A music made out of Apple Sounds

Windows is not the only one who has the right to create a music out of its own sounds. Check out this nice tune made only with sounds from Mac OS X.



Source: The Unofficial Apple Weblog

The new Microsoft ad: I'm a PC...as a bunch of other people

So, Microsoft has decided to ditch Seinfeld and the all idea of "Microsoft and the future" and went on to adopt a new approach in their marketing campaign, where they focus on the idea that there are a lot of PCs out there and that, in spite of the stereotype created by the "I'm a PC" guy from the Mac ads, they can achieve great things. See the ad for yourself:



Even though the ad itself was made on a Mac, I still think it is better than the previous approach of placing Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld on a "higher level of the society" that is trying to "connect with the simple people".

However, it is still not there... because they show all these people but they still don't say why do they use Windows and not other operating systems. Maybe they use it because they have to, maybe it's because they don't know the alternatives, or maybe they are in fact not happy with using Windows but are too afraid to switch to Linux or Mac. And most of all, they don't show how all those people react when they get a BSOD and loose their work :-)

Funny stuff: the new version of the Microsoft/Gates/Seinfeld ad

The first version was no fun, this one is better:



Source: bit.ate (in Portuguese)

Spore Origins for iPod: my review

As soon as I knew that a version of Spore was released for 5G iPods, I "ran to the nearest" iTunes store and purchased the game (here). This is what I've been playing for the last 2 days (that is, whenever I have my iPod around and have some free time to kill).


Spore Origins is more of a teaser than an actual game, but it is still great fun. It allows you to play the first stage of the newly-released game Spore, a simulation-based game (kind of like The Sims) that allows you to control a living being from its micro-cellular stage up to a level where space exploration takes place.

For now, I won't be playing Spore as it was only released for Mac OS X Leopard and since I only have Tiger installed, this will have to wait until I upgrade. By the way, if you're one of the lucky guys that is already playing Spore, check out the cheat codes for the game.

But we're here to talk about Spore Origins and I have to say that I didn't have this much fun with my iPod ever since I purchased iQuiz. You start the game as a small organism which has to survive by eating smaller organisms and staying away from larger ones. But as you keep going and collect DNA points, you're able to "evolve" your organism and add some features to it, such as enhancing its movement, defence or attack capabilities.

This is where the game gets really interesting, because the level of flexibility allows gamers to create the strangest organisms that you can imagine. Check out a demo video:


But these changes in your living being should not be made lightly as they will determine its success throughout the following levels. For example, I had to restart the game because I didn't "invest" in defence capabilities and got "stuck" in a level where these were crucial for my organism's survivability.

I know what you're thinking: being an iPod game, it can't be that interesting because the controls are very limited. Well, it doesn't feel that way, I assure you. The click-wheel, as with everything with the iPod, is very intuitive and it feels like a normal joystick in a typical 2D game.

Even though this game is just a way of opening up your appetite for the real deal, you can still have some real fun while in the train/bus on your way to work.

Fully recommended!

The Seinfeld/Gates/Microsoft ad

As I posted before, Seinfeld was being recruited by Microsoft to be a part of the new marketing campaign to try and take down the negativity brought by years of those "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" ads. And even though Jerry Seinfeld was once part of one of Apple's "Think Different" ads, he accepted the offer from Microsoft (after all it was $10M, who wouldn't?) and crossed to the "dark side".

The following video seems to be the first ad of the new Microsoft's marketing wave. However, this feels more like a teaser, since nothing much is divulged. Basically, Seinfeld assists Bill Gates in buying some nice shoes at affordable prices (like if any of them needs it) and in exchange gets a glimpse of the future at Microsoft...See for yourself!



I sure hope there's more to it than this, because I don't quite see how this is going to change people's perception of Windows. It is basically trying to create a hype for the upcoming Microsoft technology (Windows 7?) in a attempt to divert people's attention from the failure that was Vista.

Let's wait... for now! :-)

Apple's answer to the Microsoft's answer to Apple's "Get a Mac" ads

It turns out that Microsoft's answer to Apple's "Get a Mac" ads (hiring Seinfeld to the next Windows Vista's marketing campaign) has already been debunked by an old Apple's "Think Different" ad (I saw it here):

Video Tutorials for Mac Newbies

My First Mac has posted a great list of video tutorials for Mac Newbies: 195 Free Mac Video Tutorials - Part 1 and Part 2. It's a great resource for all switchers out there. You can use it to learn (almost) everything about Mac OS X and/or native applications.

Installing Office 2008 for Mac SP1: part III

That's right, the problems with Office 2008 Service Pack 1 are not over. I'm now starting to notice some strange behaviours on my Mac whilst operating with Office 2008 apps:

• Sometimes, when I open certain Word documents, they open as a new document... totally blank.
• But if I then open the exact same file using the File-->Open menu, it opens perfectly.
• I'm unable to run any combination of two Office 2008 apps at the same time.
  
  • For example, if Word is running and if I try to open Excel or Power Point, I get a crash report.

Check the following video that I did:

Phun: have fun with this physics engine

First of all, if you don't know what Phun is, check out this video:



Good news is: Phun has just been released for Mac OS. So, hurry up, download it here and have hours of fun playing around with this physics engine.

Using QuickTime to create stop-motion animated movies

While exploring the "Open Image Sequence" feature on Quicktime to create a simple Slideshow of images, I noticed that the combo box presented some values that were odd for someone trying to create a slideshow of pictures:

Although values like "3 seconds per frame" may seem acceptable for showing a slideshow of photos (each photo would be displayed for 3 seconds), "15 frames per second" seems to be just a little bit too fast to see all your photos (it means that 15 photos would be displayed in a second, which basically means that you wouldn't be appreciating any of them).

This got me thinking: "Why would you need to go through a slideshow in such a rush?". And then the geeky part of the brain kicked in and I remembered that this is how stop-motion animation movies work.

The idea of stop-motion is as old as cinema since the whole concept of films/movies is based on a stop-motion technique. Basically a camera is a mechanism that captures photos at a very fast rate (usually 24 frames per second). When we reproduce the captured images at the same rate, our brain fills in the gaps between the images, producing the illusion of movement.

Stop-motion works in that exact way: we capture some still images and then while reproducing them at a very fast rate, the images will perceive as having movement between them. To get a clear idea of how this is made, check out the Wikipedia page on this subject.

Excited with the idea of creating a stop-motion animation movie (basically because the movie "Nightmare Before Christmas" is one of my favourite movies of all time - well, at least my favourite animated musical) after discovering how easy it would be to put it all together on Quicktime, I decided to give it a try.

So, I mounted my camera (Canon Digital IXUS 400) on a tripod and took some sequenced photos of my USB Pen being disconnected from the USB hub. After putting it together on Quicktime, this is the result (reproduced at different speeds):

• 6 frames per second:

• 10 frames per second:

• 15 frames per second:

Looks nice, eh? You can also apply this same concept to time lapse movies (that will be my next try).

How to quickly resize your Dock

I've just discovered the most interesting trick about the Mac OS X's Dock. If, for some reason, you need to resize the Dock because an application is beneath it or you just need the extra space at the bottom of the screen, all you have to do is click and drag (up or down) in one of the Dock's separators. This will immediately resize your Dock to the corresponding size.

Check out this video I just did to have a clear idea of what I'm saying:

iPhone SDK and the Gaming Industry: a perfect marriage

So far the accelerometer feature of the iPhone has only been used in simple functionalities like the automatic adaptation of the display (from normal to landscape view) when the user rotates the device. But ever since I have a Mac that it puzzles me why has this feature been so underestimated in Apple products, especially in small devices like the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Ok, I understand that this feature may not be the best practice for laptops (to avoid any accidents or damage to internal moving parts) and, except for some really fun applications (like LiquidMac and MacSaber), this feature is not really needed.

But now that Apple has released the iPhone SDK, we'll see (in the near future) some interesting games that will take advantage of the accelerometer feature of the iPhone. Check out this video, featured in the iPhone SDK launch event:



Uau! It makes you wonder why wasn't the PSP built this way, doesn't it?