35 Quick-Fix Games That’ll Help You Take a Break

It’s time to quit out of iWork, SublimeText, or Photoshop, and take a well-deserved break. Today we are going over some fun and simple quick-fix games that will allow you to reset your brain and get back to work with a fresh mindset. These games are meant to give you a few minutes of distraction while you take a break, wait for a movie to render, wait for an important business call, or if you just happen to want some brief gaming time.

With that said, if you happen to be a gamer who enjoys simple yet addictive games, you may want to take a look at this list. In it, you will find quite a few games that are worth your time. Some of them are free, too, so you won’t even have to spend a dime.

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Quick-Fix Games

Crystal Tower

Our first item on the list is Crystal Tower. It was previously free, but now its one buck. Regardless, this game is a really short and sweet puzzle game that’ll help you kill some time. This game was in my hard drive for quite a while, and my only complain is that there is not a lot of replay value; otherwise, this game should be in your library.

Price: $0.99

Quick-Fix Games

Super Crossfire

Welcome to Super Crossfire! This crazy little game will have you addicted in no time! With over 150 unique waves of enemies, deep yet simple gameplay, and power-ups, you will have a blast as you take your break. It may take you away from your work for more than five minutes, but hey, give it a try.

Price: $4.99

Quick-Fix Games

Call of Atlantis

Get ready to waste some time in Call of Atlantis. Atlantis, that one lost city you may have heard of, is looking for you to save the city and defeat its enemies. There are around 66 addictive levels with supposed “endless” replay value. It also promises “elegant” voice overs, so give it a try. It is free to try anyways.

Prize: Free

Quick-Fix Games

A Knight’s Move

A Knight’s Move is the first game on our list that combines current gaming features with board games mechanics. In this game, you basically use the same movement you would as if you were a knight in chess, however your target is to move your knight across the board. It is a well-received game, so give it a try.

Price: Free

Quick-Fix Games

Mine Searcher

Who remembers being in an office and playing Mine Sweeper on that old PC? I do. Well, to be completely honest, it was my mom’s office and I was about five, but hey, I remember. Anyways, Mine Searcher is basically the same, exact game on your Mac. Yes, finally! But sarcasm aside, this is one of those great time wasters that doesn’t get old. Give it a try.

Price: Free

Quick-Fix Games

Stripe Physics

Physics, physics, physics. Like our first item, this game is somewhat similar, but it is currently free, and your ultimate goal is to bring the red ball to a platform. There are many objects that have different properties, so you will have to be careful with those. If there is a hard level, just remember that if you get back to work, then later get back to the game, you’ll do better.

Price: Free

Quick-Fix Games

SpellTower

SpellTower is our first word game in this list, and guess what? It is Game Center compatible, too! I know, crazy! Never mind that, though, because it sadly has no multiplayer! Either way, word games are perfect for wasting your time, so have a look at it, and let us know what you think.

Price: $3.99

Quick-Fix Games

Bejeweled 3

What? I mean, you knew I had to add PopCap’s Bejeweled 3 to the mix! After the Mine Sweeper clone, this game is probably the best time waster, quick-fix game out there! If you are not familiar with Bejeweled, you should really give it a try. I’ll admit, the game is a bit high in price, but you do get a PSN/XBLA caliber game. With that said, take a look at it, you will have a great time.

Price: $19.99

Quick-Fix Games

Osmos

I wasn’t particularly aware that a genre known as “eat-em-up existed, but hey, if you didn’t either, here is our first “classic eat-em-up” game. Osmos will have you growing and growing by absorbing smaller motes. In order to move though, you will have to eject matter behind you. I know what you are thinking, but don’t worry, it is nothing like that. I don’t think?

Price: $19.99

Quick-Fix Games

W.E.L.D.E.R.

Nope, I’m not gonna repeat the name of this game, but I am going to tell you that it is a great word game. It is also compatible with Game Center. However the only downside to this app is that it contains quite a few in-app purchases. The game is already six bucks by itself, so I doubt an in-app purchase of 30 dollars is worth it. Judge for yourself, though.

Price: $5.99

Quick-Fix Games

Mancala FS5

Mancala FS5 is another cool board game that can now live on your Mac. Thanks to Game Center, you can play this game with other people in the multiplayer section. If you need a quick time-killing device, this is the one for you. It also has a lot of replay value since you don’t need to play against the computer all the time.

Price: $4.99

Quick-Fix Games

Vitrun

Our next game will put you in a race against time in the year 2174. You are in the quest for habitable planets — who isn’t in the year 2174, right? — that are similar to earth. With awesome 3D graphics and over 18 levels to tackle, you will get a nice few minutes out of this game each time you play.

Price: $1.99

Quick-Fix Games

Gridrunner

Ready for some shooting? Welcome to the mad world of Gridrunner. This is an iconic game from the Commodore 64 era back in 1982; which means, I wasn’t even born yet. In any case, relive the adventures of Gridrunner with updated physics and gameplay mechanics. This game is excellent as a quick-fix as well.

Price: $2.99

Quick-Fix Games

WordsWorth

WordsWorth. Say that 100 times without stoping. Go on, I dare you. Actually, never mind. I just tried. It is sort of easy, but hey, you want to know what this game is all about. WordsWorth is a word game with Game Center support and a huge amount of features. There are three modes, it supports push notifications, chat support, Facebook, etc. Give this game a try.

Price: $4.99

Quick-Fix Games

The Last Rocket

The Last Rocket is a cool little 8-bit game that will have you blasting your way through 64 rooms of spikes, fans, mines, flame jets and more! You need to escape before the ship collides with a star, so be quick, be lethal, and be nimble! It is perfect as a quick-fix game, and it even has achievements. No Game Center support, though.

Price: $2.99

Quick-Fix Games

Mahjong Elements HDX

Also supporting Game Center, Mahjong Elements HDX is a Mahjong game that will give you over 50 hours of awesomeness. Packed with plenty of cool features, you can’t go wrong with this game if you like Mahjong games. There is also no time limit, so if you feel like going over those five minutes of your break, feel free. Just remember, you need to get back to work at some point!

Price: $4.99

Quick-Fix Games

Qbism HD

Yet another quick and simple puzzle game to keep your mind busy for a few minutes. With dynamic backgrounds, over 140 puzzles, 3D graphics and effects, you can’t go wrong with Obism HD. This game will really challenge your perception, so be on your toes.

Price: $2.99

Quick-Fix Games

Touch Grind

Ever played with those finger skateboards? Anyways, Touchgrind is an awesome game that basically brings finger boarding to your Mac. Be warned though, this game requires multi-touch technology, so that means that some MacBooks won’t be able to play this (unless you have an external peripheral).

Price: Free

Quick-Fix Games

Quinn

Quinn has been a very good game to me since I got my MacBook Pro back in late 07. This is essentially the best Tetris game you will ever play. Sadly, they don’t update it anymore over a name dispute, but you can still get it. You can customize many aspects of the game and really make it your own. Plus, it really is a quick-fix game.

Price: Free

Quick-Fix Games

Zen Pinball 2

Zen Pinball 2 is one of the coolest pinball games out there. With a high Metacritic score, you are sure to have some fun with it. Odd that a game of this genre is free-to-play, but if you want to add more to it, you can also get the Marvels’ The Avengers table for a small fee.

Quick-Fix Games

Kill Monty

Recommended to us by read Philipp, Kill Monty is a very gory game that allows you to completely lose yourself into it and reset your brain. Awesome for when you are switching from one task to the other. There is a demo version, so try downloading that and trying it before you buy.

Price: $19.95

Quick-Fix Games

Major Mayhem

“This is slaughter done right”, says PocketGamer. Alright why not, let’s go with that. This extremely addictive game has plenty of things for you to do, and while yes you can spend many hours on this games, you can also spend just a few minutes with it at the time. I’ll warn you now, though, the game has some in-app purchases. However, according to IGN (yeah, they actually reviewed this game), “Major Mayhem is one of the best rail shooters on the App Store.”

Quick-Fix Games

Warblade

This is the land of shoot-’em-ups (not eat-’em-ups). In this land, you will fight aliens and save humanity from their threat. This game resembles Galaga, but with a lot of new-age updates and features. This game comes fully packed with 100 action-packed levels and achievements, so you will be coming back for more every time!

Price: $4.99

Quick-Fix Games

Gun Builder

Alright, I’m just gonna say it: Ghost Recon Gunsmith mode. Yes, this game is probably an exact copy of that awesome mode from Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, but hey, it is a pretty cool mode. In this game you will be able to create cool guns and take them out on to the gun range (just like in Ghost Recon!). There are plenty of combinations to go through, so go nuts!

Price: $9.99

Quick-Fix Games

Stupid Zombies

Good name for a game about zombies, don’t you think? Yep, zombies can’t seem to get a break, but neither can we. They just invade just about every game we play, so let’s kill them all. In this cool little time-waster, you will be tasked with killing stupid zombies with a shotgun and save humanity. Careful, this game can get a bit difficult.

Price: $2.99

Quick-Fix Games

Pictorial

Pictorial is a game that involves quite a lot of reasoning, so it is probably not good for a lot of mindless shooting. The game play here is a bit tougher, so expect to be challenged along the way. However, this game is short enough to help you when you need some time away from work.

Price: $1.99

Quick-Fix Games

Hungry Dragon

Hungry Dragon is a cool game that is very reminiscent of the very simple snake games of old. You take control of a very hungry dragon who is trapped by an evil power. The goal is to find food and eat as much as you can in order to break free. Gameplay can be endless, so better be on your toes.

Price: $0.99

Quick-Fix Games

Fantastic 4-In-a-Row

This game is a take on a very classic game, so those out there who remember should have an amazing time with it. It, of course, comes with all the bells and whistles that this generation’s games have. This one isn’t Game Center compatible sadly, but hey perhaps in the future.

Price: Free

Quick-Fix Games

Terrific Tic-Tac-Toe

And here is another take on the infamous Tic Tac Toe game. This one comes with some cool features that will help you better spend your break. You can also play with another person, so you can play with the family.

Price: Free

Quick-Fix Games

Tap Tap Rescue

Tap Tap Rescue is currently free for a limited time, so if it is still free at the time of publication, you should get it while supplies last! This game is a fun small puzzle game where you mess around with physics and go through and interesting story.

Price: Free

Quick-Fix Games

Black Tower 2

Black Tower’s name alone doesn’t really tell you what it is all about, but if the ratings are correct, this game is one very addicting gem. Gems: you mess around with gems all the time, so hey, if this is your kind of game, give it a go!

Price: Free

Quick-Fix Games

Dots Deluxe

Dots Deluxe is another game by EnsenaSoft (which has no relation to NeverSoft), but this one is all about dots. The name probably gave that away, didn’t it? You basically have to click the start and the end of the dots and then close a box, so the player with the most closed boxes wins.

Price: $0.99

Quick-Fix Games

Air Hockey

There had to be an air hockey game in this list, I mean, it is one of the best quick-fix games out there. As you may know, air hockey is fast, fun, simple, so this is a perfect time waster. The only down side with it is the price. There are other free alternatives I’m sure.

Price: $2.99

Quick-Fix Games

Rafter

Rafter is a cool physics-based game where players sketch objects in order to, well, play and win. There are over 100 levels, so this one is gonna be sitting on your Launchpad for long. It can get a bit tricky in the later levels, so don’t give up!

Price: $1.99

Quick-Fix Games

Buka

Buka, our last item on the list, is where you make “stars go boom”. So basically, it is everyday-business for anyone who’s ever destroyed a star before. Samantha Carter comes to mind, but she destroyed a sun, right? Anyway, this fun and quick game is about destroying everything until you read what they call “the happy place”. Give it a try.

Price: Free

So, how do you reset your brain?

Now that we’ve given you some tasty games for your gaming needs, we encourage you to share the ones you use when you need a few minutes of distraction from your workflow. Remember that your additions may be featured in other roundups, so go ahead and enrich us with new content on the comments below. Don’t forget to also check out the Humble Bundle games from this week’s bundle before it’s gone.

Oh, and feel free to join our Steam Group in order to play with or against Mac.AppStorm readers and writers.

Glow for FB: A Shining Facebook Notifier

I’ve tried more than a few Facebook menubar apps, because while I want to keep in touch, I don’t want to be constantly refreshing a browser or checking a separate window. It throws off my workflow and I inevitably end up playing Farmville, even if I just went there to look at a picture of a panda waving.

Keeping me off Facebook and on task is Glow for FB. It notifies me whenever something happens, but unlike a lot of other Facebook menubar apps, I can’t update my status or browse my News Feed. Glow removes that temptation while still keeping me connected. With this week’s release of Mac OS X 10.8.2 and new Facebook integration, though, there may not be a lot of use for Glow in the future. We’ll take a look and see if it has anything special to offer.

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A Two-Trick Pony

Glow for FB does two things for you; it notifies you of Facebook updates, replies, and messages, and it and opens Facebook in a browser window. You can’t post a status update to Facebook from Glow or browse your News Feed. That’s not what Glow’s trying to do; it aims to be a lot simpler and a lot less obtrusive that a mini Facebook menubar app.

The Glow menu

The Glow menu

You’ll have to login to Facebook via the Glow Activator app on Facebook, and Glow will ask for permission to read all of your messages and notifications and whatever else it needs. Without that permission, it’s not going to work. The developer promises they’re not gathering super secret information on you, though, so keep a good thought.

Click on the Glow icon, and you can check or uncheck what updates you want to see on your Mac. Glow will let you know when you have a new Facebook notification, friend request, or message. If you want your notifications and messages but not friend requests, make sure you deselect friend requests. If you’re getting notifications you really don’t want, you can tailor them in your Facebook preferences, but you can’t do that through Glow.

Glow for FB's settings

Glow for FB’s settings

It’s worth noting that there was a comment on the App Store that Glow was consistently using 50% CPU. I couldn’t replicate this. Not even close. I kept a level 0.0%, with one spike to 0.2%. The user thought it was tied to an issue with the permissions dialog popping up repeatedly, but I also didn’t experience this. There aren’t enough reviews in to say if this the norm or an anomaly, but if you experience anything out of the ordinary, always contact the developer.

Getting Your Notifications

There are a few different ways to get notifications. Glow’s notifications give you a Growl style notification banner or alert popup, but you can also have them go to Notification Center in Mountain Lion, too. Clicking on the popup will open Facebook in your browser, and you can adjust whether you want self-clearing banners or sticky alerts in System Preferences.

A Glow notification

A Glow notification

The Notification Center update, however, will stay there until you clear it, so you won’t feel you need to stay on top of Facebook notifications. You can just open Notification Center whenever you have a moment and take care of them then.

If you choose detailed notifications, you’ll get a little blurb from Glow about the Facebook update in both the popup and Notification Center. Otherwise, you’ll get a generic “New Notification.” I preferred the detailed notifications, because I’m more likely to click if someone has responded to an update while I might put off checking out a new photo album. However, it’s precisely for that reason the more generic notifications will work for some people, as they won’t be as tempted to rush to Facebook when they’re working.

Glow notifications also go to Notification Center.

Glow notifications also go to Notification Center.

Clicking “More…” gets you to a few additional options and the application settings. If you’d like some quiet time, you can mute Glow for ten minutes. The Glow icon will go gray to let you know you won’t be getting any notifications for a while. It would be nice to adjust that interval, if you need to focus on a project or are giving a presentation.

Glow vs. Mountain Lion

Glow isn’t going to be a rival for Mountain Lion’s new Facebook integration. Similar to Twitter integration, you’ll be able to post updates from Notification Center or send links from Safari. Mountain Lion will add Facebook information to all of your contacts, and send updates to Notification Center.

With the exception of seeing your updates in Notification Center, Glow isn’t going to do any of that. And it’s not trying to. Glow wants to make it easy to manage your Facebook notifications, and only your notifications. It’s trying to keep you off of Facebook and on the job while keeping you connected to your friends and family. Glow also makes it’s really easy to manage your settings. It’s all up there in the menubar, and I didn’t have to go digging through System Preferences to get anything setup or to change those settings.

It’s possible Mac OS X 10.8.2 may make Glow obsolete, as it goes so far beyond what Glow offers, but that’s true of plenty of Facebook menubar apps, too, that allow you to update or read your News Feed without opening a browser. And that’s part of Glow’s charm. Like so many inexpensive App Store buys right now, it’s doing one thing well. And for some users, that one thing, access to notifications with no other Facebook distractions, is going to be all they really want or need.

Stick Reminders to Your Screen with Sticky Notifications

Always forgetting little things and minor tasks? Do you walk away from your computer, then come back and wonder what you were about to do? The old-school solution is to write a note on a sticky and attach it to your keyboard or monitor. It turns out there’s an app for that.

Sticky Notifications lets you quickly create reminders that sit on your screen until you dismiss them. It does one thing, and it does it well — with several advanced features for power users and an easy-as interface for everyone else. But is it worth the $3 price tag? Let’s take a look.

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Simple Reminders

The app’s core function is posting notification alerts on your screen, using either Growl or Notification Center (or both). Just tap on the icon in your menubar, add a title, subtitle, and message (all of which are optional), then hit notify. It’ll show up as a notification, and stay there until you dismiss it.

Remember the important things.

You can create several of these stickies, or customize how they show up via the Notification Center or Growl preferences. If your sticky contains links, you can set them to open automatically when you click on the notification. There’s also an option to create new sticky notifications via a keyboard shortcut, but you’ll have to turn this on manually.

A sticky notification, displayed as a Notification Center alert. You can also use Growl to display the stickies.

Automated Services

Sticky Notifications includes several nifty integration features. There’s a service to create a new sticky from selected text, which you need to turn on via the Keyboard pane of the System Preferences. This is perfect for quick reminders to download an app, follow up on an email, or otherwise deal with something later. With help from Automator, you can even make some of these tasks occur automatically.

Right-click or control-click on selected text and highlight the Services menu to make a sticky notification from it.

One such use I thought of is extracting the links from a web page or document and creating stickies with them. Another, more flexible, option for this kind of thing is the LaunchBar integration. You can create a search template that will perform a specified action (say, search Google) and, with a little help from System Services, create a sticky for the top result, which you can click on at your leisure.

The app recognizes URLs in its reminders and opens them automatically when you click on a message, making it perfect for saving a link for later without dropping it into the dark passages of a bookmarks folder. It can handle URLs that aren’t web pages, too — the app has its own URL scheme.

You can create a note directly from your browser by typing sticky-notifications://note?message=Test%20Message in the address bar, where “Test Message” is replaced with whatever text you want. To change the title from “Reminder” to something a little more custom, add &title=My%20Title, and to include a subtitle add &subtitle=This%20is%20a%20subtitle. If you’d prefer to bring up the New Notification window, swap “note” for “prepare” in the custom URL. It’s easy, intuitive, and extremely useful.

You can also use the custom URLs with Alfred or LaunchBar — two fantastic Spotlight replacements. The app even comes with an Alfred Custom Search script that you can install with the click of a button.

Creating new notifications via Alfred is easy.

Deceptively Powerful

Sticky Notifications is much more than it at first appears. There’s a world of complexity hidden beneath the core feature of displaying a Growl or Notification Center alert with a custom message. And yet even the advanced functionality is intuitive — integrating with Automator scripts, System Services, or 3rd-party launcher/search apps Alfred and LaunchBar.

At $2.99, it’s a small price to pay for the convenience of a sticky note you can activate at the tap of a button — with custom workflows and all the power of a built-in URL scheme. You can tell developer Matt Gemmell put a lot of work into the tiny tool, which is everything we’ve come to expect from a great Mac app — intuitive, simple, and powerful, with a clean design. The only thing I’d like to see in future is a scheduling option, for the stickies you don’t want to worry about until a day or two later.

I reviewed version 1.0.4, which at the time of writing is still awaiting App Store approval. The Mac App Store release is currently at version 1.0.

5 Promo Codes for Savings Up for Grabs

Are you looking for a good way to simplify managing your money? If so, Savings might just be the answer.

Read on to find out how you can win a free copy of Savings!


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Savings is a personal finance app that simplifies tracking and managing one’s finances. Whether you are completely new to money management, or just looking for a simpler tool, Savings will give you a fresh start at managing your money. We reviewed it back in April:

Savings is a nice option for those who only want the basic features of easy-to-use personal finance software for the Mac.

How to Enter

To enter, simply follow us on Twitter and leave a comment on this post with your username. We’ll choose the winners at random one week from today. Good luck!

Craft JavaScript-Powered Sites Easier with Lucid

Almost every web site begins life as a specially formatted text file. Initially, the web consisted of static HTML files usually create in text editors. Soon the rise of the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) web editors to sought to hide this code and present an editor more like Word or other popular word processors. This would allow the creation of web pages without the need of learning HTML.

Building better development environments is one of the holy grails of computing. At heart all computing is zeros and ones, but no one programs at that level. Instead we use higher level languages to bring concepts into execution and let the computer translate those languages to code the computer understands. On the web, much of the interactivity you see that drives everything from photo galleries to web apps like Google Docs is coded in JavaScript. It’d be too complex for someone with no experience to use on day one to design their own site, but it’s not so complex as to be unapproachable. But surely there’s an easier way to make an interactive site without having to become a developer.

That’s where Lucid comes in. It’s a new tool from The Escapers that’s designed to help you code JavaScript-powered sites in a simpler graphical interface. Let’s take a look.

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What is Lucid?

Lucid is designed to allow a user to add dynamic effects to otherwise static web pages. Normally these features would require writing JavaScript code, but in Lucid, you can add animations and other active content to an otherwise static web page using drag and drop. The program supports animations, maps, and charts among other common effects. You drag and drop the elements that you want and Lucid generates standard Javascript to implement the features using standard, popular libraries such as jQuery.

Sample Included Workflows

Lucid includes several example workflows.

The program works by letting you create workflows consisting of actions and bindings. Actions perform an activity normally to or with an object on the web page, while bindings attach actions to objects on the web page. You create the workflows by dragging and dropping actions and bindings onto the page and then linking them together.

Lucid creates JavaScript code based on the workflows you create and adds it to your web page. Included in the JavaScript code will be comments that allow Lucid to maintain and edit this code as you make changes to the workflows. The generated code should run in any browser including mobile browsers such as Safari on the iPhone. You can also edit the code Lucid generates to customize the results. When done you can export the finished site in compressed code that removes the comments, though this minimized code cannot be brought back into Lucid.

Building Workflows

Lucid includes an introductory tutorial in the help and the web site contains two video demonstrating use of the program. These three resources will help you get a better grasp on the program and its abilities. You can use any HTML page in Lucid, but only static HTML pages are supported. You begin by either creating a blank project or import an existing web site as a project. You then let Lucid add the standard jQuery and jQuery UI libraries along with their custom library libraries to the site if not already included them.

Binding an Event

Binding a Click event to a blue square on a simple HTML page.

Next, you can create workflows in Lucid. For each workflow, you first create a binding. A binding is a combination of an object on a web page and an event on that object. The event will normally be an action by the viewer such as clicking an element of the page, moving the mouse over an item on the page, or pressing a key. To each binding you can then link a sequence of one or more actions. Each action will perform an activity. The activity may be an animation, a call to another web page, starting a timer, or other common dynamic functions. In many cases the action will have an effect on an element on the web page, but not usually the same as the one connected to the binding.

Simple Workflow

A simple workflow to fade a blue square when clicked.

As an example imagine that you have a blue square on a web page. When that square is clicked you want it to fade away over a second and a half period. The binding would be the click on the blue square. The action would be an fade animation bound to the square that will slide it down the screen.

Graphically, the window in Lucid will show these connection by drawing lines from the event to the action and from the event to its bound element and from the action to its bound element. The right side of the window shows a visual representation of the static web page you are working with. You cannot edit the page in this window, but use it to connect actions and bindings to objects on the page. Lucid also includes a Preview mode that allows you to use this window to test your page.

On the left you see your workflow for the page. At the top of the workflow your bindings are displayed. Below this your actions will be displayed. Lucid displays the relationships between bindings, actions, and elements on the web page using arrows and lines. For a complex workflow this display can get crowded quickly and Lucid allows you to temporarily hide parts of the workflow for clarity.

How Does Lucid Do?

Lucid’s goal is to simply adding dynamic actions to basic web sites without requiring the creator to learn to program JavaScript. To a large degree it succeeds. You can create some pretty good and impressive effects without knowing much JavaScript, if any. The drag and drop interface is intuitive and I ran into few bugs while testing the program. If your desired effects are simple and your site consists of static HTML pages, then you might be able to create a full workflow that meets your needs. If your site is dynamically created by a server or uses a framework like WordPress that is, then Lucid will not work for you.

Photo Gallery Sample Page

An included more complex example of a photo gallery web page.

I found that the program still assumes some familiarity with JavaScript. Many actions require some knowledge of the options and settings you’d use if writing the code directly. The names of actions and bindings also require some knowledge of HTML and the best practices on building pages to get the maximum effect. It’s an impressive start, but at this point Lucid won’t eliminate the need to know JavaScript for more complex or polished results. Lucid works well as a tool to add some interest and interactivity to a basic web site. I look forward to seeing how the tool evolves and if it can abstract many of the areas that now require programming knowledge.

The Humble Bundle: Games, Soundtracks, and Charity, All in One Bundle

The Humble Bundle has become one of the most popular and longest-lasting software bundles ever. After releasing a number of Android-centric bundles that included Mac games as well, they’re back again with the 6th of their namesake Humble Indie Bundles. This time, for any price you want to pay, you can get 5 popular indie games, as well as their soundtracks, and can get an extra game for beating the average.

It’s quite the deal, one you’ll likely want to check out as soon as you can. This time, though, there’s a bit more than just the bundle.

But first, you might want to go grab a copy of the bundle before it expires in early October. We’ll wait. All set?

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The Humble Bundle Tradition

The Humble Bundle started back in 2010 with their first bundle, and it was instantly popular for offering a number of popular indie games for any price you wanted. Best of all, it included Mac and Linux versions of each game, in addition to Windows versions you’d expect. It’s been a boon for Linux users, who typically have few games to choose from at all, but even for Mac users, it’s pushed more indie games to support our favorite platform for gaming. And while it’s always exciting to get new, high-quality games in the App Store, who can complain with a whole bundle of great games at a great discount?

Through the years, the Humble Bundles have included more and more things. All of them let you give back to charities, ranging from the EFF to the Red Cross, which can make you feel good for splurging on a few games. They’ve also often included extra games or whole previous bundles of games if you pay more than the average, an ingenious plan to make sure their “Pay what you want” program doesn’t backfire revenue-wise. Another nice feature is Steam keys for games, so you can download them from the most popular app store for games, though that requires a purchase of $1 or more. Then, best of all (for me, at least), most new bundles have included soundtracks for the games, which can provide some nice background music to your day.

The latest Humble Bundle

Keeping Your Old Bundles

Chances are you’ve purchased a Humble Bundle in the past, if you’re anything like us. One nice thing Humble Bundle has always offered is a link to re-download your games and soundtracks anytime later. The only problem is, it’s easy to misplace your purchase emails, and while you can always reclaim old bundle purchases, it might be more trouble than you want to go through every time. Now, though, the Humble Bundle site has accounts, where you can add all of your old purchases from any email account you use and access them fully without needing a special link again. If you’ve already purchased several bundles, you’ll have quite the list of games for you to download already!

The all new Indie Bundle Accounts

The Future of the Bundles

At a time when it seems that software bundles, especially on the Mac, have become too common and boring at best, the Humble Bundle team keeps releasing new bundles that sell incredibly well each time. Perhaps its the consistent quality of the bundles, or the frequently included extra games, or the charity contributions, but many of us keep coming back to get more indie games each time a new Bundle is released. I’ve only ever purchased 2 Humble Bundles, skipping many of the more recent ones that included games I’d already tried, but was excited today to pick up the latest bundle even if I know I’ll likely only ever play one or two of the games included. If anything, the soundtracks will keep me company while working, and that’s worth the $6 I paid for the bundle.

The Humble Bundle team obviously doesn’t plan to slow down either. They’ve received a significant investment and now have a dedicated team working to put out new bundles. And with their new ventures into Android games, as well as including soundtracks from games in the bundles, they’re broadening their base appeal.

The best thing is, the Humble Bundles seem to be a win for everyone, all around. We get games we want, and might have never heard about otherwise, and can pay just what we want for them. Developers sell more of their games and get the word about their studios out to the public, many of whom (like myself) would never normally purchase most games. Charities many techies would support already get extra funds. And the Humble Bundle team gets to keep promoting games and making exciting bundles. Sounds like a winning combination we’d all like to see keep going!

Retinizer: Retinize Non-Retina Apps

There’s always a downside to being an early adopter when it comes to computers. If you, like me, jumped on the MacBook Pro with Retina Display bandwagon already, you’ll notice that there are a considerable amount of apps that aren’t compatible with the beautiful new Retina display.

Retinizer is a completely unsupported way to bring crisp text to some non-Retina applications until developers take the time to upgrade their apps. In this quick review we’ll take a look at Retinizer, and how well it performs with popular applications.


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What applications can be Retinized

Retinizer, created by Mikel Pr, can only Retinize native Carbon API UI widgets. Any custom created images or text not using the Carbon API, unfortunately, can not be Retinized. What this means for us end users is that while some apps will applications will be visually improve in some way, others won’t be affected or in the case of the Adobe suite, might be drastically worse overall.

What can you Retinize? The big one for me was Microsoft Word. Microsoft only enabled Retina support for Outlook for Mac 2011, leaving the rest of the office suite in Retina-limbo for now. If you’re frustrated with fuzzy, or blurry text, in Word Retinizer has you covered.

How to say goodbye (mostly) to blurry text

It should be clear that the voodoo to solve the blurry-text issue on most non-Retina apps is more or less a hack. Although I haven’t encountered any issues with Retinizer it might be wise to have a good backup, and installation files for any app you try to Retinize.

As I stated earlier, Microsoft Word was the application that’s lack of Retina support was most frustrating, so lets see how good of a job Retinizer does there.

After downloading and moving Retinizer to your Applications folder, open Retinizer and you’ll see the Retinizer window asking you to drag an application into the Retinizer app, do so, then click the “Retinize!” button.

One click says goodbye to blurry text.

Open the previously non-Retina supported application, Word in my instance, and hopefully you’ll see crisp Retinized text. If you don’t, for some reason, your application might not be supported or the element in question is not supported by Retinizer. The developer states that Preferences pane text might not get the Retina treatment.

Retinizer retinzed text on the left vs. standard on the right.

As you can see, most of the text has been Retinized though the images are still blurry. The effect is much more noticeable when writing a full word document, but you should be able to get the idea that Retinizer works as advertised. If you encounter any problems with the application, backing out the modifications made by Retinizer is as simple as enabling Retina text. Drag the previously Retinized application in to Retinizer and click “De-Retinize!”.

To Retinize or not to Retinize

… that is the question. If you’re comfortable modifying an application in ways that the developer hasn’t yet enabled, by all means, Retinize away, but your mileage my vary to a wide degree. Luckily if you do experience any problems, the developer of Retinizer has a simple back out solution. This might not be the most elegant way to bring Retina text to an application but it will hold us over in the interim.

Let us know in the comments how Retinizer worked for you.

App Deals This Week

Get it whilst it’s hot – Mac AppStorm’s weekly roundup of the best app deals out there.

Happy downloading!

Multimon

Multimon

If you use multiple monitors with your Mac, then Multimon is a great way to manage them. You can have multiple menu bars on any number of screens, manage windows so you can quickly deal with each one and windows even automatically resize depending on how big your monitor is. The app supports both Mountain Lion and the new retina display on the MacBook Pro and is currently discounted to $1.99 as part of the Two Dollar Tuesday promotion, which ends this evening.

Price: $9.99 – $1.99
Developer: Delve Systems
App Store link: Multimon

Vitamin-R

Vitamin-R

Vitamin-R is another app currently discounted for Two Dollar Tuesday and helps you become more productive by trying to avoid procrastination. It breaks down all your tasks into a series of time “slices” ranging from 10 to 30 minutes and each slice has easy and manageable objectives. The app helps you keep concentrated during this time by keeping you focused on one objective, meaning that your mind doesn’t wander so easy and provides methods to help you when you do get distracted, allowing you to focus on the task in mind. As a student, I think this application would be highly useful to anyone who finds it difficult to concentrate, and it’s a mere steal at only a couple of bucks.

Price: $19.99 – $1.99
Developer: publicspace.net
App Store link: Vitamin-R

Disk Alarm

Disk Alarm

Disk Alarm alerts you when the hard disk drive on your Mac is getting close to becoming completely full up, and not just for the boot volume. You can add any single drive on your Mac as well as external drives hooked up to your computer and network volumes. The app can also integrate with your e-mail client (currently, Apple Mail, Sparrow and Mailplane are supported) so that it can send you a reminder when your disk space is near to being filled. The description on the App Store is valid for Lion and there is no word on Mountain Lion support, so best e-mail the developer and ask him before committing to purchasing.

UPDATE: The developer has confirmed that Disk Alarm is fully compatible with Mountain Lion.

Price: $3.99 – $1.99
Developer: Manuel Carrasco Molina
Link: Disk Alarm

Moneydance

Moneydance

Moneydance is a popular personal finance application for Mac (we featured it in our roundup of personal finance apps back in May) and to celebrate the app’s release onto the App Store, the developers are currently running a 50% off promotion. With Moneydance you can manage and integrate all your bank accounts and use it to track your expenses, income and so on. There’s even an iOS app which integrates seamlessly with the Mac version, so you can take your finances with you on the move as well.

Price: $49.99 – $24.99
Developer: The Infinite Kind Limited
Link: Moneydance

Check Back Next Week!

Remember to check back next Tuesday (not Wednesday, now!) for some more hot (and free) app deals and if you can hardly wait until then, feel free to share your thoughts and comments on the apps featured above!

Weekly Poll: Have You Ever Purchased a Used Mac?

Let’s face it: a new Mac can be rather pricey. There’s many reasons that they’re a great value, from their build quality to the components inside to the software they run, but at the end of the day, if you only have a limited budget for a Mac, it can be tough to find the Mac you need.

We’ve talked before about getting your Mac ready for sell, which is a popular way to recoup some of the cost of your old Mac when you’re getting a new machine. But what about buying a used Mac instead of getting the latest model straight from Apple?

The good thing is, there’s quite the active market for used Macs, and you can usually find almost any Mac you can think of for sell on Craigslist, eBay, or from a local shop. If buying used sounds a bit too risky to you, you could always go for a refurbished Mac straight from Apple, where you can get as much as $200 off many Macs.

So, have you ever purchased a used Mac? How’d it work out for you?

Half-Life: The Story So Far

If an alien visited Earth and wanted to capture a summary of video gaming, they’d quickly become aware of Half-Life. The series is far from foreign to the hearts of most gamers, and the products of the Half-Life universe — both the Half-Life and Portal series — remain some of the highest rated games by critics. However, the series has become even more iconic for it’s unreleased sequel, Half-Life 3.

Half-Life 3, or perhaps more appropriately Half-Life 2: Episode Three, has become a notable case of anticipation and speculation. Years after the latest instalment to the Half-Life series, the game is yet to even get a mention by developer Valve, even though the episodic sequels to Half-Life 2 were announced as a triology. In this article, we’ll take a look at the story of Half-Life, both in the games released already and what’s speculated for the future.

Be warned: spoilers ahead!

The Story So Far

We looked at the storyline of Half-Life and it’s sequel, Half-Life 2, in our recent review of the latter. Half-Life saw a recent graduate of Theoretical Physics from MIT, Dr Gordon Freeman, inadvertently trigger a Resonance Cascade when the mysterious G-Man convinced scientists at his research facility, Black Mesa, to analyse a non-standard substance. The experiment opened a portal of sorts between Earth and the alien world Xen, which was subsequently used by alien forces to invade Earth.

The majority of gameplay in Half-Life takes place in the aftermath of the Resonance Cascade where the game’s protagonist, Dr Freeman, explores a destabilising Black Mesa and fights off some of the alien forces that have already made their way to Earth. As the player makes their way through the facility, they become aware that the Hazard Environment Combat Unit, a special forces team of the US Marine Corps that have been sent to regain control of the facility and exterminate any of the alien forces. However, they have also been instructed to kill anyone with knowledge of the experiment as part of a cover up operation, including one Dr Freeman.

The Resonance Cascade, which causes the events of the Half-Life series.

Eventually, the armed forces pull out of Black Mesa when it becomes apparent to them that they’re fighting a losing battle. Freeman eventually makes his way to be teleported to Xen where he fights off forces on their own territory, including a boss, after which he is praised by the G-Man and offered a job by his employers. Failing to accept this offer results in inescapable death, whereas accepting end the game, only for the events of Half-Life 2 to take place afterwards.

Half-Life 2 sees the reawakening of Gordon Freeman some twenty or so years after the Black Mesa Incident. After a short introduction by the G-Man, Dr Freeman finds himself on a train that shortly arrives in City 17, where the aftermath of the Black Mesa Incident becomes evident. The Resonance Cascade and it’s subsequent opening of portals between Earth and Xen caught the attention of an alien race, known as the Combine, who control a significant empire that spans multiple parallel universes.

The Combine invaded Earth, defeating the planet’s defences in mere hours in a conflict that became known as the Seven Hour War. Wallace Breen, the administrator of Black Mesa when the events of the original Half-Life took place, negotiated a surrender on behalf of Earth that results in the state of humanity during Half-Life 2. A resistance group was formed to combat the Combine control.

Welcome. Welcome to City 17!

Gordon Freeman’s arrival in City 17 goes fairly unnoticed until a reunion with former Black Mesa scientist and mentor of Freeman, Dr Isaac Keliner, and an unsuccessful teleport leads Freeman to appear in the office of Dr Breen for a few seconds. Aware of his presence in City 17 and presumably his role in the events of the Black Mesa Incident and it’s aftermath, Dr Breen dispatches Combine forces to either capture or kill Dr Freeman as he makes his way through City 17.

Eventually Gordon meets up with more members of the Resistance — including his oft-companion Alyx Vance — who equip him with weaponry and vehicles, allowing for travel to a major scientific base for the Resistance. Here, Freeman becomes equipped with further tools and weaponry and is forced to suffer a brief journey through the zombie-infested Ravenholm when he escapes due to a raid of the Resistance base (Ravenholm was originally a secluded village free of Combine control but, when found, it’s citizens were turned into headcrab zombies when the Combine used them as biological weapons).

Ravenholm and part of it’s zombie population.

After finding a route out of Ravenholm, Dr Freeman is eventually reunited with members of the Resistance and given a vehicle to travel a coastal route to Nova Prospekt, where Eli Vance, a Black Mesa and Resistance scientist, was taken during the raid prior to the chapter on Ravenholm. Formerly a high security prison and now a Combine facility for the processing and detainment of citizens whom they determine to be a threat, Nova Prospekt involves many battles with the Combine, in part alongside Alyx Vance who’s reunion occurs during the exploration of the facility.

Dr Judith Mossman — originally introduced as a member of the Resistance earlier in the game — is discovered to be, in fact, a spy inside the group who takes Eli Vance to the Combine’s Citadel in City 17, leading the game’s events there. However, the teleport used to return the Dr Freeman and Alyx Vance to City 17 got stuck in a week-long loop, time lost while the events at Nova Prospekt are seen as a sign by the Resistance to start on a full on war in City 17. Gordon and Alyx make their way through City 17 and to the Citadel where more conflict with the Combine ensure until a final confrontation with Earth administrator Dr Breen.

Half-Life 2 ends here, only for the events of Episode One to begin. An intermediary cutscene ends up bringing you to outside the Citadel, where the ending of Half-Life 2′s effects can be seen in City 17. The destabilising city continues to fall apart, but Gordon and Alyx must venture into the Citadel in order to stabilise its reactor to offer them just enough time to get out alive. Episode One primarily takes the player through City 17 and eventually out to safety.

Half-Life 2: Episode One continues the story in the streets of a destroyed City 17.

After escaping City 17, the main characters make their way to the White Forest Resistance Base where a rocket is launched to control the portal storms in the world. A message is also found showing Judith Mossman investigating the Borealis, an Aperture Science vessel that apparently contains technology of great importance. Unfortunately the message is cut off, as is the eventual game which is left on a clifhanger.

The same universe hosts Aperture Science and the Portal games. While these never really cross paths, exploring the abandoned testing areas in Portal 2 does in fact reveal the original home of the Borealis, although nothing of use is gained from visiting the relatively-hidden area.

Half-Life 3

The episodic sequels to Half-Life were announced as a trilogy, but the third instalment is yet to be properly announced. The large delay in delivering this sequel has led to speculation that Valve is, in fact, working on a much bigger sequel in the form of Half-Life 3 that would presumably go further into the story of the Borealis and, perhaps, cross further into the Portal franchise (if that indeed turns out to be true, the delay could be explained by including the Portal games in the Half-Life series, which they technically are).

A piece of Half-Life 3/2: Episode Three concept art.

Being subject to constant delay and conflicting rumour, the details of the game we have so far are open to have changed or be changed. No official information or previews of the mysterious game have been offered, although there have been a few apparent leaks and concept art release for the game. The sole, solid detail we have is that Dr Freeman continues as the game’s main protagonist, and that’s it. We have a bunch of concept art but little else, and Valve remains quite. As discussed previously, there are rumours that the next Half-Life game will feature on the Borealis story arc, perhaps allowing the player to cross more over into the Portal series, but nothing is confirmed or even denied.

Further concept art of the next Half-Life game.

Half-Life 3 continues to be one of gaming’s most infamous case of vaporwear and it might still be years until we see it. Don’t worry though, when — or perhaps more appropriately, if — Half-Life 3 sees the light of day, you can bet we’ll have a review for you!

GIMP: A Robust Freeware Image Editor

When it comes to image editors, Adobe Photoshop remains the gold standard for professionals. But for students, the amateur, or anyone starting their career, the $700 price tag (or even ~$200 with a student discount) is likely prohibitive. There are cheaper apps available, such as Acorn and Pixelmator, but they offer far fewer features.

Luckily, there’s GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) a completely free and open source image editor that nearly matches Photoshop’s versatility. It’s long been available on the Mac if you had X11 installed, but never looked the part of a high quality Mac app. That’s all changed with the latest 2.8.2 release of Gimp, which shipped as a fully native Mac app. That’s what prompted us to take a closer look at the most popular Photoshop alternate.

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A Free Graphics App for the Pros

I’m a graphic designer, and I know my way in and out of Photoshop, but the moment I loaded up GIMP, I was astonished at the similarities between this free program and Adobe’s expensive giant. The interface in GIMP Version 28.2 bears a striking resemblance to Photoshop CS6, down to the coal-gray color scheme and the palette dock on the right.

The Toolbox in GIMP

The Toolbox in GIMP

The tools are all there, too, only they are sometimes named differently (the Pen Tool is called the Paths Tool and the Marquee Tool is the Rectangle Select Tool). This will likely confuse or annoy a veteran comfortable with Photoshop’s interface, but shouldn’t cause any problems for a hobbyist looking for an Adobe alternative. Also available are layers, alpha channels, blend modes, clipping paths, photo filters, and a myriad of other impressive and advanced features.

Another great feature is GIMP’s batch processing capabilities. A user can easily program GIMP to convert a whole folder of TIFFs into JPEGs or resize a bunch of images to 200 x 200 pixels wide in a just a few mouse clicks. The batch options are robust enough to rival Photoshop’s, and I’d easily recommend GIMP for this feature alone.

GIMP's batch processing menu

GIMP’s batch processing menu

Though not the best application for creating a print layout, as an image editor and digital painting program GIMP really shines. There are hundreds of brushes, a clone stamp tool, a ton of selection tools, and professional-grade image editing tools. You’ll find tools like color levels, curves, balance, saturation, and threshold: all incredibly impressive for a free piece of software. There is also support for peripherals like drawing tablets, which also increases its effectiveness as a powerful painting tool.

How Does it Stack up to Photoshop?

I liked some elements of the user interface even better than Photoshop. The handle points on the Bezier curve tools are huge and easier to control than the tiny points that are often difficult to see in Adobe’s programs. In GIMP, the ability to transform the selection is instantaneous, while in Photoshop, once you make a selection with the Marquee or Lasso Tool there were extra steps to transform the selection. There are also way more filters available out of the box in GIMP.

A look at GIMP's path selection interface

A look at GIMP’s path selection interface

I had a hard time finding a feature that wasn’t in Photoshop, and I was really trying to find fault. However, there were a few tools lacking that I really couldn’t excuse, such as a spot color selector, vital for any print designer. There also wasn’t support for CMYK, also necessary for print design but less important for web design. GIMP’s developers likely had web and other designers in mind while creating the application, and print design was an afterthought.

GIMP also lacks integration for Adobe’s other programs, Illustrator and InDesign. This is almost expected, but it does make it difficult to work with files created in other programs. While I could open up a PSD (a native Photoshop file) without any problems, I had difficulty opening an Illustrator file. To do so, I had to first export it as a TIFF or another supported file type. That was fine when I was working on my own images, but if I was collaborating with another designer or working for a client, I could potentially run into some big headaches.

Conclusion

I was entirely surprised with how versatile and all-encompassing GIMP turned out to be. After years of working with Photoshop, I expected a free image editor to be second-rate, lacking in any real tools necessary for professional graphic design. Boy, was I wrong. GIMP had almost everything I’d need to create really amazing designs.

The GIMP Preferences let you adjust settings such as default image size and resolution, workspace configuration and color management.

The GIMP Preferences let you adjust settings such as default image size and resolution, workspace configuration and color management.

What it didn’t have was support for all the file types I use as a graphic designer. This is a pretty major failing, and one I can’t overlook. While I can create graphics in GIMP as a standalone app, I can’t import anything without a lot of headaches. Plus, it still has its random oddities and bugs, something others on our team have experienced in trying it out.

GIMP isn’t going to be a solution for professional graphic designers and artists. It’s not a Photoshop replacement and it’s not going to let you kick Adobe to the curb just yet. However, GIMP is going to be a powerful solution for students, amateurs, and hobbyists turned off by Photoshop’s enormous price tag. Outshining even some of the less expensive go to image editing apps available in the App Store, GIMP is a real powerhouse for anyone looking for something a notch below Adobe.

Thanks to Our Weekly Sponsor: Mighty Deals


Our featured sponsor this week is Mighty Deals, an awesome site that offers amazing and exclusive deals for web professionals!

Mighty Deals is a great place for any, and every, web professional to frequent – offering a wide range of deals perfectly suited to designers and developers! The deals range from Apps, to WordPress Themes, to Vector Icons, to eBooks – head over to the site to check them out.

Grab a 15% discount off any deal using the coupon: envato

Here are three current deals to whet your appetite…

  1. The Mac Photo Bundle – 3 Apps for only $20! – Take advantage of this Photo-Packed Mighty Deal Bundle consisting of three fantastic photo applications for the Mac: Snapheal, FX Photo Studio Pro, and ColorStrokes.
  2. The Web Designer’s eBook Bundle – only $6! – You’ve heard the buzz words: Responsive design; HTML5; social media. They’re all hot industry terms, but it’s tough to keep up with the technology they’re tied to. You can bounce around the Internet, reading an article here or a blog post there, or you can read some truly helpful eBooks and keep your coding cutting edge. This Mighty Deal eBook bundle features three helpful books for young web designers and developers: Responsive Web Design, Learn HTML 5, and Web Design Trends.
  3. Ultimate Web Designer’s Bundle – only $39! (reg. $202) – Resources are a web designer’s best friend. From icons to wireframes to UI sets, having pre-built pieces of a website can truly save time and effort. With this Ultimate Web Designer Bundle from Vandelay Premier, you’ll get everything you need to create the coolest-looking website around! The bundle is packed with UI sets, icons and wireframe elements.

Our thanks to Mighty Deals for sponsoring AppStorm this week! Head over and check them out, who doesn’t enjoy a deal!

This Week in App News

It’s been an exciting week for Apple news what with the announcement of the iPhone 5, new iPods and iTunes 11 (in fact, my Twitter feed has seemed to consist of nothing but these topics) but we’ve still managed to find you some different news for your browsing pleasure this week.

If you still haven’t caught up on all the action from last Wednesday (and frankly, where have you been living these past few days?!) then be sure to check out our full roundup of all the new product announcements.

Enjoy!

OS X 10.8.2 fixes battery life issues experienced

The latest seed of OS X 10.8.2 to registered Apple developers seem to have fixed the battery drain issues that were first seen with the release of Mountain Lion back in July. Upon upgrading, some users reported a significant decrease in their Mac’s battery life and some even struggled to get 50% of the reported duration.

Mountain Lion

Mountain Lion may have loads of extra features but some users have complained about diminished battery life.

The Mac Observer ran tests on a 2011 15-inch MacBook Pro under certain conditions. Whereas under the later builds of Lion, the MBP was holding out for approximately 370 minutes (just a little over 6 hours under moderate usage), with the first release of Mountain Lion the laptop was conking out after a mere 259 minutes (or a little over 4 hours). However, the latest build of Mountain Lion seems to have rectified the issue, with the battery life being restored to pre-Mountain Lion levels. You can check out the full results of the experiment, along with a more detailed explanation of their testing conditions, over at the Mac Observer website.

Given the rapid release cycle of pre-release builds of OS X 10.8.2 to registered Apple developers (and the apparent lack of bugs in later releases), it is rumoured that the final version will be released to everyone very soon. The new version brings along Facebook integration (which was missing from the original release), along with improvements to the Game Center, iMessage and iOS 6 compatibility.

RIP Ping (for good this time)

With the announcement of iTunes 11 back last Wednesday, Apple has officially killed Ping, its failed attempt at social networking from inside iTunes. There had been rumours for sometime that Ping was going to be axed along with the next version of iTunes and indeed this has been confirmed. The service will be shutting down on September 30th and is no longer accepting new members.

Ping Death

Ping is to be replaced on September 30th by tighter Twitter and Facebook integration in iTunes.

Ping’s demise was, ultimately, inevitable given the increased Twitter and Facebook integration in the new version of iTunes and in iOS 6 and the service was infamously featured as one of CNN’s tech fails of 2010, along with the iPhone 4 Antennagate problem and Google Buzz.

Mountain Lion is fastest-selling OS X release of all time

Last Wednesday wasn’t just a good day for prospective iPhone users – Apple also announced right at the start of the keynote that Mountain Lion was the fastest selling OS X version of all time, selling 7 million copies since its release in July. Macs are also enjoying a wider market share and Apple has surpassed the likes of Dell, Acer and Toshiba to become the leading notebook maker in the United States, enjoying a 27% market share and a year-on-year growth rate of 15% (meanwhile, PCs are growing at a pitiful 2% year-on-year!).

Heard Anything Else?

If you’ve heard anything else exciting that’s happened this week then go ahead and post a link to it in the Comments section below for the benefit of our other readers!

Launchpad Manager Gives Launchpad its Missing Functionality!

In OS X 10.7 Lion, Apple introduced Launchpad. Launchpad is widely seen by many as an early attempt by Apple to slowly introduce elements of iOS into OS X. Although a valiant attempt by Apple, many noticed all of the flaws within Launchpad immediately. The biggest concern with Launchpad is the lack of customization and what the user can change. Well now, independent developers are picking up where Apple left off.

Launchpad Manager is the genius creation of Attila Miklosi; its concept is to add increased functionality to an almost useless Launchpad. Launchpad Manager comes in two flavors, free and pro. The Pro version will set you back $7.99 but it will add cool features like group organizing, layout saving, and more! The developer has provided us with the pro version for review, so lets get to it!

The Basics

Launchpad Manager simply is a useful tool for reorganizing and customizing your Launchpad interface. Instead of adding onto the interface of Launchpad directly, like say a plugin, Launchpad Manager is a completely separate app. When you launch Launchpad Manager, you are greeted with a complete likeness of your Launchpad layout. From here, you can go about changing and manipulating your Launchpad interface as you see fit!

Main Launchpad Interface

Main Launchpad Interface

Interface & Design

Launchpad Manager’s features are laid out in an easy to use format that gives you access to the core functions. Your functions are laid out across the top of the interface while the different Launchpad modes (i.e widgets, and etc) are located in pill buttons on the Launchpad interface.

 

Pill Buttons

Pill Buttons

The overall interface is clean, simple, and gives convenient access to the core functions of Launchpad Manager.

 

Functions Bar

Functions Bar

Features

Arranging your icons, folders, and widgets using Launchpad Manager is fairly straightforward. Several of the features covered here are only available when using the pro version. The simplest way of arranging the icons is to simply grab them and drop them where you please. However just like it is annoying in iOS to move icons around individually, it is equally annoying having to manually move many icons around in Launchpad. Launchpad Manager has exactly the feature that will eliminate the need to manually relocate icons around the interface. To activate this feature all you need to do is hold down the Command button and select as many icons as you would like!

Multiple Selections

Multiple Selections

Free vs. Pro

The pro version also offers the ability to quickly do other icon moving tasks in Launchpad Manager. Want to easily group icons into manageable folders? Launchpad Manager contains two totally useful buttons, group and ungroup. These buttons allows for the easy grouping of icons into folders and the ability to batch remove icons out of groups or folders. There are also a few other cool buttons included in Launchpad Manager you have the capability of selecting and deselecting all of the icons. Also once you rearrange the icons and place them into your desired order, you can use the save layout feature to save your layouts. Once saved, all you simply need to do is open the saved layout and you are back in business! The pro version also includes sorting options, move to new page, and the option to add missing applications to Launchpad. While these features do not effect the core functionality of the app, you may want to consider upgrading just to make your tasks that much easier.

Launchpad Manager vs Launchpad Control

Launchpad Manager is not alone in the fight to control the sometimes-unruly Launchpad. Launchpad Control is one of its biggest competitors. Both apps essentially offer the same functionality. Launchpad Manager and Launchpad Control contain similar interfaces and design cues. However according to my standards, Launchpad Manager is slightly cleaner and less jarring.

Launchpad Manager

Launchpad Manager

 

Launchpad Control

Launchpad Control

Launchpad Control contains almost cartoonish large icons adorning the top of the main window, which is a turn off. Also smaller things are better in Manager such as renaming icons; Manager allows you to rename an icon just like you would rename it in OS X, by simply clicking the title and renaming. In Control, you are taken away from the Launchpad interface and move into a completely unnecessary screen just to rename an icon.

Rename in Launchpad Control

Rename in Launchpad Control

Other than design and interface choices that tilt the scale toward Launchpad Manger, Launchpad Control is $3 cheaper for essentially the same functionality. So as many often do, you can overlook quite a few quirks when saving money.

Summary

Launchpad Manager is definitely a much-needed companion to Apple’s Launchpad application. The added ability to group multiple apps, rename and remove apps, add missing apps, deleting apps not from the Mac App Store, and alphabetical ordering easily makes Launchpad Manager worth the price. What draws questions on the value of Launchpad Manager is main rival Launchpad Control. They both have the same functionality with minor interface differences; however, Launchpad Control is $3 cheaper, which easily makes it a better value and thus reduces the value of Manager. I rate Launchpad Manager a 7 out of 10 and I also give a nod to the cheaper competitor, Launchpad Control, if you are looking to add more customization to Launchpad.

Do you use Launchpad Manager? What are your recommendations on improving Launchpad? Let your voice be heard in our comment below!

Win a Free Copy of PhotoSweeper from AppStorm!

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to fill your Mac with duplicate photos? If you’re using a Mac with an SSD, such as a MacBook Air, you’ll notice it quickly, but even if your space requirements aren’t as stringent, it’s still frustrating to have to browse through duplicate photos.

That’s what’s exciting about PhotoSweeper. It’s a nicely designed app that takes the pain out of sorting and removing your duplicate pictures. It uses 5 methods to find duplicate photos, even ones that have been edited or saved in other apps. Then, you can preview photos together to decide which one to keep. It’ll make organizing your photos easier than ever.

Earlier this year, our team gave PhotoSweeper a 9 out of 10 in our review, and found it to be a great way to reduce the space pictures are taking up on your hard drive. That’s why we’re excited to have 25 copies of it to giveaway to our readers!

PhotoSweeper

Tweet to Enter

If you’d like to win a free copy of PhotoSweeper, all you have to do is click the link below and send out the resulting tweet (or just copy and paste), then leave a comment below with a link to your tweet. Alternately, if you’d like to share the exact same post on Facebook or App.net, feel free to do that and then leave a comment with the link. That’s it! We’ll then randomly pick 25 winners when we close the contest.

 

We’ll announce the winners next week on September 21st, so hurry and get your entry in today!

Envato staff or people who have written more than two articles or tutorials for AppStorm, however, are ineligible to enter.