Category: Apple Computing

Aspyr’s latest game for the Mac is the Company of Heros Complete: Campaign edition which is now available in the Mac App Store.   The game “redefines real time strategy gaming by bringing the sacrifice of heroic soldiers, war-ravaged environments, and dynamic battlefields to life. Beginning with the D-Day Invasion of Normandy, players lead squads of Allied soldiers into battle against the German war machine through some of the most pivotal battles of WWII. Through a rich single player campaign, players…

Skype has released a new version of the Skype Application for the Mac.  Version 5.6 includes a number of improvements including: Automatic Updates Improved UI for group video calling New full screen mode in OS X Lion Ability to delete conversations Ability to disable Audio Gain Control They also have fixed several issues including: Category Description Conversations Chat messages aren’t shown after clearing recent conversations or closing the last one Calling Choppy audio issue with USB headset while in group…

One of the simplest and the lowest tech devices made for the iPhone is the new “Love Box” for the iPhone 4 / 4S.   The device is a grooved piece of wood with a sliding mirror allowing for both the back of the camera and the front view of the camera to be recorded at the same time, making The Love Box the first device to allow true split screen video mixing without all of the hassle. The Love Box…

Spectre Media announced that they will be introducing a new iOS based Starship Troopers game, done in cooperation with the movie house, Sony Pictures.   The game will be announced at the Game Developers Conderence going on this week in San Francisco, Ca.   The game will be released sometime later this summer with the timing of the release coinciding with the release of the new Starship Troopers movie also due out this year. This will be the dirst time the Starship…

For many of us, Super Mario Brothers was one of the first Nintendo games or Famicon games we owned.  That was the epitome of the 1990’s gaming scene and had only one aspect to the game.  Now there is a new Super Mario Brothers game, Mari0 which introduces a host of elements including portal gun mechanics.   The open source game is available for Windows, Linux, and Macintosh and the complete source code is also available. Some of the new features…

In 2011, Apple opened a temporary Apple Store at the South By Southwest Interacive Festival, a gathering of social media, music and other media types.   The iPad 2 was released on March 2nd just as the festival was beginning and Apple made out handily.  However, Apple is confirming  that there will be  no such temporary store at this years SXSW event. This year’s South By Southwest Interactive Festival is due to start on March 9th and go until March 18th. …

Apple Inc. has released an update to the latest release of its Mac OS.  Mac OS X 10.7.3 was released last month, however some users were reporting issues with the Time Machine backup system on the latest version of the OS.  Apple has released a Supplemental Update to the OS, version 1.0, to address that particular issue.   Whether the update addresses another known sleep issue bug or not is not yet known. The update does not require a system reboot…

Apple has finally announced that a user in China was the winner of the Apple Inc. sponsored prize for downloading the 25 billionth iTunes App.  The user, one Chunli Fu of Qungdao, China downloaded the free Disney app, “Where’s My Water” to push the download mark over the 25 billion mark.  He will receive $10,000 USD in the iTunes App Store int he form of a gift card. Currently, there are more than 550,000 apps in the iTunes App Store…

Apple has updated the Application Loader for iTunes Connect.   iTunes Connect allows those authors using the iBooks Author Application to publish their books in the Apple iBookstore. The Version 2.5.1 update of the Application Loader  includes the following enhancements and fixes: Improved error messaging Creating and sending In-App Purchase details for apps directly from Application Loader Send to Apple command now creates logs for troubleshooting delivery issues Updated system requirements and newly supported formats Updated server IP addresses and port…

Apple has released an update for the Graphics Firmware on the iMac.   Version 3.0 of the Graphics Firmware targets an issue that causes the iMac to hang.   You can download the firmware update through the Software Update function under the Apple Menu or from the Apple Support Page at: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1444

Apple has taken a whack at fixing the flickering of the internal display on the late 2008 MacBook Pro.  A new EFI Update for the 15 inch model is supposed to resolve this issue.  Version 2.8 of the EFI Firmware for the MacBook Pro should be available in you Software Updates or you can download it directly from the Apple Support site at: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1502

The United States Air Force has granted Apple, Inc. with a $9 Million USD contract to provide 18,000 iPad 2’s.   The iPad 2’s will be used by pilots and other pertinent staff in lieu of the normally carried heavy pilot bags and reams of flight maps.  The air force is getting quite the deal on the iPad 2’s with the price per unit being $520 USD per unit compared to the normal $599 USD.  They have contracted to receive the…

More than 25 Billion Apps and counting have been downloaded from the Apple App Store.  Apple held a contest for the mark, giving the person who downloaded the 25 Billionth app a $10,000 USD gift card to the App Store, however, who that lucky person was still has yet to have been announced.  This mark was reached in just over 3.5 years with the current pace of downloads reaching a staggering 15 million apps per year.  There are currently 550,000…

Invitations for the next release of the iPad went out to the media today, with Apple proclaiming “We have something you really have to see. And touch.” The event for the iPad 3 release is scheduled to take place on March 7, 2012 at 10:00am PST at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco. The event has been talked about greatly throughout the media rumor circles for the past several weeks with this event being the worst kept secret of…

Apple has released a new update for Mac OS 10.7.3 for Late 2009 and newer iMacs’ Wi-Fi.  The release resolves an issue with the iMac not re-connecting to networks automatically after the are waking.  You can download the update through the Software Updater under the Apple menu or from the Apple Support page at: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1501

A posting on Mobileread.com is suggesting that Version 3.3 of Requiem by the hacker “Brahms” is capable of removing Apple’s DRM from iTunes and iBooks.  While the software has been capable of iTunes DRM removal for some time, this is the first time that it can also crack the iBooks format as well. This type of hack does not bode well for Apple or those authors who are trying to make money from the Apple Book Store, as users would…

A game originally found on Commodore 64 and Vic 20 computers in the 1980’s is now available for the iPhone.   Grid Runner has been re-formatted by the original author of the game, Llamasoft Ltd., to the 1980’s coin-operated arcade style of play.  Produced with high quality graphics of the iPhone, the game has a glossy arcade look to it and really could be in any arcade of the current generation.  The game itself has two modes, novice and expert.  The…

An iPhone user in Southern California, won their lawsuit filed against AT&T in small claims court for the throttling of “Unlimited” plan usage.   The user, sued AT&T after being throttled each month after using 1.5 to 2gb of data.  However, AT&T’s users with the 3GB plan receive no such throttling in spite of the fact that the plans cost about the same. The user, Matt Spaccarelli, won a judgement of $850 USD in the small claims court case after Judge…

Civilization V Campaign Edition, one of Aspyr‘s most popular new games for the Macintosh is now having issues updating in the Mac App Store.  At this point, the issues have so far only affected those users running the Mac OS X Lion operating system. Aspyr Technical Support released a work around for the issue: We have a POTENTIAL workaround for getting the latest Civilization V patch from the App Store. While this workaround works for most users, we have seen…

A Mac Trojan which seems to build on lessons learned, is now attacking users in three ways. The Flashback.G Trojan targets two holed in Java, self installing if the latest version of Java is not installed. If neither of the holes is available, it tries a fake signed by “Apple, Inc.” certificate to install. The Trojan puts a number of files in /Users/Shared with the file extension .so. If you find these files on your machine, it is likely that…