Like many writers out there, I have a book in the works. And also like many writers, my great American novel is still a bit of a rough draft. Or I suppose “idea” is a more accurate description of my book. Alright, fine, I want to write a novel and I haven’t put down a word yet.
What any great story needs is amazing characters, and to do that you really need to get inside their heads. You have to take your time and craft an amazing story full of people who you want to love, as well as those you want to hate. It’s a lot of pressure. Fortunately, there’s Mariner Persona.
When it comes to apps in the getting things done (GTD) realm, OmniFocus stands head and shoulders above the rest. It’s powerful, it’s flexible and it can sync with the iPad and iPhone versions as well. But as great as it is — and we’ve already told you that it’s pretty cool — it can still use a few tweaks here and there to make it a bit more workable.
So with that it mind, let’s take a few moments to share a few tips and tricks for OmniFocus. You may not need all of them, but if just one tip makes you more productive, then it’s worth it, right?
In the Mac browser wars, there are many contenders for the crown. But the big three are Chrome, Safari and Firefox. On my desktop, I found myself using Safari and Chrome more often than Firefox because Chrome looks better and I could ditch Flash on Safari easily.
But more importantly, Firefox was slow to load and didn’t offer anything better for me than Chrome or Safari, so why use it?
Now there’s a reason: Firefox 4 is out and it’s packed with new features that make it worth the download. So what are these fancy new bits that kick Firefox up a notch? Let’s take a look after the break.
New subscribers to MobileMe generally know the basics: contacts, email, calendars and notes can sync across computers and devices, you get some storage, and a fancy email address to share with all of your friends. But if you’re anything like me, you opened up your iDisk for the first time, saw the Backup folder and thought, “What’s this for? There’s no way that a Time Machine backup would fit in the 20GB allotted for iDisk.”
Turns out, the Backup folder is for a program called Backup 3, which is made by Apple. What’s this for, and why would I need it if I use Time Machine?
Good question – let’s find out!
Being productive is all about being efficient, and restarting your computer is always a process that steals precious minutes from your life. If only there was a way to have a fine level of control over this frustrating task…
That’s the concept behind Startupizer, a new app available at the Mac App Store. If you’re anything like me, you have a few different extensions that all load up prior to the machine actually being usable.
Startupizer lets you tweak your startup settings so that you decide what opens when, making boot times substantially faster. As usual, there’s more to it, so let’s take a moment and delve into Startupizer and what it does after the break.
It used to be that the world of games on the Mac was an open wasteland, populated by software that was more appropriate for children than for console-loving adults. But now, that’s not really the case. Yes, sometimes the games take slightly longer to come to market, but they come to the Mac all the same, ready for some hardcore action.
So here we have Bioshock, a very popular game for the PC and consoles that was released several years ago. In fact, it’s even seen a sequel, which isn’t yet available for the Mac.
So is this game worth the $40 price tag? To find out, I downloaded the demo and gave it a shot. The results are after the jump.
I’ve always had a thing for Lego. When I was a kid, I lived and breathed the blocks, playing with them every day until eventually, I grew up and sold them all to buy a Game Boy. About 5 years ago, I decided to get back into them a bit as a relaxation technique, and now I find myself picking up a set every few months.
Recently, Lego reinvented themselves by adding a video game lineup to the mix. For the past few years they’ve put out games such as Lego Batman, Lego Star Wars and Lego Indiana Jones, all based on the popular properties.
Their latest one is Lego Harry Potter (Years 1-4), and it’s available on the Mac App Store right now. So how does the Mac version stack up to the console models?
Most video games designed today are more about flash and pretty looks than they are about function. Sure, they can be fun to play, but when updates need to be installed every hour to fix issues and you can’t run it without a maxed-out Mac Pro, it becomes an exercise in futility.
Sometimes it’s best to harken back to the old days when games were fun and graphics weren’t particularly groundbreaking, but you could lose yourself for hours while sitting in front of a glowing screen.
The Incident is one of those games.Already a hit on the iOS platform, The Incident is now available on the Mac App Store, for just a few dollars. So is there a reason to play the game on the Mac over your iPhone or iPad? Hit the jump to find out.
We live in a busy world nowadays. What with our e-mail, text messaging, and even phone calls interrupting our flow, it can be difficult to sit down and write something of substance. And when it comes to multitasking on the computer, well there are almost always ten windows open at any one time, and if that Apple Mail icon starts bouncing, we know it’s time to go get our dopamine fix…
Because of these distractions, there have been a crop of writing programs that have popped up for the Mac and iPad recently that strip away all of the apps running in the background, letting you focus on the task at hand: writing.
But is any of this stuff necessary? Is there any reason why you can’t just sit back with your laptop and a good word processing program and get the next great novel written?
Let’s talk this out after the break…
Video games have come a long way in the past twenty years. It went from dumping nickels and quarters into 6-foot tall machines in a smokey arcade to sitting in a living room in front of a HD TV with a wireless controller in your hand.
Although those advances make living in the future much cooler, there’s something to be said for taking it back to the old school; playing the games of the past, just updated a bit to reflect current technology.
Pangea Arcade fits into that category. It’s been on the Mac for years now, but with the birth of the Mac App Store came a spot in the top of the charts for the game. So what makes this 3-in-1 combo pack so popular? Let’s delve deeper and find out.
