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Game Review: Plants vs. Zombies

Written on July 01, 2009 by Chris Ryan and 7 people have commented

For the past two weeks, I’ve been completely engrossed in following Plants vs. Zombies. For those who haven’t heard, this isn’t about the Supreme Court case, but about the latest game from PopCap, makers of the infamous Bejeweled and Zuma games.
Planets? And Zombies? Do those even mix?
You may have seen the cute viral video that [...]

Waterfield Designs: Cases for Apple Purists

Written on June 19, 2009 by Chris Ryan and 14 people have commented

Like some of you, I’m quite the “Apple purist.” I’m not a fan of fancy cases that junk up my Macs. I don’t like skins for my iPods and those plastic snap cases for my laptop. We all know that Apple designs beautiful products, so we might as well show them off! Balancing protection and beauty, the stylish and functional cases from Waterfield Designs are some of the highest quality cases I have ever used.

Matte vs. Glossy Debate Heats Up: Are Glossy Displays a Health Hazard?

Written on June 16, 2009 by Charles Moore and 30 people have commented

Apple first began shipping notebooks with glossy displays in May 2006 with the release of the first-generation MacBooks, which were only available with glossy, and as a no-cost option on MacBook Pros. In mid-2007, glossy “behind glass” displays were also made standard on the aluminum iMac line with no matte option. With the release of [...]

Google Quick Search Box Officially Released

Written on June 10, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 10 people have commented

Sometimes really useful software comes in small packages. Just about six months ago, I stumbled upon the developer preview of Google Quick Search Box (QSB) for the Mac, and I’ve been using it ever since. Google should be proud, because generally speaking, I shy away from desktop search applications, including their own Google Desktop for [...]

iPhone 3.0 Brings Tethering to 20+ Carriers…Except AT&T

Written on June 08, 2009 by Chris Ryan and 29 people have commented

As someone who has played with the betas of the iPhone 3.0 OS, I was excited to see the availability of tethering that would allow me to share the internet connection between my iPhone and my Mac. With 3.0 around the corner, the feature is coming, but not in the United States.

WWDC 2009: Rumor Round-Up Ahead of the Big Show

Written on June 05, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 12 people have commented

As this week comes to an end, tech watchers turn their loving gaze away from E3, and refocus their attention on the Moscone Center in San Francisco, which will host Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer’s Conference beginning Monday, June 8.
Just like every year before it, we’ve seen many rumors circulate regarding what Apple will be unveiling [...]

Theories On a Mac App Store

Written on June 05, 2009 by Chris Ryan and 16 people have commented

Given the runaway success of the App Store (if you haven’t heard, just pick up any newspaper, provided you can find one still being printed), I’ve began to give some thought to the feasibility of a Mac App Store. Does it make sense? Could Apple pull it off? What would it mean for developers and for users?

OS X, iPhone OS, Safari Market Share Continue Rebounding in May

Written on June 04, 2009 by Charles Jade and 3 people have commented

Net Applications measures market share based upon Internet usage from some 160 million visitors to a network of hosted sites each month. According to the web metrics firm, OS X, iPhone OS and Safari are continuing to incrementally increase in market share after sharp declines earlier this year.
For May, OS X market share was 9.81 [...]

Game On: The Sims 3 for Mac

Written on June 04, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 86 people have commented

I was not terribly impressed with The Sims 3 for iPhone, but as I said in my review, it did whet my appetite for the Mac desktop version of the game. So much so that I went out yesterday afternoon to pick it up. Best Buy was all out of the collector’s edition, but I [...]

Apple’s Back-to-School Offer Promo is Back

Written on May 27, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 5 people have commented

As a kid, or even as a university student, if anyone had mentioned back-to-school shopping, sales, gear, or anything else this early in the game, I’d definitely have lost it on them. The summer has yet to begin, just let me get my bearings!
Still, if I were to make an exception, I’d make it for [...]

Russian Clone Maker Rolls Out Fleet Of OS X Desktops, Laptops, and a Netbook

Written on May 21, 2009 by Charles Moore and 4 people have commented

Apple must feel besieged by an attack of the clones these days, with Mac OS knockoff makers popping up in the U.S. (Psystar and OpenTech), Germany (PearC), Argentina (OpeniMac) the U.K. (FreedomPC). Now a Russian startup calling itself RussianMac is offering a comprehensive line of desktop and laptop computers.
The list of clones covers pretty much [...]

Apple and Wal-Mart: Do Opposites Really Attract?

Written on May 20, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 5 people have commented

Wal-Mart wants to grab the slice of the electronics pie that Circuit City gave up when it became financially insolvent, and it’s redesigning its stores to put itself in a better position to do so. Approximately 3,500 stores will be getting electronics department-centric makeovers this week, according to AppleInsider. The redesigned spaces will also feature [...]

Are Apple’s High Laptop Prices Sustainable?

Written on May 13, 2009 by Charles Moore and 6 people have commented

The brushfire popularity of small, inexpensive laptop computers, aka netbooks, shows no sign of losing steam, with a reported growth rate for the category of 80 percent so far in 2009 (vs. a general laptop growth of around 13 percent), putting netbooks on track for sales of around 21 million units this year. Apple consequently [...]

Apple Customer Satisfaction: It’s the Experience

Written on May 06, 2009 by Jon Buys and 10 people have commented

Apple has once again received top honors among computer manufacturers for customer satisfaction, and not by a small margin, either. The recent American Customer Satisfaction Index survey (PDF) has Apple beating their closest competitor by 10 points, something with which the creators of the survey are very impressed. Apple hasn’t always been so lucky. There [...]

Apple’s Budget Macs: Real Possibility or Wishful Thinking?

Written on May 04, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 12 people have commented

Apple computers are expensive. Whether or not you think that price is justified, you can’t deny that even machines on the lower end of the scale will cost you a decent amount of coin.
The Mac Mini is the cheapest machine in the bunch, and you don’t get any crucial peripheral gear like a monitor, keyboard [...]

Apple’s WWDC Sells Out Despite Recession Scrounging

Written on April 29, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and No one has commented

It may only be circumstantial evidence, but a lot of comments I saw on Twitter led me to believe that many developers didn’t have the spare cash to attend Apple’s World Wide Developer’s Conference this year. That was an incorrect impression. The truth was actually quite the opposite, with WWDC ‘09 selling out faster than [...]

Apple Says “No” to Netbook, Quietly Nods “Yes” to Tablet?

Written on April 23, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 16 people have commented

As I mentioned in my post about Apple’s second-quarter conference call, COO Tim Cook pretty stridently denied that the company had plans to produce any kind of netbook device. Instead, he pointed customers toward the iPhone and iPod touch, saying those devices provided most of what consumers are looking for from a netbook anyway. It [...]

Tweetie for Mac Due Monday

Written on April 17, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 9 people have commented

It quickly became one of the most popular Twitter clients for the iPhone, owing to its impressive feature set and fast, efficient performance, and now it’s coming natively to the Mac, too. I’m talking about Tweetie, by atebits. Tweetie impressed with the ability to follow and unfollow, integrated search, retweeting, and more when it was [...]

OnLive Will Make a Hardcore Gaming Machine Out of Your MacBook

Written on March 24, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 3 people have commented

The Game Developers Conference for 2009 is just underway, and already there’s some big news which has particular relevance for that rare and frustrated breed, the Mac gamer.
I’m a Mac gamer myself, and have pretty much given up the OS X side of things and just decided to do all my gaming in a Windows [...]

Psystar Declares Gutsiness With New Apple Clone

Written on March 18, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 4 people have commented

Apparently Psystar isn’t content to sit back and rest on their laurels (which consist primarily of being really good at making loud fan noise). Despite the ongoing legal battle between themselves and Apple, they just released yet another addition to their line of Mac clones. The new machine, called the Open(3), is obviously meant to [...]