The Hippest Phones » Mac

Counter-Strike: Source now available for Mac (!)

Nicholas Deleon — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 23:00:00 +0000

Just a heads-up to let you Mac users out there that Counter-Strike: Source, "the number one online action game in the world," is now available on Steam for Mac.

Be alert! Mac malware targets unsuspecting users of adult Web sites

Nicholas Deleon — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 18:30:56 +0000

If I've said it once I've said it 1,000 times: the best way to stay safe online is to keep your wits about you and not to venture off into the darker corners of the Internet, if you know what I mean. I bring this up because there's a nasty bit of kit out there that means to attack unsuspecting Mac users. It sorta makes sense from the malware creator's perspective: Mac users tend to operate under the assumption that they're immune from malware because A) their numbers are too few to be a juicy target B) their system is inherently more secure. You can debate point B all day long, but as Apple sells more and more Macs you can bet that miscreants will be targeting the platform with increasing frequency.

VLC 1.1.0 adds Windows and Linux GPU decoding

Nicholas Deleon — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 16:45:58 +0000

Have you launched VLC today? If so then you'll already know that it has been updated to version 1.1.0. The biggest feature in this version is the addition of GPU decoding for Windows (Vista and 7 only) and Linux users. That is, you can use that fancy GPU of yours to help decode that 1080p MKV you've got there, leaving your CPU with enough room to breathe, or whatever. Fair warning: if you're on Windows, hope you've got an nVidia GPU…

Apple’s Gaming Future is Full Steam Ahead

Kyle Thibaut — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 02:19:02 +0000

Remember back when anti-mac fanboys use to say that “the Mac doesn’t have gaming, it’s not 1337”. Then Apple entered the gaming world as a noob, and now look, OS X is running Steam.

Clearwire intros new WiMAX mobile hotspots, Mac-friendly 3G / 4G USB WWAN modem

Darren Murph — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 15:01:00 +0000

Lookin' for yet another avenue to hop on the 4G superhighway? Fret not, as Clearwire has just doled out a trio of new products intended to help you do just that. Prior to today, you had only a smattering of options to actually tap into Clear's WiMAX network, but the Clear Spot 4G (WiMAX only), Clear Spot 4G+ (dual-mode with 3G / 4G support) and Clear 4G+ Mobile USB stick have all arrived to give choosy moms more choices. The prior two are simply mobile broadband hotspots (think MiFi, but for 4G), with the 4G+ offering support for Sprint's 3G network if you happen to leave one of those few WiMAX zones already lit. The USB stick is particularly interesting, as it's the first dual-mode device hawked by Clear that's fully compatible with Apple OS X. The Clear Spot 4G will be made by InfoMark and available to purchase for $99.99 next month; those who hate committing can also lease one for $4.99 per month. The Sierra Wireless-built Spot 4G+ (a rebadged Overdrive; shown left) demands a hefty premium for that 3G support, with an MSRP of $224.99 (or least for $5.99 per month) and a similar July ship date. The 4G+ Mobile USB stick (shown right) will support OS X 10.5.x and 10.6.x (along with Windows, of course), and can be snapped up today for $114.99 or leased monthly for $5.99. Head on past the break if you're thirsty for more.

Continue reading Clearwire intros new WiMAX mobile hotspots, Mac-friendly 3G / 4G USB WWAN modem

Clearwire intros new WiMAX mobile hotspots, Mac-friendly 3G / 4G USB WWAN modem originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Jun 2010 10:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Protect your iDevice from theft. Sorta

Dave Freeman — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 22:00:33 +0000

So you're at the coffee shop, and you've walked over to the counter to order another half-frap-double shot raspberry no fat mocha, and left your iPad (or iPod) plugged into your laptop. Suddenly, that skeevy looking fellow who was sitting two tables away makes a grab for your iPad, and runs for the door! You don't see him because you were looking away, but you still know your kit has been boosted! How do you know? Well, you had the PadLock installed.

elgato EyeTV HD DVR for Mac easily makes iPad-compatible versions of your favorite TV shows

Nicholas Deleon — Mon, 24 May 2010 19:30:43 +0000

Mac users may get a kick out of this, the elgato EyeTV HD. It's a DVR solution that works with your cable and satellite channels, sending everything to your Mac instead of a plain ol' TV. From there you can watch or edit whatever you've recorded. Easy as pie.

The “Get a Mac” Ads are gone

John Biggs — Fri, 21 May 2010 16:52:01 +0000

Friends, it happened. Those long-running ads featuring John Hodgman and Justin Long as PC and Mac, are over. They have been replaced by the “Why you’ll love a Mac” page featuring pictures of Macs and a number of roll-over peans to Mac’s greatness including “It’s designed to be a better computer” and “It runs Office [...]

mSpot stores your music* in the cloud, makes it available anywhere**

Darren Murph — Wed, 19 May 2010 14:00:00 +0000

Whoa there, vaquero -- don't get too excited just yet. As with just about every other gratis backup service on the web, there's a catch you should know about with mSpot's latest endeavor. The free limit is right around 2GB (exact size is TBD), so if you've got more than a second generation iPod's worth of audio, this here service will only serve as a tease. For those who fall under that threshold, there's plenty to love, and if you're down for ponying up, you'll be able to secure 10GB for $2.99 per month or 20GB for $4.99 per month. Launched today at Google I/O, this "freemium" music cloud service essentially syncs your entire music library (either in iTunes or a user-designated arrangement of folders) with mSpot's servers -- provided your library is less than 20GB, of course -- and then makes it available anywhere. Phones and other computers should have no issue tapping in (though only Android will be supported out of the gate), and the app itself runs quietly in the background in order to check for new additions / subtractions and mirror said changes in your online library. For now, the service is available by invitation only through mspot.com, with public availability slated for next month. Size limits aside, the service worked well for us in our limited testing, though that first 20GB upload is a real pain over Time Warner Cable's obviously capped Road Runner internet. Oh, and if you're bummed about not being guaranteed an invite today, you shouldn't be. Hit that source link and enter "engadget" as the password -- the first 500 get immediate access, but once they're gone, they're gone.

*20GB tops, buster!
**Only on Android, Macs and PCs at first, chief!

Continue reading mSpot stores your music* in the cloud, makes it available anywhere**

mSpot stores your music* in the cloud, makes it available anywhere** originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 May 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kin Media Sync for Mac syncs Kin media with Mac

Vladislav Savov — Thu, 13 May 2010 08:59:00 +0000

Sync music, sync photos, sync too much money into a mediocre phone. Now that we've gotten the amateur comedy hour out of the way, it's time to bring you the news that Kins and Macs will henceforth play very nicely together thanks to the just released Media Sync software from Mark/Space. Chosen by Microsoft as the exclusive provider of Mac syncing capabilities for Kin, the company is offering iTunes and iPhoto integration, whereby you'll able to transfer playlists and image albums both to and from your Kin device, as well as a neat transcoding feature to make videos playable on it. The software's free and can be found at the source link below, while the press announcement awaits after the break.

Continue reading Kin Media Sync for Mac syncs Kin media with Mac

Kin Media Sync for Mac syncs Kin media with Mac originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 May 2010 03:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Steam for Mac made official for May 12

Nicholas Deleon — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:22:38 +0000

Whoa whoa whoa. Valve has officially announced Steam for Mac’s release date: May 12. So says an e-mail straight from Valve HQ. Feel free to freak out.

Plex for Mac OS X adds hardware h.264 video decoding

Nicholas Deleon — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 21:00:00 +0000

Exciting news from Plex, the media center for Mac OS X that won my heart a long time ago. The devs have announced that they've integrated Apple's new video decode acceleration framework into the latest build. In English, that means all h.264-encoded video—and there's a lot of it out there—can be sent to your GPU for decoding, giving your CPU a bit more breathing room. It should make for significantly better 1080p video performance.

Hold onto your hat: Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 leaked

Nicholas Deleon — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 19:30:23 +0000

Still using BitTorrent? Using a Mac? Want to try out a leaked beta of Microsoft Office 2011? Clearly you see where I'm going with this.

Steam for Mac: 100 percent official. Try to act surprised. (But still, yay!)

Nicholas Deleon — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:00:45 +0000

Steam for Mac is 100 percent official. Valve just released a statement saying it plans to launch it this April. The first games available will be Left 4 Dead 2, Team Fortress 2, Half-Life (and expansions), Counter Strike, and Portal. Portal 2 will be the first game released for Mac and PC simultaneously. Pretty big news, yes.

The InFocus DisplayLink Wireless system cuts the cord between Macs and InFocus projectors

Dave Freeman — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:30:09 +0000

One of the most frustrating things about using a projector is setting up all the cords. You have to connect the video, probably the audio (at least in a business setting) and get the whole thing up and running. If you have a Mac, life gets even more complicated due to the lack of an HDMI or DVI port, which is the industry standard for projectors. InFocus is fixing all that with their new DisplayLink wireless technology.

Review: BookEndz Dock For MacBook Pro

Daniel Brusilovsky — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 21:47:11 +0000

Mac users really haven't had the chance to use a docking station. Most PC's come with an option for a docking station but Apple has never followed suit. Third-party manufacturer BookEndz has a suite of docks for Macs ranging from the first generation MacBook, to the PowerBook, all the way to the latest unibody MacBook Pro. Over the last couple of weeks I've been playing around with the BookEndz dock for the first generation unibody 15" MacBook Pro. Overall, the dock is well built. It adds some functionality that might be needed in the future, including extra USB ports, etc. Previous versions of the docks did have both a DVI port and a VGA port, so that you could hook up two external monitors to your Mac, but with this version, you can only hook up one monitor through the Mini Display Port.

OnLive shows off UI and iPhone use in marathon tech demo (video)

Vladislav Savov — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:01:00 +0000

Sure, OnLive has already done live demos of its "cloud gaming" service, but it never hurts to get another comprehensive 48-minute video on the subject. In a presentation at Columbia University, CEO Steve Perlman goes over the nitty gritty of how game streaming works, the OnLive user interface (11:53), an inevitable Crysis Wars demo (16:35), Brag Clips (17:49), and of course the iPhone app (19:31). Though cellphone integration is still limited to primarily spectating and social networking functions, PCs and Macs can get gaming via a 1MB browser plugin, or you can grab the microconsole streaming box for your TV, which Steve suggests might be given away for free with OnLive subscriptions. If you have any more unaswered questions, check out the audience Q&A at 33:14, and the full vid awaits after the break.

Continue reading OnLive shows off UI and iPhone use in marathon tech demo (video)

OnLive shows off UI and iPhone use in marathon tech demo (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 08:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Presenting an apple pie molded after an Apple computer

Matt Burns — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:15:00 +0000

It’s an Apple pie. Get it? [Geek Crafts via technabob]

Hey, look: It’s Jerry Seinfeld using a Mac! Someone call Bill Gates or something!

Nicholas Deleon — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:30:49 +0000

Remember those Microsoft ads from a little over a year ago, the ones with Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates trying on shoes? Of course you do; it's all the Internet talked about for days. I present to you this shocking photo: Seinfeld using a Mac!

Attention: Plex for Mac now plays well with Snow Leopard

Nicholas Deleon — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:00:14 +0000

It's been some time since I've written about Plex, the Mac-specific fork of XBMC that, well, is fantastic. It seems Snow Leopard somewhat borked the application, but the latest release is all fixed up. Have a peach.

Psystar’s Rebel EFI allows you to install Mac OS X on any PC, no crazy Hackintoshing required

Nicholas Deleon — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:06:05 +0000

You can almost hear Steve Jobs flipping out right now. Psystar, notable for its efforts to sell generic PCs with Mac OS X pre-loaded, has just released something called Rebel EFI. It's software that allows you to instal Mac OS X on generic PCs without having to Hackintosh said PC. (Hackintoshing isn't for the weak of heart!)

Wait a minute: Maybe Microsoft is making the Zune software for Mac after all?

Nicholas Deleon — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:30:03 +0000

You probably know by now that at least some of us here at pretty high on the Zune HD—look at the lengths I went to get it up and running!—but I recognize that not every Mac owner is going to jump through hoops just to be able to use the device. But maybe, just maybe, Microsoft is finally ready to do what so many people have asked it to do: make a Mac version of the Zune software, thereby enabling all the Mac owners out there to use the portable media player a little more easily.

Rejoice Mac-Berry users, Blackberry desktop manager coming to OS X

Dave Freeman — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:30:57 +0000

It's finally happened. After months, nay years of waiting, the Blackberry desktop manager is finally coming out for OS X. It's currently in beta, but it says version 1.0.0, so it is coming — although the current version appears to have leaked.

Parallels Switch the Mac bundle lets you switch to Mac

John Biggs — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:26:32 +0000

Are you ready for Windows 7? Remember, you need go out and get a really nice computer with a nice monitor and lots of hard drive space - basically you're going to have to get a Mac. Don't worry, though. It's easy to switch. Parallels is essentially a virtual machine that can run almost any version of Windows. The $100 software and hardware solution lets you drag everything from your old Windows PC to your Mac and then run almost all your apps natively under OS X. Viola!

QuakeLive now supports Linux and Mac

Scott Merrill — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 14:00:49 +0000

I was talking just yesterday about RuneQuake, my favorite mod for the original Quake game. That led me on a trip down memory lane, complete with reminiscences about RocketArena, epic capture the flag battles, and how much fun first person shooters used to be. I IM'ed a buddy asking if he'd like to join me for a game of nQuake, to which he pointed me to QuakeLive. I pouted a little at how insensitive he was: QuakeLive doesn't work on Linux, so I didn't bother clicking over there. Oh if only I had! On Tuesday an update was released that brings QuakeLive to Linux and Mac!

Look, GadgetTrak caught an evil iMac thief in Brooklyn!

Nicholas Deleon — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 21:00:25 +0000

Years ago, I read an article in 2600 describing a system that would track down your stolen laptop. Presumably it was all open source software, I can't remember. GadgetTrak, which is a company that can track down your stolen gadgets, including Mac/PC, iPhone, BlackBerry, and WinMo phone, has a fun success story that'll kill a few minutes.

The Mac Versus PC Debate Has Never Been Clearer

MG Siegler — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:40:21 +0000

“Our goal is not to build the most computers. It’s to build the best.” That was Apple COO Tim Cook two days ago during Apple's quarterly earnings call. Sure, it may sound like spin from an executive who doesn't have a better answer as to why Apple isn't competing in the low-end of the market, and thus, gaining market share. But it's not. You need look no further than numbers released today by NPD to understand Apple's strategy. Its revenue share of the "premium" price market — that is, computers over $1,000 — is a staggering 91%. This means that 9 out of every 10 retail dollars that is spent on PCs in that price range, goes to Apple, as Betanews' Joe Wilcox points out. That, for lack of a better word, is insane. Analysts and journalists are often quick to point out Apple's relatively low overall market share (less than 10%). But that completely misses the point of Apple's Mac business. If Apple wanted to make a range of low-end computers, it absolutely could. And such machines would sell like crazy, boosting Apple's market share. But there would have to be some trade-off in quality, and perhaps more importantly to Apple, to its high margins. And as it has proven time and time again, it has no desire to give up either.