The Contra Code will outlive us all
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A. The equivalent of a secret handshake for video game nerds, the “Contra Code”, as it’s known, is the most famous cheat code of all time, and therefore it should not be surprising to find that it has made its way onto the iPhone. The puzzle game FLIP by eBattalion has adapted the infamous cheat to the iPhone’s touch screen interface – the trick being you use finger swipes for the directions, and you draw the letters with your fingers (starting from the bottom left corner of the screen). When properly executed, it will unlock all the levels in FLIP’s “Puzzle” and “Speed” modes.
It would be nice if using the code gave you 30 lives and a ton of cool weapons, but hey, unlocking levels is cool too. Thanks to faithful Macenstein reader Phil for the tip!
Know when to fold ‘em with Dollar Origami
Finally, a new way to piss off your waiter other than that thing where you put an upside-down glass of water on the tip. Dollar Origami is a new iTunes application that shows you step-by-step instructions on how to fold your paper money into a wide variety of shapes that ALMOST resemble things. From elephants to tie-fighters, you can now leave your tips in a range of crumpled up shapes.
Above: Trust me, these look about as good as they can without some sort of cheating.
The app doesn’t really give you any information you can’t readily find on existing websites, but the handy little 1-click app does provide an easy way to access a decent selection of tutorials. Unfortunately, there is very little consistency to the instructions, and most seem to be pulled from other websites. The Yoda tutorial, for example, has no written instructions, and I will be damned if anyone without the force can make him.
Above: I suspect a little glue was used here….
Still, since you are working with a dollar bill here, the results, even if they are less than perfect, seem to earn a little more leniency than traditional origami. Dollar Origami is true to its name, and only costs a buck, and for that price, and the ability to impress the easily impressed while out to dinner, we say it’s worth it.
Take THAT, Jonathan Ive!
Photographer Steve Lee got fed up with Apple’s “two-color” color scheme on all its devices (black and silver, white and silver) so he decided to “fix” Apple’s design mistakes.
“Combine my pedantic taste for minimalism with nerdy touchtyping abilities and a cheap can of white spraypaint, and you end up with my keyboard - possibly the most pretentious keyboard in existence. “
I don’t think this keyboard is pretentious at all, Steve. In fact, I think it would go great with my new 30-inch Apple Cinema Display that I just spray painted white, screen and all. I’ve never been one to let function dictate form.
[via Cult of Mac]
Well, that was fun
Yeah, I know it was starting to look like Macenstein’s 12 Days After Christmas Spectacular would never end, but it looks like after a stellar 35-Day run, we’ve run out of free stuff to throw at you. But don’t worry, we’re always looking for new ways to buy your love and trick you into coming back each day and reading Macenstein, so we have a couple things lined up in the near future. And remember, there’s still time to enter the last 7 or so contests in the giveaway.
Even if you didn’t win anything, we hope you enjoyed the contest, and we’d like to thank all our sponsors again. Each day our bizarre entry questions helped us learn a little bit more about our readers – mainly that you guys loved Serenity.
So, congratulations to all who won, our heartfelt condolences to the losers, and those of you who won, but never replied to our e-mails, better check that spam box, because after 3 attempts we’re going to give the prizes to someone else. (To check and see if you won something, you can check each “closed” contest here and see if your name is mentioned).
- The Doc
The netbook Apple would never make
I am apparently one of the few people on the planet who couldn’t care less if Apple were to release a netbook, but because you guys seem to care about such things, take a look at these 3D concepts of what designer Isamu Sanada thinks it might look like.
I don’t know… This looks like something Toshiba might make, Leopard wallpaper not withstanding. I just can’t see Apple building anything with two hinges. Anything more than one hinge feels like unfolding a road map to me. Also, wouldn’t that second touch pad hinge kind of flop up on you a bit when used on a lap? I also think Apple would keep the iSight camera centered, they seem to favor symmetry where possible.
To me the most interesting idea would be if they drop the physical keyboard entirely and made the area with the touchpad a context-aware touch screen, like the iPhone screen, so it would be a regular trackpad for navigation, but then turn into a touchscreen keyboard when it sensed you clicked on a text field or word processing app.
But whatever. I still think Apple will never build such a device. Sure, their notebooks will get steadily thinner and lighter, but I don’t see them creating a 4th laptop division anytime soon. The allure of a netbook (which escapes me) is the size and price, and this thing still looks big, and it looks expensive.
Thanks to faithful Macenstein reader iconeater for the link!
[via DVICE]
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