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Tell me about your secret addons
I put the call out on twitter the other day, asking people to tell me about little known addons that they couldn't be without. When you talk about addons you always want to have loaded, everyone thinks of things like DBM or Grid or other very well-known and popular addons, but they're not the ones I have in mind. Instead I want to know about the addons you rely on that not everyone has heard of, that aren't common knowledge, the ones that you happened upon or had recommended to you by friends, and now can't be without. The secret addons that you will always use, now, regardless of what others might say. Me, personally? I love a couple of little addons, one called GoGoMount, which allows you to use Blizzard's keybind menu, the one in the menu that pops up if you hit escape, to bind both a random flying mount and a random ground mount. I like getting random mounts, and it doesn't take up space on my (packed) bars. Another one I love is Steal, Purge and Dispel. It makes a "bong" noise and pops up a little window whenever your target or focus has something that could be removed via Spellsteal, Purge, or Dispel Magic. While there are other ways to do this, it's great to have that little reminder sometimes, particularly on my mage where I have a habit of getting distracted by Pyroblasting everything in the face. So what are your secret addons?
Revving up the comments with WoW Insider regular Revynn
We love our readers -- and come to think of it, they're probably a big part of the reason you love us, too. At a time when the comment sections of many sites are overwhelmed by trolling and pettiness, WoW Insider maintains an even-natured profile with a crop of commenters known for their level-headed touch. Making his mark among those commenters is long-time reader Revynn, noted again and again by WI writers themselves for the insightful profile of comments he's built across the site. "I think I'm going on four years now," Revynn says of his longevity as a WoW Insider reader. "I stumbled across WoW Insider during Wrath when I was trying to get to the official World of Warcraft site and just typed in 'wow.com.' When I finally decided to stop lurking and start actually saying things, it was under a different username that I abandoned when I changed mains at the end of ICC." "It's easy to look back and be surprised at how much time I've dedicated to a website that I don't own or receive any compensation from, but it's a lot like WoW in that respect," he continues. "I can think 'I've really wasted a lot of time here,' or I can reflect fondly on the good people and good conversations that have come and gone over the years. People like Krotzer, Cutaia, Draknfyre, Pyro, Grovin, Ravyncat, Killik, Jeff and many, many others are what make WI such a fantastic place to come to for information or just to hang out."
Newsweek to drop print edition after December 31st, gives the digital future a warm hug
It's no secret that print media is on its way out, as many regional and niche publications have had to either find a path through the digital wilderness or fold completely. We're still not used to national publications facing that ultimatum, though, which makes Newsweek's fresh decision to drop its print edition after December 31st both unusual and a bellwether. Anyone still yearning for the magazine's content after the presses stop will have to turn to the purely digital Newsweek Global or its The Daily Beast sibling, no matter how attached they are to the outlet's 80-year history with paper. The explanation for the cutoff remains a familiar story: print readership is dying on the vine and expensive to maintain, while web and tablet adoption is growing quickly enough that Newsweek believes it can make the switch without taking a long-term financial hit. Whether or not the transition works, it's evident the periodical knows its identity must be wrapped around an online presence -- figuratively, not literally.
Breakfast Topic: What do you do while you're doing archaeology?
It's no secret that archaeology can be a boring pain in the butt. Archaeology is less of a profession and more like a Profession in which I have spent a long time studying, gotten my degree in, and now dedicate my life's work to. Podcasts are an excellent diversion, but there's something tactile missing. One night while I was out in the Uldum desert, painfully sulking my way from one failure of a dig site to the next, I got a whisper from a fan and reader who just wanted to say hello. "You caught me at the best time, in fact," I told him. "I'm just bored doing archaeology." This became a thing. We got on pretty well. Other people began to send me messages during my archaeology sessions. If you know my name (pretty easy to find me if you look hard enough) and I'm on WoW late, you should say hello. You just might get me right in the middle of archaeology. What do you like to do to pass the time while doing archaeology?
Sony PRS-T1 Reader wanders into the FCC with WiFi on board
What exactly is a PRS-T1? Well, it's a new Sony Reader and it just so happens to have swung through the FCC with a WiFi n radio in tow. As you can see above, the regulatory label proudly proclaims this to be a "Digital Book Reader," though we could have guessed that from the PRS model number. What else do we know? Not much sadly. We're guess the T1 in the model name indicates that, whatever the panel's size, it'll be of the touchscreen variety. (Either that, or this is the tapenade colored model.) Despite Sony's official denials, looks like that rumored August launch for the company's latest e-ink devices may actually pan out.
MacTech Boot Camp revving up for Dallas, coming to Boston, LA and Chicago later this year
Our friends at the MacTech Boot Camp series of conferences for Mac consultants and IT techs are rolling right into 2011. They've got a session planned in Dallas for April 27, and then they're headed up to Boston for another event on May 18. We're told there's still room at the Dallas event, and the usual pricing has been lowered to $395, so you TUAW readers can follow this special discount link to see the show for just $295. Sessions include a packed schedule of panels and demos, lots and lots of networking, and included meals and refreshments -- if you've never been to one of these and do any consulting or IT work with Macs, they're definitely worth seeing. You can even get certified at the events -- Apple Certification Testing is taking place the day before each session, and there's also a proctor-moderated group study session included before that, so you can do some last-minute cramming with your fellow pupils. Testing for MacTech Boot Camp attendees is only $199, which is significantly cheaper than usual. Finally, early bird registration is still underway for the sessions later on this year -- the conference will be in Los Angeles on July 27, and in Chicago on August 31. If you're in either of those cities, definitely consider attending. TUAW is a media sponsor of the MacTech Boot Camp conferences.
TUAW readers get 30% off "Take Control of iWeb '09"
TUAW's very own superstar Steve Sande has released a new ebook version of "Take Control of iWeb '09," and it's updated to reflect the fact that iWeb is practically the same in both iLife '09 and the newer iLife '11. No matter which iLife you're using, Steve's got some excellent tips in here for you. From using Dropbox to share and publish low-cost iWeb sites, to embedding Google Calendars and Keynote presentations, and even setting up iWeb sites for mobile iOS devices, Steve has you covered on all the various functions of iWeb 3 for either iLife '09 or iLife '11. Since you're reading TUAW, you can consider yourself lucky. By following this link, you can get Steve's ebook for 30% off, making the usually US$15 ebook just $10.50. Congrats to our own Mr. "TUAW TV Live" on another successful publication, and if you want to grab that special TUAW-only discount, head through the link above.
Global Chat: Behind the scenes edition
Welcome to this week's Global Chat! We love hearing what you have to say at Massively, and we love it even more when we can share the best comments with all of our readers. Massively staffers will be contributing some of their favorite comments every week, so keep an eye out every Sunday for more Global Chat! This week much of the community's focus was on what goes on behind the scenes. Our readers chatted about development decisions from launch onward; from the brand-new Earthrise to the reincarnated Gods & Heroes, "how it's done in MMO development" came under scrutiny. Each discussion of individual games branched into interesting insights regarding MMO development and mechanics in general, so follow along after the jump to see what everyone had to say this week!
Global Chat: Stop the presses edition
Welcome to this week's Global Chat! We love hearing what you have to say at Massively, and we love it even more when we can share the best comments with all of our readers. Massively staffers will be contributing some of their favorite comments every week, so keep an eye out every Sunday for more Global Chat! We had some hot topics on Massively this week! From business models to combat style to the hottest beta events, the Massively staff had plenty to talk about. Thankfully, you, the readers, chimed in too. The great thing about so many of these conversations is that they often extend far beyond the game the original topic was about and turn into a discussion of different MMO mechanics in general. If you missed out on some of these posts and discussions this week, follow along after the break. We've gathered up the best and most thought-provoking, so we're ready to hear more of what you have to say!
Because you asked: iPad-free TUAW feed
You begged. You pleaded. You filled our in-box. We listened. We heard. We understand. For all of you who love the Mac and Apple news but whose interest in (and, occasionally, patience for) the iPhone and iPad have been exhausted, we have a solution. We're happy to introduce the following new URLs. Behold, iPad- and iPhone- free pages! http://www.tuaw.com/not/ipad [/rss.xml] http://www.tuaw.com/not/iphone [/rss.xml] http://www.tuaw.com/not/ipad,iphone [/rss.xml] These URLs are hot off the presses, sparkling with concentrated Mac- and Apple corporate-goodness. They will give you a brighter smile, cleaner breath, and a guaranteed[1] je ne sais quoi with that certain someone or someones. You can convert any one of them into an RSS feed by tacking "/rss.xml" onto the end of the address. This is a tag-driven system. It relies on us remembering to properly tag iPad posts with "iPad" and iPhone posts with "iPhone". While we promise to try our very, very hardest, we remain the same old fallible, carbon-based cellular automata you've come to know and love, i.e. human beings. Remember that old saying: "To tag is human; to tag poorly is human, too." So you will be finding occasional stray posts in your no-whatever feed. And we'll feel really, really awful about that. When that happens, we strongly encourage you to count to 10 (or at least to five) before firing off that irate email about how the new feature is horribly, horribly broken. Keep in mind that the "broken" feature is going to be us: your shiny, happy, loving TUAW team. We love all of our readers. And we want to make all of you happy. So put a bounce in your step and take your least favorite devices off (or at least, mostly off) your TUAW reading list! We'll be trying our hardest to tag everything properly. Happy filtering, everyone! [1] Satisfaction or your money back! Please include a small processing fee when filing your reimbursement request. This guarantee is fictional.
AddOn Spotlight: Community Choice 1
AddOn Spotlight focuses on the backbone of the WoW gameplay experience -- the user interface. Everything from bags to bars, buttons to DPS meters and beyond -- your AddOns folder will never be the same! This week, the community's voice has been heard and three awesome addons await your approval. Last week, I propositioned you, the fine readers of AddOn Spotlight, to send in your favorite addons that you wanted to see on the Spotlight. You responded with a ton of suggestions, ranging from the absolutely awesome (the three we will be seeing today) and the absolutely AWESOME (stop suggesting IconHell). Without further adieu, I present you with AddOn Spotlight's first Community Choice! Here are three of your suggestions. Enjoy!
The Reader's View: Best of your feedback, comments and opinions
The Reader's View is our weekly roundup of some of the most upbeat, thoughtful, or just plain nice comments that have been published by TUAW readers. This week, we have discussions of Apple keyboards, Wi-Fi extenders, the iPad (no big surprise there...), Apple's stock price, and iPhone programming languages. To begin with, reader efinkGr had a comment for Sang Tang's post "Mac 101: Going Commando with Command-key shortcuts in Mac OS X," saying "You know i wish they never got rid of the apple icon on the command key. I miss it :'( " That prompted some research on my part, which pointed out that the Apple icon was on most Apple keyboards for the better part of 20 years simply because those keyboards could be used either with Macs or the Apple II family of computers. David Winograd's interview with Roland Saekow of BearExtender is still grabbing attention from TUAW readers like Scott, who noted that "due to the Art Deco designs of the buildings here in South Beach we find it's difficult to get wireless range because of the thick cement walls that much of the area was built with... In my testing (with the BearExtender n3) I found that I was able to see 20 more wireless networks than my Airport card in a 2009 MBP just from where the MBP sits everyday...and going out into the world makes it even better."
E-reader statisfaction study shows 93 percent of users are happy, just not you
The wind sure changes very quickly, eh? Just a week ago the University of Georgia revealed that many of its study participants -- Athens residents who were given a Kindle to play with -- weren't happy with their e-reader experience, but yesterday a new study reported something fairly contrasting. Rather than doling out touchscreen-less e-readers to a group of people, the NPD Group surveyed more than 1,000 e-reader owners in late November last year, and found out that 93 percent of them were "very satisfied" or "somewhat satisfied" with their devices, while only 2 percent "expressed any level of dissatisfaction." The report also reveals that wireless access is the favorite feature for 60 percent of the users, while only 23 percent chose the touchscreen. Compared to last week's report, this probably shows that consumers who actually buy e-readers don't really care about the touch feature, whereas those on the outer circle are mainly waiting for more -- and no doubt cheaper -- touchscreen e-readers. Seriously though, only 34 percent wanted color screens? Those guys sure are easy to please.
TUAW Braintrust: What are your views on keyboards?
Over the last week or two, my keyboard (an inexpensive Macally Apple-style unit) has been dying a slow but inevitable death. When I found myself having to hit the space key about 5 times for each successful contact, I knew it was time to start looking around for a replacement. Of course, the most obvious replacement to buy will be the Apple wireless Bluetooth system. I've been dying to get one to play around with BTstack. That's the open source Bluetooth stack project that allows users to pair keyboards and other devices with a jailbroken iPhone. The problems with the wireless Apple keyboard, though, are the arrow keys (very very small) and home/end/pageup/pagedown cluster (apparently non-existent). Only the full size Apple keyboard offers those features. So I'm going to turn to the TUAW Braintrust. What do you guys out in reader-land like use as your keyboards? Have they been a success or not? What keyboards can you really recommend? And what keyboards are must avoids? (My Macally? Probably the latter.) Let me know in the comments, what your suggestions are. And, as a follow-on, what are your views on keyboard protectors? Worth the money or not? I'm living in a child-ridden dietcoke-danger environment. If I go all-out and buy Apple this go-round, should I pay the 30% premium to get a plastic shield? Help me decide with the following poll. %Poll-41093%
Study finds people want more from their Kindles, less from their newspapers
This may come as a surprise to you (although probably not, you smart devil), but it turns out that plenty of people are dissatisfied with their current e-reader options -- according to a recent study conducted at the University of Georgia. The study was conducted over a six-month period where participants read the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on a Kindle, then provided feedback. The results were, well -- not entirely shocking. Younger adults found the Kindle to be lacking because it had no touchscreen or other applications (though to be fair, neither does the print version of the paper), while older adults seemed more satisfied, but also reported missing the crossword puzzles and comics of a real, live newspaper. Pretty much everyone agreed that the screen was nice and comfortable to read on, but almost no one was a fan of the price. All in all, there's not terribly much here that we think is overly telling -- besides (of course) the fact that paper rules.
Apple reveals iBook Store and app for the iPad
Put this down as something else rumored that's come to fruition today. Apple's just announced iBooks, an e-reader app and bookstore (called iBookstore) for the iPad, using the ePub format. We're seeing prices around $12.99 to $14.99 so far... looks pretty slick! We're sure Jeff Bezos and Co. are none too pleased to see this one, but we'll have to see for ourselves what reading's like on a non-E Ink screen. There's a gallery after the break. Be sure to hit up our hands-on right here!
Four out of ten IT professionals would buy a tablet, but would you?
Macworld is reporting that their partner Network World recently did a poll and came up with the figure of four out of ten Network World readers willing to buy a tablet on day one sight unseen. That's an interesting result (and it's not the only one seen along those lines), but I want to know what you TUAW readers think. We've got a pretty good group of professionals, "pro-sumers" (ugh, sorry, I'll never use that word again), and just plain Mac fans in the audience here, and I think we represent a pretty good cross-section of Apple's core audience. Jump in on our poll below, and let us know, if the impossible became possible, if you'd plunk down the rumored $1000 for a tablet even before Steve's demo, or if you'd rather wait and see (or maybe not even buy a tablet at all, no matter what it does). %Poll-40508% Personally, I'm more of a "maybe," though I can totally understand the belief that this is already a revolutionary project (we've certainly been waiting long enough for it). Or perhaps those of us who already have an iPhone and a MacBook aren't really as interested in the in-between as Apple might think.
Dear Apple: What we want to see for iPhone 4.0, part 1
A week ago we asked you, the TUAW reader, to help us tell Apple what you want in the next iPhone: the OS, the apps, the hardware. Within two hours, I had over two hundred emails in my inbox. Within four days, the email total topped 1,100. As I was shifting and sorting through all your suggestions, one thing became clear: you love the iPhone, but you want to see it better, more intuitive, and more versatile – and you know how the iPhone can accomplish those goals. This is the first of a series of letters to Apple on your behalf, telling the gang in Cupertino what would make their wonder-phone even more wondrous. This letter strictly focuses on the iPhone OS in general – the home screen, navigation, and settings. Future letters will deal with hardware and applications. There were so many suggestions, I needed to whittle them down. To do that, I tabulated how many times a feature request was made. If more than 50% of you mentioned it, it made it into the letter. If you guys want to see the others (most were one-offs or had less that 15% of you requesting it), perhaps I'll add an extra letter onto the series at the end of its run.
Samsung announces E6 and E10 e-book readers at CES
We're here in the middle of Samsung's CES press conference, and the company's just revealed its first e-book reader. We don't have many details yet -- we know there will be a 10- and 6-inch model, both with touchscreens, that Google is the content partner, and that it's got a soft QWERTY keyboard and wireless but no 3G (a bit of a downer). The two readers -- dubbed the E6 and E101 -- will feature on-screen handwriting capabilities, Bluetooth 2.0, and 802.11b/g WiFi. The 6-incher will clock in at $399, while the bigger version will sell for $699, and both will be available in "early 2010." Update: We just nabbed a quick hands-on. It's pretty thin, and it's hiding a secret: it's a slider with hidden controls! The touch sensitivity seemed pretty okay, but we'll have to spend some non-rushed time with it to get a true feel for things. Check out more in the gallery, and see the full press release after the break. %Gallery-81782%
Aigo jumps on the e-reader bandwagon with EB6301
It's official: everyone's making an e-reader. While we're still a little unsure of where all this is heading (hey, call us Luddites, but we actually like turning pages!), we're always glad to see an ever-expanding offering of literacy-encouraging gadgets. Chinese company Aigo has just announced its own model, the daringly named EB6301. This one boasts a 6-inch E Ink display, a host of buttons running down its left side in addition to the navigation panel, and has 2GB of built-in storage. There's no WiFi on this unit which is a disappointment, and it's going to run 2,499 yuan -- about $366. There's no word on availability outside of China at this time.
