Macgasm

GloBall ($2.99) is an addictive puzzle game where you must tilt the iPod in such directions to bounce into all the colored blocks — but you must avoid or destroy your enemies.

In level after level, you’re given different types of power-up privileges and meaner enemies, but the gameplay stays the same: keep your cool and remove those blocks.

I really enjoyed playing GloBall. It was one of those games where the ball’s movement felt smooth throughout. The gameplay is really well done.

The only thing I’d love is a cheat sheet of what the different power-ups do. I’d also love to learn more about the enemy players. But hey, I guess I just have to keep playing.

If you want a fun game that takes advantage of the iPhone/iPod touch’s tilt capabilities, GloBall delivers.

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In this episode, Josh discusses the rumors about iTunes 9 including support for Twitter, Last.fm, Facebook, and Blu-Ray.

[02.3 MB] [0:04:50] [Hosted by: Josh Schnell & Grant Brunner]

If you’re a fan of David Allen’s “Getting Things Done”, you’ll love OmniFocus ($19.99). The GTD phenomenon is all about productivity, and OmniFocus takes that up a notch and makes it incredibly easy to do.

OmniFocus’s main screen gives you an Inbox, Projects, Contexts, Due Soon, Overdue, and Flagged “folders.” When you first think of something to do, you can toss it into your Inbox. Your Projects/Contexts show a little more detail (with Projects relating to the work that needs to be done and Contexts referring to the locations that the actions need to be completed at). The Due Soon/Overdue/Flagged items belong in Smart Groups that put priority on your most important items so that you can find them easily.

You can cross off Actions, find Contexts that may be geographically close to you (you’d obviously need an iPhone for this), and even synchronize this app with the desktop application of OmniFocus which is available at an extra cost.

This app is great for anyone who is interested in structured productivity, which is what David Allen’s system is all about. If OmniFocus is a little overwhelming at first, you should definitely read David Allen’s system before diving into the application, but if you’re familiar with it elsewhere, go for it. GTD fans would rejoice with all the features available in OmniFocus.

Over the weekend, Apple opened up a new Apple store, Main Place, in Naperville, Illinois. Naperville is about 40 miles west of Chicago. I went to the opening which was Saturday, August, 15th at 10:00AM central time.

I arrived in the line at about 8:20AM or so. When I took my place in line, there were about 55 other people in line ahead of me. This was more than I had anticipated, but better than being at the end; which was probably around 500 people. The line had stretched all the way down the block and around the corner and almost down to the next street.

The store itself has a very modern look to it. The walls and floors are covered in gray. The doors, drawers and shelves are all the same color metallic gray. I’m not sure how I feel about it myself but it definitely does have a modern look to it.

I did take a quick video (16 seconds) of a quick look at the store.

One thing that I did find interesting is that the Mayor A. George Pradel greeted everybody in line. He, himself, was in line since 7:30am just to show his support for another Naperville business.

As usual, Apple was handing out T-shirts. I have yet to open mine up, but it seemed as though they had plenty of t-shirts since they were pulling boxes upon boxes out of the store room to hand out.

The Naperville Apple store is the eighth Illinois Apple store; all of which are in the Chicagoland area. I did not spend a whole lot of time in the store since it was, obviously, super busy and packed. I will probably be heading back to get a really good look at the entire store. Just without the crowd. I recommend that everybody attend an Apple Store opening, if you have the opportunity.

So you want to start a news site?  You think you can bring something to the internet, but you’re not sure the tools you might need to do it? You want a Podcast? Screencast? A Blog?

Well, this here site is quickly turning into a full-time job for yours truly (minus the paycheck), and if it weren’t for a number of programs on my machine, I’d doubt I’d be able to pull it off within budget.

Anyway, here’s a listing of the Apps I Use, and the things I use them for.

Smultron – Everything starts here for me.  Writing a post usually starts with me typing away in Smultron. The great thing about this application is that it’s extremely lightweight.  This program kills two birds with one stone for us here at Macgasm.  I also use it to edit all the code on the site.  I don’t usually build applications or websites from scratch with it, but it does excel at editing a quick file here, or an HTACCESS file there.  I’m pretty sad that development has recently stopped on the program, but I’ll use it until the wheels fall off.

DropBox – A large problem that most multi-user websites face is keeping everyone on the same page, and moving files back and forth. You might not realize it, but no one who contributes to Macgasm lives in the same city.  Some writers are scattered across the US, others Europe, add in Australia and Canada, and you have a recipe for disaster when it comes to organization.  DropBox has helped out tremendously with this for us.  Corey will record and edit a screencast, and I’ll have to upload it around the internet for our viewers.  This makes that chore A LOT easier.

iMovie – Most people balk at iMovie, and they call it an editor for n00bs, but frankly, if you want to edit a video that’ll be under 10 minutes in play time, there’s a really good chance that the quickest way to pull it off is using iMovie.  All the screencasts done by yours truly, are edited with iMovie.  It just makes sense.

iShowU – There’s a host of screen recording programs around the internet and I’ve tried most of them at one point or another, but for me, iShowU is the best for what we do.  There’s no bells and whistles that other applications might have, so it won’t break the bank.  It’s affordable, well supported, and integrates into our workflow.

OmniFocus – It’s been a love/hate relationship between me and OmniFocus.  I used it, then I abandon it, then I come back around to it.  I think it’s here to stay this time, and frankly, I think it’s one of the better GTD apps available.  Sometimes it’s nice to remind yourself that you’ve got a lot of work to do, and nothing feels better than striking out tasks and watching them disappear.

Little Snapper – Some people swear by skitch, but for me it’s been all little snapper since it was in MacHeist.  It’s a great way to take screen captures and have them stored away in place you can retrieve them.  If you’re planning on starting a website that’s going to be rich in media, I’d suggest you start here.  Archiving your screencaptures is a great way to retrieve stuff later.  The really nice thing is that you can edit files on the fly.  Want to blur something out? Check.  Want to crop something? Check.

SoundSource – This is for all the people wanting to start a podcast and are getting really sick of having to switch between input or output sources for your audio.  It’s a time saver, and it should really be something that ships with the operating system.  You get a nice little menu bar icon that lets you select things like a usb device for a mic, or use the line in setting.

Billings – At some point someone’s going to come knocking wanting to give you money to run an ad.  You should really make sure you’re ready for that, but if you think you are, then it’ll be a good time to think about picking up an invoicing package.  Keeping track of who owes you what is important.  You don’t want advertisers leaving you hanging, and then forgetting that they owe you anything.  There’s no such thing as a free lunch, so make sure you can pay for yours, by taking someone elses money. ;)

Cha-Ching – If you’re collecting ads, you have a revenue stream, and if you have a revenue stream you better start keeping track of incoming and outgoing expenses.  What’s the point in running something if you’re losing money hand over fist.  Have you ever heard of a homeless blogger?  I haven’t.  Cha-ching helps you keep track of expenses and balance your accounts. I use it weekly, and I’m pretty thankful these guys exist.  I really wouldn’t want to be doing this stuff the old-fashioned way.

Tweetdeck – Yeah, I know… Twitter! Twitter! Twitter! Blah, blah, blah!  But, the fact of the matter is you wanna be where people are talking about the news.  It’s important to make sure you represent yourself in the  discussion that’s going on there.  Keep track of who’s talking about you, who’s praising you, and who’s bashing you any chance they get.  Tweetdeck is great for doing this, and it’s really great if you can designate a monitor for the progam. Let it run all day, and scan it from time to time.  We’ve gotten some great scoops from using twitter.

Every time I go into an Apple store here in London, there are always massive groups of the ‘Yoof’ hanging around all the computers, usually just watching YouTube videos and cranking the volume to max on the speakers before a member of Apple staff comes along and spoils their fun. It’s not that I always have things I’ve specifically gone in there to do, like getting that urgent memo over to Dave at the office and the Apple store is my only hope. I usually just want to go in and hold one of the unibody beauties I one day aspire to own for myself. But it does annoy me, and it’s even worse during the holidays, it’s like a youth centre in there sometimes.

Now, at least this kid is doing something more entertaining with his time there, and has so far raked in over 21,000 views of this video already.

If there’s on thing that sucks worse than Mail.app, it’s Entourage.  Apparently Microsoft knows it too, so they’re now planning on bringing the corporate mail giant Outlook over in the next version of Office:Mac.  We can expect it to emerge in the Office 2010 package which should be ready for the upcoming holiday season.

It’s rumoured that Microsoft has rewritten the package from scratch, and that it will integrate seamlessly with Apple’s Time Machine and Spotlight applications.  I’m not gonna make any predictions about making the switch to Outlook just yet, but I will say that I’ll give it some serious consideration when it’s released.  I’m hoping this release will move to push Apple into updating some of the functionality in Mail.app.

Competition is good, right?

Keeping with all things Microsoft, there will be a disctinctly different version system set up for the next Office release, the AP is reporting that we will see the Home and Student edition remaining at the 150.00 price point, but the Standard version and the Special Media Version will be eliminated and replaced with a 400.00 Business version.

Maybe I’ll pass on the Outlook afterall and finally get around to purchasing that elusive 79.00 iWork.

The Moron Test ($0.99) is one of the strangest apps I’ve ever seen in the iTunes store, and well, I like it.

Moron Test is the ultimate common sense test. It’s a series of questions in the form of a game and a race against the clock. Silly questions are posed, and your first instinct is usually not the right one in this game. It requires lots and lots of concentration and fast reflexes. You’re asked to touch the “pie” in the same screen where “pi” is featured — you’re told not to press the button on the same screen as a button that says “continue,” and the idea is to figure out exactly what you’re really supposed to do versus what you’re not. You only have 3 tries per game, and you’ll see that you’ll lose your lives pretty quickly at first until you realize what you’ve done wrong. It looks easy, but the reality is that it’s tricky as anything, and that’s what makes this game funny and hilarious.

I highly recommend this game. Even when you beat it, you’ll find yourself wanting to play it again and again to beat your best score. Plus, you’ll probably mess up again.

The Moron Test is fun and a great game for friends and family.