Diablo III – BETA Test – Day 1

So I got my hands on the open BETA for Diablo III from Blizzard. I downloaded it Thursday in the middle of the night, I had a bit of a problem with the installation, but manage to get it to work.

After the installation I started the game and saw the promising screen for logging into the game. Unfortunately, I think because the official BETA Test hasn’t started, I couldn’t go further than that. Good, I can wait until Friday (I thought)…

I haven’t restarted my computer and went to work. When I got back and wanted to start Diablo III. But I unfortunately had to reinstall the entire program again… OH NO… But not just reinstalling I even had to download certain parts

But hey it is the BETA and I accepted things won’t run smoothly so I used the time to start writing my personal experience down for you to review

At the moment I am at 22% and hope it won’t take to long. Fortunately I have a fast computer, an iMac I bought recently and also my internet connection is more than OK. So we will see. I am at 51% at the moment and it looks like the game, even if not fully installed, is already playable. I waited so long so I think I will risk it

iMessage for the Mac

Apple is working on a new Operation System which will be released in summer 2012. The name of the new System will have the name OS X Mountain Lion and one of the new features will be iMessage. Other features such as the Reminder, the Notification Center as well as the Game Center will sound familiar for those who use iDevices such as the iPhone, iPad or the iPod Touch. I personally wished for iMessage on the Mac after the release of iOS 5. For me it was kind of a logical step to have iMessage on the Mac as a chat system that will combine the world of the Mac with the mobile world.

Having a chat function on a computer isn’t that new and text messages is also something we are familiar with. Many of us might have used already some online service to send a text message online.

Well and after Apple released iOS 5 with the iMessage I had a deep feeling that it will come to the MAC as well and I am glad that I was right. For those of you who want to get a sneak peak Apple released a BETA which you can download today to test the new iMessage on your MAC.

What you might need will be of course an iClod account, but if you have many Apple products you may have an iCloud account already. So download it, enter your Apple ID and test iMessage. I did it and it is working just fine.

If you are interested here is the link:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/mountain-lion/messages-beta/

I did test the new feature and must admit I enjoyed it very much to use my computer to send messages to my friends. For me it is a great feature and you should at least check it out.

Steve Jobs 1955 – 2011

I never had the privilege to meet Steve Jobs, but I think that he truly changed the world. I saw many other posts, watched some YouTube Videos and read Facebook updates and this are the two quotes that, in my opinion, comes the closest to say good bye to a brilliant man.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.” – Apple Inc., 1997

Steve changed the World, not just with the products we enjoy today. I wish Apple will continue being brilliant, different and will surprise us also in the future with great innovations, a future unfortunately without a Steve Jobs.

My deepest condolences goes to his family. His wife and kids. I am very sorry for your lost.

iPhone 5 release date October 4th, 2011?

Apple was presenting last June the new stuff they were working on. One was, at the time, the new OS Lion. I was writing about the new OS and also wrote a little “first impression” post, which you can find here. But Apple also announced some more cool things, like the new iOS 5, a system called iCloud and this was leading, in my opinion, to many speculation about the iPhone 5 release date as well as the new MacBook Pro design changes. I was reading many articles, comments and rumours about the two devices. Some were just fantasy, some had great and logical arguments but all of them were nothing but rumours. I liked the story about an Apple employee who lost his new iPhone 5 in a coffee shop and also the debates on various forums when the new MacBook Pro will come. Maybe late 2011, early 2012 or maybe summer 2012?

Apple – 2011 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference

Last weekend I had some time to watch the almost 2h long – 2011 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference – video on YouTube and in that video Apple announced lots of amazing things. The first part was of course about the new Mac OS X, called Lion. Based on Apples announcement Lion will have 250 new features, but in the video they mentioned just the 10 key features. Understandable, because they wanted to talk about the new iOS 5 and iCloud as well.