Birthday
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Talkcast tonight, 7pm PT/10 pm ET: iTunes store turns 10, quarterly results
It's a big 1-0 for everyone's "favorite" music store, which has evolved far beyond its humble Rip, Mix, Burn origins to become the digital hub for a new generation of digital devices. Happy birthday, iTunes Music Store, and here's hoping that you make it out of your adolescence wiser and more mature. Also this week: The results of Apple's most recently concluded fiscal quarter are in the books, and while the company continued to make money hand over fist there are some troublesome signs for analysts: eroding margins and the possibility of the high-end smartphone market (where the iPhone owns the roost) starting to squeeze. Apple's response, in part, is to return more cash to its shareholders (via dividends) and repurchase outstanding shares. Apple's even getting into the debt markets to finance these programs, rather than repatriating overseas profits and facing a hefty tax bill. We'll talk iTunes' 10th birthday, the quarterly reports and the rest of the week's news (including a look ahead to this week's TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York) tonight at 10 pm ET on the Talkcast. Join us! To participate live during the show, you can use the browser-only Talkshoe client, the embedded Facebook app, or download the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, the best way to have your voice heard is to call in. For the web UI, just click the Talkshoe Web button on our profile page at 4 HI/7 PDT/10 pm EDT Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (viva free weekend minutes!): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8. If you've got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free X-Lite or other SIP clients (aside from Skype or Google Voice), basic instructions are here. Talk to you tonight!
Mike Doughty's musical 10th birthday gift to iTunes Music Store
Mike Doughty, a singer/songwriter (formerly of Soul Coughing) and now an indie artist, was asked by Yahoo Music to write a song celebrating 10 years of the iTunes Music Store. Not content to put yet another spin on the standard birthday song, this became an ode to drunken iTunes purchases (I believe "drunken iTunes binge" is a cousin of the "eBay blackout"). It's a catchy number, and will certainly be stuck in your head after watching the video. Mike also gets bonus points for using Cassingle™ as though it is still an actual word. It's a self-shot video, mostly likely from a built-in iSight camera (I am guessing -- at the end of the video you can hear the "Submarine" system beep pretty clearly before he stops recording, but it could be a third-party webcam instead). Oddly, this song is not yet available on iTunes, or anyplace else that I can find. In the meantime, the video is below, and fun to watch (or just let it play in a background tab as you tap your toe).
Guild Wars announces 8th anniversary event
The eighth anniversary of the launch of Guild Wars is coming at the end of this month, and ArenaNet has announced the planned celebrations to run from April 22 through April 29. Those fans who have been with the game for several years might recognize the familiar Shing Jea Boardwalk and Roller Beetle racing festivities, but don't forget to test out your dodgeball skills in the Dragon Arena and talk to Ceira over at Embark Beach for some goodies. Those characters celebrating eight or more years in the game will be honored with a special in-game gift card that allows them to grab their choice of birthday gift boxes from years past. Of course there's much more to the event than this, and you can read all about it at the official announcement page and look for our own anniversary article celebrating 8 years of Guild Wars coming soon.
LotRO rewards dedicated players for the game's sixth anniversary
Lord of the Rings Online is celebrating its sixth birthday this month, and to honor the occasion, the game is holding an anniversary festival from April 16th to April 30th. To say thank you to its loyal fans, Turbine is giving away special gifts based on each player's account status. These gifts will range from a set of fireworks for everyone to more exclusive items for VIP players, depending on how long they've maintained VIP status. Be sure to log in to the game during the festival to claim your prize, and check out the official FAQ to learn more about each gift. [Source: Turbine press release]
Happy 37th birthday, Apple
Thirty-seven years ago today Apple, a fledgling "personal computer" company, was founded. The company was later incorporated as Apple Computer, Inc. in January of 1977, but those of us who share the love of pranks and fun that helped launch Apple like to celebrate the "birthday" on April Fool's day. Years later, in 2007, Apple dropped the "computer" from its title, heralding a new era beyond personal computers. Apple's bottom line lately has reflected this, as Macs are no longer the primary source of revenue for the Cupertino powerhouse -- not by a long shot. Still, it's fun to reminisce about those heady early days. The first Apple computer cost $666.66, only included a circuit board and offered a cassette tape interface, sold separately. After growing beyond its homebrew foundation, the Apple II sported a sturdy case with integrated power supply, a keyboard and color TV output. I still remember when my dad bought one -- in a bicycle shop, in the back with all the Altairs and other artifacts of the era. There were no computer stores in 1978! Here's to years more innovation and great products from the California powerhouse. For a brief history of computing and where Apple fits in the timeline, check out this great article from NPR.
Intel Pentium turns 20 today, reminds us they don't build 'em like they used to (video)
Folks, this isn't your ordinary, average Friday. Why, you ask? Well, we've got a birthday to celebrate, and it's quite a milestone at that. Today marks the 20th anniversary of the Pentium processor, which was introduced on March 22, 1993. If you're old enough to recall, the chip ran circles around its 486DX2 predecessor, and thanks to a heavy dose of marketing from Intel, the brand quickly became synonymous with the PC. For you trivia types, the original Pentium P5 was available in 60MHz and 66MHz variants, and was manufactured with an 800-nanometer fabrication process, which is quite the contrast to the 22nm chips on the market today. Rather than burden your mind with specs, though, we'd rather celebrate -- and we're sure that you would, too. So join us past the break, where you'll find some of the more whimsical moments in the Pentium's storied history.
Amazon Appstore celebrates its second year with free apps, cake (for today only)
Did the word free in the headline grab your attention, or was it the cake? Either way, Amazon's Appstore is throwing a party to mark its second birthday, and there's a goody bag of software for anyone who attends. It's been a good month for Android users, as Google's Play store had its own shindig recently, and like last year, Amazon's been treating Appstore patrons to discounts all week. For its official anniversary today, though, a tray-full of apps can be downloaded gratis. Admittedly, the selection isn't fantastic, but you should find one or two things worth at least the time it takes to click 'em -- Chu Chu Rocket, may we suggest (long live Dreamcast!). Remember, you've gotta be quick, as the offers expire at the end of the day. But enough from us. Head to the source link for cake and more.
RIFT celebrates its second anniversary with a freebie weekend and sale
There's nothing quite like a birthday to put a studio in the mood to give things away. Really, if more people thought like that, the world might be a happier place for everyone. If you've been looking for a chance to get into RIFT, however, your world can be a happier place right now. Starting today and running 'til the 25th, folks can return to Telara for free to celebrate the second anniversary and check out the Carnival of the Ascended. Of course, you can't return to a place you've never been, so what's a newbie to do? Trion hasn't forgotten you: Until the 25th, RIFT's standard and infinity editions are on 25% sale.
Google Play celebrates first birthday with week of free downloads and discounts
It's already been a year since the Android Market was renamed Google Play, and the folks in Mountain View are offering up a boatload of free party favors throughout the week to celebrate. Technically, the store's birthday is March 6th (yes, it's a Pisces), but Page and Co. have already begun serving up free music downloads, in-game content, TV shows, books, discounts and more. Though the selections vary by country, folks in the US can currently pick up a free tune from LCD Soundsystem, $20 in free gift cards through Gyft and a gratis download of Breaking Bad's pilot episode among other things. Hit the bordering source link to partake in the festivities or head past the jump to catch a video of how some games on the digital storefront are celebrating the occasion.
DDO celebrates a birthday, shares Update 17 notes, and introduces new Augments
Happy seventh birthday to Dungeons and Dragons Online! Like every good game, DDO is celebrating its anniversary-birthday-thing by giving out presents. Update 17 is live, a gift in its own right, and characters that were created before the patch will find that they've got a giftbox in their inventory. But wait, there's more! Update 17 is a substantial patch. A whole slew of updates have been made to different bits of the game. On the DDO Store (and free to VIPs) is a new Monster Manual edition that features new deeds and objectives and two new Creature Companions. In what is arguably the most significant update, Restless Bats -- which don't exist and never have existed ever -- have been removed from the manual. Augments, a new way to customize your equipment, have been added to the game. Items with augment slots can be, well, Augmented. Slotted Augments give their host item an additional effect for as long as they're slotted. People will be able to find named items with augment slots, pick augmentable items up from the DDO Store, or trust their luck to find one of the 5% of randomly generated items to have an augment slot. This system replaces the old Epic and Guild Augments. You can read up about Augments here.
January 27, 2010: Apple announces the iPad
iPad is three. It was January 27, 2010, when CEO Steve Jobs took the stage to show the world what the company had been cooking up in the lab. Our staff roundup and anniversary post from last year include many of the highlights, but in the past 12 months Apple's tablet has continued to set records and transform the consumer electronics and PC markets. Since last January 27, the iPad has flown off the shelves -- about 66 million units sold in 2012, with the 100 millionth unit since April 2010 sold in October of last year. October also saw the introduction of a fourth-generation iPad with Retina display, taking some owners of the third-gen model (only seven months in the market at that point) by unpleasant surprise. A more pleasant surprise was the iPad's little brother, the iPad mini, proving popular with all kinds of customers. iPad was a long, long time coming. Vigorously anticipated as the "Apple Tablet" for years before it was realized, and the subject of countless rumors and predictions, Apple's iPad introduction finally brought coherence to the mess of will-they-won't-they speculation. (One TUAW contributor took a brave position on the device's naming: "Let me say this clearly: Apple would never name the tablet the 'iPad'. It's too similar to 'iPod'. So, everyone, please stop calling it the iPad.") Even thought many fans bemoaned the fact that the new tablet would not run the desktop version of OS X, it's hard to argue with the success of the iOS approach. (To be determined: whether Windows 8's "no compromises" unification of PC and tablet OS catches on with buyers.) Happy birthday, iPad, and here's to a wonderful 2013.
Apple Safari is 10 years old today
Sniff. Those children of ours get so old so quickly... Today is the 10th birthday of Apple's Safari web browser, so have a little cake or maybe propose a toast to the default Mac and iOS browser. The first version of Safari was released as a public beta exactly 10 years ago today. The app was designed by Apple to replace Microsoft Internet Explorer, which was the default Mac browser up to OS X 10.2. Steve Jobs introduced Safari at Macworld San Francisco on January 7, 2003, announcing that Apple based the browser on the company's internal fork of the KHTML rendering engine -- Webkit. The first official version was released on June 23, 2003. Safari's little brother for iOS made its debut in 2007 along with the iPhone. As of today, Safari 6.0.2 is the latest version of the Mac browser, while Windows users can still run Safari 5 on their devices. Happy Birthday, Safari!
Mac 101: Deduplicating your birthdays in the Facebook era
More Mac 101, our ongoing series of tips and tricks for novice Mac users. Adding Facebook integration to the OS X Contacts application was not without controversy; many of us feared an onslaught of @facebook.com email addresses polluting our pristine data. Assuming you can get past that hurdle, however, you may be faced with another annoyance: duplicate birthdays all up in your Calendar. Here's why they're there, and how to clear them up. The birthday listings that appear in OS X's Calendar app under the Birthdays calendar seem like ordinary events, the kind you should be able to edit and delete with impunity. Thing is, they aren't. The Calendar app is just putting a friendly face on the real source of the birthday information: your contact data. For every person in your Contacts app with a valid birthday bit of data, you'll see a corresponding Calendars item for that friend (or foe). While you can manually enter birthdays for your contacts (or strip them all at once using the Birthday Remover iOS app, for the misanthropes), most of us don't have hundreds of birthdays already listed in our Contacts data (although if you ever imported your Facebook contacts via another method, you might have quite a few). Facebook profiles and birthdays, though? That's another kettle of friends. Many of your Facebook contacts probably have their birthdays in their profiles; certainly most of mine do. One might think that turning on Facebook contact sync would simply match up the Facebook friends with people already in your contact listings, especially if those same-named folks happen to share a birthday. What are the odds? Sadly, it doesn't work that way; it's up to you to remove the duplicated data and match up the contacts to get things nice and clean. Short of turning off Facebook's contact sync in OS X, this is the most straightforward way to deal with it. Important safety note: the procedure described below will remove birthday data from your local contacts. Please back up both your contacts and calendar data beforehand. If at some later date you turn off Facebook sync, or your friends leave Facebook altogether or stop sharing their birthdays, you will no longer see the dates in either your Contacts or Calendar views. For the majority of your Facebook friends, you may not care about this risk, but I do not recommend removing the birthdays of immediate family, spouses etc. Live with those dupes. It's better that way. It's easy to see duplicated birthdays in Calendar; they show up at the top of the week view in the all-day events area. Here's my double record for the irrepressible Gedeon Maheux of the Iconfactory. Double-clicking one of these gets me to the detail view for the birthday: Note the lack of any editing options. That's because the real data lives over in Contacts, so I'll click the Open in Contacts hyperlink. Of course, since I have both a Facebook and a conventional contact for Ged, in my All Contacts list he shows up twice. That's deeply annoying -- and easy to fix. The trick is to select both contacts in the list, then choose Link Selected Cards (Cmd-shift-\) from the Card menu. In the event that there's duplicates in the local contacts plus a third Facebook contact, I select all three (or more) and the menu item changes to "Merge and Link" as seen here. Now that I'm dealing with a unified view of the two different flavors of the contact, I click the Edit button at the bottom of the contact detail. Here's the view of the two birthday listings -- one local, one Facebook. I can't delete the Facebook data; in fact, I can't suppress or hide any of the Facebook contact info without totally disabling Facebook contact sync. (This is annoying.) So my only good option is to actually remove my local record for Ged's birthday by clicking the delete button next to that line. Aggravating, but not as aggravating as double birthdays for everyone. So that's what I'll do. Once the contacts are linked, it's possible I may still want to get to the individual instances to make adjustments or changes. Look at the bottom of the detail where it says Cards and two gray line items; those are actually clickable, not that you'd know it. Clicking one of them will bring up a sub-detail pane that shows only the info from that record. Finally, if you truly want to avoid any notifications for all those birthdays, you can achieve that (while still seeing them in Calendar) by right-clicking the Birthdays calendar, choosing Get Info, and checking the Ignore Alerts box. Happy birthday to all!
The Daily Grind: Would you like games to remember your character's birthday?
It's a little thing, but I've always been endlessly fond of the fact that Guild Wars keeps track of the day my characters were created and sends them presents. I'm rather attached to my characters, and even though I don't actually collect minis I still like to know that there's a little marker somewhere in the game database. Little unique features like this are common in games, but Guild Wars is the only one that does anything for the birthday of the character or the player to the best of my knowledge. And it's such a little thing that it seems almost strange that more games haven't copied the idea. Of course, it requires tracking date of creation for every single character and it can lead to some issue (some of the birthday presents in GW wound up with exorbitant prices on the secondary market). So what do you think? Would you like to see more games marking your character birthdays? Or do you think it's a cute idea that doesn't need to be revisited? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Parting the mists: World of Warcraft turns eight
World of Warcraft's eighth anniversary arrives after a rough year for the franchise. Cataclysm, the expansion that redesigned much of the old world and trumpeted the return of archvillain Deathwing, also saw subscriber numbers drop from their highest point, reached during the Wrath of the Lich King years. Players expressed discontent over the empty zones and the lack of anything to do save run endless heroic dungeons or chain battlegrounds. It's said that humans often prepare to fight the next war by devising tactics to deal with the last war, and World of Warcraft's newest expansion, Mists of Pandaria, is definitely a reaction to player complaints about the previous one. The past year saw the game transition from one with two separate, segregated endgames to a game with a great deal more variety for players who've reached max level. Whether you loved or hated Cataclysm, you can't deny that the past year has seen more change than the entire expansion dedicated to changing the game ever provided.
World of Warcraft invites you to celebrate its 8th birthday in style
We're big fans of the fact that players tend to be the ones getting presents whenever an MMO celebrates its birthday. World of Warcraft players are no exception: As WoW's 8th birthday is just days away, it's time for players to look back on their time with the game and (more importantly) log in for some sweet loot! Players who log in between November 18th and December 1st will receive special Feat of Strength achievement. They'll also be graced with a Celebration Package that will give them access to a shiny fireworks show, a cosmetic tabard, and an eight percent bonus to experience and reputation points from foes while it's active. Skip below the cut to view a celebratory anniversary video.
Amazon Kindle celebrates five e-inked years
Can you imagine a holiday season without Amazon's e-reader series? The Kindle celebrates its fifth birthday today -- a device that, since its debut, has added bigger screens, slimmer builds, and even some damn decent backlighting. Back at the start, Amazon's first hardware was just a little chunky, covered in buttons, and housed a 6-inch 800 x 600 e-ink display. However, the online bookseller went on to dominate the then-nascent e-reader market, with no shortage of rivals now wanting claim their own slice of the book-loving crowd. Five years goes pretty fast -- we just wonder how many still have their DRM-protected Mobipocket e-books to hand.
Yo ho ho: Happy 10th birthday, Puzzle Pirates
Puzzle Pirates is still way ahead of its time, despite the fact that it just turned 10 years old. For many years, MMOs have tried to get players to work together in real time in myriad ways, yet Puzzle Pirates is the only one that has approached the problem exactly in this way: having each player work a different puzzle to represent different activities. One player controls the direction and speed a ship travels, two players work a "bilging" puzzle to help keep water from filling in, perhaps a few more players man the sails, and another plays a puzzle that represents keeping the ship repaired. What you end up with is a pretty realistic depiction of a team working together to sail the high seas, fight NPCs, and attack other players. This same puzzle-based gameplay works its way throughout the entire game, making for a very unique and in-depth experience. It also ensures that players become experts at certain puzzles, something that easily represents the way a real-life sailor would become an expert at his or her station. In a word, it's brilliant. Massively checked in with CEO Daniel James on the occasion of the game's birthday. Read on for the scoop!
DAoC celebrates 11th birthday with new race and class pairings
It may not be as perfectly round and special as a 10th anniversary, but 11 years for any MMO is a great achievement even so. Dark Age of Camelot crosses that line this year, and to celebrate its 11th birthday, the devs announced that each of the three realms can now roll two new race/class pairings. With the changes, Albion residents can roll Inconnu Minstrels and Half Ogre Maulers, Midgardians can make Kobold Berserkers and Troll Maulers, and Hibernians can unleash Lurikeen Blademasters and Firbolg Maulers. Massively is getting ready to celebrate DAoC's 11th anniversary with Rise and Shiny this coming Sunday, so don't miss it!
iOS's Notification Center cares more about my contacts' birthdays than I do
I love Notification Center, but there's one thing that's bugged me about it since its introduction in iOS 5 and that thing is even worse in iOS 6: Notification Center always shows your contacts' birthdays no matter what. In iOS 5 this wasn't too annoying, because most people probably didn't have a birthday listed for every contact in their address book (just the important ones -- like close friends and family). However, with the introduction of Facebook integration in iOS 6 (if you've enabled it), if a Facebook friend has their birthday listed, it's now in their contact card in iOS 6 Contacts. And if it's in their contact card, it will always show up in your Notification Center. Now, I'm assuming this is just a bug that Apple has yet to kill (then again, it's been around since iOS 5, so maybe it's a "feature") but Apple needs to kill it quick. Why? Because, like other "features" of Facebook integration in iOS 6, this one too gives you plenty of information you don't need and displays it front and center in your Notification Center. Take for example the screenshot above. On that day, Notification Center showed me that three of my contacts had birthdays. Because a birthday is an all-day event, they are shown before other timed events in my Calendar. This is just more clutter that pushes relevant information (like meetings) off screen. Now keep in mind that I'm the kind of guy who only connects with people on Facebook who I know in real life. I've got fewer than 200 Facebook friends. That's still 200 extra all-day events that are going to show up in Notification Center that I don't want to see. Given that many people (especially younger users) have 500 to 1,000 Facebook friends, they could potentially be seeing two to three birthdays every day -- again, this would obscure more relevant information. To be clear, this isn't just a Facebook birthdays problem. Notification Center had this problem before Facebook integration. The Facebook integration just makes it that much worse. But simply disabling Facebook integration will not stop all birthdays from showing up in Notification Center. As noted by one of our commenters, you can hide birthday calendars from the Calendars app in iOS by selecting the "Calendars" button and then deselecting the Facebook birthday calendar and the "Other" birthday calendar, but this doesn't actually stop those birthdays from showing up in Notification Center (though it should). That's why I'm assuming this is still a bug that needs to be squashed. But let's squash it already. It's been a year.
