ipod accessory: October 2008

Monday, October 13, 2008

MacBreak 161: Macbreak: Wiimote Adaptation

MacBreak 161: Macbreak: Wiimote Adaptation
Keith Lang stops in to show us how to adapt a Wiimote for a 3D experience.

MacBreak 50 Macworld 2007: MacTank

Merlin chats with the developers of MailTank and MailTemplate. Read more

Video of 'aluminum MacBook' surfaces

An often-blurry QuickTime spy video of what appears to be an aluminum MacBook enclosure is available now on apple.pro. (If the video link isn't working, try watching it on YouTube; there are stills available here.)

The video is a series of close-up shots, none showing the thickness of the enclosure, nor the keyboard. The only features visible in the video are the new location for the power button, and a larger trackpad. Its authenticity could not be independently verified.

Yesterday, apple.pro had photos of what appears to be the same enclosure. Is it the new MacBook? We'll see on October 14.

[Via Electronista.]

Thanks, Josh, for the YouTube link!

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Proposal: Two Minor Specification Edits

Proposal: Two Minor Specification Edits
Looks like the RSS Advisory Board felt like some changes were in order. Here, take a look for yourself…. The following RSS Advisory Board proposal has been made by Rogers Cadenhead and seconded by Matthew Bookspan and Greg Smith. Under the advisory board charter, the board has seven days to vote on it. Interested parties can comment [...]

Looks like the RSS Advisory Board felt like some changes were in order. Here, take a look for yourself….

The following RSS Advisory Board proposal has been made by Rogers Cadenhead and seconded by Matthew Bookspan and Greg Smith.

Under the advisory board charter, the board has seven days to vote on it. Interested parties can comment on the proposal on the mailing list RSS-Public.
Proposal

The current RSS specification contains two minor issues I’d like to resolve.

1. The docs element refers to an outdated URL for the specification instead of the current URL.

For as long as the board operates,�http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specificatio… will be the permanent URL of the current version of the spec. The domain name is the property of the board, so it can move to a new host as needed in the future…. Source: rssboard.org

7 Firefox Quick Searches You Should Set Up

A Firefox Quick Search is one of the coolest Firefox features and at the same time the least known one. Using Quick Search feature you can search a website of your choice directly from the Firefox address bar. So instead of say going to www.youtube.com and then searching for standup comedy, you can set up a [...]

So instead of say going to www.youtube.com and then searching for standup comedy, you can set up a Firefox Quick Search for Youtube and then type in the address bar y standup comedy. Hit enter and you will be taken straight to the search results on Youtube.com.

Let me illustrate how this actually works by setting up a quick search for MakeUseOf.com. And the best thing about this feature is that it takes only about 10 seconds to set up. So, follow me! Once we’re done you will be able to do this for any other website as well.

How To Create Quick Search for MakeUseOf.com

Add a Keyword for this Search …

(2) Next, you should see a small window like the one below. Here basically you need to enter a name for that Quick Search (I usually use the name of the website here) and the keyword that you want to use for it. You might want to use something short and easy to remember for the keyword. For instance, for MakeUseOf it can be muo, for Youtube y or yt or you, etc.

(3) Once it’s been added to your bookmarks you will be able to search the website right from the address bar. For instance, as can be seen above when creating Quick Search for MakeUseOf.com we used the keyword muo.

Now let’s say I want to search MakeUseOf.com for some reverse phone number lookup website. To do that I can simply type muo reverse phone number lookup website into the address bar and hit enter.

And here is where it takes me … directly to the search results.

So as you can see, quick searches can be major time savers. Instead of going to the website and searching from there you’re able to search directly from the Firefox address bar.

I highly recommend you setup Quick Searches for the websites you frequent. Here are some of the essential sites I have on my quick searches.

MakeUseOf

Youtube - I guess it’s fair to assume that for many of us Youtube became the to go place for videos. It’s the only video sharing site I visit. I use keyword you for it.

IMDB - I am a major movie addict and frequently use IMDB (Internet Movie Database) to check reviews and ratings before watching the movie. A quick address bar entry imdb some_movie_title takes me straight to the needed page on IMDB.com.

Wikipedia - The Wikipedia search is already included among default Firefox search engines, nonetheless it’s still a lot faster to search it directly from the address bar. My keyword for Wikipedia search is wik.

Del.icio.us - Believe it or not but I use del.icio.us as much as Google these days. Since you’re searching through people’s bookmarks it can be quite effective when it comes to finding the right website for the task.

PriceGrabber - This lets quickly lookup the price of a product across different retailers. No need to digg through eBay or Amazon listings, simply type in the keyword and product you want to check inside the address bar and hit enter.

ThePirateBay - If you frequently download torrents then setting up a keyword search for your favorite torrent search website might be a good idea as well. I prefer to use ThePirateBay, you may use something else.

What are you favorite Quick Searches? Let me know in comments.

(By) Aibek, the guy behind MakeUseOf.com

New subscriber? Get your freebies at MakeUseOf Downloads. Enjoy!

Tags:browser tips, firefox tips, productivity, shortcuts

Scratch offers Numark-controlled Guitar Hero for hip-hop heads

Filed under: Gaming

Are the blatant rockist tendencies of Guitar Hero and Rock Band ruining your enjoyment of those otherwise brilliant titles? Of course they are -- we noted your b-boy flava from two blocks away. But don't sweat it because Genius Products, 7 Studios and Quincy Jones III have your niche in their sights and will happily sell you Scratch: The Ultimate DJ when it hits the stores sometime in Spring 2009. With a game controller designed by Numark (known worldwide for its DJ controllers -- there's an example for you after the break), the game will be available for the Xbox 360 and PS3 and feature tracks by "many" (as yet unnamed) hip-hop artists. Trevor Drinkwater, President and CEO of Genius Products promises all and sundry "a cutting-edge game that captures the vital energy of hip-hop culture." And here we thought they were cynically jumping on the Guitar Hero bandwagon! We stand corrected.

Continue reading Scratch offers Numark-controlled Guitar Hero for hip-hop heads

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BurnAgain FS 1.1 update adds Tiger support, more

BurnAgain FS 1.1 update adds Tiger support, more
Freeridecoding has released a v1.1 update to its multi-session CD/DVD burning utility, BurnAgain FS. The patch adds Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger support and a German localization, as well as improvements to the software's file-removing feature. FS treats CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-RW and DVD+RW discs like hard drives, mounting them as a volume on the desktop for adding files, changing disc titles and "erasing" files...

MUO Games : Now Boarding - An Addictive Adobe Air Game

I am not the kind of person who has the patience to play through a resource management game. I remembered when I first played Rollercoaster Tycoon - it only lasted me 15 minutes before I decided to call it quits and I never played the game again. When I got my hands on Now Boarding, a [...]

cave story I am not the kind of person who has the patience to play through a resource management game. I remembered when I first played Rollercoaster Tycoon - it only lasted me 15 minutes before I decided to call it quits and I never played the game again.

When I got my hands on Now Boarding, a resource management game based on the Adobe Air platform, I didn’t have much interest initially and put aside only 15 minutes just to test it out. In the end, I spent the whole afternoon playing it. It completely blew my mind.

Now Boarding is a well designed tycoon-style game by Gabob. It is a 2D flash-based game with a simple cartoon-like interface. The storyline is simple: Airway Airlines is facing some serious management problems and their airport is going to be closed if they don’t get some help. You are being employed to take charge of the daily operation of the airport and to keep the airlines business alive.

Starting with two 737 4-seater airplanes, your task is to ferry your passengers to where they want to go and make them happy in the process. Every passenger is tagged with an alphabet associated with the city that they want to go to. What you need to do is to load them to the planes and send the flights to the respective destination cities. As more and more passengers appear in the boarding lounge, each wanting to go to different places, you will have to make swift decisions on which passengers go on which planes and plan the flight routes effectively to avoid dropping the passengers at the wrong destinations.

As of all games, the initial stage is often very easy. With only three cities and a small number of passengers to manage, you will be able to rake in great profits and obtain excellent customer ratings easily in the early stage. As you expand to other cities and more and more passengers keep coming, things start to become complicated. You will have to decide if you want to send an empty plane to another city to pick up passengers or make the plane go on a detour when it is on its way back. At such moments, you can be thrown into a state of disorder easily and you need to make quick decisions and avoid any mistakes. In the process, you also have to keep your passengers entertained, otherwise they will rate you ‘F’ for your services. If you accumulate too many ‘F’’s, you will have to restart the month.

After every round (each round is equivalent to one month in the game), you will be able to manage the other aspects of your airport. You can upgrade the plane to a bigger one that can seat more passengers, promote/fire your employees according to their performance, increase the number of chairs in the waiting area and also decorate your terminal with plants, paintings and snack bars so as to keep your passengers happy.

If you are looking for a game that can keep you occupied for hours, or even days and one that is bundled with some challenges and difficulties, yet allows you to feel that you are in control of the game, then you have to try Now Boarding.

The game is free to download and you get to play the full episode 1 of the Career mode for free. Those who want more can upgrade to the full version at $16.99 in which you get to enjoy two other modes: Free Play and Survival. You can also play the original version at Gimme5Game for free.

Now Boarding requires Adobe Air to work. You can

download the Adobe air for your platform here,
download Now Boarding here,
or play the game at Gimme5Game here.

After playing it, come back to the comments and let us know what you think of the game. How far did you get in the game? How many passengers did you annoy?! What was your rating?

(By) Damien Oh is an all-out technology geek who loves to tweak and hack various operating systems to make life easier. Check out his blog at MakeTechEasier.com where he shares all the tips, tricks and tutorials.

New subscriber? Get your freebies at MakeUseOf Downloads. Enjoy!

Tags:adobe AIR, Games

GBTV #0412 (small) | GeekBrief.TV

Robotic breakthroughs are entering our lives quickly in the form of useful by-products. As scientist work to build safe, humanoid robots, the technology they discover shows up in cameras, cars, video games and more.

The final Brief for Innovation Week is a couple days late because we did a little Chicken Fried Bacon thing with Kat from RealCookN.TV and it left us feeling a little ill. It tasted great, but two slices of deep-fried battered bacon isn't all that different than eating 50 piece fried shrimp plate.

Brief 412 is about robotics starting with information from Intel about research they're doing on catoms (claytronic atoms). Catoms will be programmable electronic atoms that will form electronic devices and rearranged themselves to form other electronic devices. A research group at Intel is supporting The Big Trip through PaidByPixels.com and we'll get some access to some of their research. I'm hoping we'll get to see what they're looking at that indicates catom technology will be available in my lifetime.

iRobot is a leader in bringing practical robots to market for consumers and military applications. They've sold 2.5 million floor cleaning robots to early adopters like me. It isn't a bad number, but it also doesn't indicate mass appeal. The Christian Science Monitor just ran a piece about how different the persception robots is between American consumers and Japanese consumers. Americans are skeptical. Japanese are optimistic. Hopefully, exposing American kids to robotic toys like Pleo will start to change all that.

Roboticists like Aaron Edsinger is working on bring robots to market that don't require a manual. Domo is a cute little guy that adapts to his environment and has the ability to put stuff on shelves.

Even though the thought of having robots actively involved in our daily lives seems far away, it's actually happened already. Robotics research has lead to discoveries that are already being incorporated into consumer technology. Facial focus technology in consumer cameras came from robotics research. The same is try of all kinds of technologies being used in modern cars. C-3P0 and R2-D2 may be years away, but robots are already working to make our lives better today. Read more

MacBreak 72: Minute: Keyboard form navigation

MacBreak 72: Minute: Keyboard form navigation
Merlin gives your spacebar a power-up, showing you how to use your keyboard to more quickly navigate web forms.

Beta Beat: fruux keeps you in sync

Filed under: Software, Beta Beat, .Mac

One of the most frequent questions we hear from readers on our Ask TUAW posts (and for our doting Aunt TUAW) is a simple one, with no simple answer: "How can I replace the synchronization features of MobileMe with a free service or a software package that doesn't cost me $99 a year?" We feel your pain.

For anyone looking to cut their cash outlay and maintain multi-Mac data sync, there are options for calendaring (BusySync, Google's CalDAV support) and some for address books (address-o-sync, or the free Google & Yahoo sync in Leopard's Address Book), and some products that handle both calendars and contacts (SpanningSync, Plaxo) -- but if you're in the mood for a free all-in-one approach, you may want to check out a promising beta service from a team of European developers: fruux.

Starting with address book sync in earlier versions, fruux has now progressed to include calendar, task and bookmark sync via Apple's built-in apps (Address Book, iCal & Safari) and a cloud service that stores the synchronized data. The system pref pane interface is no-frills and the product is definitely still a work in progress (there are prominent warnings to back up your data beforehand and frequently thereafter), so it may not suit your needs just yet -- but it's definitely one to watch. Future roadmap plans include an iPhone client and a web interface to your PIM data.

Thanks Dominik, Hagen & everyone who sent this in.

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MUO Games - 5 Rhythmic Flash Games To Groove Up Your Day

Rhythm. I’ve been told by a good friend of mine that I have none. That I can’t dance, can’t feel the music. I’ve tried to prove her wrong. But I must admit that I can’t. Dance, that is. As for the rhythm, I won’t lay down the weapons just yet. OK, I may suck on the [...]

Rhythm. I’ve been told by a good friend of mine that I have none. That I can’t dance, can’t feel the music. I’ve tried to prove her wrong. But I must admit that I can’t. Dance, that is.

As for the rhythm, I won’t lay down the weapons just yet. OK, I may suck on the dance floor, but that doesn’t prove anything. I’ll just move on to another platform to prove myself.

The platform in question is a virtual platform. Games. Rhythm games, to be exact. Can you feel the rhythm? Vini vidi vici.

In this second episode of our weekly flash games compilation we’re going in a whole other direction. This week’s games are all about music and rhythm.

Some of the games are of the popular kind, spin-offs from Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution. But others approach the genre with a different view. Read on for six of the best musical flash games.

The Traditional Two

Let’s start out with the two games in this round-up which belong to the traditional rhythm genre; Adagio and Rhythm Fireworks. Not that there’s anything wrong with traditional. There’s a reason these kinds of games became ‘traditional’ in the first place.

Adagio

Adagio is a Guitar Hero spin-off. It’s a result of ‘Rock Out’, a Newgrounds and Armor Games collaboration contest, where users tried to make the best possible rhythm games whilst competing for an Xbox Elite and a total of $10,000 in prize money.

This game didn’t win, but is nevertheless a great game. It’s got really nice graphics and though the arsenal of six songs is somewhat limited, you’ll enjoy all the time you have.

Do you think you can beat my scores? Mind, only first tries count! Share yours in the comments!

Rhythm Fireworks

Just like Adagio’s is based on Guitar Hero, Rhythm Firework’s is based on Dance Dance Revolution. For those who don’t know DDR by name, it’s that game where you hop to the music on a dance pad.

It isn’t a complete clone though, as Rhythm Firework uses a system of color variations to heighten the complexity a bit. It features a humble number of six songs, thus also limiting the different possibilities, but you only have to look at the high scores to find ‘replay’ motivation.

The Innovative Three

Of course it’d get boring to always play similar games, so we’ve also made a list of some progressive music and rhythm games; Music in Motion, Music Catch and Chaoz Escape.

Music in Motion

Music in Motion shares the developer of Rhythm Fireworks, Coolio-Niato. In this game he uses a hugely different concept though. A very interesting one, if I may say so.

MiM features four different levels, and with it, four different kinds of gameplay.

You’ll be running through, evading and fighting music. Check here for the walkthrough.

Music Catch

Music Catch is a very relaxing game. You move your mouse around while the game fires the music at you. You gather the notes by hovering over them. Collect yellow orbs to multiply your score, but watch out for the red ones!

Turn your lights down and the music up, and snooze away into the swift world of Music Catch.

Chaoz Escape

Another game that came forth from the Rock Out competition. Chaoz Devotion and Chaoz Fantasy were two songs composed by ParagonX9 . As a tribute, Lonechicken decided to make an interactive experience of the music.

Move your mouse around the scene and try to evade the red tones, while enjoying the music and artwork.

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And You?

Do you know any other great rhythm games? Want to share your high-scores? Tell us about them in the comments!

We’ll be back next week with another compilation of great flash games. Know that suggestions can always be mailed to simon+flash@makeuseof.com .

(courtesy of xkcd.com)

(By) Simon is a student from Belgium who wastes his time relaxing, gaming and surfing the net. He would tell you to check out his blog, only he doesn't have one (yet)!

New subscriber? Get your freebies at MakeUseOf Downloads. Enjoy!

Tags:Cool Websites, flash, Games, music, online games