News Archive for Friday March 26, 2010     Goto Current News Page

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Steam for Macs Beta Signup
Earlier this month Valve said Steam for Mac (and source games) were due in April and apparently now are taking applications for Mac Steam beta testers. As of early Sunday morning I didn't see any Valve or Steam news posts on it yet, but here's a reader mail from this weekend:

" Hey guys, do you know this?
http://store.steampowered.com/macbeta/
Steam is searching mac users for beta tests, I'm already sign'd in :-)
(Regarding questions on the application to be a beta tester)
- how many hours you play in average
- how man Macs you have
- how many games you bought
and some more...
Finally they would like to have a system overview from my main Mac, short form, in a text file.
I inform you if I'm accepted :-)
-Stefan"

That page notes:

"In order to sign up to be considered for the Steam on Mac beta, you must be logged in to your Steam account.
Please click here to login"

If you don't already have an acct you can create one on the login page.

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EyeTV 3.3.3 update
Version 3.3.3 is available via EyeTV's in-app update check. Here's what's listed as changed per the (v3.3.2) in-app update window:
"Bug Fixes
EyeTV 3.3.3 fixes video playback problems with EyeTV 3.3.2 in certain countries"

The EyeTV 3.3.3 readme file (zipped) has a longer list of changes, but other than the above it seems to repeat the changes noted for EyeTV 3.3.2.
Here's some comments from an EyeGato support post Friday with a bit more detail on the v3.3.3 fixes:

"We've just released EyeTV version 3.3.3 which fixes a couple bugs that were discovered after the release of version 3.3.2.
  • Fixed bad decoding/playback of channels which use frame/field switching. e.g. in France
  • Fixed occasional crashing in the AAC decoder."
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    First Nvidia Geforce (Fermi) GTX 470/480 graphics card reviews
    I'm hoping there will be a mac version of Nvidia's GTX 400 series (and ditto for ATI's 58xx), perhaps when the 2010 Mac Pro is announced (?) but in the meantime now that the embargo has been lifted, here are a few reviews of the GTX 470/480 from PC sites:

    I wrote an EVGA contact to ask if they had any plans for a Mac 400 series card. (Assuming they were not too disappointed in sales of the Mac GTX-285. I'm still running mine since I reviewed it in early June 2009)
    BTW - The GTX 470 card has two 6-pin power connectors, the 480 has one 8-pin and one 6-pin. Mac Pros have only two 6-pin power connectors. Improving on that was one of my wish-list items for the 2010 Mac Pro. (I know some owners have used external Pwr Supplies and the pre-2009 Mac Pros have Molex connectors (for their PATA Optical drives) that although not ideal, could be used w/Y-adapters. I've seen some PC video cards come with adapters like that but have never had to use them.)

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    MakeMKV v1.5.2 beta (follow-up on playing Blu-Ray movies in OS X)
    I'm not very good at keeping up with these updates, but as a follow-up to a post months ago on Playing Blu-Ray Movies in Mac OS X (using VLC and MakeMKV), there's another update to the MakeMKV beta. The MakeMKV download page has v1.5.2 with this list of changes (from v1.5.1):

    "MakeMKV v1.5.2
  • Added support for MPEG audio tracks on DVD
  • Corrected "code 28" error with some Blu-ray discs
  • All LPCM audio formats from Blu-ray are now handled correctly
  • Fixed occasional GUI failures
  • Improved handling of Blu-ray discs with episodic content
  • Various stability improvements"
  • As always the OS X version requires an intel-based Mac running OS X 10.4 or later.

    This reminds me - I recently saw some Blu-Ray discs for under $7 of several older movie titles I was tempted to buy, but I wonder if they're like the last BR cheap disc I bought (Die Hard) - i.e. a very poor quality transfer/original and a total waste. I guess these bargain bin BR discs are more studio Shovelware. Before I buy another budget-priced BR I'm going to check for reviews of its quality on the web.

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    Bogus Apple Store 'Up-To-Date' Order Phishing email
    I get tons of phishing mails every day (banking, amazon, ebay, etc) and I'm sure readers wouldn't bite on this sort of thing but just posting as a FYI. Here's a screenshot of a recent phishing attempt on a fake "Apple Store order"

    Of course checking the link (not clicking on it) for the "order status" shows a bogus URL.

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    Apple related News/Articles/Rumors, Misc Software/App Updates/Freebies

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    Apple Support/How-To/Troubleshooting Doc Updates

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    Listing/links to recent articles and reviews you may have missed.
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