2016’s Hitman was a fantastic sleeper hit, eventually rising to “Game of the Year” status. It’s an engaging combination of stealth, action, strategy, and even comedy but, until now, it was only available for PC and consoles. Thanks to the porting efforts of Feral Interactive, Hitman is now available for macOS, and it’s even on sale, too! Head over to Steam to check it out and download the free demo, but be sure to verify the game’s system requirements before you buy, as it currently supports only recent Macs with AMD graphics cards.
The highly anticipated and controversial new book about the development of the iPhone, The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone, is now available. Initial reviews reveal that the book isn’t the “complete” history of the iPhone that most were expecting, but that it does provide a number of new stories and insights about the inner workings of Apple and the relationships between the company’s executives and its partners during this crucial time in Apple’s history. Early press excerpts from the book caused some controversy, and its release was timed perfectly with last night’s interview with ex-iOS chief Scott Forstall. Check it out now at Amazon, or download the Kindle or iBooks versions to start reading right away.
Chuck Joiner interviewed me for his “On the Road to Macstock” series. I am speaking—as are Jeff Gamet and Dave Hamilton—at Macstock 2017, and Chuck asked me for a preview of my presentation. As Chuck put it, “Bryan Chaffin of The Mac Observer gives us a taste of the kind of timely analysis of events that he will deliver to the audience in Woodstock IL in July. This time, Bryan provides his thoughts on Project Titan, Apple’s automotive project, and what Tim Cook’s comments really mean. Bryan has a reputation for strong opinions, and this conversation is no exception.” Seems about right.
Oh my. Check out Apple’s new commercial called The Archives, and it’s another emotionally-compelling piece. The spot is for the Memories tab in Photos in iOS 10, which can “automatically creates beautiful movies out of the photos and videos in your camera roll in a matter of seconds.” To personify that, Apple shows an elderly craftsman—an old-world archivist—painstakingly putting together a series of images. The action cuts to what appears to be real videos and photos of an expecting family shot on iPhone. Those get made into a movie that the mother is watching years later. The tagline is, “Memories – movies made for you on iPhone 7. Practically magic.” I like the imagery and the analogy.
Where’s Apple going with ARKit in iOS 11? Bryan and Jeff weigh the pros and cons of mobile-device AR versus goggle/glasses AR. They also talk about Bryan’s cockamamie idea for iBooks inside Apple Stores, and go deep on some listener email on HomePod and Apple Car.
If you thought the Raspberry Pi is small, take a look at this US$9 CHIP board from Next Thing Co. Game developer Chris Larkin combined it with a 12V battery, some 3D printing magic, and a wireless keyboard to host a fully working emulator of an Apple II computer. And just in time for the 40th anniversary of the Apple II from 1977. This video demonstrates how to build one yourself. Super cool.
· Jeff Gamet · The Mac Observer's Daily Observations Podcast
Jeff Butts and John Martellaro join Jeff Gamet to talk about Apple’s ongoing fight to stop product leaks, plus they take a look at Apple’s partnership with Health Gorilla for unified medical record management and tracking.
We have a new Pay What You Want app bundle for you called The World’s Biggest Mac App Bundle. The full bundle is 15 apps, and you can get all of them if you beat the average price ($13.01 as of this writing). Pay less than the average—even a penny—and you get two of the apps. Beat the leader’s price at any point and you’ll be entered into the a giveaway. Check it out!
Get ready for a new Futurama fix because Futurama: Worlds of Tomorrow is coming to the App Store on June 29th. The iPhone and iPad game teams up the TV show’s voice actors, writers, and animators for what they’re calling new episodes rolled into a video game. The developer, Tinyco, has a teaser video out featuring the heads of Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye, Stephen Hawking, and George Takei that also shows off a little of the game play. Like we said when we first heard about the game, shut up and take my money.
