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First Infinity Blade Update Now Available→

First Infinity Blade Update Now Available

- 5 new Swords, 5 new Shields, 5 new Helmets, and 1 new set of Armor - Collect and Master them all!

- Maximum Character Level raised from 40 to 45!

- New Enemy - The MARROW FIEND! This creature is rumored to devour its victims, taking their bones for its blade and shield…

- Because it’s awesome, you can now listen to your own music while playing INFINITY BLADE!

- Optimizations and minor Bug fixes

Infinity Blade 1.1 is available here. I can’t wait for multiplayer mode to come in the next version.

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Tap Tap Revenge 4? 25,000 Downloads Per Hour→

Tap Tap Revenge 4? 25,000 Downloads Per Hour

Decrem, who now serves as SVP and General Manager for Disney Mobile, says that the game is seeing around 25,000 downloads per hour right now, which is on par with what it saw on Christmas day last year (app downloads see a major spike on Christmas as people try out their new iPhones and iPod touches, so expect this number to surge even higher this year). Decrem says this is the fastest any of Tapulous’s games have ever hit #1, and it may be the fastest growing game ever (though he doesn’t know that definitively).

The app was released less than 24 hours ago. Apps like Flipboard, Twitter or Facebook didn’t see these numbers. But guess what? It’s a free game.

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Why Half-Life 1 For Mac Never Came Out→

Why Half-Life 1 For Mac Never Came Out

Jump to the 16-minute mark for the juicy bits. Basically, the game was ready and the developers even managed to deploy a system that allowed Mac and PC users to play together on a special server. The game had a few bugs but was a few weeks away from golden master. Retail stores orders were coming in.

It was done. So why didn’t it come out? Hint: Apple.

[Cocoia via Reddit]

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Does The iPad Make You Less Masculine?→

Does The iPad Make You Less Masculine?

From a piece on The New York Times:

Call it the male iPad dilemma: too large to slip into a pants pocket, too stiff to be curled up like a magazine and too precious to leave unprotected. With its rigid tablet shape, Apple’s iPad has raised an awkward consideration for many men: how to carry it in a manner that is practical and yet, well, masculine.

Perhaps it’s a cultural difference, but I didn’t have any problems carrying my iPad inside a Tom Bihn Ristretto here in Italy. It’s actually pretty cool.

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Top 5 OmniFocus Applescripts→

Top 5 OmniFocus Applescripts

The OmniFocus Extras forum on the Omnigroup user forum is one of the great sources for ready-to-use Applescripts. All you need to do is move them into the right directory on your machine and occasionally modify some of the scripts parameters to fit your needs.

The following AppleScript are those which are extremely handy and I use on a daily basis. There are many others available on the forum and other places, but many of them didn’t really add much value to my workflow, which is a pretty standard one, or solve problems I never encountered.

The “find project” one is a must-have.

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iPhone 3G Still The Top Camera On Flickr→

iPhone 3G Still The Top Camera On Flickr

Slightly updated charts from Flickr, which show Apple’s iPhone 3G (released in 2008) is still the most popular camera amongst Flickr users. The iPhone 4 had a rapid increase in the Popular Cameraphones category, with the 3GS stable right below it.

Also, notice the perfect symmetry in the iPhone 4 and 3GS charts.

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Email The Cloud, Get Your Actions In OmniFocus→

Email The Cloud, Get Your Actions In OmniFocus

To try out the feature, send a message to [email protected]. Within a few minutes, you’ll receive an auto-response from us which includes a “Send to OmniFocus” link.

It’s actually within a few seconds. The actionable emails came in my inbox seconds after I forwarded my items to the OmniFocus address. This is a great idea and it shows how much the OmniGroup is committed to delivering a real cloud-based GTD solution, unlike many others. Too bad this email feature works well only with plain text right now – forwarded emails will turn into lines of weird unicode characters, as also reported by Shawn Blanc.

Still, this gives you an idea of why you have to consider OmniFocus. Truly a killer product for iOS and OS X.

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Should Apple Own Factories Again?→

Should Apple Own Factories Again?

Horace Dediu:

I’m not an expert in this area, but as a student of disruption I see signs of opportunity to re-engineer the manufacturing business model. The patterns from history are plain to see: Centralized systems get broken down and re-aligned with new bases of competition. Value chains disintegrate and re-integrate as profit algorithms change.

The new algorithm says you need to ramp production quickly (up and down) and to increase “product turns” from one to two each year. Each ramp needs to be even bigger than they are now. Maybe by a factor of two. Products should be built closer to where they are consumed to drive costs and delays out of transportation and tariffs. Carbon footprints need to be reduced.

Sounds daunting. But the rewards could be enormous.

Give Ive his own factory ? Just think about it.

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The Onion Chooses The iPad As One Of The Most Influential People Of 2010→

The Onion Chooses The iPad As One Of The Most Influential People Of 2010

We easily could have written about Steve Jobs, the iconic CEO of Apple, and adequately described the iPad in that predictable context. But instead, we made the radically unorthodox decision to grant this product—a one-and-a-half-pound wafer of aluminum and glass, mind you—the same status accorded to members of the human race. You’ve already read through a number of stories constructed around people, but just when you expected to encounter another, we pulled the rug right out from under you.

This year, we are choosing a computer as one of the most influential people of 2010.

Also:

Anyway, not to brag, but we’re pretty fucking proud of ourselves.

Yes, you should be. At least you didn’t realize Mark Zuckerberg was worth a price in 2010.

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