Phase: Guitar Hero in your Pocket

iPod games up to this point have been lackluster and unoriginal. The card and board games I have seen before don’t seem to be worth the $5 asking price. Harmonix, the creators of Guitar Hero and upcoming Rock Band, are out to change that with their new iPod game, Phase.

Phase is the first music based game on the iPod (unless you consider iQuiz music based) and takes advantage of your existing iTunes library. No paying for overpriced downloadable content like on the consoles. With Phase, a playlist in iTunes is created to upload the songs you want to play during the game. Uploading takes a little bit longer because more song information is needed, presumably to align the game play with the music. Phase does come with music (including a song by Freezepop for the GHII fans), but picking your own music makes it so much more fun.

Review: The New Apple Keyboard

I’m a sucker for Apple products. As soon as Apple introduced the keyboard (and updated iMacs), I took out the credit card and bought a new Apple wired keyboard. I wasn’t really in need of a keyboard, especially since I use a MacBook, but that was the reason I decided to purchase it.

The MacBook’s keyboard has been a controversial subject among the Mac community, some love it and some hate it. At first, I hated the Macbook keyboard; I felt the keystrokes were too short and the keys were too far apart, but within about a week, I really liked and prefer the keyboard to others. The new Apple keyboard has been an instant must-have after using (and loving) the Macbook keyboard.

Flock: Update Brings new Interface; Functionality

Flock, a Firefox-based web browser that focuses on browser integrated web services (blogging, uploading, etc) has received a significant update. The integration of these services has earned it the nickname: “Web 2.0 Browser”.

From it’s release Flock has gotten flack (and lots of it) for being buggy, but recent updates have effectively resolved and silenced those problems. Unlike Firefox, Flock comes full of tools for bloggers and social networking users, from the start.

Wakoopa: The Application-based Social Network

Here at MacApper we are obsessed with applications, no matter how complicated or simple they are. So when I spotted Wakoopa, a social network based on applications, it sure seemed perfect for the MacApper crowd.

Never heard of Wakoopa? Think of Wakoopa as Last.fm, but based on applications instead of music. To use Wakoopa, sign up and download the Wakoopa Tracker and every application you use from now on is sent to your profile. This is where Wakoopa shines.

Is Stacks Competition for Overflow?

Overflow, by Stunt Software, is one of my favorite Mac applications. It has one purpose and manages that purpose really well: instead of filling your dock with applications you sometimes use or leaving a mess on your desktop, you can organize them with Overflow. Think of Overflow as a place to put applications and files for one-click easy access.

The upcoming Leopard release introduces a new feature called Stacks. Stacks holds files and applications for easy access without having to navigate the much loved Finder. To create a Stack in Leopard you select the items you want and then drag them to your dock. Will Apple’s Stacks feature take the place of Overflow?

Be Warned before a Hard Disk Failure with SMARTreporter

I took a vacation a couple of months ago and decided to take the MacBook. While I was away the laptop worked fine, but when I got home it was a different story. After talking with Apple support, they came to the conclusion that the hard drive had failed and all information was lost. To help prevent another catastrophe, I downloaded SMARTreporter.

SMARTreporter is a small application that runs in the menu bar and warns you before a hard disk failure. If you hard drive is working problem-free the icon will show green, but if a rough time’s ahead the icon will turn red. Fortunatley, I haven’t been blessed with another failure, but many Mac users swear by it.