According to Chitika, an Internet advertising network, usage of OS X Yosemite spiked by more than double after Apple launched the public beta of the OS last Thursday.
Chitika’s data indicates that pre-beta Yosemite-based Internet traffic rose from between 0.2 percent and 0.3 percent of all OS X-related activity, to roughly 0.62 percent of OS X traffic on July 25. That number rose to nearly 0.7 percent by the next day, but curiously dropped back down to the 0.62 percent neighborhood yesterday. It’s worth noting, however, that the numbers are only representative of U.S. and Canadian-based traffic.
It’s not at all surprising that Yosemite’s usage numbers rose after Apple launched the public beta last week. After all, applying for beta access didn’t cost users any money. Plus, OS X no doubt wanted to test drive some of the new features enabled in the beta, which include a new notifications center, Mail Markup, the ability to send texts and make phone calls, and a revamped version of Spotlight.
It’s worth noting that Apple made the OS X Yosemite beta available to the first 1 million people who signed up for the program. This means that usage would likely be even higher if the beta was open to an unlimited amount of people. Also, in all liklihood, not all eligible beta testers have downloaded the OS yet, so it’s possible that the usage numbers noted by Chitika might rise even higher.
It’ll be interesting to see whether Chitika releases updated statistics from here on out, and what those numbers will indicate if and when Chitika publishes more Yosemite beta usage reports.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.