 3MB shared level 3 cache
• 4GB of 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM
• 320GB 5400-rpm hard drive
• 13.3″ LED-backlit glossy display at 1280×800 pixels
• Intel HD Graphics 3000 processor with 384MB of shared SDRAM
• FaceTime camera
• Thunderbolt (Lightpeak) port doubles as high speed I/O and Mini-Displayport
• SDXC card slot, Firewire 800 port, two USB 2.0 ports
• Optical audio shared in/out port
• 10/100/1000BASE-T ethernet
• 802.11n WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1
• Backlit keyboard and ambient light sensor
• Size & Weight: 12.78×8.94×0.95 inches, 4.5lbs
• Aluminum unibody enclosure

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The Mac defaults to using Safari as the default web browser, but what if you prefer to use Google’s Chrome web browser instead? There’s a few ways to change the default browser, but perhaps the easiest if you’re looking to use Chrome is through the Chrome browser itself. With that in mind, here is how to switch Mac OS X to use Chrome as your full time default web browser, meaning all links opened or clicked from third party apps will open in Chrome rather than Safari.

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The official version of Minecraft is coming to the iPhone and iOS platform later this year according to developers Mojang. Previously, an unofficial version of the popular game appeared on the app store before being pulled.

If you’ve never heard of Minecraft, it’s a sandbox construction game where what you can build is limited only by your imagination. You create things with boxes that represent different materials and elements in a three dimensional grid, and there’s two gameplay variations, one with monsters that are out to destroy your creation, and the other just a classic build mode. The game has become a runaway hit and is considered by many to be one of the best indie game releases of all time.
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Update: iPad 2 has been announced! The ship date is March 11 for USA, and March 25 for some international customers.

Not only is a MacBook Pro refresh due out in the very near future, but the iPad 2 is scheduled to be released next week as well, according to a report from AllThingsDigital. Citing “several sources close to the situation,” AllThingsD claims event invites will be sent out soon and that the date is “confirmed” (by who remains unclear).

The report suggests the event will be held at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the centers calendar reveals that no events are scheduled for Wednesday March 2:

“There are no programs on Wed, March 2, 2011. The next day with upcoming programs is Thu, March 3, 2011.”

Several other nearby dates have no scheduled events listed either, so this doesn’t really provide much proof of anything.

It seems a little strange for Apple to have two major product releases within just a few days of each other, since the iPad 2 would clearly take the limelight off a significant MacBook Pro update. Maybe this means the MacBook Pro update won’t be as significant as many had hoped?

Update: New York Times and Reuters have chimed in with their own sources saying March 2 is the release date of iPad 2.

Update 2: This is all but confirmed, as event invites have been sent out for an iPad event on March 2.

The next time you get an email with a date mentioned in the body, you can use this neat trick to quickly add that date to your Calendar on iPhone or iPad.

This is easy and it shortens the steps required to add events to a Calendar in iOS. The secret? It’s simple, you can quickly add dates to your iPhone Calendar by just tapping on any date in the Mail client for iPhone or iPad.

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