Apple readies Mac OS X Mountain Lion update for summer release

A year after it rolled out the Mac OS X Lion, Apple again plans to introduce a new version of its desktop operating system. The update—dubbed Mountain Lion—will ship this summer. As with Lion, this latest version of OS X will incorporate many features first introduced in Apple’s iOS mobile operating system, as Apple looks to bolster the interoperability of its two platforms.

In UK, Apple grows PC market share while rivals struggle

Apple sold 267,000 Macs in the UK in the final quarter of 2011, increasing its share of the PC market in this country to 9.1 percent.

That’s according to figures from analyst firm Gartner, which showed Apple increasing its market share by 17.2 percent from the final quarter of 2010, when it sold 228,000 Macs.

The increase bucks the trend in the UK, where rival vendors have struggled over the last year. HP retained its top position in market share terms though saw its share decline from 23.1 percent in Q4 2010 to 21 percent in Q4 2011.

OnLive's train wreck: Office on the iPad

Demos, like appearances, can be deceiving. At the recent Consumer Electronics Show, one of the media hits was OnLive Desktop, a service that provisions a Windows 7 desktop environment that includes Microsoft Office 2010 to the iPad over an Internet connection. For many, the idea of being able to run the full Office suite is very appealing, given some of the limitations of the iPad’s native office productivity tools such asApple iWork suite (Pages, Keynote, and Numbers), Quickoffice, and Documents to Go.

But the reality of OnLive Desktop is awful. Yes, you get the full Windows 7 desktop and the full Word, PowerPoint, and Excel applications. But a surprising lack of integration means the Windows and iPad environments remain almost completely separate, with usability falling through the cracks.

Some 10.7.3 users encounter nasty bug; fix available

There are two kinds of people in this world: Those who rush to install every new software update that Apple offers up, and those who hold off to make sure the coast is clear before they click the Install button. Some aggressive installers who were quick to install Mac OS X Lion 10.7.3, released Wednesday, encountered a troubling bug that surely left the “wait-and-see” crowd prouder than ever to be patient.

Apple releases Mac OS X 10.7.3

Apple on Wednesday released Mac OS X 10.7.3, an incremental update to Lion. As usual, Apple recommends the update to all Lion users, saying that it addresses stability, compatibility, and security issues.

The update includes Safari 5.1.3, and it adds support for a variety of languages, including: Catalan, Croatian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Slovak, Thai, and Ukrainian.

Will this be the year of Apple in the enterprise?

Apple has never been considered an enterprise technology company, but it owns a significant share of the mobile enterprise market, largely due to the success of the iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air.

And yet, Apple is still often seen as a consumer company that managed to get lucky—a view that misses the big story about Apple’s relationship with the enterprise as well as the current business tech trends it helped launch. More importantly, that view risks underestimating Apple’s contribution to, and effect on, the enterprise in 2012 and beyond.