While PC game manufactures with available services from Valve Software’s Steam and Direct2Drive.com have allowed customers to purchase and download games directly to their hard drive for some time now, no one has offered the same capabilities for the Mac.

Despite having the number 1 online Music store and a solid media download service offered through iTunes with Music, Movies, TV Shows, and Games for your iPod, Apple has not yet worked out any deals with gaming studios that would allow them to sale direct downloads for Mac games.

But, it appears that instead of waiting to see if Apple will negotiate a deal with the larger gaming studios that sell games for the Mac (ID, EA, etc.), gametreeonline.com has reached a deal to offer direct downloads of Spore Creature Creator to Mac users. The site is currently accepting pre-orders for the game.

Gametreeonline.com currently offers 3 other games for Direct Download. These include:

1. Puzzle Quest
2. The Tuttles: Madcap Misadventures
3. The Lost Cases of Sherlock Holmes

While none of these are blockbuster Mac games like Command & Conquer 3, the fact that they’ve included Spore means that more EA games may soon follow.

Purchasing from the site is quick and easy and accepts credit cards or allows you to pay through paypal.

So, if you’re interested in some new Mac games and don’t want to head to the store to get them, give Gametreeonline.com a try.

If you’re a manager of an iWeb site with photo galleries included, you may want to check those galleries with the latest version of Firefox.

tuaw.com has reported that due to an error in a JavaScript library that the photo galleries on iWeb pages are not loading correctly.

Luckily there is already a fix for such a problem. You can either download and run a script from macupdate.com or follow the instructions on the Apple Discussion boards.

Be sure to get your galleries up and running so that you can share your photos with all your website visitors.

The L.A. Times is reporting that iTunes has surpassed Wal-Mart to become the number 1 music store. We’ve heard previous announcements from Apple of them passing the #3 and #2 spots for music sales, but this is a major achievement for the online music store.

Despite the success that iTunes has had, other major online music stores have not been as successful. It seems that the strategy of combining the number 1 portable music player with an easy to use media management application and online music store provides the perfect ingredient for success..

The movement to #1 for Apple has definitely helped them financially. The article from the L.A. Times explains that:

Apple doesn’t disclose financial results for iTunes. But in the first fiscal quarter ended Dec. 29 it reported $808 million in revenue for a category that includes iTunes store sales, a 27% jump from the same quarter the previous year.

I know I personally use the iTunes application for both purchasing and managing my music. And even though I don’t feel like I buy music often, over the past 5 years I’ve collected over 300 tracks from iTunes. Grant it a few of those were for full albums, but that still puts my spending costs very close to $300. How much money have you spent on music from iTunes?

You can create a playlist of all the song’s you’ve purchased to help you find out.

While iTunes does a great job of keeping track of all the music that you’ve purchased on both your Mac and your iPod/iPhone with its Purchased Playlists, it doesn’t include any purchased music that you’ve restored from backup CDs or that you may have imported into your music library another way.

I know that I was extremely disappointed the first time I imported in all my music files to iTunes after a fresh install and found NOTHING listed in my Purchased playlist.

Luckily, iTunes lets you create your own Smart playlists so you can filter through your library and find all the music you’ve purchased on the iTunes music store.

Custom Previously Purchased Music Playlist

To rebuild a purchased music playlist you’ll need to:

1. Create a new Smart Playlist.
2. Check Match “ANY” of the following rules:
3. Set the first rule to “Kind” “Contains” and then type in “Protected AAC audio file”
4. Since Apple announced iTunes Plus files you’ll need to also add another rule with “Kind” “Contains” and type in “Purchased AAC audio file”
5. Check the Live updating Box and click OK

Your newly created smart Previously Purchased Music Playlist should now appear under your playlists. Selecting it should display all the music you’ve purchased on iTunes.

Alexa, one of the leading website ranking services, has finally developed a tool to give Mac users a voice.  Thanks to Macenstein.com for their details on the announcement.

Interesting enough, the tool is designed for Firefox users, so if you’re perfer Safari on your Mac (Like I do, and 80% of visitors to Maciverse.com) then you’ll have to be happy with not being counted.

Head over to Macenstein.com for additional details.