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Buy Halo 3 Beta invitation, get Crackdown (for free!)
According to an ad in the latest issue of Gamepro, Microsoft will start selling Halo 3 Multiplayer Beta invitations for $60 beginning February 20 -- oh, and each golden ticket comes with a game called Crackdown. Fine print reads: Limited time offer -- look for specially marked boxes. [Thanks, zewone]
360 dashboard update to be ready by morning
The long awaited 360 dashboard update is finally coming, arriving by invite for most Stateside gamers sometime early tomorrow morning.The update will actually begin to go out by 2:00 AM PT, but, according to Major Nelson, it "can take up to four hours for a user to be prompted to receive this update," so the invitation to download the small-in-size (but large-in-scope) update could arrive as late as 6:00 AM PT.Patient gamers can look forward to 125 new features for their cream-colored Xboxes, including the ability to queue multiple Marketplace downloads, keep your place in DVDs, and even fast-forward to just the choicest parts of videos (like the one featuring the titular Tomb Raider above). Plan your evening and/or morning accordingly, folks.See also: A video tour of the Xbox Live Spring update 360 BC update "in the next few weeks" [Thanks to everyone who sent this in; also via Xbox 360 Fanboy]
So long iCal, hello Google Calendar
Call me crazy, but I think Google is using some kind of mental suggestion on me while I sleep, as I am slowly falling for their products one by one (maybe I should shut my Mac off at night so they can't get to me?). I've been hanging out at Google News more often, I haven't started Mail.app in almost a week in favor of Gmail, and now iCal has been kicked out of my Dock in favor of a Quicksilver trigger that takes me straight to Google Calendar.That's right, as a .Mac customer and lover of 3-plus years, I am tossing iCal and its syncing ability aside for the innovative and ultimately easier to use beauty that is Google Calendar. Sharing calendars and events is so much simpler on the gCal side of the fence, especially since the invited guests can leave comments on the event right at Google Calendar without the need for some obnoxious service like Evite.More to the meat of the matter, Google Calendar's 'Quick Add' takes the chore out of adding an event to my schedule, inviting me to do it a little more often to make I stay all the more on top of things. In gCal, I can hit the letter 'q' to open a small dialog box into which I can type an event name, time and date almost as if I were telling someone about it in an email: 'dinner with Jessi 6 pm 4/22' adds the event right where it should go. As icing on the Quick Add cake, date spanning works too: 'Half Life 2 Therapy Camp April 22-24' creates an event that spans properly. No obnoxious tabbing around to set dates and times right, and no mousing to drag little event boxes. Call me crazy, but I'm starting to believe that some desktop app developers could learn a few things from this kind of simplicity that is found in many of today's web-based apps and services.Google Calendar's multiple and customizable notification features sealed the deal for me. Email, SMS and popping up the browser window (if gCal is open) are all available for various notification types like events, new, changed or canceled invitations, replies to invitations and even a daily agenda email reminder that sends you a roundup of the day's events. Hawk Wings points to a blog post by Jeff Hobbs who puts it quite nicely: "it’s like Google just hired a personal secretary for everyone on Earth." Sweet, I've always wanted a secretary. Unfortunately, there is one seriously lacking feature in Google Calendar's 'secretary factor': as of yet, there is no 'pick up a latte from Starbucks' option. Maybe someone can whip up a Greasemonkey script or plug-in?Caffeine addictions aside, you can top this all off with the 'access and edit from anywhere' factor since Google Calendar is web-based, and Gmail automatically parses email for events to add to Google Calendar (*ahem* iCal/Mail.app engineers!), and I'm already forgetting what iCal looked like.
The TUAW "Create a Feb. 22 Apple Invite" contest
It all started with the supposed Airport Express invitation that showed up on Flickr, announcing an Apple press event for February 22nd. It was soon deemed to be a fake, and then two more popped up, with different designs (also fake). They weren't the best: in the Airport invite the perspective of the Apple was off, and the blue one actually misspelled the word "February." We know you can do better.So, with that in mind, we're announcing the "Create a Feb. 22 Apple Invite" contest. Submit your best looking, most convincing, most plausible and clever invite to us by (when else) February 22nd by leaving a link to your creation in the comments to this post. A winner will be chosen by the TUAW staffers deep in our secret offices (a broom closet in the back of Penn Station) on February 22nd, and the winner will be announced on the 23rd. To the creator of our favorite invitation will go an Apple logo stainless travel mug that Scott bought at the Apple Campus Store (here is a pic of the prize) while in California for this past January's Macworld.Good luck, and get cracking! Mac rumor sites are counting on you!
