Mac Chick of The Month

Best iPhone costumes to date - hopefully it comes with a Chiropractic app

October 24, 2009 by Dr. Macenstein · 1 Comment
Filed under: Apple Fanboyism, Awesomeness, Humor, design, iPhone

I made an iPhone costume last year which I thought was pretty sweet (basically a sandwich board type thing with giant glossy icons printed out), but apparently it sucked and I looked like a dork, because these guys went all out and really made a kick-ass iPhone costume to die for… and yet they too look like dorks.

The video is rather short, presumably either because both fellows suffered crippling back injuries 30 seconds after putting on their costumes (which consist of 40-inch LCD displays) or because whatever giant portable battery unit they have strapped to their backs only lasts 30 seconds to power the things, or it burned them so severely that the costumes fused to their bodies, in a kind of Doctor Octopus kind of way (but hopefully with better acting). Still, very impressive.

This all started two years ago Reko Rivera and Bobby Hartman created a wearable large iPhone costume with a real 37″ lcd tv. An iPod was attached with a looping video of a real iPhones screen in normal use. This time with the help of John Savio and John Matthews the team created yet another amazing rendition of the new iPhone 3GS. Savio loved the original idea but wanted to take it to the next level and make it thinner and actually work with user input! With some heavy researching and some solid determination Savio finally found a solution. He managed to modify the software on the iPhone to allow a live dual image output to the large 42″ lcd tv while maintaining the image in landscape mode. Reko originally came up with the idea and really pushed to see his vision come to life two years ago. This year John and Reko plan to compete in most of the local and online contest to win back all the money they invested in the costumes. The team has about $2000 into the two costumes and has no regrets! Please go to www.votesavio.com for a list of online contests you can help the guys with votes!

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iPhone Engrish of the day: TimerMusicStop

October 22, 2009 by Dr. Macenstein · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Awesomeness, Humor, WTF, iPhone

Faithful Macenstein reader James writes:

“Hey Doc, I remember that you had a couple articles awhile back that highlighted some bad App Store Engrish. Thought this may qualify…my brother and I still have no idea what it does. Something with time? :)”

TimerMusicStop’s description:

iPod you want to stop in time but want to listen to music for?
Interest in a case like! !
Usage is simple. Time to stop the roll set time, please switch to ON.
Then the music stops They added time.

You’re on the right track James. At first I thought it was simply a “put the iPod’s music to sleep” timer app, but after re-reading the description two dozen times, it is clear that TimerMusicStop apparently can stop time itself by “adding time”. Otherwise Apple would not have approved the app, as the iPhone already has a built-in timer feature which can turn off the iPod’s music, and we all know Apple will not approve an app (Google Voice) that duplicates existing functionality.

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If K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider were a Windows-hating Ford Focus with a Mac mini for a brain

October 21, 2009 by Dr. Macenstein · 5 Comments
Filed under: Apple Fanboyism, Awesomeness, Mac mini, Microsoft Bashing, design

I’m not sure if they will solve as many ridiculously unimportant, driving-related crimes as Michael Knight and K.I.T.T. did on the original 1980’s Knight Rider series (I mean, how many corrupt racing competitions can you bust up?), but faithful Swedish Macenstein reader Sascha and his Mac mini-powered Ford Focus, or F.O.X. (Focus ‘0 siX) will certainly be able to launch iTunes while trying.

F.O.X doesn’t do windows.

That’s right. Thanks to the power of OS X, Sascha now has both music AND a clock in his car while driving, two things even H.G Wells couldn’t have imagined. Truly the future is NOW!

Writes Sascha:

Since i am a huge fan of Knight Rider (80’s and 2008 version), i decided to have my own “KITT”.
No, it’s not a Pontiac Trans AM. And not a Ford Mustang either.
But it’s the Mustang’s little brother: Ford Focus.

and it’s called F.O.X. (Focus ‘0 siX).

For the car’s “A.I.” i put a Mac Mini (1 GB ram, 1,66GHz, Mac Os 10.5.8) in the glovecompartment.
I wanted to use the Mac as a multimedia center (video/dvd/mp3/ tv for long trips); now many people would say, this is not very special…

But i can talk to it. And it can talk back!
I use the speech recognition from Mac Speech Dictate (the Mac Os own wouldn’t work on the mini btw) and only AppleScript to build up conversations.

A good example of my .. ehm.. “A.I.” would be this:
If i say just ‘yes’ or ‘no’ without a context, the computer talks back with “you are quite positive, right?” (or negative).
But if “he” suggest me a program to run, “he” would react correctly to the short answers of “yes” or “no”.
And maybe in the future i install a small camera to use the face recognition of iLife 09

I must say F.O.X could benefit from a snobby, effeminate British accent (And Bonnie, of course), but aside from that it seems F.O.X is every bit the chick magnet K.I.T.T. was. Plus the Ford Focus has a bigger back seat than the Trans Am so it can hold MULTIPLE chicks with feathered hair styles.

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The iPod from the 50’s still beats today’s iPod

October 16, 2009 by Dr. Macenstein · 6 Comments
Filed under: Apple Fanboyism, Awesomeness, Humor, iPod

Faithful Macenstein reader Alfie P sent in this “What if the iPod came out in the 50’s?” parody ad, and I must say in many ways, it beats today’s model.

First, it’s sexy as hell. Let’s just get that out of the way right up front. But take a look at some of the other killer features it boasts that today’s does not:

1 - Built in speaker loud enough to listen to on the beach
2 - User-replaceable battery
3 - Comfortable earphones

Who cares that it can only hold 20 minutes of music? Back then I think there were only 3 songs anyway, none of which was more than 2 minutes.

[via Tri De 3]

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