The college football season is halfway over, but that doesn’t mean you have half the interest. If you follow NCAAFB, things are just now starting to really heat up, so keeping track of your alma mater or favorite team is absolutely essential.

The iPhone and iPad make great tools to follow college football, and the best app I’ve found is called Sportacular. It’s a free download for either iPhone or iPad HD, and it’s feature rich instant-updates make it my go-to sports app all season long.
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Want to know how fast a Mac is? You can check a Macs processor clock speed, chip type, and CPU architecture a few different ways, but we’ll cover two quick methods to determine the clock speed of a given Mac. First, a super easy glance at processor speed through the GUI, and second, a more advanced way to find processor details through the command line.

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This is not quite a Mac setup, but it’s close enough given the product lines. Hey, it’s an Apple setup, right?

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iLife ’11 has just been released, including the all new iPhoto, iMovie, and Garageband. The exciting new version comes bundled with all new Macs, but if you already own a Mac you can grab the newest version at a discount thanks to the wonders of online shopping.

If you buy iLife 11 from Amazon you can save 8% and get free shipping. This brings the price of iLife ’11 to $44.99, which is the cheapest I’ve seen it available. Free shipping and a discount, not bad for some sweet new software right?

Update: the Amazon price seems to fluctuate between $44.99 and $49, always with free shipping.

Remember those Steve Jobs and Bill Gates fake chat comics? Here’s a new one. I like the new MacBook Air, I really do, but this is too funny:

You can see more of the Steve Jobs and Bill Gates fake chat comics. Some of them are really funny, poking on Windows 7, making fun of iPhone 4, their success, and more.

Thanks to Thomas for sending this in!

Want to generate some 8-bit Nintendo style sounds? Maybe you need sound effects for an iPhone game you’re working on, a song you’re making, or you just want to have some good old 8-bit nostalgia.

Cfxr, which is short for… well I have no idea, is a fun app that makes and endless amount of 8 bit sounds instantly. You can completely adjust sounds, or just click the ‘random’ button and it will make and play a randomly generated sound effect for you.

As you can see in the screenshot below, there are a few pre-determined styles of sounds that fit your classic 8-bit gaming needs: Pickup/coin, Laser/shoot, Explosion, Powerup, hit/hurt, Jump, Blip/select, and Random. You can then use the sliders to adjust all aspects of the sound effects and then export the files in either 16 or 8 bit audio as a wav file so you can use them later.

You can grab the Mac version of Cfxr here, it’s a free download.

If you want to generate some Nintendo style sound effects in Windows, or you don’t want to grab the Mac download, there’s a Flash version available here that has basically the same interface and functionality, and also allows you to export your sound effects as .wav files.

What better use for an old dead Mac server than turning it into a Mac Kegerator? It looks like this is on a tradeshow floor, maybe this awesome beer server made an appearance at MacWorld expo? Thanks to Ezra for sending this in.

Excited for the Mac version of Civ 5? Me too. Now we have a video trailer showing it off! The video trailer also provides a Civilization 5 for Mac release date range of “Fall 2010” which is another way of saying “any day now.”

Here’s the text from the video trailer:

Sid Meier’s Civilization V Mac reinvigorates the classic turn-based strategy genre with an astonishing new engine built from the ground-up for this flagship edition of the Civilization franchise. Players are introduced to an entirely new combat system, deeper diplomatic interactions and a cavalcade of expanded features that deliver a fully immersive experience providing hours of entertainment as players build and defend their empire on their quest to become the greatest ruler the world has ever known.

Features:
Civilization V Mac introduces hexagon tiles allowing for deeper strategy, more realistic gameplay and stunning organic landscapes for players to explore as they expand their empire.

The brand new engine orchestrates a spectacular visual experience featuring fully animated leaders interacting with players from a screen-filling diplomatic scene and speaking in their native language for the first time.

Successful diplomacy will depend on players carefully managing relationships with other leaders, trading items and land, plying them with gold, and deciding if they are friend or foe.

Expanded visuals and immersive audio invite would-be kings to take up the reigns of power and forge a mighty empire. Civilization V offers a limitless variety of vast, realistic and diverse landscapes for players.

An intuitive interface eases both new players and Civ veterans into the game. Guided by a set of trusted advisors who will explain game functionality and provide counsel for significant decisions.

Wars between empires feel massive as armies dominate the landscape, and combat is more exciting and intense than ever before.

The addition of ranged bombardment allows players to fire weapons from behind the front lines, challenging players to develop clever new strategies to guarantee victory on the battlefield.

Write your own epic story each time you play. Choose one of eighteen historical civilizations to lead from the stone-age to the space age on your quest to build the world’s most powerful empire.

So no more rumors and no more speculation, Civ 5 is confirmed and guaranteed to come to the Mac platform.

We’ll keep you posted on more information when we get it.

Update on 11/23/2010: Civilization 5 for Mac has been released! The official release date of Civ 5 for Mac was November 23 2010.

You can order Civilization V for Mac from Amazon, which includes free shipping.

Great news for Mac gamers, Civilization 5 for Mac has arrived. We knew that Civilization 5 for Mac was coming soon but now the game has been released to the public after a “Fall 2010” teaser date.

We suspected they’d have Civ 5 for Mac launched well before the holiday shopping season, and they met that timeline. We will update shortly with system requirements, we’ll keep you posted.

The black screen bezel is featured on MacBook Pro, iMac, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Apple’s Cinema Display, nearly the whole Apple lineup. It’s a prominent and attractive feature that makes a Mac even more identifiable in the wild. Why didn’t the MacBook Air get this distinct trait that has become a staple of Apple products?

One word: weight.

The MacBook Air needed to be light, but the black bezel is tied to a glass screen. If you’ve ever picked up glass, you’ll know that glass has weight to it. In the end it must have proven to be just too heavy to include in the MacBook Air given its strict weight requirements. The MacBook Air is the ballerina of Apple’s lineup, it has to be svelte. Just like there are weight limits in ballet, there are weight limits for the MacBook Air. Sorry black bezel, you’re beautiful but you had to go.
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Restoring an iPhone to a previous backup is really easy, and though it’s fairly rare that you will need to restore an iPhone, or any other iOS device for that matter, it can still be necessary from time to time. What restoring from a backup does is pretty straight forward: it clears everything off the device, installs a clean version of the iOS system software, then recovers all personal stuff to exactly what it was like from the last backup. This is one of many reasons why making regular backups is recommended, particularly if you’re participating in any major iOS upgrades, adjustments, or tweaks (jailbreak or otherwise), because it lets you return to the last guaranteed functioning state of the device, with all of your data, apps, and customizations intact.

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Just when I thought my personal record uptime of 160 days on a MacBook server was exciting, one of our readers blew my uptime away… by almost a year!

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So now we know that “Back to the Mac” refers to iOS coming back to it’s parent operating system, Mac OS X. Basically Apple is deciding to take some of the good ideas of the iOS experience (the iPad received particular emphasis) and bring them to the Mac Desktop.

Apple provided a limited sneak peak at Mac OS X Lion, including the upcoming Mac App Store. Seeing is believing though, so read on for screenshots and more information about each item.

Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Features

Here are the main features reviewed by Apple, with screenshots to show them off where available.

• Multi-touch gestures – (we called it) – Apple knows that touch screen notebooks don’t work, trackpads and mice are the way to multitouch a desktop operating system. With this in mind, Lion will have advanced gesture support
• Mac App Store (we called it!) – The App Store revolutionized mobile applications, so of course they bring it to the Mac. Features are automatic installation, one-click downloads, automatic app updates, apps will be licensed for use on all of your Macs. This will be available first under 10.6 Snow Leopard in 90 days. On the developer side, the Mac App Store will have the same developer 70/30 split as the iOS App Store, and submissions will be accepted soon. See screenshot below of the Mac App Store:

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As we anticipated, FaceTime for Mac is now available… as a beta. If you have a Mac with Mac OS X Snow Leopard and you want try out FaceTime than this is how you would accomplish that.

FaceTime for Mac allows you to make FaceTime calls to iPhone 4 and iPod touch users directly from your Mac.

What’s interesting is that Mac FaceTime client is it’s own independent application, it was not built into iChat, although I bet this will change come the release of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion next summer.

You can see the FaceTime for Mac client running in the above picture from Apple, and yes that’s the new MacBook Air featured in the picture.

Download FaceTime for Mac

You can download the Facetime beta for Mac OS X directly from Apple.com.

Note that any modern Mac OS and Mac OS X system software versions include FaceTime by default and do not need to use this app, the beta is intended for Snow Leopard.

Update 6/5/2011: Apple has announced Mac OS X Lion release date is set for July, will cost $29.99, and is available as a download from the Mac App Store.

We were given a sneak peak at Mac OS X 10.7 Lion today, and Steve Jobs provided a release date: Summer of 2011. The Mac App Store (we called it!) will be available sooner, in just 90 days. FaceTime for Mac beta will be available to download immediately.

Want to see more? Check out Mac OS X Lion: Screenshots & Features

The iPhone Dev Team just released Pwnage Tool 4.1 for download. The latest PwnageTool update works to jailbreak the following devices with the 4.1 firmware: new Apple TV, iPad, iPod touch 3G & 4G, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 3G.

Why is the PwnageTool 4.1 release useful? Pwnage Tool allows you to restore to custom IPSW files, in other words, you can restore pre-jailbroken firmware while maintaining your current baseband, thus allowing you to use a carrier unlock like ultrasn0w.

Pwnage Tool 4.1 Download

Currently PwnageTool 4.1 is only available for Mac users to download, there are several ways to get the file. The approach the iPhone Dev Team recommends is to download the torrent file from ThePirateBay:

PwnageTool Torrent – Pirate Bay Link

Many people cant access PirateBay so your other options are to use the provided download mirrors. Here’s a few direct links:

Mirror 1: fsckyou.org
Mirror 2: iPodTouchMastrFR.com

If either of those downloads don’t work for you, the Dev Team provides an updated download mirror list here, scroll to the bottom of the page to see it.
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The Back to the Mac event is scheduled to be live streamed directly from Apple today.

To watch the live video feed, go to http://www.apple.com/ at 10 AM PDT using Safari on either a Mac or iOS device.

Here’s the message from Apple’s PR team:

Apple® will broadcast its October 20 event online using Apple’s industry-leading HTTP Live Streaming, which is based on open standards. Viewing requires either a Mac® running Safari® on Mac OS® X version 10.6 Snow Leopard®, an iPhone® or iPod touch® running iOS 3.0 or higher, or an iPad™. The live broadcast will begin at 10:00 a.m. PDT on October 20, 2010 at www.apple.com.

Our quick predictions: Mac OS X 10.7, new MacBook Air, iLife ’11… Enjoy!

Adobe Creative Suite (CS) will automatically connect to the internet and attempt to initiate connections with Adobe Online Services and Service Update, this will happen regardless of you disabling the updates within the Adobe preferences for some reason. If you want to turn off the ability for Adobe CS to access the online services, kuler extensions, Adobe ConnectNow, Service Manager, and online help, this is how to do it. The instructions work for Adobe CS4 and CS5.
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