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Posts Tagged ‘One Of My Favorites’

Macworld 2010: TUAW interviews Dr. Ge Wang of Smule

Filed under: Macworld, Software, Education, iPhone, iPad

We’ve talked to a lot of people at Macworld already, but Dr. Ge Wang is one of my favorites — he’s the co-founder of Smule, creators of popular apps for the iPhone that combine music and social experiences in a very interesting way. Wang’s day job is an associate professorship at Stanford, and you can tell when listening to him talk about these apps that he’s very passionate about using interesting platforms like the iPhone (and soon, as we discuss, the iPad) to help people from all walks of life make and share their own songs and musical experiences.

I can’t say I’ve been a fan of all of Smule’s apps (as we say in the video, I still don’t really understand the full appeal of Sonic Lighter), but I can’t argue that Dr. Wang has some really intriguing ideas about how to use this platform. And Smule’s ongoing popularity can’t be debated, either. Watch the interview after the link below to see if you might just be a fan of one of the more impressive iPhone app developers.

TUAWMacworld 2010: TUAW interviews Dr. Ge Wang of Smule originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Four free Christmas screen savers to get your Mac in the holiday spirit

Filed under: Software, Freeware, Holidays

I love this time of year. I love the lights and the snow and the holiday cookies. I also love getting my Mac in the festive spirit. From widgets to desktop pictures to icons, there are countless ways to dress your Mac for Christmas. Here are four festive screen savers. Best of all, they’re free.

Jubilee by Idle Time Software displays Christmas or Hannukah lights like you’d see them if you were rocketing through your neighborhood in a Ferrari. There are four color schemes, including a beautiful blue and white Hanukkah theme. It requires Mac OS X 10.4 + (including Snow Leopard) and the Flash plugin.

XMas Tree by Joe Hillman is an interesting 3D screen saver that decorates your desktop with textured ornaments. It’s strangely hypnotic as the screen rotates around a beautifully generated 3D tree while Christmas music plays in the background. Mac OS X 10.5 + (including Snow Leopard).

Silver Snow Clock is a simple little saver that shows an ornate pocket watch ticking the time away as the holidays pass up by. This gets a mention as one of my favorites because of the 3D snow that gently drizzles down the screen. Mac OS X 10.5 + (including Snow Leopard).

Last but not least is everyone’s favorite, Snowfall by Russel Warnebolt. We first reported on this almost three years ago, but it still deserves top marks.

Contrary to popular belief, this screen saver was never used in Apple’s retail stores (that one was, sadly, Apple-internal only). Since updating to 10.6.2, Snowfall experiences slight jitters. According to the dev: ‘This appears to be a newly introduced bug in Quartz Composer on 10.6.2 that causes very poor frame rate. On 10.6 and 10.6.1 things are as usual, at least on my machines. Unfortunately this may require a fix from Apple.’ Nonetheless, it’s still the most beautiful Christmas screen saver I’ve ever seen. Mac OS X 10.4 + (including Snow Leopard).

TUAWFour free Christmas screen savers to get your Mac in the holiday spirit originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samurai Puzzle Battle getting GotY edition

Filed under: Gaming, Software, Odds and ends, Developer, iPhone, App Store

I hadn’t even thought about it, but sure enough, we’re coming up on the end of the year, and there’ll be quite a few iPhone titles in the running for best mobile game of the year. This certainly isn’t the first year we’ve seen a nice crop of App Store picks coming out, but it’s the best so far. One of my favorites, Samurai Puzzle Battle, isn’t even waiting for the choices — they’ve announced that they’ll be releasing a Game of the Year edition very soon, with improved graphics and better online features.

The game itself is a Puzzle Quest-style mix of RPG and gem matching gameplay, with extra modes that allow you to play a full campaign, or just jump in and match some gems. It’s a lot of fun, and I can’t wait to see what the new version looks like. The update will be a free upgrade for current owners, and we haven’t yet seen a price to buy outright (though it probably will be less than the original $4.99 price, probably closer to $1.99). I don’t know that I’d choose the game for Game of the Year quite yet, but it’s great to hear that a good game is getting better.

TUAWSamurai Puzzle Battle getting GotY edition originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 01 Dec 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Distant Suns for iPhone update: Sky no longer the limit

Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, App Review

In this International Year of Astronomy we’re seeing a small explosion of astronomy apps updated both for the Mac and the iPhone.

One of my favorites, Distant Suns [App Store] has updated the build that runs on the 3GS iPhone to include some augmented reality features. This means that if you point the phone up to the sky, the program figures out the direction you are pointing and your elevation and slews to the proper view of the star map, giving you a view that should match what you are seeing in the sky.

This greatly enhances the usefulness of this program, especially for novices who want to get outside under the summer stars and quickly figure out ‘what’s up?’.

This new version is only for 3GS iPhones, and an update with some additional features for all the earlier models is on the way. Of course older phones won’t have the compass feature. Other changes include some UI tweaks, and setting the sound effects default to ‘off.’

Pocket Universe [App Store], which I reviewed last month, has a similar feature and also works very well. Pocket Universe sells for US$2.99 and Distant Suns is $5.99. Check reader reactions to both and go into details on the features to decide which one is right for you.

Distant Suns has a long pedigree in the star mapping world. It first ran on the Commodore Amiga in 1987, then was ported to the PC, the Mac, and now your favorite cell phone.

When you look up at the moon this summer to celebrate the Apollo 11 landing 40 years ago, be sure to investigate the thousands of other points of light with a software app that will literally point you in the right direction.

Note: Distant Suns runs on the iPod touch as well, but the software will not have the augmentation/orientation feature because the magnetometer isn’t present in the iPod touch hardware.

TUAWDistant Suns for iPhone update: Sky no longer the limit originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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