• games,  ipad,  iphone,  lifestyle,  touch

    Firemint Real Racing, Real Racing 2 On Sale This Weekend

    Firemint, recently acquired by Electronic Arts, has put their popular Real Racing series of games on sale for Father’s Day weekend!

    The “Manly-Man” sale reduces the prices for Real Racing, Real Racing HD, Real Racing 2, and Real Racing 2 HD.  Use the links below to get your race on!

    Real Racing $0.99
    Real Racing 2 $4.99
    Real Racing HD $1.99
    Real Racing 2 HD $6.99

  • games,  ios,  ipad,  iphone,  lifestyle,  mac os x,  touch

    Decked Builder for Mac OS X, iOS

    Decked Builder, from developer TJ Soft, is a Magic: The Gathering deck building application for Mac OS X, iPhone and iPod touch, and coming soon to the iPad.

    Magic: The Gathering (M:TG), is a collectible trading card game from Wizards of the Coast.  I’ve tried other M:TG “helper apps” for the iPhone before, but I never really like them.  Decked Builder is the first that I’ve fallen in love with.  This app looks good and works well.  I’ve tested the Lite version of Decked Builder on my Mac.

    The desktop version of Decked Builder has three windows: Search, View Card, and Deck.  You use the Search window to find a card you are looking for.  Decked Builder has a complete offline database of the over 17,000 cards that have been printed during Magic’s 15+ years.  Search engine is fast and the database is compact.  To keep the footprint on your computer, iPhone, or iPod touch down, card images are downloaded in the background in standard resolution.  If you want, you can turn on hi-res card scans.

     

    Decked Builder also gives players all the tools they would need to quickly find the card(s) they are looking for.  You can sort find results by rarity, card type, mana cost, mana color, or core and expansion set.  The Lite versions only provide you access to the most recent Magic expansion sets, meaning that you will have to buy the full version of Decked Builder ($3.99 iPhone/iPod touch, $14.99 Mac OS X) to get access to the full database of all the Magic cards ever printed.  (We’re not kidding.  TJ Soft has built a database of all of the Magic cards to date.)

    [Editor’s Note: TJ Soft has reduced the price of Decked Builder for Mac OS X to a very reasonable $5.99.  Decked Builder for Mac OS X is available now in the Mac App Store with the new price.]

    The Deck window is where players will spend a lot of time.  You use this window to view the 60 cards that you have added to your deck and 15 cards in your sideboard.  The Stats view quickly shows you a break down of the type of cards in your deck, their mana type, and a summary how many cards of a particular mana cost you have in your deck.  You can also sort the cards in your deck by name, type, and cost to play.

    Speaking about costs, the View Card window has a nice feature that tells you the high, mean, and low price of the card.  If you want to buy the card for your collection, the Store button links you over to the TCGPlayer.com website page for the card.  I can also see players using this feature on their iPhone or iPod touch while at a game store and playing the game.  They will easily be able to see if it is cheaper to buy the card at the store, right then and there, or order it online.

    Over all, collectors and players of Wizards of the Coasts Magic: The Gathering will really like using Decked Builder.  It stands out head and shoulders above the other M:TG helper apps on the market today.  The app is well designed and looks great.

    Decked Builder is available now for both Mac OS X and the iPhone/iPod touch. TJ Soft is working on a version of Decked Builder for the iPad and an update to the iPhone/iPod touch edition that supports Retina Display on those models.  A Lite version exists of both so you can try before you buy.  You can purchase and download either version from the Mac App Store or the iOS App Store today.

  • apple,  facebook,  ios,  iphone,  itunes,  lifestyle,  touch

    Facebook for iOS Updated to Version 3.3.3

    Today, Facebook for iPhone and iPod touch has been updated to version 3.3.3.

    Included in this maintenance release of Facebook for iOS are the following enhancements:

    • Improved reliability in chat and messages
    • Improved notifications interface
    • Fixed a memory usage bug
    • Fixed some conditions which cause the application to crash
    • Removed the text field for walls you can not post to
    • Restored the ability to post on a Page where you are an admin
    • Fixed a group photos bug
    • Improvements to the Places feature

    You can download the update directly to your iPhone or iPod touch by using the App Store icon, or you can dowload the application to our Mac or Windows PC (link) and iTunes sync it to your iDevice.

    You can use the Facebook application on your iPad, however, this it is not a “Plus” application which means the app will not take advantage of the large display and the text and photos will look a little bit fuzzy when you use the 2x zoom feature of iOS on the iPad.

  • facebook,  homebrew,  lifestyle,  palm,  pixi,  pre,  web os

    Palm Updates (Beta) Facebook Client

    The other day I posted that new mobile Facebook clients for iOS, BlackBerry OS, and Google Android had popped up in their respective app stores.  On Friday evening, Palm posted their v1.4.5 update to the beta Facebook client which now includes support for the Facebook Paces feature.

    To learn more about how to install Palm beta applications on your webOS phone, hit the “Read more” link for some helpful information on how to get started.


    Since this is a beta application, it doesn’t show up in the App Catalog – version 1.4.0 shows up there, which introduced support for multiple webOS cards for Facebook.  (Think of webOS “cards” as separate browser windows or tabs.)

    To install the beta version of the Palm Facebook client, you must first install two pieces of software: WebOS Quick Install on your PC, and Preware on your Palm webOS phone.

    If you are unfamiliar with Homebrew apps, or installing WebOS Quick Install, then head over to PreCentral.net where you can read all about Homebrew apps and for the download and directions for installing WebOS Quick Install (free PreCentral forums registration is required.)

    Once you have WebOS Quick Install loaded on your Palm webOS phone, you are ready to install Preware, which is a fairly easy task when you use WebOS Quick Install.

    After you have installed Preware and launched it on your webOS phone, you can search for Facebook and find the beta client.  You install apps in the Palm beta channel the same way you install applications in Palm’s App Catalog and you’re ready to rock-n-roll.  To check for future updates to the beta Facebook client, launch Preware on your Palm every now and again and check the Updates section of the Preware screen.

    Sure, this all sounds really geeky and strange if you haven’t played with Homebrew apps on your Palm Pre or Pixi before, but it is really easy to do and opens the door to hundreds of great app that aren’t available directly from Palm.

  • apple,  ipad,  iphone,  itunes,  lifestyle,  mac,  touch,  windows

    Confirmed: The Beatles Are Coming to iTunes

    MacDailyNews.com is reporting, and I have confirmed with my own tests, that The Beatles are finally coming to Apple’s iTunes Store.  (To test: Open the iTunes Store and search for the term “the beatles”.)

    While that is probably great news for many people, I’m not a big fan of The Beatles.  I’m still holding out for the iTunes.com steaming service.

    [Via MacDailyNews.com…]