If you’ve not played Portal before, there is no better time now to check out this game. Portal is free for a limited period till September 20 on Valve’s Steam platform.

Portal at Steampowered

World of Goo started life for Nintendo’s Wii platform and developer 2D Boy has ported the game over to iPhone, iPad and Mac. Without a doubt, World of Goo is one of the most original and innovative physics-based puzzler lately. There are two version of the game for iOS devices. If you intend to play the game on iPad, get the World of Goo HD version. World of Goo HD is a universal app that can be run on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

World of Goo for iPhone

World of Goo HD for iPhone & iPad

World of Goo for Mac

MPlayerX is a solid alternative to VLC for a play-all-format video player on the Mac. MPlayerX has a cleaner interface and simplified control scheme. MPlayerX plays all formats we throw at it and is free. The added bonus is it is available on the Mac App Store, thus making install and updates as simple as it gets.

MPlayerX at Mac App Store

Rockstar Games has released the classic Grand Theft Auto 3, making it one of the first high profile titles available on the Mac App Store. Released back in 2001 for PlayStation 2, Grand Theft Auto (GTA) 3 is the first GTA game in 3D and was a landmark hit back then. Rockstar plans to release on the Mac App Store GTA Vice City on August 25 and GTA San Andreas on September 1.

Grand Theft Auto 3 Mac App Store

Apple has released OS X 10.7.1, the first update to Mac OS X Lion. Might be a surprise to some, Mac OS X 10.7.1 update is available via Software Update and not from the Mac App Store.

The 10.7.1 update is recommended for all users running OS X Lion and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability and compatibility of your Mac, including fixes that:

• Address an issue that may cause the system to become unresponsive when playing a video in Safari
• Resolve an issue that may cause system audio to stop working when using HDMI or optical audio out
• Improve the reliability of Wi-Fi connections
• Resolve an issue that prevents transfer of your data, settings, and compatible applications to a new Mac running OS X Lion

Apple support article: About the OS X Lion 10.7.1 update

You can setup your Mac to restart automatically when it freezes using a new feature in Mac OS X Lion. Select “Energy Saver” option from System Preferences, tick the “Restart automatically if the computer freezes” option.

A common cause of computer freeze is spoilt RAM memory. A Mac that freezes is unusual and if you encounter random freezes and crashes, there probably is some defect in the hardware. It’s then time for a visit to Apple support.

Apple has released iTunes 10.4 which supports full-screen mode and 64-bit cocoa under Mac OS X Lion. iTunes however remains 32-bit under Snow Leopard.

You can now use iTunes with OS X Lion’s new Full-Screen App capability, which allows you to use iTunes and other apps without distractions. Navigate between your full-screen apps with a simple gesture.

Note: iTunes is now a 64-bit Cocoa application on OS X Lion and includes a number of important stability and performance improvements. Some iTunes plug-ins may no longer be compatible with this version of iTunes. Please contact the plug-in developer for an updated plug-in compatible with iTunes 10.4.

Apple also releases iWork Update 6 which adds support for Mac OS X Lion’s Full Screen Mode, Resume, Auto Save and Versions features.

Apple has released Safari 5.1 for Mac OS X Snow Leopard, bringing the improvement of Safari on Lion over to Snow Leopard such as Reading List, new privacy pane preference and new process architecture. Several notable new features in Safari 5.1 are however Lion specific and are not available when running under Snow Leopard: Multi-touch Gestures, Resume, Full Screen Browsing, Sandboxing, Downloads Popover, better HTML Canvas graphics etc.

Safari homepage

Together with the release of Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, Apple today unveils new MacBook Air, Mac Mini and Thunderbolt Display.

MacBook Air

New MacBook Air sports the same 11.6 inch and 13.3 inch variants, with Intel’s speedy Sandy Bridge Core i5/i7 processor, Thunderbolt I/O, the return of backlit keyboards and Mac OS X Lion. The new MacBook Air is offered the following base configurations:

• 11.6 inch – 1.6 GHz, 64GB SSD, 2GB RAM, $999
• 11.6 inch – 1.6 GHz, 128GB SSD, 4GB RAM, $1199
• 13.3 inch – 1.7 GHz, 128GB SSD, 4GB RAM, $1299
• 13.3 inch – 1.7 GHz, 256GB SSD, 4GB RAM, $1599

MacBook Air homepage

Mac Mini

The new Mac Mini sports Sandy Bridge processor, Thunderbolt I/O and for the first time drops the internal optical drive in favor of an optional external SuperDrive. The new Mac Mini is available in the following base configurations:

• Standard model, 2.3 GHz Core i5 processor, 500GB hard drive, 2GB RAM, $599
• Standard model, 2.5 GHz Core i5 processor, 500GB hard drive, 4GB RAM, $799
• Server model, 2.0 GHz, dual 500GB hard drives, 4GB RAM, $999

New Mac Mini comes with Mac OS X 10.7 Lion.

Mac Mini homepage

Apple Thunderbolt Display

Apple unveils a new 27-inch display called Apple Thunderbolt Display, which has similar appearance to LED Cinema Display but sports Thunderbolt I/O port. With Thunderbolt I/O, it is now possible to drive two displays off a single Thunderbolt port. The highspeed I/O also turns the display into a “docking station” for Mac notebook as the Thunderbolt Display has built-in FaceTime HD camera, three USB ports, one Firewire 800 port, 2.1 speaker system, one Gigabit Ethernet port and a second Thunderbolt I/O to enable daisy chaining. It also includes a MagSafe connector for charging a MacBook Pro or MacBook Air.

“The Apple Thunderbolt Display is the ultimate docking station for your Mac notebook,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.” With just one cable, users can dock with their new display and connect to high performance peripherals, network connections and audio devices.”

Apple Thunderbolt Display will be available within next 60 days at $999.

Apple Thunderbolt Display homepage

When you click on the sound icon that is docked at right corner of the menu bar, it displays a slider for you to adjust the volume. To access the advanced sound preference, you can Option-click on the same icon to reveal a menu that allows you quick adjustment of the input and output devices, and also access the Sound Preferences.

The Sound Preferences can off course be accessed via the normal System Preferences->Sound. A keyboard shortcut to get to the same Sound Preferences is to hold the Option key while pressing the Volume Up, Volume Down or Mute button on the keyboard.