client posts

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Gaming, Software, Freeware, Internet, Developer, iPhone, App Store, SDK, iPod touch

Aurora Feint devs share their social code in OpenFeint

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Feb 18th, 2009

The folks behind the popular Aurora Feint series of iPhone games have decided to share their work creating a "social MMO" system on the iPhone with other developers. They've just announced a system called "OpenFeint," which other devs will be able to license and use in their own games. OpenFeint will supposedly allow a developer to put together a multiplayer community in an iPhone app, complete with profiles, news boards and chat, in under an hour. They're also providing a server for developers to use, so devs won't have to host their own server software -- they'll just have to make their client work with the existing system.

Wild. It sounds like they're just making the systems they've already developed in their own games available to anyone who wants to use them. Right now, they're looking at a private beta (interested devs can sign up on their site), and eventually the service will be free for a limited number of users, with certain costs as the userbase grows.

The cynical side of us wonders if there's a catch in there somewhere -- presumably, all of the users in OpenFeint will keep their information on the Aurora Feint-owned server, so we'd guess there's a chance that at some point in the future, they could use that list for less-than-honorable actions (Steve Demeter's Onyx Online plan is another service that aims to be platform-wide, which seems to have similar risks). But that's just us being paranoid -- taken at face value, this just seems like one team of indie developers opening up what they've already done to help other devs. Very cool.

Tags: aurora-feint, client, development, iphone, ipod-touch, mmo, multiplayer, openfeint, plans, profiles, sdk, server, software, system

Filed under: Enterprise, Software Update

Apple releases Remote Desktop 3.2.2

by Cory Bohon (RSS feed) on Sep 16th, 2008

Apple just released two updates for its Remote Desktop product. The client update and the admin update promise the following fixes:

Improved reliability with the Copy Items command.
Upgrade Client Software command now uses unicast packets for improved reliability on some networks.
Fixes to the Force Quit All Applications and Copy Items to Computer Automator actions.

The update is available to Mac OS X systems running 10.3.9 (or later) and ARD 3.x. You can download the updates by opening Software Update (Apple menu > Software Update) or by visiting Apple's downloads website and downloading the installer packages.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Tags: admin, apple, client, enterprise, remote desktop, RemoteDesktop

Filed under: iPod Family, iPhone, App Store

First Look: Mocha VNC Lite

by Cory Bohon (RSS feed) on Jul 21st, 2008

Mocha VNC Lite allows your iPhone or iPod touch to connect to your Mac or PC via VNC. For those of you who don't know, VNC is a protocol that allows you to screenshare/control other computers via a VNC client (which is what Mocha VNC Lite is). It is amazing to see this working right on my iPhone. I remember back when I used a Palm device to do this sort of thing and it was very kludgy, but this seems to work rather smoothly.

When you are connected to the computer via VNC, you are able to control pretty much everything on the screen, with the exception of special keys (i.e. command, option, F keys, etc.). You can, however, "pinch" the iPhone's screen to zoom in or out the viewing area.

Now for the gripes. Mocha VNC Lite uses left-clicks on the screen (which can be quite annoying after a few minutes use). You are also unable to change the refresh rate (however, if you click the "+" button, you're given a "refresh option.")

Mocha VNC also offers a paid version which gives you more useful features like extra PC keys, cursor keys, text macros, and a right mouse key. However, the lite version will give most users everything they need for casual VNC management.

You can download Mocha VNC Lite from the App Store for free. At the time of this writing the paid version has not yet been placed on the App Store. Feel free to look at our gallery of screenshots before you download.

Gallery: First Look: Mocha VNC Lite

Tags: App Store, AppStore, client, control, firstlook, free, iPhone, iPhone 3G, Iphone3g, iPod touch, IpodTouch, Mocha VNC Lite, MochaVncLite, network, screen, screenshare, VNC

Filed under: iPod Family, Internet, iPhone, App Store

First Look: Twinkle

by Cory Bohon (RSS feed) on Jul 18th, 2008

The iPhone will no doubt see it's fair share of Twitter clients (just as the Mac has). Twitterrific is the big name in the Mac/iPhone Twitter app space, but in a client from Tapulous called "Twinkle" has also been generating some interest. Originally released as a jailbreak application for the iPhone and iPod touch, Twinkle has just debuted on the App Store with the ability to location-base your tweets.

While Twitterrific seems to have more precise locating abilities, Twinkle uses the location-based tweeting in interesting ways. For instance, you can see tweets originating within a certain mileage range from your location. Twinkle allows you to easily view your direct messages.

Overall, Twinkle looks like it will give Twitterrific a run for its money. Best part of all? Twinkle (iTunes Link) for iPhone and iPod touch is absolutely free.

Check out our gallery for some screenshots.

Gallery: First Look: Twinkle

Tags: App Store, AppStore, client, firstlook, iPhone, iPod touch, IpodTouch, Tapulous, Twinkle, Twitter, Twitterrific

Filed under: Software, Freeware

Transmission 1.2 released

by Cory Bohon (RSS feed) on May 10th, 2008

If you're a fan of the ever so popular BitTorrent client, Transmission, then you might like to hear that a new version was just released. According to the release notes some of the fixes included:

You can now reset global statistics
Support of multitracker torrents has been improved
UPnP port mapping now faster on startup
Ability to IP block using the Bluetack Level1 blocklist
Dock badge images have been updated

The new dock badges provide greater readability of the transfer in progress. Transmission is freeware and can be downloaded from their website.

Tags: Bit Torrent, BitTorrent, bugs, client, fixes, Transmission

Filed under: Hardware, Tips and tricks, Odds and ends, Internet Tools, Open Source, iPhone

Starting bittorrent downloads remotely from the iPhone

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Dec 28th, 2007

I like Mac OS X Hints a lot, although I will admit that most of the hints they post just aren't for me-- either they're for things that I just don't have a need to do, or they're for things I already figured out a solution for on my own. But lately, I've been trying to figure out if there was a way to start up bittorrent downloads from my iPhone (we've already been able to control clients remotely, but getting the torrent file was the hard part). And so I was ecstatic to see this tip from Whosawhatsis-- with just a little tweaking, you can install a bookmarklet on the iPhone and a script on a PHP server that will send a URL from the iPhone to the server, and then download that URL directly into a folder that a bittorrent client (Transmission is used in the example) will monitor to download the torrent.

Pretty slick. Whosa runs this on a separate server, but while I'd have to read up on exactly how to do it (or maybe our commenters could jump in with suggestions), I'm sure that it wouldn't be too hard to enable a Mac to run a PHP script when asked remotely. Get that running, make the necessary modifications in Who's script, and bingo, you should be able to click the bookmark and then the link on your iPhone, and have the torrent file show up in your Mac, ready for a bittorrent client to grab it immediately.

Tags: bittorrent, client, download, iphone, mac-os-x-hints, starting, whosawhatsis

Filed under: Gaming, Software, Macbook Pro

EVE Online Mac client works great

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Nov 5th, 2007

I was a little surprised to hear all the cheering over on the EVE Online post the other day-- I have to say, I had no idea you TUAW readers could get so excited about an MMO (and by the way, my name in game is Frank Dante, if any of you more experienced pilots want to take me on an Omber mining mission).

But now that I know you're out there, I've got even more good news for you. The Mac client has been available to download for a little while now in beta, and it supposedly works great. Plaguelands got it running terrific on a pretty well-fitted MacBook Pro running Tiger. There have been rumors about Leopard not working well, but considering that CCP (the company that makes EVE) specifically mentioned Leopard in their announcement, it should run just as well.

And tomorrow's the day-- EVE players are getting both the new patch, and the new Mac and Linux clients. I'll see you all out there among the belts, mining asteroids and fending off rats.

Tags: ccp, client, eve-online, gaming, linux, mac, plaguelands

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Open Source, Developer

Kiwi IMAP email client goes closed source

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Jul 11th, 2007

Developer (and sometime TUAW commenter) Matt Ronge has announced he's closing the source of the upcoming IMAP email client Kiwi he's been working on. It's a decision that's been a long time coming, he says, and most of the feedback he's gotten has been positive towards closing the source, so he's going ahead with it. MailCore and libetpan, the two code frameworks Kiwi is built on top of, will both remain open source, so the possibility of someone else building an open source client off of MailCore is still there.

The question is, will Kiwi be worth paying for? The answer, as usual, is "depends." Ronge has some great ideas for how a well built IMAP client could work, but the proof is in the pudding, and right now, all we've got are some screenshots. Kiwi promises Address Book and Spotlight support, LUA customization, and good performance and scalability. If Ronge can make his app do all that, most users will be happy to pay for his hard work.

[ via Brent Simmons ]

Tags: client, closedsource, email, features, imap, kiwi, mailcore, opensource, promises, ronge, software

Filed under: Gaming, Multimedia, Software

GameTap Lite client (finally) released

by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Jul 10th, 2007

The long awaited GameTap client for the Mac is out (direct download right here), and our (newly redesigned) sister site for all things gaming Joystiq put together this video (complete with music from "Psycho Mother$*#^ing Soldier"), along with a pictoral preview of what you can expect when you download and install.

According to Joystiq, the Transgaming setup works very well-- they even found an Xbox 360 controller driver to use with it, and the client brought them right into OS X arcade gaming heaven. There are apparently some games you can play for free, but most games will require a subscription; we're told it's 99 cents for the first month, and it'll be about $7 to $10 a month after that, depending on how often you pay. This client is actually the "Lite" version-- GameTap says the deluxe version is coming later this year which will offer full screen gameplay, the ability to download more games while playing, and "a richer game environment," whatever that means. What are you waiting for? Download that sucker and go psycho, solider!

Tags: client, games, gametap, joystiq, psychosoldier, release, software, subscription

Filed under: Software, Features, Internet Tools, Beta Beat

First Impressions: Mailplane - the desktop Gmail client

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Mar 15th, 2007

The fusion of web services and desktop software is a holy grail of computing bliss that few can claim. The web can often be clunky and limited by the constraints of a browser, while the data in your desktop software takes a swim with your MacBook when you drop it at the beach. Anyone who has ever gone back and forth on whether to use the convenience and innovation of Gmail on the web vs. the power and integration of a desktop email client like Apple's Mail.app knows what we're talking about. While the melding of these two universes might seem like an impossible hope to some, Mailplane is a new desktop Gmail client in private beta that just may be a light at the end of the tunnel.

Continue reading for the details on just what Mailplane is about, and be sure to check out our screenshot gallery for a taste of how well (so far) Gmail and the desktop are getting along.

Gallery: Mailplane - Gmail desktop client

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Continue reading “First Impressions: Mailplane - the desktop Gmail client”

Tags: client, email, first look, FirstLook, gmail, impressions, mailplane, review, screenshot, screenshots

Filed under: Software, Cool tools, Productivity, Internet Tools

Pukka 1.4: No More Dupes

by Mat Lu (RSS feed) on Feb 4th, 2007

I just posted something to del.icio.us with my favorite client, Pukka, and up pops a notification that it's been revved to 1.4. Now as much as I like Pukka (above all for its multiple account functionality) that would probably not be worth a post, except for the fact that version 1.4 adds the one thing I've always most wanted: duplicate warning! The whole point (as far as I'm concerned) of things like del.icio.us is that I don't have to remember what I'm posting there, but by the same token that means I often post the same thing several times. The new version of Pukka "knows" everything you've posted, and if you try to post a duplicate it will tell you: you're "given the original post date along with the option to cancel, continue editing as new and overwriting the old post, or populating Pukka's editing form with the old post for review or refinement." In addition, 1.4 adds hierarchical menu access to all your bookmarks (through their tags) in the Dock icon, as well as a few other things as detailed on the Pukka blog. A hearty TUAW 'attaboy for Justin Miller over at Code Sorcery Workshop for this one.

Pukka is a very reasonable $5 and a 14 day demo is available. If you use del.icio.us with a Mac you should definitely get Pukka.

[Update: added note about the hierarchical menu in the Dock icon]

Tags: client, del.icio.us, pukka

Filed under: Blogging, Internet, Internet Tools

Wordpress to ecto plugin

by Dan Lurie (RSS feed) on Aug 22nd, 2006

It's the general consensus of most Mac users I know that ecto is the blogging client of choice. One thing I find very important about casual blogging is being able to quickly and easily go from viewing content to posting content. This is done in many online blogging environments by javascript bookmarklets, and ecto offers the same thing. Simply click the link in your bookmark bar, and a window pops up ready for a new post. Chris Barna decided to go one better and integrate this functionality directly WordPress by way of a plugin. Once a user has installed he wp-ecto plugin on their site, readers will see, along with any other social bookmarking icons so common on many sites today, a little ecto icon. Pressing this brings up a new post within ecto complete with title and URL already filled in.

Tags: blog, blogging, client, ecto, foo, kung, wordpress

Filed under: Software, Internet Tools

TAB looks at FTP clients

by Dan Lurie (RSS feed) on Aug 9th, 2006

For anyone involved in the day-to-day running of a website, a good reliable FTP client is vital to getting anything done. But with so many options available for users to choose from, how is a person to decide which client is right for them? Mike over at The Apple Blog provides some assistance in the form of a roundup of the 5 most popular FTP clients for OS X. As many of you would expect, Panic's Transmit came out on top, followed by Interarchy.

Personally, Transmit is my client of choice for most situations. However, every so often I'll come across a picky server which causes Transmit to start acting weird. In those rare instances, Interarchy comes in real handy.

Tags: 5, client, ftp, interarchy, osx, review, tab, theappleblog, top, transmit

Filed under: Software, Productivity, Internet Tools

Packrat 0.87 released with page link editing, creation

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Aug 4th, 2006

Packrat, an offline Backpack client that I just can't say enough about, has been updated to version 0.87. Though it is another minor version point update, it features the ability to edit links, including dragging one page onto another to create a link. With all its other abilities of editing pages, tags, lists, and notes, as well as being able to create new lists and notes, Packrat is becoming a more powerful client by the day.

Packrat is a Universal Binary, with a demo available, while a licenses costs $24.95.

Tags: backpack, client, information, offline, packrat, PIM, productivity

Filed under: Software, Internet Tools

Mac OS X dev asks for input on creating a Flickr client

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Jul 15th, 2006

Who doesn't love to get their $0.02 in on an app's development? Especially one as potentially handy as this could be: a Mac OS X developer and Flickr user by the name of otusweb is asking for input in a Flickr Group discussion on what users would like to see in a Mac OS X Flickr client. A few users have already requested such features as Aperture support, an iApp-like UI and Mail integration, but it looks like there's still time to get your two cents in, so why not?

Tags: app, application, client, dev, developer, development, flickr, Freedbacking, mac, os x, OsX, software

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