Mac gaming fans have one less reason to be envious of their PC-using brothers & sisters, now that Telltale Games has made the official announcement that the episodic Sam & Max is coming with a third season entitled The Devil’s Playhouse — and it will be available on the PC, Playstation 3 and yes, even the Mac. Sam’s a six-foot tall canine shamus with a hunger for justice. Max is a hyperkinetic rabbity-thing with an oversized Luger and a taste for violence. Together they’re Sam & Max, freelance police, ridding the streets of bottom-feeding sludge, one dastardly miscreant at a time.   The popular episodic game comes courtesy of publisher Telltale Games, who made the announcement today at GDC. On the heels of the first two popular seasons of Sam & Max comes the good news that the third season, entitled The Devil’s Playhouse , will also be coming to the Mac at long last, and the game is virtually identical across all three platforms. In The Devil’s Playhouse , Sam and Max face a mysterious otherworldly power for controlling matter and space that calls to the strongest and strangest who might wield it — intergalactic warlords and eldritch gods, under-dwellers and scholars of the arcane. It’s Sam’s and Max’s biggest case yet! For those of you new to episodic gaming, Telltale’s niche is having the games play out over a series of interconnected episodes, each one building on the next.

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Telltale Announces Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse for Mac

Section: iPhone / iPod touch / iPad , iPhone , iPod touch , iDevice Apps , Mac Software Macintosh and iPhone/iPod updates and announcements for March 11, 2010: Macintosh Benedict Lowndes has announced WindowFlow Beta for Mac OS X. WindowFlow provides powerful keyboard commands for organizing your application windows. You can seamlessly move and resize windows which will snap into alignment with each other. WindowFlow’s clean and simple interface also acts as a window switcher, allowing you to easily browse all of your open application windows. The beta is available today at a discount for early adopters. Maintain has announced Cocktail 4.6.1 (Leopard Edition) , the latest maintenance update of Cocktail for users running Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. This version adds ability to stop Cocktail from logging out, restarting or shutting down the computer at the end of a scheduled programme. The update also features improvements on the clear Adobe Flash Player caches and cookies procedure as well as overall performance improvements. Macgamestore.com has announced the digital download release of Warbirds: Dogfights for the Macintosh.

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Mac, iPhone, iPod and iPad product news – March 11, 2010

At long last, the Welcome to MacIntosh documentary (which we’ve mentioned here a few times) is now available to watch online, for free. . Welcome to MacIntosh includes guest appearances by pretty much every well-known Mac nerd you can think of (including our own cuddly Leander Kahney). Official blurb: “Filmmakers Josh Rizzo and Rob Baca trace the

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Watch “Welcome to MacIntosh” Documentary For Free Online

At long last, the Welcome to MacIntosh documentary (which we’ve mentioned here a few times) is now available to watch online, for free. . Welcome to MacIntosh includes guest appearances by pretty much every well-known Mac nerd you can think of (including our own cuddly Leander Kahney). Official blurb: “Filmmakers Josh Rizzo and Rob Baca trace the

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Watch “Welcome to MacIntosh” Documentary For Free Online

PopCap’s games aren’t ones that require eight-figure budgets and massive media campaigns, but we defy you to find anyone who plays games on any sort of basis who hasn’t poured hours into Peggle, Plants vs. Zombies, or one of the studio’s other addictive hits. While the company initially made its mark on Mac and PC, the last couple of years have seen expansion to other platforms, notably the iPhone, which has hosted pitch-perfect iterations of those aforementioned favorites. Now, with the iPad release looming on the horizon, the big question is this: What’s PopCap planning for Apple’s tablet, and how soon will we be able to play it? Andrew Stein, director of mobile platforms at PopCap, wasn’t able to share many specifics in a recent phone interview, but did offer some insight into how the company approaches new platforms, as well as what opportunities they see in iPad development. Plants vs. Zombies on the iPhone "The iPad offers a new experience for both developers and customers, given that it has higher performance," says Stein. "Having the additional horsepower under the hood and the bigger screen, the higher-resolution graphics give a tableau for developers to get more creative with games. We can do things with the iPad that we can’t do on a smaller iPhone screen." In particular, Stein believes the large 9.7-inch screen will initially surprise iPad users, and likens the upgrade from an iPhone to that of bumping up to a new video game console. "I think that the size of screen is going to make the experience much more immersive, and it’s going to be more than what people expect

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PopCap Discusses iPad Gaming Opportunities

Section: Mac Software , Audio / Video , Features , Hands On / First Looks , Originals Category: Video editing/effects Developer: Creaceed System Requirements: Intel-based Mac, Mac OS X v10.6, 64 MB VRAM Review Computer: 2.2GHz 13” Macbook Pro, 2GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM Network Feature: No Processor Compatibility: Intel Price: $39.95 while in Beta, $59.95 for final version Availability: Out now in Beta One of the hassles of dealing with “pro” level software is that quite often it won’t do something simple you need it to because, well, that’s not how professionals do things. Page layout programs—perfect example—won’t let you italicize any text the way Word does—you have to have the italic version of the font. Likewise, video editing and effects can be a pain if you’re looking for a simple fix, or tools that are common in photo editing. Elasty HD is a box full of odd and useful things that can be difficult, impossible, or expensive to find in another application. Elasty HD has four categories of effects. The first brings photo-type controls: crop, flip and (hallelujah) rotate video with a click. Also included is a basic image stabilization function, designed to steady video from a hand-held. Generally speaking, this works well, though you’ll want to combine it with the crop function to prevent the black edges of the frame from creeping into the video. The next function, Probes, is combined with the third function, Effects, so I’ll talk about them in reverse order. The Effects are simple layovers: beating hearts, distortion, halftones, streaks of light, and even a blur if you want to pretend you’re on COPS . Simple, cheesy, and fun. The Probes allow these static effects to move around the screen

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Appletell previews Elasty HD video effects beta

The iPhone has a number of advantages over its smartphone competitors, but one thing it hasn’t had that users have been clamoring for is true multitasking. Push notifications were intended as a workaround designed to give users the ability to stay up-to-date with multiple apps without having to actually run them at the same time. It’s still only a partial solution, though, and one many iPhone users aren’t satisfied with. True multitasking is still high on the want list of many iPhone users, and really remains the only thing not addressed by the many major feature additions iPhone 3.0 brought. Luckily, true app backgrounding capabilities are said to be on the way in iPhone 4.0. That’s according to sources AppleInsider describes as having a “proven track record in predicting Apple’s technological advances.” According to those same sources, though, Apple still has a ways to go before it can introduce these features to iPhone users. But the problem doesn’t lie with the iPhone’s ability to run multiple applications at once. In fact, the iPhone is quite good at multitasking in its current incarnation. Nike+ runs great while you do other things like take calls and/or check your email. But it’s the only non-Apple app that’s allowed that privilege.

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Rumor Has It: iPhone 4.0 Bringing Multitasking

Curvy iPod speaker also makes desks more stylish   The Zeppelin Mini from Bowers & Wilkins is certainly a sight to behold. This elliptical iPod speaker dock slickly incorporates a pair of three-inch drivers with a swiveling dock connector that allows you to rotate your device 90 degrees, which makes it easy to take advantage of Cover Flow navigation. It’s beautiful and well designed, and though the sound performs equally well, the bass on this $400 dock is a bit underwhelming. While its larger sibling is intended to fill rooms with music (Apr/08, 4 out of 5 stars), the more compact Zeppelin Mini is better suited to your desktop. At 12.6 inches wide by 4 inches deep, it’ll fit nicely next to your Mac, and it can also serve as both a syncing cradle for your iPod or iPhone (when connected via an optional USB cable) and an external speaker for your computer’s audio. There’s even an audio input on the back that’s handy for using the Mini to pipe out audio from other external sources. Bowers & Wilkins includes a small seven-button remote that controls playback, adjusts volume, and switches input between the dock connector and the auxiliary input. Disappointingly, it doesn’t let you navigate menus or playlists, which is an odd oversight. When it’s not in use, the rounded remote sits snugly on the Zeppelin Mini’s concave top. That’s a good thing–the main unit only features Power and Volume Up and Down buttons, so if you lose the remote, you’re out of luck (which is also a good argument for keeping a spare battery on hand). To our ears, the Zeppelin Mini sounds great for its size. It gets plenty loud (especially since most people will probably use it on a desk near their workstation), and the tone is even and clear. Zeppelin Mini avoids the common problem that many small speakers have in overemphasizing the treble, although after extended testing, we still wish the Mini’s bass was a bit stronger, especially given its relatively high price and ported design. We were also bummed that spending four bills on a Zeppelin Mini doesn’t get you a printed manual or a USB cable for connecting with your Mac.

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Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Mini

It’s no secret that many recording artists — especially those from the bygone era of the long-form LP record format — prefer listeners to enjoy their music as a whole, rather than on a song-by-song basis. One of the pioneers of such concepts, Pink Floyd, has just scored a legal victory that may change the way we buy such music from iTunes in the future. BBC News is reporting that Pink Floyd has score a legal victory with its record label, EMI, over the company selling its songs by track through Apple’s iTunes Store, according to MacRumors. The high-profile band objects to the label splitting up what it considers to be single pieces of work. “The rock legends, signed to EMI since 1967, said their contract meant their albums could not be split up without their permission,” BBC News reports . “A judge agreed, saying the contract contained a clause to ‘preserve the artistic integrity of the albums.’ EMI has been ordered to pay £40,000 ($60,000) in costs, with a further fine to be decided.” Of course, Pink Floyd’s contract with EMI predates digital music downloads, particularly those from the iTunes Store, which pioneered the “99 cents per track” option that’s become so popular in recent years. Rather than having to buy an entire album just to get one or two favorite tracks, customers can pick & choose which tracks they’d like to own. The band’s lawyers “argued that it made little sense that the contract’s restrictions against the splitting up of ‘seamless’ material would apply to physical distribution while digital distribution would be treated as a ‘free for all.’” EMI argued that the use of the word “record” in the contract suggested that it applied only to physical media. For now, Pink Floyd’s music remains for sale by track on the iTunes Store — so get it while the getting is good, we figure that will change soon enough, and probably start affecting other classic rock bands as well…

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Another Brick in The Wall: Pink Floyd Scores Legal Victory

Mac users who regularly exchange files with Windows users are constantly stymied by one of Mac OS X’s biggest limitations — you can read NTFS-formatted Windows disks, but you can’t write to them. Thanks to Paragon’s NTFS for Mac, you can, and the latest 8.0 version brings faster read & write operations as well as 64-bit support for Snow Leopard 10.6. Paragon Software Group has long been a leader in innovative data security and data management solutions, and Mac users have frequently turned to their NTFS for Mac OS X solution to eliminate the barriers between Windows and Mac. The company has just announced NTFS for Mac OS X 8.0 Release Candidate, a free 30-day trial of their latest drivers to read & write Windows-formatted NTFS disks. “We are very excited to offer this new solution to our fast growing NTFS for Mac OS X user base,” said Tom Fedro, president of Paragon Software Group. “Paragon NTFS for Mac 8 is the only solution on the market based on file-system drivers, which makes it unique with regards to stability and performance. Paragon was the first to officially break down the communication barriers between Mac and Windows, and we remain committed to bringing users the newest features with NTFS for Mac OS X 8.0.” Paragon NTFS for Mac 8 achieves the speed of native HFS+ drivers, with test results demonstrating around 90MB per second during read & write operations. The company bills the software as “the industry’s fastest NTFS driver,” with Mac users provided full read & write access to Microsoft NTFS partitions, allowing for easy modification of existing files back and forth between Mac and Windows without additional costly hardware or software. Among the new key features of NTFS for Mac OS X 8.0 are full support for the latest Snow Leopard 10.6 in 64-bit kernel mode, fast volume transfer speed, full read & write access, easy installation and removal, create & repair NTFS partitions under the Mac, use non-Roman characters and languages in your file & folder names, no system degradation during file transfers and no limitations on file or partition size beyond those in the Mac OS X or NTFS specifications. The Paragon NTFS for Mac OS X 8.0 Release Candidate is now available for download from the company’s website and gives full access to the feature set for a 30-day trial. Pricing and availability has not been announced for the shipping product, but Release Candidate users are promised a discounted price when it becomes available. Customers who purchase the current 7.0 version will also be entitled to a free upgrade to 8.0.

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Paragon Offers NTFS for Mac 8.0 Release Candidate