A Growl notification. (credit: Aurich Lawson )

Growl , a key part of the Mac desktop experience for 17 years, is being retired. Christopher Forsythe, who acted as the lead developer for the project for years, announced the retirement in a blog post on Friday.

Launched in 2004, Growl provided notifications for applications on Macs (it was also offered for Windows) before Apple introduced its own Notification Center. Notification Center was added to macOS (then styled Mac OS X) in the Mountain Lion update in 2012, but it first debuted on iOS a year earlier.

Here's a snippet of Forsythe's announcement:

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  The 2020, M1-equipped Mac mini. [credit: Samuel Axon ]

Apple is crazy, right? The Mac just had its best year of sales ever, and Cupertino is hitting the platform with a shock like it hasn’t had in nearly 15 years—back in a time when the Mac was not having such a good year. Apple is beginning the process of replacing industry-standard Intel chips with its own, custom-designed silicon.

In a way, we're not just reviewing the new Mac mini—a Mac mini is always a Mac mini, right? We're reviewing an ARM-based Mac for the first time. And this is not exactly the same story as all the other ARM machines we've looked at before, like Windows 10 on ARM—a respectable option with some serious tradeoffs.

Sure, longer battery life and quick waking from sleep are already out there on other ARM computers. But as you may have seen in our hands-on earlier this week , what we're encountering here is also a performance leap—and as you'll also see in this review, a remarkable success at making this new architecture compatible with a large library of what could now, suddenly, be called legacy Mac software.

Enlarge / Apple's App Store. (credit: Silas Stein/picture alliance via Getty Images )

In one of the biggest changes to the App Store model ever, Apple today announced that the majority of third-party developers releasing apps and games on the company's App Store will see a reduction in Apple's cut of revenues from 30% to 15%. The company calls it the App Store Small Business Program, and it aims to improve the company's standing in public perception and antitrust battles while minimally impacting its own bottom line.

The program is opt-in, and any developer whose combined revenue across all their apps was less than $1 million in the previous year (or any developers new to the App Store) can apply and be accepted. The revenue measure at play here includes not just app purchases, but in-app purchase (IAP) and subscriptions revenue.

If during the course of the year the developer surpasses the $1 million threshold, the 30% rate will kick back into effect for the remainder of that year. If the developer falls below the threshold again, they'll receive the 15% rate once more the following year.

Enlarge / The splash image for Apple's (probably) final event of 2020.

At 10:00am Pacific time (1pm Eastern) on Tuesday, November 10, Apple will hold yet another live event—the third in as many months—to announce new products. This time, the company is expected to reveal the first Macs that will replace Intel processors with Apple Silicon, the company's in-house-designed ARM-based chips.

As with the prior two events, we'll be liveblogging the proceedings right here. Just return to this page before the show starts to see all the updates from Cupertino.

The previous two events announced two new Apple Watch models, a new iPad, and four new iPhones, among other things. But the tagline for this event is "one more thing," suggesting the focus will singularly be on Apple's long-rumored, recently confirmed ARM transition.

Enlarge / The key image that goes with this month's event. (credit: Apple)

At 10:00am Pacific time (1pm Eastern) on Tuesday, September 15, Apple reps will take the stage—likely in an otherwise empty Steve Jobs Theater at Apple's headquarters—to announce new products. Typically at this time of year, these products are new iPhones and Apple Watch models, but in the time of COVID-19, nothing is certain.

In any case, Ars Technica will be liveblogging the proceedings and sharing all the news from the event in real time, just like we always do.

Reports and rumors have pointed to a broad range of new Apple products expected by the end of the year, including four new iPhones with new designs, 5G, and (at least in some models) new 3D sensors, and one or even two new Apple Watches—one successor to the Series 5, and one cheaper alternative meant to compete with Fitbit.

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  Final Cut Pro on an iMac and a MacBook Pro. [credit: Apple ]

Apple has released a major new update to its Final Cut Pro X video editing application. Labeled Final Cut Pro 10.4.9, the update is focused primarily on improving workflows for proxy files to make teams working together remotely—obviously a common situation amid the COVID-19 pandemic—more efficient.

Additionally, the new update includes a machine learning-driven feature that automatically crops vertical aspect ratios (like you see in TikTok or Instagram videos on mobile phones) from widescreen footage, plus Apple has included some other improvements and features.

The company also updated iMovie, its mass-market consumer video editing software, to version 2.2.10 on iPadOS and iOS, and version 10.1.15 on macOS. These updates include stability improvements and bug fixes, as well as additional filters. The iOS and iPadOS versions get three new filters: Comic, Comic Mono, and Ink.

Enlarge / Removing the scissor switch in a 16-inch MacBook Pro, courtesy of iFixit. (credit: iFixit )

Today, Apple announced that it will expand a program that gave third-party repair shops access to its own proprietary tools, diagnostics, and parts. Launched last year , the program initially only provided the resources for servicing iPhones. Now it will apply to Macs as well. As with the iPhone program, shops can sign up for the program for free, and those that join will be given free training and access to parts.

Apple has tried to make its own services like AppleCare+ and the Genius Bar at Apple retail stores a major selling point for would-be Mac users who want good repair options without having to figure out which shops are reliable or to do any of the work themselves. While those services often get high marks from Apple's customers, there's a major problem: the company's own Apple Store locations mainly service major urban centers in relatively wealthy nations.

There are several gaps in that coverage, leaving iPhone or Mac owners who don't live in these locations with fewer options. This repair-parts program may be a first step to alleviating some of that problem. It will allow some third-party shops that serve areas that Apple Stores don't to provide a level of service for iPhones and Macs that is closer to what consumers would get at an Apple Store.

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  The front of the 2020 27-inch iMac. [credit: Samuel Axon ]

It’s a weird time to be in the market for a new Mac. Earlier this summer, Apple announced that it will begin rolling out Apple Silicon —its in-house-designed riff on ARM processors as seen before in the iPhone and iPad—to the Mac product line. That marks a seismic shift in direction for the Mac.

But the company also said it would be releasing new Macs that use Intel’s CPUs—the more traditional choice for desktop and laptop computers—in the future and supporting Intel-based Macs for years to come.

Enter the new 27-inch iMac, announced just a couple of weeks ago. It’s the first new Mac product since the Apple Silicon announcement, and it’s a refresh for one of the company’s most iconic and popular products—one that’s been falling behind the rest of the Mac lineup for a while now.

Enlarge / The front of the 2019 iPad Air. (credit: Samuel Axon)

Earlier this week, Apple notified app developers of a revised set of App Store review guidelines—the rules by which Apple curates its iOS/iPadOS, tvOS, watchOS, and macOS App Stores.

Among many other things, the revised rules expand the definition of what constitutes a spam app and also clarify that developers are able to use push notifications to serve ads to users (provided users have explicitly opt in to them) and limit submissions of certain types apps to trusted organizations in regulated or sensitive industries.

The most controversial of these changes has been the clear statement that developers can serve ads to users via push notifications. At one point in the past, Apple's guidelines stated that push notifications "should not be used for advertising, promotions, or direct marketing purposes or to send sensitive personal or confidential information." Now the guidelines state: