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TUAW hands on with CrossOver Games


We posted about the release of CrossOver Games a little while ago -- it's a version of Codeweavers' Windows virtualization software that allows Windows games to be played on OS X and Linux. I grabbed a copy of the software for TUAW, and spent an afternoon running it through its paces.

You can check out the hands-on after the break -- after installing CrossOver Games, I first tried to load up Guild Wars using their installer's package interface, and was able to get it working pretty well. I then tried one of my favorite games, Civilization 4, and unfortunately, that one didn't turn out quite so well. And just for kicks, I also gave F.E.A.R. a shot -- it's not on CrossOver's compatibility list at all, but I've had a copy sitting around for a while that I haven't played yet, so I let the virtualization app take a crack at getting it working.

The hands-on is in this simple and easy-to-use (which is more than I can say about CrossOver Games) gallery format -- just click the picture furthest to the left down there and begin our journey into the exciting world of virtualization and game installation. I can tell you're excited already.

Gallery: TUAW's Hands on with CrossOver Games

Registration freeze!The Home ScreenInstalling Guild WarsIt worked!Downloading the GW client


Update: Arjun found the problem with Civ in the comments; apparently only the Steam version is compatible. Which vibes with the rest of what I found: if you want to play any of the Steam or built-in games with CrossOver, they'll likely work just fine. But if you want to install another game from a CD (especially unsupported games), you're out of luck.

TUAW and Gametap invite you to test their beta

Gametap, as you may already know, is working hard on a Mac client for their game subscription service, and when they told us they were looking for a few good beta testers, we told them to look no further than you, our beloved TUAW readers. So together with GameTap, we're offering you a chance to not only help them test their beta, but check out their service and their games (from Atari to Zork) for free.

Hit the link below to see the details, sent to us by GameTap. The short version: you'll have to apply as a beta tester (not everyone who applies will get a free version of the software-- odds are that they're looking for people who will legitimately help them with feedback), and the client they're testing only works on Intel processors, so if you've got a PowerPC Mac, you're out. We'll leave this information up for a week, or until GameTap tells us they have everyone they need. Good luck!

UPDATE: Gametap has all the beta testers they need, we've removed the Read link.

Continue reading TUAW and Gametap invite you to test their beta

iPhoneTypingTest.com



You probably know how fast you can blaze up a regular keyboard, and maybe you've even taken a typing test on a more traditional mobile keyboard found on Windows Mobile or BlackBerry handsets - but how fast are you on your iPhone's virtual keyboard? iPhoneTypingTest.com ought to help you answer that question, as it does just what its name suggests: the site (which recommends you use it in landscape mode for optimum visual layout) presents a text entry box that, once tapped on, will allow you to re-type the text that appears above the box in an effort to test your iPhone typing speed. It's a simple system that seems to work well; on my first try in portrait mode (I personally find the landscape keyboard too wide to work with) I scored 21 wpm with "some error(s)," and second try I nabbed 31.

How good of an iPhone typist are you? Be honest - your web honor is at stake.

Thanks Georgia

Test your MacBook for random shutdowns

Some MacBook owners around the web are reporting a 'random shutdown' issue, where the machine will - as you might guess - seemingly shutdown at random; either during work or patiently idling for your next command. If you haven't experienced this issue yourself yet but are still concerned about it, The Apple Files has devised an unofficial test to see if you might be a victim.

The test involves entering a few simple commands into the Terminal and testing a few things over roughly half an hour of your time. Just to be thorough, the author recommends running this test two or three times to be sure, but it's really up to how paranoid you're feeling. Again, this is an unofficial test, and we haven't seen any official reports or announcements from Apple on this issue, its cause or how widespread it might be, but it's simply nice to have options, hey?

[via digg]

Mac Pro benchmark roundup


Other sites are already getting their hands on Mac Pros and putting them through the benchmark ringer, and since we aren't done checking the couch for change yet, I figured a benchmark roundup would be the best way to let you sink your teeth into some cold, hard numbers. If you've been waiting to see how well these things perform in real world tests, your wait just might be over:
  • Macworld pits a 2.66 Quad Core Ghz Mac Pro against 2.5 Quad and Dual 2.7 G5 Power Macs - G5s run crying to mama in everything but Adobe Photoshop tests (hint: that will be a benchmark theme across the board)
  • MacInTouch posts some initial impressions as well as a wide variety of benchmarks, including some real low-level geek stuff like "multi-threaded scalar." Until now, I thought a 'scalar' was just a monster in Unreal
  • Bare Feats posts their own set of tests, including the only After Effects test I've found so far (AE still isn't a UB either; I guess Adobe misunderstood the phrase 'fashionably late to the party')
  • Geek Patrol, as you might glean from the name, also posts some extensive low-level tests in categories such as memory performance, floating point, integer and more
  • Apple's product page also seem to think pretty highly of their own new Mac Pros
That's it for now. Just don't blame us for the credit card interest if this pushes you over the edge to buy one.

OS X browser test, fourth edition


After reading this article, I'm simply giddy with self-righteous indignation for all the people who have ever told me I was silly for paying money for a browser. The guys over at macintalk have revived their popular Macintosh browser shootout and re-tested all of the competitors using the latest universal binaries of Firefox, Camino, Safari, WebKit, and the OmniWeb 5.5 beta.

As many of you might expect, Firefox, the PC favorite, lagged behind all other browsers tested in the speed tests, with its sleek sibling Camino not scoring much better. The two gecko browsers also failed to render the Acid2 test properly, while OmniWeb and Safari/WebKit passed with flying colors.

Now, I don't want anyone to get the idea that I'm bashing Firefox and Camino. Camino will always have a place in my dock to handle all of the sites that WebKit can't, but I much prefer OmniWeb for my day-to-day usage, and the test results seem to agree with me.

[Via Creativebits]

MacTech benchmarks Office 2004 on Rosetta

MacTech has published what I am fairly certain are the comprehensive Office 2004 on Rosetta test results for Intel Macs. Honestly, there is so much literature and testing in this article that I simply skimmed most of it and skipped ahead to the conclusion: "in general, Office 2004 under Rosetta works "well enough" to "very well," and in some cases, it's even faster than on the PowerPC baseline machine." Having recently acquired a MacBook Pro, I have to agree. However, I think Word has a slightly longer startup time than on my previous PowerBook, but I would attribute that to Rosetta having to work some magic in the background.

Don't take my word though: check out MacTech's article for more than you'd ever want to know about how well Office 2004 will perform on Intel Macs.

[via MacMinute]

Video of a MacBook Pro stomping a PowerMac G5 compiling Java

What's a big news day without a little bit of a hardware smack down? Call me crazy, but I just found this Gear Live site through diggdot.us, and these guys posted a video podcast in a variety of formats of a MacBook Pro with a (comparatively) measly 1 GB RAM making mince meat out of a Dual 2.0 GHz PowerMac G5 with 4 GB RAM in a Java compile test.

While it isn't a comprehensive rundown of a variety of tasks and apps these two systems can run, it's still pretty impressive to see how well this next generation hardware can perform.

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