Updates since Jan 30, 2008:

• *Recipe book – @Curse or @WoWI
• *Cartographer – Here
• LilSparky’s Workshop – Here
• Factionizer- Here
• Altoholic- @Curse or @WoWI
• Professionsbook- Here
• Fubar_ProfessionsFu- Here
• Postal- Here
• TinyTip- Here
• Magic Ruins -  Here

* Addons I keep an eye on but don’t use anymore.

Today’s World of Warcraft Addon updates:

• Fubar 3.5 – Here
• Postal – Here
• Forgotten Chat – Here
• *NotesUNeed – Here
• *GatherMate – Here

* Addons I like but don’t use currently.

While I have been posting mostly iPhone related articles, my friend Erroch made a very good suggestion. You see, I’m rather big into WoW addons. For a while I was actually working for Curse Gaming, though that didn’t pan out (don’t ask). Both of us have been looking for a better way of keeping track when addons update, and so far we’ve had no luck. Yes, there are things like WoW Matrix but my big issue is that, honestly, I don’t trust it. I don’t trust any program that messes with my computer. Someone pulled apart the Curse updater and found it’s a serious security risk, as in.. a complete and total back door into your computer. So yea.. I tell everyone I can not to use the thing.

So far, only WoW Interface provides an RSS feed of your ‘favorites’ to let you know when an addon is updated. Currently, I have to go through at least 4 websites to see if my addons have updated. Not too bad, but it’s irritating for many people.

Today, I was checking on my addons when I noticed that Curse provides an RSS feed of a user’s announcements. This got me thinking. I could easily just make posts there of what’s updated and my friends could keep up with it to keep their own addons updated. That’s when Erroch made the suggestion to post it here instead. Why? Because Curse might get snippy if I start posting links to places like WoW Interface.

Thinking about it, I decided it would be better here anyway. I need more activity here. I’m more likely to add more App reviews and whatnot if I do something quick every so often, as well as other things I want to write here.

So now I’m opening up my World of Warcraft category. Along with posting when things have been updated, I’ll probably also be posting reviews of the addons I use an those I’ve tried. Feel free to post suggestions and I’ll give it a look.

I’ve already posted one tutorial on how to make a custom ringtone for the iPhone, but looking back at it, I find it’s a bit of a mess with all the edits and reviews. That’s why I decided to post an updated version that’s a bit cleaner if possibly more complicated. The steps are the same, but I’ve added notes, suggestions, and requirements for each step where needed.

Let me start off by saying, you don’t have to do this by hand if you don’t want to. Anyone who doesn’t feel comfortable doing things that require a bit of technical know-how can easily go to places like Audiko.net and have the entire process done for you. Let me point out though that you  have to upload your file to them or link it from a webserver. Personally, I don’t feel comfortable with this. This tutorial is for those people who are like me and want to do things on their own.

To start, let me tell you what you are going to need upfront before going into what the actual steps are.

• Audio source file – Doesn’t have to be music, can be anything you want as long as it’s an audio file. (Sorry, I don’t know an easy way how to pull from videos.)
• Audio editing software – If you don’t have one, try the free version of Wavepad by NCH Software.
• Audio converter – Some Audio editors (like WavePad) can do it, but I use the free Switch from NCH Software because it can do conversions in bulk. There are also multiple online file converters. A good list is over on MakeUseOf.

Now that you have your tools together, what do you actually do with them?

1. Edit your clip.
   • Most audio files start out with a blank second or so to make the transitions between songs less jarring. If you are taking just the beginning of a song, be sure to remove that empty space.
   • You want to make sure your ringtone is somewhere between 20-35 seconds long. If it’s too short you could miss it as I don’t think the iphone loops ringtones. If it’s too long the phone will not see it at all.
   • Another thing you want to do is make sure the audio balance is not too low. If it is, the clip will be rather quiet even if your phone volume is on max. If you make it too high you run into the problem of ‘clipping’ and it can sound rather unpleasant.
   • One suggestion is to make a copy of your source file to work with, that way you are not likely to destroy your original file. Remember, once saved editing can not be undone.
2. Save Clip as MPEG-4 Audio (.m4a).
   • There are many ways to do this, depending on your program. With WavePad you can simply go under File/Save File As… then name it a short title you will recognize it by and then in the drop down menu pick MPEG-4 Audio (.m4a).
   • Do NOT simply save it as MP3 or whatever format it is already in and then change the filename. That will NOT work.
   • If you are planning on making a lot of ringtones at once, you CAN save it in it’s original format and use a batch converter like Switch to change all of them at once.
   • One caution: be sure not to over-write your original audio file because there is no way to undo the editing.
3. Change extension to M4R.
   • Before you do this, make sure your OS is set to show file extensions. By default, Windows Vista has these hidden and protects them. To check if your file extensions are hidden, look at the file name. If it appears as filename.m4a you are fine. If it appears as simply filename then extensions are hidden. Renaming from filename to filename.m4r will result in filename.m4r.m4a which will not work.
     To change extensions in XP
     1. Open a folder or open explorer
     2. Click the Tools menu at the top
     3. Click Folder Options
     4. Click the View tab
     5. Uncheck Hide extensions for known file types
     6. Click OK

     To change extensions in Vista
     1. Open a folder or open explorer
     2. Click the Layout button (to the left of the Views button)
     3. Click Folder Options
     4. Click the View tab
     5. Uncheck Hide extensions for known file types
     6. Click OK

4. Drag your new Ringtone(s) into iTunes, making sure it appears in the Ringtones Library.
5. Connect your iPhone then click on it in iTunes. On that default page there are many tabs up at the top. Click on the “Ringtones” tab and make sure it is set to sync the ringtones.
6. Sync your iPhone.

Your ringtones should now appear in the Settings/Sounds/Ringtone menu on your iPhone. If they do not, the two most common errors are the file extension and length requirements.

• Problem: Ringtone imports to Music Library not Ringtones Library.
  Solution: Ringtone was not properly labeled as M4R. Check to make sure file was converted to M4A format properly. If it was, then make sure your OS is not hiding file extensions.
• Problem: Ringtone appearing in Ringtones Library but unable to sync to iPhone.
  Solution: Ringtone is too long. Testing found anything over 40 seconds was too long. I suggest no more than 35 seconds to be on the safe side.

I hope this has been helpful, probably more helpful than the older version of the tutorial. Readers have mentioned websites like MakeYourOwnRingtone.com which is perfect for people looking to get that right snippit made. The problem with these websites is that most will only make MP3 clips, some even WAV files. You will still need a program to convert them to M4A then rename to M4R before importing into iTunes.

For those who want to rip a clip from a video on the web, you can use websites like VidToMP3.com which will pull from any video posted on the internet including YouTube and MegaVideo. You can take the resulting MP3 and then follow all the directions posted above.

This wraps up this tutorial. Please comment as you wish with any problems, corrections, or suggestions.

Hailing itself as the first iPhone MMO, Aurora Feint isn’t too revolutionary other than the eventual multiplayer aspect. It’s gone through a few versions, each one fixing bugs as well as improving the game play. This game has also had it’s share of controversy, which I’ll go over later in this article.

The game itself is currently only a few minigames, two of which are in the “match three” style and one which is a logic problem though still a type of “match 3”.

Upon loading, which does take a bit of time due to the extremely large size of the game, new users see a small intro video which gives you a glimpse of what the story will eventually shape into. Be sure to watch the full video, as currently once you see it you’re unable to watch it again. With hope they will make a link somewhere so you can view it again later.

After the intro movie, you then make your character that you will be playing the game with.

Your first view of the game world is a map that contains four locations you can visit: The Mine, The Store, The Smith, and The Tower. Simply tapping on any of these locations will take you into their various screens. The only other feature of note is the arrow in the upper left which takes you to the Party screen.

The Mine

The first and most important place is The Mine. This is the heart and soul of Aurora Feint as this contains the main puzzle game. You’ll first come to a intro screen where you can set the difficulty level using a slider bar. At first you really can’t make use of it as it only opens up the further you level up your character. Once you’re ready to play, just click the Start Mining button to play the game. It’s like a typical “match 3” game where you slide the blocks horizontally to create 3 or more of the same type while new blocks grow from the bottom, but with a few twists. First off, the recent patch has made things a bit more difficult to get combo chains going unless you use an actual stragety. One of the players in the community has posted a very good thread on a basic strategy to use. The concept is that each type of block represents a type of element: Fire (red), Water (blue), Earth (green), Air (white/gold), and Shadow (purple). You’ll see the icon for each listed across the top of the page with a number under it. By clearing away matching blocks you are mining that material and adding it to your inventory. With each element you mine, you gain a number of crystals depending on strong the chain is and any multipliers that might apply. Crystals, seen at the top next to the purple crystal icon, are your currency in this game. You can also click the large arrow in the upper left of the screen to exit the mine at any time. It saves your game in it’s current state allowing you to come back at a later time. The bar going across the screen just under the element counters is your experience bar. Once it completely fills up, your character has gained a level allowing you to obtain new skills. More on that later.

The mining game makes use of the accelerometer by rotating the blocks as well as adjusting the gravity as you rotate your phone. This allows you to do vertical matches. The change in gravity is a great way to shake up the blocks to help make better chains, as well as changing the location where the blocks are added from.  You can even twist it 180 degrees to flip the puzzle upside down. You have to be careful doing this as it forces a new line of blocks to fall down from the new top. What also is very nice is the ability to drag the entire puzzle upwards to quickly add new blocks and make the game go a bit faster. As your character gains new skills, you will start to have some special blocks appear, each with it’s own unique effect: alchemist bottles clear out every block of that type on the screen, fire blocks burn down the column they are in, though always towards the home button, skull blocks act as bombs clearing out a good chunk of the surrounding blocks, stopwatch blocks slow down the rate at which the blocks grow onto the screen, the hammer blocks create bonuses for chains. They also act as wild cards in chains, so strategic placing of them can make some fairly complex chains.

When you level up, you obtain a skill point to place in any skill you wish. While the skill itself does give some bonuses, all of them unlock an item to be purchased from the store in order to make full use of the skill or spell. Each skill has it’s own description, so I’m not going to go into great detail here.

The Store

After leveling up, it is a smart idea to exit the mine and head to The Store. Here you can spend your crystals to buy blueprints and magic books that your skills have unlocked. Blueprints allow you to go to The Smith and create tools which in turn unlock the special blocks. Spellbooks allow you to go to The Tower and increase your mining efficiency of the chosen element. There is also a section to buy storybooks, but those haven’t been added to the game yet.

The Smith

Once you have purchased a blueprint, you come to The Smith to actually craft the tool. Each blueprint have specific element requirements. If you don’t have enough of a required element, you need to go back to the mine until you have enough. You will also see three empty squares at the top of the main smithing screen. Crafted tools unlock the special blocks mentioned above and as you use them in mining, you add them to your inventory. You can then chose three tools to use while smithing. They don’t have to be different types either.  Tap the blueprint you want to attempt, choose your tools (if you have any) and then start building.

To build the tool you have to play a minigame much like Mining but with a few distinct differences. The first thing you’ll notice is that it’s a timed game. In order to use the three tools selected at the beginning of the game, quickly double tap a block to get a menu to select which tool you want to use. The chosen tool then replaces the selected block. In order to complete the game you have to match up a certain amount of specific elements. Failure to do so only means you’ve lost the materials required by the blueprint. You can retry the puzzle as many times as you need to as long as you have the required materials.

The Tower

Honestly, I think The Tower is my favorite part o Aurora Feint. Once you have purchased a spellbook, you come to The Tower to learn it. Once a spellbook is learned, the amount of elements you mine/smith is increased per chain. Like the blueprints in The Smith, each spellbook has an element requirement in order to attempt. You don’t get to use tools here, but you don’t need them either. Tap which spellbook you want to attempt and then try to learn it.

This minigame is a bit different from both smithing and mining.  While it is a type of match 3, this is more of a logic problem. You will see an arrangement of colored crystals and the object of the game is to clear all the crystals in a specified number of moves or less. Like the two other games, you can only move horizontally, though you can rotate the phone to change gravity. Be careful doing this as it counts as a move. Most are pretty straight forward, but there are a few of the higher leveled ones that I had to attempt several times to complete. One feature I would love to see is the ability to go back and replay these games.

Your Party

On the map, you can click the large arrow in the upper left to go to the party screen.  Here you can see your character stats and later on you will be able to see the stats of your friends. Tapping on your character at the top of the page will take you into a more details stats screen. It also shows a nifty full sized picture of your character which changes as you level up.

At the bottom of the screen, you can access your Inventory as well as the Community page. Your inventory is where you can see all the tools you have crafted as well as the spellbooks you have learned. I think later you will also be able to read any storybooks you purchased.

The community feature is currently down until the developers can come up with a way for users to access it securely. There was a bit of a controversy about the community feature as it was first implemented. With a rather nifty idea, the developers made the game able to pull up the address book on your iPhone and scan for all the email addresses it contained. Those addresses were then sent to their server to see if anyone had signed up with AF. The idea was that this would make it easier and you wouldn’t have to go around telling people “Hey I play, do you?” While they didn’t keep a copy of these email addresses, the problem came in the fact that they didn’t quite realize how unsafe this was, especially since they were transmitted unencrypted for anyone with enough know-how to sniff out. Once this was pointed out, the developers realized their error and apologized profusely. For now, the feature is disabled, and they have stated that when it does eventually come back it will probably be more like Nintendo’s friend code system.

That is another good thing about this game. The developers keep an open communication line on their website forums. They’ve taken many suggestions from the community and implemented them, as well as keep on top of the bugs as they are reported.

Overall, I really love this game. Once I start playing it I find I’m on it for quite awhile before I feel like quitting. This game come highly recommended by not only myself, but all my other iPhone toting friends.

Update: I’ve finally figured out that this isn’t just a Twitter App. It has it’s own network that, sadly, seems to be attracting more and more harassing users. Due to this, I’ve actually stopped using this app and have moved to another one.

Twinkle is a Twitter application for the iPhone. By far it is my favorite. While it seems a bit lacking in a few features I like, what it does have is pretty awesome.

For starters, the interface is very polished and easy to read. It color codes your twitter feed making it easily to identify any tweets directed to you (purple in color) as well as your own tweets (done in a muted gray). In the upper left corner is the refresh button, which also displays a nifty bird symbol if there happens to be an error retrieving your twitter feeds. The upper right corner is where you tap to access your post a new tweet screen. If you want to reply to a tweet, you can simply tap on the one you want to reply to and go to a screen with various options.

The individual tweet screen shows the user’s icon, their full name, and how long ago the tweet was posted. If someone has a link in their tweet, from this screen you can click on the link to open the link in Safari. Tapping the upper right icon replies to the person. Under the tweet itself are various buttons. One to view the person’s profile which includes their full name, twitter name, and location as well as their recent twitter feed. Clicking the upper right button allows you to reply to the user’s tweet. There are also buttons to send the person a private message, ability to follow or stop following, and of course a button to invite them to start using Twinkle.

Posting is quite nifty. The layout is like any other iPhone text input with the keyboard taking up the lower half of the screen. One nice feature is that, like the main screen, it color codes the background of your edit box to show you what kind of tweet you are posting. Orange for normal, purple for reference by simply adding the @ sign, and blue for direct messages done by preceding it with the simple “d” command. It has a wonderful character counter that keeps track of how many you have left, letting you know when you go over. Though, by far the single greatest feature of the posting is the ability to add a picture to your tweet. You can choose to take a picture right then and there or choose one from your camera roll. Unfortunately it occasionally crashes on trying to post these, but not always.

Twinkle also has all of your private messages in a separate window for easy viewing.  My only complaint about this window is that it doesn’t have your outgoing private messages listed, but I think this is a twitter issue not a twinkle issue.

The other very awesome feature that Twinkle has is the “Nearby” feature. Granted that it only shows other Twinkle users, but it is very useful for finding new people. It uses the iPhone’s GPS to post your GPS location. It then looks at other Twinkle users and lists  anyone else who has posted within a user specified range.

There isn’t much in the settings menu. Just the ability to turn on/off the GPS use as well as the notification sounds while you are in the program itself. Going into the Identity menu allows you to change your Twinkle picture which is the icon shown to any other Twinkle user in place of your default Twiter icon, your Twinkle email login, and your Twitter login as well as a simple help screen. Right now all you can use is Twitter, but it looks like they will eventually allow you to use other micro-blogging sites.

There are a few things that some people might not like about Twinkle. For starters it requires you to create a Tapulous account. Honestly all you need to do is just give them a junk email and you’re fine. It also lacks the ability to follow an @blah to said person’s profile. I find this a serious but overlookable flaw as this is one of the major ways I find other users from my friends. Hopefully they will add this in the future. Searching for individual users would also be nice, but I rarely do it so it’s not a big concern of mine.

I’ve also encountered various bugs and problems, though that’s a common thing with any iPhone App. One issue I’ve been running into lately is a double displaying of my own tweets on the Home screen. It’s posting fine on Twitter itself, but simply showing up twice in Twinkle. It only happens in the Home screen and not in my Nearby screen. Hopefully they will correct this issue soon. Another problem I’ve had before but seems to have been fixed is with anyone who has an underscore (“_”) in their name. It was doing a weird thing where it was duplicating the person’s name so the referral wouldn’t work right. IE: @testing_demo would come out @testing_demoTesting_Demo. Thankfully this annoying little problem seems to have been fixed.  The only other issue I’ve had is the one I’ve mentioned before: it will occasionally crash when you try to post a photo, specifically using the Take a Picture and not usually when you use something from your camera roll. Not sure this is a Twinkle problem or an actual iPhone bug.

All in all, after having used a few different Twitter apps, I find Twinkle to be the best out there. I highly recommend it to anyone out there.

Note: Mandelbrot has changed it’s name to iFractal and even more features have been added since this review was written.

A few friends of mine and I were talking about our eagerness to see  Apple fix the code to allow for true IM clients to run on the iPhone. The big thing is that Apple doesn’t want anything running as a ‘background process’ so they are doing a few different things that the App developers are going to have to do differently to get it all to work. One thing that someone said off hand was “you won’t be able to do anything like render a fractal in the background”. Not to long after that I was perusing the App store and found Mandelbrot.

Now, for starters, this isn’t a fractal renderer like Apophysis. All this app does is have a single Mandelbrot set that you can play around with. The developer has stated that in the next update it will include other things like Julia sets, etc. But for now it’s just a single Mandelbrot you can poke around in. With infinite detail, you really only NEED one.

To get this out of the way, many people try to say there isn’t any point to it.. and frankly they are right. This isn’t a game, there is no brass ring to get, no epeen to wave around. Its exploration, mathematics, and art. If you don’t like any of that, then this isn’t the app for you.

Mandelbrot is surprisingly easy to use. It loads the initial Mandelbrot set (pictured above) and from there you can zoom in as you like. Navigation is easy: Doubletap an area to zoom in on it, touch the screen with two fingers to zoom out, drag the image to move around, single tap to get the menu bar with the reset button and an info button (which opens up safari so be careful). The only thing that this really does call for is patience. It takes a bit for the screen to render after moving/zooming around. You can go in multiple zooms, but you could easily miss some very cool images that way.

Here are some example shots I have taken. Can you pick out where I chose to zoom in?

#1	#2	#3
#4	#5	#6
#7	#8	#9
#10	#11	#12
#13

Note: This is updated to reflect the App’s current version.

Ever since I had my old Palm Treo 650, my first requirement when I had any handheld device was a game of Sudoku. Same thing goes for my new iPhone.

Scouring the App Store uncovered dozens of Sudoku games for a range of prices, but none were free. I looked through the reviews and found one that seemed to have an overall good review by the users: Satori Sudoku. Most of the reviewers said it had a pretty good interface, better than the other sudoku apps out at the time. For only $1.99 I was willing to give it a shot.

Upon loading it up, the game seemed everything I wanted. Easy to use, clear to read, I was ecstatic. The ability to make pencil marks was mandatory, the highlight feature quite nice, and the verify was ok except for the fact you could only do that once you were done. Do wish that it would take all your current ‘finished’ numbers and check them, rather than just making sure the puzzle itself is ok.

Overall I was quite pleased.

That is.. until I tried to finish a puzzle.

You see, there is a trick to creating Sudoku puzzles. It’s not as easy as you might think. Initial thought says to just take a completed puzzle and remove a bunch of numbers. Sadly that can’t be done. Why? Because if you are not careful which numbers are left over then you can have multiple solutions to a puzzle. Take a look at the screencap above (click to see full size). Look very carefully. Yep, that puzzle can be completed in any number of ways. That is a ‘broken puzzle’. The whole point of Sukoku is that there is only a single logical answer.

Obviously the maker of Satori Sudoku didn’t understand this and implemented puzzle creation poorly. Literally every puzzle I’ve tried to finish since I bought the game have ended up like the one above. My hope is that now that people are complaining about it that the creator will update the application with a better puzzle generation algorithm.

UPDATE: Ok, The developer of the game pushed through an update on the App Store and the puzzle generator now seems like it is fixed. IMHO this is now the best Sudoku App avaliable. I read an article over on MacWorld about all the Sudoku apps, and looking it over I still think Satori is the best. The only thing wrong with it was the broken puzzles and now that is fixed.

This morning I decided to do a bit of research. My friend linked me a nice program that did all the snipping and importing of the songs for you, but it was a paid program with only a small taste test of what you could do. This was not pleasing to me. I am a music and ringtone junky. I love to have my friends each have their own ringtone so I know who’s calling with out even looking.

Unable to find anywhere that explained a simple way to do your own ringtones without paying for it, I tried multiple ways to get the ringtone into itunes, all without success. Finally broke down and tried the paid software demo. My hunch paid off and I found out what I needed.

1) Pick out your Source – I’ve got a pretty extensive library, but I want to make sure that the song is loud enough to jar my attention when it’s ringing, as well as clear enough to make out.

2) Edit your clip – Most songs start out soft or have a blank second or so in the front. That is not good for a ringtone. Most of my ringtones are around 20 seconds long, but I think you can go longer (See Update 2 below). Since I’m a PC person, I just use the free Wavepad from NCH Software.

3) Save your clip in M4A format – Most audio editors should be able to do this, or you can use a file converter. Switch from NCH Software is perfect if you need to do bulk conversions. There are also multiple online file converters. A good list is over on MakeUseOf.

4) Change extension to M4R – I just open up the folder I saved my ringtones to and edit it straight in the OS. Don’t worry about any warnings you get about it being possibly unusable.

5) Drag the M4R into iTunes – M4R is a useable format for iTunes so all you have to do is drag it into iTunes and it will add it to the Ringtones library. I’ve read before that it’s a good idea to add only one ringtone at a time or you might get multiples of the same ringtone rather than all of your different ones.

6) Sync your iPhone – You can now choose the custom ringtone from your list. Your overall ringtone is in the Settings/Sounds menu. If you edit your contacts directly you can assign custom ringtones for each one.

Yes folks, it’s as simple as that. As far as I know this should work for both PC and MAC users. I don’t think there is a limit on how many or how large your ringtones can be, but I’m not exactly sure so be careful with your experiments. Remember that your phone rolls over to voicemail after a certain time period so it’s pointless to make anything longer than that. Typically shorter ones will loop, but I haven’t tried it out myself just yet.

Enjoy!

—

UPDATE: After adding my other ringtones, the iphone itself is limited to carrying only 10 ringtones at once. Sad Leth. If someone finds out differently without jailbreaking their phone, please comment and let me know.

UPDATE 2: I’ve figured out the problem with importing some ringtones. When I added them to my library, all of them would show up in iTunes, but not all would show up on the Ringtones tab under my iPhone. After a little experimentation, it’s because of length. The ones that didn’t show up were all 40+ seconds long. I trimmed them down to under 35 seconds and they all work now.

UPDATE 3: Someone over on my Livejournal just pointed out that by default Windows Vista HIDES and PROTECTS file extensions. You have to first unhide the extensions in order to change the file extensions.

To change extensions in vista

1. Open a folder or open explorer
2. Click the Layout button (to the left of the Views button) as shown in the picture below
3. Click Folder Options
4. Click the View tab
5. Uncheck Hide extensions for known file types
6. Click OK

Another reader mentioned the website MakeYourOwnRingtone.com which is perfect for people looking to get that right snippit made. You will still need to convert the file to .m4a then rename to .m4r before importing into itunes though.