Category: Mac

Though several of us had dreams of lining up in bookstores and having Steve personally sign a copy of his upcoming biography, sadly we know now that day will never come. Though you can still hope to catch author Walter Isaacson and thank him for his work in penning the stories of the father of modern computing.

If you’re like me, you’ve been looking forward to this book for quite a while. The official release date, October 24th, is quickly approaching and today’s poll question asks whether or not you plan on picking up your own copy. Will you preorder it? Wait for it to hit bookstores? Reserve it at the library? We want to know.

After you vote, leave a comment below and let us know whether you’ll be grabbing the hard copy or perhaps reading it on your iPad as a tribute to those amazing devices Steve spent the latter half of his career perfecting.

Our sponsor this week is Studiometry, an amazing professional project management tool from Oranged Software.

Studiometry is a powerhouse of professional organization tools that’s been serving the industry for over eight years. Whether you’re managing contacts, generating estimates, tracking work, or billing clients, this one app has you covered in a single beautifully cohesive workflow.

Small businesses, freelancers, large organizations, all types of professionals from every industry can relate to the incredibly practical suite of tools in Studiometry. Unlike simple todo apps, which are a dime a dozen, this is a genuinely useful and fully featured productivity tool that can help you manage almost every aspect of your company.

I particularly like the invoicing capabilities with Studiometry (customizable templates that are edited with a built in WYSIWYG editor) and the fact that the whole suite of tools syncs seamlessly with Studiometery Touch so you can take your work everywhere you go and aren’t necessarily tethered to a laptop.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, then get involved below!

Go Get It!

Studiometry is available on Oranged Software’s website for $199.95 (multi-user packs also available). If you’re interested in giving it a shot, check out the Free Trial.

This isn’t going to be your typical Mac app review. Minecraft isn’t sold on the Mac App Store. It’s a cross-platform game that has over 3.5 million paid players across Windows, Mac, and Linux, making it one of the most wildly successful indie games in recent memory.

Minecraft is a creative/adventure sandbox game originally devised by independent Swedish game developer Markus Persson (known to the community as Notch) and continually developed by his company Mojang. Minecraft has its inspirations, but as a gamer, I can honestly say that I’ve never seen a game quite like Minecraft gain so much steam and such a huge following. What makes it so great?

The Game

To say Minecraft is “blocky” would be an understatement. The game relies on the cubic nature of the environment to produce randomly generated worlds rich with breathtaking terrain, trees, oceans, animals, monsters, caves, and now abandoned mine shafts, strongholds, and NPC villages to be discovered. Upon launching the game, you’ll see a beautiful main menu. You can connect to multiplayer servers or simply play on your own. In my opinion, both are equally as rewarding.

The Main Menu.

The core aspect of the game has often (and most accurately, all things considered) been likened to Legos, the popular plastic-brick building toy. Creativity and construction was, from conception, and still remains, the meat and potatoes of Minecraft. The game has a huge collection of materials from various types of wood, stone, and brick to lava, water, and various precious ores from which you can craft items and build almost limitless structures. Creativity mode is based solely around building, allowing you unlimited resources to construct whatever your imagination can create.

Finishing my Frank Lloyd Wright-style house was one of the most satisfying things I've ever done in a video game.

Survival Mode is the more gamey part of Minecraft. It is not for the weak of heart. The game has a distinct lack of instruction, and as a result, the ill-informed will die before getting the hang of things. The feeling of wonder and discovery you get in the first weeks of playing Minecraft cannot be replicated.

The inventory window, empty at the start of a new world.

Beginning a new game will spawn your character (a relatively nondescript miner named Steve) in a randomly generated world. Minecraft has a day/night cycle, and when night falls, the baddies come out. Right from the get-go, your survival clock is ticking. The goal here is to survive the first night (you won’t have time for anything beyond a rudimentary shelter). I don’t want to ruin any of the exciting discovery for first timers here (hint: your fists and tree trunks are enemies), but there are several “How To Survive Your First Night” tutorials scattered about the Internet.

What makes Minecraft interesting is that, despite its simple execution and gameplay, it has a profound ability to parallel the development of civilization. When you first begin your world, you start with absolutely nothing. The sun is going down fast, and your primary objective is survival. This continues for quite some time, as there are many unique monsters that want your flesh, not to mention your gradually depleting hunger-bar that constantly needs fed.

After several days of playing, once you have a shelter and renewable resources for food (such as farms), survival becomes less difficult, and you begin to explore. You chart the terrain around you, spelunking through caves and mining for valuables such as coal, iron, gold, lapis lazuli, and the holy grail–diamond. They can be crafted into stronger armor and tools, continuing the reduce the difficulty of survival.

The terrain continues to generate randomly as you explore further outward away from your spawn point, and there will always be new unique features to discover. But when the overwhelming excitement from exploration has diminished, players tend to turn to creativity. Having achieved a sustainable living environment where surviving is no longer a concern, the next logical step is to increase “quality of life” as it were. Evidence of this can be seen around the Minecraft community, as players share their designs for redstone powered machines, interior design, efficient mining and farming techniques, and stunning architecture.

An alien spacecraft that I built for fun.

The entire process from the survival phase to the equivalent of a first-world civilization is rather lengthy, making Minecraft a game with huge replay value. Each new world you generate will be completely random, providing infinite possibilities for play styles and in-game existence.

The sense of civilization can be expanded upon by starting (or joining) a multiplayer server. I’ve done both, and while it is fun joining a massive hosted server and seeing what other players have built (some of that stuff is just insanely impressive), the most fun I’ve had with the game is playing with a small group of close friends.

The folks at Mojang continue to work hard developing Minecraft, and as a result we’ve seen dramatic improvements to terrain generation, combat, exploration, and creative potential just in the last few months.

Development

Minecraft began in mid-2009 with a series of tests in a webpage-embedded java applet. It began as a purely creative game, giving players a set of blocks with which to build anything they wish in a mostly stagnant environment. An offline mode and a downloadable client released in what is colloquially referred to as the “Indev” phase, and updates were released every few days as the developer seemed to tirelessly improve the game. This sort of schedule continued through the Alpha phase and into the Beta phase until recently, when huge and game-changing updates started being developed in preparation for the game’s November official release date.

If you’re a developer, regardless of whether you make games or apps, take a page out of Mojang’s book. The constant contact the developer has with the community is not only impressive and heartwarming, but has, in some cases, resulted in improvements to the game. One modder created a mod that added pistons (the implications of moving parts was huge), and the idea was adopted by Mojang and implemented into the main game.

Conclusion

Normally, when I come across an app that I absolutely geek out over, I do my best to mask my childish excitement with a collected and stoic nod of approval in the general direction of the developer. I’m not going to do that here.

As a gamer that has largely retired from time-sink desktop games (I’m a veteran of WoW, CounterStrike, Age of Empires, you name it), I simply cannot give enough praise to Notch and his crew for developing a game that made me feel like a kid again. I’ve played Minecraft with my family, friends, and strangers alike. Being a part of the beta testing has been a roller coaster of updates and game changes that has taken the game in directions that I never could’ve expected when I began playing. The concept is simple, but the creative freedom the game provides is unparalleled.

Have you given Minecraft a shot? Let us know your experiences!

Our sponsor this week is Studiometry, an amazing professional project management tool from Oranged Software.

Studiometry is a powerhouse of professional organization tools that’s been serving the industry for over eight years. Whether you’re managing contacts, generating estimates, tracking work, or billing clients, this one app has you covered in a single beautifully cohesive workflow.

Small businesses, freelancers, large organizations, all types of professionals from every industry can relate to the incredibly practical suite of tools in Studiometry. Unlike simple todo apps, which are a dime a dozen, this is a genuinely useful and fully featured productivity tool that can help you manage almost every aspect of your company.

I particularly like the invoicing capabilities with Studiometry (customizable templates that are edited with a built in WYSIWYG editor) and the fact that the whole suite of tools syncs seamlessly with Studiometery Touch so you can take your work everywhere you go and aren’t necessarily tethered to a laptop.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, then get involved below!

Go Get It!

Studiometry is available on Oranged Software’s website for $199.95 (multi-user packs also available). If you’re interested in giving it a shot, check out the Free Trial.

This isn’t going to be your typical Mac app review. Minecraft isn’t sold on the Mac App Store. It’s a cross-platform game that has over 3.5 million paid players across Windows, Mac, and Linux, making it one of the most wildly successful indie games in recent memory.

Minecraft is a creative/adventure sandbox game originally devised by independent Swedish game developer Markus Persson (known to the community as Notch) and continually developed by his company Mojang. Minecraft has its inspirations, but as a gamer, I can honestly say that I’ve never seen a game quite like Minecraft gain so much steam and such a huge following. What makes it so great?

The Game

To say Minecraft is “blocky” would be an understatement. The game relies on the cubic nature of the environment to produce randomly generated worlds rich with breathtaking terrain, trees, oceans, animals, monsters, caves, and now abandoned mine shafts, strongholds, and NPC villages to be discovered. Upon launching the game, you’ll see a beautiful main menu. You can connect to multiplayer servers or simply play on your own. In my opinion, both are equally as rewarding.

The Main Menu.

The core aspect of the game has often (and most accurately, all things considered) been likened to Legos, the popular plastic-brick building toy. Creativity and construction was, from conception, and still remains, the meat and potatoes of Minecraft. The game has a huge collection of materials from various types of wood, stone, and brick to lava, water, and various precious ores from which you can craft items and build almost limitless structures. Creativity mode is based solely around building, allowing you unlimited resources to construct whatever your imagination can create.

Finishing my Frank Lloyd Wright-style house was one of the most satisfying things I've ever done in a video game.

Survival Mode is the more gamey part of Minecraft. It is not for the weak of heart. The game has a distinct lack of instruction, and as a result, the ill-informed will die before getting the hang of things. The feeling of wonder and discovery you get in the first weeks of playing Minecraft cannot be replicated.

The inventory window, empty at the start of a new world.

Beginning a new game will spawn your character (a relatively nondescript miner named Steve) in a randomly generated world. Minecraft has a day/night cycle, and when night falls, the baddies come out. Right from the get-go, your survival clock is ticking. The goal here is to survive the first night (you won’t have time for anything beyond a rudimentary shelter). I don’t want to ruin any of the exciting discovery for first timers here (hint: your fists and tree trunks are enemies), but there are several “How To Survive Your First Night” tutorials scattered about the Internet.

What makes Minecraft interesting is that, despite its simple execution and gameplay, it has a profound ability to parallel the development of civilization. When you first begin your world, you start with absolutely nothing. The sun is going down fast, and your primary objective is survival. This continues for quite some time, as there are many unique monsters that want your flesh, not to mention your gradually depleting hunger-bar that constantly needs fed.

After several days of playing, once you have a shelter and renewable resources for food (such as farms), survival becomes less difficult, and you begin to explore. You chart the terrain around you, spelunking through caves and mining for valuables such as coal, iron, gold, lapis lazuli, and the holy grail–diamond. They can be crafted into stronger armor and tools, continuing the reduce the difficulty of survival.

The terrain continues to generate randomly as you explore further outward away from your spawn point, and there will always be new unique features to discover. But when the overwhelming excitement from exploration has diminished, players tend to turn to creativity. Having achieved a sustainable living environment where surviving is no longer a concern, the next logical step is to increase “quality of life” as it were. Evidence of this can be seen around the Minecraft community, as players share their designs for redstone powered machines, interior design, efficient mining and farming techniques, and stunning architecture.

An alien spacecraft that I built for fun.

The entire process from the survival phase to the equivalent of a first-world civilization is rather lengthy, making Minecraft a game with huge replay value. Each new world you generate will be completely random, providing infinite possibilities for play styles and in-game existence.

The sense of civilization can be expanded upon by starting (or joining) a multiplayer server. I’ve done both, and while it is fun joining a massive hosted server and seeing what other players have built (some of that stuff is just insanely impressive), the most fun I’ve had with the game is playing with a small group of close friends.

The folks at Mojang continue to work hard developing Minecraft, and as a result we’ve seen dramatic improvements to terrain generation, combat, exploration, and creative potential just in the last few months.

Development

Minecraft began in mid-2009 with a series of tests in a webpage-embedded java applet. It began as a purely creative game, giving players a set of blocks with which to build anything they wish in a mostly stagnant environment. An offline mode and a downloadable client released in what is colloquially referred to as the “Indev” phase, and updates were released every few days as the developer seemed to tirelessly improve the game. This sort of schedule continued through the Alpha phase and into the Beta phase until recently, when huge and game-changing updates started being developed in preparation for the game’s November official release date.

If you’re a developer, regardless of whether you make games or apps, take a page out of Mojang’s book. The constant contact the developer has with the community is not only impressive and heartwarming, but has, in some cases, resulted in improvements to the game. One modder created a mod that added pistons (the implications of moving parts was huge), and the idea was adopted by Mojang and implemented into the main game.

Conclusion

Normally, when I come across an app that I absolutely geek out over, I do my best to mask my childish excitement with a collected and stoic nod of approval in the general direction of the developer. I’m not going to do that here.

As a gamer that has largely retired from time-sink desktop games (I’m a veteran of WoW, CounterStrike, Age of Empires, you name it), I simply cannot give enough praise to Notch and his crew for developing a game that made me feel like a kid again. I’ve played Minecraft with my family, friends, and strangers alike. Being a part of the beta testing has been a roller coaster of updates and game changes that has taken the game in directions that I never could’ve expected when I began playing. The concept is simple, but the creative freedom the game provides is unparalleled.

Have you given Minecraft a shot? Let us know your experiences!

Our sponsor this week is Studiometry, an amazing professional project management tool from Oranged Software.

Studiometry is a powerhouse of professional organization tools that’s been serving the industry for over eight years. Whether you’re managing contacts, generating estimates, tracking work, or billing clients, this one app has you covered in a single beautifully cohesive workflow.

Small businesses, freelancers, large organizations, all types of professionals from every industry can relate to the incredibly practical suite of tools in Studiometry. Unlike simple todo apps, which are a dime a dozen, this is a genuinely useful and fully featured productivity tool that can help you manage almost every aspect of your company.

I particularly like the invoicing capabilities with Studiometry (customizable templates that are edited with a built in WYSIWYG editor) and the fact that the whole suite of tools syncs seamlessly with Studiometery Touch so you can take your work everywhere you go and aren’t necessarily tethered to a laptop.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, then get involved below!

Go Get It!

Studiometry is available on Oranged Software’s website for $199.95 (multi-user packs also available). If you’re interested in giving it a shot, check out the Free Trial.

Our sponsor this week is Studiometry, an amazing professional project management tool from Oranged Software.

Studiometry is a powerhouse of professional organization tools that’s been serving the industry for over eight years. Whether you’re managing contacts, generating estimates, tracking work, or billing clients, this one app has you covered in a single beautifully cohesive workflow.

Small businesses, freelancers, large organizations, all types of professionals from every industry can relate to the incredibly practical suite of tools in Studiometry. Unlike simple todo apps, which are a dime a dozen, this is a genuinely useful and fully featured productivity tool that can help you manage almost every aspect of your company.

I particularly like the invoicing capabilities with Studiometry (customizable templates that are edited with a built in WYSIWYG editor) and the fact that the whole suite of tools syncs seamlessly with Studiometery Touch so you can take your work everywhere you go and aren’t necessarily tethered to a laptop.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, then get involved below!

Go Get It!

Studiometry is available on Oranged Software’s website for $199.95 (multi-user packs also available). If you’re interested in giving it a shot, check out the Free Trial.

Our sponsor this week is Studiometry, an amazing professional project management tool from Oranged Software.

Studiometry is a powerhouse of professional organization tools that’s been serving the industry for over eight years. Whether you’re managing contacts, generating estimates, tracking work, or billing clients, this one app has you covered in a single beautifully cohesive workflow.

Small businesses, freelancers, large organizations, all types of professionals from every industry can relate to the incredibly practical suite of tools in Studiometry. Unlike simple todo apps, which are a dime a dozen, this is a genuinely useful and fully featured productivity tool that can help you manage almost every aspect of your company.

I particularly like the invoicing capabilities with Studiometry (customizable templates that are edited with a built in WYSIWYG editor) and the fact that the whole suite of tools syncs seamlessly with Studiometery Touch so you can take your work everywhere you go and aren’t necessarily tethered to a laptop.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, then get involved below!

Go Get It!

Studiometry is available on Oranged Software’s website for $199.95 (multi-user packs also available). If you’re interested in giving it a shot, check out the Free Trial.

This isn’t going to be your typical Mac app review. Minecraft isn’t sold on the Mac App Store. It’s a cross-platform game that has over 3.5 million paid players across Windows, Mac, and Linux, making it one of the most wildly successful indie games in recent memory.

Minecraft is a creative/adventure sandbox game originally devised by independent Swedish game developer Markus Persson (known to the community as Notch) and continually developed by his company Mojang. Minecraft has its inspirations, but as a gamer, I can honestly say that I’ve never seen a game quite like Minecraft gain so much steam and such a huge following. What makes it so great?

The Game

To say Minecraft is “blocky” would be an understatement. The game relies on the cubic nature of the environment to produce randomly generated worlds rich with breathtaking terrain, trees, oceans, animals, monsters, caves, and now abandoned mine shafts, strongholds, and NPC villages to be discovered. Upon launching the game, you’ll see a beautiful main menu. You can connect to multiplayer servers or simply play on your own. In my opinion, both are equally as rewarding.

The Main Menu.

The core aspect of the game has often (and most accurately, all things considered) been likened to Legos, the popular plastic-brick building toy. Creativity and construction was, from conception, and still remains, the meat and potatoes of Minecraft. The game has a huge collection of materials from various types of wood, stone, and brick to lava, water, and various precious ores from which you can craft items and build almost limitless structures. Creativity mode is based solely around building, allowing you unlimited resources to construct whatever your imagination can create.

Finishing my Frank Lloyd Wright-style house was one of the most satisfying things I've ever done in a video game.

Survival Mode is the more gamey part of Minecraft. It is not for the weak of heart. The game has a distinct lack of instruction, and as a result, the ill-informed will die before getting the hang of things. The feeling of wonder and discovery you get in the first weeks of playing Minecraft cannot be replicated.

The inventory window, empty at the start of a new world.

Beginning a new game will spawn your character (a relatively nondescript miner named Steve) in a randomly generated world. Minecraft has a day/night cycle, and when night falls, the baddies come out. Right from the get-go, your survival clock is ticking. The goal here is to survive the first night (you won’t have time for anything beyond a rudimentary shelter). I don’t want to ruin any of the exciting discovery for first timers here (hint: your fists and tree trunks are enemies), but there are several “How To Survive Your First Night” tutorials scattered about the Internet.

What makes Minecraft interesting is that, despite its simple execution and gameplay, it has a profound ability to parallel the development of civilization. When you first begin your world, you start with absolutely nothing. The sun is going down fast, and your primary objective is survival. This continues for quite some time, as there are many unique monsters that want your flesh, not to mention your gradually depleting hunger-bar that constantly needs fed.

After several days of playing, once you have a shelter and renewable resources for food (such as farms), survival becomes less difficult, and you begin to explore. You chart the terrain around you, spelunking through caves and mining for valuables such as coal, iron, gold, lapis lazuli, and the holy grail–diamond. They can be crafted into stronger armor and tools, continuing the reduce the difficulty of survival.

The terrain continues to generate randomly as you explore further outward away from your spawn point, and there will always be new unique features to discover. But when the overwhelming excitement from exploration has diminished, players tend to turn to creativity. Having achieved a sustainable living environment where surviving is no longer a concern, the next logical step is to increase “quality of life” as it were. Evidence of this can be seen around the Minecraft community, as players share their designs for redstone powered machines, interior design, efficient mining and farming techniques, and stunning architecture.

An alien spacecraft that I built for fun.

The entire process from the survival phase to the equivalent of a first-world civilization is rather lengthy, making Minecraft a game with huge replay value. Each new world you generate will be completely random, providing infinite possibilities for play styles and in-game existence.

The sense of civilization can be expanded upon by starting (or joining) a multiplayer server. I’ve done both, and while it is fun joining a massive hosted server and seeing what other players have built (some of that stuff is just insanely impressive), the most fun I’ve had with the game is playing with a small group of close friends.

The folks at Mojang continue to work hard developing Minecraft, and as a result we’ve seen dramatic improvements to terrain generation, combat, exploration, and creative potential just in the last few months.

Development

Minecraft began in mid-2009 with a series of tests in a webpage-embedded java applet. It began as a purely creative game, giving players a set of blocks with which to build anything they wish in a mostly stagnant environment. An offline mode and a downloadable client released in what is colloquially referred to as the “Indev” phase, and updates were released every few days as the developer seemed to tirelessly improve the game. This sort of schedule continued through the Alpha phase and into the Beta phase until recently, when huge and game-changing updates started being developed in preparation for the game’s November official release date.

If you’re a developer, regardless of whether you make games or apps, take a page out of Mojang’s book. The constant contact the developer has with the community is not only impressive and heartwarming, but has, in some cases, resulted in improvements to the game. One modder created a mod that added pistons (the implications of moving parts was huge), and the idea was adopted by Mojang and implemented into the main game.

Conclusion

Normally, when I come across an app that I absolutely geek out over, I do my best to mask my childish excitement with a collected and stoic nod of approval in the general direction of the developer. I’m not going to do that here.

As a gamer that has largely retired from time-sink desktop games (I’m a veteran of WoW, CounterStrike, Age of Empires, you name it), I simply cannot give enough praise to Notch and his crew for developing a game that made me feel like a kid again. I’ve played Minecraft with my family, friends, and strangers alike. Being a part of the beta testing has been a roller coaster of updates and game changes that has taken the game in directions that I never could’ve expected when I began playing. The concept is simple, but the creative freedom the game provides is unparalleled.

Have you given Minecraft a shot? Let us know your experiences!

This isn’t going to be your typical Mac app review. Minecraft isn’t sold on the Mac App Store. It’s a cross-platform game that has over 3.5 million paid players across Windows, Mac, and Linux, making it one of the most wildly successful indie games in recent memory.

Minecraft is a creative/adventure sandbox game originally devised by independent Swedish game developer Markus Persson (known to the community as Notch) and continually developed by his company Mojang. Minecraft has its inspirations, but as a gamer, I can honestly say that I’ve never seen a game quite like Minecraft gain so much steam and such a huge following. What makes it so great?

The Game

To say Minecraft is “blocky” would be an understatement. The game relies on the cubic nature of the environment to produce randomly generated worlds rich with breathtaking terrain, trees, oceans, animals, monsters, caves, and now abandoned mine shafts, strongholds, and NPC villages to be discovered. Upon launching the game, you’ll see a beautiful main menu. You can connect to multiplayer servers or simply play on your own. In my opinion, both are equally as rewarding.

The Main Menu.

The core aspect of the game has often (and most accurately, all things considered) been likened to Legos, the popular plastic-brick building toy. Creativity and construction was, from conception, and still remains, the meat and potatoes of Minecraft. The game has a huge collection of materials from various types of wood, stone, and brick to lava, water, and various precious ores from which you can craft items and build almost limitless structures. Creativity mode is based solely around building, allowing you unlimited resources to construct whatever your imagination can create.

Finishing my Frank Lloyd Wright-style house was one of the most satisfying things I've ever done in a video game.

Survival Mode is the more gamey part of Minecraft. It is not for the weak of heart. The game has a distinct lack of instruction, and as a result, the ill-informed will die before getting the hang of things. The feeling of wonder and discovery you get in the first weeks of playing Minecraft cannot be replicated.

The inventory window, empty at the start of a new world.

Beginning a new game will spawn your character (a relatively nondescript miner named Steve) in a randomly generated world. Minecraft has a day/night cycle, and when night falls, the baddies come out. Right from the get-go, your survival clock is ticking. The goal here is to survive the first night (you won’t have time for anything beyond a rudimentary shelter). I don’t want to ruin any of the exciting discovery for first timers here (hint: your fists and tree trunks are enemies), but there are several “How To Survive Your First Night” tutorials scattered about the Internet.

What makes Minecraft interesting is that, despite its simple execution and gameplay, it has a profound ability to parallel the development of civilization. When you first begin your world, you start with absolutely nothing. The sun is going down fast, and your primary objective is survival. This continues for quite some time, as there are many unique monsters that want your flesh, not to mention your gradually depleting hunger-bar that constantly needs fed.

After several days of playing, once you have a shelter and renewable resources for food (such as farms), survival becomes less difficult, and you begin to explore. You chart the terrain around you, spelunking through caves and mining for valuables such as coal, iron, gold, lapis lazuli, and the holy grail–diamond. They can be crafted into stronger armor and tools, continuing the reduce the difficulty of survival.

The terrain continues to generate randomly as you explore further outward away from your spawn point, and there will always be new unique features to discover. But when the overwhelming excitement from exploration has diminished, players tend to turn to creativity. Having achieved a sustainable living environment where surviving is no longer a concern, the next logical step is to increase “quality of life” as it were. Evidence of this can be seen around the Minecraft community, as players share their designs for redstone powered machines, interior design, efficient mining and farming techniques, and stunning architecture.

An alien spacecraft that I built for fun.

The entire process from the survival phase to the equivalent of a first-world civilization is rather lengthy, making Minecraft a game with huge replay value. Each new world you generate will be completely random, providing infinite possibilities for play styles and in-game existence.

The sense of civilization can be expanded upon by starting (or joining) a multiplayer server. I’ve done both, and while it is fun joining a massive hosted server and seeing what other players have built (some of that stuff is just insanely impressive), the most fun I’ve had with the game is playing with a small group of close friends.

The folks at Mojang continue to work hard developing Minecraft, and as a result we’ve seen dramatic improvements to terrain generation, combat, exploration, and creative potential just in the last few months.

Development

Minecraft began in mid-2009 with a series of tests in a webpage-embedded java applet. It began as a purely creative game, giving players a set of blocks with which to build anything they wish in a mostly stagnant environment. An offline mode and a downloadable client released in what is colloquially referred to as the “Indev” phase, and updates were released every few days as the developer seemed to tirelessly improve the game. This sort of schedule continued through the Alpha phase and into the Beta phase until recently, when huge and game-changing updates started being developed in preparation for the game’s November official release date.

If you’re a developer, regardless of whether you make games or apps, take a page out of Mojang’s book. The constant contact the developer has with the community is not only impressive and heartwarming, but has, in some cases, resulted in improvements to the game. One modder created a mod that added pistons (the implications of moving parts was huge), and the idea was adopted by Mojang and implemented into the main game.

Conclusion

Normally, when I come across an app that I absolutely geek out over, I do my best to mask my childish excitement with a collected and stoic nod of approval in the general direction of the developer. I’m not going to do that here.

As a gamer that has largely retired from time-sink desktop games (I’m a veteran of WoW, CounterStrike, Age of Empires, you name it), I simply cannot give enough praise to Notch and his crew for developing a game that made me feel like a kid again. I’ve played Minecraft with my family, friends, and strangers alike. Being a part of the beta testing has been a roller coaster of updates and game changes that has taken the game in directions that I never could’ve expected when I began playing. The concept is simple, but the creative freedom the game provides is unparalleled.

Have you given Minecraft a shot? Let us know your experiences!

This isn’t going to be your typical Mac app review. Minecraft isn’t sold on the Mac App Store. It’s a cross-platform game that has over 3.5 million paid players across Windows, Mac, and Linux, making it one of the most wildly successful indie games in recent memory.

Minecraft is a creative/adventure sandbox game originally devised by independent Swedish game developer Markus Persson (known to the community as Notch) and continually developed by his company Mojang. Minecraft has its inspirations, but as a gamer, I can honestly say that I’ve never seen a game quite like Minecraft gain so much steam and such a huge following. What makes it so great?

The Game

To say Minecraft is “blocky” would be an understatement. The game relies on the cubic nature of the environment to produce randomly generated worlds rich with breathtaking terrain, trees, oceans, animals, monsters, caves, and now abandoned mine shafts, strongholds, and NPC villages to be discovered. Upon launching the game, you’ll see a beautiful main menu. You can connect to multiplayer servers or simply play on your own. In my opinion, both are equally as rewarding.

The Main Menu.

The core aspect of the game has often (and most accurately, all things considered) been likened to Legos, the popular plastic-brick building toy. Creativity and construction was, from conception, and still remains, the meat and potatoes of Minecraft. The game has a huge collection of materials from various types of wood, stone, and brick to lava, water, and various precious ores from which you can craft items and build almost limitless structures. Creativity mode is based solely around building, allowing you unlimited resources to construct whatever your imagination can create.

Finishing my Frank Lloyd Wright-style house was one of the most satisfying things I've ever done in a video game.

Survival Mode is the more gamey part of Minecraft. It is not for the weak of heart. The game has a distinct lack of instruction, and as a result, the ill-informed will die before getting the hang of things. The feeling of wonder and discovery you get in the first weeks of playing Minecraft cannot be replicated.

The inventory window, empty at the start of a new world.

Beginning a new game will spawn your character (a relatively nondescript miner named Steve) in a randomly generated world. Minecraft has a day/night cycle, and when night falls, the baddies come out. Right from the get-go, your survival clock is ticking. The goal here is to survive the first night (you won’t have time for anything beyond a rudimentary shelter). I don’t want to ruin any of the exciting discovery for first timers here (hint: your fists and tree trunks are enemies), but there are several “How To Survive Your First Night” tutorials scattered about the Internet.

What makes Minecraft interesting is that, despite its simple execution and gameplay, it has a profound ability to parallel the development of civilization. When you first begin your world, you start with absolutely nothing. The sun is going down fast, and your primary objective is survival. This continues for quite some time, as there are many unique monsters that want your flesh, not to mention your gradually depleting hunger-bar that constantly needs fed.

After several days of playing, once you have a shelter and renewable resources for food (such as farms), survival becomes less difficult, and you begin to explore. You chart the terrain around you, spelunking through caves and mining for valuables such as coal, iron, gold, lapis lazuli, and the holy grail–diamond. They can be crafted into stronger armor and tools, continuing the reduce the difficulty of survival.

The terrain continues to generate randomly as you explore further outward away from your spawn point, and there will always be new unique features to discover. But when the overwhelming excitement from exploration has diminished, players tend to turn to creativity. Having achieved a sustainable living environment where surviving is no longer a concern, the next logical step is to increase “quality of life” as it were. Evidence of this can be seen around the Minecraft community, as players share their designs for redstone powered machines, interior design, efficient mining and farming techniques, and stunning architecture.

An alien spacecraft that I built for fun.

The entire process from the survival phase to the equivalent of a first-world civilization is rather lengthy, making Minecraft a game with huge replay value. Each new world you generate will be completely random, providing infinite possibilities for play styles and in-game existence.

The sense of civilization can be expanded upon by starting (or joining) a multiplayer server. I’ve done both, and while it is fun joining a massive hosted server and seeing what other players have built (some of that stuff is just insanely impressive), the most fun I’ve had with the game is playing with a small group of close friends.

The folks at Mojang continue to work hard developing Minecraft, and as a result we’ve seen dramatic improvements to terrain generation, combat, exploration, and creative potential just in the last few months.

Development

Minecraft began in mid-2009 with a series of tests in a webpage-embedded java applet. It began as a purely creative game, giving players a set of blocks with which to build anything they wish in a mostly stagnant environment. An offline mode and a downloadable client released in what is colloquially referred to as the “Indev” phase, and updates were released every few days as the developer seemed to tirelessly improve the game. This sort of schedule continued through the Alpha phase and into the Beta phase until recently, when huge and game-changing updates started being developed in preparation for the game’s November official release date.

If you’re a developer, regardless of whether you make games or apps, take a page out of Mojang’s book. The constant contact the developer has with the community is not only impressive and heartwarming, but has, in some cases, resulted in improvements to the game. One modder created a mod that added pistons (the implications of moving parts was huge), and the idea was adopted by Mojang and implemented into the main game.

Conclusion

Normally, when I come across an app that I absolutely geek out over, I do my best to mask my childish excitement with a collected and stoic nod of approval in the general direction of the developer. I’m not going to do that here.

As a gamer that has largely retired from time-sink desktop games (I’m a veteran of WoW, CounterStrike, Age of Empires, you name it), I simply cannot give enough praise to Notch and his crew for developing a game that made me feel like a kid again. I’ve played Minecraft with my family, friends, and strangers alike. Being a part of the beta testing has been a roller coaster of updates and game changes that has taken the game in directions that I never could’ve expected when I began playing. The concept is simple, but the creative freedom the game provides is unparalleled.

Have you given Minecraft a shot? Let us know your experiences!

This isn’t going to be your typical Mac app review. Minecraft isn’t sold on the Mac App Store. It’s a cross-platform game that has over 3.5 million paid players across Windows, Mac, and Linux, making it one of the most wildly successful indie games in recent memory.

Minecraft is a creative/adventure sandbox game originally devised by independent Swedish game developer Markus Persson (known to the community as Notch) and continually developed by his company Mojang. Minecraft has its inspirations, but as a gamer, I can honestly say that I’ve never seen a game quite like Minecraft gain so much steam and such a huge following. What makes it so great?

The Game

To say Minecraft is “blocky” would be an understatement. The game relies on the cubic nature of the environment to produce randomly generated worlds rich with breathtaking terrain, trees, oceans, animals, monsters, caves, and now abandoned mine shafts, strongholds, and NPC villages to be discovered. Upon launching the game, you’ll see a beautiful main menu. You can connect to multiplayer servers or simply play on your own. In my opinion, both are equally as rewarding.

The Main Menu.

The core aspect of the game has often (and most accurately, all things considered) been likened to Legos, the popular plastic-brick building toy. Creativity and construction was, from conception, and still remains, the meat and potatoes of Minecraft. The game has a huge collection of materials from various types of wood, stone, and brick to lava, water, and various precious ores from which you can craft items and build almost limitless structures. Creativity mode is based solely around building, allowing you unlimited resources to construct whatever your imagination can create.

Finishing my Frank Lloyd Wright-style house was one of the most satisfying things I've ever done in a video game.

Survival Mode is the more gamey part of Minecraft. It is not for the weak of heart. The game has a distinct lack of instruction, and as a result, the ill-informed will die before getting the hang of things. The feeling of wonder and discovery you get in the first weeks of playing Minecraft cannot be replicated.

The inventory window, empty at the start of a new world.

Beginning a new game will spawn your character (a relatively nondescript miner named Steve) in a randomly generated world. Minecraft has a day/night cycle, and when night falls, the baddies come out. Right from the get-go, your survival clock is ticking. The goal here is to survive the first night (you won’t have time for anything beyond a rudimentary shelter). I don’t want to ruin any of the exciting discovery for first timers here (hint: your fists and tree trunks are enemies), but there are several “How To Survive Your First Night” tutorials scattered about the Internet.

What makes Minecraft interesting is that, despite its simple execution and gameplay, it has a profound ability to parallel the development of civilization. When you first begin your world, you start with absolutely nothing. The sun is going down fast, and your primary objective is survival. This continues for quite some time, as there are many unique monsters that want your flesh, not to mention your gradually depleting hunger-bar that constantly needs fed.

After several days of playing, once you have a shelter and renewable resources for food (such as farms), survival becomes less difficult, and you begin to explore. You chart the terrain around you, spelunking through caves and mining for valuables such as coal, iron, gold, lapis lazuli, and the holy grail–diamond. They can be crafted into stronger armor and tools, continuing the reduce the difficulty of survival.

The terrain continues to generate randomly as you explore further outward away from your spawn point, and there will always be new unique features to discover. But when the overwhelming excitement from exploration has diminished, players tend to turn to creativity. Having achieved a sustainable living environment where surviving is no longer a concern, the next logical step is to increase “quality of life” as it were. Evidence of this can be seen around the Minecraft community, as players share their designs for redstone powered machines, interior design, efficient mining and farming techniques, and stunning architecture.

An alien spacecraft that I built for fun.

The entire process from the survival phase to the equivalent of a first-world civilization is rather lengthy, making Minecraft a game with huge replay value. Each new world you generate will be completely random, providing infinite possibilities for play styles and in-game existence.

The sense of civilization can be expanded upon by starting (or joining) a multiplayer server. I’ve done both, and while it is fun joining a massive hosted server and seeing what other players have built (some of that stuff is just insanely impressive), the most fun I’ve had with the game is playing with a small group of close friends.

The folks at Mojang continue to work hard developing Minecraft, and as a result we’ve seen dramatic improvements to terrain generation, combat, exploration, and creative potential just in the last few months.

Development

Minecraft began in mid-2009 with a series of tests in a webpage-embedded java applet. It began as a purely creative game, giving players a set of blocks with which to build anything they wish in a mostly stagnant environment. An offline mode and a downloadable client released in what is colloquially referred to as the “Indev” phase, and updates were released every few days as the developer seemed to tirelessly improve the game. This sort of schedule continued through the Alpha phase and into the Beta phase until recently, when huge and game-changing updates started being developed in preparation for the game’s November official release date.

If you’re a developer, regardless of whether you make games or apps, take a page out of Mojang’s book. The constant contact the developer has with the community is not only impressive and heartwarming, but has, in some cases, resulted in improvements to the game. One modder created a mod that added pistons (the implications of moving parts was huge), and the idea was adopted by Mojang and implemented into the main game.

Conclusion

Normally, when I come across an app that I absolutely geek out over, I do my best to mask my childish excitement with a collected and stoic nod of approval in the general direction of the developer. I’m not going to do that here.

As a gamer that has largely retired from time-sink desktop games (I’m a veteran of WoW, CounterStrike, Age of Empires, you name it), I simply cannot give enough praise to Notch and his crew for developing a game that made me feel like a kid again. I’ve played Minecraft with my family, friends, and strangers alike. Being a part of the beta testing has been a roller coaster of updates and game changes that has taken the game in directions that I never could’ve expected when I began playing. The concept is simple, but the creative freedom the game provides is unparalleled.

Have you given Minecraft a shot? Let us know your experiences!

This isn’t going to be your typical Mac app review. Minecraft isn’t sold on the Mac App Store. It’s a cross-platform game that has over 3.5 million paid players across Windows, Mac, and Linux, making it one of the most wildly successful indie games in recent memory.

Minecraft is a creative/adventure sandbox game originally devised by independent Swedish game developer Markus Persson (known to the community as Notch) and continually developed by his company Mojang. Minecraft has its inspirations, but as a gamer, I can honestly say that I’ve never seen a game quite like Minecraft gain so much steam and such a huge following. What makes it so great?

The Game

To say Minecraft is “blocky” would be an understatement. The game relies on the cubic nature of the environment to produce randomly generated worlds rich with breathtaking terrain, trees, oceans, animals, monsters, caves, and now abandoned mine shafts, strongholds, and NPC villages to be discovered. Upon launching the game, you’ll see a beautiful main menu. You can connect to multiplayer servers or simply play on your own. In my opinion, both are equally as rewarding.

The Main Menu.

The core aspect of the game has often (and most accurately, all things considered) been likened to Legos, the popular plastic-brick building toy. Creativity and construction was, from conception, and still remains, the meat and potatoes of Minecraft. The game has a huge collection of materials from various types of wood, stone, and brick to lava, water, and various precious ores from which you can craft items and build almost limitless structures. Creativity mode is based solely around building, allowing you unlimited resources to construct whatever your imagination can create.

Finishing my Frank Lloyd Wright-style house was one of the most satisfying things I've ever done in a video game.

Survival Mode is the more gamey part of Minecraft. It is not for the weak of heart. The game has a distinct lack of instruction, and as a result, the ill-informed will die before getting the hang of things. The feeling of wonder and discovery you get in the first weeks of playing Minecraft cannot be replicated.

The inventory window, empty at the start of a new world.

Beginning a new game will spawn your character (a relatively nondescript miner named Steve) in a randomly generated world. Minecraft has a day/night cycle, and when night falls, the baddies come out. Right from the get-go, your survival clock is ticking. The goal here is to survive the first night (you won’t have time for anything beyond a rudimentary shelter). I don’t want to ruin any of the exciting discovery for first timers here (hint: your fists and tree trunks are enemies), but there are several “How To Survive Your First Night” tutorials scattered about the Internet.

What makes Minecraft interesting is that, despite its simple execution and gameplay, it has a profound ability to parallel the development of civilization. When you first begin your world, you start with absolutely nothing. The sun is going down fast, and your primary objective is survival. This continues for quite some time, as there are many unique monsters that want your flesh, not to mention your gradually depleting hunger-bar that constantly needs fed.

After several days of playing, once you have a shelter and renewable resources for food (such as farms), survival becomes less difficult, and you begin to explore. You chart the terrain around you, spelunking through caves and mining for valuables such as coal, iron, gold, lapis lazuli, and the holy grail–diamond. They can be crafted into stronger armor and tools, continuing the reduce the difficulty of survival.

The terrain continues to generate randomly as you explore further outward away from your spawn point, and there will always be new unique features to discover. But when the overwhelming excitement from exploration has diminished, players tend to turn to creativity. Having achieved a sustainable living environment where surviving is no longer a concern, the next logical step is to increase “quality of life” as it were. Evidence of this can be seen around the Minecraft community, as players share their designs for redstone powered machines, interior design, efficient mining and farming techniques, and stunning architecture.

An alien spacecraft that I built for fun.

The entire process from the survival phase to the equivalent of a first-world civilization is rather lengthy, making Minecraft a game with huge replay value. Each new world you generate will be completely random, providing infinite possibilities for play styles and in-game existence.

The sense of civilization can be expanded upon by starting (or joining) a multiplayer server. I’ve done both, and while it is fun joining a massive hosted server and seeing what other players have built (some of that stuff is just insanely impressive), the most fun I’ve had with the game is playing with a small group of close friends.

The folks at Mojang continue to work hard developing Minecraft, and as a result we’ve seen dramatic improvements to terrain generation, combat, exploration, and creative potential just in the last few months.

Development

Minecraft began in mid-2009 with a series of tests in a webpage-embedded java applet. It began as a purely creative game, giving players a set of blocks with which to build anything they wish in a mostly stagnant environment. An offline mode and a downloadable client released in what is colloquially referred to as the “Indev” phase, and updates were released every few days as the developer seemed to tirelessly improve the game. This sort of schedule continued through the Alpha phase and into the Beta phase until recently, when huge and game-changing updates started being developed in preparation for the game’s November official release date.

If you’re a developer, regardless of whether you make games or apps, take a page out of Mojang’s book. The constant contact the developer has with the community is not only impressive and heartwarming, but has, in some cases, resulted in improvements to the game. One modder created a mod that added pistons (the implications of moving parts was huge), and the idea was adopted by Mojang and implemented into the main game.

Conclusion

Normally, when I come across an app that I absolutely geek out over, I do my best to mask my childish excitement with a collected and stoic nod of approval in the general direction of the developer. I’m not going to do that here.

As a gamer that has largely retired from time-sink desktop games (I’m a veteran of WoW, CounterStrike, Age of Empires, you name it), I simply cannot give enough praise to Notch and his crew for developing a game that made me feel like a kid again. I’ve played Minecraft with my family, friends, and strangers alike. Being a part of the beta testing has been a roller coaster of updates and game changes that has taken the game in directions that I never could’ve expected when I began playing. The concept is simple, but the creative freedom the game provides is unparalleled.

Have you given Minecraft a shot? Let us know your experiences!

You know how everybody says you’re supposed to take about a short break from the computer every hour if you want to keep your sanity? Chances are you’ve heard of this but don’t really practice it. Time moves differently while you are working on a computer, and sometimes it’s hard to keep track of how long you’ve been in front of the screen.

Today we are reviewing an app called BreakTime that reminds you of when you are supposed to take breaks from the computer. But how well does it work at keeping you away from the computer once you have those scheduled breaks? Let’s see.

How Does It Work?

In Action

BreakTime is a very lightweight and simple app that sits in your menu bar, quietly counting away the minutes until you need to take a break from your computer. You have a few settings that you can tweak to decide how often you want to take your breaks and how long you want them to last. After you tweak them, the clock will start counting away the minutes until your next scheduled break. You can check the time left until your next break by clicking on the menu bar icon, which will also show you an on/off button and a progress bar.

Break Time

Break

A few seconds before your break starts, the clock will automatically show a countdown so that you are aware that your computer is going to be disabled for a little while. Once the countdown is over, your screen will fade out a little and in the center you’ll be shown a “break window” with a small progress bar, some snooze buttons with one, five and ten minute settings and a “Done” button which will disable the break. After your set time is done, the progress bar will turn from blue to green, but the clock will keep going.

Now, there are two ways to go around using this app. If you use the “Enforce” mode, you won’t be able to quit a break in the middle, in fact, you can do nothing but wait until the break is over. If you do not activate this feature, then you can stop the break anytime you’d like. There’s also a very cool feature where the app will monitor your activity, and if it doesn’t detect any, then it will reschedule your breaks as it thinks you’ve already taken them (you can deactivate this feature if you’d like).

Do You Need It?

Preferences

If you spend a lot of time on the computer because of your job (I’m pretty sure I just described all of you), and are concerned about your mental/physical health during your work hours, then you could give this app a try and see if you enjoy the little breaks it “enforces” you to take. I like to think of it as a little game where you have to work as much as you can before the clock runs out and if you run out of time, it allows you to do other interesting stuff while you are on a break.

You should be careful with how you use your break times. If you are going to use them to check your phone or make some advances on your newest iPhone game, then it really isn’t doing much work at keeping you away from the screen, but distracting you from your work. Sure, finding some time to check on your messages or playing a little game might be useful at dealing with stress, but ideally you’d want to use this time to take a break from electricity altogether and go find a glass of water, someone to talk to, and you know, stretch your legs.

You should also be careful if this app is making you less productive at work. People work differently, and I know a lot of people (me included) that find it very hard to concentrate on something after they have been interrupted at it. When I used this app, once the break started I tended to end my “productivity time” and once the break was over I would use the time to check my Twitter feed and my email before going back to work.

Conclusion

I’m always a fan of these type of strange apps that want to help you do something like focus more on what you are doing or keep you away from working or procrastinating too much. The thing is, I always use them for just a little while and then I get bored with them and they end up getting lost in my Applications folder.

For example, FocusBar seemed like a good idea at first, but I haven’t really used it since a few days after I got it. Granted, these two are different type of apps, but they fall into the same kind of weird productivity app category.

I could see myself using this app for a few days and being excited about it, but once the novelty was over I’d probably just go back to not using it. It’s a pleasure to use, the design is nice, the idea behind it is great and the details included in it are all well-thought, which makes it not be as annoying as it could; but I just think with time this app would become a burden and it’d be something else to distract me from doing real work. It’s a good idea, but it’s probably not for me, and especially not for the type of work that I do, which needs a lot of concentration for long periods of time. What about you? What do you think of these type of apps? Would you use this app, or do you use anything similar?

As many of the Mac AppStorm writers will tell you, backup is important! It is the single thing that is protecting you from massive data loss, hours of frustration and lots of hair pulling.

With the advent of Leopard, Apple released a built-in backup utility that makes backup a breeze, called Time Machine. However, Time Machine was developed for local use only. It will backup to a Firewire or USB hard drive plugged directly into your computer as well as a Time Capsule device on your local Wifi network. While that is a very good thing, natural disasters do occur, as does theft and simple hard drive failure that can put your backup at risk. What if you could use Time Machine to backup to the cloud?

Introducing Dolly Drive

Dolly Drive does just that. It enables you to use Time Machine to backup to a cloud service, called Dolly Grid.

Backing up to Dolly Grid

Backing up using Dolly Drive just requires a small application that changes a few things about your Time Machine settings. Instead of backing up to a local hard disk or Time Capsule on your local network, it creates a backup that is transferred up to the Dolly Grid.

Dolly Drive main window

Dolly Drive Backup Status

Now one thing that must be remembered is the slowness that is associated with online backup. Whether you use Dropbox, CrashPlan or Dolly Drive, your backups are going to take a bit longer than they would if they were backing up to a local hard disk. However, the benefits (protection against theft, hard drive failure or natural disaster) often outweigh the downside of slower backup.

Cloning With Dolly Clone

Once you have your time machine backing up to the cloud, what are you going to do with the hard drive that is sitting idle besides your computer? Use it as a local backup of course! With most of your data secured online, it can takes hours to download your data to get going again after a hard drive failure or loss of some kind. Having a local backup as well a cloud backup will help you get up and running again in a matter of minutes instead of hours.

Since Dolly Drive takes up your Time Machine capabilities, (Apple doesn’t allow for two different Time Machine instances to exist on one Mac at the same time) you will need to use a cloning utility instead. Recently, Dolly Drive added cloning capabilities right inside their application under the name “Dolly Clone.”

Dolly Clone, selecting a source

Dolly Clone is about as simple as it gets. You pick what you want backed up and then which drive it should be cloned to. Then you can chose to have Dolly Clone wipe the backup destination and start fresh, or have it smartly update the drives to be clones of each other. The latter is done by determining the differences between the two drives and then adjusting the destination drive to match the original.

Pricing Online Backup

Dolly Drive is a subscription service (with Dolly Clone being a free download for everyone). They have a few different plans starting at $5/month for 50GB, going up to $10/month for 250GB and even $55/month for 2TB of storage (there are discounts available if your pay in advance). Each plan comes with an extra 5GB per month that you remain a customer. Since Time Machine backups continuously expand, it’s a great bonus to using Dolly Drive.

The two main competitors to Dolly Drive appear to be CrashPlan and Backblaze. However, these don’t utilize the built-in Time Machine system to backup. They each charge $5/month for unlimited backup. It’s important to note though that restoring from these services generally requires logging onto their website and downloading a .zip file. This is much less fluid than using Time Machine to connect to your Dolly Drive backup and restoring from there.

Conclusion

Dolly Drive for Lion, at the time of writing is still in Beta. There are a few bugs that should be fixed with Lion’s 10.7.2 backup, according to Dolly Drive. However it worked splendidly for me.

It is stuck with the normally slow internet backup problem that all of its competitors also face. With a normal home connection, the Internet isn’t really fast enough to match local backup speeds. While it isn’t Dolly Drive’s fault, it is something to think about if you plan to start backing up terabytes of data.

Because it is using Time Machine to backup, there isn’t a way to access your files on a mobile device or different computer, even if your files are located in the cloud.

Should you start using Dolly Drive for cloud backup? I would say yes if you haven’t ever tried online backup. Being so deeply integrated with the Mac operating system is fantastic. I found their support to be exceptional as well. If you are already backed up with another online backup service, I would be a bit weary. This is mainly due to the amount of time that it would take to get all of your data in the cloud again.

Do you use an online backup service? Have you tried out Dolly Drive? Let us know in the comments!