Apple : Buying Guide: Top 10 creative apps for Mac OS X

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Buying Guide: Top 10 creative apps for Mac OS X Posted: 30 Jun 2011 02:52 AM PDT The Mac App store holds loads of top apps to boost creativity. Here are 10 of the best. Aperture - £45 Apple Aperture is a real steal, especially for iPhoto users wanting to upgrade to something more powerful. It boasts top photo-management tools, including the ability to upload to and manage albums on Flickr, Facebook and MobileMe and manage images by Places and Faces. It also boasts intuitive RAW-editing features and a top-notch interface, making Aperture an essential buy. CameraBag Desktop - £8.99 Nevercenter Ltd The Mac version of this iPhone's photo app, CameraBag Desktop is about adding old-school effects to your photos. The app is simple: open it up, load in an image and you can start applying the effects, including cross-processing, silver, instant and Helga. All the filters are high quality, and you can combine them for even more interesting effects, creating custom filters to save and share with the CameraBag community. Pixelmator - £35 Pixelmator When you think of image-editing apps, Photoshop is the obvious one that springs to mind. But Pixelmator is certainly a worthy - and less expensive - rival for those wanting to make adjustments to their digital photographs and create digital paintings from scratch. Pixelmator is packed with hugely powerful and familiar image-editing tools. From layers to blending modes and a host of professional tools to make complex selections, it's an extremely accomplished app that is both intuitive and refined. It's just a really good value, snappy, well-designed creative app. Live Interior 3D Standard - £30 Belight Software Ever wanted to create your dream room on your Mac? Well now you can. In fact, you can sketch out and plan the look of your entire home in 3D. It's simple: just enter the dimensions of your room and start adding furniture, floor and wall coverings at will - before you head off to the local DIY store. The Pro edition gives more control over lighting, amongst other things. One thing this can also be used as is a storyboarding app - you can easily set up interior scenes before exporting for further editing. Artboard - £12 Mapdiva The advantage of vectors (paths-based) over raster (pixel-based) imagery can be enormous - literally. Working in vectors means your artwork can be scaled to any size without any loss in quality. The best-known vector app is Adobe's Illustrator - but it's also very pricey. For £12 Artboard offers nowhere near the functionality or control of Illustrator, but it does bring some simple and easy-to-use Bézier drawing tools. It also has the ability to create 'styles' for future use - meaning you can specify stroke, fill and other attributes and easily re-apply these to new objects. Considering it's a 50th of the price of Illustrator, it's really not all that bad. SketchMee - £4.99 Studio Mee SketchMee is a fantastic application if you want to quickly create painterly versions of your photographs. A simple interface enables you to load in your photo, choose the crop and then specify the 'technique' (for example, coloured pencil) the amount of detail, the paper quality and the type of strokes. The particularly clever part is that SketchMee uses vectors to create your sketch before converting it back to a JPEG format - meaning you can save out the result as a 16MP file, no matter what the size of your original was. This makes it perfect for taking into Photoshop (or indeed Pixelmator) and preparing for print to hang on your wall. Hues - £2.99 Giant Comet Hues, as the name suggests, is all about colour. More specifically, it enables you to sample (or take) a colour from any image or open app and get the HEX, RGB and HSL values. Essentially you can sample the colour of any pixel on your screen. It's very quick to open, stores the last 25 colours sampled and you can copy the colour value to your clipboard after selection. Yes, it's very simple, but then again it's only £3! Strata Design 3D SE - £30 Corastar 3D modelling and rendering isn't exactly the easiest skill to acquire - and usually involves buying an expensive piece of software. Strata Design 3D SE, however, at only £30, could be a great way to test your hand at 3D skills without a massive financial outlay. There are some powerful modelling tools here, as well as great texturing and lighting functionality and a nice rendering engine. There's no animation toolset, however. iStopMotion Express - £60 Boinx Here's your chance to recreate the look of Morph and Wallace & Gromit with Boinx's stopmotion movie studio. Sure, you'll need to break out the plasticine (or dig out your old Star Wars figures) but what you have here is an app you can have endless fun with. Set up your scene, plug in your camera and use the software to take snapshots of frames before piecing it all together to load into iMovie, Final Cut or your editor of choice. A great little app. SketchBook Pro - £45 Autodesk First thing's first: you'll need a graphics tablet to take full advantage of Autodesk's powerful sketching and digital painting app. For digital artists, SketchBook Pro is superb. It has a beautifully designed interface and a raft of tools for sketching ideas and creating full-blown digital artworks. What we love about SketchBook Pro is that is feels like a digital canvas - it strips everything back but still gives you quick access to all the tools you need. In short, it's a masterpiece - and if you were lucky enough to get it when it was £18, well done you.

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Software : Skype for Android gets video calling update

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Skype for Android gets video calling update Posted: 30 Jun 2011 03:14 AM PDT Skype has updated its Android app bringing video calling to the smartphone party. The new version, Skype for Android 2.0, allows HTC Desire S, Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo, Xperia Pro (good luck with that, it's not actually out yet) and Google Nexus S owners to make free video calls over both Wi-Fi and 3G. As well as calling other Skype-toting Android phones, you'll be able to video-chat with Skype users on iPhone, Apple Macs, Windows PCS and web-cam-enabled Smart TVs. Android VHS Along with the video functionality, the app interface has had a bit of a spruce up, with a new main menu for easy navigation and a thrilling new 'mood message box' where you can update your current mood status. If you're lucky enough to own one of the launch handsets, you can download the updated app from the Android market now.

Buying Guide: Top 10 creative apps for Mac OS X Posted: 30 Jun 2011 02:52 AM PDT The Mac App store holds loads of top apps to boost creativity. Here are 10 of the best. Aperture - £45 Apple Aperture is a real steal, especially for iPhoto users wanting to upgrade to something more powerful. It boasts top photo-management tools, including the ability to upload to and manage albums on Flickr, Facebook and MobileMe and manage images by Places and Faces. It also boasts intuitive RAW-editing features and a top-notch interface, making Aperture an essential buy. CameraBag Desktop - £8.99 Nevercenter Ltd The Mac version of this iPhone's photo app, CameraBag Desktop is about adding old-school effects to your photos. The app is simple: open it up, load in an image and you can start applying the effects, including cross-processing, silver, instant and Helga. All the filters are high quality, and you can combine them for even more interesting effects, creating custom filters to save and share with the CameraBag community. Pixelmator - £35 Pixelmator When you think of image-editing apps, Photoshop is the obvious one that springs to mind. But Pixelmator is certainly a worthy - and less expensive - rival for those wanting to make adjustments to their digital photographs and create digital paintings from scratch. Pixelmator is packed with hugely powerful and familiar image-editing tools. From layers to blending modes and a host of professional tools to make complex selections, it's an extremely accomplished app that is both intuitive and refined. It's just a really good value, snappy, well-designed creative app. Live Interior 3D Standard - £30 Belight Software Ever wanted to create your dream room on your Mac? Well now you can. In fact, you can sketch out and plan the look of your entire home in 3D. It's simple: just enter the dimensions of your room and start adding furniture, floor and wall coverings at will - before you head off to the local DIY store. The Pro edition gives more control over lighting, amongst other things. One thing this can also be used as is a storyboarding app - you can easily set up interior scenes before exporting for further editing. Artboard - £12 Mapdiva The advantage of vectors (paths-based) over raster (pixel-based) imagery can be enormous - literally. Working in vectors means your artwork can be scaled to any size without any loss in quality. The best-known vector app is Adobe's Illustrator - but it's also very pricey. For £12 Artboard offers nowhere near the functionality or control of Illustrator, but it does bring some simple and easy-to-use Bézier drawing tools. It also has the ability to create 'styles' for future use - meaning you can specify stroke, fill and other attributes and easily re-apply these to new objects. Considering it's a 50th of the price of Illustrator, it's really not all that bad. SketchMee - £4.99 Studio Mee SketchMee is a fantastic application if you want to quickly create painterly versions of your photographs. A simple interface enables you to load in your photo, choose the crop and then specify the 'technique' (for example, coloured pencil) the amount of detail, the paper quality and the type of strokes. The particularly clever part is that SketchMee uses vectors to create your sketch before converting it back to a JPEG format - meaning you can save out the result as a 16MP file, no matter what the size of your original was. This makes it perfect for taking into Photoshop (or indeed Pixelmator) and preparing for print to hang on your wall. Hues - £2.99 Giant Comet Hues, as the name suggests, is all about colour. More specifically, it enables you to sample (or take) a colour from any image or open app and get the HEX, RGB and HSL values. Essentially you can sample the colour of any pixel on your screen. It's very quick to open, stores the last 25 colours sampled and you can copy the colour value to your clipboard after selection. Yes, it's very simple, but then again it's only £3! Strata Design 3D SE - £30 Corastar 3D modelling and rendering isn't exactly the easiest skill to acquire - and usually involves buying an expensive piece of software. Strata Design 3D SE, however, at only £30, could be a great way to test your hand at 3D skills without a massive financial outlay. There are some powerful modelling tools here, as well as great texturing and lighting functionality and a nice rendering engine. There's no animation toolset, however. iStopMotion Express - £60 Boinx Here's your chance to recreate the look of Morph and Wallace & Gromit with Boinx's stopmotion movie studio. Sure, you'll need to break out the plasticine (or dig out your old Star Wars figures) but what you have here is an app you can have endless fun with. Set up your scene, plug in your camera and use the software to take snapshots of frames before piecing it all together to load into iMovie, Final Cut or your editor of choice. A great little app. SketchBook Pro - £45 Autodesk First thing's first: you'll need a graphics tablet to take full advantage of Autodesk's powerful sketching and digital painting app. For digital artists, SketchBook Pro is superb. It has a beautifully designed interface and a raft of tools for sketching ideas and creating full-blown digital artworks. What we love about SketchBook Pro is that is feels like a digital canvas - it strips everything back but still gives you quick access to all the tools you need. In short, it's a masterpiece - and if you were lucky enough to get it when it was £18, well done you.

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Software : First Picture: Virgin Media's TiVo iPad app

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First Picture: Virgin Media's TiVo iPad app Posted: 29 Jun 2011 04:23 AM PDT Virgin Media has sent us a sneak peek at its upcoming TiVo iPad app. Sadly, the spoilsports won't tell us when the app will be released, exactly what it will do or any other handy hints about it at the moment. We already know that the app will act as a massive remote control as well as a lap-based EPG. Wild stabs in the dark But looking at the first screen shot, it looks as though we can also look forward to multiroom DVR management, on-demand content on your iPad and some social features via the 'share' option. We wouldn't be surprised to see some Facebook or Twitter integration here, and it'd be nice if it went a little bit deeper than simply tweeting what you're watching. TiVo already has an iPad app out in the US, which, based on the picture Virgin Media sent us, doesn't look massively different to the upcoming UK one; but with Virgin on board, we're hoping for some nice little extras to sweeten the deal.

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Software : Google faces fines over app refund row

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Google faces fines over app refund row Posted: 28 Jun 2011 06:53 AM PDT Google has been fined Tw$1,000,000 (£21,620) by officials in Taipei after refusing to change its app return policy. Taiwan has a stringent consumer protection law in place, specifying that customers must get a seven day cooling off period after buying any product online during which they can return it for a full refund. Google, however, only gives customers fifteen minutes to return an app after buying and deciding they don't want it. App-athy On 8 June, the city government ruled that Apple, as well as Google, had contravened the law, but while Apple amended its rules in accordance with the law, Google has not. And we can see why – giving people a week to use an app as much as they want and then return it for a full refund a week later is the equivalent of buying a dress, wearing it to a party then returning it to the shop the next day. Such behaviour could damage Android developers' profits, as well as Google's own. Although refusing to comment on the situation, Google is reportedly sending US execs over to Taiwan to discuss the matter, but it faces similar subsequent fines if it doesn't change its ways by 1 July.

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Apple : Tutorial: How to fix Mac network and internet problems

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Tutorial: How to fix Mac network and internet problems Posted: 27 Jun 2011 07:35 AM PDT Network problems can be a total pain. Thankfully internet problems on the Mac are rare, but you can easily sort them out with a few short steps. Here's our guide to the most common Mac network and internet problems along with some suggested solutions. "Why can't I connect my Mac to the internet" Most connections work by your Mac connecting to a modem/router, which connects to the internet. Things could be wrong between your computer and the router, or the router and the internet. Check the lights on the router and look up what they mean – they could show you where things are wrong. Network diagnostics may also help pinpoint the problem; open System Preferences > Network, click Assist me… then Diagnostics… If your Mac can talk to the router, it'll appear in AirPort Utility (Apple routers), in Safari by typing its IP address into the Address bar to open the setup screen (for third-party models, find the IP address in System Preferences > Network > AirPort/ Ethernet), or in the setup software that some routers have. If you're trying to connect by AirPort and this doesn't work, try plugging an Ethernet lead directly between your Mac and the router? Any luck? If so, it looks like the problem's with the AirPort network (is MAC address filtering enabled, for example?). If your Mac's talking to the router and you've still got no connection, the problem's between the router and the internet. Many routers have a setup wizard (Apple's is in AirPort Utility; third-party ones will be in the setup screens in Safari); work through this. "Why is my Wi-Fi network not appearing?" The router's on and the relevant lights are lit – the signal doesn't go on forever, so move closer to the box and see if it shows up in your network list. If it doesn't, the network name, or SSID, may have been hidden. If you've got an Apple router, this is called a Closed Network. If you know the exact network name and security type, choose Join Other Network… from the AirPort menu and type in the name. If not, plug an Ethernet lead between your Mac and the router to check the network name. With Apple routers, open AirPort Utility and look in the Airport > Wireless tab, or if you have a third-party model, find the router IP address in System Preferences > Network > Ethernet. Type this into a web browser to open the settings screen. "My internet connection is really slow!" Is it slow on every computer in your house? If so, it could be to do with the network or internet connection as opposed to your Mac. Or could someone be hogging bandwidth? If it is only your Mac, is Software Update downloading in the background? Could something else be running? Also, go to Safari > Reset Safari… and tick every box. Have you got loads of browser extensions running? In Safari, go to Preferences > Extensions and uninstall the lot and reinstall the vital ones one at a time. How to troubleshoot intermittent Wi-Fi The AirPort icon in your menu bar will show you the strength of the signal – if this is only one or two bars, the problem could be that it's too weak where you are. Move closer to the router and see if that helps – if so, think about moving your router or getting a repeater unit. Other causes of the connection dropping randomly could be that there's interference on the Wi-Fi channel your router's using, perhaps from nearby devices – go into its setup and change it to another. It's also worth looking at the lights on the router – when the connection drops, do the lights change? If so, there could be a fault with the router, so contact the manufacturer for help or request a new one from your ISP. Quick tip Want to connect to your Mac from a PC can't see it? Open Sharing in System Preferences, tick File Sharing and click Options… Make sure Share files and folders using SMB (Windows) is ticked.

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Apple : Skype for iPad finally on the way

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Skype for iPad finally on the way Posted: 24 Jun 2011 06:39 PM PDT The Apple iPad is finally going to get its own Skype application and, on first impressions, it looks every bit like the app we've all been waiting for. The news, which was officially confirmed later, came in the form of a leaked promo video showcasing the iPad iteration in all its beautifully-designed glory. Following the leak, TUAW called-up Skype VP of Consumer and Product Design Rick Osterloh who said the app was coming soon and is currently in the test phase. No release date has been confirmed. Similar success Osterloh says the Skype app would offer the same functionality as the iPhone iteration, which experienced "a userbase that doubled in just a month's time." He expects the iPad app to "experience similar success." Until now iPad owners have been able to access the iPhone version of Skype, blowing it up to full the screen and dealing bad resolution and an over-sized iPhone keyboard. An official Skype app, complete with video calls, voice calls and IM with a tablet-optimised design will be a massive bonus for the legions of Skype users who also rock and Apple iPad. You can see the audio-less promo video, that some quick-on-the-draw YouTube user ripped from the web, below.

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Software : Tutorial: Hacking tools you can use to protect your PC

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Tutorial: Hacking tools you can use to protect your PC Posted: 25 Jun 2011 04:00 AM PDT What tools do security professionals and hackers rely on? It's a question whose answer changes as quickly as the online threat landscape, but there are some favourites in the current toolkit that never go out of fashion. Far from being major, comprehensive attack platforms, these utilities usually do one obscure thing quickly and reliably. Their developers simply keep updating them to add new facilities and, crucially, to make them easier to use. Some of these utilities are online, while others can be carried on a USB pen drive. The common factor is that they're available to anyone. While every security researcher and hacker typically carries a small armoury of such tools, they have their own ways of using them to assess security or mount attacks. Dig services The first step in mounting an attack or securing an online information resource is to assess what is visible to others over the internet. For large organisations, more than just the mail and web servers will be visible. Sometimes this is a mistake on the part of the network administrator, but sometimes it's done for misplaced expediency. However, both these reasons can lead to a full-scale exploit of the internal network. The best and safest way to assess what's visible is to use a public Dig service. Dig stands for 'Domain Information Groper'. Such services interrogate the global DNS system for details about a target. Using a Dig service, you can uncover several classes of information, including the local DNS servers, web servers and mail servers (mail exchangers in DNS speak). It's sometimes also possible to uncover plenty of addresses of computers that really shouldn't be online, but which someone has added to DNS in the mistaken belief that others won't know they're there. This goes against the maxim that 'security through obscurity is no security'. One such Dig service is provided here. To get started, enter the name of a domain (without the 'www.') and click the button marked 'Dig'. Depending on how much information DNS holds about a domain, Dig's output can be very comprehensive, and gives a good overview of the parts of a network that can be seen from the internet. The most important part of this information begins after the line containing the words 'ANSWER SECTION'. This gives the fixed IP addresses of any internet-facing servers. For a website hosted by a third-party company, this will be the IP address of the shared server on which the site resides. You can focus the information returned by selecting the 'Type' dropdown menu. 'Network addresses' will return only the IP addresses of any server that can be contacted directly. You can also return only information about the mail exchangers and the domain's authoritative DNS nameservers. Most Dig services let you try something called a zone transfer. This shouldn't be possible these days, but back when network administrators were less focused on security than keeping internet connectivity going, zone transfers were possible from many DNS nameservers. A zone transfer is a transfer of authoritative domain information. It's meant to occur only between nameservers, but poorly configured nameservers will let anyone request one. A zone transfer contains a long list of computers and their IP addresses, which, while not listed in DNS, have a direct connection to the internet and are vulnerable to attack. This information is ideal for hackers, who need to scan a range of IP addresses to build a list of targets without tripping any intrusion detection systems. NMap The next step is knowing which hosts are available on a network, and what ports they have open. The great granddaddy of port mappers is NMap. It's grown into an essential tool for anyone interested in online security. NMap was originally a Linux command line tool, but it's been ported to Windows and given a snazzy GUI front end called Zenmap. The underlying NMap has a huge number of command line options, but Zenmap makes it considerably easier to use. Get the Windows version here. The installer includes the WinPcap driver software that forms the special packets needed to probe the TCP/IP stacks of remote hosts, and gain information identifying the OS running on that host. Once installation is complete, run Zenap and the user interface should appear. Enter the IP address of a computer on your own network in the 'Target' box, and select 'Quick scan' on the 'Profile' menu. Click 'Scan'. This produces an overview of which ports are open and listening on the target PC. This includes the MAC address of the target's network card, which Zenmap uses to determine the manufacturer. This is the kind of information that a hacker will use to look up exploits that may grant him access or the ability to create mayhem due to bugs in the firmware on the network card. For a more comprehensive view of the machine, select 'Intense scan, all TCP ports' and click 'Scan'. This fires a large number of packets at all 65535 ports on the target PC. It also interrogates the machine, revealing clues about its running OS. This information is vital in determining the next course of action to penetrate the system. One of Zenmap's particularly useful features is the ability to scan an entire subnet for targets, which it then interrogates for details. Simply substitute the last number in the IP address for an asterisk ('192.168.0.*' for example). This is also a great way to see if anything has been connected to your network secretly. NBTEnum Once we know what targets are available to a hacker who has penetrated our defences and can see our network, the next task is to try to discover what facilities each machine offers for exploit. This is important because, even if the hacker can't exploit them directly, they may well be able to interrogate them to produce much more useful information. NBTEnum, originally written by Reed Arvin, is a very old utility that is now difficult to find, but don't let its age or obscurity fool you. NBTEnum can uncover shockingly large amounts of information from an unprotected Windows PC just by asking for it. You can currently download NBTEnum from the Packet Storm security website. Open the ZIP file and move the contents into a new folder. NBTEnum is a command line utility, so open a command prompt and navigate to its directory. To run enum, enter the command NBTEnum -q , substituting the address of a Windows PC on your network where appropriate. If the target accepts connection requests via its NetBIOS service, NBTEnum will create a web page detailing what this shockingly indiscrete service tells it. Open this in a browser and you should, at minimum, see that NBTEnum has enumerated the shares (if any) that the target says are available for remote mounting. If you know a username and password on the target computer, you can reveal a huge amount of information. Enter NBTEnum -s , making the necessary substitutions. NBTEnum generates more verbiage, but the resultant web page can offer masses of detail. NBTEnum can also recover the open shares, users and groups, whether accounts are enabled, their lockout threshold and on Windows 7, a full list of services including which ones are currently running. This is all still possible because so many people insist on having no password, one that is simply guessed, or one that is the same as their username. When I was a network security consultant, finding a network populated by targets running older versions of Windows usually meant a day running NBTEnum against them with a username of 'Guest' and no password. By default, the guest account was enabled and unprotected - perfect to shock network administrators into disabling such accounts. InSSIDer We live in an increasingly wireless world, but the nature of a wireless signal means the information it carries is broadcast over a wide area. There are a large number of tools that can be used to survey the local Wi-Fi landscape, but one of the best is the Windows port of InSSIDder 2 by Metageek. You can download InSSIDer here. When run, InSSIDer begins discovering and enumerating the Wi-Fi networks in range. The top half of the interface fills with details of the networks, including their security level. Those with 'none' are wide open for anyone to log in and look around. Those using the older WEP protection are potentially vulnerable to attack, because the algorithm has weaknesses that can be exploited. In the average neighbourhood, there could be as many as three dozen networks in range, some without any protection. InSSIDer's also displays the Wi-Fi channel used by each router within range. Change yours to a channel not used in your area and you could see an improvement in overall data transfer speeds.

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Apple : Apple files another lawsuit against Samsung

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• Apple files another lawsuit against Samsung
• In Depth: 15 iPhone and iPad games like Bejeweled
• Team Fortress 2 goes free to play
• Apple rolls out Mac OS X 10.6.8 to prepare for Lion

Apple files another lawsuit against Samsung Posted: 24 Jun 2011 06:32 AM PDT Apple has fired-off another lawsuit against Samsung, once again claiming the manufacturer copied the iPhone and iPad designs for its own products. In the latest round of the tit-for-tat legal battle, Apple has taken the fight to Samsung's home turf by filing suit at the Seoul District Court in South Korea. The writ reiterates that it is "no coincidence that Samsung's latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging. "This kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple's intellectual property when companies steal our ideas," it read. Escalating war The disagreement focuses on Samsung's range of Galaxy smartphones and Galaxy Tab tablets, which Apple claims are blatant iPhone and iPad rip-offs. The new lawsuit replicates one already filed by Apple in San Francisco, which saw Samsung counter sue, alleging 5 patent infringements on its products by Apple. The latest round of the escalating war saw Samsung fail in its bid to unsheathe the yet-to-be-announed iPhone 5 and iPad 3 to back up its case in court. Despite the ongoing patent tussle, the pair actually have close business ties. Samsung is a major component manufacturer for the iPhone and is the Korean company's second largest client.

In Depth: 15 iPhone and iPad games like Bejeweled Posted: 24 Jun 2011 05:00 AM PDT Simple, compelling videogame concepts can provide familiarity along with a foundation for innovation. This means you can pick up and play a game that's largely based on a concept you know and immediately figure out how to play, even if the changes result in a radically different experience. One such concept is tile-matching, popularised by PopCap's Bejeweled series. Although other tilematching/swapping games preceded it, Bejeweled's online distribution, polish and game design ensured it cemented itself as a leader in its field. It therefore follows that if you're on the hunt for a match-three game for iOS, you should first go back to the source. With Bejeweled 2 + Blitz (59p, iPhone) , you get four modes, including the traditional Classic and Attack (swap gems, wait for the grid to refill and continue until there are no more matches or, in Attack, you run out of time), Endless (a casual, stress-free mode lacking a timer and ending) and the frenetic, exciting Blitz. The last of those ties in with the Facebook Flash game, and you have one minute to get as many points as possible. Unlike Bejeweled's other modes, Blitz doesn't force you to wait until gems have settled before you make another swap - instead, you rapidly switch gems and create chains as more jewels fall into the well. Given Bejeweled's relative simplicity and the fact that PopCap's game is so polished, there's little point in considering the myriad clones that litter the App Store. Instead, go further afield, exploring games that expand the basic concept. Piyo Blocks 2 (£1.79, iPhone) appears similar to Bejeweled but has enough innovation to warrant purchase. Gameplay is based solely around Blitz-style mechanics. Piyo mode has you match a quota of each tile type to advance, while Hyaku levels up when you acquire 100 of any tile. You also get Time Attack, Endless, Three Seconds (make a match within three seconds or your game is over) and Disco (regular board refreshes) modes. Piyo and Hyaku's timers are too lenient, making those modes easy for match-three aficionados, but the game's fun nonetheless. Avoid the HD version for iPad though - instead of blowing up the seven-by-seven grid, it adds more slots, unbalancing the gameplay. Rather than including extra modes, many match games offer depth through quests. Paradise Quest(£1.79, iPad) tasks you with matching tiles that represent resources that can be used to restore the Galapagos Islands. As you make a match, the board lazily scrolls in that direction, enabling you to explore the large levels and uncover objects required to progress. For a pseudo-educational game, the tiny wildlife photos collected and static viewable environments are disappointing, but the gameplay's interesting, despite a lack of help regarding how to use objects. (Hint: tap on the map and tap where you want to go when using the vine.) Around the World in 80 Days: The Game (59p, iPhone) is similar, if a mite simpler, with you completing the famous voyage by moving objects to the bottom of the grid for collection. Plenty of variation in board layouts, special tiles and the game's polish and responsiveness make it a great purchase for match-three fans. Some quest-oriented games ramp up the role play side of things. Puzzle Quest Chapter 1 and 2(£2.99, iPhone) and Puzzle Quest 2 (£2.99) task you with completing numerous quests in a fantasy world of goblins, spells and demons. The match-three mechanics are used for one-on-one battles; skulls represent attacks and coloured gems are Mana, which can be used to power spells that inflict further damage on your opponent. Both games have their fans, but we feel they're a bit grind-orientated rather than outright fun, and the sequel is hugely weighty and badly optimised, although it does offer plenty of depth and game time. If we're honest, we'd sooner settle down with Dungeon Raid (£1.79, iPhone), which distills Puzzle Quest down to its essence. Instead of swapping gems, you match by drawing lines through objects: shields to power up your defences; money to buy new kit; potions for health; and weapons and skulls to attack the latter. Strategy comes from positioning pieces so you can attack skulls, and the role-play mechanics add a touch of extra depth to keep you coming back. As a bonus, there's no tedious traipsing around maps. Alternate match mechanics are the other major way in which games inspired by Bejeweled have made their mark. Azkend (£1.79 for iPhone or £2.99 for Azkend HD for iPad) uses Dungeon Raid-like line-drawing, but in a rather more sedate, thoughtful setting. Devil Invasion (59p, iPhone) boasts a hexagonal grid and uses somewhat similar combat ideas to Dungeon Raid but as a means of fending off, castle-defence-style, a string of monsters attacking you at the top of the screen. Crystal Soul (59p, iPhone) has each match move a character around the grid, forcing you to use limited moves wisely. Chop Sushi! (59p for iPhone or £2.39 for Chop Sushi! HD for iPad) makes the single change of having you move pieces to the edge of a board to shift all the others inwards (a simple difference that rapidly made our brain hurt - but the game's fun cartoon graphics kept us hooked). Some games deftly emphasise the gravity aspect within match games. Toy Balls! HD (£1.19, iPad) has balls bouncing around the place, which you must save from getting zapped by stringing together matches, Dungeon Raid-style. Linkoidz (£1.79) has you grab an alien from the pile atop your shield and fling it back to make a match. Take too long and the shield fails, resulting in your spaceman becoming a snack for the ravenous aliens. The extremely pretty, superficially relaxed Liqua Pop (59p, iPhone) brings you more down to earth, dragging together coloured bubbles of liquid that encourage a frog to climb a stem when they burst. Finally, the amusing Greedy Bankers (£1.19, iPhone) emphasises gravity within match games by doing away with a well-orientated play area entirely - instead, the grid is viewed from above, and you drag like-coloured gems together to create larger, far more valuable ones, with the aim of making enough cash before the timer runs out. It's amazing to see how the basic concept of match-three games has been expanded and tinkered with to create so many familiar yet varying games - and the indie-friendly nature of the App Store ensures many more will arrive over the coming months, which is sure to make even the most ardent match-three fan happy. As for the games covered here, they're all worth considering, but because we've mentioned more than usual this issue, our shopping list only features the cream of the crop.

Team Fortress 2 goes free to play Posted: 24 Jun 2011 01:44 AM PDT One of the most popular online PC shooters has gone free to play, with the truly awesome Team Fortress 2 now being funded by micropayments. TF2 has been a massive hit for makers Valve since it arrived as part of the Orange Box – a collection of games that also included Half Life 2 episodes and Portal. The online shooter's cartoony graphics and focus on hats has kept gamers amused for years, and will now be opened up to anyone without a fee. Quirky The news crept out in the latest video, Meet the Medic, and has been confirmed by Valve in typically quirky style at http://www.tf2.com/freetoplay/. The game has been altered dramatically with updates since arriving, and the latest Uber Update is expected imminently.

Apple rolls out Mac OS X 10.6.8 to prepare for Lion Posted: 23 Jun 2011 06:39 PM PDT Apple has released what will surely be the final Mac OS X Snow Leopard upgrade before OS X Lion 10.7 arrives next month. Mac OS X 10.6.8 appeared as a software update on Thursday evening promising some minor bug fixes and further protection against variants of the already-addressed Mac Defender malware. However the headline change is an enhancement of the Mac App Store that prepares users for the forthcoming upgrade to Mac OS X Lion, which will arrive to download from the store during July. Disc-less OS OS X Lion (or version 10.7) is only available via the new App Store and will be the first disc-less version of the operating system. Apple also pleased Mac users by once again offering the tweaked version of the operating system, which boasts over 250 new features, for a bargain basement £20.99. Lion is heavily influenced by the success of iOS on the iPhone and the iPad with a full-screen app view and new multi-touch gestures among the new feature set.

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