The Good

• Solid game play. The set-up is similar to other time management games: guide customers (and Sally, so she can tend to them) through several stations (sauna, face mask, massage, hot tub, manicure). Each customer has a slowly dwindling satisfaction meter, so time is of the essence. At the end of each level, Sally spends earned money on furnishings, merchandise, and employees to make her job easier. The game is very responsive, in particular the tapping and dragging to move customers from station to station.
• Lots of welcome variety: each station lets Sally perform a particular task via a pop up window. To apply a face mask, you shuffle through several varieties, watching the customer’s facial expression to choose the correct one. The manicure features a hand with fingernails to tap. The variety of purchasable items is also extensive, including co-workers who can help manage stations, and a display rack that houses beauty products (you even get a menu showing their current demand) that you can sell for extra income. Sally also gets to travel the world as she completes levels, opening spas in different cities.
• Great graphics. Starting with a clean anime style, particularly neat are small details like transparency effects, changing facial expressions, and different customer genders and ethnicities (male model, goth girl, and an elderly couple that cannot be separated, so they require two seats at any station). But the best aspect is an awareness of basic usability: each station and moveable item has a thicker, black outline, making them easier to discern from the background.

The Bad

• Minor annoyances: the workers you hire are are comically specific. The herbal tea maker brews tea but otherwise just stands at the counter - you still have to deliver the beverages to the customers yourself. Eventually, the spa employs several workers who merely perform their assigned tasks and then stand around doing nothing, while Sally runs around like a maniac. Second, some of the purchasable items are ludicrously priced (several hundred dollar magazine subscriptions and thousand dollar “patience candles”). Perhaps Sally is in the wrong business.

Conclusion

Sally’s Spa is a solid, fun variation on the time management genre. But the biggest reason for a thumbs up: Despite avoiding salons like the plague, and having zero interest in manicures, pedicures, and massages - I’m hooked on this game. Sally’s Spa has brought out my closet metrosexual. Highly recommended, and absolutely worth $0.99.

1. Start out by selecting the Apple Button from the top menu bar and select About This Mac.



2. Below the large Mac OS X line you’ll see the current version of OS X (in my case, as indicated by the screenshot below, it’s Version 10.5.7).

   

3. Click on that line twice. The first time you click that text it will show you the build number of the version of OS X you’re currently running. The second time you click that line it will show you the serial number for your Mac.



4. That’s it!

I have been using a MacBook Pro 15 inch for some time now, and before that I had the PowerBook 15 inch which the form factor was nearly identical to. So you could say I was fairly content to the feel, fit and size of a 15 inch MacBook.

When Apple introduced the new MacBook Pro 13″ I finally decided to “downgrade” to the 13″ model… or was it really a downgrade?

I don’t want to get into a bunch of specs here because in my opinion for the average user a few extra Gigahertz or Megabytes or whatever else gets thrown into the latest and greatest rendition isn’t going to really make that much of an overall difference.

What I want to talk about mostly is form factor, and if at the end of the day I am able to do what I was able to do on my compact 13 inch vs the 15 inch MacBook then why not shed a few bucks and a few pounds along the way?

Desktop Size:
The 13 inch has a resolution of 1280 x 800, while the 15 inch has a resolution of 1440 x 900. Yes there is a noticeable difference. For the most part when I need to do my “heavy lifting” I do it at home in my office where I have an external monitor hooked up and so the small amount of real-estate I lost on my MacBook Pro 13 side of things is not a problem as I have all I the desktop space I need on my external monitor.

When out and about I have acclimatized to having a bit less room on my desktop for all my open windows but the beauty of OS X Leopard is how well Expose and Spaces can make even a small screen very productive.

Physical Size:
There is an obvious difference in size and weight. I do really like the feel of the new MacBook Pro 13″, it’s very solid and looks amazing with its solid aluminum chassis. And even though its only a pound lighter I find myself making sure I do in fact have my laptop in my bag when I head out!

Performance:
I know I said I didn’t want to get to into all the specs and stuff, but as a bit of a power user it does have some bearing on my overall opinion. I went from a 2.5 GHz MacBook Pro (non-unibody) to the latest and greatest 13 inch MacBook Pro. I have to say it is surprisingly snappier and faster, possibly due to the faster DDR3 1000MHz Ram, whatever the case it flies!

Compared to its 2.53 GHz 15 inch unibody brother, the new MacBook Pro 13 inch is very comparable with the only real difference being screen size and the the 13 inch model missing an audio-in jack. I generally use a USB or FireWire audio interface/headset when doing audio recording or audio/video chat.

Price:
Again comparing the 13 inch and 15 inch 2.53GHz MacBooks there is a saving of $200 when you purchase the 13 inch model over the 15 inch MacBook Pro.

Summary:
At the end of the day I easily acclimatized myself to the smaller screen size with less real-estate. I thoroughly enjoy the smaller and lighter form factor while saving a few bucks and I have a MacBook Pro with “0″ performance compromises! If you’re on the go and want the ultimate in portability and performance than this is the machine for you.

If your a home body and maybe don’t have or plan on getting a secondary monitor then pay the extra the extra cash and buy the 15 or 17 inch MacBook Pro.

But did you know you can keep magnification disabled, and still be able to zoom in (magnify) your Dock icons? In typical Apple fashion, it’s painfully simple - just hold down the shift and ctrl keys while moving your cursor over the dock. That’s it!

The Good

• Very simple game play. Just trace your finger over three or more identical objects to remove them from a hexagonal board. Surrounding objects then fall vertically to fill in empty tiles. Board tiles turn blue after they’re used in a match. In order to move to the next level, you must turn the entire board blue and then guide a special piece to the bottom of the board.
• Amusing variety is added through slightly excessive bonuses and unusual objects. Matching more than three objects increases a lightning meter which eventually launches helpful lighting bolts. A spinning rainbow wheel acts as a wild card object. Certain tiles are made of metal which take two removals to turn blue, and other tiles are locked or frozen, requiring a nearby match to unlock. Some tiles are absent completely resulting in a gaping hole, and others are covered in growing, black tar. In the adventure mode, completing a level earns you a talisman piece, and constructing talismans earns you additional, special objects, which when matched, sets off all sorts of crazy violence like explosions, hammers, meteors, light rays, chains, and avalanches. The game ends when a steadily marching timer finally expires.
• Pleasing graphics and animations - every special effect is fun to see play out. The game also runs quickly and is very responsive - you can start tracing your next move while a previous chain reaction is still in progress.
• Two modes: survival mode, where you earn stars in order to discover the powerful talismans, and adventure mode, where each completed level takes you further on a hiking trail between mystical temples in a foreign land. Every five levels or so, the adventure scenario changes to a picture-matching exercise which frankly, is a cool game in and of itself.

The Bad

• Wish objects fell in the direction of the iPhone tilt, Trism style, rather than persistently down.
• The adventure mode is on the easy side. After learning a few strategies to get around certain situations, I went on auto-pilot and completed the entire game within a few days. Only the final ten or so levels presented much challenge. Also adding to the ease: after collecting a few talismans, a few moves sets the whole screen exploding and going crazy, practically solving some levels for you. Thankfully, the survival mode is more difficult.

Conclusion

Despite a not-too challenging adventure mode, Azkend’s silky smooth controls and mesmerizing graphics won me over. There’s just something satisfyingly primal about manipulating small, shiny objects and seeing them cascade downward, slot-machine style. Fans of Bejewelled will find this a pleasant alternative. It’s a great deal at the current price of 99 cents.

Play a Flash version of Azkend at: http://www.mythpeople.com/Play_Online/azkend.html

The Good

• Gameplay is an interesting variation on Bejeweled: Instead of swapping adjacent pieces, you pick a piece up and move it to the end of the board, sliding the other pieces in its row or column toward the empty space. Any matches are removed from the board. The sliding is accomplished by first tapping the piece you want to move, then swiping in the direction you want to move it. The technique took a little while to figure out, but once mastered, the gameplay requires little else.
• Moving one piece to the end of a row means you’re moving many pieces at once, meaning many possible moves aren’t immediately apparent, adding to the challenge.
• A good amount of variety rounds out the game. In order to pass a level, you must do enough damage to your opponent, achieved by matching three or more wasabi pieces. Creating particular sushi amounts (orders) resulting in healing and other special effects, and matching four or more pieces gives you an extra turn.
• The graphics during the game itself are pretty cool - the sushi tray is displayed at a slight angle, and moves are made via grasping chopsticks. I found myself getting hungry while playing.

The Bad

• Bizarre, off-putting graphics between levels. Your character is a pink blob sporting a chef’s hat that seems to be a deformed squid. You traverse an seashore environment, encountering ovoid, gray businessmen, haunted by sushi-entities whose minds you blow with a sushi challenges. Like I said, weird, and rather superfluous to the game itself.

Conclusion

While the peculiar graphics between levels weren’t my cup of green tea, they don’t overpower the strong game within Chop Sushi. Bejeweled addicts will find much to like, and if one is a sushi addict as well, all the better. Recommended.

This brief tutorial will guide you through using the templates included in Pages, a part of the iWord ‘09 suite. Using Pages is a great way to enhance your business portfolio and create personal cards and more!

1. Open Pages and choose New from Template Chooser… from File menu.



2. The column on the left will list all of the template categories and sub-categories. In the Word Processing category you can select templates for Letters, Forms, Resumes, Reports and of course, a blank template.



3. If you select the Reports sub-category, you’ll be presented with a list of different Report templates. These include School Reports, Term Papers, Research Papers, Lesson Plans and many more.



4. If you select the Newsletters sub-category under Page Layout, you’ll be able to create High School Newsletters and Real Estate Newsletters, just to name a few.



5. Using templates in Pages can drastically cut down on your work-time, so take advantage of them!

1. If you open your System Preferences and select Dock, you can disable the animation (bouncing) that happens when you click an icon in your Dock. Just remove the check from the box labeled Animate opening applications.



2. But sometimes applications are set to “bounce” when they want your attention.



3. To disable this feature, open a Terminal (Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal) and enter the following commands:

   defaults write com.apple.dock no-bouncing -bool TRUE
   and then
   killall Dock



4. Your Dock will close, then open again. From now on, none of your Dock icons will bounce - ever.
5. If at any point you want to reverse this, just enter the command:

   defaults write com.apple.dock no-bouncing -bool FALSE
   and then
   killall Dock

1. To get started, head over to the Alarm Clock page, and download it. Once the download has completed, open the .dmg file and drag Alarm Clock to your Applications folder.



2. Navigate to your Applications folder and launch Alarm Clock. You’ll be prompted with a ‘welcome’ message. Click OK.



3. Now there will be an Alarm Clock icon in your menu bar.



4. Before you jump in and start setting alarms, take a look at and configure the settings. To do this, click on the Alarm Clock icon in your menu bar, and select Preferences… from the drop-down list.



5. From the General tab you can set the Alarm volume, the Snooze duration and the Kill alarm after time. You can also opt to have the menu bar icon colors enabled, which means the icon will be in color when there’s an alarm, timer or countdown active. One neat feature is that even if you set the system volume to zero via the OS X system preferences, the Alarm Clock will still play your alarm at the volume you specify on this (the General) tab.



6. The Easy Wake tab allows you to set - you guessed it - the Easy Wake preferences. Easy Wake is a feature that starts your alarm at a lower volume, and then slowly increases the volume as time passes. It’s not a feature I use, but for those of you who like to wake up gently, give it a try.



7. Now select the Advanced tab. These settings are all very self-explanatory, but one that deserves a close look is the Wake computer from sleep option. Once enabled, your Alarm Clock will actually wake your Mac from Sleep Mode and start the alarm. To turn this feature on, place a check in the Wake computer from sleep box.



8. You’ll need to enter your password - do so and then click OK.



9. Now you can set an alarm and allow your Mac to enter Sleep Mode, and the alarm will still go off at the specified time. Another feature you might want to enable is for Alarm Clock to start up each time your Mac starts. To do so, place a check in the Launch application at login box.



10. Now lets set an alarm. Click the Alarm Clock icon in your menu bar, and select New Alarm… from the drop-down list.



11. From the Time tab, set a time for the alarm to go off in the Alarm Time section. If you want the alarm to repeat, select Repeating alarm and then click on each day of the week you want the alarm to go off on. When you click on a day of the week, you’ll notice the background color for that day darkens. Make sure that Enable Alarm is checked (bottom left corner of the window).



12. Now select the Alarm tab at the top of the New Alarm window. Alarm Clock uses your iTunes library for its “alarm sounds”. If you select Library from the Source list, all of your iTunes media will be listed. If you select a song from that list, that’s the song that will play for this alarm. Note: if you visit the Alarm Clock page, you can also download some ‘classic’ alarm clock audio files (beeping, nature sounds etc). When you’re done, click OK.



13. Now click the Alarm Clock icon in your menu bar again. This time you’ll see the alarm you just created listed.



14. When the alarm goes off, a semi-transparent window will appear displaying the song/audio track being played, a Snooze button and a Stop button. Hit any key to snooze (unless you changed this setting in the preferences), or click the Stop button to turn off the alarm.



15. That’s it for alarms. Remember, you can set as many alarms as you’d like - one for waking up in the morning, one for your afternoon naps etc. Alarm Clock also includes Timer and Stopwatch features, both of which are even easier to setup and use than the core alarm feature.