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Blizz: Don't take non-personal system information grab personally
It only showed up for a fraction of a second (not even long enough to grab a screenshot of it, or barely read what it said), but after logging in today, you may have noticed the login screen flash a quick message: "Submitting Non-personal System Information." Say wha? What did Blizzard just grab from my computer?I tried logging in again to see the message again, but no dice-- apparently it was just a one-time process after the first login. I can't remember whether I was given an option to opt out of that system check (I usually say no on that stuff, just because I don't want Blizzard finding out that I'm dumb enough to run the wrong drivers on my sound card or something), but I'm sure it's legal. I'm just not sure that sneaking that in for a split second was the right way to do it.Nethaera says it's not personal-- they were just grabbing some random system spec info (and I'll speculate that it was to determine a good way to fix all of the graphical errors lately). It's not wrong for companies to have that data necessarily-- Valve does the same thing with Steam, and they've gotten some great info about what gaming PCs are like. It would be nice if Blizz shared info like that, but for now they're just using it to work on their product.Some gamers aren't real thrilled about the implementation either-- if it's so non-personal, why did they throw up a warning we could just barely see? I just hope that if Blizzard is second-guessing their system reqs, they keep the rest of the process as open as possible.
Diminutive cable holds promise in medical, solar realms
We tend to prefer our electronics to be as far from invasive as possible, and that definitely includes cabling. While we'd take wireless over the corded approach any day, tethered applications still have their place, and a diminutive new cable is showing bigtime promise in a few prominent fields. A research team has developed a cable that resembles that of an old fashioned coaxial strand, yet it's reportedly "much thinner than a human hair" and can transmit visible light. By constructing a cable about 300-nanometers wide which houses an inner wire of carbon surrounded by an insulator and an outer wire of aluminum, visible light can pass through, paving the way for its use in highly efficient solar energy cells, or furthermore, "miniature electrical circuitry and microscopic light-based switching devices for optical computing." Researchers even suggest that it could be used in retinal implants or "detecting single molecules of pathogens in the body." We're not yet sure just how potent or powerful these itty bitty cables can be, but judging by size alone, we're halfway sold already.
Today's hottest game video: Halo 3 information
Since the top slots everywhere are totally being hogged by the Halo 3 "Starry Night" commercial from last night, we've decided to go with the top rated user-submitted video at GameVideos.com which is -- Halo 3 information by TM22 from Shatter Studios. Looks like it's Haloverload all over again this week. The info in this video is taken from the EGM article, the released screenshots, and some crudely drawn maps, but they've put it all together with pans and zooms and whadda ya know, it actually looks fairly cool. That is, if you can get past the metal soundtrack. Heck, we'd rather watch this with Enya behind it or something because ... daymn. That's just ear-grating. But hey, it's a tradeoff for the Halo goodness in movie form, so we'll crank the volume down and enjoy. Check out the video after the jump, and start your jonesing.
Apple updates Apple ID site, finally allows editing
Apple has updated their My Info site to allow more Apple ID editing goodness. It's been a while since I've taken a crack at changing any of this information, but last I remember, it wasn't possible to change the actual email correspondence address of one's Apple ID. The My Info site offers a slim, effective UI for adjusting your contact and shipping info, as well as setting your Apple communication preferences (do you want email/mail/phone calls, etc.). Too bad there isn't a new option called "alert me the next time you're about to rev one of your products 15 days after I buy the old 'n busted model."Thanks Brandon M
Packrat 0.87 released with page link editing, creation
Packrat, an offline Backpack client that I just can't say enough about, has been updated to version 0.87. Though it is another minor version point update, it features the ability to edit links, including dragging one page onto another to create a link. With all its other abilities of editing pages, tags, lists, and notes, as well as being able to create new lists and notes, Packrat is becoming a more powerful client by the day.Packrat is a Universal Binary, with a demo available, while a licenses costs $24.95.
Hawk Wings lists 10 Mac OS X tools for Getting Things Done
Tim Gaden at Hawk Wings has compiled a list of ten Mac OS X tools that can help you implement the Getting Things Done philosophy in the way you work. The tools are broken down into three categories: email clients, dedicated GTD apps and web-based solutions for that ultimate cross-platform effect. Mail.app, of course, starts off the list. Once combined with a few Smart Folders and the powerful Mail Act-on and MailTags plugins, Mail.app can become a most powerful GTD tool indeed. Other featured tools include kGTD (an OmniOutliner Pro template), a Todo.txt script for the ultimate in plain-text GTD, EasyTask Manaager (a stand-alone app without the GTD learning curve), iCommit (a web-based PHP tool), Backpack, Gmail and even wikis. Check out Hawk Wings' list for more ideas and tools to help you, well, get things done.
Brainstorming and project management with Curio
It's too bad I didn't know about Curio from Zengobi when I was writing the Get Organized post, as it seems to take quite an interesting approach to collecting, jotting down and organizing information. Billed as an app that "promotes visual thinking gathering and shaping your ideas", Curio definitely seems to be more like a sketchpad than many other similar applications. You can literally place anything anywhere on the page, and includes tools for sketching and drawing - just look at the screenshot which includes an image, lists, an embedded video and some chicken scratch.Curio doesn't stop there though. It also includes a project center, presentation mode, a powerful search companion, tags, LinkBack support, project archiving, web/.Mac publishing and iPhoto exporting. I haven't played with this app yet, but I'm downloading a demo as I type up this post to play with later. Some features, however, are only included in certain editions, so check out Zengobi's feature comparison chart to determine which edition is right for you. A demo is available, while full licenses start at $39.
LeopardTracker.com
Tired of sifting through newsfeeds and googling for tidbits on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard? Maybe LeopardTracker can help put an end to your obsessively sleepless nights - it's a new site that does all that searching for you and catalogs Leopard-related articles for anxious Mac users everywhere. Of course, no one but The Steve and Apple's engineers really know much about this next version, but the site documents the rumors and table-scraps from Apple's own announcements, as well as articles and blog posts that criticize the areas where Apple's OS fails and could still use some polish. Links are also organized into categories, such as Finder, Hardware, Virtualization, etc., to help you get your Leopard on a little easier. Check it out.
Bare Bones Software releases Yojimbo 1.2
Yojimbo, the information collection app from Bare Bones Software that helps you 'master the onslaught', has been updated to version 1.2. Among the additions and improves are a Quick Start movie for new users that launches on first startup, search term highlighting, browser bookmarklets for one-click bookmarking or web archiving in Yojimbo, AppleScript importing and much more.A 30-day fully functioning demo is available, while Bare Bones offers full single user, family and educational licenses for $39, $69 and $29, respectively.
Pod2Go becomes Life2Go, adds WeatherBug, other improvements
Pod2Go, the versatile information manager for your iPod, has updated to v1.6.4 with various improvements and a name change to Life2Go (Did Kevin get a call from Apple about his choice in application names?). A v1.0 is also available for Windows (traitor!), though I don't know if that is a recent development with this name change.Updates to the application itself including switching to WeatherBug for all weather information, significant changes to the Notes output and Mail storage, more specific syncing progress and more.A demo of Life2Go is available, while a full license runs for $12.99.
Packrat can now edit Backpack notes, too
I don't mean to post an update every time the developer of Packrat sneezes, but this one is for those anxiously waiting for editing functionality (including when offline) with their Backpack account. I just noticed on Packrat's product page that the feature list now says: "New: edit your lists and notes." Sure enough, it works just like the lists update I mentioned a week ago.Packrat offers a free demo, and a license will run you a mere $24.95.
OmniOutliner, OmniOutliner Pro 3.6 released
The Omni Group has finalized version 3.6 of OmniOutliner and OmniOutliner Pro, their "amazingly flexible program for creating, collecting, and organizing information." The final version itself doesn't usher in any mind-blowing new features aside from the built-in help being fully localized, but check out their release notes for all the new features they rolled out in previous 3.6 beta releases if you haven't been keeping up.Version 3.6 is a free upgrade for existing 3.0 customers, and is available from the Omni Group's site.
Sneak preview of Leopard at WWDC
Are you dying for a sneak peek at Leopard, the next incarnation of OS X? If so, book a ticket for San Francisco in mid-August. Apple has announced, on its site and by email to customers, that it will offer a preview of OS X Leopard at WWDC 2006, scheduled for August 7-11.The Apple site briefly describes five WWDC session tracks -- Application Technologies, Development Tools, Graphics and Media, Information Technologies, and OS Foundations -- but doesn't provide details about specific sessions. If you're considering going, try to get your boss to pick up the registration fee, which is a stiff $1295-$3500 before June 23 and even more after that date. If you're a student, don't overlook Apple's Student Scholarship Program. We told you before -- but it's worth a reminder -- that applications for a free WWDC ticket through that program are due on April 28.
Forty Three Kix delivers movie info to your cellphone
Finding out movie information on-the-go just got a little bit easier with the launch of a new service called Forty Three Kix that responds to texted queries with movie locations and showtimes based on the user's location. The free service works on any SMS-enabled handset from all of the major carriers, with support for regional networks promised at a later date, and requires only partial movie titles (even misspelled ones) or select keywords in order to supply a result. Forty Three Kix, who seem to have adopted their name based on their phone number (43549, or 43KIX) as opposed to vice versa, also offer an online movie "blog" where film buffs can submit what we imagine will be rather humorous reviews via SMS ("OMG! garfield2 t0tally 0wns garfield1!!!"). Additionally, the company offers a subscription service for automatically delivering new release info to your phone, and allows you to forward showtime information to friends so they can discover how bad your taste in movies really is.[Via Yahoo!]
Yojimbo updated to 1.1
We're a little late on this one, but Yojimbo, a very functional yet simple information collection tool, has been updated to version 1.1. Among the decent list of additions, changes and bugfixes are new features like: opening a bookmark in a preferred browser (not necessarily the default) applescript-ability search field improvements including toolbar statistics like iTunes and Mail improvements to dragging items to the collections list removing backgrounds when printing web archives .Mac syncing no longer requires Yojimbo to be running I started finding all sorts of great uses for Yojimbo and actually decided to buy it last night, so I highly recommend checking it out if you've been looking for a better way to get organized.
