The new Mac Pro finally went on sale this morning with initial orders shipping by December 30th. After only a few hours of being on sale, shipping estimates slipped to February for all configurations.
Now Apple is saying that it will be awhile before it can catch up with demand.
Thanks to the rise of the iPhone and iPad, Windows users are switching over the Mac in greater number than ever. If you’ve spent your entire computer life playing in Windows, you’ve probably accumulated quite a few apps in your toolkit that are Windows-only and letting them go during the switch ain’t easy.
For those Mac users that are having trouble letting go, but don’t want to throw down money on a new Windows-license just to use a couple apps, CrossOver 13 for Mac will let you install and run popular Windows software without having to reboot into a separate Windows partition.
Coding seems incredibly complicated – and many aspects of it are. And when you decide you’re going to start to try to learn to do it, figuring out where to begin can be just as complicated. Whether you’re trying to figure out what platform you’ll use, whether you’ll take on a self-paced course or one you are scheduled to attend, or what type of code matters most to you first, there are plenty of choices to make before you even get started.
This Cult of Mac Deals offer takes the guesswork out of the equation. Why? Because we’re offering The Coding For Beginners Video Course for only $69 – a savings of 88% – for a limited time.
When the original iPod launched, it was a very different beast to the svelte little beauties we know today. They were large, they only worked with Macs and they synced via bulky Firewire cables. Nonetheless, they were the best music players around at the time, and they made you feel proud to be an Apple fan-boy and to own a Mac.
Back then, the web unboxing meme hadn’t taken off, and yet all the love, care and attention that Apple puts into their packaging was already present. So I thought it would be a fitting tribute to unbox an original iPod as if it was the latest toy to be “Designed in Cupertino, CA.” Enjoy…
Back in 1984, Apple released the first Macintosh home computer, a magnificent piece of vintage computer design that would shape the destiny of the next 25 years of Apple’s corporate history.
What would it have been like to pull a vintage Macintosh 128K out of the box? To first separate the keyboard from its styrofoam lining? To first snap open the hard plastic floppy disc case? To first learn how to use MacWrite using an audio tape?
Over on eBay, one seller has been trying to sell a vintage Macintosh, still in box with complete documentation, equipment and even packaging. In his attempts to sell his prize, he has given us all a treat: a wonderfully thorough and loving unboxing of what it would have been like to open a vintage Macintosh up for the first time.
Since eBay items disappear when the auction ends, we’ve archived these incredible unboxing pics on our servers. Prepare to see a lot of them below.
It’s been three days since Apple released OS X 10.9.1 to the public, and today developers received the first beta of 10.9.2. No new features are named by Apple, but devs are asked to focus on Mail, Messages, VPN, Graphics Drivers, and VoiceOver.
This Mavericks beta will likely undergo several updates for devs before Apple releases it in the coming months to everyone in the Mac App Store.
Update: FaceTime over Audio has been discovered in today’s beta. Here’s what it looks like:
Look: We know that not every iOS game is perfect. They all have their little quirks and irregularities and some are flat-out broken. But among those that are actually playable, some contain a core mechanic that stumbles somewhere along the way. And maybe it’s a cool idea, but it feels like it could just be executed a little better.
That’s where this series comes in.
We round up games that are not necessarily bad but just fall short in some area, and we suggest other titles that do it better — so your brand-new iDevice become a gaming machine that you’ll never want to put down.
Culprit 1: Alpha Zen
The Issue: Wasted potential.
Alpha Zen is a cool enough idea: It’s a puzzle game that has you fitting words together crossword-style to fit within a defined space. But that’s basically it.
It’s not so much that it’s too easy to put the words together. It’s that your payoff for doing so is really small. You got those words to fit into that box, and now what? I guess it’s on to the next set of words and the next oddly shaped box. It doesn’t give you much to admire or appreciate, and no sense of progress.
It’s not a bad game, though. It’s just short on satisfaction.
The Solution: The Room and The Room 2
These puzzle games, on the other hand, are about nothing but payoff.
The Room and its sequel have you solving mysterious puzzle boxes, examining clues, and always wondering what the hell is going on, and while you never quite figure it out (I don’t think; it’s actually kind of vague), it’s the process of getting there that’s so satisfying.
Some rooms start you off with a simple box, but after you’ve spent 20 minutes prodding it and examining its various secret compartments, maybe it ends up as a pyramid. Or it’s opened up to reveal intricate and beautiful mechanisms. Or a freaking laser comes out of it.
All of these things are awesome, and maybe it’s not fair to expect “words in a space” to live up to that, but I do know which one I’d rather spend an hour on.
Culprit 2: The Simpsons: Tapped Out
The Issue: Cynical and imagination-stifling
The Simpsons: Tapped Out presents players with an interesting scenario: What if the entire fictional town of Springfield were suddenly and unceremoniously wiped off the map? How would you rebuild it?
And then you start playing it and you find out: You’d rebuild it one building at a time and with massive delays in between. Tapped Out is one of those dreaded “freemium” games which attempts to extract money from players by refusing to let them play it. Restoring a building takes time, and players can run down the clock with an in-app purchase. Or they can wait or just delete the app like I did.
Even outside of that chicanery is the fact that what you’re really building is another person’s world. You might decide where the Kwik-E-Mart and the nuclear power plant go, but they’re still prefabricated pieces of an already existing world. So whatever your configuration, you’re building Springfield.
And if you’re going to start with a blank slate and build a world, why not make it your own?
The Solution: Minecraft: Pocket Edition
Yeah, I mean, this is pretty obvious.
The biggest world-building game since Sim City is almost the exact opposite of Tapped Out‘s ready-made building blocks. It has blocks, sure, but what you build with them is up to you.
Minecraft in all its various incarnations is basically what I hoped the Lego tie-in games would be: “Here are some blocks, go make whatever you want. And also, look out for monsters.” Because you need monsters, you know.
While both games promote patience, the types they encourage are diametrically opposed. Tapped Out teaches the patience of refusal: “If you wait, you’ll get this.” Minecraft, on the other hand, gives you the patience of creation: “If you take your time and plan, you can make this world exactly how you want it to be.”
Which sounds better?
Culprit 3: The Infinity Blade series
The Issue: Repetitive and grind-crazed.
The Infinity Blade series is a mobile juggernaut because of its slick production values, epic plot, and simple gameplay. It’s also incredibly boring, and the series’ overarching plot, which involves generations of a family attempting the same quest over and over and a battle against beings that can die repeatedly and still come back, actually serves as a metaphor for the experience of playing it.
Success in Infinity Blade requires proper gear, and getting proper gear demands that you fight the same battles several times with little variation. You can speed things up by exchanging real money for in-game currency, but that just makes you better equipped to do the same thing.
The combat is at least interesting, though; it requires pattern recognition and a sense of rhythm and timing. But it’s all you do, and it doesn’t offer much variety because that’s more or less how that whole “infinity” thing works.
The Solution: Bit.Trip Run!
I didn’t cut developer Gaijin’s running-based rhythm-game-in-disguise a whole lot of slack when I reviewed it last month, but an update with new control schemes means it’s worth checking out again.
Run! tasks you with guiding the brave, perpetually running Commander Video through a bunch of colorful worlds rife with obstacles and hurdles to overcome. Like in Infinity Blade, timing and rhythm are crucial, but where Bit.Trip wins out is in its variety. The Commander must run, slide, kick, jump, and use a shield to keep moving forward, and the individual levels provide enough different barriers that it keeps you focused and challenged.
Plus, the narrator is the guy who does the voice for Mario, and that’s just straight-up awesome.
Culprit 4: Draw Something
The Issue: Neither social nor cooperative
Draw Something isn’t nearly what it used to be, but when it came out last year, it seemed like everyone was playing it. If you aren’t among “everyone,” here’s how it works: One person chooses one of three objects and draws it and then their friend tries to guess what the drawing is. It’s like playing Pictionary without having to be at a lame party.
People were crazy about this game, but they missed its critical flaw: Despite being a game you could play with your friends, it contained no social interaction or any real need for cooperation. You’d be looking at a crappy drawing of a gorilla with your friend’s name on it, but the fact remained that for all the “fun” you two were having “together,” anyone in the world could have drawn that half-assed gorilla.
It’s also hard to think of a game for which the cost of losing is lower than this one’s. If the other person guesses correctly, you earn coins that you can use to unlock more colors to draw with terribly. If you lose, the next round starts. That’s it. Draw Something tries to trick you by including a “Winning streak” counter, but it really doesn’t mean or do anything.
The Solution: Spaceteam
Just look at this.
Do you see all those people in the same room working together to complete a task? Doesn’t that seem, I don’t know, pretty social? Don’t they all look happier than any Draw Something player you’ve ever seen in your life?
Spaceteam is a multi-player extravaganza in which a team of players take the roles of a spaceship crew. Everyone has his or her own oddly named control panel on their screen, and the game displays adjustments that need adjusting. When the instructions appear, the player calls them out, and the person with the appropriate console flips the switch or turns the dial or whatever. Every once in a while, everyone has to shake or invert their devices to avoid imaginary wormholes.
Is there any part of that that doesn’t sound like a good time with your friends? Next to that, is there any part of Draw Something that does?
When Apple announced a completely redesigned Mac Pro this past summer, the biggest question mark was the price tag. As a company that’s known for selling quality hardware at a premium, would Apple price the Mac Pro ultra-competitively or stick to its infamous ‘Apple tax’?
Well, the most expensive Mac Pro you can buy costs nearly 10K by itself. For normal people, that’s a hard price to swallow. But with two base configurations and plenty of build-to-order options, the real pros have no trouble dropping cash on Apple’s new powerhouse.
Here’s what a maxed out Mac Pro looks like:
The Apache helicopter in Apache Candy is more like a friend to Jay Jay the Jet Plane than a fierce combat copter. He’s the little pink and purple avenger that could, and all he wants is to collect candy.
Apache Candy is another infinite side-scrolling shooter on iOS, but the cheery graphics are what drew me to it. It reminds me of the retro game Twinbee and other cute-em-up shooters that have you blasting your way through screen after screen of adorable-yet-lethal enemies. Apache Candy is nowhere near as deep–you’re really only collecting candy and trying not to die–but the look was enough to satisfy.
The Mac Pro has been on sale for barely 12 hours, and most buyers haven’t even gotten their hands on it yet, but that hasn’t stopped Apple from releasing a firmware update. Today the company put out EFI Firmware Update 2.0 in the Mac App Store.
“This update improves system reliability during reboot, resolves an issue with memory self-test, and improves graphics power management when using Boot Camp,” notes Apple. You can also grab it directly from Apple’s website.
Source: Apple
If you haven’t already ordered a new Mac Pro on Apple’s website, don’t count on it arriving before the holidays are over. Shipping estimates for Apple’s just-released Pro have been pushed back to February, which is a sure sign that the computer is facing significant supply constraints.
After being on sale for less than a day, a quick visit to the online Apple store will show that every Mac Pro configuration won’t ship until February. The fact that Apple didn’t start selling it until the latest possible moment in 2013 also speaks to stock shortages. Apple had promised all year that the product would ship by the end of 2013, and it barely fulfilled that promise.
And if you think you’ll be able to just waltz into an Apple Store and pick one up, good luck. Apple’s business clients have had their pick of the litter by now. It’s worth calling an authorized reseller in your area if you’re that desperate, but getting your hands on a Mac Pro before February will be quite the stroke of good luck.
Source: Apple Store
Australian-based developer Halfbrick is at it again, with free-to-play Colossatron: Massive World Threat, now available around the globe.
You’ll take on the role of the humungous mechanical robot Colossatron on your quest to utterly destroy city after city, using various colored robotic modules to give your wanton destruction just a little extra oomph.
Yeah, color-matching doesn’t sound that fun, but this one? It really is.
One of Instagram’s biggest faults is that it lacks an official iPad app. And it doesn’t look like the Facebook-owned service has any plans for Apple’s tablet in the near future.
Many third-party apps have attempted to offer a viable iPad experience for Instagram, and I’ve tried most of them. I haven’t found one that I actually want to use regularly until I tried Flow, a new iPad app for Instagram that was released today in the App Store.
If you’ve been looking for the best way to use Instagram on the iPad’s larger display, look no further.
In an era where Snapchat and Instagram reign supreme with quick messaging and bite-size snapshots of stories, iPhone users looking for a free platform to share long stories have had to make do with ugly workarounds – like stuffing seven pictures into one tiny Instagram square.
No one has built a really great free iPhone app that allows users to effortlessly create and share long interactive stories. Explory is aiming to break into the category by helping users combine photos, video, text, music and narration to create more meaningful stories to share. But can a free app with limited editing features convince users to ditch their 10-second disappearing messages in favor of longer storytelling? We went hands on with Explory to see. Here’s what we found:
Big Questions? Short Answers! — Entertainment — Free ($2.99 for full unlock)
This strange little app contains 400 questions of varying philosophical value and only gives you 140 characters with which to answer them. The idea is to let you browse through other people’s responses in order to discover varying viewpoints and share your own. It remains to be seen whether this project will live up to its potential or if “lots n lots of candy” is the norm, but you throw caution and cogency to the wind when you ask anonymous people on the Internet to think seriously.
The Colossatron is a mysterious, robotic dragon-thing that drops out of space specifically to destroy cities. Nobody knows what it is or where it came from; all we know is that it must be destroyed before it destroys us.
Nobody even knows how to control it, and that includes anyone playing the game.
Colossatron: Massive World Threat is the latest from Jetpack Joyride developer Halfbrick, and it’s the studio’s most esoteric title yet. And this is the team that also made a game about chopping fruit while avoiding bombs that, while possessing fuses, apparently only explode if they get cut.
So, yeah. It’s even weirder than that.
Google has re-released its MyGlass companion app for Google Glass in the iOS App Store. The app was briefly available a couple days ago, but Google pulled it and issued a statement saying that it was actually meant to release alongside the XE12 firmware update for Glass. Now that it is out, looks like MyGlass for iPhone has the green light.
Here’s what the app looks like:
No matter how you feel about Apple and the iPhone, it’s impossible to deny that the device completely revolutionized the mobile industry when it was launched in 2007. Without it, the smartphones of today may have been completely different.
Take Android, for example. It’s the biggest competitor to the iOS operating system that powers the iPhone, and it’s now the world’s largest mobile platform — but the iPhone is the reason Android is what it is today. Google started work on the software way back in 2005, but it scrapped everything and started again the day after iPhone was revealed to the world.
I’ve let friends borrow my Macbook when they come over to my place from time to time, and I’m still surprised by the way they don’t “get” the trackpad. Some of them look for the button to click, some want to know how to right click, and still others move the mouse cursor way over to the scroll bar area on the web browser, looking to move the page up or down.
So, I figured it might be time for a quick tip with some easy yet non-obvious Trackpad gestures that you can use if you’re new to the Macbook trackpad system, or if you just want to send to friends that continue to be baffled by the trackpad when they borrow your laptop.
Coinciding with the launch of its new Mac Pro, Apple has released an update to Final Cut Pro X — adding new Mac Pro-optimized features to the video editing suite.
The update comes as no surprise, since Apple let us know it would be happening during the WWDC back in June. What wasn’t revealed at that stage, however, was the list of new features carried by the software.
Cut the Rope is one of the most popular App Store games of all time, and rightly so. When it launched way back in 2010, it was an original concept. Physics-based puzzlers are all the rage now, but Cut the Rope was one of the first good ones. Since then, ZeptoLab has continually updated the game with new features and levels, including spinoff releases like Cut the Rope: Holiday Gift, Cut the Rope: Experiments, and Cut the Rope: Time Travel.
The original Cut the Rope has been downloaded over 100 million times, which is insane. That’s why the full-blown sequel has been highly anticipated. And after months of teasing, it’s finally here.
Filed under “S” for “Stalling” and “Still waiting” is the Apple-China Mobile deal, which remains yet to materialize.
In place of the expected announcement, China Mobile chairman Xi Guohua said on Wednesday morning that his company currently has no announcement to make on a deal to carry the iPhone — although he hoped to reveal one soon.
“China Mobile has yet to reach an agreement with Apple, but good news deserves to be waited for, and we expect to release cooperation information soon,” he said.
Yesterday, reacting to the news that Spotify was getting a darker look on the Mac, we despaired that it would ever catch up to the aesthetic appeal of Rdio.
As if they heard our words, Rdio widened the gap a little more today, releasing a new update that contains not only iOS 7-oriented UI improvements, but a notable new feature as well.
First announced last week, Chair Entertainment’s incredible hack-and-slash game Infinity Blade III has received a massive update today, adding 3 new quests, 9 new enemies, new modes, skills, goals, potions, gems, and more to an already feature-packed game.
A video has surfaced showing Bill Clinton speaking to Time magazine about Steve Jobs shortly after Jobs’ death.
The interview sees Clinton touch on various topics: his own interaction with Jobs over the years, the launch of the original iPhone, and Jobs’ fight against cancer.
