Target begins selling Pink iPods
Posted by Helper Monkey
Target today began selling pink iPods and iPod nanos through their online store. Target has contracted with ColorWare to produce the pink music players. The pink 1 and 2GB nanos list for $229.99 and $279.99 respectively ($80 above Apple’s stock black and white models), and the 30 and 60GB pink iPods sell for $389.99 and $489.99 respectively ($90 above Apple’s black and white models).
Interestingly, if you were to go directly to ColorWare for the iPods, they would cost you about $15 less, and you can choose from 24 colors.
[Comment Here]
GET YOUR SCREEN NAMES HERE! Macenstein Beta Forums now open!
Posted by Dr. Macenstein
Exciting news, everyone!
We are foolishly starting our own forum where you can discuss anything you want, Mac-related or otherwise. Let the abuse of the forum begin!
While we realize 90% of the posts will be about how crappy our site is, we hope the other 10% of you find this forum to be a useful tool and a chance to build a nice little Mac community. Right now, with just our 5 staff contributors involved, it is indeed pretty lame, but we are hoping you all can change that with your pearls of wisdom and writing prowess. Please feel free to make suggestions for new topics and forum sections as well.
So hurry and create your screen name before all the good ones are taken! (that’s right! even “Steve Jobs” is still available!)
We are also looking for people interested in being moderators in certain forum areas, so please contact me at drmacenstein@macenstein.com if you are interested in feeling like a big shot on a lame Mac forum.
If all goes well with the beta (and we have no expectations that it WILL) we will be linking it up here as a permanent fixture.
Thanks, and enjoy!
-The Doc
Roxio Releases Universal Toast Titanium 7.1 Update
Posted by Dr. Macenstein
Roxio has released Toast Titanium 7.1. In addition to numerous bug fixes (see below) the update adds support for Intel Macs, and is available as a universal binary.
Toast version 7.1 bug fixes
Boy, they weren’t kidding about Civilization IV’s minimum system requirements!
Posted by Lab Rat
A lot of people were surprised when they read Aspyr’s suggested minimum system requirements for their Mac port of Civilization IV. The Mac specs were actually more restrictive than the PC specs for the game, calling for at least a PowerPC G5 or Intel chipset running at 2GHz or higher, and a 128MB video card.
I had read (that unlike past versions of the game) Civ IV’s game engine was now completely 3D, so while I understood the game would likely tax a system somewhat more than previous versions, I figured this was perhaps just Aspyr covering itself in the event gamers experienced a couple dropped frames and slow downs as the game progressed and game maps grew larger. After all, only a handful of recent Macs meet these requirements.
Well, I am here to tell you, I was naïve, and Aspyr meant it.
I have been playing Civ III and Civ III Complete on a G4 tower with a 64 MB Radeon 8500 card for years. When I first read the minimum specs for Civ IV, just for fun I went out and bought an ATI 9700 graphics card for my old G4 tower. I knew the G4 was not supported, but it was a 1.2GHz machine with 1.75 GB of RAM, 300GB of hard drive space, and had always played Civilation III Complete just fine. I figured Civ IV would run, but be kind of pokey as the game wore on.
The first hint I had that this was not going to be a smooth game playing experience happened almost instantly. The opening screen which simply plays the 2K Games logo played at about 4 frames a second. This was very odd, as this is exactly the way Civilization III Complete starts, same animation, and that plays fine. These are stock pre-rendered QuickTime animations, nothing 3D or taxing. The opening Civ IV cinematics also played pretty much like a slideshow, maybe 4-6 frames a second. However, once I made it to the actual menu, I was able to click through the settings and start a new game. I was pleased to see my settler and warrior, and they looked good. The map zoomed (if you want to call it that) at a stuttered but playable rate. I was all set for a slightly sluggish but otherwise enjoyable game playing experience.
Then I tried to move my warrior.
Both monitors I had hooked up to the 9700 card went dark immediately. The computer did not crash (as far as I can tell) but I could not see my desktop, and therefore had to restart anyway.
OK, well, Aspyr said that system was not supported, so while I am disappointed I can’t play Civ IV on that machine, I am not totally surprised. Next, on to my Intel Mac Mini.
Yes, I know, this machine is not officially supported either, but I figured I would give it a try. It’s only 2 months old after all. I have the dual core 1.66GHz version with 1GB of RAM. While the mini does not meet the 2GHz minimum, it IS dual core, and is certainly closer to meeting them than a 1.2GHz G4. And as far as the graphics card goes, I am not really sure where the integrated Intel graphics chipset falls in the big scheme of things, but I was hoping it is not too far off older cards like the ATI 9600 and NVidia GeForce 5200. I know it is listed at 64MB, but since it shares system RAM, I hoped it could steal another 64MB if it needed it.
So, bravely I stuck in the Civ IV disc, and was immediately aware this was going to be a much better experience than on my G4 tower. The opening logos and cinematic played at what appeared to be full 30 frames per second, and the menu screens flew by. However I was surprised to see the actual game play was not all that faster than on the tower. Sure, the screen did not immediately go black (which was a big plus) but just panning around the map (and fans of the Civ franchise know the game starts with a pretty small map) was pretty clunky. The good news is the game’s performance did not get noticeably worse after 3 hours of gameplay (which flew by, by the way) although I was constantly aware that I was missing frames of troop animations and such, and the game certainly took a little longer each turn to load.
Now the good news.
If you happen to own a G5 Quad, you are set. I fired Civ IV up this morning on the quad here in the lab, and am pleased to say the game runs smoothly, and looks quite good. And it better! I would hate to think the only hardware capable to running this game is the highest-end computer Apple makes!
In mulling over my experience here, I am actually surprised Aspyr bothered to port a game like Civ IV to the Mac. While the Civ III fan base is strong in the Mac community, how many of those loyal fans were running it on a G5 quad? I have run Civ III on my original bondi blue iMac for crying out loud, and it didn’t play much slower than Civ IV on my Intel mini. Given how small the Mac market is as a whole, and given how small the percentage of Mac users play games, and given how small the percentage of Mac-owning-game-playing users own G5 Quads, there are probably about 300 people who can play Civilization IV at the intended speed. Obviously in a couple months there will be new Intel-based towers, and 2nd generation Intel minis, iMacs, and MacBooks which will better be able to handle the strain of Civ IV (I do not have an Intel iMac here to test the game on, so it may be playable on that system, although I am guessing still a bit sluggish. Let us know your experience if you have tested it).
I am not saying Aspyr has done anything wrong with Civ IV, in fact they are quite clear that you need the right hardware to play this game. However, I just would like to make anyone considering purchasing the game aware that they should take Aspyr’s system spec warnings to heart before buying. The Civilization franchise has long been popular among non-gamer gamers, meaning the games were more cerebral, and the 2D nature meant players did not need the latest Halo-capable 3D hardware to run them.
We will have a full review of Civilzation IV in a week or so, so check back then to see how it runs when the games get REALLY long.
Free on iTunes: “Blade� and “Beyond the Break� pilot episodes
Posted by Helper Monkey
In what is fast becoming a regular event, two new television series have made their premiere episodes available for free on iTunes. First up is Spike TV’s “Blade�, the small-screen adaptation of the (somewhat) popular Wesley Snipes vampire martial arts movies. Next up is “Beyond the Break�, The N’s bikini-laden young-surfer-chicks-in-Hawaii series.
As always we recommend you grab these ASAP, as their iTunes “free� status is likely to change soon.
Microsoft demos Windows Vista on a MacBook Pro?
Posted by Helper Monkey
We know that NOTIHNG, and we do mean NOTHING legitimate has EVER come from a Flickr posting…BUT…
There are a couple interesting shots of what claim show a Microsoft Belgium rep demoing Windows Vista and Office 2007 on a MacBook Pro. The shots were allegedly taken this month at Microsoft HQ in Diegem during a presentation for some bloggers.
Well, that IS a MacBook back there…(Photos © Pieter Baert)
Unlike MOST Flickr posts, however, these seem to be somewhat more legitimate in that the author seems to be an actual photographer with other legitimate photos on his resume who could have possibly been hired to document the event (although he DOES have 2 personal pics of a MacBook being unpacked…).
Of course this being Flcikr, we still have issues. Mainly, there is nothing about the photos that shows Vista or Office actually running on the MacBook. There is no actual sign this is a Microsoft event. No sign it is in Germany. All we really see are 2 guys doing the standard “karate chop� hand motions that imply they are making speaking points in front of a MacBook Pro. There ARE however a bunch of nice shots of the Lobster lunch the attendees apparently were served. Thanks to faithful Macenstein reader Billy B. for the heads up.
[UPDATE:] A supposed first hand account of the presentation can be viewed here, lending credibility (and more pics) to the report.
Apple prepares to unleash 300th unlistenable free song on iTunes
Posted by iGor
Almost since its inception, Apple’s iTunes music store has been nice enough to bless us with anywhere between 1 to 3 free downloads a week by largely unknown artists. With today’s latest free duo, Apple has now given us 298 free iTunes songs (not counting audio books), spanning the musical rainbow from jazz, to hip hop, to classical, back to hip hop, to rock, then over to hip hop again, to instrumental.
While the types of music vary (slightly), there is one constant that unifies each of these tracks.
They are all horrible.
With the exception of June 1st, 2004’s “Run� by Snow Patrol, not one of the free songs featured as a Discovery Download or Free Download of the Week has earned a spot on my iPod.
Because these songs are free and I am cheap, I have downloaded all 298 free tunes so far, and I will download the next 298. But with each passing week, it becomes more and more obvious that with music, like most things, you get what you pay for.
I consider myself to be open to new music and not exclusive to any one genre. iTunes tells me my library currently consists of 7885 songs, or nearly 22 days worth of music. I have everything from “Rap� to “Country� to “Oldies, Japanese�. So how is it possible that someone with as diverse a musical taste as myself finds only ONE song out of 298 worth keeping?
Simple. The free songs on the iTunes music store are uninspired garbage. As an artist, having your song listed as a free iTunes song of the week is a sure sign that record execs have given up on your current release, and are trying desperately to generate ANY kind of buzz around it, even if it means giving a track away for free. While the record company may know the album is dead in the water, they are hoping to at least get your name out there, implanted into our subconscious so we might be more likely give your next disc a chance. Sometimes this works (as with Nelly Furtado), sometimes it doesn’t (as with all the rest).
Now before any of you point out that music is subjective, or go back through the archives (2004, 2005, 2006) and tell me which free artists you liked and which tracks I am giving short shrift to, let me just say, “You are wrong�. The free songs (for lack of a better term) stink. Sure, music is subjective, but it is obvious that after the first month of free downloads (where Apple was able to get tracks from known artists such as Foo Fighters, Courtney Love, and Counting Crows) the quality of the free songs has dropped with each subsequent week.
We are currently at a quality level so low, I shudder to think what next week’s free songs will be. As we approach the 300 mark, perhaps it is time Apple considered not just giving the songs away for free, but actually paying us for each free download we are willing to listen to. Lord knows I lost 15 hours of my life listening to these tracks, and that’s not counting the harmful effects listening to horrible music may have had on my long-term lifespan.
I think I may have been better off smoking for those 15 hours.
Apple releases OS X 10.4.7
Posted by Dr. Macenstein
Apple today released yet another “dot� update to Mac OS X 10.4, taking us to 10.4.7. There are separate versions for both PPC and Intel Macs, but the features and addressed issues appear to be identical. Most notable among the new features are a slew of audio enhancements across Apple’s wide range of audio and pro editing apps including iTunes, Final Cut and Soundtrack. Some AFP networking issues and Bluetooth file transfer issues have also been resolved. The update is available via software update or as a standalone download. We have installed the PPC version on our dual 2GHz G5, and so far so good.
The complete list of fixes/enhancements is as follows:
- The 10.4.7 Update is recommended for all users and includes general operating system fixes, as well as specific fixes for the following applications and technologies.
It includes fixes for:
- preventing AFP deadlocks and dropped connections
- saving Adobe and Quark documents to AFP mounted volumes
- Bluetooth file transfers, pairing and connecting to a Bluetooth mouse, and syncing to mobile phones
- audio playback in QuickTime, iTunes, Final Cut Pro, and Soundtrack applications
- ensuring icons are spaced correctly when viewed on desktop
- determining the space required to burn folders
- iChat audio and video connectivity, creating chat rooms when using AIM
- importing files into Keynote 3
- PDF workflows when using iCal and iPhoto
- reliable use of Automator actions within workflows
- importing and removing fonts in Font Book
- syncing addresses, bookmarks, calendar events and files to .Mac
- compatibility with third party applications and devices
- previous standalone security updates
Apple posts Spider-Man 3 trailer
Posted by Helper Monkey
Apple has posted a trailer for Spider-Man 3 on its QuickTime site, and we are happy to say, it is more than just a lame teaser trailer. In it, we get to see Spider-Man as Venom, a brief Sandman cameo, and enough action to almost make us wish it was Spidey and not the Man of Steel we were going to be seeing this weekend. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait until May 2007. (HD versions also available)
Images © Copyright Marvel or Sony or someone.
Flip4Mac Universal Beta now available for download
Posted by Dr. Macenstein
Get it while it’s hot!
Flip4Mac has posted a new universal beta build (#V2.1.0.29) of its popular Windows Media QuickTime plug-in for download, and this time even people NOT in the beta program are allowed to partake of the WMV goodness. There is a catch however. The link will only work for 24 hours, after that it turns back into a pumpkin, so get yours quick!
New in this version:
• Added universal binary support for Intel Macs
• Added playback optimizations for Intel Macs
• Added significant export optimizations for PowerPC Macs
• Added multi language audio support in player
• Added overlay when importing WMV content in trial mode
• Added support for web authors to disable “save as” feature in embedded stream
• Improved support for MMS servers and live streams
• Fixed DCT Blocking issue (progressive deterioration with increasing distance from previous keyframe)
• Fixed encode errors when the audio bit rate is set higher than the video bit rate.
Not yet added (planned for final release)
• Fix 2-pass VBR green shift issue
• Updated User Guide
