Macgasm

Netflix has launched a streaming only option in the US, just a few scant months after launching a similar service in Canada. This new option is available for $7.99 a month, and gives users the ability to stream Netflix’s online offerings to their Macs, iPhone or iPad, and Apple TV.

Pricing for the disc-by-mail rental service has increased, however, by as much as $8 for the highest plan, to just $1 for the lowest. Writing on The Netflix Blog, Jessie Becker, VP of Marketing attributes the price increases to greater demand for content to be watched instantly. “Our selection of TV episodes and movies available to stream has grown dramatically, and as a result most members want us to deliver unlimited TV episodes and movies two ways: streaming instantly over the internet plus DVDs by mail. The price increase will allow us to continue to offer the popular plan choice of unlimited TV episodes and movies streaming instantly along with unlimited DVDs.” The price increases only affect DVD plans. Blu-ray pricing remains unaffected.

There are no plans that offer only DVD by mail rentals, as every plan includes the watch instantly service, and Netflix makes no bones about where it intends to go. “The fact is that Netflix members are already watching more TV episodes and movies streamed instantly over the Internet than on DVDs, and we expect that trend to continue. Creating the best user experience that we can around watching instantly is how we’re spending the vast majority of our time and resources,” says Becker.

Between Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and the iTunes store, paying to watch TV and Movies has never been easier.

Article Via BoyGeniusReport

Q. My MacBook Pro is less than a year old. The battery dies quickly and the fans are always on. Is it time to take it in for repair?

A. It might be, but let’s start by looking at what’s going on in your system to be sure it’s not software related. Go into the Utilities folder and open up Activity Monitor. You’ll see all sorts of processes running. Some you will recognize, some you won’t, but don’t worry about that. Above the list of processes you will see clickable column headers. Click on “% CPU” and make sure it’s listing largest to smallest in order.

What’s at the top? Is there an application that is racking up a high percentage? If it is something you don’t recognize, go ahead and google it. It is possible that it is related to an application that you will know. One problem that I see quite a bit and I hate to even say it for fear of sounding like a Steve Jobs fangirl (oh wait, I am) is Flash Player. If it is indeed Flash, try updating your flash player to the newest version. If you think you already have version 10.1, go ahead and update it anyways as it’s actually 10,1,xxxxxx. It may also be that one of your favorite web pages has a bad flash ad on it that is causing it to run wild. If your processes are all running low and nothing is spiking then it is a good idea to go see your local Apple Specialist.

On a side note, Activity Monitor is a fantastic Utility that I keep open at all times. You have an option to change its dock icon to show CPU usage. Whenever my fans kick on I immediately check to see what’s going on as heat is your computers worst enemy.

Have you had this happen to you? Let us know in the comments. If you have a Mac question that you would like answered, please email ask@macgasm.net

37 Signals’ Basecamp product is a great tool for tracking projects with numerous participants. In fact, it is what we use here at Macgasm. Its task management capabilities and clean interface are hard to beat.

However, as with most web services, users prefer to interact with Basecamp from a mobile app — not the browser — on smaller devices. As such, there are several iOS apps on the App Store that serve as front-end interfaces to Basecamp.

There are few — if any — that are as gorgeous and well thought-out as Headquaters, built by Select Start Studios. The big feature that sets this app apart is the Dashboard — a single view that highlights everything that needs attention at that moment. In a system as complex as Basecamp, this is a game-changer.

Version 2.0 rolled out today on the App Store. This version includes countless improvements, including a Lite version for Basecamp users with a single project. For small users, this is a blessing. The multi-project version is now $4.99.

If you use Basecamp, this should be on your iPhone. Hopefully, we see an iPad version in the future (hint, hint!).

According to a report by Reuters, in the first week of being on the iTunes Music Store, the Beatles have sold two million individual tracks. According to the Guardian, the group has sold 450,000 albums in this timeframe.

“Abbey Road,” the last album the group recorded, is currently No. 6 in the iTunes Music Store, while The Beatles Box Set was No. 10. The Box Set includes each studio album by the Beatles, including the “Past Masters” collection and a mini-documentary complete with photos, notes and a video of the group’s first concert in the US, in 1964.

For a device that has already redefined the way some of us consume our news (Wired, New Yorker, RSS), the iPad has yet to solve the subscription-based pricing conundrum. Print subscriptions for popular magazines come in at a substantially cheaper rate than purchasing the same publication digitally on your iPad. The cost of a Wired subscription is $39.00 USD for a year. The cost of a Wired magazine on your iPad started at $5.99 USD, then went to $4.99 USD, and is now at $3.99 USD per issue. Once it’s divvied up, the digital model is still a ten dollar premium over the print-based edition. That’s also assuming that you’ve managed to get the yearly subscription for $39.00, but if you’re willing to dig around a bit you can usually find subscriptions for a lot cheaper.

There’s clearly a problem, and both Apple and News Corps are apparently teaming up to solve the issue for us, almost a year after Apple announced that the iPad was going to redefine the print world.

John Gruber is reporting that “Rupert Murdoch and Steve Jobs are both preparing to unveil a new digital “newspaper” called the Daily at the end of this month.” The Daily application would not only solve the recurring subscription-based problems with App Store magazines, but it would also do away entirely with “print editions” and “web editions” of the publication, thereby making the app only available for the iPad (currently).

This application would be classified as “tablet newspaper” and it’s expected to cost about $0.99 cents per week,  putting it in line with the current price of a Conde Naste publication, but also being drastically cheaper than traditional print newspapers. Local news print subscriptions (Ottawa Citizen) costs about $26.69 per month in Canada.

It is also being reported that on the 9th of December, Apple and News Corps. will take the stage together at a “surprise” event  in Cupertino. Both companies will announce the new application, along with explanations about how the system works, and what APIs will be released to developers.

What do you think: too little too late, or a game changer?

Article Via Daring Fireball

Apple and Foxconn must be expecting a huge increase in iPad demand. Foxconn has added new production plants in Chengdu, China, and they’re expecting to increase their iPad production by another 10,000 iPads per day.

Foxconn originally denied the claims about iPads being produced in Chengdu, but “related component players have pointed out that Foxconn already started shipping iPads from the site in November.”

Sources talking to DigiTimes suggested that Apple could ship as many as seven million iPads in the fourth quarter.

I’m no analyst, but I’m pretty sure that would place Apple Inc. at the top of the “tablet” list in terms of sales.

Are you planning on picking up an iPad for someone over the holidays? Or are you hoping Apple announces iPad 2 sometime in January?  At this point I’d recommend waiting, but if you absolutely must get your hands on one, I’d start looking now.

Article Via AppleInsider

Every year Apple participates in Black Friday, and every year people complain about the lack of decent deals from Apple. So you’re going to hear it here first. The discounts won’t live up to the expectations that the media is hyping up online right now. Apple has announced that they will be participating in this year’s Black Friday event, but the deals will likely be less than you expect.

That being said, a little deal is better than no deal at all, but if you’re expecting 50% off of a new MacBook Air, you might as well give up now. It’s not going to happen.

But, you might have some success on Amazon or OWC and other Mac-centric websites. So, keep your eyes peeled, and don’t give up until you find something worth your time and money.

November 26th is the big day, for those Non-American readers.

The day is upon us. The dawn of a new age. Civilization V is released on the Mac, and it is indeed a wonder. Ported from the PC version by Aspyr, the highly addictive turn-based strategy game will be available through Steam for OS X.

More importantly, Aspyr listened to user feedback from the community, and Civilization V will support Steam Play. That means if you’ve purchased the PC version of the game on Steam, you won’t have to buy the Mac OS X version again, you can just download it for free. And now, the opposite is also true.

From the Civ V Mac FAQ on the GameAgent NonBlog:

From the comments that poured in, it seemed clear that many of you had purchased the PC version, even though it was the Mac version that you really wanted, and either expected that Civ V Mac would support SteamPlay or that Civ V Mac would not even be released for some time. Obviously there was a lack of communication on our part, and, quite frankly, we don’t want you guys to have to pay for our mistakes. So for those of you to whom we failed to communicate properly, and those hold outs that just waited anyway, PLEASE ENJOY THE GAME! And if you like your Mac version then please consider purchasing Mac DLC when it becomes available!

Game saves to the Steam Cloud will be supported, but not at launch. There will be a patch released later adding the ability to save your games to the online server. Game saves are not cross platform compatible, however, so Mac OS X saved games will only work on a Mac, and PC save games will only work on a PC. The Mac OS X version does not support user mods either, so you may want to check out the PC version for that if you really want to.

Article Via The GameAgent NonBlog