GeekwithEnvy

OSX

Diablo III Anniversary Brings Gifts

by Leave a Comment

Act3artD3

It’s hard to believe that it has already been a year since the release of Diablo III (May 15 2012) but it’s not time to sit and reflect, it’s time to celebrate. Blizzard is offering players who login to Diablo III between May 15 and May 21 a 25% boost to their Magic Find and +EXP stats plus your magic find bonus will stack above the 300% cap. That’s a pretty sweet deal.

To make your desktop look a little less lame and a little more evil, Blizzard has also put up some new Diablo III wallpapers. Blizzard also has a few other fun things going on in celebration of the anniversary including live streams and having you spread the word by showing off your love of the game by taking a picture of you and your friends holding a “Happy Birthday Diablo III” sign and then tweeting it, and if they like what you send them they will re-tweet it.

*Interesting Fact: Diablo III sold  3.5 million copies in the first 24 hours after it’s release, making it the fastest selling PC game.

How to Fix Lag With Diablo III and More on Macbook Pro Retina

by Leave a Comment

Apple Logo

OS X Version 10.8.2 brought a few unwanted features to Macbook Pro Retina display owners. The main issue seems to be serious lag in many games, most notably Diablo III. Another issue  users were reporting seems to be the fan not running correctly, and that’s never good.

There’s Good News

Apple has released an update along side OS X 10.8.3 that corrects these issues. You can get more information on that update here. If your not interested in that update for some reason or are unable to update, you can follow the instructions below for a temporary fix, otherwise this issue should be resolved.

There’s a quick fix for this issue that will get your Macbook Pro Retina (MBPr) back to it’s peak performance in no time. All you should need to do is reset the System Management Controller (SMC). For the best instructions on how to do this I recommend just going straight to Apple’s documentation which you can find here.

*This should speed up everything, from Desktop UI to gaming!

*Be sure to follow the instructions specifically for your type of computer. In this case it seems that only the MBPr is having issues.

 

 

Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition Now Available for OS X

by Leave a Comment

BGEnchancedSS2

Yes! OS X users can now download and run Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition without any special software. The game is now available to download for Mac OS X 10.6.8 or higher from Beamdog. 

The Original Baldur’s Gate is an awesome RPG that has been around for over ten years. Eventually the original game gained some enhancements that helped it fit a little better on a widescreen monitor along with adding new content like “The Black Pits” and adding new characters like Dorn Il-Khan, and Rasaad yn Bashir. The enhancements don’t end there either, they went on to add over 400 improvements to the original game. If you love classic RPG’s and have OS X, then this is a must buy, plus the game is only $19.99

 

 

Limited Time to Get 50% Off PopCap Games

by 1 Comment

Bejewled3SS
Bejewled 3

Hey, when I see a deal going on I feel it’s only necessary, if not completely mandatory to tell everyone I can, unless supplies are limited of course! Anyhow, there’s only a few days left to get a great deal on PopCap games!

They are celebrating Chinese new year and for us that means a good deal on video games. You have until February 12th to pick up some PopCap games for 50% off. That includes games like Bejeweled 3, Zuma’s Revenge!, Bookworm, Peggle, Plants vs Zombies and more. Even if you don’t want to buy a game, you can still try out many games for free on their website. They offer up a 60 minute trial which is pretty slick.

You can get any of these boredom crushing games, with discount, from PopCap.

A Great Free Alternative to Photoshop

by Leave a Comment

 

Adobe Photoshop is an incredibly useful tool and it seems that the only limitation is your imagination. The only set back to using such powerful software could be it’s price tag.  The full version of Adobe Photoshop retails for $699 and if you want you can “rent” Photoshop for $19.99 per month but you must commit to a year long subscription or you will have to pay $29.99 per month. That’s a lot of money to throw down, especially for non-professional use, but there’s no need to fear, there are other options.

There is a really good alternative to Photoshop and it’s called GIMP which is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. GIMP offers up many of the same features as Photoshop and what’s even better is that it’s free!

GIMP Screenshot
GIMP UI

GIMP is loaded with features and you can export your images to many different file formats including TIFF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, PSD and many more. What I have found to be one of the best features is the ability to download plugins. If there’s a feature or format that you need, you can usually always find a plugin to take care of your needs. You can perform many of the same common tasks that you would expect to find in any other modern image software, including photo retouching and enhancement, resizing/cropping, colorizing, filters and much more.

GIMP UI ScreenshotTwo
GIMP UI

Although most users will be able to jump right into it, those who are used to Photoshop may take a little while to get used to a different user interface. I use both Photoshop and GIMP but I do all of my work in GIMP on my laptop, including most of the photos you see on GeekwithEnvy. If you do get stuck or just want to learn more you can head over the the tutorials section to get up to speed.

GIMP is primarily written in C and was originally intended to to be a reasonably priced or Free image manipulation program for GNU/Linux and UNIX. Today, you can download the software for Mac OSX, Windows, Sun OpenSolaris, FreeBSD and of course GNU/Linux. For complete information you can head here.