Thanks to iCloud, syncing an iPhone with a Mac is a piece of cake. But Mac users who don’t buy into the whole “one vendor to rule them all” thing will find that syncing an Android phone with OS X isn’t quite as easy. That said, it isn’t terribly difficult, either, thanks to Google’s own cloud services.

Contacts

First, you must set up your phone to sync with your Google account. To make sure that this syncing is enabled, go to Settings > Accounts > Google, and tap your email address (it will be at the top of the screen, under the Accounts heading). Then confirm that the Sync Contacts box is checked.

Next, open the Address Book app on your Mac, go to Address Book > Preferences > Accounts, and choose On My Mac. You’ll see two boxes: one that says ‘Synchronize to Yahoo’ and another that says ‘Synchronize to Google’. Check the Synchronize to Google box, press Accept in the pop-up box, and enter your Gmail address and password when prompted. You should now see a small sync symbol in your Mac’s menubar. Click this symbol, and choose Sync Now from the dropdown menu.

Calendar

To sync your Android/Google calendar with iCal, open the iCal app on your Mac and navigate to iCal > Preferences > Accounts. Click the plus (+) symbol in the lower left corner to add a calendar to iCal. Leave ‘Account Type’ set to Automatic, fill in your Gmail address and password, and click Create.

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If you were wondering if ReadWrite had cleaned up its act since Dan Lyons left, fret not: Its Apple coverage is still as vapidly negative as it’s ever been.

Derek Brown muses: “The Epic Battle Between Apple & Google Is All But Over—Who Won?” (No link is provided, but tip o’ the antlers again to the Jony Ive parody account on Twitter.)

Turns out, it’s not Apple. Surprise!

Oh, you Apple zealots may respond with any number of “facts” pointing out that Apple’s doing quite well, thank you very much. But Brown has a retort that will leave you withering in the iron grip of his logic:

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You can almost see the “missed connection” personal ads these pundits would write: “You: gullible reader, looking for more information about the technology industry. Me: technology pundit willfully ignoring implicit costs, pushing really bad ideas, and misrepresenting survey results to generate page views.” Will they get together?! Read on!

No such thing as a free lunch

Writing for The Motley Fool, Steve Heller has some fun with language!

“Apple Has a Siri-ous Problem.”

Ahhhh, the Macalope sees what you did there!

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Sony and Apple are at loggerheads over streaming music, AT&T gets ready to open the floodgates on video chat over its network, and the head of Turkey drops in on Silicon Valley. The remainders for Monday, May 20, 2013 are up a stream without a paddle.

One issue holding up Apple iRadio: The economics of skipping songs (CNet)

If you were expecting Apple’s rumored music streaming service to roll out at next month’s WWDC, you might be disappointed. CNet reports that Sony Music is at odds with Cupertino over what Apple will pay for songs that users skip or rate poorly. Here’s a tip, Sony: Make better music. That one’s free!

AT&T says ‘any’ mobile video chat app will work on its network by the end of 2013 (The Verge)

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It's been a long time since anyone got excited about the Flickr app for iPhone. Its longevity, its association with a tired, clunky website, its inherent weaknesses and limitations, and the rise of powerful competitors heavily depressed its initial "wow" factor. It did not help that the free iOS program languished for years under Yahoo's neglect.

With new management shaking the Yahoo foundations, the company recently released Version 2 of Flickr for the iPhone, and suddenly—almost miraculously—Flickr was once again cool. And for good reason. A refreshed, modernized interface optimized for the iPhone 5 has reset the focus on good, old Flickr just as the public expressed deep skepticism about its more recent and newly Facebooked darling, Instagram.

The new Flickr, for the very most part, is a delight, and it's on its way toward fulfilling its long-ago promise to let users integrate, access, and share their photos between nearly all platforms. The renewed push toward sharing and, to a lesser extent, creative effects is Flickr 2.0's opportunity to advance the old and introduce the new. At the same time, Flickr continues to cater to its loyal following. With this new release, Flickr is sure to attract an army of new adherents.

Overall, I was impressed. Flickr 2.0 is quick, efficient, and intuitive. But it comes with drawbacks: it still has some quirks and glitches, it is not a universal app for the iPad (you have to work in 2X mode on the tablet), it's not video friendly, and it otherwise does not stun with unique new features.

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There are plenty of iPhone apps that improve or expand on the basic camera built into the iPhone and iPad. You can think of BlueStone Pond's SetMyCamMx 1.0.3, on the other hand, as a $4 app designed to replace the old-fashioned depth of field calculation wheels, which serious photographers sometimes threw into their camera bags back in the days before the Internet. You can use SetMyCamMx as an interactive tool for fine-tuning your exposure to ensure you’re choosing the right settings to capture your shot.

SetMyCamMx’s primary job is to help you figure out how to get the depth of field you need for a particular shot. Just dial in the focal length of your camera’s lens, an f/stop, and the distance to the subject—the focusing distance. SetMyCamMx will immediately tell you the closest and farthest distances at which the camera will be able to deliver an acceptably sharp focus. In other words, it tells you your depth of field.

That makes SetMyCamMx a superb learning tool as well as a field guide. You already know that a larger f/number gives you a greater depth of field. But SetMyCamMx will tell you exact numbers: 50mm at f/5.66, focusing at 10 feet gives you 3.3 feet of depth of field. At f/32, the same lens and focusing distances delivers a huge 65 feet.

Even better, SetMyCamMx shows you all this visually. Every calculation is accompanied by a graphical depiction of your camera, the subjects, and a yellow rectangle that represents the depth of field. You can get the same data from other depth of field calculators, but SetMyCamMx shows you the data in a way that leaves no room for confusion.

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Given the celebratory hubbub over the release of Google Maps for iPhone, you’d be excused for thinking that Google had instead perfected some entirely new form of transportation—portal technology, perhaps.

The truth is somewhat less spectacular, though it will still delight many users of iOS 6: Google Maps for iPhone is a very good mapping application that returns some much-missed features to the platform, but it’s not without its shortcomings.

Look and feel

If you at least like the look of Apple’s iOS 6 Maps app, then firing up Google Maps won’t be so terribly jarring: The two look strikingly similar, down to the blue dot that marks your current location and the placement of the compass icon that appears in the top right corner when you use two fingers to rotate the map.

Their aesthetics are different, though: Google eschews the use of gray/silver chrome titlebars and buttons for a spartan black-and-white interface that evokes the simplicity of its websites and services. In satellite view, Google Maps overlays roads with translucent white lines, and labels more roads than Apple does at similar zoom levels. Ultimately, though, the different approaches are more a matter of personal preference than anything else.

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One of the most distinctive characteristics of any photograph is its depth of field: Is the entire frame in sharp focus, from near-to-far, or only the subject? For a serious photographer, achieving the right depth of field isn’t an accident or trial and error; it’s deliberate and planned.

There was a time when photographers would carry a depth of field guide around with them—a small booklet filled with spinning dials and radiating grids of numbers that looked sort of like an engineering diagram for the space shuttle. These days, you can get the same information more easily using an iPhone app. And that puts precisely planned photos with just the right depth of field within your reach.

DOFMaster is the iPhone extension of the excellent DOFMaster.com, a website that offers ways to help you calculate depth of field from every conceivable format, including your browser, iPhone, Android phone, and a Windows app.

DOFMaster is the very picture of simplicity; the entire iPhone app occupies a single screen and features just five buttons. To get started, specify your camera. A drop-down menu lets you choose from among general categories like 35mm, APS, a number of medium- and large-format cameras, or compact digital. You can also select your specific digital SLR model.

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Hundreds and hundreds of products are released for the Mac each year. A few products truly stand out as impressive examples of quality, value, and innovation. These are the products that we recognize with an Editors’ Choice Award.

When it comes to the Eddys (as we affectionately call them), Macworld editors start with a list of candidates; this year, the list included well over 200 products (eligible products must have been released between November 1, 2011, and November 1, 2012). We take a close look at all of the candidates, debate the pros and cons of each, and determine whether a product meets our stringent standards for quality, utility, innovation, value, and excellence. After weeks of deliberation, we assembled a final list.

Ladies and gentlemen, Macworld presents the winners of the Eddy Awards.

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Fond as I am of bacon, I can’t help but pity Rovio’s Bad Piggies. These poor pigs just can’t seem to catch a break, with their ceaseless pursuit of the Angry Birds’ eggs generally resulting in bodily harm. In Bad Piggies, the pigs remain on the hunt for sustenance: Their chief engineer has devised a foolproof scheme, but mishaps cause his detailed blueprints to be scattered to the wind. The only logical response, of course, is to build vehicles to recover blueprint segments. If you’ve already had your fill of Angry Birds, rest easy: Bad Piggies shares its predecessor’s colorful environments and love of physics, but it’s a wholly new adventure.

Every level begins with a glimpse of a scrap of paper or wood you’ll need to fetch, using a vehicle (I use the term loosely) you’ll build from spare components. That’s enough to earn a single star and unlock the next level, but every stage offers a pair of extra goals. These range from beating a time limit, to building a vehicle without using particular parts.

There’s a delightful sort of mania to the piggies’ machinations. Wooden crates and wheels serve as basic building blocks for your machines, but you might find yourself using unconventional building materials like carbonated soda bottles as makeshift rockets to leap chasms, or electric fans and balloons to navigate treacherous caverns. As you build your haphazard contraptions you'll also need to take stock of weight and balance parts (and pigs) evenly across vehicles, as they’re comically prone to tipping. Unlike Angry Birds where you had to earn all three stars in one go, Bad Piggies lets you earn that coveted three star ranking in multiple attempts: You can spend one turn collecting stars, and build an entirely different contraption the second time around to make it to the end of the level in record time. The end result is puzzles that always feel fun, and don’t devolve into hours spent mashing the restart button because you mistimed a jump.

Bad Piggies offers a pair of basic modes, with more than 40 stages apiece. In "Ground Hog Day," puzzles center around land vehicles, while "When Pigs Fly" focuses on aeronautics. As you complete levels in each mode you’ll earn spare parts for my favorite mode, the Sandbox. There’s a Sandbox for both vehicle modes, and they serve as a sort of final exam: You’re offered parts and a map filled with stars, and are left to figure out the best way to collect them all. You can collect these stars at your leisure, so there’s no pressure to build a single, perfect contraption and make one perfect run. I found myself returning to the Sandbox time and time again as new parts became available, which enabled me to cover a bit more ground.

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It's been a little more than five years since Apple released the original iPhone. During that time the world has changed. People now expect fast, reliable Internet connections and bright touchscreens on devices they can fit in their pockets.

In the meantime, the iPhone has remained recognizably the iPhone. Each successive generation has added welcome features, but none have strayed so far from the previous one as to be unrecognizable. Indeed, from the very first iPhone upgrade, Apple has been taken to task by critics for following that initial exciting burst of revolution with years of steady evolution. (Meanwhile, the iPhone has become wildly successful, proving that phone buyers are excited by the product even if the pundits aren't.)

Now here's the iPhone 5, and is it any surprise that this model doesn't reimagine the iPhone in a completely new way? No, it too is recognizably an iPhone, an evolution of previous models—yet it offers major advances on almost every front. In the technology industry's fastest-moving product category, it's the very best version of the most successful product produced by the world's most valuable company. If the iPhone 5 bores you, you are deficient in joie de vivre.

Improving on the unimprovable

Almost every new Apple product is thinner, faster, and lighter than its predecessor. But I've wondered how much further down that path Apple could go with the iPhone without rewriting the laws of physics. Given that the iPhone 4S was just 9.3 millimeters thick and weighed a meager 140 grams, I had assumed that any changes in future iPhone dimensions would be perceptible only on spec sheets, but not by regular people.

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Pixel Addict’s Arms Cartel Global, for the iPhone and iPod touch, is as massive multiplayer online game that may test your patience.

You’re tasked with building a large illegal drug operation, one capable of smiting all potential competitors. To accomplish your goal, you must travel to far-flung locales like Mexico and Saudi Arabia, attacking and robbing rival cartels. You must gather weapons, build drug fronts, and recruit cartel members.

You must also learn the art of waiting.

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The Epson MegaPlex MG-850HD is a portable projector with two built-in ten-watt speakers, bright 2800 lumen output, and a dock for connecting and playing movies and music from your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad.

Weighing in at 8.4 pounds, the piano black MegaPlex is compact and easily portable. It uses 3LCD technology and offers native 720p resolution in screen sizes from 33 to 320 inches diagonally.

The MegaPlex has auto vertical keystone correction and iris controls, as well as manual focus and zoom rings near the lens and a horizontal keystone adjustment just behind them. You can tilt the front up with an adjustment leg beneath the front of the projector. You can correct horizontal tilt by adjusting the height of the feet at the back of the projector. Manual adjustments can be made through the menu system using the included remote control. There are seven different color modes to choose from including Blackboard (for projecting onto a dark green chalkboard), and four audio modes including Vocal, which emphasizes voices and dialog during video playback.

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iOS devices are in the army now, Intel’s former CEO recounts his Apple misstep, and Apple’s got its work cut out for its WWDC keynote. The remainders for Friday, May 17, 2013 lead the way.

Apple Mobile Devices Approved for Use on U.S. Military Networks (Bloomberg)

The Pentagon has given thumbs up to iOS 6 devices on military networks, though the Defense Department is still waiting for Apple’s much anticipated “Find My Enemies” app.

Paul Otellini’s Intel: Can the Company That Built the Future Survive It? (The Atlantic)

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This week's roundup of new and updated iOS apps includes cool new offerings for music and movies, as well as a new storytelling form designed just for your phone or tablet.

The DOJ wants to put Apple on ice for collusion on ebooks’ price. Elsewhere, if an iPhone button wiggles, is it more than just a niggle? And to get some relief, Siri asks you to please keep it brief. The remainders for Wednesday, May 15, 2013 like to rhyme all of the time.

U.S. Now Paints Apple as ‘Ringmaster’ in Its Lawsuit on ebook Price-Fixing (New York Times)

According to the Department of Justice, Apple masterminded the price-fixing scheme, cajoling and threatening the poor innocent publishers into its nefarious schemes. Supporting evidence includes emails from Apple execs to publishers, as well as a recording of ex-CEO Steve Jobs sitting in his office and laughing maniacally.

Apple tells U.S. of tough talks, not collusion, with publishers (Reuters)

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First, T-Mobile didn’t even offer the iPhone. Then, last month, it started offering the phone for $100—and it sold half-a-million phones in three weeks. But now, the carrier has boosted the upfront price on that iPhone 5 to $150.

As first reported by TmoNews, an unofficial T-Mobile blog, the $100 iPhone 5 price tag lasted just about one month. Now, the total cost for an iPhone 5 from the carrier is $630 (after making monthly $20 payments on the phone for two years), up from $580.

To put T-Mobile’s price hike in context, other major carriers charge $199 for the 16GB iPhone, and require two-year contracts. T-Mobile, which bills itself as an ”un-carrier,” only requires a two-year commitment for the $20 phone fee; its cellular plans no longer require contracts.

The price tag on the 32GB and 64GB iPhone 5 models also increased by $50 apiece.

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Got photos? Online retail giant Amazon has released a new app that lets iPhone users save their pictures directly on the company’s own cloud storage space.

Dubbed Amazon Cloud Drive Photos and available free of charge from the App Store, the app can transfer photos back and forth between a device and Cloud Drive, where they can be accessed using a desktop computer, Web browser, or other compatible device, like a Kindle Fire.

The app’s goal is to let customers enjoy the benefits of cloud storage—including ease of sharing and easier backups—regardless of what platform they use. In addition, the app lets you view your photo albums in various layouts from your iPhone or iPod touch and share Cloud Drive photos on Facebook, Twitter, and via email.

Launched in March of 2011, Cloud Drive offers users 5GB of free storage, which can be used for files of all kinds, including music, pictures, and video. Additional space is available for fees that range from $10 per year for 20GB to $500 per year for 1000GB (1TB).

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PDF Expert has updated with the ability to cut and past your document annotations … Office2 HD now lets users hide and unhide presentation slides. Packing Pro 9.0 (pictured) lets users filter their travel lists track every item in every single bag you carry.

Motorola Mobility abuses its dominant position in the E.U. by seeking and enforcing an injunction against Apple in Germany on the basis of its mobile phone standard-essential patents (SEPs), the European Commission said in a preliminary antitrust review of the case on Monday.

The Commission opened the investigation into Motorola Mobility in April 2012, about a month before Google's acquisition of the company closed, to scrutinize whether it abuses its patents that are deemed essential to an industry standard to get a sales ban on products of the infringing party.. Such conduct may be abusive if the potential licensee is willing to enter into a licence on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms, the Commission said in a news release.

Motorola Mobility has asserted a standard-essential patent against Apple in Germany that relates to the European Telecommunications Standardisation Institute's (ETSI) GPRS standard, a key industry standard for mobile and wireless communications, the Commission said.

The Google-owned company committed to license relevant patents on FRAND terms when the standard was adopted in Europe, but still it sought an injunction against Apple in Germany over a GPRS patent, the Commission said. Moreover, after the injunction was granted, Motorola went on to enforce it, even when Apple had declared that it would be willing to be bound by a determination of the FRAND royalties by the German court, the Commission said.

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The latest version of YouTube Capture lets users preview their edited videos in HD, choose to upload videos only when the device has access to Wi-Fi, and is simply faster, starting up more quickly than its predecessors.

Snap and share: It’s one of the most common things we do with our mobile devices these days. But sometimes you don’t want to broadcast a picture for the whole world to see. Here’s a quick overview of how Shared Photo Streams can help you with that.

Transcript

This is Macworld senior editor Dan Moren. Unlike Twitter or Instagram, iOS 6’s Shared Photo Streams make it easy to share photos with only a select group of friends or family, no matter what kind of computer, smartphone, or tablet they use.

To create a Shared Photo Stream, open the Photos app and tap the Photo Stream tab. By default, you’ll see your own personal photo stream, which syncs pictures shot with your iOS devices to all of your Macs and other iOS devices. (If you don’t, you may need to enable both your Photo Stream and Shared Photo Streams under Settings -> iCloud -> Photo Stream.)

Tap the Plus (+) button to create a new stream. You’ll be prompted to give the stream a name and invite some friends via email—but don’t worry, if you forget somebody; you can always add them later. You’ll also see an option to create a Public Website—more on that in a bit.

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Your iPhone and iPad can speak aloud any text you can select. In this video, I’ll show you how to enable that feature, and how to type emoji symbols in your text, too.

Transcript

I’m going to show you a few quick fun things your iPhone or iPad can do to make text more interesting.

First, I’ll show you how you can make your iOS device read aloud any text you select. Fire up the Settings app, tap on General, scroll down to Accessibility, and then tap on Speak Selection. Turn it on, and then, if you’d like, you can play with different accents and speech speed. A good Australian accent always makes me say “crikey,” so I can’t resist.

Now, go into any app where you can type or select text. I’ll use the Notes app here. Select the text you’re interested in hearing by tapping and holding, and then tap the new Speak button that appears. Instantly, your iPhone begins reading the text you selected—in your chosen accent, if applicable.

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When writing up bug reports for this column, I prefer to have guaranteed solutions to offer. However, a few problems are so frustrating and mysterious that I’ll cover them even without a known reliable fix. That’s the situation today.

A few weeks ago, I sent several SMS text messages to a friend via the Messages app on my iPhone 5. They went unanswered. I eventually learned that he had never received the messages. Not only that, he had sent me a couple of messages during the same time period that I never received. When we finally sat down together to figure out what was going on, we confirmed the obvious: we could neither send nor receive text messages between our two smartphones.

Here’s where things gets weirder. My friend is the only person I cannot text. Ditto in reverse for my friend. Not only that, we have been exchanging texts for years without any difficulty. It’s only in the past few weeks that we’ve had this difficulty. He is using the same smartphone (not an iPhone) and same carrier he’s had for the past two years. The only apparent change that might be linked to when the symptom first popped up was on my end: I upgraded to an iPhone 5 and iOS 6 around the time the texts started to fail (although I can’t confirm that the failures began immediately after the upgrade).

I tried a couple of obvious potential fixes. First, I restarted my iPhone. Second, I deleted the entire conversation with my friend and began a new one. Neither had any effect.

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A visit to your local Apple Store during the holiday season can be maddening. The stores are overrun with other shoppers, there’s a mob around each gadget table, and waiting for your turn to be helped by an Apple Store employee takes eons. The walk-in line to purchase an iPhone 5 alone can take upwards of an hour, depending on how many people are in front of you. While we generally like the Apple Store’s “no register” system, it can be a real headache during busy periods.

This year, there are a few ways to avoid waiting in a long line. It just takes a little planning ahead.

Check yourself out

Bring your iOS device to the Apple Store, because the Apple Store app is a handy guide for holiday shopping. The app shows you where the nearest Apple Store is, lets you search for product availability at specific stores, and allows you to purchase items yourself.

The Apple Store app also has a feature called Express Checkout that lets you directly purchase items from the online Apple Store by quickly entering your Apple ID and password. Designate whether you’d like to pick the item up in a store or have it shipped. The app bills the card on file that’s linked to your Apple ID and will ship to the address on file as well; you can adjust these settings by selecting Edit in the app itself at checkout.

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When you hit the road, it’s easy to get paranoid—especially if you’re carrying thousands of dollars’ worth of technology with you. You can alleviate some of your worries by taking security measures to protect yourself against someone running off with your iPhone, iPad, or MacBook.

Use common sense 

If you’re not used to toting a machine outside your usual rounds, don’t forget these precautions.

Don’t leave devices lying around: Don’t leave your laptop or other device on a table or counter at a coffee shop or other establishment and walk away or turn your back. Hardware is too easily snatched and too portable.

Don’t leave bags untended: Don’t walk away from a bag that holds your phone, tablet, or laptop. It’s simple for a thief to poke around without attracting notice, especially during the holidays when shops are busy.

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Admit it: Your carry-on bag is stuffed with digital gear that you can’t bear to leave at home.  Your iPhone, iPad, or MacBook will keep you entertained while en route, and it’ll make a great navigation, research, and photo tool when you reach your destination. But keeping these devices charged when you’re constantly on the go or stuck in the air can be a challenge. Luckily, you can do a few things  to extend battery life and conserve power.

Invest in a battery case

A battery case for your iPhone extends the phone's battery life and keeps it safe from occasional drops and bumps. Most battery cases come with dock-connector plugs designed to pair up with the iPhone’s 30-pin (iPhone 4S and older) or Lightning (iPhone 5) connector port, which they use to deliver the juice to your iPhone. The only downside is that you can't use any dock-cradle accessories without removing the iPhone from the case.

One of our favorite battery charging cases is the Mophie Juice Pack Plus for the iPhone 4/4S ($100). It significantly boosts your iPhone’s battery life without adding too much weight (the company claims that the battery pack can actually add up to 125 percent more power), and you can still sync your iPhone using the included USB-to-Micro-USB cable. The Juice Pack Plus also has an on/off switch, so you can control when the case sends electricity to your phone.

Although the company promises one soon, Mophie has yet to release a battery case for the iPhone 5. uNu’s Ecopack for the iPhone 5 ($80), however, is a good option to use now with the latest iPhone. This battery case snaps onto your iPhone and doubles its battery life. The Ecopack comes in a variety of colors, and it purports to be eco-friendly because you can swap the battery portion of the device between cases, enabling the battery to last through several phone upgrades.

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I live in New Jersey, in an area hard-hit by Hurricane Sandy. Before the storm hit, my family took the traditional preparatory steps: We bought non-perishable foods, stocked up on water, took in our lawn furniture, and so on. But we also prepped our electronics for the coming storm—chiefly, by charging up our iPads, iPhones, and laptops.

We lost power on Monday, October 29, and it wasn’t restored until the evening of Sunday, November 4. Seven days without power is a long time. Of course, the biggest problems were the cold and the food spoilage. But with the Internet out, we also lost our home phone service (which uses VoIP). Nearby cellphone towers took a beating, as well; early on, our iPhones lost service completely. Eventually, AT&T and T-Mobile started pooling their resources to let customers get online, so phones linked to one provider would occasionally show carrier logos for the other.

Our phones eventually went from mostly useless to occasionally able to send SMS text messages and place heavily-distorted phone calls. But that came with a cost: Our iPhones struggled so mightily to make even those basic connections that they gobbled up battery power far faster than usual, while accomplishing far less. With limited options for recharging our iPhones, we had to do what we could to maximize battery life.

Preparing for the long haul

The first few steps were easy: We turned off Wi-Fi, so that the phones wouldn’t waste energy scanning for wireless networks that weren’t there. We turned off Bluetooth, too. (Both are top-level options in Settings under iOS 6.) We dialed down our Brightness settings as low as possible—though that option was slightly harder to stick with: Our iPhones worked far better outside, and in sunlight the darkest screens were hard to read. Very dark iPhones are also subpar makeshift flashlights, which we needed with the power out.

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Gaming has become an increasingly popular part of what we do with our Macs and iOS devices, and Apple finally realized that. In iOS 5, the company introduced Game Center, a social network service and set of frameworks that developers could use to handle common gaming-related tasks, such as tracking friends, accruing achievements, and playing multiplayer games.

Chances are you’ve encountered Game Center’s green felt background on one of your many Apple devices. Maybe it popped up when you were trying to start a game of Letterpress, perhaps you got a notification letting you know it was your turn, or maybe you were just wondering about that multicolored icon Apple dropped on your home screen. If it had your confused, don’t worry: Let us walk you through how to get the most out of Apple’s online gaming service.

What’s your handle, good buddy?

The first thing to do is to create a Game Center account by launching the service on either your Mac or your iOS device. Regardless of where you choose to create the account, it will be accessible on both iOS or OS X, and the options you’re presented with will be the same.

Among the most crucial decisions you make when creating a Game Center account is picking a nickname. This is the name you’ll be known by online, and it will show up in leaderboards and in multiplayer games. You’ll want to pick carefully—once you've created it, you can’t change your nickname without making an entirely new account, in which case you’ll have to go through this whole procedure again.

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