News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
You’ve probably read by now that some people who went to the Apple Store Sydney opening last week have begun selling their commemorative t-shirts on eBay and similar sites. This, in a sort of mixed-up way, makes sense to me. It means, after all, that what they were lining up for for so long actually has monetary value to them. What makes less sense to me is the fact that people are buying them — at least at these prices.
Matthew JC. Powell | Jun 27, 2008
Sometimes, it's better to play with yourself. No, wait, that's not quite right. I've been spending some time recently on an iMac playing two fairly significant fantasy action games. First, I've been enjoying playing through Lionhead's Fable: The Lost Chapters, recently brought to the Mac by Feral Interactive. Then I went head to head with the big challenge in fantasy games right now; Blizzard's well-loved World Of Warcraft.
Alex Kidman | Jun 25, 2008
Apple very quietly added TV shows to the content of Australia's iTunes Store yesterday, not even issuing a press release about it until early this morning (and that with no subject line). The shows, from three American producers and two Australian ones, cost $2.99 each and finally provide a fully legal way to populate an Apple TV, iPod touch or — in a few weeks — iPhone with compelling content. Up until now the only video content available from the iTunes Store has been Pixar short films, music videos and movie trailers.
Matthew JC. Powell | Jun 25, 2008
The South Australian Apple Users' Club (SAAUC) bas been in Adelaide since the late 1970s and now has a diverse range of members between the ages of 15 to over 80s. Skill levels vary from raw beginners to professional and power users. It is an ever-evolving group that still provides a wide variety of services and assistance to its members. It produces a monthly magazine, called AppleSauce, which is provided in an easy-to-read on-screen PDF format. Back issues of AppleSauce can be downloaded from the web site and when you visit the site be sure to say Hello to Englebart!
Nicholas Pyers | Jun 24, 2008
Traffic — particularly pedestrian traffic — in the middle of Sydney was disrupted on Thursday as people lined up around the block into York Street to be among the first to enter the Apple Store. The excitement of those in the line was palpable, as was the disbelief of many passers-by. "Why are you waiting in line," they cried, "it's just a shop." I heard that phrase a lot: "just a shop". I'm sure the people who queued overnight heard it many more times than I did. But, in truth, is the Apple Store "just a shop"?
Matthew JC. Powell | Jun 20, 2008
It merited only an aside in Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ keynote here at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). The real information about the next version of Mac OS X, if any, was flashed later in the day only to developers, and only under a nondisclosure agreement that promises vengeance unto the third generation if broken. So, what we know about that operating system, dubbed Snow Leopard, is: It exists. And the widespread pre-WWDC rumours were on target when they said that Snow Leopard, unlike, oh, every other major OS X revision, will feature … no new features.
Dan Turner | Jun 16, 2008
The 3G iPhone, to no-one's surprise, debuted this morning at the WWDC in San Francisco. The feature set, however, did come as a surprise, as did some of the features of the enhanced and rebadged .Mac service, hereinafter known as MobileMe. And who was expecting a white iPhone? Not us. Read all about it and join in the chat on the Australian Macworld Forums.
Matthew JC. Powell | Jun 9, 2008
What tickles your fancy? The Geography of Europe. Nanotechnology, Philosophy or perhaps Astrophysics and Supercomputing? The University of Melbourne, Swinburne, Australian National University, University of Western Australia, the University of NSW, Griffith and Otago University in New Zealand, are just some of the Antipodean tertiary institutions now joining their US cousins in providing public lectures, courseware and recordings of ceremonial events such as commencement and valedictory speeches.
Martin Levins | Jun 9, 2008
If screen capture is important to you then ScreenFlow from Vara Software might mean the end of your long relationship with SnapZ Pro and other worthies. Leveraging the advanced graphic technologies of Mac OS Leopard, ScreenFlow captures everything on your screen - every window, mouse move and keystroke - even the live action from HD DVD and 3D games. In addition you can record from your iSight camera or attached DV camera at the same time as the screen action is being recorded. ScreenFlow will also pick up audio from your microphone and your Mac system on the way through. The folks at Vara like to talk about screencasting rather than screen capture. This makes sense because ScreenFlow really shines in the process of polishing your screen action for the publishing phase. Like postproduction in podcasting.
Keith White | Jun 5, 2008
Once everyone realised that Kevin Rudd’s government policy of ready access to computers for all year 9-12 students was actually going to happen, the market suddenly changed. The goalposts weren’t just moved — we now have a different game and the rush of blood to the vendors’ heads has made them readier than ever to play limbo with pricepoints. We’ve seen $700 desktops from PC vendors and even $999 MacBooks with a .Mac account, onsite warranty, iWork and a carry bag thrown in from Apple in Australia.
Martin Levins | Jun 2, 2008
Since Leopard was released in October last year, Apple has asked users to download over a gigabyte of stuff to fix it. Some of that is security fixes and you’ll have no complaints from me, and some of it — especially in 10.5.2 — was features that really needed to be rethought from the original release. The remainder, one has to assume, is stuff that was broken. Stuff that wasn’t ready for release when Apple released it. Stuff that it should have got right. In 10.5.3, there aren’t any snazzy new features, no interface changes to note. For most of us it’s a really big download that changes nothing except a digit on the “About this Mac” box.
Matthew JC. Powell | May 30, 2008
Myvu has announced that its Crystal video goggles now work with the iPhone. The Crystal glasses require a new cable which costs $US24.95.
