Report: Apple to stop selling boxed software in stores

By Aemon Malone February 8, 2011

Apple may be ready to shed physical boxes and embrace all digital software distribution, according to a report by MacRumors. As part of the initiative, Apple will begin offering new Mac customers instructions on how to you use the recently launched Mac App Store to download software.

MacRumors suggests that Apple will likely use the extra space to stock more “higher profit” items like accessories for the iPad and iPhone. Some software, such as Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Office, may continue to be sold as boxed packages, at least until they are offered through the Mac App Store.

Most of Apple’s most popular programs — iLife, iWork and Aperture 2, for example — are already available through the Mac App Store. It’s been rumored that Microsoft is giving serious consideration to offering its Mac Office Suite through the App Store.

Apple launched the Mac App Store in January for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. It’s expected that the Mac App Store will play a significant role in OSX 10.7 Lion, which is due out this summer.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Mobile

Apple just announced the dates for WWDC 2024

WWDC 2024 banner.

Apple has just announced the dates for its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2024. WWDC will take place from June 10 through June 14, 2024. A special event will be held at Apple Park in Cupertino, California, on June 10, and we expect to see the reveal of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, watchOS 11, tvOS 18, macOS 15, and visionOS 2.

WWDC will be free for all developers online. Developers will be able to access a variety of online sessions and labs that will showcase the latest advancements in software across all of Apple’s hardware.

Computing

6 mice you should buy instead of Apple’s Magic Mouse

Magic Mouse next to a Mac keyboard on a desk.

Apple’s Magic Mouse has plenty of fans, but it’s definitely not for everyone. For every person who loves its gesture-control surface and sleek design, you’ll find another who’s fed up with its uncomfortable shape and upside-down charging. If that sounds familiar, you might be looking for an alternative mouse for your Mac.

To help, we’ve found six of the best options to replace the Magic Mouse. From productivity masters to gaming aces, these are some of the best mice you can pair with your Apple computer.
Logitech MX Master 3S for Mac

Computing

Apple quietly backtracks on the MacBook Air’s biggest issue

The MacBook Air on a white table.

The new MacBook Air with M3 chip not only allows you to use it with two external displays, but it has also reportedly addressed a storage problem that plagued the previous M2 model. The laptop now finally has much faster storage performance since Apple has switched back to using two 128GB NAND modules instead of a single 256GB module on the SSD drive.

This was discovered by the YouTuber Max Tech, who tore down the entry-level model of the MacBook Air M3 with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. In his tests, thanks to the two NAND modules, the M3 MacBook Air is nearly double faster than the M2 MacBook Air. Blackmagic Disk Speed tests show that the older M2 model with the problematic NAND chip had a 1584.3 Mb/s write speed, and the newer M3 model had 2108.9 Mb/s for the M3 model, for a 33% difference. In read speeds, it was 1576.4 Mb/s on the old model and 2880.2 Mb/s on the newer model.