Tech
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Written by Russ Crandall
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Tuesday, 09 March 2010 21:35 |
It's a little-known fact that four-fifths of theeasymode.com staff (or 80%….MATH!) uses Apple products as our primary computers. It's also a little-known fact that all five-fiths of us like to play these things called video games. Personally, I've loaded Windows onto my beautiful, shiny 27" iMac just so I can play PC games from time to time. But when it comes down to it, I'd much rather play games on my iMac natively rather than boot up Windows. This is why Valve's announcement yesterday that Steam is coming to Macs is so exciting to me. And it should be exciting to you too (if you own a Mac), and here's why:
1. Backwards compatibility: Valve has already announced that they're bringing their Source engine to the Mac Steam. They mentioned that these specific games will be available in April: Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Counter-Strike, Portal, and the Half-Life series. That's a great start.
2. "Steam Play": Basically, this feature means that if you bought a game on Steam for Windows, you can play it on Steam for Mac, for free. Not only that, but they touted a feature called "Steam Cloud" which would allow you to play a game on one PC and jump to that same spot on a Mac.
3. Future investment: Steam has promised that all future Valve games will launch simultaneously on Mac, Windows, and the Xbox 360 from here on out. I hope a lot of developers follow suit, now that Steam will give them a wide exposure to Mac gamers.
4. Valve's first Mac-friendly release will be Portal 2. Oh yes. |
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Written by Russ Crandall
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Wednesday, 03 March 2010 22:24 |
Up until last week, I've used Google as my homepage for several years. Sure, I know that most browsers have a Google search bar on the top-right of the toolbar, but I never got around to using it. I've finally changed things up a bit, and I'm now using Fav4.org as my homepage.
Fav4.org lets you set up four simple website links from the dozens of icons they have available. You can see my configuration above. At first I didn't like this new setup, until I found one trick that isn't mentioned on the site at all: they map these four links to the "ASDF" keys. In other words, I can open up my browser and press the letter "A" to go to Google, or "S" to go to Facebook, etc. Since I already surf with my left hand on the home row (thanks, typing class in 1995!), this is a very natural way for me to browse. Try it out! |
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Written by Russ Crandall
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Friday, 05 February 2010 13:21 |
As a Mac owner for over three years now (my how the time flew by), I was never happy with my unzipping and zipping. For the longest time I simply used the default unzipping app for OSX, Archive Utility, or the Mac-approved StuffIt Expander. Problem is, I've found both apps to be buggy, and many times I would have to unzip a folder with the one app simply because it wouldn't work in the other. After getting frustrated enough with this two-punch combo, I decided to seek out something else, and I then found Unarchiver.
Unarchiver has two features that make it my favorite unzipper. First of all, it's free and unzips everything under the sun. Secondly, you can set it to send the zipped folder into the trash after you unzip it. Doesn't sound like much, but this one little feature has saved me all sorts of clicks and drags to the trashcan.
On the zipping side of the house, I use YemuZip. It's a barebones app that works just like you want it to - you drag a file, group of files, or a folder into the app, tell it what you want to call the zipped folder, and bam. There's not much else to it, but do you really need anything more than that? |
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Written by Mark Hill
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Thursday, 28 January 2010 03:39 |
Obama's first State of the Union address, tens of thousands of people dead and dying after the Haiti earthquake, a new Bin Laden tape, Gilbert Arenas gets suspended for the season, the Octmom's new beach-bod, Brad and Angelina. ANY(!) of those thing are more newsworthy than that stale "iPad sounds like a tampon" bit, which made the front page headlines on CNN.com. Come on, newsies, I really expect more out of you than that. What would Anderson Cooper think?
In other late-breaking news, the word "boner" is still really funny. More at 10. |
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Written by Russ Crandall
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Wednesday, 27 January 2010 15:42 |
Let's face it. It's 2010, there are a gazzillion iPhone apps out there, and to be honest, I'm a little sick and tired of giving any old iPhone game a chance anymore. I've limped through hundreds of games that work just fine, only to forget about them a week later. Hell, I could count the number of quality, must-have iPhone games I own on two hands.
I think it's safe to say that Skybox (iTunes link / website) deserves to be on my must-have list.
Skybox is simple enough - you guide a falling block (called a "ship") through horizontal planes that have one open spot that's just big enough to fit your block. If you make it through the plane, you speed up a bit. If you don't you crash into it and slow down. That's about it. It doesn't sound like much, but everything seems to fit just right, from the classical score to the encouraging statements the computer tells you that are funny enough to make you want to read them (and get distracted enough to miss your next move). Although I would have liked to have a bit of rumble every time I miss a move, the gameplay itself is very well-balanced, and the touch sensitivity can be tweaked, so I really can't complain. As you progress through the game, more challenging ships are unlocked, which really keep the game feeling fresh. Another nice aspect is its integration with the AGON Online system, which includes leaderboards, an awards system, and facebook/twitter integration.
You can start this game and have fun within seconds. Skybox is worth every penny of its $1.99 price tag.
See it in action:
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Written by Russ Crandall
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Saturday, 23 January 2010 15:29 |
We've been hearing about it for weeks, months, years now; those terrible whispers in the dark. Apple is working on a tablet PC. And with a Wall Street Journal announcement solidifying months of rumors just days ago, you know that the Apple event on January 27th is definitely going to be about this fabled, much-anticipated tablet.
Thing is, I'm not terribly interested in the tablet PC. And I think the only people to blame for my lack of interest are those fine folks behind Apple. Let's do some maths:
1. iPhone = portable computer, easy to carry, touch screen
2. MacBook = portable computer, easy to carry, long battery, bright screen
3. Tablet = portable computer, easy to car...wait a minute.
My simple observation is that there doesn't seem to be much of a market for it because my two favorite apple devices take care everything I can see the tablet doing. The WSJ article says Apple is going to focus on replacing textbooks and newspapers, as well as tout "family email checking". These don't sound impressive enough to warrant purchase, sorry. Sure, the screen will be beautiful, but I can read my portable media just fine right now. I can't see myself laying down $1000 for an oversized iPhone.
I hope I'm just being nearsighted and the tablet is going to have all sorts of cool innovative features that I can't live without, but at this moment, I remain skeptical. |
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