The Big Switch!
February 7, 2009
SACGS has made the decision to switch from being a WordPress.com blog to being a Blogger.com blog. Why did we make this decision some may ask. We have done this for the welfare of the blog. With Blogger, we get free custom HTML code, and in turn, custom CSS. Expect a total redesign of this site soon but not to worry, all of the SACGS goodness of the posts is still going to be available at sacgs.wordpress.com just not updated. See the new blog at http://sacgs.blogspot.com
Natedog, President of the Super Awesome Computer Geek Squad
This post is licensed under a Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works United States License.
Your Favorite Browser
February 5, 2009
February App Store Spotlight
February 5, 2009
Every month I like to put some of the best apps in the App Store in the spotlight and let you know how good they are. I am going to talk about my opinion, an entertainment app, a productivity app, a game, and a cool utility.
Opinion: Lite Apps
In this month’s opinion section, I am going to talk about how I feel about lite editions of apps. A lite app is basically an app that is free and that it has less features than the full version. I think this is a great idea since Apple doesn’t offer any way to be able to offer a free trial for apps. I love to use these to try apps for free before I buy, since I am not as rich as Bill Gates.
Entertainment: Sportacular
In this month’s entertainment section, I decided that in honor of the Pittsburgh Steelers won the big game, i would do a sports app. I have chosen Sportacular since this is what I used to track the score for most of the game since I am not much of a American football fan. Get it in the App Store for free today!
Sportacular in the iTunes App Store
Productivity: Ultimate Todos
This is truly great for organizing all of your to-dos with great detail. You can add contexts, contacts that are related, notes and a lot of other things. I am still playing with this so I can’t say much more but so far I am loving it. It is available in the App Store for free at the time of this post.
Ultimate Todos in the iTunes App Store
Games: Topple
In my game review for this month, I want to review a great game that I love to play in my spare time. It is basically a game where you have to stack a group of objects on top of each other as high as you can to get to a goal line in a limited amount of time. Sounds easy, right? WRONG! The difficult part is that pieces fall of if they are not stacked right. If three fall, you lose. Also, if you tilt your iPod or iPhone, the pieces start to tilt to the side and start to fall. This game is free in the App Store.
Topple in the iTunes App Store
Utilities: RemotePad
I love to use this great app. Do you want to know why? I can use this app to control my computer from any room of my house. It is basically a touchpad that works by WiFi and what I love is that it is free and open source. It could use a built in keyboard but so far a great app. DISCLAIMER: Apple reviewed the app but most likely didn’t open the computer software. SACGS is not responsible if your computer has issues with this software. SACGS has had no issues but if you do send us an email at: s…@gmail.com
RemotePad in the iTunes App Store
Natedog, President of the Super Awesome Computer Geek Squad
This post is licensed by SACGS. For more info, see the Licensing Info page.
The Great Google Outage
February 1, 2009
As you may already know, yesterday morning a strange occurrence happened at Google. For nearly an hour, all Google search results were labeled as harmful. In an official Google Blog post, information is posted. By all sites, I do mean all. This includes Google, Yahoo!, SACGS, and even Apple. The blog post says that this all was caused by a human error at Google’s headquarters. In the post, Google mentions a non-profit organization called “StopBadware.org” who provides this malware site data to Google. Google, however, decided to manually edit this data and caused the human error. At a first glance, the Google Blog entry seems to blame StopBadware for this error. I do not think this should have had too big of an effect even though it did. Google’s malware blocking and safe searching features should be opt-in, and only some users should have been effected. This was truly a huge mistake on Google’s part and that is what earned them this sillySunday spot.
Natedog, President of the Super Awesome Computer Geek Squad and Designer of the daily graphics.
This work by SACGS is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Coming Up This Week
January 12, 2009
See reviews of Windows 7, VLC, a battle of the browsers, Windows Live Essentials, Picasa 3, and other great stuff.
–Natedog, President of the Super Awesome Computer Geek Squad
Macworld Keynote Review: What Happened, and What Didn’t Happen
January 6, 2009
I was quite disappointed about this year’s Macworld Keynote by NOT STEVE JOBS this year. This has made me feel like Apple needs Steve Jobs to give good keynotes. I don’t think that is what Apple was trying to do. I think that Apple wanted to say if Steve couldn’t run the company, they could still have a great company. Well, this Macworld keynote was not exciting. Most rumors were squashed and only a few got through. And a rumor I forgot about turned out to be true.
See the rumor list in the previous post to see all rumors that we had.
The only new releases were:
iLife/iWork ‘09
iWork in the Cloud
A New 17″ Macbook
DRM-free iTunes Music
Keynote Remote for iPhone
iTunes Music Store on 3G
Mac Box Set
Ugh…no WOW items. I think Apple just hates Macworld now.
Natedog, President of the Super Awesome Computer Geek Squad
macMonday: Macworld 2009 Apple Keynote Predictions and Rumors
January 6, 2009
Recently, Steve Jobs released a note telling everyone that he is actually having health problems and that is why he pulled out of doing the Macworld Keynote. I now have a listing of all of the rumors I’ve heard and some predictions that I am making.
No Doubt:
Updates for iLife and iWork
The Likely:
Mac Mini Updates
An update for the Mac Mini which also be the Apple Home Server that has also been rumored. Think something like a set-top box that is also a home server that holds the iTunes libraries for all machines on the network.
New Version of iPhone OS
I assume that this new version will include Cut, Copy, and Paste. It will also probably add Street View for the iPod touch.
Demo of Snow Leopard
This will show a demo of Snow Leopard which Apple said it had no new features but I doubt Apple would release a new OS with no compelling features.
iWork in the Cloud
Considering the dominance of Google Docs all over net users, Apple has to try to get office users to come back to there software. This will probably also come with a desktop version or a Google Gears edition.
32GB iPhone
This one is obvious. Everyone wants an iPhone with more space. Unless Apple just stands there and plays quiet music and puts all of the bloggers to sleep.
The Maybe:
Apple Home Server
Like a Time Capsule but it stores all of your media, etc.
iLife moves to the cloud
Just like iWork in the cloud but i don’t know if media editing will work well on the the net, just my opinion.
MMS for iPhone
Well, the iPhone has gone a year and a half without it. Even most phones like the enV have this. Also doing this might make Apple want to add video recording to the iPhone camera.
Push Notification Service
It was due in September. They are months late on this now. They almost have to release this or people will be outraged. You need this even more with all of the different iPhone apps.
Probably Not:
iPhone nano
If they had an iPhone nano with a smaller screen resolution, it would mess up all sorts of apps, especially games.
iPod touch supersized, iPhone tablet, MacBook touch
I just don’t see it coming. If it’s an iPod, it will be in September. If it is an iPhone, it will be at WWDC. Who knows what it is. Maybe it doesn’t exist.
We know that Apple will manage to surprise us at Macworld.
Tomorrow we’ll see what will happen and what didn’t happen. We will also see if I was right of wrong. SACGS won’t be at Macworld, bet we will be watch all types of media sources and we will just have to wait and see what will come.
Natedog, President of the Super Awesome Computer Geek Squad
One more thing. Who knows, Steve might make a cameo appearance during the keynote.
SACGS has been Snipurl’d
January 4, 2009
To get to SACGS by a much easier to remember URL, all you have to remember is sn.im/sacgs
–Natedog, President of the Super Awesome Computer Geek Squad
macMonday: Google Earth vs. Microsoft Seadragon iPhone Apps
December 22, 2008
Hello, SACGS readers! Sorry about the break that SACGS has been taking, we have all been very busy at SACGS so we haven’t been able to post. We may not be able to post on Christmas Eve/Day. I have a handful of things to post about so I might be able to post, and I will try to keep the site as active as possible. Well, let’s talk about the title for the post. Google Earth and Seadragon both have iPhone apps that show satellite images of the Earth. They have a ton of advantages and disadvantages. I like the Google Earth app because it is easy to navigate and change the settings, but Seadragon is hard to navigate and but it has very many different things that are not maps but are still cool to look at. Also, Seadragon is brighter than Google Earth.
In my opinion, if you could only get one, get Seadragon but both are free so I would get both.
Happy Holidays!
Natedog, President of the Super Awesome Computer Geek Squad
macMonday: December App Store Spotlight
December 1, 2008
Hola SACGS Readers! Natedog, here. The first macMonday that I post on every month I like to put some of the best apps in the App Store in the spotlight and review them to a great extent.
Today’s first app is DigiDrummer. DigiDrummer is a fun app that lets you play many virtual drum sets. If you get the Lite version, you only have on drum set to choose from but the Lite version is free. At the time of this post, DigiDrummer costs $0.99. Here are some DigiDrummer screenshots.
The next app is The Weather Channel app. It has a good implementation of current location and it will find you easily, at least over wifi. It will show a video of your local weather by a simple tap.
See you on windowsWednesday,
Natedog, President of the Super Awesome Computer Geek Squad
The email is in a picture to prevent spammers.