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Tumblr 3.0 for iPhone completely rebuilt
Easy blogging service Tumblr has released an update for its official iPhone app, and its interface has been completely rebuilt. The dashboard is cleaner, and it's done away with that custom bottom bar found in the original app. There are almost too many big updates to count: You can now upload high res pictures and browse them in a new interface, you can search tags, notifications have been gathered in one place (hopefully not in your feed, like the last version), and the whole app is faster to load, navigate and use. There's even offline support, which is a big gamechanger. In other words, if you use the Tumblr app on your iPhone, you probably want to grab this free update right away. I use Tumblr for a quick foodie photoblog of mine, and it works great for that purpose, so this new update should work even better. Next up, Tumblr: iPad support?
How to avoid sounding dumb when you write about Apple
So, you want to write about Apple? Lots of people do these days. The company is a household name, its financial performance is virtually unparalleled, and it makes products that millions upon millions of users enjoy every single day. I can tell you from personal experience that getting paid to write about Apple, something I would do on my own anyway, is quite rewarding. But first you have to decide what kind of Apple writer you'll be. Will you be the kind of writer who takes a step back from the linkbaiting Controversy of the Week, calmly and logically analyzes the situation, and then writes objectively about it? Will you keep your BS detector active and not believe every single rumor that blooms on your RSS feed? Will you have the patience and foresight to analyze past trends before predicting future performance, even if it means dragging yourself across a desert of spreadsheets and financial statements? If you're saying to yourself, "Nah, that all sounds like work," and you're not worried about sounding dumb when you write about Apple, then by all means, write whatever comes into your head without putting it through a logic filter first. You'll have absolutely zero credibility among anyone who doesn't actively loathe Apple, but at least your page views will be through the roof. On the other hand, if you'd rather not wind up the laughingstock of the Internet every time you write something about Apple, I have a few points of advice to offer. Leave "fanboy" and the cult metaphors on the cutting room floor I'm declaring a fatwa on the word "fanboy." I've said before that I stop reading any argument that uses the word "fanboy" as soon as I see it, and that remains true. But the word still gets tossed around like a hacky sack at Burning Man, and it's gone from overused and tired to straight out offensive and stupid. I look at people who use the word "fanboy" as an epithet with the same disdain I have for people who use racially-charged insults. Seriously, it's 2012, and Apple has rocketed past Exxon Mobil as the most valuable corporation on the planet. You don't get to that level of success driven along by a handful of dedicated, froth-flecked fans, nor do you achieve what Apple's achieved by having a "cult" of people who will buy what Apple sells no matter what. Think logically for just half a second: Apple sold 37 million iPhones in 3 months. 37 million. If that's a cult, it's one damned huge cult. How many posts do we see about Exxon Mobil "fanboys" or cultlike people mindlessly lining up their cars at Exxon stations and worshipping at the altar of the almighty unleaded octane 92? Exactly none. Because that would be stupid. Whether you like the company and its products or not, Apple is now thoroughly mainstream. Maybe in 2002 you could've gotten away with painting Apple's users with the "cult" brush, but doing so today just makes you sound brainwashed yourself. Don't predict Apple's doom How many times has Apple actually been doomed in the past 15 years? None. How many times have people said Apple is doomed? I bet if you spent all day counting, not only would you not finish, you'd seriously start to question your life and the way you choose to spend your free time. Look at Apple's ledgers, specifically the giant pile of cash it's sitting on, and tell me with a straight face that Apple as a company is going to disappear anytime in the near or even far future. At this point, for Apple to fail or be truly doomed would require close to a decade of deliberate, malicious mismanagement. I'm not saying Apple's "too big to fail" -- Microsoft is moribund proof of how far the mighty may fall when men of vision aren't holding the reins. But if you think that "Apple is doomed" will come true eventually if you just repeat that mantra often enough, I humbly suggest that you instead repeat to yourself, "I won $10 billion in the lottery and the Swedish Bikini Team moved into my guest bedroom." That has a far better chance of happening, and it'll likely be far more personally fulfilling if it does. Now if we're talking about a more specific subset of Apple being doomed, the story's still the same. To this day I can still hear faint echoes of my laughter from 2006 when John Dvorak tried to convince us the Mac was doomed unless Apple switched to Windows. If you thought the iPhone was doomed in 2007 because the thing would just never catch on, then congratulations: you're capable of running Microsoft. If you thought the iPad was doomed in 2010 because it didn't ship with support for Flash Player, then man have they got a gig open for you at Adobe, you scamp. If you thought that either the iPhone or the iPad would be crushed and fade into obscurity because of Android's market share gains in 2010 and early 2011, then... well, maybe we can get you a job corralling the shopping carts at Target. Take Apple's expectations for quarterly revenue and multiply by 1.15 If you intend to write about Apple with the least bit of credibility in forecasting its financial performance, you must follow the company's quarterly performance reports. As a publicly-traded company beholden to its shareholders, Apple quite carefully lays out its expectations for the quarter to come, including factors it expects to impact its performance for good or ill. Being the secretive company it is, Apple doesn't connect the dots for you, but the picture isn't all that hard to comprehend anyway. It can't be, because Apple has a responsibility to the people who've invested in it, and deliberately misleading those investors would get the company into seriously hot water. Apple isn't run by idiots. These are very smart people who know what they're doing. Apple's success isn't a fluke; it's the result of an expertly steered company with some of the best business minds on the planet at the helm. If Apple saw something in the forthcoming quarter that it expected to have a significant impact on its earnings, and there was nothing it could do to avoid that financial iceberg, you can bet it would adjust its financial guidance accordingly. We saw that two quarters ago, in fact, when Apple said it didn't expect great Q4 results due to a "product transition" - i.e., the iPhone 4 hanging around for an extra 3 months. Apple still beat its own guidance but (heavy sarcasm quotes) "missed" Wall Street's expectations. Every quarter, a gaggle of "financial analysts" pull Magic 8-Balls out of their Park Avenue closets, blow off the dust, and forecast financial doom for Apple. "Sell AAPL now," say these people who somehow still have jobs telling others how to invest actual money. To avoid sounding like someone dropped an anvil on your head, here's what you do when it comes time to discuss Apple's financial future. It will require two minutes of research first, where you'll learn what Apple's own revenue guidance for the forthcoming quarter is. Once you have that number, multiply it by 1.15. Use a calculator if you must. That number is about what you can expect Apple to actually return for the next quarter. It sort of takes all the fun out of the earnings announcement, like mathematically determining on Labor Day exactly what you'll get for Christmas, but it sure does stop you from saying stupid stuff like "Apple can't possibly earn $30 billion in revenue in one quarter" when the company turns around and earns $46 billion instead. Keep your product expectations moderate and realistic One surefire way to make yourself sound ridiculous: take any article from Popular Mechanics circa 1950-1960, slightly update the retro-futurist themes to suit the modern era, and tell us Apple will usher in this new age all by itself. Use Siri to talk to your car! Multi-Touch screens on your refrigerator! A FaceTime watch (just like Dick Tracy!!!)! In the leadup to every one of Apple's product announcements, the speculation gets so rampant and so out of control that the only surefire way to separate fiction from reality is to believe none of it. That's essentially what I decided to do two months before the iPhone 4S launched; after overdosing on fever dream rumors of the supposed iPhone 5, I asked myself what Apple was actually likely to do. "Apple's redesigned the exterior of the iPhone twice in four years," I said to myself when my wife wasn't home to stare at me for saying such things aloud. "How likely are they to do another major external redesign just over a year after the iPhone 4 launched?" If you asked yourself this same question and answered, "Not likely in the slightest," then I bet you weren't one of those people beating their chests in early October and screaming, "But it looks just like the iPhone 4! Where is the iPhone 5?! So disappointing, Apple blew it, they're doooooomed!"See also The Rumor That Will Not Die: the Apple-branded HDTV. How to do it wrong: "Apple will introduce an HDTV with a 42-inch LCD screen, FaceTime camera, built-in App Store, and eleventy billion gigabytes of onboard storage. The entire interface will be voice-activated via Siri. The whole thing will cost $1500. It's going to be a total revolution in the way we interact with our TVs, man, you don't even know." How to do it less wrong: "Apple might introduce an HDTV, but for a whole lot of (logical, well-thought out) reasons it sure doesn't seem likely." Apple makes technology that occasionally seems like magic, but as far as I know Apple doesn't employ any actual magicians, sorcerers, or wizards among its design staff in Cupertino. Adjust your product expectations accordingly. Don't try to tell us what Apple "must" do Any time I come across a headline that reads like a gauntlet thrown at Apple's collective feet, I brace for The Stupid. These "Apple Must (x)" headlines usually follow like derp-derp jetsam after the rabble-rabble hurricane of whatever the "-gate" Controversy of the Week happens to be. The iPhone 4 drops signal when held a certain way, so Apple must issue a full recall. The iPhone contains buggy code that causes people's location info to be held for longer than necessary, so Apple must go before Congress and explain itself. Siri doesn't return results for Planned Parenthood when users ask it to find abortion clinics, so Apple must apologize to women everywhere for stealthily promoting a right-wing agenda on reproductive rights. Apple's EULA for iBooks Author says you can only publish iBooks-formatted books on the iBookstore, so Apple must be subjected to antitrust hearings before the week is out. In the increasingly rare respites from storm-in-a-teacup controversy, there's the usual roundup of typically myopic suggestions from "analysts" and the blogosphere at large, all of which manage to sound hilarious in hindsight. Remember when Apple had to put a netbook on the market if it wanted to stay relevant? Or how it had to build an iPhone with a physical keyboard? Or how the iPad had to support Flash Player? Occasionally people do come up with some decent advice for Apple, and I'll find myself nodding along in agreement. But those times are about as rare as sunny days in Cleveland, and just as fleeting before the usual gray, dummkopf skies return. Think first, type later I saved the most important advice for last. Some bloggers are so quick to rush to judgement on absolutely everything Apple does that I often find myself wondering if there's any actual thought behind what they write or if they're just spitting out pure rage like the father character in A Christmas Story. "Apple broke my lamp on purpose! NOTTAFINGA!" We can't go a single week anymore without some "-gate" suffixed scandal surfacing that's supposedly proof everlasting of Apple's nefarious intentions, leading directly to the company's ultimate downfall. Just recently, a simple boneheaded mistake in Apple's writing in the EULA for iBooks Author had bloggers jumping over one another to launch ICBMs full of monkey poo toward Cupertino, with one guffaw-inducing example classifying it as "mind-bogglingly greedy and evil." The only truly mind-boggling thing was the swift rush to judgement without even a breath's pause for logical evaluation of the facts at hand. It was clear to me from the beginning that Apple had no interest in owning anyone's content, only the iBooks format. A week went by, Apple updated the iBooks Author EULA, and people everywhere who don't spend their afternoons sticking pins in an iPhone-shaped voodoo doll looked at the rest of the blogosphere and said, "Duh." So many bloggers (and an exponentially greater number of commenters) are used to seeing Apple as this grand dystopian force in their lives that literally everything the company does must have some mustache-twirling, villainous motivation behind it. That mindset is both sad and dumb. If you're going to write about any topic, but particularly one as widely read about as Apple, for your own sake be sure to think first and type later. If you just take that one small step, everything else I've said here will follow naturally, and the chances of your writing being subjected to eternal ridicule will be much smaller.
The Soapbox: On MMO negativity
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. Last week I was given a link to an op-ed piece at Thade's place, and in lieu of posting a comment there, I figured I'd do it on the Soapbox and hopefully generate some discussion (and traffic) for all concerned. In a nutshell, Thade questions whether MMO pundits actually like MMOs, and he comments on a perceived rise in negativity amongst what are assumed to be fans of the genre. I don't know if the blogosphere has taken a turn toward the negative, but if so, there's a pretty simple explanation for it. The games have changed, and the old guard who grew up with MMOs (and are willing/able to devote time to blogging about them) have to try a little bit harder to enjoy themselves as each new title gets further and further from what they like. That's OK, though, and it's also OK -- and even essential -- for the disaffected to speak up.
Hey Dude, Where's my Blog? (Follow up to Blogging with Siri)
If you pop by the blog I set up with Siri, you may notice it's been vaporized. Harsh, Google, harsh. Admittedly it wasn't a particularly edifying blog (didn't have to be, was just demonstrating a tech solution) but there wasn't any spam on it. And I just set it up a few days ago. So I tried contacting Google to see if they could put it back. Guess what? Blogger has basically zero tech support. Couldn't find anyone to talk to, any way to appeal. So as a courtesy to readers, I decided to post a quick follow-up to let you know that choosing Blogger as your blogging-by-voice provider may not actually be the best solution for your web blogging needs. You may want to investigate posting-by-email solutions provided by these vendors instead. Tumblr Posterous WordPress
Blogging with your voice: Siri, Blogger, and post-by-SMS
As I mentioned on my earlier post, Steve Sande and I have been hard at work collaborating on "Talking to Siri," an ebook that will soon hit the Kindle store. One of the topics we're exploring is how to push Siri beyond its advertised limits. Take blogging, for example. Did you know that you could create blog posts entirely by voice? I'm not talking about basic dictation either. That's because Siri supports SMS messaging, and a little known feature of Google Blogger allows you to create blog posts directly from SMS text messages. [You can also use SMS to post to Tumblr and Posterous, although it's a bit more finicky. Services like ping.fm or HelloTXT may help if you plan to update several social networks right from Siri. –Ed.] Interested in giving it a spin? Send REGISTER to 256447. Blogger replies to your registration text by texting you a URL for your new blog and an optional claim code. This code can be used to associate your new access with an existing blog. It just as easy, however, to work with the automatically generated blog that is sent to you. To create a new post, just reply to the 256447 conversation. Dictate your new blog post to Siri and send it. Once you do, the text contents are instantly posted to the blog. If you want to start posts from scratch, just give that SMS number a memorable contact name in your address book (I used 'Geronimo Blogger' in the screenshot). You can visit the mobile blog I created this way over at Blogger and see the two posts I created using Siri. If you're on a limited SMS diet, posting by text message may prove too rich for your blood. There's still a Siri-capable workaround for that, but you must use an existing blogger account to create a Mail-to-Blogger address. You'll find a complete set of instructions at the Blogger help article on this subject. That write-up shows you how to use your account settings to establish your blogging email address, which consists of your user name and a secret word. You can then use Siri to send an email to that address whenever you want to post-by-voice. If you'd prefer not to use Blogger, there are plenty of other services that work with post-via-email. Tumblr, Posterous and Wordpress.com all support creating a custom address that you can use to post directly. Simply add the email to your address book with a distinctive yet pronounceable contact name ("Erica Tumblr" will work, but you might want to include a phonetic last name to help Siri suss out that it's pronounced 'tumbler'), then tell Siri "Send an email to Erica Tumblr." You can dictate your post and share it with the world.
WordPress iOS editing app gets styling buttons, full-screen mode
It's only fair and right that one of the world's most popular content management/blogging platforms should have a snazzy and capable iPhone app to go with it. The WordPress app has been updated to version 2.9, adding three new features for mobile users. The new version adds handy styling buttons right above the keyboard, so you no longer have to put in your markup manually for bold or italic text, links or lists. Full-screen editing gives you more real estate to view what you're working on, especially handy on the iPhone's screen. You can also now follow other subscribed Wordpress.com blogs directly in the app. WordPress for iOS is free on the App Store.
Windows Phone Starter Kit for Wordpress hopes to lure developers, beef up marketplace offerings
There's nothing worse than that "womp womp" moment for Windows Phone users when they find out a favorite website doesn't have an optimized mobile app. Seriously. It's proven. Now, however, Wordpress aficionados can spread the love with the Windows Phone Starter Kit -- a package that promises quick and easy development for Microsoft's mobile marketplace. With the included skeleton code, admins only need to replace one line, insert the blog URL and tweak some settings in the CMS until presto -- the app's finito. Like other Wordpress dev kits, this one allows users to view posts and moderate comments. Hopefully, the promise of a super simple platform will be enough to entice developers to sit at Ballmer's table and fatten up the app store, particularly with Mango positioned as the next course.
Breakfast Topic: Do you blog about WoW?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. Have you ever noticed that a search for tips about WoW brings up about a million blogs on the subject? Blogs can be found on nearly every aspect of WoW -- you can find lore blogs, class blogs, race blogs, profession blogs ... You name it, there's a blog on it. I personally maintained a blog for raiding mages for a while, but I had to let it go when my raiding group went on hiatus and I simply couldn't fit any of the other raiding groups into my schedule. I'd like to get back to it. It was a lot of fun, and I also noticed that since I was trying to pay really close attention to mechanics so that I could pass the information on to other mages, it made me a better raider. My husband currently writes a blog about being a dad who games. I know that there are a bunch of those out there too, but it's fun for him to discuss situations that come up in his daily life with other people who understand completely. What about you? Do you blog about WoW or gaming in general? What's your specific topic of expertise? Do you feel like you have a lot to contribute on the subject? Have you thought about starting a blog but just haven't found your niche yet? Do have any specific blogs about WoW that you really like?
BYTE retracts anti-Apple rant by blogger
Back in the early days of the personal computer revolution, there was no better magazine to read than BYTE. It was often a thick tome full of reviews, programming tips, and insightful columns by industry legends. The magazine disappeared in 1998, but was recently resurrected as an online magazine by the publishers of Information Week. It's obvious the BYTE name retains much of its journalistic credibility, as the magazine recently retracted an anti-Apple rant by one of its bloggers. The post, titled "The Crucible: A Sobering Look at Apple," was written by BYTE blogger Demetrius Mandzych and published originally on July 11, 2011. Whenever a post starts out by stating that In all honesty, I don't know why people buy products from Apple. Apple assures everyone its products 'just work,' that specs don't matter and that its products are like finely-tuned German roadsters ... The reverse is actually the case. you have to wonder what's going on in the author's mind. By July 15, there were a number of negative reader responses, and BYTE pulled the post. The rant is back now, but completely covered with a strikethrough from beginning to end, and with an apology at the beginning: The opinion column that follows doesn't live up to the proud tradition and our best intentions for BYTE. It not only lacks the deep and authoritative technical content that we want BYTE to be known for, but it also doesn't reflect the community's views on Apple. Although there are plenty of people who don't like Apple products, and some who have had bad experiences with Apple, those are the exception, not the rule. As you see from our heavy coverage of Apple – in particular our aggressive coverage of OS X Lion -- we consider Apple and its products to be important topics for news, reviews, how tos, tips, and debate. BYTE strives for authority above all, in keeping with the highest journalistic standards. That standard was not met here. Well done, BYTE. And welcome back. (I'm personally happy to see sci-fi legend Jerry Pournelle back in the saddle at Chaos Manor.) [via Daring Fireball]
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Tumblr
Tumblr is, of course, the blogging platform that's taken off lately, featuring an easy way to quickly post a lot of different kinds of media, as well as share it across friends and networks. Tumblr's iPhone app has been serviceable since it came out, but it hasn't always been the best option for posting to the service. Still, a 2.0 complete rewrite has helped a little bit, so if you're a Tumblr user who wants to post more while mobile, it's worth another look. The new update brings a brand new interface to handling multiple blogs, as well as improvements to posting and the main dashboard. You can now read and reply to messages on the service from right in the app, and if you're new to Tumblr, you can sign up right from the iPhone app, too. The service is free, and so the app is too. Power users will probably still find some issues with the app, which makes sense -- posting blog posts from the iPhone is probably never going to be quite as easy as doing it from a PC. But for those times when you're out and about and want to do a quick Tumblr post, the app should serve you just fine.
Breakfast Topic: How has reading WoW Insider changed your game experience?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. Long, long ago, there was a time when I didn't read WoW Insider. When I started playing the game in vanilla WoW, I didn't read anything -- I didn't even know there were WoW sites on the Internet. I got all of my information by word of mouth, and when someone finally told me about Thottbot, it was a game-changer for me. It wasn't until late BC, however, that I even heard about this blog, and I don't think I read it regularly until Wrath. Keeping track of World of Warcraft news and changes has completely changed how I play the game. Rather than wandering through the world until I come across something interesting, I get a heads-up about new reputation factions, daily quests, mount drops, and craftable items that I can then go searching for. I've learned more about my class, become a better player on my alts, and been assured that it's not just me who hates heroic Grim Batol. I even have an auction addon now, and though I don't play the auctioneer game, I am impressed by those who do. When did you first start reading WoW Insider? Has the game changed for you as a result? What have you learned about here that you never knew before?
Squarespace iPad app brings blog editing joy to subscribers
Anyone who is familiar with the Squarespace hosted blog service knows how great it is. Themes are professionally designed and give bloggers an opportunity to tweak them for unique sites with beautiful typography, and the service keeps providing more and more capabilities to subscribers. Squarespace service starts at anywhere from US$13 to $40 per month, with discounts for pre-paying for multiple years. The latest gift from the company is Squarespace for iPad (free), which arrived yesterday and was touted in the Official Squarespace Blog. Like most of the other Squarespace products and services, the user interface design is top notch and the editor looks fantastic. With some of the other blog editors available for iPad and iPhone, bloggers often need to depart from the editor in order to perform an action. The Squarespace app designers have used the wide open spaces of the iPad screen to let bloggers tag, categorize and create excerpts without leaving the editor, and a quick tap on a post or comment now displays a tray underneath the post containing action options. The Squarespace web editor is one of the better blog editors I've ever used, and a lot of that editor is included in the iPad app. There are four editing modes -- Text, Markdown, Textile and RAW HTML -- and you can change text styles, insert photos and links and set excerpts in any of those modes. Undo and redo buttons are always within sight if you happen to delete or change your blog work inadvertently. A short video highlighting the major features of the Squarespace app in action follows on the next page, with some cheerful mariachi music that will make your day.
What is it like to work at Apple?
Ever wondered what it's like to work at Apple? AOL Jobs spoke to Joe Moreno, a software engineer who worked at Apple from 1998 to 2007. Joe touched numerous products and projects, notably WebObjects and the Apple Online Store (No, he wasn't the guy who puts the yellow sticky note up when new products arrive). His accounts of Apple make it sound like working there is almost as innovative as their products. From HR to communications, there's a lot other companies could learn from. As TUAW is a blog about Apple, I found the following quite interesting: "As an Apple employee, you definitely get the feeling that blogging about the company is frowned upon. It goes to the extent that, if you have a personal blog about an unrelated topic, you don't even want to mention that you work for Apple." There are very few company blogs, even with notable exceptions such as Surfin' Safari, their WebKit blog. Still, this is in contrast to Microsoft, where there are numerous blogs by product divisions and personnel. Then again, it's been a long time since Microsoft routinely surprised and delighted their customers and fans, so perhaps Apple is on to something.
Engadget's Darren Murph nabs Guinness World Record for most blog posts ever written!
We always knew Darren Murph had oodles of talent and was extremely prolific -- but now the man has got the paper to seriously prove it. Our own Mr. Murph was just awarded the Guinness World Record for most posts ever by a blogger. Not only is this a first for Darren, it's a first for Guinness as well, creating a new category for the group. Darren joined Engadget in July of 2006 (his first post is here), and almost four years to the day (when these numbers were submitted to Guinness) he'd arrived at 17,212 individual posts (since surpassed, of course). That's single posts on Engadget, Engadget HD, and Engadget Mobile, not duplicated work. We obviously couldn't be more proud of Darren and the work he's done (and continues to do) here, and we think this is an amazing feat for one writer. Of course, this is the guy who did 59 posts in a single day at CES 2008. Seriously. To put it in perspective, his current word count is at 3,389,148. That's War and Peace about six times over. We asked Darren if he had anything to say, and he gave a nod to Ryan Block (our former editor-in-chief) for giving him the chance to start here (and "not killing me when I passed him early on"). Darren also told us that he intends to defend the title for the rest of his natural life. So would-be competitors, you'd better get started... right... now.
Windows Live Spaces throws in the towel, sends users to WordPress
Are you a proud user of the Windows Live Spaces social networking / blog publishing service? Since the halcyon days of 2006, Spaces has been helping users connect with each other (and publish their Get A Life! fan fiction), but no longer: under a new plan announced yesterday, users who sign up for a Live account will be instead sent to WordPress, and users who already have Spaces accounts will be given a couple options: delete the site entirely, download the data, or migrate to WordPress.com. According to Huffington Post, this is all part of a new corporate strategy that sees Microsoft working to "play nice" with other people's solutions, and as such the company is assuring users that existing code and content will be compatible with (or convertible to) WordPress. This is also, obviously, part of a strategy to pull the plug on services that aren't makin' any money. All we can say is: we're having flashbacks to the great Geocities disaster of 2009, and it's not pleasant.
World of WarCrafts: Ollo Ollovious, the Technicolor gnome
World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music, fan fiction and more. Sample the whole spectrum on WoW.com's Arts and Crafts in WoW page. There's knitting together a World of Warcraft-themed scarf or emblazoning a T-shirt with Alliance pride, inviting your game of choice to mosey along hand-in-hand with your hobby of choice -- and then there's oozing WoW-themed personality through every creative pore of your sweating brow. Jay Scullin comes from the second camp. A web designer by day, Scullin is a WoW-centric artist and blogger by night. When the sun goes down at the end of a long day, on comes his work lamp and in comes a flood of rich, color-saturated ideas pouring forth in his computer-generated artwork and a fanfic account of his character's progress through WoW. Scullin originally created this portrait of his beloved gnome mage Ollo Ollovious of Uldaman (US-A) for last year's Blizzard fan art contest. Using Photoshop and Illustrator with a Wacom Intuos 4 tablet, he painstakingly labored over some 12 hours to keep the representation as true as possible to Ollo's in-game demeanor. In yet another character-focused project, he blogs at Legend of Piket, the ongoing tale of his level 76 protection warrior's ascent through Azeroth, Outland and Northrend. Join us after the break for a brief conversation with Scullin about what keeps his creative pot bubbling with Azeroth-influenced projects. %Gallery-99054%
MarsEdit 3 adds rich text editing, enhanced media browsing
In the "send an email, post a blog entry" fun and fast-paced world of tomorrow, services like Tumblr and Posterous make it exceedingly simple to prepare and post to your blog; meanwhile, Twitter, Facebook and AOL Lifestream push past the article metaphor to 140-character status snippets. Delightful as they all may be, sometimes it's nice to have a well-rounded Mac app that supports more reflective and considerate writing for your online outlets -- not to mention one that saves your drafts in case your browser picks that particular moment to crash. For a lot of bloggers, including many TUAW veterans, Red Sweater's MarsEdit (US$39.95) is that app. It allows you to write, edit and schedule posts offline at leisure, with full preview capability so you know what you're getting when you hit the Publish button. It will happily upload your images and files alongside your posts, and it works with scores of popular and obscure blog back-end systems (WordPress, TypePad, Tumblr, Squarespace, etc.). If you prefer to edit elsewhere but still want the uploading savvy MarsEdit delivers, it plays nicely (via the ODBEditor scritping suite) with other text editors like SubEthaEdit and TextMate. MarsEdit has just hit version 3.0. At long last, WYSIWIG rich text editing is included, alongside the traditional HTML/text edit window that has cheered experts but may have intimidated novices. Other new features include better syntax highlighting in HTML, support for WordPress static pages, media browsing from iPhoto/Aperture/Lightroom libraries, and more. You can download a 30-day trial of MarsEdit and see for yourself if it works the way you do. Upgrades for previous owners are free if you bought MarsEdit in 2010, and $14.95 for all earlier purchasers.
Making it as an MMO blogger: The bloggers speak up
You may remember a few weeks ago when we interviewed a handful of community managers on the topic of developer/blogger relations. This topic was first initiated by Ravious at Kill Ten Rats, and the response was overall very positive. Several of the Massively readers commented and emailed us saying that they'd like to see the flip side of these interviews, to get the blogger's perspective. So we did just that! In this four-page article, we asked seven popular MMO bloggers for their opinions on topics concerning the industry, developer relations and more. As with the community interviews, we tried for a variety of bloggers, covering a wide range of MMO topics, from specific games to a more generalized structure. Because we didn't want this to get as large as the last ones, we opted to ask fewer questions to fewer people. Keep reading below for a brief introduction to each blogger.
Winners of fan-run EVE Online blogging contest announced
If ever there was a person that could be called the cornerstone of EVE Online's blogging community, it would be CrazyKinux. His gargantuan efforts to get the EVE community blogging have been met with continual success. In his monthly "EVE Blog Banter" segment, CrazyKinux presents readers with a topic to blog on and starts off in-depth discussions. On occasion, the EVE Blog Banter becomes a competition with a few prizes provided by CCP. CrazyKinux and other judges peruse submissions to bring us the best of the month's blogging efforts and reward their writers deservedly. Our own contributing editor James Egan and EON Magazine Editor Richie "Zapattero" Shoemaker have been judges in previous contests. The latest edition of the EVE Blog Banter was a bumper contest with prizes for the top ten writers supplied by the EVE merchandise store. A record 56 participants wrote their take on why they love EVE Online and what makes it special for them. Amongst some of the more impressive entries, CrazyKinux whittled his choices down to his top 10 favourite entries. The first prize of $100 to spend in the EVE merchandise store went to "Wench with a Wrench", second place went to "Don't Fear the Mutant", third to "Into the unknown with gun and camera" and fourth to "Sered's Lives". If you're interested in seeing what makes EVE special to a variety of players, the six remaining finalists and the other entries in the contest are certainly worth a read. For a full list of winners and participants, swing by the winner's announcement at CrazyKinux's Musing.
Flying Magazine blogger wants an iPad in the cockpit
Here at TUAW, we've talked about some potential markets for the iPad; for example, the health care industry. Over at Flying Magazine's website, blogger Robert Goyer is lusting after the iPad as a tool in the cockpit. The iPhone has become a pilot's toolkit since the App Store opened, with apps like Flight Plan - Pilot's Toolbox [iTunes Link] and CoPilot - Flight Planning [iTunes Link] making it into the cockpit for private and commercial pilots alike. Goyer loves the idea that the iPad will have a much larger display than the iPhone and, most importantly for the quick pace of flying, that it's an instant-on device unlike many laptops. He thinks that the 3G models will be most useful for aviation since they'll provide online access to a plethora of aviation, regulatory, and weather-related data sources. What Goyer is looking forward to the most about the iPad is that extra screen real estate. As he says in his post, he'll likely go with a netbook for situations when he's not in the cockpit. But while flying, the iPad's "brilliant display" and GPS capability should make it "supremely easy to use" for pilots needing map apps. We can't wait to see what flies into view. [Thanks to @RyanACash for the Twitter tip]
