Among console gaming fans, there is little doubt that Xbox Live is the current pinnacle of social online gaming. Sharing stats, matchmaking, ranked play, and messaging are all combined in a symphony of interactivity unmatched by the PS3, and certainly not by the Wii. Ngmoco wants […] Read more »
Everyone is so focused on finding apps that support push notification that they probably haven’t looked too hard for apps that take advantage of other iPhone OS 3.0-specific features. For example, Gokivo is the first app to officially make use of in-app purchases. Unfortunately, it also […] Read more »
In college, and grad school, I mostly hung with a crowd that shared the same interests, hobbies and field of study. I know that a lot of college faculties are beginning to move towards a more interdisciplinary approach, because it more accurately reflects what students can expect their post-school life to be like. College professors tend to be somewhat protective of their disciplines, however, so progress is moving faster in some areas and at some schools than others. The result is that a lot of people in the workforce have a pretty narrow view of what the word “colleague” means. It’s important to broaden that definition and cultivate relationships with people in other fields. Here’s why. Read more »
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Part of me wishes people would stop making great Twitter clients for the iPhone so that I can just pick a horse and stick to it, but another, far larger part of me is thrilled to see TweetDeck (free, iTunes link) come to the App Store. […] Read more »
The fact that they included parental controls for games in the 3.0 beta sort of hinted at this, but along with the iPhone 3.0 update today came app ratings, which appear rather inconspicuously under the app’s price and buy button on the detailed info screen. It […] Read more »
If you’re like me, then you’ve spent a fitful night tossing and turning with anticipation, because today is the day that iPhone OS 3.0 officially arrives. Well, toss no more, iPhone OS 3.0 has arrived (iPod touch users go here). If I can manage to actually […] Read more »
Document collaboration with distributed teams can be a bit of a headache, as I’ve noted in previous posts. No doubt, if you’ve ever tried it yourself, you don’t need me to remind you. More tools are available than ever before for getting this kind of work […] Read more »
A number of different tidbits of information are pointing towards Apple shifting its chip design in-house, including the acquisition of P.A. Semi and the hiring of Mark Papermaster, but ARM clearly wants to give it every reason not to try to go it completely alone. It’s […] Read more »
One of the best reasons to get a new MacBook Pro, aside from the dazzling new screen on the 13-inch, and in spite of the SATA capping that’s apparently in place, is the extended battery life courtesy of the new built-in lithium polymer batteries. And by […] Read more »
The Palm Pre is here, and while it hasn’t exactly felled the Goliath of Apple’s iPhone, it does have some features that are making iPhone users jealous. One is greater built-in social networking connectivity, including Facebook integration. The implementation of Facebook in Palm’s WebOS basically allows […] Read more »
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Support is growing for some kind of ratings system for the games found in Apple’s App Store for its iPhone and iPod touch platform. Adding its voice to those already calling for ratings implementation, including the ESA and the ESRB, is the National Institute on Media […] Read more »
You may or may not have noticed that among the new features coming in iPhone OS 3.0, due June 17, are parental control settings that prevent users from downloading audio and video material from the iPhone store that comes in above a certain rating, determined by […] Read more »
The big day is only a week away, and it looks like no one is more keenly aware of that fact than Apple. Those enrolled in the iPhone Development Program received an email late today telling them to go download a developer preview version of AOL […] Read more »
Earlier this week, Apple held its keynote address for the annual Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC). At the event, it announced many things, including new upgrades and pricing for its notebook lineup, official and final details regarding OS X Snow Leopard and iPhone OS 3.0, and a […] Read more »
Sometimes doing things via web apps is great. Everything is in one place: your browser. Even so, sometimes having everything in one place isn’t ideal. A browser crash could kill all of your work, not just one component, and it can be harder to keep your […] Read more »
One detail that escaped mention during the keynote presentation at Apple’s WWDC earlier this week likely does not sit well with users still clutching their beloved G4 machines, namely that OS X 10.6, also know as Snow Leopard, will finally drop PowerPC support and only run […] Read more »
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 […] Read more »
Distributed creative teams face the unique challenge of having to collaborate on a product without being able to quickly and easily access files and works in progress via an on-site file server or intranet system. Emailing files to one another can get messy very quickly, and […] Read more »
Asus may have made a name for itself in the U.S. by making netbooks, a category which Apple doesn’t seem to want to touch with a 10-foot pole, but that isn’t stopping Asustek’s vice chairman from talking some major smack. In an interview with The New […] Read more »
Perhaps one of the most amazing partnership announcements made during WWDC’s keynote yesterday is ZipCar‘s exciting story of iPhone app design. But it could easily fall through the cracks, for a couple of reasons: One, hardware announcements took center stage, and two, people who don’t live […] Read more »
Print media isn’t dead, it’s just slowly becoming digital media. Which I guess would mean that it’s dying. Regardless, it’s good news for those of us who actually like using our iPhones as e-readers. And it’s good news for Scroll Motion, a company responsible for bringing […] Read more »
A lot of this will not be news to those of you who’ve either experienced the iPhone OS 3.0 beta first-hand, or who’ve read about it here on TheAppleBlog or elsewhere, but the official announcement of what features will be coming via the final release version […] Read more »
Apple announced a slew of hardware updates today, including a number of upgrades to its notebook lineup. For me, the most notable among these was the upwards shift of the 13-inch aluminum MacBook into the MacBook Pro category, alongside the 15- and 17-inch models, both of […] Read more »
I still take it as a personal affront that Mac users have had to wait so long for a usable build of Google Chrome. Since I haven’t done any Windows-related work in a good while now, running Chrome was really my only reason for using any […] Read more »
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 […] Read more »
This past Tuesday marked the release of The Sims 3. It’s a recipe for disaster. Or at least, a dip in productivity.
Luckily, I had professional cause to engage with The Sims 3. And it was with strictly professional interests in mind that I devoted upwards of 14 hours in the past two days to EA’s wildly popular life simulation franchise. Well, maybe that’s not strictly true, but there was work involved.
In-game, I was working, too. Specifically, I was pursuing sim careers in both the music industry and professional sports. In doing so, I realized that I think of my job in exactly the same way a sim would. Here are the specific parallels I’ve drawn between my real-life and simulated experiences. Read more »
Ever since the release of the 2G iPod touch, I’ve been tempted to pick it up just for one feature alone: Nike+ integration. As a runner, I’d love some way to track my progress, and the iPhone apps that work with the device’s GPS would be […] Read more »
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 […] Read more »
Windows Live Search didn’t go over too well with the online masses. Few, if any, moved from search industry leader (that’s an understatement) Google. I remember the worst part about doing a fresh Windows install was changing IE’s defaults from Microsoft’s Live services, and replacing Live […] Read more »
The Zune isn’t all bad. First of all, there’s the Zune HD, which at least looks really good. And then there’s the ability to share music and other media content via Wi-Fi with your other Zune-toting friends (is there really a group of people where more […] Read more »
It arrived shortly after midnight on Tuesday, the same day as the release of the desktop version, and I was all over it. “Pumped” would probably be the best way to describe me at 12:45 a.m. on Tuesday morning as my iPhone was syncing with my […] Read more »
Nothing will motivate you to achieve your goals like making other people aware of the specifics of what you’re aiming to accomplish. At least for me, the threat of public shame is a great tool you can use to prevent yourself from giving up on your […] Read more »
iTunes 8.2 became available for anyone and everyone with a Mac, not just developers, late yesterday. A pre-release version of the update has been available to registered iPhone developers since the release of iPhone OS 3.0 beta 4 a few weeks ago, and is required for […] Read more »
Since Apple doesn’t provide detailed release notes with each of their beta installments, it’s understandable that details about less obvious features and changes would only come to light gradually, as people poked around and tried different (and sometimes unusual) things with their devices. Computerworld’s Seth Weintraub […] Read more »
Naively, I used to think that once I’d purchased music, I could easily download it again, for free, on any other computer or WiFi-connected iPhone or iPod touch as long as I was signed in with my iTunes account. As most of you probably know, that’s […] Read more »
Apple has made significant steps towards cornering the mobile gaming market (though that “premium” games section so far hasn’t come to pass), and both Sony and Nintendo have likely been forced to re-examine their portable offerings in order to try to regain ground. I doubt either […] Read more »
One big difference I notice between my life before becoming a full-time web worker, and my life since, is that I actually spend far less time not working now that I work from home. I think distraction is a crucial part of productivity, especially if creativity is part of your job. Which is why I think that there is a certain danger in the zealous work ethic that manifests itself most freelance workers once they shrug off the corporate yoke.
Here are my usual work avoidance tactics, and why I think they actually help me work better in the long run. Read more »
One of the nicest things about having an iPod or iPhone is the easy syncing with iTunes, especially for Mac users. In fact, it’s such a perk, that users are constantly looking for ways to get their BlackBerry and other devices to sync as well. How […] Read more »
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 […] Read more »
Apple must be trying to throw us off with its erratic update schedule. First, it released iPhone OS 3.0 beta 5 only one week after beta 4, and it hasn’t released one since, and now it surreptitiously updates the entry-level white plastic MacBook model like a […] Read more »
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