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Caturday: Oona painting on her iPad
By now, connoisseurs of Caturday have noticed that iPads and felines go together. It's almost like Apple designed the iPad for cats, knowing that they'd be attracted by the bright screen and the response to paw touches. Here we see Oona, a pretty cat owned by a friend of TUAW reader Alan A., working on a new masterpiece while lounging in front of her electronic canvas. While it may look like non-professional art, remember that Jackson Pollock made a career as a famous artist on not much more... We'd love to see photos of your favorite feline soaking up the warmth of an Apple product, chasing a Magic Mouse, or just being a general nuisance while you're attempting to work on your Mac, iPad, or iPhone. Please let us know via our feedback page and please remember that your cat photo has to have some sort of connection to Apple or its products. For security reasons we can't accept inbound attachments, so you should host the photo (Dropbox, Flickr, iPhoto Journals, etc.) and send us the link. Many thanks to reader Alan A. for sharing this photo with us.
Push two cats together to create a new one in Mew-Genics
Team Meat's Edmund McMillen recently attempted to explain how the Super Meat Boy developer's next game, Mew-Genics, operates. Naturally, McMillen opted to describe the game in webcomic form, noting that it is about "cat genetics and the forced evolution of the most adaptive species on this whole planet." The comic illustrates players' ability in the breeding game to mash two cats together in order to create a new kitten, care for them as well as enter them into battles and pageant-style contests. Team Meat previously referred to Mew-Genics as a "cat lady sim" that blends elements of "The Sims and Pokemon with a sprinkling of Animal Crossing and a dash of Tamagotchi." McMillen likened Mew-Genics to an unreleased Nintendo game called Cabbage that was in development by Earthbound creator Shigesato Itoi and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto for the canceled Nintendo 64DD system. Cabbage was a multiplayer breeding game that was expected to allow players to take their creature on the go with their Game Boy systems. Mew-Genics is in development for Steam, iOS and Android, and will launch in 2014.
Caturday: Lula doesn't appreciate Jony Ive's work
Lula's gorgeous, she's smart, but she obviously doesn't appreciate Jony Ive's designs. Says owner Rafael Najmanovich: Here is a photo of Lula, our 7 month old kitten. She really likes my retina Macbook Pro. Not just sitting in my keyboard and occasionally restarting my mac but also trying to chew on the edge of the screen and the power cord. If Lula only knew the amount of work John Ivy put in designing this, she'd think twice before treating it like any old cardboard box... From the number of cats we've seen that like to gnaw on Mac and iPad screens (not to mention the occasional iPhone), Ive must have his engineering and design staff infusing the devices with catnip. We'd love to see photos of your favorite feline soaking up the warmth of an Apple product, chasing a Magic Mouse, or just being a general nuisance while you're attempting to work on your Mac, iPad, or iPhone. Please let us know via our feedback page and please remember that your cat photo has to have some sort of connection to Apple or its products. For security reasons we can't accept inbound attachments, so you should host the photo (Dropbox, Flickr, iPhoto Journals, etc.) and send us the link. Many thanks to Rafael Najmanovich for sharing this photo with us.
Caturday: Let sleeping cats lie ... in front of the iMac
Yuki is a beautiful 2-year-old white cat whose name, appropriately enough, means "snow" in Japanese. Her human companion Glenn Smith often needs to get work done on this iMac, but Yuki has other ideas: I always look forward to the Caturday pictures on the weekend and thought it is time that I share my precious feline with your readers. This is a photo of my 2 year old cat Yuki (which means snow in Japanese). Generally when I try working on our iMac she will sit in front of the screen, walk around the computer, chase the mouse pointer on screen, rub her whiskas on the side of the iMac and sit on the keyboard. There are times when I have to make font sizes larger so I can see around her when she doesn't want to move out of the way. She just cannot bear to be alone! All very familiar behaviours to other Caturday contributors I am sure! The only way I can pacify her so I can actually get some work done is to place a towel in front of the computer and she will curl up and sleep - very daggy but works a treat everytime! Yuki's a bit large to be an ergonomic wrist rest, but she would make a convenient hand warmer... We'd love to see photos of your favorite feline soaking up the warmth of an Apple product, chasing a Magic Mouse, or just being a general nuisance while you're attempting to work on your Mac, iPad, or iPhone. Please let us know via our feedback page and please remember that your cat photo has to have some sort of connection to Apple or its products. For security reasons we can't accept inbound attachments, so you should host the photo (Dropbox, Flickr, iPhoto Journals, etc.) and send us the link. Many thanks to Glenn Smith for sharing this photo with us.
Caturday: Multiple Macs need multiple cats
When you have a MacBook Pro, a MacBook Air and an iPad, you have to make sure that they're constantly in use to maximize your investment. For TUAW reader Belle, that was a simple thing to accomplish as she has a couple of gorgeous feline friends who seem to enjoy the company of their human and the Apple products. We'd love to see photos of your favorite feline soaking up the warmth of an Apple product, chasing a Magic Mouse, or just being a general nuisance while you're attempting to work on your Mac, iPad, or iPhone. Please let us know via our feedback page and please remember that your cat photo has to have some sort of connection to Apple or its products. For security reasons we can't accept inbound attachments, so you should host the photo (Dropbox, Flickr, iPhoto Journals, etc.) and send us the link. Many thanks to Belle for sharing this photo with us.
Caturday: "So you think you're going to get some work done? Think again."
Park Junior is obviously in control of the situation here. By strategically placing his furry little body on the trackpad and keyboard, and confronting his human Theresa with that stare, he's made darned sure that she's not going to get any work done. Theresa says that "he was very displeased that I wasn't spending all of my time playing with him." We'd love to see photos of your favorite feline soaking up the warmth of an Apple product, chasing a Magic Mouse, or just being a general nuisance while you're attempting to work on your Mac, iPad, or iPhone. Please let us know via our feedback page and please remember that your cat photo has to have some sort of connection to Apple or its products. For security reasons we can't accept inbound attachments, so you should host the photo (Dropbox, Flickr, iPhoto Journals, etc.) and send us the link. Many thanks to Theresa for sharing this photo with us.
Cats-with-hats adventure Hot Tin Roof leaping to PCs in 2014
Hot Tin Roof: The Cat That Wore A Fedora isn't just an indie game with a cat-chy name, but it's now a Kickstarter success as its crowdfunding efforts concluded yesterday with $25,457. Described as a "side-scrolling adventure platformer," Hot Tin Roof places players in the shoes of Emma Jones, a private investigator inquiring into a "string of grisly murders" in a 3D city. The Glass Bottom Games-developed adventure will ship on PC, Mac and Linux for $15 in mid-2014. A project update noted that Cerulean Games will bring Hot Tin Roof to iOS and Android alongside the main version. Hot Tin Roof is seeking community approval to launch on Steam via Greenlight.
Every dog has had his day, now we're back to Caturday
Sure, it's still officially summer until September 22, but as Mike Rose mentioned the other day on Facebook, "autumn has unofficially begun." That means that the Dog Days of Summer are now ended, and it's time for our weekly Caturday feature. Cats are usually cute, but there's nothing more painfully adorable than a sleepy kitten curled up on a warm MacBook power adapter. This image came to us via Reddit user banannaning, and it shows how well cats have adapted to reusing waste heat from our technology. In the future, all consumer electronics may come with a cat... We'd love to see photos of your favorite feline soaking up the warmth of an Apple product, chasing a Magic Mouse, or just being a general nuisance while you're attempting to work on your Mac, iPad, or iPhone. Please let us know via our feedback page and please remember that your cat photo has to have some sort of connection to Apple or its products. For security reasons we can't accept inbound attachments, so you should host the photo (Dropbox, Flickr, iPhoto Journals, etc.) and send us the link. Thanks to Mollena W. for posting this on Facebook!
Hold This Cat: HTC and Robert Downey Jr. kick off $1 billion 'Change' campaign (update: full video)
"Big things ahead?" Well, it looks like HTC's earlier tweet wasn't a cheeky hint at the upcoming 5.9-inch One Max; but rather, it was a tribute to the sheer scale of the new "Here's To Change" global ad campaign. The company has just confirmed that it did indeed sign Robert Downey Jr. for a two-year deal, which includes starring him in the ads as well as getting his creative input in the process. Given CMO Ben Ho's promise to make the company's voice louder, it's no surprise that he's spending the same amount as last year's worldwide sales and marketing budget -- about $1 billion -- on this campaign alone, according to an HTC spokesperson. Not bad for Ho's first big act since he joined the company towards the end of last year. We were also told that the entire "Change" campaign should cover the span of 24 to 36 months, during which it'll be split into three phases. As part of the first phase, come Thursday a whacky two-minute TV ad will begin to air in key markets, featuring Downey and his fellow actors blurting out what "HTC" could stand for -- "Humongous Tinfoil Catamaran," "Hipster Troll Carwash," "Hold This Cat" and more -- in order "to invoke interest and talkability amongst consumers." Interestingly, you won't find many mentions of any HTC phone in the first full ad, but the subsequent phases of the campaign will eventually focus on the mobile features. There's no word on the timeframe for each phase just yet due to all sorts of variables. It remains to be seen whether Downey's contribution will help drive sales numbers, something that HTC desperately needs to just about survive these days. Perhaps an Iron Man special edition One could be considered? Yes please. Anyhow, press release after the break. Update: We've now embedded the full two-minute TV ad after the break.
Daily iPad App: Peterest is Pinterest for your pets
What do people most use the internet for? Corresponding with loved ones? Reading news? Buying useless things on eBay? None of the above. The correct answer, of course, is to look at pictures of adorable animals. The creators of the website Peterest -- and its new iOS companion app - have clearly stumbled upon this fact long ago, using the knowledge to create an app with the sole purpose of letting people share photos of their pets. As the name suggests, Peterest is very much a Pinterest clone with added furry flavor, letting users favorite photos from other users and create a collection of cute pets pics. You can save and store the names of your pets within the app and use that info to tag each photo you submit. All of your submitted pictures are linked to either your Peterest account (which you can sign up for within the app) or your Facebook account. When browsing the photos other users have submitted, you can sort via date or popularity, but sadly there is no option to sort via pet type. Personally, I'd stay in the "Cat" section permanently. Unfortunately, that's not the only area where the app falls short of its potential. At the moment, Peterest is very, very basic. Aside from submitting and browsing photos, there is little else you can do. There is no comment feature, which is a real letdown. There is no ability to follow other users, and there's not even the option to see who favorited your own submitted pictures. On top of that, there's not even an option to add an avatar to your account unless you link with Facebook, leaving you with the default blank face icon. Peterest could really be a fantastic time killer -- and in some ways it's already a fine way to kill a lunch break -- but it definitely needs to be fleshed out before it approaches greatness. The app is free, so there's no harm in downloading it now and waiting for the much-needed features to eventually appear, if they ever do. For now, I'll just keep submitting photos of my cats and pretending everyone loves them.
Patch 5.4 PTR: Crazy Cat Lady/Man title added
When the Crazy for Cats achievement was discovered on the PTR, the first thing players asked for was a title to go along with it. Namely, something to do with being a Crazy Cat Person. Good news! We got what we asked for: The Crazy Cat Lady and the Crazy Cat Man were both added as titles in the latest patch 5.4 PTR build. Keep in mind that you need 20 out of the 24 cats listed under the achievement. Overall, the achievement doesn't seem too difficult for a battle pet collector to earn, especially since one-third of the cats on the list are purchasable via NPCs. A few felines on the list are harder to come by, including the Nightsaber Cub and Spectral Tiger Cub from the TCG, and the Spectral Cub awarded to players participating in the Shanghai 2012 Battle.net World Championship. I'm crossing my fingers for the title off the bat when the patch drops!
Cat Fighter 2: The Feline Warrior is Street Fighter, but with kittens
We're going to repress the overwhelming urge to say "Street Fighter doesn't work like that," and will instead present this stop-motion, kitten-oriented Street Fighter parody video without comment. Because, really, what more do you need than "kitten-oriented Street Fighter parody video."
Caturday: Get a new cat every minute on your iPhone or iPad
It's Caturday again, and the challenge is this: Can you imagine a world with a new cat every minute? Cats here, cats there, cats everywhere! You don't have to imagine it; you can live it, thanks to the Cat-a-minute! app from Alan Scully. The light-hearted app delivers you a new cat photo every minute of the day. There are four different cat channels, so you can hop from channel to channel to see different cats. Cat pictures are pulled from Creative Commons sources and new photos are being added every day. Cat-a-minute! is available for free from the iOS App Store. Two 99-cent in-app-purchases let you add on a dog pack, or a speed pack that displays new images every 15 or 30 seconds.
Mew-Genics reveals the sordid world of sewer cat racing
In the underground world of sewer cats (and we do mean underground), racing is the thing to do. At least in Mew-Genics it is – today's tidbit about the game teases Frank's Cat Races, a sewer-based scheme where players will be able to test how fast their felines are and potentially find their fortunes, Team Meat writes.We met the mastermind behind the cat races, Frank, in November, and if you'll recall, he has "head problems." He also has a tail, though apparently it's not much of a problem.
Mew-Genics lets you freeze cats, is worrisome
While Team Meat has been releasing teasers for Mew-Genics over the past few months, its managed to do so without explicitly discussing how the game operates. The latest teaser image follows suit, as it divulges a "Cryo-Cube 5000" that seems to freeze cats (or food) for future use.Last week's teaser revealed the Boon County Cat Pageant that Mew-Genics players will apparently participate in. Whether frozen cats are eligible to compete is unclear.
Latest Mew-Genics teaser collects trinkets with 'magic properties'
Team Meat recently released some new pieces of information about its current project, Mew-Genics. The game includes a trinket display case for all the "stuff" that players acquire, which sometimes "appear imbued with magic properties that change space and time."Collectable trinkets include food, vomit, kittens, mail and petrified poop. The petrified poop shown in the picture "slightly lowers damage taken," so at least we can assume that this game about cats (many cats) includes some kind of health and damage system. Of course, the petrified poop seen here also lowers the "poop rate" of all cats, so there are apparently some other gameplay elements happening here. There are 105 trinket types in Mew-Genics, each with semi randomly-generated properties.
Catify Yourself from Friskies lets you channel your inner cat
Are you feeling frisky because its Caturday? Got the urge to meow and purrr? Then you need to check out Friskies's latest cat-themed app, Catify Yourself. The photo-taking app lets you superimpose your face onto a cat body with hilarious results. Catify Yourself has ten backgrounds that show a cat playing or posing for the camera. Each background has a cut-out for your face and room for a caption. You can insert your mugshot using the camera or by importing a photo from the camera roll. Gestures like pinch-to-zoom let you resize the photo and tilt it to fit the face of the cat. Once you've got the face lined up, you can choose a caption from about thirty different pre-set phrases. When you are done tweaking the image and setting the caption, you can share the resulting image via email or on a social network like Facebook or Twitter. You can also assign it to a contact or save it to your camera roll. It's good, clean fun that will literally leave you laughing out loud. Friskies Catify Yourself is available for free from the iOS App Store.
Mew-Genics to hoard over 12 sextillion cats
Team Meat's latest teaser for Mew-Genics is all about the game's "cast of cats," in that it features over 12,207,031,250,000,000,000,000 felines. The developer blog explains that the enormous number "only applies to how the cat looks, if you include its personality variables that number multiplies by A LOT."Team Meat added that "ability variables and personal stats" could practically guarantee that you'll never get the same cat twice in the game. Not that we know what that entails, since all we really know about Mew-Genics is that it's "kind of" about cats. Lots of them.
Mew-Genics is the next Team Meat game
Team Meat's next game is called Mew-Genics. The game is described as "randomly generated" and will involve cats in some way, purr per Team Meat's announcement blog.Super Meat Boy creator Edmund McMillen said the project is the strangest he's ever worked on, and that platform announcements, gameplay details and screens for Mew-Genics will be revealed soon.
The Daily Grind: Do you want more from your vanity pets?
So I completed Funcom's 30-mission goal this past weekend during The Secret World's one-month celebration. The reward was a shirt and a handful of points to use in the game's cash shop. I spent them on the Little Lion vanity pet that is a spitting image of my real-world house cat, and I got a few chuckles out of having her follow me around as I smited various dead and undead creatures terrorizing the locals in Blue Mountain. Eventually I zoned and she went back to her digital cat-napping, and I was left to wonder why more games don't give you some actual functionality to go along with your vanity pets. I know, they're just vanity pets, but in EverQuest II for example, I can make them play dead and about a dozen other tricks, whereas in The Secret World (and most other MMOs), they just follow me around. Heck, I can't even name this one! What about you, morning folk? Would you like your vanity pets to actually do something, or is that pretty far down on your MMO wishlist? 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!
