Huge improv theater

It's hard to believe that another year has come and gone since I took over stewardship of the great Macworld Game Hall of Fame in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. It takes a lot of elbow grease to keep the brass and marble of this noble institution sparkling, but it's a labor of love -- especially when I see the rhapsodic pleasure evident on the faces of the Hall's countless visitors. And who can blame them? Whether you prefer whiling away your day with a game of solitaire or killing time with some Uzi-toting action, we have something for you here. While we're always busy, the onset of winter signals a particularly exciting time for us: it's when we once again roll out the red carpet to honor the best games of the year. And what a year it was -- 2002 marked the true arrival of gaming in Mac OS X. Rather than merely converting OS 9 versions of their games, game developers spent the past year demonstrating their commitment to Apple's new operating system and taking advantage of what OS X has … [Read more...] about 2002 Game Hall of Fame

Apple laid months of event rumors and speculation to rest on Tuesday when it sent out official invitations to a special media presentation on September 12 . Of course, now that we know for sure that an event is happening, the real speculation begins. A new iPhone is likely, based on reading the invitation’s tea leaves—or, in this case, by interpreting the imagery Apple put on its invites. But what else might Apple have in store when company executives take the stage at San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater? We look at the most likely possibilities and the pie-in-the-sky suggestions. A new iPhone Apple’s event image features the cheeky, teasing tagline “It’s almost here,” with the shadow of a 5 lurking below a large bolded 12. So yes, it’s likely we’ll see the successor to the iPhone 4S make its official debut. Though many speculated that the iPhone might adopt the naming scheme of its iPad sibling and simply be introduced as “the new iPhone”—after all, … [Read more...] about What could be on tap at Apple’s Sept. 12 press event

There’s plenty of back and forth about whether Apple’s recently announced CarPlay , which will arrive in some vehicles later this year, will combat distracted driving or just make it worse. But there’s one implication of CarPlay that actually gives me some hope about the disappointing state of car electronics : Apple’s track record as a software developer. Ever had the software in your car’s radio/navigation/media console updated? It’s not easy and it’s not fast. When I got my latest car a couple of years ago, the radio had a bug where the right channel of stereo sound was played over both speakers when streaming Bluetooth audio. Not only did it take six months for a fix to get released, but updating the software meant a trip to the dealer and a two-hour wait while, I can only assume, they uploaded the software bit by bit over a reel-to-reel tape. Most people probably don’t ever think about the software in their car. And with good reason, too, since most automakers aren’t … [Read more...] about The real impact of CarPlay: It’s the software, dummy

Apple TV got a software update last week that didn’t exactly blow our hair back—the icons got a new, flat, iOS 7-and-8-ish look, and we got Family Sharing support, a new Beats Music channel , and that’s about it. The new icons are pretty and all, but the experience of actually using the Apple TV didn’t noticeably improve. Here are five suggestions for Apple to make the next Apple TV update a real upgrade. One login The most frustrating thing about the Apple TV is how each channel that requires a pay TV provider description makes you log in separately—and they don’t all support the same roster of providers. If you have Time Warner Cable, there’s no way of knowing which channels that works with without having to check each channel individually, hunting around for the login screen, since they don’t all have it in the same place. It’s maddening. There needs to be one place you log in with whatever credentials you have, and you’re signed in across the whole suite of channels, … [Read more...] about Five things Apple should fix in the next Apple TV update