About 20 years ago, I was a pretty good guitar player. Once it hit me that I was never going to be a rock star (although I did have a fun four summers setting up stages for some instead) guitar playing fell off the radar. … Read More »
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Mark Crump
Bio:A long-time Mac user, Mark has been writing about technology in some form for over ten years. Mark enjoys his Kool-Aid shaken, not stirred. He also believes the “it just works” slogan from the ads should have an asterisk: except when it refuses to. You can follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/crumpy.
Recent Posts
Ticket to Ride was one of the earliest games we looked at for this weekly feature, and it’s still a favorite. An update released Thursday upgrades the graphics for the new iPad’s high-resolution display, and makes the game more accessible for color blind users. Read More »
The main appeal of the high-resolution Retina display of the new iPad to voracious readers is the improved text viewing. We go hands on with the major reader apps that are now Retina-capable — the Kindle app, iBooks, Comixology and Zinio — to see which adapted … Read More »
Some of the first productivity-oriented apps that have been upgraded for the new iPad’s high-resolution Retina display are Apple’s own iWork apps. Here are our first impressions of how presentations, spreadsheets and documents in Keynote, Numbers and Pages fare on the new tablet’s display. Read More »
Apple’s OS X Mountain Lion, which should arrive some time this summer, has finally brought true feature parity between iOS and OS X for Notes, Reminders and Notifications. We spent some time with the new features, and here is what we found. Read More »
While the iPad has solved the problem of too many paper magazines accumulating in my office, it has created another problem — me spending way too much on impulse magazine purchases. Here are my experiences with Zinio, the Amazon Kindle app and Apple’s Newsstand. Read More »
I’m starting to think there’s a union rule: In every shooter, the helicopter, plane, train, or automobile you use to arrive will be destroyed. Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation for iOS is no exception, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Read More »
More Must Reads
I’m a simple man, and at times I like simple games. At its core, Monster Hunter Dynamic Hunter ($0.99 until Oct. 24) is a simple game. The object is to defeat various monsters in an arena setting, and it does a good job of delivering that. Read More »
With the arrival of iCloud backups we are free from needing to attach your iOS device to iTunes to have it backed up. Gone are the annoying delays when you just want to sync something quick, but need to suffer through “Backing up…” first. Read More »
This week we bring you the first game I’ve seen that takes full advantage of what iOS 5 and iCloud can mean for gaming: Scribblenauts Remix. In addition to being a fun puzzle game, Scribblenauts also takes syncs saved games across iOS devices using iCloud. Read More »
When I wrote about Documents in the Cloud, one of my chief complaints was that the only way to upload and download files on my Mac was through the iCloud web interface. Turns out there is a way, thanks to an easy backdoor trick I discovered. Read More »
Of all the iOS 5/iCloud announcements made during this summer’s WWDC, the one that excited me the most was Documents in the Cloud. Unfortunately, it’s also turned into the one that disappointed me the most at launch, thanks to a number of issues. Read More »
With iCloud, Apple introduced Photo Stream, a new feature that automatically syncs your photos across iOS devices, Macs and Windows computers. It makes transferring photos absolutely painless, but comes with one big caveat: Synced photos can’t be deleted from iCloud as of right now. Read More »
It’s an old adage: The best camera is the one you have with you. For photo editing, the adage may soon be: The best editor is the one can you have with you. With iOS 5, the photo editing capabilities of your iPhone are greatly improved. Read More »
Reminders, new in iOS 5, is a very simplistic task management app that syncs automatically between devices with iCloud. While it isn’t particularly complex or involved, it’s probably all the task management the average iPhone or iPad user needs. Read More »
A big part of iOS 5 is iMessage, Apple’s new unified messaging platform for communicating between iOS 5 devices. It’s a great tool, but new users might have a hard time setting it up, since it’s tied so closely to the existing Messages app. Here’s how. Read More »
I last looked at Windows gaming options on OS X in 2010; the choices haven’t gotten any better. However, Parallels 7 was recently released and boasts improved Windows performance in a virtualized environment, so it’s time to take another look. Read More »
I’d hate to live in the fictional condo depicted in Monsters Ate My Condo. It’s a vertical matching game where the goal is to sacrifice floors of your condo to monsters to ensure the tower doesn’t collapse, and it plays a little like Tetris meets Bejewled. … Read More »
Apple highlighted three of its own apps that will arrive Oct. 12: an updated Camera app, Cards, and Find My Friends. We had heard about some of the updates to Camera during this summer’s WWDC, but Cards and Find My Friends are new, somewhat curious additions. Read More »
At $7.99, ShadowGun is one of the pricier titles I’ve recommended. But it’s well worth the price of admission for graphics alone. Add in a unique cover system (at least as far as iOS games) and universal support, and we have a winner for this week. Read More »
As much as I’m tied into Apple’s ecosystem for hardware and apps, my e-book loyalty lies with Amazon. Luckily, Amazon’s design choices and pricing strategies, as revealed Wednesday with its latest Kindle line, mean I can have my cake and eat it, too. Read More »
Ace Striker for iPhone lets you take to this skies in virtual versions of historic battles. It’s a top-down shooter with a retro vibe that lets you unlock upgrades through in-app purchases. It’s simple, and the graphics aren’t dazzling, but it’s also a lot of fun. Read More »
I’ve never really tried side-scrolling runner games on iOS, which is a shame since Defender was one of my favorite arcade games growing up. But Jetpack Joyride, the latest entry in what seems to be a crowded field broke me down, and I’m glad it did. Read More »
Crimson: Steam Pirates is the first iOS app from the studio that brought us Halo. It’s a strategy game that shares almost nothing in common with Halo, except of course for the solid pedigree and uncanny ability to provide hours of fun. Read More »
“Dem bullets sure are pointy,” one Grunt cautions when he’s hit. When the next volley takes him out, he dramatically proclaims, “Yer… Gonna… Miss me.” High on fun and short on seriousness, The Great Little Wargame for iPhone and iPad is this week’s featured title. Read More »
I live in Massachusetts, an area barely hit by Hurricane Irene, yet we endured the longest power outage I can remember since the big blizzard of ’78. The outage reminded me that having contingencies in place in the era of mobile devices is crucial. Read More »
At first Ticket to Ride for the iPad seems complex, but after a brief orientation period, it’s actually rather simple. It’s also engrossing, and requires some quick strategic thinking with one eye constantly on the clock. Check our explanation of the game’s mechanics and fun factor. Read More »
Evernote, the popular note-taking app, recently updated its clients on both Mac OS X and iOS, and though there are highs and lows, overall each update brings appreciated improvements. The changes could even upgrade Evernote from bench-warmer to starting player in my daily workflow. Read More »
System Preferences are the motivational speakers of your operating system. Don’t like something? The OS gives you the power to change! I’m not going to list every preference, but I am going to tell which choices you can make will have the greatest impact. Read More »
Norman McLean was haunted by waters. I’m haunted by iOS text editors. I usually switch between Pages, PlainText and Elements. Elements, recently updated to version 2, stands a chance at having the biggest impact on my writing workflow, thanks to new sharing and publishing features. Read More »
It happens to the best of us, and usually at the worst times: Your device freezes up or iOS decides to go on a long weekend without you. Don’t panic, though; there are a number of options to help get your iPhone/iPad/iPod up and running again. Read More »
If you’re like me, you take a lot of photos with your iPhone. You might want to keep some of them, but most ikely lose their novelty on a second viewing. Deciding which to keep is easier after you import the photos to your Mac. Read More »
Mac OS X Lion comes with Versions support, which means that so long as an app is programmed to use it, your documents will save a history of changes that you can navigate through and restore from. Here’s how Versions works with iWork (and more). Read More »
There’s an old adage: The best camera is the one you have with you. These days, the camera most people have with them is their mobile phone. Here are some tips to help you take better photos with your iPhone, which likely seldom leaves your side. Read More »
Overall, I’m thrilled with OS X Lion. However, like any new OS, there are some things that either don’t work quite right or, while working as intended, may annoy. So, here are five tips and work-arounds I’ve found that might help address some growing pains. Read More »
Managing email on OS X has always been about finding the lesser of many evils. I have too many email addresses to use webmail efficiently, but I’ve never been happy with any email program on the Mac. That finally changed, thanks to OS X Lion. Read More »
It’s travel season. Here are apps in case you have a cross-atlantic flight planned, a long drive ahead and need to keep the kids occupied, your secluded getaway has a TV made during the Kennedy administration, or you just have a long train ride to work. Read More »
Not long after Steve Jobs’s keynote, a lament went out about apps and services iOS 5 and iCloud will render obsolete. However, after reviewing early reports of iOS 5, I’d argue that many “threatened” apps will still hold a place in the hearts of users. Read More »
The first step post-capture in any digital photography workflow is getting the frames into your editing program. I like Aperture, because it’s powerful, cheap, easy to learn and easy to install from the Mac App Store. Here’s how to manage your photo importing using Aperture. Read More »
Folders seem to be the most underused part of iOS 4.2 (or earlier for the iPhone). I’m simply amazed whenever I see someone’s home screen littered with single icons. Here’s how to get started with folders, and some tips for how best to use them. Read More »
Between prior purchases and poor self-restraint, I now have an e-book library several hundred titles strong on my iPad, and it’s growing constantly. Built-in sorting isn’t cutting it. Thankfully, user-manageable Collections in iBooks adds some much needed depth to iPad e-book organization. Read More »
Apple is taking heat for allowing roadblock warning apps that alert drivers to police checkpoints. While apps that could encourage drunk driving are definitely a stupid idea, I do think Apple should be able to decide in this matter without state influence. Read More »
A few months ago I wrote about three iPad guitar amps, but now there’s an official option from Apple, as GarageBand for iPad allows you to plug in a real guitar. How does this software amp compare to existing options? Read on to find out. Read More »
The iPad is great, but it has problems Apple could fix in future releases. The unveiling of the next generation of iPad Mar. 2 is a perfect opportunity to see some of these dreams realized. Here’s what I’d love to see, from a business user’s perspective. Read More »
For me the revolution started with the iPhone, and once the iPad was fully integrated into my workflow, the dictator had been completely deposed: the hard drive was no longer king. Now syncing solutions keep my digital life in step regardless of my local storage situation. Read More »
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