Author: Blancer

As my three-year-old 15″ MacBook Pro starts to show its age, I’m starting to think that I’ll soon be in the market for a new Apple notebook. It’s been a fantastic machine to own, but after three years of lugging a 15″ portable around, I’ve decided that a laptop this big isn’t particularly… portable.

Last year, Apple released a series of new MacBook Air machines that have received rave reviews – both in the major press, and from those equally in the know. The big dilemma here is whether an 11″ or 13″ screen makes the greatest sense. And are either of these really adequate to replace a 15″ display?

What Are the Options?

Before coming to any decisions or making a recommendation, let’s take a look at the full range of options available:

• 11″ – The smallest Apple notebook available, but still surprisingly capable and complete with a full-size keyboard. Available only in the MacBook Air.
• 13″ – The de-facto laptop size, widely accepted as the most common form factor. Available in the MacBook, Air, and Pro.
• 15″ – A slightly larger alternative that gives you more desktop space, but becomes more or less unusable on an airplane. Available on the MacBook Pro only, and it’s also worth noting the $100 option to raise the resolution to 1680×1050.
• 17″ – Something of an unusual outlier that isn’t particularly portable at all. Again, this is only a MacBook Pro option.

The Super-Fine Advantage

Both MacBook Airs offer unusually high resolution displays for their size. These go a long way towards compensating for the small form factor, meaning that a 13″ Air is equivalent to a 15″ MacBook’s standard configuration resolution, and the 11″ Air is equivalent to a 13″ MacBook resolution.

Immediately, this removes some of the worry about buying a super-tiny 11″ model – you’ll still have plenty of desktop space to fill with clutter. That said, the 11″ model may still feel a little vertically cramped, particularly if you are accustomed to a 15″ display.

The downside of this super-fine resolution is that everything on the display becomes very small. There are ways to combat this – such as increasing the font size in your apps – but I’d prefer a fine resolution over a larger display any day.

This jump forward in technology means that both MacBook Airs are eminently usable, providing you’re happy for the smaller details on your display to be tiny!

The Performance Consideration

Of course, the decision you make as a notebook buyer isn’t entirely about screen size. With a larger screen comes faster performance, and (usually) more connectivity.

In the MacBook Air lineup, for instance, if you opt for a 13″ model you’ll also receive an SD card slot, a 0.46GHz jump in processor speed, and improved battery life. It’s a similar story for the MacBook Pro, adding bigger hard drives, faster processors, and more connectivity as you move up in size.

This means that your decision on size has a major impact in the speed of your machine as well.

Is 17″ Really a Portable at All?

You may be wondering why I haven’t yet gone into detail on the 17″ MacBook Pro. Well, this isn’t really a notebook – not in any useful sense of the word. It’s a desktop computer with an in-built battery, that would be a burden to carry around anywhere. Apple continue to make these because it’s possible to include connectivity and technology that wouldn’t fit into the smaller models (such as a ExpressCard/34 slot).

This model is billed as “the ultimate mobile studio”, and that’s exactly what it is. Designed for people who need a desktop level of performance, but still like to have the option of taking their machine home with them. Perfect for some, but overkill for the majority.

Help Me Out…

If you’re a notebook user, I’d be interested to hear what your preference would be – or which you have chosen in the past – and hear a few opinions on the matter. My immediate thought would be that 11″ is simply too small for day-to-day use when not connected to an external monitor.

Which MacBook fits the bill for you, and what sacrifices are you happy to make for a smaller, more portable machine? Is a pocket-sized laptop your main consideration, or would you find yourself craving a faster processor?

Steam is perhaps the best platform for buying and playing games online and for enjoying a social gaming experience. Although there isn’t exactly a great deal of competition, Steam has proved to be a reliable platform for gaming on both the PC and the Mac.

Last year it was announced that it was headed for the Mac OS, and since then we’ve seen many releases on our favorite platform. Here are some of our favorite games available on Steam for your Mac.

Portal

Portal revolutionized the gaming scene when it first came out way back in 2007. It changed what a “puzzle” game is supposed to be with its quirky mechanics and outrageously fun story. Portal is a puzzle-FPS (first person shooter). You have a gun that can shoot up “portals” which allow you to do unimaginable things, and the game really pushes for you to think differently while you are playing it in order to advance through it.

Portal 2 is coming out on April 19th, and it looks very promising. If you weren’t one of the lucky ones that got the first edition of the game for free on the Steam for Mac launch, you can still pick it up for $10 on Steam.

Left For Dead 1 & 2

Left For Dead is a co-op inclined survival first person shooter, where you are supposed to go around several towns, trying to survive the zombie apocalypse with your other 3 buddies.

Left for Dead 2 is the continuation to the very popular first game by Valve, and it improved on it by adding more guns and more maps. They both came out in 2008 and 2009, respectively, and they achieved critical and commercial success.

They both go for $20 on Steam, and we’ll guarantee you’ll get more than your money’s worth with any of them!

Counter-Strike: Source

Feeling old-school? Source is one of the most popular, if not the most popular first person shooter and – even though it came out 7 years ago – it still has an amazing following. CS:S is a very conventional, but fast-paced shooter game, and what it made it so great was the mods available for it and the huge community behind it.

Even though it’s old, it is still widely played by many people around the globe, probably because it’s so great and it has only improved with time. You can get it for $20 on Steam.

Sid Meier’s Civilization V

The Sid Meier’s Civilization series has been a very popular and long-running one. The latest installment of it came out in late 2010 and it’s called Civilization V. If you’ve never played these games, they’re strategy-based and you play as if you were the leader of a civilization that must build up your cities and conquer your enemies to become the ruler of them all.

It’s similar to another popular game called Age of Empires, except Civ is turn-based, and in my opinion, more complete and fun. Civilization V has been called the best Civ game yet, and it goes for $49 on Steam.

Half-Life 2, HL2: Episode One and HL2: Episode 2

Half-Life is a massively popular franchise, and it has a very devoted following behind it (deservedly so!) It is a first person shooter with a twisted but interesting story mode that borders on sci-fi and very solid gameplay. Half-Life 2 came out in 2004, Episode One in 2006 and the Episode Two in 2007.

While you can get all of them separately for around $26, I recommend you get the Orange Box, which is a package that includes Portal, Team Fortress 2 and all the Half Life games presented above for $20.

Team Fortress 2

Team Fortress 2 is a class-based multiplayer-only game that gained a lot of fame back when it came out in 2007. In it, you get to play as different classes like Pyro, Spy, Medic, Engineer, etc. and all of them give you a different perspective on the game, as you have to adapt to what your character is good at.

Team Fortress 2 is as fun as multiplayer games go, because it doesn’t take itself very seriously. It’s also available as part of the Orange Box package, but you can get it separately for $12.

Braid

Braid is a platformer/puzzle game with a very fun twist to it: you can manipulate time. You have to use this in your favor to get through a bunch of levels and rescue the abducted princess.

The game does a great job at immersing you into its gimmick, and when you finish it, you’ll start thinking of time differently (at least I did for a while). Braid is a game for anyone, as it’s easy to get into it and it doesn’t require a lot of time. You can get it for $10 on Steam.

World of Goo

World of Goo, just like Braid, is a casual game that is a lot of fun and is easy to pick up and understand. It relies heavily on physics, and has a puzzle mechanic to it. You have to get through a series of levels while building structures with the “goo” balls that you are given.

World of Goo goes for $10 on Steam, and while it may seem a bit childish, it’s a ton of fun.

Peggle Nights and Peggle Deluxe

Peggle is a game that has had success on multiple platforms, and now you can play it on your Mac. It is a very arcade-ish game where you have to go through a series of levels and clear all the “pegs” in order to advance.

The game is simple but fun, and coupled with the trophies available for it and the different characters, it will last you quite a while. Both Peggle Deluxe and its follow-up, Peggle Nights go for $10 each.

Assassin’s Creed 2

Assassin’s Creed is a popular adventure franchise that has had massive success on consoles as well as on the PC. In the second installment of it you play an assassin that must take revenge for his family during the Renaissance in several cities of Italy.

While the follow-up to it (Brotherhood) came out a few months ago, the second one still is a great game if you haven’t played the others. It goes for $30 on Steam.

Machinarium

Machinarium is an odd-looking puzzle game based on a world populated by robots. You play as a robot who must save his girlfriend, and to achieve it you have to solve a bunch of puzzles and mini-games spread out across the game.

While I’d never heard of it, it seems to have been pretty popular with the critics, and it definitely seems like it’s worth a try. Machinarium is made by indie developers and it goes for $20.

Conclusion

Most of these games aren’t new releases. Most of them are at least one year old, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Steam hasn’t really been out long enough for the Mac, and for the time it’s been around, this is a pretty decent list of games.

Also, let’s take into account the fact that more and more games are coming out for the Mac at release date, like Portal 2.

It seems like finally we can have a platform that is taken seriously by game developers, with the potential to become a great source for gamers in the future.

Whatever profession you’re in, there’s a strong chance that as a Mac.AppStorm reader you occasionally need to delve into a FTP client. Whether that’s to transfer a file to someone, update your website, or access a service such as Amazon S3 – there are a multitude of reasons why an FTP app might come in handy.

Personally, I’m a big fan of Transmit 4. It’s a beautiful app with a very thorough feature set – two selling points that make it hard to ignore. In fact, it was one of the apps that originally made me want to switch across to the Mac (along with everything else designed by Panic at the time…)

There are plenty of other contenders, though – Forklift, Interarchy, and YummyFTP to name a few!

These all have their own unique selling points and features – you’d be amazed at how much scope there is for individuality in such a theoretically mundane niche of software. From disks that mount on your desktop to Automator support and “Droplets” – software can actually make FTP fun!

I’d be interested to hear which application you use – feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. Which FTP app do you use, how often do you need to open it, and why?

If you’re into social networking, you will know the importance of sharing content with others. Sharing content helps you gain a loyal following and engage people in conversations. Even during the course of a pretty uneventful day, there might be quiet a few things in our mind to share with our friends and followers. Often these thoughts are fleeting, and some things might go unshared.

What we need is an app that can help us consolidate the items we want to share with our social network. Social Clipboard is a Mac desktop application that allows you to copy any text, picture or screenshot and share it via social networks (or upload it to Dropbox for later access).

Let’s see how it stacks up!

Setting Up

Social Clipboard automatically detects whether this is your first launch and offers to set up your social network accounts.

From the lower left corner of the window, choose the social network of your choice. Currently Facebook, Twitter and Dropbox are supported. Sadly though, you cannot add multiple accounts to track in the app at the moment. For those who plan to skip this step to checkout the Social Clipboard user interface before jumping in, you can always come back and add the accounts from the Preferences screen.

There is no OAuth or FBConnect and you will have enter your login credentials manually into the app. That’s when I hit the first road block. I use LastPass to generate and store strong passwords and I don’t remember any of my passwords. So I copied the password and tried pasting it in the login screen.

But unfortunately, Social Clipboard copied the password to the app and cleared the clipboard – therefore I wasn’t able to paste the same into the password field. So, I had to manually type in all the characters of the password one after another (it’s a pretty lengthy strong password). It was such an annoying experience.

Ease of Use

Still not clear what Social Clipboard can do? It acts as a clipboard that holds everything that you copy on the desktop. If you have used Pastebot on iOS you will find that the app pretty much does the same, but adds the ability to post them to your social stream.

Social Clipboard has a very straight forward design and workflow. Be it an image, text file etc., it’s just a case of copying something for it to automatically show up in the Social Clipboard repository. It’s just not the files from the desktop (like the password info from LastPass Vault) – you can even copy from the Internet. For example I copied an image from a Mac.AppStorm article and it showed up right away in the app. Impressive!

Social Clipboard has got a bunch of Notification options as well, to alert you of the status of the upload, save and shortening of a URL. You can also set animated and audio alerts to notify when the content from the clipboard is copied to the app.

Sharing Content

After saving the content to the clipboard, select the appropriate social network icon to share it with your friends and peers. I chose to tweet the image I copied. Twitpic is the default image uploading service, and you start by giving the image a title. As soon as you hit OK, the image will be uploaded and you will be given a Twitpic link to the same.

From here, it is more or less the same way you compose a tweet. Add a few words of comment, add a link and share the tweet with the world. If the URL you are sharing is quite lengthy, use the Shorten URL option to prune it. Bit.ly is the default URL shortening service.

Once the tweet is successfully sent, you will get a notification. However, if you want to double check whether the tweet has made it or not, you will have to access your social network account from a client of your choice.

Saving to Dropbox

The usefulness of Social Clipboard is two fold. First it acts as a clipboard for your social networks and second, it acts a desktop intermediary for moving content to your Dropbox.

Just like the way you share the content on a social network, hit the Dropbox icon to initiate the transfer. All images are uploaded to the public folder of your account, so if you are sharing sensitive content, exercise caution. A short URL linking directly to the image can be obtained as well.

Final Thoughts

I thought I would be able to keep up with my Twitter stream from the app, but I couldn’t. That would have been a solid addition, as would the ability to copy content from the social stream directly to your Dropbox account.

Social Clipboard was my first paid Mac App Store purchase, and hence I made sure it is a decent app to start with. Social network dwellers will definitely find the app very handy.

The idea and execution of helping users copy and share things from their social stream is quite good. But it is the Dropbox integration that makes the app particularly unique.