Hasta La Gadget!

Today users of Apple’s OS X 10.8 or higher will be seeing an update to their systems in the form of an OTA software notification. The version of OS X appearing on MacBook and iMac devices goes by the version number 10.8.4 and brings on a variety of boosts and bug fixes, not least of

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This week the folks at Double Fine have announced that they are – once again – taking to Kickstarter to fund an upcoming gaming venture. This time around, it’s a game by the name of Massive Chalice, and they’re pushing forth a world in which turn-based tactics meet “feudal fantasy”, making what they call a “lovechild” of the two elements – this game will eventually be appearing on Windows, Mac, and Linux machines.

Once this game is under way, it’ll be powered by Double Fine’s in-house 3D Buddha Engine. This means that once they’ve raised the cash they need to move forward – and by the looks of it, it wont be long – Double Fine will have a big opportunity to once again make an in-house hit. Nothing like inspiring people to buy your game with funding project they put their own cash into.

ABOVE: A conceptual map made for “Massive Chalice” in pre-production.

The game is, as the folks at Double Fine say, inspired by games such as Final Fantasy Tactics and X-COM – this along with the game Fire Emblem rounding out some classic turn-based tactical strategy games that they intent Massive Chalice to join. This place in the gaming universe is one that’s long-lasting: playing games from many years ago that were made in this genre continue to be a challenge, the best of them continuing to be cult-classics due to their intricate gameplay.

But why does Double Fine need a Kickstarter to make this game a reality?

“Last year, you Kickstarted Double Fine Adventure, shattering records and bringing video games to the Kickstarter spotlight! Now known as Broken Age, that game is in full production and is already a beautiful and unique experience—but the Broken Age team only represents a third of our multi-game studio.

Double Fine’s goal is for all our teams to remain independent and responsible directly to their players. Kickstarting MASSIVE CHALICE allows us to maintain a pure creative vision, put out updates on our own schedule, respond to feedback without roadblocks, and release it all DRM-free.” – Double Fine

Again, the campaign behind this game is already at $620,447 of its $725,000 USD goal with 26 days left to go, so it’s not as if this Kickstarter wont be a successful one. It’s just a matter of time before the next push begins. Now we’ll see if the creators of Iron Brigade, Psychonauts, and Brutal Legend can create another successful video game title.

Double Fine’s “Massive Chalice” video game campaign gains steam is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple might be neglecting its Mac Pro line, but that could change come next month when WWDC rolls into town. It turns out that retail supply of Mac Pro units is dwindling, and many places are either out of stock or have very limited units in. As history would suggest, this usually means that an updated model is incoming, and WWDC could be the place that we’ll see it first.

Retail stores like MacMall, B&H, Adorama, Amazon, Frys, and Best Buy reported that they were either out of stock or had limited quantities. MacConnection and Apple’s own store were the only locations that mentioned having the 2012 Mac Pro in stock, while MicroCenter, Frys, and Best Buy said that limited supply was available.

2013 could be the year of the Mac Pro, as Apple CEO Tim Cook confirmed himself that the company would be introducing new Mac Pro hardware at some point this year, and what better time than Apple’s first keynote of 2013 at WWDC. We certainly wouldn’t be surprised if it was at WWDC. Otherwise, we’d expect updates during Apple’s usual fall event.

The last time the Mac Pro was updated was last year during WWDC 2012, but we’d hardly count that as a significant upgrade. Apple didn’t touch on it at all during the keynote, and only quietly updated them in the Apple Store, letting people find out on their own that the towers were upgraded with new and slightly quicker internals.

The Mac Pro recently was discontinued in Europe, but it wasn’t necessarily the lack of interest in the full-size tower computer than it was dealing with regulatory standards in the continent. The new product certification standards in Europe appear to have something to do with a few internal components in the Mac Pro systems, such as power supply parts and various wiring, but while Europeans will no longer see the Mac Pro, sales in other countries will continue as normal.

VIA: MacTrast

Mac Pro refresh possible as inventory dwindles before WWDC is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple is probably the best-connected Apple blogger on the planet at the moment, so when he posts an entry called “WWDC Expectations,” the entire community’s ears perk up. The annual Apple developer conference is only a couple of weeks away, and there’s been lots of speculation about what we might see. Dalrymple brings us back to earth, outlining pretty clearly what we will or won’t see.

WWDC, otherwise known as the Worldwide Developers Conference, is for developers, Dalrymple rightly reminds us, and that’s where we’ll see the bulk of the keynote focused. Those hoping for a new iPhone or iPad will have to wait a while longer, according to his report, but we won’t see a complete lack of new hardware.

The Loop says to look to the Mac family as a source of some fresh products at WWDC. That makes sense, given recent reports that MacBook Air stock at retail outlets in particular is dwindling, and given that we haven’t seen an update on that front since June last year. Apple also introduced the 15-inch Retina MacBook Pro at WWDC last June, so that’s another area where we might see an update, though it did just receive some mid-cycle changes back in February.

Other sources have said that we will see new MacBook Pro and Retina MacBook Pro refreshes at WWDC, and that Mac notebook refreshes will be the key focus in terms of hardware developments at the event.

Dalrymple quickly changes gears to what he believes will be the highlight of the show, which is on the software side. iOS and OS X will definitely be a highlight, he suggests, though he does caution that the changes on the iOS 7 side, which are rumored to be guided by Apple design lead Jony Ive and are said to be quite considerable, might not be as extreme as they are being characterized by some early reports.

The report closes by flagging deeper service integration between iOS and OS X, as bridged by things like iCloud that tie the two platforms together. Apple has definitely been moving in that direction in recent iterations of both its mobile and desktop OS, so that would not come as a surprise.

Apple has already done its best to manage expectations for this event without giving anything away, with CEO Tim Cook setting sights squarely on the fall and 2014 for new product launches during a recent conference call. Short of an official press release detailing its agenda, it doesn’t get much better than a post from The Loop in terms of giving us an even more accurate picture of what’s on the docket for the WWDC keynote.

What’s apparently Evernote‘s “most-requested feature” is now available on the company’s note-taking app for iOS, Mac, and the web. The app has been updated to include reminders that give you the ability to notify yourself of a note that you posted in Evernote, making sure that you don’t forget about it at a later time.

The reminders are pretty easy to set up as well. All you do is select the note that you want reminded about, and click the small alarm clock icon in the upper-right corner. From there, you just set the time and date, and the reminder is created and ready to go. You can also set other parameters, like how you want to be notified (through an email, notification, etc.).

This feature can be extremely handy, especially for work or school purposes where you have a deadline or due date for a particular project or essay. Personally, I really wish I had this feature during my college days, as I would save research notes and then quickly forget about them as I move onto another project.

Reminders are also synced across platforms, so setting a reminder on your Mac will also have it appear in the iOS app and web app as well. Sadly, Evernote hasn’t yet rolled this feature out to Android or Windows apps, but it should be only a matter of time before that happens. In the meantime, you can use the web app on Windows if you want reminders that badly.

Evernote is continuing to outpace its competitors by becoming more than just a minimal note-taking app. It may have started off as one, but it quickly became a feature-filled product that act as an all-in-one file cabinet of sorts, allowing you to save websites, images, documents, and other notes, as well as the ability to take photos and scan documents and have them upload straight to Evernote. Other apps are trying to keep up, but Evernote already has a strong hold on the note-taking market.

VIA: Evernote Blog

SOURCE: Evernote, iTunes App Store, Mac App Store

Evernote reminders come to iOS, Mac, and the web is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.