Macgasm

Double Fine, the company behind such beloved games as Psychonauts and Brütal Legend, has decided to crowd source their funding of a brand new adventure game through Kickstarter. Of course, if any company can make a fantastic adventure game, it will be Double Fine. Tim Schafer, the founder of Double Fine, is known for heading up production of Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, and Grim Fandango at Lucas Arts. Working with Tim is Ron Gilbert. Gilbert, as many of you know, pretty much invented the genre of adventure games with Maniac Mansion as well as the Monkey Island series.

In their video, Schafer makes it clear that they need $300,000 USD for game development and $100,000 USD for filming of their documentary series. Within eight hours of going live on Kickstarter, they reached their goal. As of 12:30 PM Eastern today, they are over $700,000 USD with no sign of slowing down. Clearly, there is a substantial market for this type of game, and only Double Fine, headed up by the pioneers of the genre, have the balls to make it happen.

Now comes the most important question for us. Will there be an OS X and iOS version of this game? Well, luckily that is covered in their Q&A.

Being that they are in their first day of a total of thirty-three, and they are on track to double their goal by the end of the day, it is almost guaranteed that we’ll see OS X and iOS versions of this game. Want to make sure that happens? Well, don’t hesitate to chip in by backing their Kickstarter program. Your money will help make this happen.

Image Source: Wikipedia

Every couple of months articles crop up on the Internet calling Apple’s ecosystem a “walled garden” or a “golden cage” (1, 2, 3). These articles usually try to convince the reader that Apple has lured users into a trap using design/popularity/marketing, shut the door behind them and thrown away the key. The company’s recent foray into the education market, coupled with the controversy surrounding the badly worded and thus promptly misinterpreted licence agreement of its iBooks Author application, made the topic of Apple’s “draconian control” crop-up on the radar of the tech press again.

This article is supposed to serve as a dispassionate evaluation of the current situation.

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By snooping around a bit, the folks at Your Daily Mac have found some evidence that March 9th might be the planned launch for iOS 5.1.

While this is far from definitive, iOS 5.1 has been in development for quite some time, so a March 9th target isn’t exactly controversial or hard to believe. However, the proposed timing of this release coincides with the assumed iPad 3 launch in early March. It isn’t proof, but the facts fit the theory. Keep in mind, all of this is just conjecture. For all we know, the iPad 3 won’t come until later in the year, and iOS 5.1 will be delayed. This is worth keeping an eye on, but we won’t be placing any bets.

What do you think? Are we going to see iOS 5.1 right along side the next iPad? Are we going to see any surprises in the OS that isn’t in the beta similar to Siri in iOS 5? Sound off in the comment section with your thoughts and theories. Better yet, hit us up on twitter. Our username is @macgasm. We’re open to alternate timelines, so don’t hesitate to provide some new evidence.

Source: Your Daily Mac

With rumors swirling that the iPad 3 is just going to be a specification bump, along with a retina display, and some other under-the-hood upgrades, it sounds an awful lot like the next generation iPad is going to look almost identical to the iPad 2. All Things D reported today that we shouldn’t expect much of a change in the form factor of the iPad.

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It’s that time of year again. The new iPad is likely just around the corner. If you believe All Things D, Apple is getting ready to announce and launch the iPad 3 during the first week of March.

From All Things D:

A lot of people are really hoping that this version of the iPad would be a complete redesign based on Apple’s approach to iPhone releases. It sounds a lot like that won’t be happening this time around, and we don’t mind one bit. Recent case leaks have emerged today, and they look almost identical to the current iPad 2. We’re not sure how legitimate those case pictures are, but they look exactly how we expect them to moving forward.

The FBI has just dropped a slightly censored 191 page copy of their file on Steve Jobs. The file includes quite a few interesting trails of paper including background screenings for a position in the White House.

The file, which you can peruse yourself here, contains several uncensored bits of information that I found a bit odd. Steve’s social security number is found all over that file, and while it’d be hard to steal the identity of such a recognized figure, it leads me to wonder why they wouldn’t censor it just to be safe.

Among other interesting findings are details of an FBI investigation regarding a bomb threat made against the Steve, with the crazy man trying to solicit funds from the late Apple founder in 1985. The would-be extortionist made his threats from a phone booth in the parking garage of the San Francisco International Airport and demanded 1 million dollars.

Outside of those couple of things, the file is fairly lackluster. It would have been interesting to read about a “pre-Apple” Jobs and his exploits as seen through the eyes of a government agency. This really got my gears turning, as I hope my FBI file is way more impressive by the time I kick the bucket. Any suggestions?

Source: FBI <–Who’d a thunk?

It’s time to get nostalgic. A website dedicated to Apple II and Apple IIgs ROMS has come across our desk today. Sure, it’s probably not the most legal thing you could spend your time on, but if work absolutely blows today, you can kick your feet up and play some Oregon Trail directly within your browser (IE, FF, Safari, and Chrome). It looks like the website has every single title that was available for those machines.

The site relies on an ActiveGS emulator that you will need to install, but that’s just the price you’re gonna have to pay to get access to the golden gems like Oregon Trail, Strip Poker, and a host of other timeless classics. Just don’t blame us when you get fired for screwing around at work.

Hat tip to Magadget over on Reddit

In a recent well-thought out article about the iOS-ification of OS X, Frederico Viticci states, “This transition obviously started years ago, and in retrospect it’s hard to dig up the very first example of iOS-ification on the Mac.”

The fingerprints of iOS encroaching on OS X may be more tangible than realized. As I’ve watched Apple — in particular its video offerings — over the years, it occured to me sometime last year that if you want to know where Apple is taking OS X with regard to iOS, here’s a sure bet: Watch iLife.

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