Category: Fred Smith

  • Clearing up hard drive space on your Mac

    I have a problem: I’m addicted to podcasts. From Diggnation and 1UP Yours, to Car Talk and A Prairie Home Companion, my subscription list covers a wide range of interests, and an even wider space on my hard drive. I have an 80 gig hard drive on my Macbook, and as of an hour ago I had 987MB free. That’s not good folks, that’s not good at all.

    I talked to fellow blogger Aaron about it, and he suggested a few applications that would clear up some space without forcing me to delete any programs or media.

    (more…)

  • iPhone games to play with your girlfriend

    This isn’t what I’d call a definitive list, but if you want to try to defend your choice to buy a iPhone instead of buying your significant other bling here’s a couple games to buy.

    Wurdle
    Word games are good for relationships. They develop your vocabulary, which in turns allows you to communicate more easily with your significant other. Let’s face it, you need all the help you can get.

    Wurdle mixes smart touch screen controls with engaging gameplay, providing hours of challenging word creating excitement. You’re given a small, medium, or large field of letter tiles to play with, and your choice of time limits in which to create as many words as possible.

    Lexitron

    Lexitron is another word game, only this one turns up the heat a little bit. No more 6×6 or 8×8 letter tile boards, instead you get 6 letters in a line, and two minutes to make at least one 6 letter word and as many other words as you can.

    You can think of this game as that rocky phase in your relationship when you and your girlfriend realize you are two very different people with very different interests and priorities. Communicate or die (relationally speaking).

    Hangman

    Speaking of death, there’s nothing quite like a friendly game of Hangman to liven up an evening. The Hangman app on the iPhone/iPod Touch is actually pretty slick, despite the annoying ad bar on top. Along with classic two player gameplay, it offers the classic dictionaries to pit yourself against on your own.

    Sudoku

    I threw this in on the foundation of watching my roommate and his girlfriend curled up on the couch staring at a Sudoku book for hours on end. My girlfriend downloaded MMGG’s (Mighty Mighty Good Games) Sudoku from the app store just last week and we had a lot of fun with it, so that’s the version I’ll recommend out of the many different Sudoku apps available.

    Remember guys, you’re not just cooperatively solving puzzles to exercise your brain; you’re learning to work together toward a common goal. That’s what good relationships are built on.

  • Good timing? I think so.

    I recently (four days ago) sold my Nintendo DS and all my games on eBay. I did this with the thought that Nintendo would have to release a new DS pretty soon, so I might as well get rid of it while it still has some market value.

    Lo and behold.

    During their Fall Press Conference today, Nintendo have – as expected – announced a new version of the Nintendo DS. Called the Nintendo DSi, it eschews the GBA slot (boo!) in favour of a range of improvements. The handheld’s screens have been enlarged, and will now be 17% bigger (at 3.25 inches) than those found on the DS Lite. As for the rumoured additions, both have proven to be correct, with “audio enhancements” made to the handheld, while it will also now include a 3 megapixel camera.

    The DSi seems to have a lot of new features that would assume Wii integration. Virtual Console on the DS? Yes please!

    The Nintendo DSi can adjust pitch and playback, making it ideal for language study and listening to music.
    What’s more, the DSi features an SD memory card slot, making it possible to take pictures with the DSi and then view them on the Nintendo Wii. The DSi features a built-in browers, and its possible to download games and keep them on the DSi.

    Via Kotaku

  • Aurora Feint hits 1.0.1.1, dodges rotten vegetables

    The secretly best free game on the App store just came out with another patch.

    1.0.1.1 fixes the “memory full” error message that plagued 1.0.0.1, and introduces a few minor graphical effects to the mining game. It also tweaks the resource requirements for the smithing patterns. And the peasants rejoiced!

    Unfortunately along with the improvements 1.0.1.1 brought along a few nasty bugs, not the least of which is a server side error that corrupts your save file and forces you start over, losing your precious resources and advancement. In addition there’s been a handful of reports of a graphical error involving a brick stuck in the falling animation.

    The devs have promised a fix to all the problems will come in the quickly upcoming 1.0.1.2.

  • Kevin Rose says revamp of iPod line coming, and soon

    Behold the new iPod Nano! At least, that’s what Kevin Rose thinks. In a post on his blog Rose cites several rumors, including:

    – Revamp of entire iPod line.
    – Small cosmetic changes to Touch, Nano to see significant redesign.
    – iPods to see fairly large price drops to distance itself from the $199 iPhone.
    – iPod touch 2.1 software, iPhone to get update very soon after.
    – iTunes 8.0 (“it’s a big update w/new features”).
    – All of this coming in the next 2-3 weeks.

    Crazy? Well, rumors of a Zune-like iPod have been floating around for a few weeks now, and Kevin’s comments would lend credence to the theory. There are a couple interesting things about this set of rumors.

    First and foremost, the price cuts. If Apple rethinks their pricing structure based on a $199 iPhone, can we expect a $99 Nano? And second, if the announcement window Kevin presents is correct, Apple will be celebrating the 1st anniversary of the 3rd gen Nano by replacing it with the 4th gen version. Either the fatty didn’t get them the sales they expected, or Apple is counting on their customers to buy a new iPod every time they release a new generation. I’d say a little of both is true.

    If Kevin Rose is correct, expect Apple’s shares to plummet as investors cry bitterly about the price cuts, then recommit their souls to Steve Jobs as Apple rakes in disgusting amounts of money this holiday season.