Star Wars in ASCII via Terminal

If your Netflix hasn't yet arrived,
you "forgot" to pay the cable bill,
or you just don't want what you always have...

Then watch Star Wars Episode IV in ASCII via Terminal.

Open Terminal and type...

telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl

then press Enter



Have a Happy Star Wars Holiday Everyone!

Unreal 3 Engine for iPhone!

Even if you're not a "gamer" this is great news for all users
as this shows the amount of power "under the hood" of the
new hand held computer/phones from Apple. Awesome!

The bad news is there is still no port of Unreal Tournament 3
for the Mac, yet, but it's coming, so I've read...



"Anandtech spent some time with Epic Games' Mark Rein last week and was shown a demo of the Unreal Engine 3 running on a 3rd Generation iPod Touch. The demo included a flythrough as well as a playable level from Unreal Tournament.

The Unreal Engine 3 is a modern 3D gaming engine
which powers games such as Bioshock, Gears of War
and Unreal Tournament 3.



The game engine requires OpenGL 2.0 so this will restrict the game to 3rd generation iPod Touches and iPhone 3GSs only. Epic is planning on making the engine available to licensees at some point, opening the door eventually to Unreal-powered iPhone games."

READ: Epic's Unreal Engine 3 Ported to iPod Touch and iPhone 3GS
by Arnold Kim, MacRumors.com


Click to enlarge photo

A comparison of Unreal Engine 1, 2 and 3's rendering capabilities using the Malcolm model from Unreal Tournament, Unreal Tournament 2004 and Unreal Tournament 3 side-by-side.
(Unreal Engine, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Gmail gets Merge in Contacts

Gmail Contacts is quickly becoming a highly portable,
enterprise level, contact management system!

"Managing a big address book can be a challenge, so it's no surprise that the top request for Google contacts is a fast, easy way to merge duplicate contacts. You've been able to merge contacts one-by-one for a while, but now we've added a single button that merges all your duplicate contacts at once. To clean up your contact list in one fell swoop, just click the "Find duplicates" button in the contact manager, review the merge suggestions (and uncheck any suggestions you don't want merged), and hit the "Merge" button.

If you've been considering getting all your contacts into Gmail or syncing your Gmail contacts to your phone, now's the time to do it. As we've written about previously, you can sync your contacts to a wide variety of devices (including Android, iPhone, Blackberry, SyncML, etc). So if you were dreading spending hours getting your contacts in order, now you can do it with a couple clicks."

READ: One button to merge all duplicate contacts
by Dominik Marcinski, Software Engineer
posted on Tuesday, December 15, 2009 2:54 PM
on The Official Gmail Blog

Google Chrome for Mac!

Google has released it's Google Chrome web browser
for Mac OS X 10.5 or later (Intel only).

Fast start-up
Google Chrome launches in a snap.

Fast loading
Google Chrome loads web pages quickly.

Fast search
Search the web right from the address bar.

Learn about Google Chrome »

I'll be testing this as soon as I can...

VisualHub DISCONTINUED :(

I am sad to report that VisualHub has been DISCONTINUED!

If you have VisualHub or AudialHub, here are directions
on how to back them up for safe keeping:

READ: How to Back Up VisualHub and AudialHub
(iSquint is self-contained. just copy the app itself)

For anyone who has come to rely on it's excellent video conversion over the years the wait for the next app to replace it is over...

now use... ReduxEncoder 1.2.6 beta for Mac OS X 10.5
at The Blog of st373n

VLC Remote app for iPhone

"You already know that VLC is a highly portable multi-media player/server available for Mac, Windows, Linux, etc., capable of reading most audio and video formats (AVI, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.264, DivX, WMV, ASF, FLV (Flash), MP3, MP4, OGG, AAC, FLAC, etc...) as well as DVDs, Audio CDs VCDs, and various streaming protocols." VLC playback Features

FREE VLC media player 1.0.3

Download VLC (Mac OS X 10.5 (PowerPC), 19 MB)

Now there's a FREE VLC Remote Control app for iPhone.
I downloaded mine straight from the App Store app.
There's also a paid version of VLC Remote that's allows you
to browse and select files, and manage your playlist.
At only $2.99 it was well worth it!

READ: VLC Remote App Controls The Baddest Media Player Via iPhone
by John Mahoney, GIZMODO.com

ShareTool extends Bonjour over 'net

"Yazsoft’s ShareTool lets you securely share, over the Internet, all the services on a particular computer, as well as all the services that computer can reach on its local network.

...printing, screen sharing, iTunes Sharing, and iPhoto Sharing, as well as third-party services from sources as varied as Skype and BusyCal—if software advertises its services using Bonjour, ShareTool can make them available over the Internet."

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS X 10.5.8 Leopard

READ: ShareTool extends Bonjour over the 'net
by Glenn Fleishman, Macworld.com

Pod to Mac: Transfer Software

"Pod to Mac is an iPod, iPad or iPhone to Mac transfer software that lets users transfer iPhone, iPod Touch and iPod songs, playlists, videos, tv shows and much more to a Mac and into iTunes. Pod to Mac can rip music from all iPods and iPhones works with or without jail-breaking."

Computer Requirements:

    * Mac OSX 10.5, 10.6 or later
    * iTunes 8, 9 or later
    * A USB Connector for the iPod device


iPod Compatibility:
Works with all, iPods, iPhones and iPads including:

    * iPad (all generations)
    * iPhone (all generations)
    * iPod Classic (all generations)
    * iPod Touch (all generations)
    * iPod Shuffle (all generations)
    * iPod Nano (all generations)

This is a great "Crash Recovery Solution"
"If your computer crashed or you just bought a new one, Pod to Mac is the ideal solution to move your music back on to the computer. Simply download, install and click auto-transfer and everything will be back the way it was before."

Doom Classic for iPhone!

Boo! Spooky! Scary!

The official iPhone and iPod touch port of id Software's Doom is now available.

Priced at $6.99, the 76.8MB download packs a total of 36 levels across four episodes: Knee-Deep in the Dead, Shores of Hell, Inferno, and Thy Flesh Consumed.

Along with single-player, the touch-controlled game packs four-person competitive and cooperative multiplayer modes.

READ: Doom Classic Arrives on iPhone
by Chris Faylor, shacknews

iTunes Library on External Drive

"When it comes time to move your iTunes library, it can often be a bit of a challenge to figure out exactly what pieces you need to move and how to go about doing this.

Moving Your Content to a New Hard Drive: The Wrong Way
A very common mistake made by many users is to simply try and move their entire iTunes Media folder to a new location and update the iTunes Media folder path in iTunes’ preferences. In some cases this may work, but in reality you will risk iTunes losing track of some or all of your media files in the process.

Consolidate: The Right Way
Start by going into your iTunes Advanced preferences, and changing the iTunes Media folder path to whatever new location you want your iTunes media files to be stored in. This will usually be an external hard drive, but it can be any valid path, including a secondary hard drive or even a network share.

Once you have updated the iTunes Media folder location, simply select File, Library, Organize Library… (in iTunes 8, this option was “Consolidate Library” and in iTunes 7 and prior, it was located on the “Advanced” menu)

Since iTunes copies the media content rather than moving it, you will probably also want to delete your iTunes media files from their original locations."

READ: Transferring your iTunes Library
by Jesse David Hollington, iLounge

Pwnage Tool 3.1 is OUT

"The iPhone hacking faithful can now unlock and jailbreak their original iPhone, iPhone 3G, and first-generation iPod Touch devices with the much-awaited PwnageTool 3.1. Unfortunately, the hacking tool does not yet support the iPhone 3GS or the new iPod Touch, but an update is expected soon.

Arriving only a week after Apple released the 3.1 software update for the iPhone and iPod touch, DevTeam has set free Pwnage Tool 3.1. The software allows you to create and install custom firmware packages to jailbreak your Apple device and also use SIM cards from carriers other than AT&T (or the original carrier you purchased your iPhone from).

As usual, a kind reminder that jailbreaking your iPhone or iPod touch is not something that Apple likes you to do and it will void your warranty. But if you know what you are doing (and follow the instructions closely) Pwnage Tool will give you access to the Cydia app store, a place full of apps that allow you to further customize your iPhone and also use many of the apps that Apple rejected from its own app store."

READ: New jailbreaking tool available for some iPhone users
by Daniel Ionescu, PC World

Turn-by-Turn Voice GPS for iPhone

"Sygic Mobile Maps turns your iPhone into a real-time, turn-by-turn voice guided navigation system for $60.00.

With pre-installed maps, it is always with you on your phone, without other hidden costs or data plans, with no additional subscription fee for maps or data transfer.

Set the software to your preferred language for spoken instructions and text. There are more than 20 languages to choose from."

MacFixItForums moves to CNET :(

Just in case you don't understand

The following is NOT GOOD NEWS!

"For nearly a decade MacFixIt has provided free forums for Mac users at MacFixItForums.com. Today we are introducing new Mac Forums in the CNET Forums. These changes are a direct result of our acquisition by CNET...

As part of this transition, on 8/4/2009 all threads at MacFixItForums.com will become read-only. You will still be able to access and browse the existing threads at http://archive.macfixitforums.com. You may also begin posting immediately in the new forums available at http://forums.cnet.com/mac-forums.

If you have comments about these changes please post a message in this thread. We’ve also created a separate thread for suggestions you might have for the new CNET Mac Forums. We look forward to your feedback as we work to improve the forums. We want to build the best resource for our community members, and hear your ideas for creating the best Mac forums online.

We appreciate everything this community has contributed over the years, and we hope you will all join us in our new home at CNET.

Edited by cnet.aaron (07/27/09 11:10 AM)

READ: We’re moving to the new CNET Mac Forums
by cnet.aaron, CNET

Quake Live for Mac August 18!

"Quake Live is expanding to Mac and Linux on August 18.

The game, which is a Web-based re-creation of the 1999 classic Quake III Arena, went into public beta for Windows in February, with promises of coming to the Mac and Linux in due time. Executive producer Marty Stratton said in May that internal testing on those versions had begun, and that support for the Mac was a top priority.

Firefox will be the de facto browser choice for Mac users looking to unload some plasma cannon blasts next week: the only other supported browser is Internet Explorer 7 or 8. Hardware specs aren't yet available, but the PC specs recommend a 2GHz or better Intel processor and an Nvidia NVIDIA GeForce 7 Series, ATI Radeon X1800 series, or better, so you can read between the lines.

Quake Live is free for all players, though you need to register an account to play. But when that’s all that stands between you and some rocket launcher action, it's hardly even worth noting.

Quake Live is free for all players, though you need to register an account to play. But when that’s all that stands between you and some rocket launcher action, it's hardly even worth noting."

READ: Quake Live for Mac hits the Web on August 18
by Dan Moren, Macworld.com

Apple iDisk app for iPhone

"Apple has released its long-awaited MobileMe iDisk application for the iPhone and iPod touch. It’s available for free download from the App Store.

MobileMe iDisk enables iPhone and iPod touch OS 3.x users with MobileMe accounts to access the contents of their iDisk — the online storage component of Apple’s MobileMe subscription-based online service."

READ: Apple releases iDisk app for iPhone
by Peter Cohen, Macworld.com

Remote Control LogMeIn for iPhone

"With the $29.99 LogMeIn Ignition for iPhone and iPod touch, you can check your email, access files, troubleshoot and use programs on the fly, just as if you were sitting in front your Mac or PC."

LogMeIn Ignition for iPhone and iPod touch is a fast and simple way to connect to your LogMeIn Pro² and LogMeIn Free Mac OS 10.4 Tiger, Mac OS 10.5 Leopard, Windows and Linux computers.

Doom 3 for iPhone?

"Id Software co-founder and CTO John Carmack has hinted in recent months about a "secret" project that was happening in parallel with his own efforts to bring his company's "classic" titles to the iPhone.

That project was unveiled Wednesday: Doom Resurrection."

"“In general, I am super-excited for the iPhone as a platform for Id to be involved in,” said Carmack. He said that he hopes to bring the entire “classic” Id Software game line — Doom, Quake, even Quake 3 — to the iPhone and iPod touch, along with updated versions of Id Software’s mobile titles, Orcs & Elves and Doom RPG."

READ: Id Software unveils ‘secret’ iPhone game: Doom Resurrection
by Peter Cohen, Macworld.com


Doom Resurrection is an entirely new game exclusive to the iPhone that uses Doom 3 assets.

Wolfenstein 3D for iPhone available for $5 since March

Doom 3 for iPhone coming soon

Doom Classic for iPhone still in progress...

Snow Leopard's September Ship!

"The next version of Mac OS X will arrive in September, with a $29 price tag.

But when OS X 10.6 does arrive, it will only run on Intel-based machines."

READ: Snow Leopard gets a September ship date
by Philip Michaels, Macworld.com

Online Storage Sites are Closing!

What happens to the data when an online storage site closes?

"Online storage sites, the toast of the Internet circa 2006, are shutting down in droves, putting the data and images of their users in jeopardy.

Online storage services that have announced closings in the past ten months include big names in tech: AOL (Xdrive and AOL Pictures), Hewlett-Packard (Upline), Sony (Image Station), and Yahoo (Briefcase). Plenty of lesser-known online storage firms also have kicked the bucket, including Digital Railroad and Streamload MediaMax, which turned into The Linkup.

Cloud Computing Loses Some Steam

The failures of popular online storage services are giving cloud computing a black eye. For years Internet companies invited people to store photos and data online, promoting the services as smart alternatives to storing data on a local PC or backup drive. AOL once stated in its Xdrive service's marketing literature: "You'll never have to worry that a computer crash or virus will destroy all your files because they will always be safe 'n' sound up on Xdrive." Xdrive officially closed in mid-January."

READ: What happens to the data when an online storage site closes?
by Tom Spring, PC World

Protect Your Data

Here are some suggestions to help you plan a smart backup strategy that includes online and offline options:

-- Find the Right Online Backup Service
-- Macworld's Storage News and Reviews

Remote Control your Mac from iPhone

If you need or just want to control your Mac computer from your iPhone or iPod Touch here's a Macworld article by Christopher Breen on Rowmote for iPhone

and an older Macworld article by Dan Frakes on Apple’s Remote application for iPhone.

4-Track Music Recording on iPhone

FourTrack 2.0 application for iPhone adds Bounce, Duplicate and Metronome and costs only $9.99
This Jim Dalrymple article on Macworld explains it here.

Wolfenstein 3D for iPhone!

"Assume the role of OSA agent B.J. Blazkowicz, who must escape Castle Wolfenstein and defeat Nazi scientists and soldiers who have crafted monsters using paranormal techniques.

Id Software has finally made its debut on the iPhone and iPod touch, releasing its classic 3D shooter Wolfenstein 3D for the system. It's available for $5 from the App Store.

Carmack also remarked that Classic Doom should come to the iPhone "fairly soon." Quake is also planned for release, and Wolfenstein RPG is planned for a release by EA Mobile, as well."

READ: Wolfenstein 3D comes to iPhone; developer releases source
by Peter Cohen, Macworld.com


Wolfenstein 3D Classic lets you relive the early days of Id Software on your iPhone.

2 Networks on 1 Airport?

Macworld's Glenn Fleishman has a highly informative article on Apple’s AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule updates, and what changes to the base station and backup device mean for you.

"Now, to run two separate networks,
you just turn on the box."

AirPort Extreme:
Perfect wireless solution for home, school, and small business.


Time Capsule:
Automatic wireless backup for your Mac.