Macgasm

So, I got an iPad for Christmas. I have been using it like crazy for the past couple of days, but this is is my first time writing a post on the device. I’m not using an external keyboard, so this is the full-blown experience.

The main problem that I run into is actually doing the WordPress tomfoolery needed to make the posts look right. There is an official WordPress app, but the media interaction leaves much to be desired.

Manipulating media on the web interface is fine, but I can’t seem to upload anything to the server. Sadly, that is something that I really need.

I can type really fast on iOS devices, but that might not be true for everyone. I can understand that a physical keyboard is important to a lot of people, but it just doesn’t bother me in the least. I can write first drafts of everything right there on my iPad, and I wouldn’t notice any considerable slowdown.

Now I want to hear from you. Do you type long form content on your iPad? Is it worth it to get the keyboard dock or a Bluetooth keyboard? Let me know by leaving a comment on this post.

Even with the 2011 release, Microsoft Office for Mac just isn’t as smooth or easy to use as Apple’s iWork productivity suite.

But there are things iWork can’t do. It can’t help you fix your car. It can’t assist in hanging that new painting or fixing the leak in the bathroom.

Or can it?

According to a story over at Macenstein, Sears is selling a 119 piece toolset with the iWork name on it. The name even looks like something Apple would design.

This toolset, however, cannot export files to PDF or any of Office’s file formats. Perhaps the next update will add such functionality?

Joking aside, I bet some lawyers will be involved soon.

Article Via Mac Stories

Even if you’re just a little bit nerdy, you probably use Growl. It’s a great notification system for your Mac that countless apps take advantage of. Well, we’re increasingly away from our Macs because we have iPads and iPhones to play with. Luckily, we have two apps that will display your Mac’s growl notifications on your iOS device.

First up, we have Howl. This is a very modern looking snazzy little app that works both on your iPad and iPhone/iPod touch. You can buy a universal binary of Howl for a mere $2.99 USD, and you’ll get alerts on your iOS device every time Growl triggers on your Mac. If you don’t want every notification, you can selectively turn off notifications from certain apps, so you won’t get spammed to death.

Next up, we have Prowl. Here’s an app that has been around longer, and it does the same sort of thing. If you want Growl notifications on your iPhone, Prowl will work fine. Sadly, there isn’t an iPad optimized version of Prowl. You pay the same $2.99 USD for Prowl that you do with Howl, so it’s hard for me to recommend Prowl for anyone with an iPad. iPhone and iPod touch users might prefer its user interface though. If you’re undecided, please take a look at the screenshot before you decide to buy.

No matter which one you pick for your setup, I’m sure you’ll be pleased with the result. You no longer have to hover around your iMac waiting for that Handbrake encode to finish. Try them out, and leave a comment on this post with your thoughts.

Apple recently released a support document detailing an issue with birthdays starting more than 77 years ago not appearing in the iOS Birthdays Calendar. This calendar is available in iCal, iOS, and MobileMe, and is generated automatically from information that you’ve entered in your Address Book contacts.

I used to enter people’s birthdays just by the month and day, and I’d usually never put the year. A few years ago, I got a little smarter and started creating an event in the year of that person’s birth on the calendar, and then have it repeating forever, but still I’ve been doing it manually. If you’re like me, you might not even have known there was a way to enter birthdays in the Address Book. The Birthday field in the Address Book is not enabled by default, and you must go into the preferences and edit the template in order to show it. It’s also not a default option to show the Birthdays Calendar. It must be checked off in the iCal General Preferences pane.

The fix for birthdays not appearing before 1933 is detailed in Apple Support Article TS3437, and it is very simple, essentially requiring a re-syncing of your Contact info on your iOS device. So now if you want to put in birthdays for Casey Kasem, Donald Rumsfeld, or Elizabeth Taylor, go ahead assured in the knowledge that they will now show up on your Birthdays Calendar.

Photo Credit: ThaRainbow

Ron Gilbert is well known as the genius behind Maniac Mansion and the first two Monkey Island games. Just this past month, we saw the arrival of his latest games, DeathSpank and DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue on the Mac. At long last, we Mac users get to experience Ron and Hothead Games‘ lovechild brainchild. Touted as a mix between Monkey Island and Diablo, DeathSpank is an action RPG based around the dimwitted, but lovable, titular character. In this article, I’ll review the first game, but I’ll leave Thongs of Virtue for a later post.

I really like this game, but I have one major complaint that I’ll get out of the way up front. This game requires A LOT of grinding. You need to kill a lot of nameless, faceless baddies to get your character strong enough to continue the story without getting stomped immediately. Grinding is very boring and time consuming, but it’s worth it to get to experience the rest of the game. I love complaining, but it’s really not a show stopper. It just grates on me after about thirty minutes or so.

Outside of that, the game is wonderful. I’d like to take a moment to point out the beautiful game world that loads seamlessly without any pauses. It truly is a feat of engineering, and I appreciate it immensely. Much like Braid, this game doesn’t have canonical beauty, but a charm unique to itself. The artwork really vibrates on my frequency.

I think it goes without saying that the absolutely strongest aspect of DeathSpank is the writing. Ron and the Hothead team were truly able to make the dialogue and story laugh-out-loud funny without making the entire game feel like a joke. There are times when I was drawn into the game, and felt very action hero-y, but a moment later, I was smirking as DeathSpank was being scolded by a particular redheaded lady. I’m impressed.

The controls are very good, but I have to admit the default keyboard layout needed a little bit of tweaking. DeathSpank is controlled by WASD, but the Q and E keys bring up menus. During an intense battle, my fingers often slip. Luckily, changing the key positions is easy as pie in the game settings, so there is nothing to worry about.

In sum, go check it out on Steam. DeathSpank is available for a mere $15.00 USD, and it works on both Windows and OS X. This really is great stuff, and you need to remember to stay subscribed to our feed for my review of the DeathSpank sequel.

We’ve seen a substantial amount of coverage about the social browsers Flock and RockMelt (Or “FlockMelt” as I like to call them), but does anybody really use them? We’ve seen Chrome’s popularity soar, and Safari is slowly climbing in numbers as well. Firefox, of course, is nothing to sneeze at in the number two position behind IE. But at this point, we don’t even hear about Opera in these charts — let alone these smaller offerings.

Every time there is a big revision or launch in a niche browser, I download it. I open it, sign into Twitter, and check it’s HTML5 Test score. Then I close it, and I go back to Safari or Chrome. I don’t use them. My non-techie friends and family don’t use them. I don’t even hear people sing their praises. So, my dear readers, why the hell are they still being made, and why are companies pouring resources into them? Are they idiots, or do they know something I don’t?

Now that every major browser has an architecture for extensions, why in the world would anyone want a specialty browser? We have great extensions like Cortex that provide similar functionality in a pre-existing and constantly updated browser. It seems like FlockMelt is serving a pretty small audience, but I’d love to be proved wrong.

If you have any particular insight to this conundrum, please feel free to drop me a comment on this post.

When you’ve been using your Mac for any substantial period of time, it will get cluttered. Sure the harddrive, CPU, and RAM usage are a hassle, but the visual clutter is just as annoying.

To fix this problem, first of all, go through your menu bar, and look at all of the little icons that are sitting in there. You probably don’t even remember what some of them are. If you click on the icons to bring down the contextual menu, you’ll probably find a preferences option. Click it, and then go into that app’s settings to disable the menubar icon.

Next, go through your dock. Not only will there be apps, but there are folders on the right-hand side. Sit down, and really think about what apps and folders you want on your dock. Is it worth it to have all that crap? Probably not. Thin the herd, and I’m positive you’ll be in a better mood.

Needless to say, go clean up your desktop. I can’t stress this enough. I talk about it all the time, but I know firsthand people don’t do it enough. Go throw out or file all that crap on your desktop, and you’ll be more productive. Don’t argue — just do it!

Photo Credit: EvelynGiggles

Some stories just won’t die. CNN’s Doug Gross has named the iPhone 4 antenna the biggest tech flop of 2010:

First Apple said the problem didn’t exist. Then they said it was a software issue. Then they kind-of admitted it existed and gave away free cases to help. Then, they said it doesn’t really exist anymore and stopped giving away the bumpers.

Months later, the problem is all but forgotten and the phones show no sign of dipping in popularity. So “fail,” in this case, is a pretty relative term.

Apple did what Apple does best — control the story. It had a press event to show the world they were on top of it and even flung open the doors to a secret, high-tech, high-dollar testing facility the company built to test wireless antennas. The company handed out free cases to any user who wanted one (for a limited time) and moved on after releasing a software update to the phone.

Whether the case and software update fixed it, the noise died down, or people just got bored with the issue, Antennagate has faded into the background, becoming a blip on the radar of Apple’s wild success. Like Doug Goss said, “fail” is a relative term.