Here’s another turn-based strategy game. Highborn has great gameplay and graphics, but what really sets it apart is a sense of humor. Finally a tutorial campaign that if fun to play! There is also Highborn HD for the iPad.
Just about anywhere you type text on a Mac you can use autocomplete to type longer words faster. For instance, in TextEdit, type “disam” and then immediately press the Esc key. You’ll see a list of words that start with those letter. Select one to complete the word without typing.
While lines at U.S. Apple Stores last Friday started out small in the morning, they grew by leaps and bounds as the 5 p.m. launch drew nearer. At the end of the day many stores did not have enough inventory to meet demand. Online sales were similar, with longer and longer shipping times as the day wore on.
Some analysts say that Apple may have sold as many as 1 million iPad 2s over the weekend. It was hard if not impossible to find one for sale anywhere by Saturday afternoon.
“I’d like to use FaceTime, but now that it is HD I can’t afford all the makeup and lighting.”
One of the tiniest additions to the iPad 2 may point to the future of Apple and all of telecommunications. And it gives us a clue to the secret of Apple’s success.
If you go to the Settings on the iPad 2, and then General, and then Sounds, you’ll see something different than what you get on the iPad 1. In addition to switches for mail, calendar, lock screen and keyboard sounds, you get to choose a Ringtone.
Ever wish the Finder had tabs in each window? The TotlaFinder utility adds this and it works very well. There is also a useful mode where you can dock two Finder windows next to each other for side-by-side comparisons of folders. While other utilities do this in their own application windows, TotalFinder may be unique in brining this directly to the Finder itself.
Battle for Wesnoth seemed like another turn-based RPG game for the iPad. But as a port of a large, mature PC game there is much more depth than a typical iPad game. I wasted many hours this week moving through the initial story. But there are actually 15 campaigns, so I’ve got plenty more to go.
If you use iTunes to play music on your Mac, you may want to see some basic controls on your screen without having iTunes’ huge window in the way. Try the Mini Player by choosing View, Switch to Mini Player. The keyboard shortcut is Shift+Command+M.
With the iPad 2 launch set for tomorrow at 5 p.m., Apple put several supporting pieces into place this week. iTunes was updated to 10.2.1 and the iOS 4.3 update for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch was released on Wednesday.
The iOS 4.3 update added AirPlay streaming support for third-party apps and speeds up the Safari browser. The iPhone 4 also gets the personal hotspot feature for AT&T users.
In addition, Apple released updates to Safari for Mac and Apple TV 2 this week. Apple TV 2 shows that it is certainly capable of gaining additional “apps” when the update added MLB.TV and NBA League Pass. Though these offerings are of limited use due to blackouts of local games.
“I’m not sure now is the best time to buy an iPad. I heard a rumor that a new one is coming soon.”
Apple did not disappoint with its special announcement yesterday. First, we got to hear the news from Steve Jobs, which is a bit of a surprise since he has stepped back from day-to-day operations at Apple for medical reasons. Second, the news itself, the iPad 2, showed a number of exciting improvements over the original.
The most functional of these improvements are the two cameras: an HD camera on one side and a VGA camera on the other, similar to the iPod Touch. Along with these will come two new standard apps: Photo Booth and FaceTime. In addition, a version of iMovie for the iPad was demonstrated that will improve upon the current iPhone 4 app with more features. There will also be a version of the music creation software GarageBand for the iPad.
In addition to the cameras, the iPad 2 sports a faster dual-core A5 processor, a thinner and lighter design and an internal gyroscope for gaming and other apps. A new HDMI accessory will allow for screen mirroring on a second display or television. A special magnetic cover accessory will act as a screen protector, screen cleaner and stand. The new iPad will use iOS 4.3 which will bring improvements to Safari, Home Sharing and AirPlay.
Ever need to call a company’s customer service number for help? Then you get faced with a long wait until you get to talk with someone? With the FastCustomer app, you can have those companies call you. Just select the company from the list and enter your phone number. Then the phone rings with a real live service representative from that company on the line. What a great idea!
With a file in the Finder selected, you can press the spacebar to use Quick Look to view it in a window. But if you hold down the Option key and press the spacebar, you get a full screen Quick Look. Do that with a few images selected and you get a full screen slideshow.
“I assure you, sir, that this is the new Thunderbolt port. It is not a sign that your Mac survived an attack by Voldemort.”
