What's better than playing a WWII -themed video game on your Mac? Playing that same game for free. Well, sort of. Aspyr Media has just released a demo of Call of Duty 2, a game which allows you to play as either Russian, British, or American soldiers against Nazis in WWII battlegrounds. The demo, which is also available on BitTorrent, allows you to play a single mission -- "The End of the Beginning" -- as a British soldier in 1942 North Africa trying to defeat German artillery at the docks. Please keep in mind, though, that Call of Duty 2 has very steep minimum requirements, including a 1.8 GHz G5 or Intel processor, a graphics card with 64MB of VRAM, and 4GB of hard drive space. If you want to know more about Call of Duty 2, you can check out Macworld's review.
What does it take to sell your 20GB 4th generation iPod on eBay? A little celebrity. Currently, for over $78 you can own a little piece of movie history: an iPod that (allegedly) belonged to actor Alec Baldwin. How do we know it's his? Does it have his name on it?
Well, sort of. "Alec Baldwin" is engraved on the back of the iPod, though I'm not sure Apple really polices its engravings too tightly. Now, I'm an Alec Baldwin fan who has unabashedly proclaimed his love for The Shadow and The Hunt for Red October, but I'm still not certain I feel the need to buy his old MP3 player. Especially if the earbuds are used. The post claims that the iPod contains a selection of Baldwin's music, including "Flaming Lips, the Doors, and Velvet Underground, along with New York Times and BBC News Podcasts." So, my question is: did somebody steal Alec Baldwin's iPod? Or is the actor feeling a little cash-strapped?
In related news, the iPod shuffle jointly owned by Stephen, Billy, and Daniel Baldwin is currently holding at around $5.
[via Defamer]
I don't know if this was available all along, but a reader wrote in with instructions as to how to watch the games via ESPN360 -- FOR FREE!
Here's how:
1) Download Flip4Mac
2) Open up QT, pull down the File menu, and select "Open URL"
3) Enter this address: mms://live.espnevent.espn.com.edgestreams.net/reflector:51921
4) Press play.
5) GOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!
[A million hat tips: woo]
Update: This feed works fine, without the need of a proxy, reports a friend in France.
We reported on a host of 10.4.7 problems the other day, and Apple has apparently now backtracked on the update, posting a revised version of the download for Intel-based Macs. What's the deal? Apple explained the situation thusly:
Mac OS X v10.4.7 was released on Tuesday of this week. The install package that upgrades a Mac OS X v10.4.6 (Intel) system is being revised. The revision is to provide several files related to OpenGL performance that were missing.Whoopsie. I'll let Apple slide on using "It's" in place of "Its" in that last sentence, because grammar's probably not their bailiwick, but missing OpenGL files is kind of a biggy.Only the package that upgrades a Mac OS X v10.4.6 (Intel) system to Mac OS X v10.4.7 (Intel) is being changed. All other Mac OS X v10.4.7 install packages remain unchanged.
The change being made to the install package does not affect the security fixes provided in the package.
The new package is named: MacOSXUpd10.4.7Intel.dmg
It's SHA-1 digest is: 10aa57dfccd63accb0939a894cea202a8910fb45
This applies only to the 10.4.6->10.4.7 update for Intel Macs and not the combo installer. MacFixIt has documented a way to check and see if you've downloaded the right update. Kind of glad I hadn't installed the update yet. Sometimes it pays to wait.
[via Macs Only]
The iPod nano is a marvel of engineering: it's tiny, lightweight, and it sounds fantastic. But what you don't know about this miniscule MP3 player could kill you. Eight different ways. From Sunday.
Should you ever find your life in danger, whilst possessing nothing but an iPod nano, McSweeney's presents eight ways in which you can defend your well-being with Steve Jobs's favorite music player. The techniques can be used to target everyone from rowdy soccer hooligans to tea lovers.
6. Carefully unstaple a tea bag and pour the contents on a plate. Break into the lithium-ion battery pack and saturate the tea with the battery's poison, then dry the tea in the sun (or with a hair dryer if you are in a hurry). Put tea back in tea bag and bend the staple back to its original position. Put the tea bag back where you got it.Alernatively, if you prefer a somewhat simpler solution that requires less destruction of the nano, may I suggest the next item on the list:
7. Download to the Nano "We've Only Just Begun" by the Carpenters. Tell someone you will give him or her your Nano if they listen to that song a hundred times in a row.No muss, no fuss.
[via The Consumerist]
Born out of Google’s Summer of Code, Desmond Elliot has shown his work in a neat little movie. It’s a neat new approach to the problem of tab overflow. Safari, Camino, and NetNewsWire all currently allow a certain number of tabs given a window width, and the rest are overflowed into a menu that one can select from. The problem with this is that the overflow tabs can’t be seen without closing existing tabs.
One has to close those tabs by using a keyboard shortcut or menu item. That’s not a great solution. Further, it makes it harder to move between these tabs quickly because the menu has to be open to know what’s there. Desmond’s solution is allow one to scroll though the tabs using buttons on either side. That’s an elegant solution and far more intuitive than the current implementation. It’s only a matter of time before it’s in Camino, but I want it in Safari (and no, I’m not a fan of the rumored thumbnail tabs a la OmniWeb).
I’ve been a little unsatisfied with the level of service that .Mac has been supplying lately. The real blocker has been the syncing component. I love it. I basically bought Yojimbo because of its support for it. MySync aimed to fake the service, allowing you to sync your Macs without subscribing.
I’ve never really played with it because I am an active .Mac member, but it’s always been in the back of my mind as part of a backup plan, should I decide to drop .Mac. Today, it was announced that Mark/Space acquired MySync. Mark/Space, known for their Missing Sync line of products, already has a good amount of experience when it comes to Sync Services. I expect we’ll see a very mature product with full support relatively soon. Hopefully that threat will be enough to force Apple to pick up the slack.
One of the unfortunate things for Apple (depending upon how you look at it) as part of the Intel transition is that the current status of their products is highly visible. Apple can’t hide the fact that faster chips are available until the next chosen revision date. Anybody who reads tech news can find out now.
Intel is now offering 2.33 GHz Core Duo processors. When can we expect Apple’s response? I see two options. Apple waits for normal product refresh to integrate the new processors or they stealthily integrate them. The problem with the latter is that it removes a somewhat large part of the anticipation that Apple fans experience when waiting for the next model. The net result could be longer refresh cycles.
I’m on the fence about which is the better policy.
Haven't had your fill of fake Leopard yet? Perhaps movies are more your cup of tea. A video that looks to be building on the faux Leopard screenshots posted earlier in the week appeared recently on YouTube. It purportedly demonstrates a tabbed Finder, much like the screenshots.
My comments about the screenshots apply equally to this video. While I think a tabbed Finder would be pretty cool, and I could see Apple putting this into place, I don't believe this anything other than an elaborate hoax. Still, I'm impressed with the work that they've put into it. As with the screenshots, if this was anywhere near legit, Apple would have cease & desisted YouTube into the ground. Also, as one of the commenters points out, Apple does not habitually label their OS as "Pre-releases."
If only these fauxteurs would use their talents for good instead of stupid.
[via Infinite Loop]
