Archive for 2011

1. Tremulous
Tremulous is a free, open source game that blends a team based FPS with elements of an RTS. Players can choose from 2 unique races, aliens and humans. Players on both teams are able to build working structures in-game like an RTS. These structures provide many functions, the most important being spawning. The designated builders must ensure there are spawn structures or other players will not be able to rejoin the game after death. Other structures provide automated base defense (to some degree), healing functions and much more...

iWeb is a great website publishing tool for Mac users. With iWeb you can build a website with ease and without having to learn any HTML code. The simplicity of iWeb and it's drag and drop interface allows you to create a stunning and professional looking website in a matter of minutes not hours.

Although iWeb lets you create a website with little effort, there are some drawbacks to iWeb. The biggest drawback of iWeb is poor rankings for search engines such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo. Users of iWeb experience very low search engine rankings, or even no ranking at all. The reason iWeb has trouble with search engines is the way iWeb publishes webpages. Instead of HTML, iWeb uses JavaScript to create its webpages. This gives search engines like Google difficulty in finding your webpages and properly indexing them. Luckily, there are ways to getting your iWeb website a top search engine ranking.

Since its launch, the Mac Mini has been a popular choice for a home theatre PC. Users even choose the Mac Mini over Apple TV because of having far more features and being more expandable and customizable. Besides the obvious home theatre PC, the Mac Mini can also be turned into a fun and useful music server.

Setting up an advanced music server has never been easier with the Mac Mini. So why the Mac Mini? Well first of all the Mad Mini is small, quiet and has very low power consumption (it consumes 13watts while idle). Although a very small computer, the Mac Mini Features a decent processor, has a generous amount of RAM and Hard Disk space. Both the RAM and Hard Drive can be upgraded if required. The final and most important thing about the Mac Mini is it has all the software preinstalled and ready to use for your music server.

To get started with your Mac Mini music server, you must also have an iOS device. This can be an iPad, iPod, or iPhone. Your iOS device will be used to control your music server remotely. The software that will be used is iTunes on the Mac Mini and iTunes Remote on your iOS device.

Modifying your Mac Mini into a music server quite a simple process. Firstly connect your Mac Mini up to your speakers, you can do that by connecting your speakers directly to your Mac Mini's audio port or preferably connect your Mac Mini to an amplifier with a HDMI cable (if your amplifier does not have HDMI, you can use an RCA to Stereo cable). Once you have connected your Mac Mini, you need to set up your iTunes library. You will need to add your songs to your iTunes library by ripping them from CD's, purchasing them from the iTunes store, or transferring them from another library. The next step to take is to set up Home Sharing on iTunes. This can be done by going to Preferences and Sharing, tick Share my library on my local network, you can choose to share the entire iTunes library or choose to share music only.

Once you have set up iTunes on your Mac Mini, you will then need to set up your iOS device. You must firstly download the iTunes Remote from the App Store. Once downloaded you must launch the application, go to Settings and choose Add an iTunes library. You will given a 4-digit access code (this will be used to pair your iOS device with your iTunes library). Go back to iTunes on the Mac Mini and click on your iOS device on the left hand menu. Now enter the 4-digit access code from your iOS device. Once that is done your iTunes library can be remotely accessed from your iOS device within WiFi range.

Your Mac Mini Music Server is now complete. Your entire library will be viewable on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch so you don't have to connect a display to your Mac Mini.

Released in October 2009, the new iMac joins the family of “Unibody” designed Mac’s. This follows the trend of the already popular Macbook Pro Unibody Aluminium design. The iMac is surrounded by aluminium back to front with a full aluminium stand to support it. There are only 2 removable parts on the iMac, the first is the bottom plate for RAM upgrades (much like the previous generation) and the front glass which gives you access to the iMac’s hardware. However removing the glass and any hardware is not recommended and will void any warranty on the unit, but does give the user the possibility of upgrading the hard drive.

During Apple’s transition from PowerPC to Intel Processors, the aesthetic design of Mac computers have also begun to transition from white polycarbonate plastic to an all new aluminium shell. The new iMac, alongside the Macbook Pro, Mac Pro and Mac Mini has joined Apple’s lineup of aluminium bodied computers.

The back plate of the Aluminium iMac can no longer be removed, this limits the consumers access to the hardware. The RAM however, can still be easily upgraded by removing a small plate on the base of the iMac, giving you access to add and remove memory.

The 4th generation iMac, alongside the Macbook Pro is Apple’s first computer to feature Intel Processors, as Apple plans to transition all existing PowerPC Macs to Intel. The design of the iMac is the same white polycarbonate plastic look as the previous iMac G5.

The iMac (Intel White) came with a: 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo (T2400) Processor, 512MB of DDR2 memory, 160GB or 250GB 7200-rpm SATA hard drive, ATI Radeon X1600 graphics with 128MB GDD3 SDRAM, 17-inch and 20-inch 16:10 widescreen display.

In late 2006, Apple launched a new 24-inch iMac to its existing lineup. The new 24-inch display boasts a 1920 x 1200 resolution, this makes it the first iMac with the ability to display full 1080p High Definition content.

The white polycarbonate plastic design was available until August 2007. The next iMac dropped the polycarbonate plastic design in favour of an aluminium enclosure.

Over the past few years, Apple and Steve Jobs have planned a special training program that will teach the companies executives to think like Steve Jobs. This has been overseen by Steve Jobs personally to make sure his vision and innovative thinking stays alive after his death.

Here is a compilation of the coolest and most creative and innovative iMac desk setups. You can see all these iMac desk setups and much more at Desktopped.

Apple have launched their new generation iPhone named the "iPhone 4S". Externally, the iPhone 4S looks identical to its predecessor the "iPhone 4" but internally its completely redesigned. Offering a significant increase in performance. Lets have a look at some of the key features the new iPhone 4S has to offer.

Dual Core A5 Processor
The Apple designed A5 processor was first introduced to the iPad 2, giving you 2 times more processing power and up to 7 times faster graphics while still giving you excellent battery life. The A5 processor will give the iPhone 4S a significant boost with running multiple apps, browsing the web and playing games.

The iMac G4 is the second generation of iMacs released in January 7, 2002. It replaced the previous CRT screen iMac G3. The design is completely different to the previous iMac G3, with a 15-inch and 17-inch LCD display mounted on a flexible arm, allowing you to move the screen back, forward, left, right, and swivel side to side. The computer is housed around a hemisphere base that held the screen. The design of the iMac G4 was dubbed the “iLamp”, as it was advertised as being as flexible as a desk lamp. The first iMac G4 was released with Mac OS X 10.1 “Puma” operating system.


There have been 4 major updates of the iMac G4, besides the routine CPU, Memory and Hard Drive updates, the later models featured USB 2.0 ports (upgraded from USB 1.1), a 20-inch LCD display with 1680 x 1050 pixels, Mac OS X 10.2 “Jaguar” and Mac OS X 10.3 “Panther” operating systems.

The iMac G3 is the first iMac released on August 15 1998. The iMac is an All-In-One design, just like the very first Macintosh. The iMac G3 had a very unique design compared to the competitors bland “beige” coloured computers. The outer shell was made of translucent plastic in “Bondi Blue” colour. that was surrounded by a 15-inch CRT monitor. The ports, CD-ROM drive and speakers were also within the case. The iMac G3 was sold in 12 other colours.

The iMac G3 was a “Legacy-Free” PC. Abandoning all peripheral ports and offering USB ports as standard. The 3.5 inch floppy diskette drive has been dropped. The keyboard and mouse were designed to be uniform with the iMac. The keyboard has black keys enclosed in translucent plastic and the mouse was a round “hockey puck” design that featured the colour of the computer.

There are two main ways for running Windows on your Mac. You can install Windows on a separate partition of your Mac's hard drive and boot up with Windows, this method is called Bootcamp. The other way is to run Windows directly from Mac OS X, this is called virtualization. We will have a look at both methods for running Windows on your Mac as they have their advantages and disadvantages.

Tim Cook to announce the iPhone 5 on October 4.

Finally the public will be able to see Apple's latest iPhone 5 release on October 4. The new iPhone will be unveiled at Apple's campus in Cupertino, California according to All Things Digital.

This year things are going to be different. This year, Apple’s holding its big iPhone media event closer to home.

Sources close to the company say the demonstration — currently scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 4, a date first reported by AllThingsD — will be held at Apple’s campus in Cupertino, Calif.

Usually Apple launch big broducts like the iPad and iPhone at larger venues in San Francisco. However, many of Apple's product launches have been unveiled on Apple's Campus.

The big question still stands, will Steve Jobs make an appearence? It is certain that Apple's new CEO Tim Cook will lead the event with the help of Phil Schiller – senior Vice President of worldwide product marketing.

Unlike the Mac Mini, the iMac isn't as popular for modding. However, I have found some notable iMac mods. Here is a list of the best and coolest iMac Mods.

Black iMac Case Mod

A simple, yet clean and elegant iMac case mod. The original iMac G4 (originally in a gloss white colour) has been given a semi-gloss black colour finish. The iMac G4 was entirely disassembled and each individual piece has been sprayed in satin black. For more photos and step-by-step details, you can see the whole project here.

Apple under Steve Jobs has produced some of the most innovative and ground-breaking products of our time. Without Steve Jobs Apple would not be where it is today. This is all because of Steve Jobs' obsession to fine detail and perfection. But even a genius like Steve Jobs can screw things up. Here is a list of Apple products that have flopped or are just absolute rubbish!

Apple III

In May of 1980, Apple had high hopes on it's new business-orientated personal computer. However it became a commercial and engineering failure. Steve Jobs believed he knew better than Apple's engineers by insisting the Apple III to have no fans or air vents! Steve believes fans are too industrial and inelegant. By adopting this method, the Apple III suffered constant overheating which caused the computer to short circuit.

To add further insult to injury, the Apple III  had a starting price at $4340.00 and word quickly spread on it's design flaws and unreliability. The Apple III's sales performed very poorly which caused Apple to discontinue the product in 1984.

Adobe have been sneaky by finding a way to allow Flash video content to play on iOS devices like: iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The new release of Flash Media Server 4.5 gives web publishers that option. This backdoor approach by Adobe converts the Flash video file to HTML-5, a language that is recognised and mainly used for viewing web content in iOS devices.

So will Apple be happy with Adobe's new fix to the Flash problem? Maybe.  Adobe have not approached Apple or asked them permission to bring Flash to iOS. The reason that Apple don't support Flash in the first place is it's poor performance, especially on mobile devices such as the iPad. The biggest problem with Flash is the content is decoded in software and not hardware. Because of this, the device will require more processing and therefore use more CPU power which will quickly drain your battery. Other formats will use your devices hardware to decode and render content, which will preserve the battery life on your device.

According to Computerworld, Adobe's Flash Media Server 4.5 will address these issues:

Adobe's solution repackages content in real-time, changing the protocol to suit the target device, HTTP Dynamic Streaming or HLS, for example. This should mean that iOS devices will get much of the advantages of Flash video support, without the processor degradation and battery life cost of the format in use on other devices.

It is interesting to see how Apple will react to Adobe's new Flash. Apple's main reason for not supporting Flash in Steve Jobs' 'Thoughts on Flash' is the issue on battery life. Now that Adobe has found a solution to that problem, it will be interesting to see Apple's reaction.

The iPhone 4S will more likely be the next iPhone and not a redesigned iPhone 5. There have been many rumors floating around about a thinner and larger screen size iPhone. However recent sources indicate that the next generation iPhone's design will not change, and that only internal changes will be made, much like the iPhone 3GS. According to Macrumors, there is a report from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo states the following key features in the next generation iPhone:

- 512 MB of RAM: This is to be expected, as the next iPhone should be using the same A5 chip found in the iPad 2, which does in fact offer 512 MB of RAM.
- Camera module height "almost same" as in iPhone 4: Camera thickness is the major limiting factor for overall device thickness, meaning that the next iPhone is not likely to be significantly thinner than the iPhone 4. Sony is said to have started shipping camera sensors to Apple's manufacturers back in July, with OmniVision coming online to assist in September or October.
- 3.5-inch display: A number of rumors have claimed that Apple will be using a larger display for the new iPhone, but Kuo's sources indicate the screen will be the same size as that found in the iPhone 4.
- Glass front and back: Although not 100% confident on this item, Kuo's sources suggest that Apple will continue to utilize the same basic design of the iPhone 4, with glass on both the front and back of the device.
- Manufacturing shares: Foxconn is scheduled to handle 85% of the production load for the new iPhone, with Pegatron taking the remaining 15%. As previously noted, Pegatron will be a bit slower to ramp up production, and will primarily be supplying Apple's Asia-Pacific markets.

Although not stated by Kuo, the rear camera is more than likely to be upgraded to at least 8 Megapixels, as Android powered smartphones already have 8 megapixel cameras.

Apple has released Security Update 2011-005 for OS X Lion and Snow Leopard and can be downloaded via Software Update or direct from Apple's website. The update is very necessary as it addresses a security issue with fraudulent certificates. As said on Apple's website:

"An attacker with a privileged network position may intercept user credentials or other sensitive information"

"Fraudulent certificates were issued by multiple certificate authorities operated by DigiNotar. This issue is addressed by removing DigiNotar from the list of trusted root certificates, from the list of Extended Validation (EV) certificate authorities, and by configuring default system trust settings so that DigiNotar's certificates, including those issued by other authorities, are not trusted."

For more info. Visit Apple's support site.

After adding my first lot of 12 best free apps for Mac OS X, I have decided to compile another 12 great useful apps for Mac that are completely free!

Adium
Adium is a free and open source multi-protocol instant messaging client for your Mac. Adium allows you to integrate all your instant messaging accounts into one. Adium supports: MSN, Yahoo, Facebook, Jabber, Twitter, ICQ & much much more.



Boxee
Boxee is a free Home Theatre PC application. Boxee has a nice looking and easy to use UI, supports various audio & video file formats, integration to on-demand internet video streaming, 1080p HD support and much more.



The Unarchiver
The Unarchiver is a simple, free and open source data decompression utility that is more featured than the standard Archive Utility in Mac OS X. The Unarchiver supports multiple file formats such as: Zip, Tar-GZip, Tar-BZip2, RAR, 7-zip, LhA, StuffIt and much more.

Now that FrontRow is officially gone from Mac OS X Lion, is there still a way to make your Mac a home entertainment media center? Well... Yes there is, and there always has been a better alternative to Apple's FrontRow, which was a just a stripped-down Apple TV user interface linked to iTunes. Although it was very simple to use and was integrated with all your iTunes media, it lacked features and the ability to play most media files available today. Fortunately, there are many solutions available. Lets look at one simple solution to a Mac Home Theatre Center.

Whether you have a Mac Mini or an iMac, it's quite easy to turn any Mac into a Home Theatre Media Center. Here are some simple steps to get you started with setting up your Mac Media Center.

Here is a list of useful time saving keyboard shortcut's for your Mac. These keyboard shortcuts for Mac OS X will save you time on your day-to-day tasks. They are for all versions of Mac OS X including 10.7 Lion.

General Application Shortcuts

Command  Tab = Switch between applications
Command  H = Hide application
Command  Q = Quit application
Command  S = Save
Command  Option  S = Save As
Command  O = Open
Command  X = Cut
Command  C = Copy
Command  V = Paste
Command  A = Select All
Command  Z = Undo
Command  Shift  Z = Redo
Command P = Print

There are many free applications available for Mac OS X, however not all are very useful. Here are my top 12 applications for Mac OS X that are 100% free and no 30 day trials. All of the listed apps are available on the latest release Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.