Apple says the next major version of its Mac operating system will roll out to consumers tomorrow morning.

The news came tucked inside Apple's third-fiscal-quarter earnings release where Apple reported earnings of $9.32 per share on revenues of $35 billion. The company pulled the same announcement trick for OS X 10.7, announcing its next-day availability during a conference call last year.

As a quick recap, the $19.99 software update brings a handful of iOS features to Macs, including the notes and reminders apps. It adds a few other things, like Twitter integration, Apple's Game Center, and iMessage services. There's also a new security feature called Gatekeeper, designed to fend off malware by controlling what applications can and cannot be installed.

The software was first announced in February and has undergone several rounds of beta testing from developers. Apple released a "golden master" version of the software to developers earlier this month, representing the final version that will be released in the Mac App Store tomorrow.

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A Windows malware worm has been found embedded in an application being distributed in Apple's App Store for iOS. The worm is a relatively low-threat malware package that will not affect the iOS or the MacOS platform but may be harmful to those who manage the app in their iTunes accounts on Windows machines.

In a recent post to an Apple discussion forum, user "deesto" mentioned he had downloaded the free "Instaquotes Quotes Cards for Instagram" app from the iTunes store and noticed that his ClamXav antivirus program had flagged the downloaded file as containing the "Worm.VB-900" malware.

Symantec's free iAntivirus scanner locates two Windows executables that are flagged as containing malware.

Though the warning was first suspected to be a false positive, further investigation revealed that the malware is present in the application package. App Store programs are distributed in a .ipa file format, which is a wrapper that contains the application package itself. Similar to OS X applications, the iOS app contains its executable files and other resources the program needs to run in iOS.

To test the claims in the discussion forum, I downloaded the Instaquotes packag... [Read more]

What makes someone choose one browser over another? Often people use whichever browser is closest at hand: Internet Explorer in Windows and Safari on Macs.

Lots of folks choose Firefox because of the browser's many useful add-ons. But the best reason to go with one browser over another is speed. In my experience, no browser is faster than Google Chrome.

There's no easier way to start an argument among geeks than to claim one browser is the speed champ. If you look hard enough you can find a reliable study naming each of the most popular browsers the fastest.

Of the many browser test results I reviewed, the "real-world" benchmarks reported last August by Compuware's Gomez division seem most trustworthy to me. TechCrunch's Sarah Perez examines Gomez's browser testing process and results.

When it comes to browsing, the only thing better than fast is faster. Here's a quick look at three Chrome extensions that let you spend less time waiting for pages to load.

Give your mouse clicker a break Add the Click-free Browsing extension to Chrome and put your clicking finger on ice. The program places six arrow icons along the right edge of the browser window. Hover your mouse over them to page up, page down, go to the top or bottom of the page, go back, or... [Read more]

The iPad, along with competing tablets and even the growing list of highly portable ultrabooks, is quickly becoming a staple in the classroom for teachers and students alike. It seems more and more likely that taking notes with a pen and paper will one day be an antiquated practice we'll all reminisce about to our grandkids.

The iPad can be a great tool for taking notes, but the native iOS Notes app doesn't cut it for everyone. To take truly useful notes that can replace that spiral notebook, you're going to need the help of an app or two.

Here are five apps that will help you take effective notes on your iPad.

iA Writer offers some great additional keys to the default iPad keyboard, making typing a breeze.

iA Writer iA Writer is a simple text editor packed full of subtle features, such as a custom keyboard that makes typing quickly on your iPad a breeze. You can move ahead or back a word with the touch of a button, or add common punctuation without having to visit the second (or third) keyboard screen.

You can also use iA to sync your documents in t... [Read more]