News: adaptive streaming, file renaming, DVD ripping, and more!

There's news saying Apple are developing a new adaptive streaming technology for iCloud users. The new technique will be used to provide high or low quality music streaming to users who choose to use services such as iTunes Match, for example, which would mean that users get to enjoy their music irrespective of what kind of internet connection they have available at the time. Mobile users wouldn't have to worry about data limits, and home users would still be able to enjoy the same quality music they always have. A gripe that many Mac users have had is that the Open and Save file dialog boxes in OS X don't act like the Finder at all, even though they represent a small part of the Finder. For example, in Lion you can't currently re-name files from within the save file dialog box — however, that's all set to change in Mountain Lion, which will apparently bring the ability to rename files in the open and save file dialog boxes.

The new VLC 2.0 has been released, but it means that ripping DVDs using tools which rely on it have stopped working. Over at Macworld, they tell you how to fix DVD ripping with VLC 2.0 and HandBrake.

Finally this morning, Apple has released a few EFI updates for the 2008 MacBook Pro and select iMac models.