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Rawr updated to 2.2.25 [Update: 2.2.27]
Rawr is a great third-party app (it's open source, and doesn't interface with the game at all) that's designed to help you figure out everything you need to know about your character, including how to best buff, enchant, and gem up your gear and set up your stats for whatever you'd like to do. It started out as an app strictly for tanking druids, but recently, it's grown to include pretty much all classes and stats. Our good friends at sister site Download Squad just recently found out about it, and they've got a nice basic writeup posted that serves as a good overview if you've never used the app before. They also mention that the app just got another update, to version 2.2.25, and all of the release notes are posted over on their site. They're also looking for help -- if you're a C# developer, or know one who can work on their rogue and hunter models, be sure to let them know. Since the program is open source, anybody who knows the code can jump in and add their own features, or fine-tune the class choices, which then helps out everyone who uses the software. Rawr is definitely an excellent resource for anyone looking to get their gear perfected -- it's a free download for Windows on their site right now. Update: Since this post was written, the app has been updated to 2.2.27. That was fast!
SnowChecker will help you make the jump to Snow Leopard
Most of us here at TUAW jumped aboard the Snow Leopard bandwagon immediately after receiving our upgrade disks -- and I mean immediately. We didn't bother to check out what apps would or wouldn't run, and could have cared less about compatibility with scanners and printers or anything else important like that. No, we just dived into the lake before determining whether or not it was shallow, full of piranhas, or contained hydrochloric acid. That's just us, though -- we like to be able to tell TUAW readers what to expect, good and bad, when a new OS version is delivered. Our friends at Download Squad, however, must still be a little queasy about making the leap, since they posted a quick app review today for SnowChecker. SnowChecker is a free Mac application that does one thing -- it tells you whether or not your applications will run under Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. SnowChecker performs a scan of your hard disk for apps, then compares the list of found apps against compatibility info stored at snowleopard.wikidot.com. It displays the the results, noting which apps are OK, which might have slight compatibility issues, and which will be totally hosed under Snow Leopard. SnowChecker uses a simple green, yellow, red color scheme to pass along the information to you, and often provides quick notes telling you about workarounds or updates that will help get all of your apps working smoothly. If you're a bit on the shy side when it comes to doing upgrades, SnowChecker can make you feel a lot better about making the jump to Snow Leopard.
CNN: Our iPhone app is "not a hobby"
CNN chatted with our good friends at DLS about the news network's iPhone app (scheduled to hit an App Store near you very soon), and it actually sounds pretty premium: in-app video, breaking news live video streaming, a Coverflow-style way to browse news information, the ability to store news to read later, and social sharing through Facebook, Twitter, and the usual suspects. CNN even says they want to add more to the app in the future, including some iReport-style news delivery functions, so people with iPhones out in the world can send news in as quickly as possible. Ok, CNN, we get it -- you care about this one. It does sound like they're making a major push in terms of making their content interactive on the iPhone, but on the other hand, maybe they're just trying to sell you on the "premium" price: $1.99, with (we're told) non-intrusive advertising included. Obviously, $2 is cheap, but on the other hand, especially with advertising both from the network itself and outside clients, the crankiest of App Store browsers will probably flinch at it a little bit. If you are interested, however, CNN would love to take your money: their app should be available in the App Store as soon as Apple lets it through.
A primer to the world of PSP homebrew
The PSP homebrew scene can be quite scary at times. Technical jargon, confusing instructions, shady websites -- they all seem to be part of a world that many casual PSP users just don't want to be a part of. Thankfully, our friends at Download Squad have written up a simple, easy to follow introduction to the scene. It chronicles the interesting history of the homebrew scene, and how it's developed to this day.Check it out.
Smudge photos with Seashore
If you're looking for a quick and dirty way to smudge sensitive information in photos before putting them online then give Seashore a whirl. We've written about this neat little open source Mac-only app before and think it's great for basic image editing and touch-ups. To smudge parts of a photo, simply open the Seashore toolbar, then open the photo you want to edit. Select the "finger" icon from the left side of the toolbar and right-click on the mouse while dragging the cursor across the area you want to blur. Save the photo and you're done. Be advised, however, your blurring efforts can be undone just as easily so if you need to hide extremely sensitive information, you'll need to use another method.
Convert YouTube videos for PSP really easily
The PSP is supposed to play Flash video one of these days ... but considering Sony's slow adoption of features we really want, we wouldn't hold our breath for it. Until then, there's a ridiculously easy solution for converting videos from sites like YouTube ... and it doesn't even involve downloading any software!1. Get the URL of the video you want.2. Copy URL into the "FLV Online Converter" at vixy.net3. Choose "MP4 for iPod/PSP"4. Wait for the conversion, download file, and then save it to your PSP under the "VIDEO" folder.Does it get any easier than this? Not really. I found it to work quite quickly, with some impressive results.[Via Zeropaid]
How to use MacFUSE
Remember MacFUSE? The filesystem that Google's Amit Singh ported over to OS X? Yes, that's the one. Sure, you read about it here on TUAW and thought to yourself, 'That sounds cool but I have no idea why I should care or how I would go about using it.' Fear not, loyal TUAW reader, Jay Savage at Download Squad has got you covered.Jay wrote up a lengthy How To on getting started with MacFUSE. Be warned, if delving into the Terminal frightens you this tutorial is not for you.
Download Squad running '12 days of holiday downloads'
On Friday our friends at sister blog Download Squad began a new series titled 12 Days of holiday downloads, rounding up holiday and Christmas-themed downloads for both Mac OS X and Windows. Day 2 was posted today, and so far it looks like a neat series for those of you who like to get their Mac (and Windows PC) into the holiday spirit. Day 1 covered Snö, an app we've mentioned before, can create a snowfall on your desktop (though, as of this writing, Snö's site seems to be unavailable). Day 2 for Mac (today) covers X-MasTree, which we posted about a few days ago.Frivolous, cycle-wasting apps? Sure. Fun, holiday spirit nonetheless? You bet. Stay tuned to Download Squad for the rest of their 12 Days of holday downloads series for more ways to get your Mac in the holiday spirit.
Small Carrot for the small screen
A member of Small Carrot asked me to check out the site, and I was incredibly impressed by what I saw. The site offers tons of high-quality ad-free animation, in formats compatible with the PSP, iPod and cell phone. While the programming is excellent, Small Carrot goes a step further than other sites by offering a PSP-compatible version of the site and video RSS feeds. Downloading is quick, simple and intuitive.The site will only work on PSPs with firmware 2.80 or greater due to the naming conventions the site uses. But, for those of you running an older firmware, there's luck: the site will offer 1.0-compatible movies for those browsing on a computer. Not bad at all. Check out the site on your PC, or on your PSP at www.scpsp.com.
Learn how to do everything using Videojug
We're always on the lookout for new video content to play on our PSPs. If Google Video and video podcasting just isn't enough for you, you might want to try out Videojug. According to the website:VideoJug is every aspect of life explained and illustrated through an ever-growing number of common sense, informative, helpful and entertaining videos. It's like having an army of top-class experts at your fingertips 24/7 to "show you how" and to help you out.So, if you've ever wanted to know how to make gnocchi, how to reset a circuit fuse... whatever comes to your mind, you can check out the site. Conveniently, all videos are provided in iPod and PSP format, so you can learn on the go. If you were intrigued by DS's Down Home Cooking, this might be a nice, free alternative for you.[Via Download Squad]
Comparing iTunes to diet soda
Mr. Linspire himself, Michael Robertson, posted a little ditty about his love of diet soda. He then compares the short shelf-life of diet soda (Aspartame, in particular, doesn't last long) to the potentially limited life span of any DRM'ed music. His case is mycokemusic.com, which just went away once the iTunes invaded the UK. But he predictably turns his gaze to iTunes, the juggernaut of online music. The logic goes, DRM limits you, forces restrictions, which could hamper or completely invalidate your music collection someday. Right now, if you purchased a bunch of songs on iTunes and wanted to switch from an iPod to something else (people tell me others do in fact make portable music players), you would have to burn and re-rip your music as a bunch of MP3's. Or re-buy them all. Sounds like fun, huh? About as much fun as me copying the giant boxes of audio cassettes I have in the garage onto my hard drive, splitting up the tracks, labeling them, and storing them indefinitely. Always nice to see technology making life easier for us... The eternal question: DRM good or DRM bad? If Michael had his way, we'd all be rockin' to MP3's sans restrictions. But then, I don't see a lot of music labels knocking on his door...
Advice for wannabe game developers
The days of the bedroom coder are mostly behind us, though casual games and mini-games still provide the opportunity for a single coder to make it big -- not to mention one-man projects like Rag Doll Kung Fu which don't quite fit into the above categories. If you're interested in running your own game development project, Download Squad has some business advice for you. Covering engines, team-building, documentation, project management, testing, marketing and the all-important "making money", this article is a useful starting point and gives a good idea of what's actually involved in a small-scale game development project. Of course, you'll want to do further research before embarking on such a project yourself.
Microsoft to Apple: Happy Birthday!
What a grand gesture. Five more years of Office wasn't enough, so Microsoft went the extra mile and released a fully-functional, virtualization app called VirtualPC XP for Intel Macs... Nah! I'm just kidding. They popped a JPEG up on their site saying how happy they have been to ride on the coattails of an innovator for the past 22 years. Or something like that. You can see the birthday card from the Microsoft MacBU to Apple here. It could have been worse. They could have said: "After 22 years, and a decade-long headstart on the GUI, you are still #2." I'm thankful for small favors. Truth is, Apple should be thanking Microsoft for sticking through the lean times. Oh, and that infusion of cash a few years back didn't hurt (awkward to witness though). So thanks Microsoft, now where's that new version of Virtual PC, hm?[thanks to Derrick G. for sending this in]
Now that you've turned your Mac into a PC, turn it into a Mac again
So you've done the formerly impossible and unnecessary: installed Winders on a Mac. Cool, best of both worlds. But there you are, staring at that awful primary color, jumbo crayon, sickly plasticky XP theme. Yeah, you could use one of the many mods featured on Download Squad (please, feel free). Or you could turn your XP rig back into a Mac. At least, you can make XP look a lot more like a Mac. Engadget did this nearly 2 years ago, although Aqua-Soft is still updating their content. Or why not go old school with an OS 9 flavor? Ah, that's better.
