Now that Apple has confirmed that its latest iMacs will go on sale this Friday -- the very last day of November, mind you! -- it seems likely that iTunes 11 may drop on the same day, unless Cupertino decides to disappoint Mac users again by delaying it into December. Are you excited to have a completely refreshed iTunes or have you pretty much abandoned it by now in favor of an iOS device anyway? We're eager to download, and hopefully sooner than later. So while we wait, here are a few unrelated news items to tide you over.
There have been sad times for third-generation Apple TV owners hoping to get a taste of aTV Flash, the software that adds a ton of functionality to Apple's little black box. Since launching back in March, the latest Apple TV has been a tough nut to crack, with the necessary jailbreak remaining elusive. Now, aTV Flash developer FireCore, LLC have posted a blog to let users know where things stand with their software and the third-gen media player, and while they sound optimistic enough, there definitely isn't a release on the horizon at this point. "While we tend to think of ourselves as pretty resourceful, the security related expertise that is required in order to release a jailbreak for iOS based devices like the ATV is just not in our wheelhouse, and we're simply left to encourage the capable few as best we can," the post revealed on Tuesday. Any enterprising hackers want to step in and take on this challenge for the good of all Apple TV users?
The gang over at Evernote isn't letting off the gas pedal, announcing a new update to its Evernote Clearly browser extension for Google Chrome with a new Premium feature, text-to-speech. Now, instead of just making web pages look good and cutting out the distractions, you can go about your business and have Evernote Clearly read aloud to you, which the company describes as " like instantly turning articles into podcasts." The only catches here are that you'll need to be using Google Chrome, and you'll also need to be an Evernote Premium subscriber. But if those aren't hurdles for you, then click on the new Text-to-Speech icon, sit back and give your eyeballs a rest.
Apple dropped a tiny firmware update on mid-2012 MacBook Pro users on Tuesday afternoon in the form of Thunderbolt Firmware Update v1.1, a 442KB patch for OS X Lion 10.7.4 and above. "This update addresses an issue with MacBook Pro (mid 2012) and some Thunderbolt cables that may prevent bus-powered Thunderbolt devices from functioning properly," the brief release notes explain. Our 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display offered up no such update in the Mac App Store and refused to install when we downloaded manually, so it looks like this one is for all the folks with non-Retina MacBook Pros purchased from June on.
The Official Gmail Blog is back with another improvement to the web-based email service, this time mashing it up with Google Drive. Gmail now allows users to attach files directly from Google Drive without leaving the browser, and better yet the files can be up to a whopping 10GB in size -- that's 400 times larger than most email clients! Using Drive, Gmail users are also assured of always sharing the most recent version of a file, since recipients will have access to the most up-to-date version at all times. Like many Gmail additions, this one is rolling out over the next few days and you'll need to be using the latest and greatest compose experience, so be sure to opt-in if you haven't already.
Microsoft's Blogging Windows hit the web on Tuesday to do some chest-thumping about where Windows 8 stands in the grand scheme of things. At the Credit Suisse 2012 Annual Technology Conference, the company's Tami Reller took the stage and dropped a big number on the audience. “The journey is just beginning, but I am pleased to announce today that we have sold 40 million Windows 8 licenses so far," Reller said. That number certainly leaves Apple's OS X Mountain Lion update in the dust, although it's worth noting that Microsoft has sold licenses, not necessarily end product to users yet, assuming that 40 million includes OEMs.
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