Write a caption, win a prize
Filed under: Apple Fanboyism, Free Stuff, contests, iTunes
Just admit it, you lost your ball.
Think you’re funny enough to be the next Margaret Cho? Well, now’s your chance to prove it to the world. Write your best caption for the above photo. 
If we think it’s the most clever, we’ll send you off a $20 iTunes gift certificate.
The contest is open to everyone in the US (sorry, iTunes won’t let us buy gift certificates to non-US accounts), and runs until Friday (Oct 30th) at 11:59PM EST. You can enter more than once if you are feeling “Carrot Top“-prolific. Good luck.
(Oh, and be sure to put in your e-mail, or else we won’t be able to contact you).
[Original image courtesy of soopahgrover via flickr]
The iPod viewed the same as steroids for runners
Filed under: Apple Fanboyism, Not Cool, That's Weird..., contests, iPod
This may come as a shock to some of you, but I am not a competitive runner. I’m more of a rhythmic gymnast. So it was news to me to find that a Wisconsin marathon runner was disqualified for listening to her iPod while competing in the Lakefront Marathon last weekend. Apparently by turning on her iPod, 27 year-old Jennifer Goebel violated a USA Track and Field rule which bans electronic devices of any kind during races.
Above: A woman I THINK is Jennifer Goebel.
While listening to music can get you pumped up during exercise, I thought this was a little odd, as if you look at the over 400 photos from the race, you will notice that virtually everyone in the race has an iPod (or to be fair, possibly a Zune with iPod earbuds). But as it turns out, the “no iPod rule” was repealed in 2008, and the ban on iPods now applies only to really good runners who have a chance at actually winning prizes from racing. Jennifer was a little put off by the decision, but has agreed to pay back her $500 prize.
“If they’re going to disqualify me for having an iPod they should disqualify everyone who had one,” she said. “I wasn’t listening to it earlier in the race. I wasn’t going to put the music on unless I thought I needed it. If you’re bored, it pumps you up a little bit. Sometimes, on a long training run, I’ll bring it along for the last half hour. When I run marathons sometimes I carry it and never put it on. It’s just a little ridiculous. I went there to have a fun race with my friends.”
Well Jenifer, it doesn’t sound like this race is for people looking to have fun. In fact, Jennifer didn’t actually win the race. She was beaten by Cassie Peller, a 23-year-old student. However the racing Nazis officials disqualified her for taking steroids accepting a bottle of water from a friend outside of the designated watering stations, thus making Goebel the winner. So it looks like now the crown of winner and the cursed $500 check will be passed down to Corina Canitz, a 42-year-old mother of four who won the race the last 2 years running (pun intended). And if she tests positive for steroids, I can only assume I am next in line, although I pretty much always have my iPhone on me, so odds are I will have to pass the trophy on as well.
By the way, Miss Goebel has an open invite to appear as our Mac Chick of the Month.
[via JS Online]
A vote for me is a vote for me not asking you to vote for me anymore
Hey guys. Thanks to you, I am now in FIRST PLACE in the iPhone contest, so thanks a lot! You guys rock!
Click above to vote for me.
However, as seemingly insurmountable as my lead looks, it is by NO MEANS a lock, so let’s not get lazy. My primary competition seems to be mounting a last-minute effort with 5 hours left to go, so I need your help. Please let everyone on the planet you have ever met know that the fate of the free world depends on me winning that iPhone. At this point, it is really almost as much about me avoiding the embarrassment of losing than actually winning. I really didn’t expect to be able to catch up so quickly in such a short time, but now that I have, it would really be kind of embarrassing to lose such a lead.
So please, tell your super popular friends, brothers and sisters to take 5 seconds out of their busy day and vote for my video. It will save me from entering a downward depression spiral which might cause me to forget where I placed all those Mac Chick of the Month entries…
Who wants to win a 2-year old, lime green iPhone?!?!
[UPDATE: Yes, I DID win, and yes, I DID get my prize, and yes, I DID pick a winner of the green iPhone, and NO, it was not you, sorry, it was faithful Macenstein reader Danielle (twitter @bookophile ) who won. Thanks for helping me out though, I am sure the 3Gs I won will bring you many months of joy in reading about it.]
[UPDATE: Hey guys, looks like I won, thanks so much for your help! I will be picking a winner of the lime green iPhone once they send me the prize, so it may be a week or two, but hold tight. Thanks again! You guys rock.
- The Doc ]
Hey guys, me again. Well, I must say I am both very proud and very touched by those of you who were nice enough to vote for my iPhone video with no thought of personal gain. In just 6 short hours we went from last place to third, an amazing feat.
Yet one that ultimately will mean nothing unless we capture first place.
I find myself wondering about the 9600 or so of my daily readers who did Not take the 10 seconds out of their lives to CLICK THIS LINK AND VOTE FOR MY VIDEO, even though it requires no registration or other effort on their part. “WTF is their problem?”, I thought.
But then it hit me… Odds are most of my readers are just like me - selfish bastards who don’t do anything nice for anyone without there being something in it for them. So to that end, I thought I might sweeten the deal by offering to reward one lucky reader who helps me get the word out about my entry with my 1st generation, Colorware-painted iPhone (if I should win, that is).
That’s right. If you’ve ever wanted 2 year old cellular technology, painted lime green, then you’re going to want to jump all over this!
Above: I have long since ruined those earbuds, but I think I have the dock somewhere too…
So, how do you get a chance to win? It’s easy! Just Twitter the following bit of text to your friends some time between now and 9:59PM pacific tome on July 31st.
“Hey guys, please vote for my good friend @drmacenstein http://rubyurl.com/HXWO and help me win an iPhone”
If I should win, I will pick one random person from all elligible Twitters and reward that person with my old iPhone. You may Twitter that message up to 10 times in order to earn extra chances to win (I’d appreciate it if you spread your Tweets out a bit throughout the day, but whatever).
Now, I won’t lie to you, this iPhone is two years old and has seen some use, but aside from 2 very small paint chips on the black bezel, the Colorware paint job looks as good as the day I got it, and the phone is in great shape. The paint job is really amazingly durable.
I paid $600 for this iPhone on launch day 2 years ago, and it is sporting a $220 paint job, so I figure that, combined with being owned by a celebrity of my stature, puts the value of the phone somewhere around $20,000 or so, so this is probably the most exciting giveaway of all time.
So thanks for you help, good luck to us all, and now get out there and Tweet like the wind!
Win a Mophie Juice Pack Air for iPhone 3G / 3Gs!
[THANK YOU, WE HAVE A WINNER! THIS CONTEST IS CLOSED. CONGRATS TO FAITHFUL MACENSTEIN READER VINCENT!]
When you think about it, batteries may be the single greatest invention ever. They give us the freedom to use our electronics virtually ANYWHERE, completely freeing us from having to interact with other people. And probably the greatest battery of them all comes from Mophie, makers of the Juice Pack line of iPod and iPhone external batteries. And probably the greatest battery that Mophie makes is the Mophie Juice Pack Air, the super slim battery and iPhone case combined into one sleek, stylish, black, white, or purple case.
If you have an iPhone 3G, you want the Juice Pack Air. Why? Well, because the iPhone eats batteries for breakfast, and odds are you want an iPhone that still works well after lunchtime. The Juice Pack Air is a rechargeable external battery concealed inside of a protective form-fitting case for the iPhone 3G. It offers you the full protection of a hard-shell case while providing virtually twice the battery life of the iPhone alone; all in an ultra-thin, light-weight, low-profile design.
• The world’s thinnest Apple certified “Works With iPhone” external battery for iPhone 3G and 3Gs!
• Rechargeable 1200mAh lithium polymer battery virtually doubles your time to rock, talk, surf and send.
• Pass-through USB charging and sync with iTunes
• Extended smart battery and full case protection
• On/Off switch offers choice of battery or case
• Integrated 4 LED charge status indicator Iight combines nearly all the battery charging goodness of the Juice Pack (almost doubling your iPhone’s battery life) while protecting it inside a protective form-fitting case.
To enter: Batteries do nothing but bring joy to all that behold them, and are responsible for so many wonderful memories. So this week in order to enter, simply tell us what is the best battery powered item you own, or ever owned? (Keep it clean, people). Was it the giant AT-AT star was toy as a kid? Your digital camera? A Zune? Contest ends July 27th, and one winner will be picked randomly (US residents only this time, sorry folks). Good luck, and thanks for reading Macenstein!
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