Mr. Gates is right that an awful lot of production and content creation oriented iPad users are frustrated with the iPad’s limitations and angularities—the lameness of its select/cut/paste/copy editing functions, the lack of a user accessible file system and multitasking worthy of the name (ie: with side-by-side page views), no partial screen screenshots, no standard USB port and so forth. However…

Speculation is that Apple is preparing to update the core design and key functionality of OS X 10.9, making necessary software enhancements and improvements geared towards “power users.” Amongst those new features are a new version of Safari and improvements on how users multitask on a Mac.

Apple has unveiled their next software update for Mountain Lion, as the OS X 10.8.4 beta has been pushed to developers registered in Apple’s developer program. This developer build is labeled 12E30, and Apple has requested that developers focus on graphics, drivers, Safari, and WiFi.

While it would be great if Apple actually could rehabilitate and restore the prestige of the cougar name (which I rather like) from prurient connotations and reclaim the higher ground, I have to disagree with my friend, The Mac Observer’s John Martellaro, who contends there would be no problem in Apple, naming OS X 10.9 “Cougar.”

A new breed of Windows 8 tablets take the best of the iPad’s consumer-friendly elements and adds the enterprise features IT wants in their next generation, providing the best of both worlds for both end users and IT departments. If Apple wants to stay on top, they’ll need to make some long-needed changes.

Apple released OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.3 on Thursday. I downloaded and installed the update last evening via Software Update, and that went reasonably smoothly except that my first attempt at a (mandatory) restart after the App Store app’s prompt still yielded OS 10.8.2.

Apple has released OS X 10.8.3, the latest update for Mountain Lion, which also includes Safari 6.0.3. In addition to bug and security fixes, it includes the ability to scan an iTunes card using your laptop’s camera instead of manually entering the code.

Consensus is gelling that OS X Lynx (one of the major wild feline names as yet not applied to an OS X version) will be the name for OS X v10.9. It remains to be seen whether consensus is correct, but I hope it is. Strictly speaking, there are 36 wild cat species, leaving some 35 names as yet unused by Apple, but most are pretty obscure. Lynx, however, is a more than worthy candidate, indeed one of my favorite big cats.

A friend of mine—a longtime and formerly ultra-enthusiastic Mac fan—recently summed up his frustration with the direction Apple has taken. He still uses Apple computers because, he says, he’s too lazy to learn a new system, but he detests the “ecosystem” model Apple has constructed around the iOS and, increasingly, OS X as well.

One big difference between Mac and Windows users, especially over the past dozen years, has been the proportion of Mac-users willing to (and even enthusiastically) stay upgraded to the latest version of Apple’s desktop operating system. This was true even back in the days when full version upgrades cost $129.95 as opposed to $19.95 for the current cutting edge OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion.