Steam, for the uninitiated, is essentially an iTunes Store for games, except with more socializing and actual demos of many games (*ahem*, Apple). It’s the creation of game developer Valve, the company behind games like Team Fortress, Left for Dead, and one of gaming’s most beloved and legendary series: Half Life. Over the years, Steam has become the go-to place for Windows gamers to shop for and try out everything from blockbuster releases to indie hits, find new friends to frag with, and stay up to date with the latest patches. A Steam buddy list lets you see which of your friends are online, what games they’re playing, as well as invite friends into your game or quickly join them on a campaign already in progress—all with a click or two.

Fortunately, Valve spared no expense in bringing Steam to the Mac. This isn’t some duct-taped Java port that limps along with a fraction of its Windows counterpart’s features. Valve used native Cocoa tools, even going so far as to re-engineer the Steam client and store on Windows to use Apple’s WebKit rendering engine—which, in turn, was one of the original hints that a Mac version was in the works.

Steam for Mac is very much a doppelgänger of the Windows version, so some elements certainly don’t feel very Mac-like. The navigation toolbar, for example, contains large text links for things like the Steam Store and your Library, instead of colorful, intuitive icons like Apple and third-party Mac developers favor (this navigation design actually feels heavily inspired by Microsoft’s Zune). If you’ve used Steam before, however, you’ll feel right at home. As a long-time Windows gamer via Boot Camp, there was no learning curve; I instantly started adjusting options for microphone input and downloading my library.

In fact, Valve even brought its Steam Cloud feature to the Mac client. This is a useful service of the Steam APIs that allows developers to synchronize your game settings between each of the computers on which you install your games. If games are compatible with Steam Cloud (Portal and Team Fortress 2 are), your settings will synchronize between the Mac and Windows versions. Customize a game’s default keyboard shortcuts, for example, and they get synced back up to your Steam account, then back down to any other computers (Mac or PC) that you install the game on.

Just like installing Steam on a new Windows computer, the Mac client allows users to see the full library of games that they’ve purchased from the store. Since Steam allows users to load their games on an unlimited number of computers, I could begin installing my games with just two clicks. The music, TV, and film industries could learn a lot from this very appreciated 21st-century convenience.

As Steam for Mac is still in private beta, only two Valve games are currently available: Portal and Team Fortress 2. Now, Valve has promised that more (and more recent) games like Left 4 Dead 2 will be available soon after the beta goes public, and the upcoming Portal 2 sequel will arrive simultaneously on both Mac and PC this fall. The company has also said that third parties are working hard on bringing their titles to the Mac. So far, Ruinic, a company of ex-Blizzard employees, announced its Diablo-esque Torchlight is coming (though its level editor probably isn’t), and Tripwire has announced it’s working on a couple titles.

As far as the games available in the private beta now are concern, I’m happy to report that Portal and Team Fortress 2 feel right at home on the Mac. Admittedly, I got a slight chill the first time I started Portal: no Windows, no emulators, no tricks—just one of the greatest games in recent memory, running natively on my 27-inch 2.66GHz iMac. Startup took a little longer than I’d like, but again it’s a beta, so I’ll reserve judgement until Valve drops that label. But the game itself runs well, and I noticed no stuttering, even after bumping my resolution up from the default to 1600 by 1200.

The Steam for Mac beta is expected to go public on May 12. The client itself is free, and Mac versions of PC games will cost the same as their counterparts. In fact, Valve has created a new Steam Play license and badge in the store to denote games for which you can purchase one license and run the game on both Mac and Windows computers. If you have already purchased Portal, Team Fortress 2, Half Life 2, or Left for Dead 2 on a Windows PC (sorry, Xbox 360 or PS3 owners), you won’t have to spend another dime to play them on your Mac.

Given Steam’s beta status, there’s little else to report for now. Portal ran well, and I’m anticipating Steam going official and the arrival of more games. The only reason I’ve bought Windows XP, Vista, and 7 licenses since switching to the Mac is so that I can play the games I love. But those days might finally—finally—be coming to an end. Considering how well Valve has done with this initial beta of Steam for Mac, those days can’t end soon enough.

Resource:
Yahoo News

Opera 10.52 boasts a more Mac-like interface, but this new beauty is not just skin deep. More of the browser has gone Cocoa for better integration with Mac OS X and other apps, which means it now supports Growl and multi-touch gestures. As with Safari on recent MacBooks, Opera 10.52 users can pinch-to-zoom, use two fingers to scroll, and three fingers to navigate back and forth through pages.

Opera 10.52 also gained Firefox’s “Awesome Bar” feature of searching from the address bar. Other additions include customizable search engines, private browsing per window or tab, and dialog boxes that are displayed as page overlays instead of dialog boxes so you can still switch tabs or windows to do something else.

Opera 10.52 for Mac is a free download that requires Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger or later on an Intel Mac.

Resource:
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/195077/opera_1052_brings_new_mac_interface_other_enhancements.html

Intel’s new Core i5 and i7 CPUs made it into this MacBook Pro generation, with the exception of the 13-inch MacBook Pro.

(What we said then: “We’re not saying that any laptop without Intel’s new mainstream CPUs is ready for the recycling bin, but now would be an ideal time to update the processors inside the entire line, to take advantage of the improved power efficiency and other advantages of the new Core i-series chips.”)

We’re also pleasantly surprised to see that Apple included automatic graphics switching, enabling MacBook Pros to enjoy a similarly seamless way to activate and deactivate discrete graphics in a way comparable to what we’ve seen in Nvidia’s new Optimus laptop graphics.

There’s even another boost to battery life, too. Yet, despite addressing a few of our biggest wishes, a lot of features remain to be addressed. Here’s our short list of five, culled from our previous post with a few new additions.

• SD card slots across the board

  Even a $299 Netbook has one of these useful little media card readers. And finally, after years of gentle ribbing from us and others, Apple added an SD card reader to the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Pro models. But, it’s still not on the most popular MacBook, the $999 base model. And it’s still not on the 17-inch model, either.

• Blu-ray drives

  For a high-end laptop with plenty of media cred, it’s a bit awkward for MacBooks to not at least offer the option of adding a Blu-ray drive. It’s clearly not a cost issue, as expensive SSD options have been available from Apple for some time. At this point, many high-end PCs in the MacBook’s price range include a Blu-ray drive by default.

• Mobile broadband options

  With the sheer number of Mac laptops we see at coffee shops and airports, having an always-on Internet connection seems like another natural fit. It’s widely available as a built-in option from most PC makers, and newer antenna hardware can work with more than one carrier. Sure, using a USB key antenna is always an option, but why mess up that sleek Apple silhouette? It’s a bit surprising post-iPad that no AT&T 3G option was included in any MacBook.

• HDMI outputs

  Though the mini-DisplayPort is Apple’s video connection of choice, actually hooking it up to monitors besides the ones Apple sells is a bit of a hassle. Some laptops, especially larger desktop replacements, offer a combo of HDMI, VGA, and even DVI. We’ll settle for a single HDMI, which carries both sound and video, and would make getting iTunes videos up on our big-screen TVs even easier. Now that Intel’s Wireless Display makes video streaming from a laptop even easier, it’s even harder to accept the MacBook’s awkward means of TV interfacing.

• Better tethering/interaction with iPhones/iPods/iPads

  Now that Apple has increased its iPhone OS-running family, we’re still waiting for slicker ways to interface our handheld Apple gadgets with their larger laptop brethren. Syncing is pretty much the only thing an iPad and a MacBook Pro have in common, and we’d love to see some better ways for the devices to interact wirelessly. There are already apps to use the iPad as a secondary display or as a giant touch pad, but it would be nice to see official Apple-branded solutions that could work even more smoothly. Yes, there is MobileMe, but it should ideally offer a more seamless cloud-computing-type environment as opposed to being limited to calendar/e-mail/bookmark syncing.

If any of these sound familiar, that’s because we’ve mentioned several of them before. Interestingly, though most of these have been on our wish list for some time, a few of our longtime MacBook suggestions have made their way into real life, from the SD card slots on select models to the inclusion of the large multitouch trackpad filtering down on the base $999 white MacBook.

Got anything on your own MacBook wish list? Sound off below and let us know.

Resource:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-20002383-1.html

In an interview published Tuesday by entertainment newspaper The A.V. Club., Long was asked about the status of the Get A Mac campaign, which hasn’t featured any new spots since October. Long’s response suggests that Apple may have decided to move on.

“You know, I think they might be done. In fact, I heard from John [Hodgman], I think they’re going to move on,” said Long said.

Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment on the status of the campaign.

Introduced in 2006, the Get A Mac campaign is probably the most devilishly effective the tech industry has ever seen because it allowed Apple to shape Microsoft’s image as a bumbling nerd with engrained anachronistic tendencies. Apple also had the gift of Windows Vista fall into its lap and wasted no time in capitalizing on the opportunity to highlight its faults.

It took nearly three years for Microsoft to respond to the campaign with its own ads, a frustrating interval that was a major source of concern for Microsoft’s channel partners. Microsoft’s Laptop Hunters campaign, introduced in March 2009, has been an effective counterpunch, and it definitely got Apple’s attention. Still, outside of the Microsoft galaxy, few would argue that Laptop Hunters was as powerful as Get A Mac.

The question now becomes, what part of Microsoft does Apple attack next? It may be tougher for Apple this time around because Windows 7 is selling briskly and doesn’t suffer from the issues that made Vista such an obvious target. Apple could decide to highlight Microsoft’s struggles in mobility, where the software giant trails far behind market leaders. Such a move would also fit with Apple’s increasing focus on mobility.

“You really don’t see any other advertising for the Mac. These days, it’s all about the iPad and iPhone,” said Shane Spiess, president of Portland, Ore.-based Apple reseller MacForce.”There’s clearly been a shift in Apple’s overall marketing strategy toward mobility.”

Although the mobility angle wouldn’t afford Apple the opportunity to play the underdog role it played in Get A Mac, it would definitely be fun to watch.

Resource:
http://www.crn.com/software/224202370