When a new product hits the market, there’s often a shortage. It happened with the Nintendo Wii, the original iPod and with numerous different iPhones. I’m not here to have a detailed debate as to whether manufacturers should, by now, have brought their supply chains up to speed. I will also limit my speculation as to whether sometimes these shortages are engineered to increase hype and demand...

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I have been an iCloud email user for a while, even before “iCloud” existed (iCloud is Apple’s online email service and other online tools). I was originally a MobileMe and .mac user. Until recently, my iCloud email addresses were relatively free from spam. However, for the past few weeks I have been getting five to ten spam emails a day and I didn’t even sign up for anythin...

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The recent explosion of indie game development has produced a ton of amazing games and has revived several older game styles like the side-scrolling platformer (VVVVV and Braid being good examples). Unfortunately, those of us who were fans of arcade shooters like R-Type and Raiden have been left mostly in the cold. Jamestown:Legend of the Lost Colony, an arcade-style shooter from Final Form Games,...

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It’s no great secret that developers and publishers in the video game industry would like to see an end to the used games market. The reasons for this are obvious: while everybody gets paid when a game is bought brand new, no one involved in the process of actually making the games get paid when it’s bought and sold for a second time. However, there are several reasons why a healthy us...

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Utilities like text editors and FTP clients may not scream “sexy!”, but for us geeks who perform actual work with our computers, they’re critical tools. Unfortunately, these tools get so entrenched and build such strongly opinionated followings (people still use vi, for Pete’s sake!) that few developers try to build new, better tools. A brave (or maybe they just didn’t know any better) t...

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In this guide, I’ll show you some great apps for iOS published by PBS Kids. These are all winners and based on current PBS Kids shows. Some are free while others are not. PBS Kids Video I have to start with a great free app called PBS Kids Video. This app requires an internet connection, but once connected you and your child will have access to clips from many great PBS Kids shows. In some c...

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Watching movies or TV episodes is probably one of the top things most people do with the iPad. You can rent or purchase movies through iTunes, but what if you want to watch a DVD on your iPad that you already own? You can convert your existing movies into a file format that is iPad friendly.There are plenty of sites offering free DVD converter software, a good number of which attempt to up sell y...

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I’m always worried when developers port their games from the original platform to a new one. Console to PC, PC to Mac, console to mobile; whatever the case, the results usually suck (especially Mac ports). The new platform rarely gets the same support or attention as the original, and the ported game usually runs much slower because it’s running through some sort of emulator like Wine or DOSbo...

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Google and Dish Network have been in the news a lot lately, and for good reason: it seems as though Google is very interested in becoming a wireless carrier, potentially partnering with Dish and its wireless spectrum that was purchased back in 2008. This matters. And I think it matters a lot. Let’s talk hypothetically: imagine Google enters the wireless carrier space, whether through Dish o...

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Gift cards can be a convenient gift for the holidays, but who likes carrying around all those useless, environmentally unfriendly plastic rectangles? Certainly not me, which is why the free application Gyft is perfect, an application that not only aggregates our gift cards, but allows us to buy and gift others with gift cards from a variety of major retailers like Gap, Amazon, Target and many ...

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