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Holiday giveaways: Cellar 2.0 for the wine lover
The crowds in the stores and the recuperation from holiday over-indulgence got you down? We've got the prescription: holiday giveaways galore! This one is perfect for your New Year's Eve entertaining; we're giving away five copies of the $2.99 Cellar for iPhone [iTunes link], which can help you keep track of that wine you liked so much that you forgot what it was called, not to mention your own middle name and where you live. Viva la vino! Just leave a comment on the post letting us know about your favorite wine, and you'll be entered in the giveaway. Open to legal US residents of the 50 United States and the District of Columbia who are 18 and older. To enter leave a comment on this post letting us know your favorite wine. The comment must be left before Monday, 12/28 at 11:59PM Eastern Daylight Time. You may enter only once. Five winners will be selected in a random drawing. Prizes: each winner will receive one promotional code for Cellar 2.0 (ARV $2.99) Click Here for complete Official Rules.
Cellar 2.0 adds handy email hooks to wine manager
What cheers the soul more on a cold winter's night than a fine glass of wine? An app to keep track of that wine, perhaps. The new 2.0 version of the $2.99 Cellar for iPhone [iTunes link], out now, adds more fun and new sharing options to the good-looking wine management tool. If you're a high-level oenophile looking for a hardcore wine research and cellar inventory app, Cellar may not be for you (I'd recommend the powerful and savvy Drync for $4.99, or the free ad-supported version), but for casual imbibers and wine fans, it's a charmer. Cellar is simple to use and fun to show off. You add bottles one at a time to your collection (slotting them into the cellar, the garage or the wishlist), customizing the look and label of each bottle and adding vintage, price, ratings and other details if you have them. Your bottles are displayed attractively in a horizontal rack, which can be swiped back and forth; turning the iPhone or iPod touch from landscape to portrait mode switches you into a new detail view where you can see your notes and other info about a particular wine. The UI is graceful and well-detailed without being garish; an app about wine, after all, should carry itself with a degree of classiness. When I first looked at Cellar last summer, one of the drawbacks of the app was that there wasn't a good way to share your wine collections or favorite bottles with friends, nor could you easily back up your cellar data. Both of those issues have been amply addressed. You can now create 'bottle links,' very long encoded URLs (amenable to abbreviation by URL shorteners like TinyURL) that, when opened in the iPhone mail app, Mobile Safari or popular iPhone Twitter apps, auto-launch Cellar and load the bottle into your collection, label and all -- magical. You can also backup and restore wine libraries from your Mac or PC, or merge libraries with other users in the vicinity using the app's built-in Web server via Wi-Fi. New searching, sorting and statistics options add to the improved/introduced feature list with 2.0. Cellar 2 doesn't have the wine search capability of Drync or some of the other wine apps on the store, but it does have panache; it's a showcase app for my iPhone on looks and functionality, and it's perfect for keeping track of the bottle you drank out on the town that you want to remember for purchase later on. Check out more of the Cellar interface in the gallery below. %Gallery-80305%
5 Christmas gifts for the foodie
You know the foodie in your life. He or she is that person who will drag you miles away from your home to try out a new restaurant that they've heard about, or will spend hours cooking up an "experiment" in the kitchen, only to decide at the last minute to go out to eat. Finding the perfect gift for the Apple-owning gourmet in your life doesn't need to be an exercise in futility. Follow along as I bring you five ideas that are sure to keep your foodie friend on his or her journey to palatable perfection. 1) The first -- and one that I use on a regular basis -- is actually a free present that you can provide. OpenTable [Free, iTunes Link] is a service that is used by many foodie-friendly restaurants to capture reservations. You'll need to sign your gift recipient up for a free account, but once you're done, she'll be able to make reservations at that new French bistro that just opened up with just a few taps. 2) What's a good meal without a good glass (or bottle) of wine? Since your gourmet buddy might also be a budding oenophile, he might enjoy knowing which wines would work well with a certain meal, and how other wine lovers rated a particular wine. My favorite app in this area is The Wine Ratings Guide by Nirvino [US$3.99, iTunes Link]. The app calls upon the huge database of wines at the Nirvino website, and asks for your ratings and tasting notes, as well as photos of the label on the bottle. It's useful for finding highly-rated wines when you're at the local store picking up a few bottles for your enjoyment.
TurpsterDoubleVision: Mounting Your Squire
We can't believe it either – Turpster has been let loose on WoW.com to bring you videos from in and around the World of Warcraft! You've heard him on the WoW Insider Show, and now see him on TurpsterVision right here on WoW.com.Drinking alcohol might make you feel big, but you wont be clever! Don't do drugs kids! Now I've got that out of the way, I can leave you all to enjoy the video and to get in game and complete the achievements. If you need any help then make sure you check out Allison Robert's fantastic guide on the Brewfest 2009 achievements!Also, as some of the less filthy minded of you out there might have guessed from the title, this week's TurpsterVision features the Argent Tournament reward and the achievement of Pony Up! And I have it on fairly good word that this is indeed THE Pony that Ghostcrawler promised us -- well at least that is how I am treating it in-game (RP ftw!). Check out more of Turpster's work, from his WoW parody songs to TV previously on Massively.com, not forgetting everyone's favorite podcast 'The WoW Insider Show' and of course, TurpsterVision right here on WoW.com!
TUAW First Look: Cellar puts your wine collection in your pocket
Beverage choice should be simple: coffee or tea to rev up, wine or beer to spin down (App Store links). Of course, when it comes to drink choices, there's definitely an app for that: from the makers of espresso-instructions app Barista, we now have the $0.99 Cellar (under App Store review and appearing momentarily). Cellar's slick UI and quick data entry make keeping track of your wine library almost as fun as actually drinking the wine you collect.When you start up Cellar, you face an empty winerack; you can add bottles one by one, entering both vintage details and customizing the look/label of the bottles with photos of the bottle labels. You can adjust the number of bottles of each kind of vino you have stored away, and then as you polish them off the 'empties' are stored in the Garage area of the app for reference or repurchase.Cellars isn't an industrial-strength wine database or collection manager (My Wine or Velvet Vine Wine Pro might be better choices there, or a general-purpose database like Bento), but it is a handy way to remember what you've bought and liked. I'd like to see future versions support importing label images from the photo library (for iPod touch users) or download them from online wine libraries. Update: Apparently the library-select feature is already in place for iPod touch users. Readers also suggest checking out Drync for higher-end wine cellar management.Cellar's $0.99 introductory price won't last for long. Check out the gallery for more Cellar shots.%Gallery-67042%
Going out on an in-game date
I thought this was a really cute idea: an in-game date, sharing some of the best locations and activities around Azeroth with someone you love (or just happen to be courting). There are lots of great ideas in that thread -- I agree that the Twin Colossals is one of the more scenic (and out of the way) vistas to visit, but there are plenty more to go to: The Grim Guzzler, a floating island in Nagrand, the Darkmoon Faire, inside the bio-domes in Netherstorm. Personally, I think the best date would be a picnic on the deck of the ship in Deadmines -- sure, you'd have to fight off ninjas every once in a while, but what is a date without a little ninja fighting, right?If you do head out on a date, make sure you bring some roses and a bottle of wine (depending on how well you expect the date to go). If you've really thought ahead, you can bring a Romantic Picnic Basket, or you can shell out for a regular Picnic Basket, but otherwise, it's probably just best to have a snack of Delicious Chocolate Cake (it's guaranteed to make your date Very Happy). Like I said, cute. Spending the time together with friends is what the game is all about anyway, and there's nothing wrong with taking some time to experience the world and hang out with each other. And if that's a little too boring for your tastes, maybe you can have your date tag along with you to some 2v2 Arena matches afterwards. Nothing gets the romance going like a little bloodshed.
The Queue: Soul man
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today. Yesterday Alex featured Cab Calloway blasting out Minnie the Moocher, a song that while was around for a long time was truly made epic by his performance with the Blues Brothers. And this lets me tie in perfectly to wish my brother Logan a happy graduation from high school next week. Logan and many of his friends were in their jazz band, and he often dressed up as the Blues Brothers when appropriate. And in lieu of that, today's reading music is the Blues Brothers' "Soul Man" performance from the 1978 SNL season. The good old days. 5 years before I was born.Hokiebuddy asked..."With the revamp of the bear and cat forms for Druids will there be any more Druid revamps in design such as the travel, swimming, or flying forms? Also will this spill over into other races and classes i.e. Warlock and Paladin mounts, Warlock minions, Shadow Priest shadow form, etc..."
LG Wine now available on US Cellular for $29.95 on contract
You'll never catch us recommending that one engage in the precarious act of drunk dialing, but those scouting a phone to appropriately showcase their adoration for fine adult beverages can finally do so on US Cellular. Starting today, the LG Wine (UX280) is available in two hues from the carrier, and both are running just $29.95 after applicable rebates and a 2-year contract. What's the off contract price, you ask? $179.95 with no strings attached. [Via phoneArena]
Electricity used to age wine, does nothing for Mad Dog 20/20
Amongst the snooty winemaking set the idea of using tech to aid the vinification process has always been controversial, so if you're one of those types, we're guessing you are not going to care for this tale at all. According to the Telegraph, chemists at the South China University of Technology have been pumping rough wine through a pipe wired with titanium electrodes, artificially "aging" it as much as twenty years. The team ran a three month old cabernet sauvignon through the process for various lengths of time, subjecting the results to a blind test with 12 experienced wine tasters. Apparently, applying 600 volts per centimeter for three minutes was found to leave the swill "well balanced and harmonious, with a nose of an aged wine." We suppose this is all well and good, but to be honest, ever since they stopped making Ripple we really haven't been in the mood.
LG Vu now official in burgundy
Mum's still the word with AT&T, but LG's gone ahead and spilled the beans on the burgundy version of the Vu -- a phone that's starting to look a little long in the tooth in the face of its newer competition from Samsung, so what better way to freshen things up than with a new color? Only the MediaFLO-equipped CU920 version of the phone seems like it's coming in the new shade, so if you were hoping to squeeze by without having to buy the mobile TV circuitry, we're afraid you might walk away disappointed. Let us know if you see this one galavanting around stores, won't you?[Via phoneArena]
LG Vu landing at AT&T in new wine hue
LG's Vu hit and left the spotlight in the blink of an eye earlier this year, but now AT&T's looking to rejuvenate interest in the Mobile TV-enabled handset by bringing it back out in a new wine hue. At least, that's the good word coming from the Boy Genius. Reportedly, the new version (model number 920 versus the old 915) will also boast MediaFLO and a number of assorted bug fixes, and while there's no expected date of arrival mentioned, it should ring up at right around $100 whenever it lands.
USB Port is neither USB nor Port, just amazing
With the word "Port" now restricted to use by Portuguese wine makers and kin, California-based Peltier Station was forced to come up with this bit of inspirational naming for its dessert wine: USB. Look closely and you'll see that the binary tree actually translates to "Peltier Station" with roots sinking deep into the universally recognized symbol (in Nerdistan) of the USB port. Who cares how it tastes, the packaging from 6 West Design is pure genius. Backside front after the break.[Via eRobertParker, thanks Paul M.]
Codeweavers says cheap gas = free software today
Update 10/28: Welcome, Digg fans. CodeWeavers' site is getting crunched under the massive demand for the free versions of CrossOver, so there is now a minimal site at down.codeweavers.com that will accept your email address; you will be mailed your registration code in the next couple of days. --- original post below --- Three months ago, CodeWeavers CEO Jeremy White offered a challenge to another CEO -- the nation's chief executive, George W. Bush. If the president achieved one of White's six "Lame Duck" goals during the twilight of his 2nd term, White would make Windows-API enabler & WINE GUI CrossOver free to customers for one day. Some considered White's proposal a great motivational tool for GWB; others found it smug, partisan and kind of a goofy way to promote the company's products, but in any event none of his six challenges seemed to be on the path to achievement, so that's where the story should have ended. CrossOver is a fine way to run Windows apps on your Mac, but as a force for political change, not so much. Then a funny thing happened on the way to January 20th: due to global economic conditions and through no fault of the president, the price of crude oil dropped precipitously and the cost of gasoline moved in parallel... bringing the average price per gallon in Minneapolis down to the target $2.79 level called for in White's goal #1. Can anyone say "Taco?" The Star-Tribune is reporting that White is planning to follow through on his pledge: on Tuesday 10/28, all CodeWeavers products (CrossOver Mac, Linux & Games) will be freely downloadable. One license per customer, and we assume that the free licenses will be for the standard versions of the apps. Update: Word from CodeWeavers execs is that the free license will be for a download-only flavor of the Pro version (!), including the Games optimized build and the option to share a Windows 'bottle' among multiple users on the same machine. You will have to choose either the Mac or Linux product for your free copy (and I'm looking forward to the stats on that split once the dust settles). Pro licenses are eligible for support/update renewals after one year for $35. You might argue with White's politics or his promotional instincts, but you can't argue with free software. CrossOver Mac normally retails for $40 and requires an Intel machine running either Tiger or Leopard. Update 2: A number of commenters have pointed out that the original challenge rules said the giveaway day would be on the first of the month following the goal, meaning Nov. 1 instead of Oct. 28. CodeWeavers' press release confirms that the giveaway day will be 10/28 and not 11/1. The giveaway runs from midnight to midnight CST. Thanks Austin!
Minimalists, drunkards rejoice: LG Wine goes live on Bell
If "function follows form" is your mantra, listen up -- especially if you happen to be in Canada. LG's curiously-named Wine has come to the land of polar bears, maple syrup, and adorable baby seals, offering very little in the way of bells or whistles (seriously, we're talking about a 1.3-megapixel camera and Bluetooth 1.2 here) but keeping the style dial turned to 11 -- and hey, at least it's still got a QVGA main display and GPS packed in there somewhere. It'll run you $79.95 now on a three-year contract in your choice of black or the always tasteful gold.[Via MobileSyrup]
LG Wine gets Bell a little tipsy
We didn't think much of the simple LG Wine when it first launched in Korea -- nor when it went to Europe as the KF300 (pictured) -- but LG must be doing something right here, because it's now been slated for a release on Bell next month. The flip is targeted at folks looking for a simple phone with a premium look, and its feature set certainly fills that bill with a QVGA display, GPS, Bluetooth, 1.3-megapixel camera, and "quick preset keys" for major phone functions. It'll be available in black and gold for $79.99 CAD (about $78) on a three-year contract.[Via MobileSyrup]
CrossOver creates Chromium just to show they can do it
Mike Rose and I were chatting about this on the Talkcast a few weeks back -- virtualization and emulation programmers get all John Locke from Lost when you try to tell them what's not possible. And so when the guys at CrossOver heard that Google wasn't releasing Chrome for the Mac, they decided to put together a release themselves. CrossOver Chromium is a proof-of-concept release of the Chromium browser (which Chrome is built off of) that allows Google's base code to run on Mac and Linux platforms.It's designed to show off just how well Wine works to bring Windows-based code to other platforms, and wake Google up to the fact that if they wanted to port Chrome over, they could. CrossOver says they did this to prove a point (and the point seems proven), but it's likely not only that Google wants to run the code natively, but that they wanted to focus on their largest audience first, which anyone can tell you is likely still the Windows crowd.Even CrossOver says their version isn't ready for prime-time yet, they just wanted to show how fast it could be done. Let this be a lesson, Google: don't tell virtual software developers what they can't do.
Spanish scientists develop "electronic tongue" that can taste wine for quality, drifter appeal
Look, we know the appeal of the occasional Franzia stand or one-armed Rossi pull, but at some point you've got to put the 20/20 down and stop drinking like a hobo -- and it sounds like a new device being developed in Spain might help you learn to appreciate some classy wine for once. The "electronic tongue," as it's called, features six sensors that can measure factors like acidity, sugar, and alcohol levels, and use them to determine the age and variety of the wine, just like NEC's adorable little drink-bot. The tongue is supposed to be used to help wine industry officials assess wine quality in the field and detect frauds, but we've got a feeling it's going to be a hit around snooty wine bars worldwide.[Thanks, Yossi]
LG launches KF300 Wine phone in Japan and Europe
What, you didn't realize that LG was shipping its KF300 Wine phone in Europe and Japan today? Just open your eyes -- you can probably see the screen from your current position. This easy-to-see handset, unashamedly aimed at folks 30 years or older, is being paradoxically shown off by a couple of minors (just a hunch, folks) as it makes its official debut in the aforesaid nations. Interested consumers can pick one up now in white / gold / pink (Japan) or pink / dark purple / black (Europe) for an undisclosed amount.[Via UnwiredView]
The state of WoW on Linux
During the dev panel a few minutes ago, Tom Chilton told us something interesting about playing World of Warcraft on the Linux platform -- Blizzard has actually had it working. For "compatibility purposes," they apparently had an internal build of the game that worked on Linux. But unfortunately for Linux users, they have no plans at all to bring the final game out on the system. They didn't expound much more than that, but of course we can imagine all kinds of reasons they'd hesitate to release a Linux version, first and foremost being that in terms of gamers on the platform, the marketshare just isn't there.Of course, this doesn't mean you can't ever play WoW on Linux, it just means you can't do so off the shelf. WoWWiki has some really great information on how to play WoW with WINE (which just, by the way, reached a 1.1.0 release, and allows you to play Windows programs on other platforms). Transgaming's Cedega is also supposed to work with World of Warcraft (and you probably won't get banned), and Codeweaver's CrossOver also is approved to work with World of Warcraft on Linux.So there are ways to play it, but you might have to do some tweaking. Still, we wish they'd told us more about why they don't want to release the client they builtt
Darwine 1.0
Firefox 3 was a pretty historic release this week, but I'd say that Wine 1.0 might actually beat it -- the open source non-emulator (Wine, after all, Is Not an Emulator) for Windows finally reached their first stable release. And Darwine, the OS X-rated version of Wine, also got a shiny 1.0 designation as well. It still won't work exactly perfectly (you've got to have XQuartz installed, and as with all emulators, there are so many different systems trying to talk to each other that you're bound to run into problems when one of them wants to do something complicated), but for standard Windows apps (Solitare and Spider Solitaire, we're told, work beautifully), it'll do ya.Of course, we have no idea why you'd want to run anything Windows (ahem), but we won't judge. It's your computer: do what you like.Thanks, Luigi193!
