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Star Wars: The Old Republic is the new hotness in massively multiplayer games, and I’m really enjoying playing a smuggler on my PC. But unlike Blizzard, which makes World of Warcraft and has had a long policy of releasing both PC and Mac versions on the same disc, BioWare (who makes SW:TOR, as the kids call it) hasn’t released a Mac version of its new video game. But there is hope. The two doctors who run BioWare tell our friends over at Massively/Joystiq that having a Mac version of the game at some point is indeed important. “We know there’s a big Mac audience of BioWare fans … we know that’s an important and large audience. And we want to serve that audience,” says Dr. Ray Muzyka.

Unfortunately, he’s not ready to serve that audience quite yet. You can play the game on a Windows-equipped partition, of course, but even though BioWare admits that’s not the best way to do it, there are no official plans yet for a Mac port.

That’s too bad. Not only is SW:TOR a great game, but we’ve heard in the past that Mac audiences aren’t just important for sales, they’re also good for promotion. Mac users tend to be more influential (not to mention vocal) online, so if you can get Mac users playing and liking your game, you often can see a boost in overall player interest as well. Hopefully BioWare will get this game out for the Mac very soon, and (like World of Warcraft) in a form that makes some good evangelists out of Mac users.

BioWare agrees Mac version of Star Wars: The Old Republic is important originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 03 Jan 2012 00:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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2011 has only just ended, but I have a sneaking suspicion that even when we look back on it in another 12 months from now, we’ll find a pretty revolutionary year in terms of the quality and quantity of our shopping. For example, UI expert and project leader Luke Wroblewski has compiled a list of facts about shopping during the holiday season last year, and the list provides a lot of solid insight on just how different 2011 was.

Online buying was up both on Christmas Day and during the holiday season as a whole, and a large percentage of that buying was done with mobile devices. Over 90 percent of mobile device shopping was done with iPads and iPhones, making 2011 a really landmark year in how we use these devices to make purchases and spend money.

Spending on these devices wasn’t always for material goods, either. App downloads were up by 125 percent on Christmas Day last year, which makes it a record day not only for 2011, but for the history of both the iOS and Android marketplaces. The week ending December 18 and the last shopping weekend before Christmas were both record periods for spending overall.

In other words, this past holiday season was kind of a landmark in more than a few different ways. We’ll have to see how the industry reacts to this next year; there will likely be an even bigger emphasis on spending and shopping from mobile devices in the future.

2011 boasts record holiday season for online shopping, especially from mobile devices originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TechCrunch dug up a bit more info on the media event Apple is reportedly holding later this month. According to the site’s sources, the event will have less of a consumer focus (don’t expect any new hardware), and it will be more about unveiling improvements to the iBooks platform to the publishing industry.

TechCrunch’s sources haven’t determined anything more exact than that, with the exception that this isn’t expected to be a “major” event. I don’t know about anyone else, but when I hear about “improvements to the iBooks platform” I immediately think, “iBooks for the Mac? I really hope you’re talking about iBooks on the Mac, because next to the Kindle platform you’re looking kind of silly without it.”

No specific date for the event has been announced yet, but it’s expected later this month.

TechCrunch: January’s Apple event to focus on iBooks and publishing originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s a saying that “to err is human — to really screw up, you need a computer.” Well, put a human and a computer together and you’re likely to have a real problem. Sure enough, nobody caught the fact that we left the voting poll off of the post for the Best iPad productivity app of 2011, so we ended up with zero votes except for those that were sent to us as comments.

To be fair, we’re re-opening the polls. Here’s the text from the post the other day describing the nominees:

TUAW is asking for your votes for the best iPad productivity app of 2011. This category pulled in the largest number of nominations so far in the Best of 2011, with two apps surprising the staff here at TUAW with the number of nominations they grabbed — “Universal Translator” app Communilator Pro (US$2.99, also available in a free version) and Virtual Office Pro ($4.99).

The other nominees are:

Pocket Informant HD ($14.99)
OmniFocus for iPad ($39.99)
GoodReader for iPad ($4.99)

You have a couple of days to vote, and the winners will be announced on January 4, 2012. Let the voting begin!

View Poll

Polls re-opened for voting: Best iPad productivity app of 2011 originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The nominations are in, and the poll is ready to go! The TUAW Best of 2011 awards are all about you — the readers — and what you think is the cream of the crop of Apple or third-party products and software. To vote, select one entry from the top nominations made by readers. We’ll be announcing the winner in just a few days. Vote early and often!

At last, we’ve come to the final category for TUAW Best of 2011 voting. We’d like your votes for the best iPad music app of 2011. There were a lot of nominees in this TUAW Best of 2011 category, but the finalists were:

• Party Playlist HD (US$3.99) — referred to as the “Ultimate Djay on iPad”
• Groove for iPad ($3.99) — creates mixes by studying your listening habits
• Animoog ($9.99 introductory price) — From Moog Music, the company that defines electronic music
• GarageBand ($4.99) — Apple’s easy-to-use music making and recording app
• Tango Remote HD ($4.99) — wirelessly control music and video between iPads, iPhones, and iPod touches

You have a couple of days to vote, and the winners will be announced on January 6, 2012. Let the voting begin!

View Poll

TUAW Best of 2011: Vote for your favorite iPad music app originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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