Mac Games and More The Blog

From last year but you might grab some ideas for your LAST MINUTE Halloween costume.

Link: Halloween Costume Ideas

Watch the video here.

Mac O Lanterns at MAKE Magazine

This new one-touch jailbreak opens your iPhone for full disk access and installs Installer.app so you can add pretty much any third party application you like. All you have to do is navigate from your iPhone or iPod touch to the page, read the directions, scroll down, and tap the button. Wait until the “slide-to-unlock” screen appears (30 secs).  Just navigate to jailbreakme.com

via Digg

From Wired:

After Apple fanatic Nick Haley posted his homemade iPod Touch commercial to YouTube last month, a few ad execs at the Cupertino based company saw it. But rather than send him a cease-and-desist letter, they bought his ad, flew him out to Los Angeles to reshoot it in high def, and will be broadcasting it during the World Series this weekend. THAT’S how you love your customers, people!

Check it out here.

WTF?

From CBS:

The company replied to the young girl after she sent them some ideas to make the iPod Nano better.

(CBS 13) Like any nine-year-old, Shea O’Gorman spends a lot of time listening to her iPod Nano. So much so, that when her third grade class started learning about writing letters she thought, who better to write to than the man whose company makes her iPod.

“I decided to write to Mr. Steven Jobs,” said Shea. Jobs is the president of Apple Computers.

“She just came home and said ‘mom I have some ideas about the iPod Nano,’ and said ‘I’m going to write Steven Jobs a letter’,” said Shea’s mother. “We were just very impressed and very proud of her.”

In her letter, Shea outlined her ideas for improving iPods like adding song lyrics.

“Have the words on the screen so they could sing along and stuff,” said Shea.

So she mailed it, and waited for three months, and when a letter arrived from apple, the whole family gathered around to read it.

“She was very upset. She kind of threw the letter up in the air and ran into her room and slammed the door,” said Shea’s mom.

The letter was not…

Read the full article

If you like the menubar like I do (it’s so convenient, isn’t it?) then you will most definitely love OpaqueMenuBar. It’s a tool for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard to make the menu bar non-transparent, so you cannot see through it any more. by Eternal Storms

OpaqueMenuBar is Freeware, but donations are greatly appreciated.

Download it now

From the NYT:

SAN JOSE, Calif., Oct. 26 (AP) — Apple no longer accepts cash for iPhone purchases and now limits sales of the cellphone to two per person in a move to stop people from reselling them.

The new policy started Thursday, said Natalie Kerris, an Apple spokeswoman. Before then, there was no cash restriction and the purchase limit was five per person.

“Customer response to the iPhone has been off the charts, and limiting iPhone sales to two per customer helps us ensure that there are enough iPhones for people who are shopping for themselves or buying a gift,” Ms. Kerris said. “We’re requiring a credit or debit card for payment to discourage unauthorized resellers.”

More than 1.4 million units of the hybrid cellphone-iPod have been sold since it was introduced June 29, according to Apple. It is expected to be a popular gift for the holidays.

Apple says it thinks some people…

Read the whole article here

Are you ready? Leopard is here. 300+ Features!

Leopard will go on sale Friday, October 26 at 6:00 p.m. at Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers, and that Apple’s online store is now accepting pre-orders. Leopard is packed with more than 300 new features and introduces a brand new desktop with Stacks, a new way to easily access files from the Dock; a redesigned Finder that lets users quickly browse and share files between multiple Macs; Quick Look, a new way to instantly see files without opening an application; Spaces, an intuitive new feature used to create groups of applications and instantly switch between them; and Time Machine, an effortless way to automatically back up everything on a Mac®. “Leopard, the sixth major release of Mac OS X, is the best upgrade we’ve ever released,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “And everyone gets the ‘Ultimate’ version, packed with all the new innovative features, for just $129.”

Leopard’s new desktop includes the redesigned 3D Dock with Stacks, a new way to organize files for quick and easy access with just one click. Leopard automatically places web, email and other downloads in a Downloads stack to maintain a clutter-free desktop, and users can instantly fan the contents of this and other Stacks into an elegant arc right from the Dock. Users can also create their own Stacks for quick access to folders, documents or applications. Leopard’s gorgeous new look extends to all applications, with every window on the desktop offering a consistent design theme and active windows outlined by deeper shadows that make them stand out.

The updated Finder includes Cover Flow® and a new sidebar with a dramatically simplified way to search for, browse and copy content from any PC or Mac on a local network. Content on any computer on a local network can now be searched using Spotlight™, browsed using Cover Flow or copied across the network with a simple drag and drop. .Mac members can use the new Back to My Mac feature to browse and access files on their remote Macs over the Internet.

Quick Look is the fastest and easiest way for users to look inside files without launching them or even having the application that created them. With Quick Look, users can instantly view full-screen, high-resolution files of virtually anything, even media files, from any view in the Finder.

Spaces gives users a powerful new way to organize their work by creating customized desktops which can contain only those applications or documents needed for each project, with the ability to quickly switch between Spaces with the mouse or keyboard.

Time Machine lets users easily back up all of the data on their Mac, find lost files and even restore all of the software on their Mac. With just a one-click setup, Time Machine automatically keeps an up-to-date copy of everything on the Mac.* In the event a file is lost, users can search back through time to find deleted files, applications, photos and other digital media and then instantly restore the file. If it’s ever necessary, Leopard can also easily restore an entire system from the Time Machine data on an external drive.

Mail has been updated in Leopard and features more than 30 stationery designs and layouts that look great on a Windows PC or Mac so users can easily send stylish, personalized emails with beautiful graphics and photos. Notes and To Dos help users stay organized by acting just like emails that can be easily created, saved as drafts, synced across multiple Macs and stored in Smart Mailboxes. Data detectors automatically sense phone numbers, addresses and events so they can be added to Address Book or iCal® with just a few clicks, and users can keep up-to-date by getting the latest news and blog feeds delivered directly to their mailboxes with a built-in RSS reader.

iChat®, the easiest-to-use video conferencing application on any personal computer, offers even richer video chats in Leopard with iChat Theater, which makes it easy to show photos, presentations, videos or files in a video conference; screen sharing which lets users remotely view and operate another Mac; and Photo Booth® effects for fun distortions and video backdrops that can instantly make users appear to be anywhere they choose.

Other new features in Leopard include:

• improved Parental Controls, aiding parents in managing their kids’ online activities with automatic identification of unsuitable content before allowing website access, plus time limits and activity logs that can be accessed from any Mac on a home network;
• the complete Boot Camp® release, previously available only as a beta, making it possible to run Windows natively on Intel-based Macs;**
• Web Clip, bringing anything that a user wants from a web page to Dashboard as a live widget;
• new Photo Booth features, helping users create animated iChat buddy icons or fun effects and backdrops with still or video images;
• an enhanced Dictionary with Wikipedia built in, allowing users to access up to date information on virtually any subject in a snap;
• a newly updated iCal with multi-user calendaring based on the new CalDAV standard; and
• an updated version of Front Row, making it even easier to play music or watch movies, TV shows and photos on a Mac using the ultra-simple Apple Remote.

Pricing & Availability
Mac OS X version 10.5 Leopard will be available on October 26 at Apple’s retail stores and through Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $129 (US) for a single user license, and online pre-orders can be made through Apple’s online store (www.apple.com) starting today. The Mac OS X Leopard Family Pack is a single-household, five-user license that will be available for a suggested retail price of $199 (US). Volume and maintenance pricing is available from Apple. The standard Mac OS Up-To-Date upgrade package is available to all customers who purchased a qualifying new Mac system from Apple or an Apple Authorized Reseller on or after October 1, 2007 for a shipping and handling fee of $9.95 (US). Leopard requires a minimum of 512MB of RAM and is designed to run on any Macintosh® computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5 or G4 (867 Mhz or faster) processor. Full system requirements can be found at www.apple.com/macosx/techspecs.

* Requires an additional hard drive sold separately.
** Copy of Windows XP or Vista required.

From Apple Press Release

That’s a LOT of ka-ching for Apple. Read the article

From Cult of Mac:

Parallels, Inc., those bright kids in Renton, Washington who are so good at making Windows run nicely inside of Mac OS X, have just launched a new marketing campaign, “Why Choose?” for their Parallels Desktop product. The video, viewable above, depicts a rather satisfied fellow who refuses to compromise: He eats pizza while getting marked up for plastic surgery, he smokes while jogging, and he tries to have two women in his life (guess which one doesn’t work out? Hint: It’s not the jogging).

It’s a cute video, as well as the launching point for a pretty rad crowdsourcing video contest. The company is soliciting promo videos of three minutes or less along the “Why Choose?” theme. Other than that, the boundaries are pretty wide open. Official rules are at the company’s website, and the winner will receive a 17″ MacBook Pro, a Sony HD HandyCam and a trip for two to MacWorld. Runners-up can pick up a MacBook or an iPhone, too. Entries are due by Dec. 9, but you can get, um…a t-shirt…if you’re among the first 100 entrants. Who’s in? Everyone knows Mac users are the most creative folks in the world, so flex your power!

I was going to write about the ridiculousness of Apple selling unlocked iPhones in France for the silly, exorbitant price of $1,350, but there’s not much to say except that it’s ridiculous. How’s that for a short post? Click here to see: the listing on France’s Amazon. You really gotta see it to believe it.

Yup. First post here. That’s all for now, hahaha! -cate