News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
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Codeminion has announced the launch of Mac games in Game Club Cafe, its casual game portal.
The portal launches with more than 50 casual Mac games, all from a variety of different game developers and publishers. Titles include Bejeweled 2, Azada, Atlantis Sky Patrol, Airport Mania: First Flight, Puzzle Quest and more.
Codeminion itself is an independent developer of casual games like Ancient Quest of Saqqarah, Stoneloops of Jurassica and Magic Match. Those games are also available for purchase and download.
The games are available on a try-before-you-buy basis, and are all priced at $US19.95 each.
Infogrames Entertainment plans to buy the rest of beleaguered video games pioneer Atari for $US11 million, the companies said Wednesday. Infogrames, based in Lyon, France, owns 51.4 percent of Atari's stock. The merger will give Atari shareholders $US1.68 per share in cash. The deal must be approved by shareholders. Atari plans to call a special meeting on the merger after July, the companies said. However, since Infogrames owns a majority of shares, it could push the deal forward without the approval of Atari's current shareholders.
Jeremy Kirk | May 1, 2008
Critical vulnerabilities remain in Apple’s iCal calendar program, a security company said in an advisory that showed months of back-and-forth between Apple and the researchers over whether bugs were serious enough to warrant patches, and if so, when Apple would patch them. After several delays requested by Apple, the security vendor put its foot down and told the company’s security team it would release information about the vulnerabilities May 21, whether Apple had issued patches or not.
Gregg Keizer | May 23, 2008
Apple has updated Mac OS X 10.5, fixing 70 issues with the operating system and its components. Among the changes in Mac OS X 10.5.3 are several fixes for Apple’s Time Machine backup application. The update addresses compatibility issues with the Time Capsule backup device as well as compatibility issues with Aperture 2, Apple’s workflow application for photographers. The OS update aims to improve reliability when doing a full restore from a Time Machine backup, and an alert message incorrectly stating that a backup volume doesn’t have enough space has been fixed. Apple’s virtual desktop application, Spaces, received some minor updates in 10.5.3. A problem that could cause the reordering of application windows when switching desktops and then switching back has been fixed. The update also tackled an issue where pressing Command-Tab may have incorrectly switched users to a new space. The update also bolsters reliability for .Mac syncing.
Jim Dalrymple | May 29, 2008
Unity Technologies has announced that its eponymous game engine is now an authorised middleware option for Nintendo Wii console game development. Unity is used to create 3D games that can be deployed on Mac OS X and Windows; it can also be used for web publishing and Dashboard widgets. The software features an integrated editor, support for DirectX and OpenGL 3D graphics APIs, with support for shaders and physics, asset management, shadow and lighting effects, scriptability and networking.
Peter Cohen | Jun 6, 2008
This morning Apple released a new version of its iPhone SDK for developers. iPhone SDK beta 2 includes Interface Builder, a component of Apple’s development tools that lets developers create the interface for their applications. That seems to be the only major change in the latest build, according to the SDK’s read me, which continues to list some known issues. Apple says “this second beta is known to be incompatible with installation folders other than the default /Developer.” Given the importance of UI on the Mac, Interface Builder is a pretty critical tool in the development process, and some developers had chosen to hold off on their efforts until the SDK was revised. Apple unveiled the iPhone SDK at a special event earlier this month, allowing developers to begin building applications for the iPhone and iPod touch. Several high-profile companies have already jumped onboard, demoing their applications at the event. Highlighting the demos was AOL with a native AIM client; other applications from Electronic Arts, Salesforce.com, and Apple were also shown.
