Tired of waiting for games to be fully complete and released before you can buy them? Wish you could play a game while it’s still a bug-riddled, in-development mess? Well, Valve has got you covered with its new “Early Access” sales program.

The program lets players buy games that haven’t finished development yet; it lets developers charge you for the privilege of putting their unfinished game through its paces, warts and all.

Back in MY day, beta testers didn’t have to pay for the games they tested, and they’d usually get a free copy out of the deal too. My, how times have changed. And not for the better.

A new trojan specifically for Macs has been discovered that installs an adware plugin. The malware attempts to monetize its attack by injecting ads into Chrome, Firefox, and Safari (the most popular browsers on Apple’s desktop platform) in the hopes that users will generate money for its creators by viewing (and maybe even clicking) them.

Be vary wary of any Web page that requires you to install additional software you’ve never heard of in order to see content there.

Om Malik on launching Google Keep after just killing Google Reader:

I spent about seven years of my online life on that service. I sent feedback, used it to annotate information and they killed it like a butcher slaughters a chicken. No conversation — dead. The service that drives more traffic than Google+ was sacrificed because it didn’t meet some vague corporate goals; users — many of them life long — be damned.

Looking from that perspective, it is hard to trust Google to keep an app alive.

I agree completely. How can Google expect users to trust them with an app when they could shut it down at any time. No thanks Google.

There are some CSS3 properties that aren’t used as often as you would expect. Despite their rarity, they are extremely useful.

Some big changes in this release, including support for Audiobus, which allows you to play and record music apps supported by Audiobus directly into GarageBand.

Dan Frommer:

But even from the outside, it’s easy to see that the Android situation isn’t ideal. Yes, it is the world’s “most popular” mobile phone platform, if you sort by the number of people using it, and that’s an impressive achievement. But it certainly isn’t making the sort of impact — on the world and on Google itself — that it perhaps could or should.

Interesting thoughts.

Mark Reynolds summed up my thoughts. It made me laugh.

The crash was caused by NVIDIA graphics card drivers and is now fixed, according to the Pixelmator Team.

Daniel Pasco:

Second, even though we’ve been quiet about it, we have been working on new versions of NetNewsWire for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. We have some great new features and a modern design that we can’t wait to show you.

Great news for RSS users.

It’s amazing how much people respond to your job title. Michael Lopp has a great article on the subject.

Getting a great vocal sound doesn’t need to be hard. Whether you’re recording or you’re mixing, Nectar Elements makes vocal treatment a snap.

There are a couple of videos on the page that are worth watching.

Jim and Dan talk about Kevin Lynch, the iOS update, Google Reader’s demise, leaving Feedburner, Google’s priorities, privacy, Dropbox, BlackBerry’s claim that the iPhone is “old”, learning guitar chords, the Line 6 amp, and more.

The iOS update yesterday fixed a passcode flaw, but apparently there’s another one.

Aspyr Media announced Wednesday plans to release a Mac compatible version of BioShock Infinite this summer. It’s the latest installment to the popular first person shooter series, and it’s coming to Windows and consoles later this month.

Previous installments of the game are available for Mac courtesy of Feral Interactive.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc said it is tripling the number of U.S. stores in a pilot program that lets shoppers scan items with their iPhones and pay at self-checkout counters.

Walmart’s “Scan & Go” program will soon be in more than 200 stores, up from about 70. The pilot began near its home office in Bentonville, Arkansas in late 2012, then expanded to Atlanta.

Obviously it’s working well.

Great upgrade to Smile’s excellent PDF editor for the Mac. New features include Microsoft Word export, a new editing bar, optimization for Retina displays and more. PDFpenpro gets some changes, too.

Daniel Eran Dilger has a good article on Apple’s recent hire.

“So we’re leaning on a lot of designers who get that job because they’re not qualified for the other jobs, rather than that they are really strongly qualified as a designer. It’s really hard to go to school to be a good designer.”

Richard Garriott developed Ultima, the now-legendary fantasy role playing game originally developed for the Apple II. He’s at it again with a Kickstarter-funded project coming for Mac, Windows and Linux, planned for a late 2014 release.

Rarer than hen’s teeth: Graphics card maker Sapphire has announced a Mac Pro-compatible graphics card (works in 2010 and above models). It’s based on AMD Radeon architecture and has some nice features like two mini DisplayPorts, HDMI and dual-link DVI. But expect to pay dearly for the privilege – $480.

Bear in mind that other third-party graphics cards will work in Mac Pros running Lion and Mountain Lion – I’m using a plain vanilla PC-compatible Nvidia GeForce 450 GTS in mine, which gives a nice boost for game frame rates over the Nvidia 8800 GT card it came with.

Update: Bare Feats already has the card in hand and has put it through its paces; benchmarks at the link.

Patent competition in the United States is usually a fierce arena for private companies, but now the South Korean and French governments are suiting up.

Both countries have launched patent-acquisition companies, with the goal of helping domestic technology firms and possibly making some money in the process. China and Japan are making moves into the business too.

Great, just what we need.

She even claims to have spoken to a botanist, but he has no recollection of ever speaking with her.

I really like Basil and this update added some nice features.

John Gruber giving his thoughts on Apple’s newest VP Kevin Lynch. There is also an Exhibit B. Like Gruber, it concerns me that Lynch kept beating the Flash drum for so long, even when it was clear it was dead.

You have to laugh.

[Via Justin Scholz]

James Whittaker:

The Google I was passionate about was a technology company that empowered its employees to innovate. The Google I left was an advertising company with a single corporate-mandated focus.

This article is a year old, but I think it says a lot about the changes Google has been, and still is, going through. Worth a read for sure.

NCAA March Madness Live:

Watch every game with NCAA® March Madness LIVE on your iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and iPad Mini! Download to follow the tournament bracket, check schedule and scores, fill out your bracket, set game alerts, listen to live game radio, and track social activity around all the games. Log in with your TV provider to enjoy unlimited access to live streaming video of all 67 games of the 2013 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament, across TBS, CBS, TNT and truTV. A 4 hour live video pass will be available prior to logging in.

ESPN Bracket Bound 2013:

The ESPN Bracket Bound App is the ultimate college basketball companion. Follow the nation’s top teams with the latest scores, news, Bracketology and highlights. Personalize your experience for unprecedented coverage of your favorite teams. Create up to 10 brackets in ESPN Tournament Challenge and compete against your family, friends, co-workers as well as ESPN celebrities.

CNBC reporter Jon Fortt posted the message on his Twitter account. Lynch will be the VP of Technology.

Lots of big changes in the new version. I already downloaded it.

Jared Lewandowski explores something that’s become very popular in design — simplicity.