Filed under: Gaming, Software, Developer, iPhone, App Store, SDK

Steph Tirion is an excellent game designer who I’ve had the good fortune to meet a few times. He first released a great game called Eliss on the App Store and he’s now announced the second game he’s been working on, called Faraway. Eliss was a terrific little arcade game that made great use of the iPhone’s touchscreen, and Tirion says that while his first game dealt with “planets and space management in sectors, Faraway will be about constellations and infinite space travel.” Sounds exciting. The game will be playable at GDC this week, so I’ll definitely make time to run by and check it out.

Tirion has also announced a new company to represent and sell his iPhone games, and he’s calling it LITTLE–EYES. It’s really great to see a very smart, independent developer come into his own like on a platform like the iPhone — there’s really no other mainstream gaming platform out there that lets developers really jump in headfirst and release experimental games like these to a a mainstream market. We’ll keep an eye out at GDC this week for all kinds of indie developers making it big. While it’s cool that Valve and other larger companies are finally coming around, we have to be sure not to forget developers like this either.

Steph Tirion, creator of Eliss, annouces Faraway originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Steph Tirion, creator of Eliss, annouces Faraway originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Gaming, Software

Valve announced on Monday that several of its popular titles, and both Steam and Storm, will be coming to the Mac in April. We anticipated this, based on the upcoming Gameinformer issue report, but now it’s official!

Game titles we can expect to see include Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half Life series. Even better news is that Valve intends to make simultaneous platform releases the norm from here on out. Expect Portal 2 to be the first game to be released on both Mac and PC at the same time.

Steam is Valve’s digital delivery system for games (think iTunes for fragging); Storm is the game engine from the company. The system’s been ramped up to even greater heights of awesomeness with a new feature called Steam Play. What that does is let you purchase the game on one platform (PC or Mac) and play on the other free of charge.

It gets better. Valve’s Jason Holtman explained how Steam Play and Steam Cloud work. “For example, Steam Play, in combination with the Steam Cloud, allows a gamer playing on their work PC to go home and pick up playing the same game at the same point on their home Mac. We expect most developers and publishers to take advantage of Steam Play.”

Really? Are you kidding me?

Rumors of Steam coming to the Mac surfaced in February when users found OS X icons hidden within a beta version of the new UI for their system, and were all but confirmed when Valve themselves released these teasers. All that’s left now is the hardest part: The waiting.

Valve: Steam, games coming to Mac in April originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Valve: Steam, games coming to Mac in April originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software, Developer, iPhone

iQapps has updated their app Trip Journal to version 4.0, and the new update adds a fair bit of functionality to the already pretty impressive set of trip recording and tagging features. As with previous versions, you can track pictures, notes, and maps of your trips, and communicate via a number of social networks and features with friends and family. The newest version allows for either manual or automatic waypointing as you travel around the world, multiple trip management, and hooks into social networks like Google Earth, Picasa, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, straight from the iPhone 3GS’ GPS and video camera.

The app is on sale for 99 cents right now, but it’ll be back to the standard $2.99 price soon. We’ve got an even better deal, however — iQapps has offered five download codes for us to give five lucky commenters on this post. Just leave a comment telling us where you’d like to travel to, and we’ll choose five random winners after 48 hours to win the app for free. Here are the rules:

• Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older.
• To enter leave a comment telling us where you’d like to travel with Trip Journal
• The comment must be left before March 11th, 11:59 PM Eastern Standard Time.
• You may enter only once.
• Five winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• Prizes: Promo Code for one copy of Trip Journal (Value: US$2.99)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.

Good luck to everyone who enters!

Enter to win Trip Journal 4.0 for the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Enter to win Trip Journal 4.0 for the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Apple Corporate, Multimedia, Software, Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs and the iPad both appeared on TV during last night’s Academy Awards, but they weren’t the extent of Apple’s presence.

Cnet reports this morning that the majority of the “Documentary Feature” and “Documentary Short” nominees — 9 out of 10 in fact — were made using Final Cut Studio, Apple’s professional video editing package. Cnet spoke with some of the filmmakers, including Dan Wilken, online editor of “Food, Inc,” who sung the suite’s praises. “…[switching to Final Cut Studio] made the most sense economically and allowed us to do everything we needed.”

Final Cut isn’t the only professional editing software available but it is the most popular; market research firm SCRI International claim is has a near 50% market share among nonlinear editors.

With this in mind we get an even clearer picture of Steve’s motivation for showing up. Certainly to have fun and experience the show, cheer on Up and other Disney offerings and keep his company and products in the minds of a very lucrative market.

Final Cut dominant among Oscar documentary nominees originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Final Cut dominant among Oscar documentary nominees originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Gaming, Software, iPad

We’ve heard from Secret Exit (creators of Zen Bound) a few times about the new version of their game coming soon, but Touch Arcade has some brand new pics and insight about the game itself. Kotaku also has a few preview pics, and the game looks terrific — not only is it due out in the App Store soon, but we know for sure that it’ll be before April 3rd, because they’re aiming to have a day one iPad version ready to go as well. As you can tell from the pics, it’s going to be just gorgeous — high resolution, a crisp UI with lots of room to breathe, and the same physics-based rope-twisting gameplay as the first game.

Of course, there will probably be at least a few kinks — unless Secret Exit is super lucky, they probably haven’t run the code on an actual iPad just yet, so even if the app is in the store on day one, it might still need a few adjustments once they actually get a production device to run everything on. But these pics only make us even more excited at the possibility for gaming on the iPad — just like we’d never had a mass-market touchscreen device before the iPhone came along, we’ve never had a widespread touchscreen device of this size before, and the bigger screen is going to make a big difference in games like this one for sure.

Zen Bound 2 for iPad out by April 3rd, looks great originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Zen Bound 2 for iPad out by April 3rd, looks great originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Gaming, Software, Developer, iPhone, App Store, SDK

Steph Tirion is an excellent game designer who I’ve had the good fortune to meet a few times. He first released a great game called Eliss on the App Store and he’s now announced the second game he’s been working on, called Faraway. Eliss was a terrific little arcade game that made great use of the iPhone’s touchscreen, and Tirion says that while his first game dealt with “planets and space management in sectors, Faraway will be about constellations and infinite space travel.” Sounds exciting. The game will be playable at GDC this week, so I’ll definitely make time to run by and check it out.

Tirion has also announced a new company to represent and sell his iPhone games, and he’s calling it LITTLE–EYES. It’s really great to see a very smart, independent developer come into his own like on a platform like the iPhone — there’s really no other mainstream gaming platform out there that lets developers really jump in headfirst and release experimental games like these to a a mainstream market. We’ll keep an eye out at GDC this week for all kinds of indie developers making it big. While it’s cool that Valve and other larger companies are finally coming around, we have to be sure not to forget developers like this either.

Steph Tirion, creator of Eliss, annouces Faraway originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Steph Tirion, creator of Eliss, annouces Faraway originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Gaming, Software

Valve announced on Monday that several of its popular titles, and both Steam and Storm, will be coming to the Mac in April. We anticipated this, based on the upcoming Gameinformer issue report, but now it’s official!

Game titles we can expect to see include Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half Life series. Even better news is that Valve intends to make simultaneous platform releases the norm from here on out. Expect Portal 2 to be the first game to be released on both Mac and PC at the same time.

Steam is Valve’s digital delivery system for games (think iTunes for fragging); Storm is the game engine from the company. The system’s been ramped up to even greater heights of awesomeness with a new feature called Steam Play. What that does is let you purchase the game on one platform (PC or Mac) and play on the other free of charge.

It gets better. Valve’s Jason Holtman explained how Steam Play and Steam Cloud work. “For example, Steam Play, in combination with the Steam Cloud, allows a gamer playing on their work PC to go home and pick up playing the same game at the same point on their home Mac. We expect most developers and publishers to take advantage of Steam Play.”

Really? Are you kidding me?

Rumors of Steam coming to the Mac surfaced in February when users found OS X icons hidden within a beta version of the new UI for their system, and were all but confirmed when Valve themselves released these teasers. All that’s left now is the hardest part: The waiting.

Valve: Steam, games coming to Mac in April originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Valve: Steam, games coming to Mac in April originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software, Developer, iPhone

iQapps has updated their app Trip Journal to version 4.0, and the new update adds a fair bit of functionality to the already pretty impressive set of trip recording and tagging features. As with previous versions, you can track pictures, notes, and maps of your trips, and communicate via a number of social networks and features with friends and family. The newest version allows for either manual or automatic waypointing as you travel around the world, multiple trip management, and hooks into social networks like Google Earth, Picasa, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, straight from the iPhone 3GS’ GPS and video camera.

The app is on sale for 99 cents right now, but it’ll be back to the standard $2.99 price soon. We’ve got an even better deal, however — iQapps has offered five download codes for us to give five lucky commenters on this post. Just leave a comment telling us where you’d like to travel to, and we’ll choose five random winners after 48 hours to win the app for free. Here are the rules:

• Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older.
• To enter leave a comment telling us where you’d like to travel with Trip Journal
• The comment must be left before March 11th, 11:59 PM Eastern Standard Time.
• You may enter only once.
• Five winners will be selected in a random drawing.
• Prizes: Promo Code for one copy of Trip Journal (Value: US$2.99)
• Click Here for complete Official Rules.

Good luck to everyone who enters!

Enter to win Trip Journal 4.0 for the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Enter to win Trip Journal 4.0 for the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Apple Corporate, Multimedia, Software, Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs and the iPad both appeared on TV during last night’s Academy Awards, but they weren’t the extent of Apple’s presence.

Cnet reports this morning that the majority of the “Documentary Feature” and “Documentary Short” nominees — 9 out of 10 in fact — were made using Final Cut Studio, Apple’s professional video editing package. Cnet spoke with some of the filmmakers, including Dan Wilken, online editor of “Food, Inc,” who sung the suite’s praises. “…[switching to Final Cut Studio] made the most sense economically and allowed us to do everything we needed.”

Final Cut isn’t the only professional editing software available but it is the most popular; market research firm SCRI International claim is has a near 50% market share among nonlinear editors.

With this in mind we get an even clearer picture of Steve’s motivation for showing up. Certainly to have fun and experience the show, cheer on Up and other Disney offerings and keep his company and products in the minds of a very lucrative market.

Final Cut dominant among Oscar documentary nominees originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Final Cut dominant among Oscar documentary nominees originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Gaming, Software, iPad

We’ve heard from Secret Exit (creators of Zen Bound) a few times about the new version of their game coming soon, but Touch Arcade has some brand new pics and insight about the game itself. Kotaku also has a few preview pics, and the game looks terrific — not only is it due out in the App Store soon, but we know for sure that it’ll be before April 3rd, because they’re aiming to have a day one iPad version ready to go as well. As you can tell from the pics, it’s going to be just gorgeous — high resolution, a crisp UI with lots of room to breathe, and the same physics-based rope-twisting gameplay as the first game.

Of course, there will probably be at least a few kinks — unless Secret Exit is super lucky, they probably haven’t run the code on an actual iPad just yet, so even if the app is in the store on day one, it might still need a few adjustments once they actually get a production device to run everything on. But these pics only make us even more excited at the possibility for gaming on the iPad — just like we’d never had a mass-market touchscreen device before the iPhone came along, we’ve never had a widespread touchscreen device of this size before, and the bigger screen is going to make a big difference in games like this one for sure.

Zen Bound 2 for iPad out by April 3rd, looks great originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Zen Bound 2 for iPad out by April 3rd, looks great originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Hardware, Software, Apple

With all of the furor around the gigantic patent lawsuit that Apple dropped on HTC this week, you might be forgiven for forgetting about the first big patent smackdown of the year, the lawsuit that Nokia laid at Apple’s door. But a judge in Delaware hasn’t — he ordered a suspension to both the case and its countersuit while the International Trade Commission works out the complaints between the two companies.

Clearly Nokia and Apple have it out for one another, but apparently they’re going to take it one step at a time. Once the ITC has completed its probe, which was scheduled to take 45 days after it agreed to perform the investigation on February 22nd, then the lawsuit will presumably move forward. That’s if it’s still on and not settled by then, although Nokia seems in it to win it, and Apple apparently has enough bandwidth (and legal fees) to pick two fights at once anyway. So bring it, ITC, and then let’s get this show on the road.

[via Macworld]

Judge suspends Apple/Nokia lawsuit pending ITC investigation originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Judge suspends Apple/Nokia lawsuit pending ITC investigation originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Apple Corporate, Software, Apple, Security

A few Apple employees played some musical chairs this week. Executive Pablo Calamera, who was in charge of MobileMe while at Apple, is off to work as the CTO of Thumbplay, a company that peddles ringtones and music to mobile devices.

HR shouldn’t have to change the big “35,000 employed worldwide” sign, though: former Mozilla security chief Window Snyder was picked up by Apple this week. She’ll jump in as a senior security product manager, a job that will take advantage of her work both at Mozilla and previously at Microsoft, where she worked on both Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Sure, she’s got the experience, but has she ever worked for a company that does this for its incoming employees? Didn’t think so.

Incoming, outgoing Apple employees originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Incoming, outgoing Apple employees originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 22:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: OS, Software, Apple, iPhone

There’s one more player in the ongoing the Apple/HTC lawsuit announced the other day. It’s Google, which yesterday admitted that it wasn’t a party to the lawsuit, but that it would “stand behind our Android operating system and the partners who have helped us to develop it.”

Lots of analysts and pundits have pegged the lawsuit as a direct shot across the bow from Apple at the Android OS (and the breakdown of patent claims that our colleagues at Engadget did seems to confirm that, with both old-school and wide-reaching patents matched up with brand new narrow UI claims), and it looks like Google will be coming to the rescue for its OS, if it has to.

What form that rescue might take, we don’t know — it’s possible that Google could provide money, advice, or even lawyers to HTC if it feels that any part of its operating system might be threatened legally. But of course, that all depends on where the case goes — we’re still a long way away from the point where these companies would have to go before a judge and make their case. It certainly seems like Apple is in this one for the long haul, but if it all comes down to a check, Google may end up signing it as well.

Google responds to Apple lawsuit against HTC originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Google responds to Apple lawsuit against HTC originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software, Productivity, Tips and tricks

Mac OS X’s Automator has the ability to perform specific tasks from its given set of actions. For example, with a Finder-based action, you can batch move copy, move or rename files that fit a certain criteria. Similarly, image-based actions allow you to batch edit images, be it resizing, rotating or changing their file type (i.e., from JPG to PNG or vice versa).

However, there may be situations that call for more unique tasks to be performed. And this is where Automator’s “Watch Me Do” feature may come in handy. It performs keyboard- and mouse-based actions based on your movements and inputs during a Watch Me Do session.

To initiate a Watch Me Do session, launch Automator and choose a template (you can incorporate it into an existing Automator workflow, service or app as well). Then, click on the “Record” button in the upper right hand corner. A small grey translucent window with an Automator icon will now appear in the upper left hand corner indicating that your inputs and movements are being recorded; to stop recording, just click on the stop button.

The whole concept is similar to how you’d record a macro in Microsoft Excel. [Whoops, bad example, as macro recording isn't in the VBA-free Excel 2008 version. How about QuicKeys instead? -Ed.]

I’ve found Watch Me Do actions particularly handy, especially when I’m too lazy to figure out how to do something in AppleScript.

Watch Me Do requires that you enable access for assistive devices, so you’ll need to hop on over to the “Seeing” pane within the Universal Access section of Mac OS X’s System Preferences.

Yes, Automator really can learn by watching you.

Mac OS X’s Automator: I learned it by watching you! originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Mac OS X’s Automator: I learned it by watching you! originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software, Freeware, iTunes, iPhone

Since moving to LA, I haven’t quite had to deal with the potholes that Spring in Chicago usually brings (not that roads are any better out here, but at least they don’t have to deal with all of the freezing and thawing). But despite the yearly flat tires and ruined alignments, Chicago hasn’t gone quite as far as Boston, where the city government has developed not one but two apps to enable its citizens to report on potholes and other city issues.

Citizens Connect is an app developed late last year by the city that enables locals to report graffiti, potholes, broken streetlights, and other urban issues in the Boston area, and now they’re working on a new app, nicknamed BUMP (for Boston Urban Mechanic Profiler), that will automatically transmit road conditions to a central database using the iPhone’s accelerometer and data connection. That seems tough to do with all of the extra noise that must come from an accelerometer, but they are working with a researcher from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, so maybe they will be able to pull it off. Interesting to see metropolitan areas like this using newer technology to keep an eye on what’s up in their city. Of course, actually fixing the potholes will take a little more work, but knowing what’s wrong is helpful.

Boston creates app to report road problems originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Boston creates app to report road problems originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Gaming, Software

Even I was dubious about the rumor the other day of Steam coming to the Mac, but now here’s something straight from Valve hinting that it might actually happen. MacRumors got an image of Half-Life’s Gordon Freeman via email… with an Apple logo on his chest. MacNN got another picture, this one showing turrets from Portal and Team Fortress 2 parodying the “I’m a Mac” ads. And Shacknews got a third, with the Heavy from TF2 eating a sandwich shaped like an Apple logo in a parody of the iPod dancing ads.

Oh Lordy. Looks like Valve is planning to make a Mac announcement, and while it might not be quite as far-reaching as bringing the whole platform over, they might as well start with all of their blockbuster games. It’s also possible that this is related to the secret message hunt going on the PC version of Portal, which itself seemed to be hinting at an announcement of Portal 2 or even the long-awaited Half-Life 3.

Whatever the announcement, it looks like Valve will have something to tell us at GDC next week. I’ll be there with ears open — if we hear that Valve is bringing some or all of their catalog to our platform, you’ll be the first to know.

Update: Our game-obsessed friends at Joystiq have gotten copies of five of the images (there appear to be six total, according to the dots on the image above), and you can see them all in the gallery below. The rest of the images show the Steam platform itself, and Francis from Left 4 Dead. Awesome.

Update 2: Looks like Macworld got the last image. You hurt us, Valve. But we still love you anyway — how can we not after seeing that “rest of us” ad parody for Steam below?

Valve teases a Mac release of Half-Life, Portal, Team Fortress 2 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Valve teases a Mac release of Half-Life, Portal, Team Fortress 2 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Gaming, Software

Sam and Max voted as next Telltale franchise on the Mac originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Sam and Max voted as next Telltale franchise on the Mac originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Multimedia, Software, iPhone, App Store

Baseball season is almost here (Spring training starts this week), and with it comes a brand new version of Major League Baseball’s great iPhone app. MLB.com At Bat 2010 is out now on the App Store, and for $14.99, you get the same great app you bought last year: live scores, streaming audio of all the games around the league, and available video of games via an in-app purchase.

There’s no lite version yet, but last year MLB released a free version sans audio and video, so if you just want the scores, you can wait and see when that one shows up.

Meanwhile, if you want official baseball info beamed straight to your phone all year long, this app is the way to go. While there are definitely lots of other apps that will hook you up with scores and alerts for a much cheaper price, the MLB app is a quality way to get information straight from the league. Especially if you’re going to be following baseball closely all year, the $15, while steep for an iPhone app, is definitely worth it. Personally, I can’t wait for this season to start. Play ball!

MLB.com At Bat 2010 out now originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

MLB.com At Bat 2010 out now originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Retail, Software, Internet, iPad

John Siracusa drew my attention to an article by Macmillan CEO John Sargent on the agency model, availability and price, in which he says that the company actually plans to keep their hardcover/paperback separation even while selling ebooks. While new hardcover ebooks will sell for $14.99 and $12.99 (”a tremendous discount from the price of the printed hardcover books”), the company will aim to sell “ebook editions of paperback new releases” for as low as $6.99. As Siracusa goes on to say, “now let us all sit back and ponder the concept of ‘paperback’ and ‘hardcover’ ebooks.”

Macmillan is sticking with an old pricing scheme even in a brand new marketplace. Just what exactly makes the difference between a “hardcover ebook” and a “paperback ebook”? Read on to find out.

Continue reading Macmillan trying to sell readers ‘hardcover’ ebooks

Macmillan trying to sell readers ‘hardcover’ ebooks originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Macmillan trying to sell readers ‘hardcover’ ebooks originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Gaming, Software, Freeware, iPhone, App Store

Two major league games have hit the App Store already this week, one of them for the surprise price of free. Ubisoft has released the multiplayer version of their Assassin’s Creed II game on the App Store, and it’s available for free for the first 48 hours. The game’s a top-down multiplayer game that has you walking around the world of the console version, both targeting other players and being targeted yourself. All the reports say it’s definitely worth a try, and if you can catch it before they raise the price back up (sounds like Ubisoft is trying to find a place for their releases), you should.

And as expected, Rayman 2 is also out on the App Store — it’s a port of the 3D Playstation platformer that was actually a Ubisoft property, but as you can see from the trailer above, this one’s been ported by Gameloft. As with most iPhone platformers, the game uses virtual controls, but Touch Arcade says they work just fine. The save system is the biggest issue — your iPhone is not the best platform for playing games for long stretches of time, and any game that kicks you back out to a menu if you happen to step away for a second will cause frustration eventually. Still, it sounds like a solid platformer port, and there are certainly fans of those out there. The game is $6.99 on the App Store right now.

Assassin’s Creed II multiplayer, Rayman 2 out now on the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Assassin’s Creed II multiplayer, Rayman 2 out now on the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software, iPad

As we move closer to the iPad’s release date, more information is becoming available regarding 3rd-party content. Just this week, an internal memo from Condé Nast revealed the list of the first of the magazines that will be initially available for the device. They are:

1. GQ
2. Vanity Fair
3. Wired
4. Glamour
5. The New Yorker

Expect GQ to be the first one available, either at or directly after the iPad’s launch. Vanity Fair and Wired should be available in June, while launch schedules for Glamour and The New Yorker are unclear.

Condé Nast’s editorial director, Thomas Wallace, noted that there’s an experimental aspect to releasing these publications for the iPad. These titles will be used to test pricing and advertising strategies. It won’t be easy, as distribution will be handled via iTunes, and Apple doesn’t share reader data.

Last week, we saw what may be a list of the books that will be available for purchase at launch, including bestselling fiction, non-fiction and autobiography titles. iBooks is going to be a huge part of the iPad, and at this point we can’t wait to get it started.

Condé Nast reveals initial list of iPad magazines originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Condé Nast reveals initial list of iPad magazines originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Gaming, Software, Apple, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

Good news for fans of good games: the terrific DS courtroom simulator (which, trust me, sounds much less fun than it actually is) Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney is coming to the iPhone, and Slide to Play has posted some hands-on video. The game takes the two DS screens and stacks them on top of each other rather than converting the game into a landscape version, so it’s basically a straight port of the DS game. It’d be interesting to see a more iPhone-specific version of the game (maybe something that uses the camera or the accelerometer to show off evidence in the courtroom), but we’ll take just the port, too — if you haven’t played any of the Phoenix Wright games but enjoy a good adventure yarn, you’re in for a treat. The game should be out “soon.”

Hexen II is on its way to the iPhone as well, and Touch Arcade has a few screens and video of that one. I was much more of a Quake fan, but Hexen, with its medieval setting and RPG elements placed in the same game engine, had its share of followers back in the day, too. Unfortunately, Vimov doesn’t yet have the rights to Hexen II — they’re just working with an open-sourced version of the engine. To actually release the data on the App Store, they’ll need to make a deal with Activision, so we’ll have to wait and see if that can happen before you can start hacking and slashing through the world of the Serpent Riders again.

Phoenix Wright, Hexen II coming to the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Phoenix Wright, Hexen II coming to the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Hardware, Multimedia, Software, Apple, Developer

We met them while they were shooting on the Apple Campus, and now the creators of the Dutch site onemorething.nl have posted their interview with Apple sound designer Jim Reekes (who also appears in Welcome To Macintosh). They met up with Reekes while at Macworld in San Francisco a little while back — he’s the guy that programmed most of the sound in the early days, including the famous Mac startup chime and the legendary “sosumi” chime. What’s most interesting to me is all of the math behind it — while making music is traditionally seen as an art, there’s a lot of technical know how and information that actually went into the sound’s creation. Essentially, you’re creating a beep that has to represent a brand, and that mix of technical data with artistic representation is fascinating.

Plus, Reekes definitely seems like a guy who’s been around both the technical and musical blocks a few times before, and it’s cool to hear him pontificate on all of the hard work he did back in the day. It’s also interesting to see someone who has such a personal tie to a sound that is so ubiquitous and means so much to so many people — an “ear-con,” he calls it. Very nice interview.

Interview with the creator of the Apple startup sound originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Interview with the creator of the Apple startup sound originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, iPad

Would you like to add a second line to your iPhone? Perhaps you’d like to add a business number to the phone, but your existing phone is currently tied to your personal mobile number. You could always carry a second phone, but that’s an expensive proposition, particularly if you’re an iPhone addict.

VoIP provider Toktumi has a solution that may work out well for you. They’re now selling an app called Line2 (US$0.99) that mimics many of the capabilities of the standard Phone app, complete with a form of visual voice mail. Purchasing the app provides you with one month of free VoIP service. After that point, each month’s continued service costs $14.95 for unlimited calls within the US and Canada. The service is purchased in-app, and was a point of confusion for me — the app listing in the iTunes store shows a “Top In App Purchase” at a cost of $19.99 for a month. Toktumi’s website and the promotional video (above) do show the lower monthly rate.

While many VoIP solutions require a Wi-Fi connection to work, Line2 works over both 3G and Wi-Fi. The app has many of the features you might want in a business phone, including call waiting and call transfer, the ability to create conference calls with up to 20 participants, and even integration with Toktumi’s hosted PBX service.

For small businesses that want to present a more professional image to callers, Line2 might be just the right solution. Toktumi notes that the app also works with both the iPod touch (Wi-Fi only) and iPad (Wi-Fi or 3G).

Line2 adds a second line to your iPhone for $15 a month originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Line2 adds a second line to your iPhone for $15 a month originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Gaming, Software

Telltale Games recently held a Mac revolution, and that was a nice piece of news for Mac gamers, but this would be a “game-changer”: Valve may be considering bringing their Steam platform over to the Mac. They released the beta version of the new UI for their digital game delivery system, and a few users found some “OSX” icons hidden in the game files.

Unfortunately, that makes this just a rumor (it’s certainly possible the icons were simply included in some stray bit of code, as they appear to be simple window controls, not actual game code), but if there’s anything to this at all, it would be huge for us Mac gamers: Steam comprises a gigantic library of present and classic PC games, and bringing even a portion of them over to the Mac would be terrific. CrossOver Games has been working with Steam in the past, and they already have most of Steam’s biggest games up and running on the Mac platform through emulation. If there’s a partnership between the two companies, or if Steam is planning to take advantage of the demand for their games running on OS X, that would be great.

We’ll keep our eyes open. Ever since Apple switched over to Intel, there’s been more potential than ever for Mac gaming, and Steam on the platform would be amazing.

Rumor: Steam coming to the Mac? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Rumor: Steam coming to the Mac? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Hardware, Software, iPhone, App Store

Adafruit is one of a few companies that has been chosen to test the Square dongle that automagically takes credit card payments on any iPhone. Even though we got to see it in action at Macworld, I think every look we can get at this thing is worth it, considering just how darn revolutionary it seems. The video on Flickr shows just how quick and easy it is — just swipe the card, and sign with your finger on the iPhone’s screen.

I haven’t bothered carrying cash for a few years now, and something like this only makes it easier to not only take payments for vendors, but for me to pay. Hot dog guy needs a few bucks but doesn’t have a landline connection to run a credit card on? No worries, just swipe and done. Want to give to the Salvation Army guy over the holidays but don’t have any money left in the wallet? Just swipe and done. Word has it that the transaction cut will be 2.9% (though the video above shows 3.5% — maybe you can change the percentage depending on circumstances), but odds are that in most cases, the convenience will be well worth it.

The whole program’s still in beta, but it probably won’t be long before you’ll see (and maybe even use) one of these out in the wild.

[Via Engadget]

Adafruit shows off the Square dongle for credit card payments on the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Adafruit shows off the Square dongle for credit card payments on the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Enterprise, Software

Parallels has announced a new version of Parallels Server for Mac called the Mac Bare Metal Edition. It’s optimized to provide better performance for virtual machines running on an Xserve, and allows multiple, isolated virtual machines to run simultaneously on the same server. Using “hypervisor” server virtualization, system administrators can run, say, Snow Leopard Server, Windows 7 and Linux all at once.

In case you’re curious, a hypervisor is a virtual machine monitor which directly controls the hardware (”bare metal”) of the host machine without using device drivers from another operating system. At least, that’s how I understand it.

A new utility, Parallels Virtual Automation, also provides an extended set of tools for managing, monitoring and maintaining virtual machines.

This is the first “bare metal” hypervisor for Intel-powered Apple machines, and it sounds pretty cool. I’m not in a position to try this out, but I’d welcome feedback from readers who get their hands on a copy and put it to the test. Single licenses of Parallels Server for Mac Bare Metal Edition are priced at US$1,248.75, and there’s a trial download available.

Parallels gets down to bare metal with new server software originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Parallels gets down to bare metal with new server software originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Gaming, Software, Developer, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

PopCap has released some sales information on their latest iPhone game, Plants vs. Zombies, and it’s a runaway hit: the game has sold over 300,000 copies in just the nine days it’s been out on the App Store, which means the company has garnered over $1 million in sales already. Very impressive — first, we had an app make a million total, then a company was making a million a month, and now PopCap has done the same in just over a week.

So what’s their secret? It’s a high quality game, first of all, and PopCap has a reputation for making those already. Second, the game itself had a fairly high profile even before release, since it was extremely successful on the PC as well. And finally, you have to think that the price figures in as well — I thought the game would sell for PopCap’s usual $5, but they actually sold it two dollars less than that. They’d probably have still made a lot of money, but I don’t know if they’d be talking about 300,000 sales at a price just two dollars higher.

Then again, the game is already available for free online, so maybe the quality and PopCap’s profile played a bigger part than the price did (they also trumpet the fact that Bejeweled 2 is also one of the top five grossing apps on the App Store). Congrats to PopCap on all their success. Oh, and our free time called, too. It surrenders.

Plants vs. Zombies breaks records on the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Plants vs. Zombies breaks records on the iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Multimedia, Software, Apple TV

Boxee recently released a brand new version of their beta software, but unfortunately, that build didn’t happen to work on the Apple TV. That’s now been fixed, however, and you can now get the USB flash drive creator app that will give you a patchstick to install the latest version on that Apple box hooked up to your television. Here’s a quick FAQ on the whole process if you need a little help with it, but it sounds pretty straightforward: set up the patchstick, power up the AppleTV with patchstick installed, and enjoy. And even if you have alpha currently installed, you can just put the stick in and upgrade to the beta, no worries.

That’s some very impressive and quick work by a bunch of people who aren’t obligated to do this at all (there are a few XBMC devs on the team as well, and the patchstick will allow you to install XBMC also, if you’d like).

Boxee back on Apple TV originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Boxee back on Apple TV originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Rumors, Software, iPhone, App Store

Sometimes you can’t win for losing. A few weeks ago, I was talking to fellow blogger and all-around genius Brett Terpstra about how I wished there was a full-text search for iPhone mail. He told me that there was, and it was called reMail. I immediately downloaded the free app, paid the US $3.99 for the in-app feature of using IMAP mailboxes, and reMail started downloading copies of all my mail. This took overnight, but so what? When done, I could search on any word or term just like the Macintosh Mail application, and be rewarded with a listing of all the incidences of the term in my 3,000 or so email messages in a fraction of a second.

This worked like a dream. I immediately put reMail on my home screen and was happy. At least, that was, until last week when I read that Gabor Cselle, reMail’s creator, announced that the app was being put out to pasture, and was immediately being removed from the App Store. Google both bought the app and hired Gabor to be a Product Manager on the Gmail team.

As a nice gesture, Gabor decided to keep supporting reMail until the end of March and make the two in-app purchases free. Along with IMAP support, you could also buy the option of having it work with Rackspace email. And thus started the conspiracy theories. Techcrunch surmised that this could be another shot over the bow in the Apple-Google smartphone war, and that Google bought the technology to kill it off, so Apple couldn’t buy it first. There may be something to that since reMail is arguably a better mail app than the one that built into the iPhone.

On the other hand, it may be that Google, seeing a widening of the search market, wants to build reMail’s functionality into another product. It would be foolish, in my opinion to not do so. Google has worked with Cselle before as part of the Gmail team and knows what he can do. With reMail as part of the bargain, he’s more important to them than during his earlier tenure.

There is a rumor floating around that someone has reverse-engineered reMail and will release it as open source. This could be interesting and may change the game, but it may be just a rumor. Whatever happens, it’ll be intriguing to keep your eye on the evolution of mail apps on smartphones, and to learn just what Google has in mind.

Full text searches on the iPhone? There WAS an app for that. originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Full text searches on the iPhone? There WAS an app for that. originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software

After a four year absence, the next version of Quicken for the Mac is here. It’s called Quicken Essentials for Mac and is a ground up Cocoa rewrite. I’ve been using the program for a few weeks now. Is it worth the wait? Well that depends what you need in your financial software.

When I interviewed Aaron Patzer, VP/GM of Intuit’s Personal Finance Group, he was quick to point out that it’s called Quicken Essentials for a reason: “It’s called Essentials because it’s what we consider to be essential for most users – about 80% of users. We went to people’s homes and watched them use it. The majority of them just want to know: How much do I have? How much do I owe? How much do I spend on gas and food? How many times do I go to this restaurant? How many times do I go to Starbucks? What investments do I have? Let me set a budget to control my spending.”

If an easy overview of your financial life is the goal Intuit had in mind, they’ve outdone themselves. The first thing you’ll notice is the completely redesigned interface. Gone is the horrible toolbar navigation with multiple windows. Quicken Essentials has got that familiar streamlined iTunes/iLife look and feel with all your accounts, reports, budgets, and tools nicely displayed in a source list. It’s single window interface makes it easy for the user to get a complete snapshot of all their finances. The interactive pie charts are snappy and responsive, and the built-in reports make it easy to view your checking, savings, and investing accounts.

Continue reading Quicken Essentials for Mac now available

Quicken Essentials for Mac now available originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Quicken Essentials for Mac now available originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Gaming, Software, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

Here’s a quick look at three games for the iPhone and iPod touch we’ve gotten a chance to play lately.

Alchemize is an interesting twist on the old Tetris/Dr. Mario dropping block gameplay. The idea is that you twist and drop pairs of potions that will match up whenever three of the same kind touch each other, and then leave one transmuted element of the next level in their place. There are five different modes to play as well, including an Avalanche mode that will drop a line of elements on the field if you fail to make a match in a certain time frame, and even a Bejeweled-style timed mode with a full field of elements to switch around for matches. The game is a lot of fun to pick up and play, and while the graphics aren’t much more than sprites, the gameplay (and the music) more than make up for any disappointment in that area. If you enjoy a good dropping-block game, you’ll like this one, too. It’s $2.99 but has been known to go on sale occasionally.

Two more quick plays after the “Read More” link below.

Continue reading TUAW Quick Plays: Alchemize, Dizzypad, Alice in Wonderland

TUAW Quick Plays: Alchemize, Dizzypad, Alice in Wonderland originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW Quick Plays: Alchemize, Dizzypad, Alice in Wonderland originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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