Looks like MacBooks might want to start taking the train
Man, MacBooks just keep crashing! Last month we reported on a MacBook Air that survived a horrifying airplane crash, continuing to boot despite sustaining massive injuries that rivaled its owner’s broken neck. Well, it looks like MacBooks might want to start taking the train, because here we have yet another tale of smashed airplanes, broken necks, and a MacBook that just won’t die.
On November 2, 2008, Len Johnson completed the first transcontinental biofuel flight in history, having flown from Chino, California to land safely at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. His home-built Cozy IV completed the entire distance running on N-Butyl Alcohol (N-Butanol). Unfortunately, on his flight home, weather conditions forced an emergency landing. The Cozy IV did not survive the crash but both Len and his Macbook Pro are alive and working.
Thanks to faithful Macenstein reader Anthony for the tip!
Megan Fox and her iPhone dress up – paint the town purple
Filed under: Apple Fanboyism, Awesomeness, Celebrity Mac Chick, iPhone
I know, I know. This is about the 40th Megan Fox and her iPhone picture we’ve run, but it appears I am physically unable to not post pictures of Megan and her iPhone. It’s a sickness, and I need help. Luckily, I know that the first step is admitting I have a problem, which I have done. And I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure the second step is dressing up like a police officer and pulling her car over…
[via The Grumpiest]
I don’t believe this guy has 6 friends
I’m not saying the MacBook Air isn’t popular, but I have yet to see one in the wild, nor do I even know a guy who knows a guy who owns one. So forgive me if I don’t believe that not only does this guy know six other people with MacBook Airs, but all six of them have the exact same hinge problem.
Well, at least we know the Air has a brighter screen than the IBM (and can apparently type in a bigger font as well). Maybe he was just trying to scare his iPhone into not acting up.
LEGO My iMac!
Filed under: Apple Fanboyism, Awesomeness, Photos, iMacs
If there’s one thing I love more than Apple gear, it’s LEGOs. Well, OK, there’s nothing I love more than Apple gear, but LEGOs are a close second. Maybe third, after chocolate. That’s why I particularly love this LEGO G4 iMac made by Bjarne Tveskov out of a 7-inch digital picture frame.
“There is no Apple hardware inside (for now),” writes Bjarne, “but the screen can display videos, images and TV (there’s a digital TV tuner built in). I almost managed to get a motorized CD-tray in there, but most of the space in the bottom was needed for weight-elements. The screen is rather heavy so there is a lot of stress on the swivelling arm, but it worked out quite well.”
Above: Bjarne even managed to to create a little homage to Pixar’s Luxo Jr short. Nice.
And the award for “Quickest Conversion of a News Headline into an iPhone Video Game” goes to…
Sniper vs. Pirates, where you need to blast the evil (Somalian?) pirates off their raft and free their hostage crew members.
A rowdy crew of heavily armed pirates has kidnapped your crew, and their fate is in your stalwart hands! You have limited amunition [sic] and a tattered bullet proof vest. Battle the bloodthirsty mauraders [sic] across three intense levels of difficulty.
Touch the screen and drag your finger to zoom in and line up your scope, then tap to fire precision shots. Earn extra points by punishing the pirates creatively.
The game ends if you are killed, run out of ammo, lose more than four crewmates, or you successfully fend off the pirates. Good luck!
It was only two and a half weeks ago that captain Richard Phillips was rescued from Somali pirates by Navy Snipers (although it is unclear if te Navy gave their snipers any extra points for “punishing the pirates creatively”. Assuming this game took a day or two to make, it looks like Apple’s approval process has come a long way since the days developers complaining about months-long waits. This turnaround easily beats the game “Sully’s Flight” which allowed you to reenact captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger’s January 15th USAirways landing in the Hudson River. That app appears to have since been pulled from the App Store.
I hate 13-year olds
Filed under: Cynicism, Free Stuff, Humor, Opinion, You Bet I'm Pissed
God, I am so pissed at 13 year old Connor Muicahey of Weston, Connecticut who basically stole my Billion iPhone app prize. That’s right, a 13-year old won my $10,000 iTunes card, my Time Capsule, my 32 GB iPod touch, AND my 17″ MacBook Pro. Wouldn’t YOU be pissed if someone did that to you? I mean, it’s almost like the kid broke into my house. Why didn’t he take my TV while he was at it?
Man. And what’s even worse is that the Mac media seems to love it. “Oh, how cute! A 13- year old boy won all that stuff! That’s great!” Yeah, well, you know what would have been greater? If I had won it.
That’s right, a 13-year old with an iPhone. That hard-wroking kid must have some paper route! I can just picture this so-called “Connor”, hair of gold, sitting in his Connecticut mansion, sweater tied around his shoulders, tennis racket in hand, downloading “Bump” for his iPhone (obviously using the non-tennis racket holding hand).
Even the app he downloaded pisses me off. “Bump”. So, not only does Connor have an iPhone, but SO many of his friends have iPhones, that he needs a faster way to wirelessly transfer his friend’s contact info from their iPhones to HIS iPhone. That’s right, Connor comes from a whole town of 13-year old Connors with iPhones, and right now they are playing a game of Polo using the 32 GB iPod touch as the ball, having long since grown tired of their usual jewel encrusted Faberge Eggs.
Oh, and I am sure Connor will put my 17′ MacBook Pro to good use. I bet right now he is checking his Facebook profile on it, which is really straining those 2.9GHz Core Duos. I only hope he has the Energy Saver settings tagged at “Higher Performance” to really get the most out of all 512 MB of RAM in that NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT. Good thing he has my Time Capsule too – wouldn’t want to lose any of that important work he’s doing on it.
Damn. This is really just a crime, and I wish to put out a call to all my fellow Mac bloggers out there to stop treating this as a light hearted human interest story and instead see it as the horrible tragedy that it is.
Ow My Balls!
Unlike the ironically named “Freeballin’” pinball game, Ow! My Balls! is pretty much what you might think – a guy getting hit in the nuts for points, although to be fair, the game is slightly deeper than that, as there ARE fart jetpacks.
Ow My Balls! is a comedy game that brings top shelf kicked-in-the-crotch humor to the iPhone and iPod Touch. Ow My Balls! incorporates gravity simulation, hilarious sound effects and directional acceleration tactics for the utmost in non-realism.
You’ll laugh so hard milk will come out of your nose!
Kick Joe the Juggler from a ledge above the city and then use his trajectory to hit animated obstacles. Ignite fart jetpacks to gain altitude and travel the distance. Hit as many obstacles as you can before impact for insane combos!
Hit more obstacles, get more points, earn more farts, and become a BALL MASTER.
I haven’t drank milk in years, so a game that claims it will cause milk to come out of my nose must really be something special. And let’s face it, who doesn’t want to be a BALL MASTER? (Let me know in the comments if any of you decide to buy it. Right now 99¢ seems a little pricey).
ALL the cool kids will be using this
Are you tired of always missing out on the latest trends? Well, here’s your chance to be a real trend-setter, because I predict absolutely EVERYONE will have one of these badboys attached to their iPod in about a month.
Yes, the Music Balloon is truly high on fashion, and it’s 7-Watt power system is sure to not only get the party started, but keep it going all night (or up to 5 hours, whichever comes first).
Indeed, apparently both young and old alike will be bopping down the street this summer with the Music Balloon, and hopefully nothing illegal is going on the illustration above.
[Yuento via some site I can't pronounce via TheCoolHunter]
Games you should be playing: Flood-It!
Filed under: Awesomeness, Free Stuff, Free on iTunes, Games, iPhone
I just downloaded Flood-It! for the iPhone, and you should too. Why? Because it’s a pretty sweet puzzle game, AND it’s free. Flood-It! is a unique strategy game (at least to me, although I suppose everything is based off something these days). Flood-It!’s developers describe the gameplay thusly:
“Flood It! is a simple yet addictive strategy game in which you have to flood the whole game board with one color in less than the allowed steps. You start from the top left corner and progress by selecting one of the colored balls on the left. When you change your current area color, every adjacent square with the same color also changes, that way you can flood other areas on the board. Select from 3 sizes of the board and try to flood-it in the least amount of steps! Highly Addictive and Fun!”
The game is just a little confusing at first, so maybe I better show you how you play. Read more
This looks all kinds of stolen
I was somewhat surprised to see that Nintendo had released its first iPhone game today, the cult classic Donkey Kong, and even more surprised to see it only cost 99¢. Of course, a quick click revealed the game is not from Nintendo at all, but from a French developer called VeryGames.
The first thing to tip me off was the splash screen image on iTunes. I don’t know which Anime porno they stole that girl from, but the princess in Donkey Kong NEVER looked that hot. Clue number 2 was the French writing, and clue 3 was the total lack of any type of design skills.
Still, I decided, hey, for 99¢, let’s see what the deal is, and as it turns out, it appears to be a fairly faithful port of the original Donkey Kong – well, at least the first 2 levels, as the controls are so frustrating to use for this kind of game that I quickly gave up trying to get past that.
As bad as the controls are, however, the big disappointment is that the game does not have any sound. I’m not sure what kind of a half-assed software pirate DAUSSE Emmanuel is (the listed publisher) but come on, if you decide to rip off Nintendo grab the sound effects too next time.
This is yet another ridiculous example of the problem with the iTunes approval process. I know Donkey Kong is an older game, but you can’t tell me the hip young Apple employees who approve these games never heard of it. Anyway, I’m sure within an hour or two the game will be pulled, so if you would like to silently play iDonkeyKong on your iPhone, you better grab it now.
