Celebrity Mac Chick sighting: Tyra Banks

The always fashionable Tyra “I have a fear of dolphins (4:20)” Banks, and her Speck-covered Mac. And her giant shoes.

Tyra Banks MacBook

Who sits like this?

Thanks to faithful Macenstein reader Pao-Lung for the pic!
[via ekstrabladet]

iPhone + 100 mph + pavement = ?

August 22, 2009 by Dr. Macenstein · 9 Comments
Filed under: Apple Bashing, Ouch!, Photos, iPhone 

Apple’s iPhone “Tech Specs” page posts tons of useful information about the iPhone designed to keep users from inadvertently damaging their devices – such as optimal operating temperatures, optimal altitude, humidity, etc. But two glaring omissions on the page are the “optimal velocity” and “optimal amount of tonnage” the iPhone can handle.

“Hey there Doc,
I’m a long time Macenstein reader and instantly thought of sending this to you when it all happened. My friend Dane and I (Phil) work UPS night shift and also live a couple blocks from one another. So after leaving work, he flies ahead on his CBR600. At some point on my venture home, i drove through a flurry of what appeared to be small papers. As i entered my home town, i see my friend on the side of the road yelling at me to turn around. I asked him what was up and he said that he lost his wallet and iphone 3g. It then hit me that the flurry of papers was the massive receipt collection in his wallet. Off we go back to the scene of the crime. We ended up finding his wallet, pieces of what used to be whole debit and credit cards, and …………. the iphone.

iphone traffic accident

It did have an Incase Hard Case on it, but when i found it, it was face down with out its case. I found the case about 10 feet from the iphone also in pieces. The back of the iphone clearly shows it had been run over at least once, i assume the case went to pieces as it fell out of his pocket. So just spent the last couple hours of my morning scouring route 119 in pa, literally picking up the pieces of my friends life.
– Phil”

iphone traffic accident

I think Dane has a case here. Apple clearly was negligent in not outlining the harmful effects of high-impact collisions on the iPhone, and there was really no way Dane could have known. I suspect Apple PR will be sending Dane a new iPhone any day now in hope of making this whole thing “disappear”.

Microsoft spokesman Seinfeld summed up in painting - by a Mac

August 2, 2009 by Dr. Macenstein · 3 Comments
Filed under: Apple Fanboyism, Awesomeness, Photos 

Odds are you remember Jerry Seinfeld from those AMAZINGLY POPULAR Microsoft ads a couple years back. But did you know that before that, he actually had his own TV show? It’s true! It was called “Seinfeld”, and was once described as ” a show about nothing”. Well, oddly enough this show about nothing was actually a show about many things over its 9-year run, and the painting below sums them up nicely.

From Jerry’s Puffy Pirate shirt and the Man-ssiere/Bro, to the Superman statue and Mac that were in every episode… What the —? Well, it’s a very busy painting, I’m sure there’s a copy of XP in there somewhere…

[via cSlacker]

Help Build the Ultimate iPhone Feature Request List - Part Deux

June 23, 2009 by Dr. Macenstein · 46 Comments
Filed under: Photos, Slow News Day, design, iPhone, whining 


It was about 2 years ago that Apple first released the iPhone - widley heralded as the most technologically advanced phone anyone had ever seen, save for the fact that it was missing almost every “must have” feature that phones 5 years older had had forever. At the time we decided to create a wish list of things we all wanted our iPhones to be able to do, and over the years Apple has filled in most of the more glaring holes, like a better camera, MMS (sort of), Exchange support, Push notifications (OK, that wasn’t the goal but we got it), an app store, and so much more. Still, there is ALWAYS room to complain. So, with that in mind, we are starting round TWO of our iPhone feature request list.

We invite you to add your ideas in the comments below, and we’ll add the ones we think are the best to the master list. We’re not really looking for things like “add more storage” or “add a faster network”. We’re more looking for things that can be added via software/hardware to improve the way the current iPhone functions.

I will start the list with two things I miss from my jailbroken iPhone days:


SBSettings:
Apple needs to rip off SBSettings in some form.


image via TheAppleBlog

If you are unfamiliar, SBSettings allowed you to swipe your finger across the iPhone’s status bar (where the time and battery life are) and a drop down would slide into place which allowed you quick access to a bunch of features such as adjusting the iPhone’s brightness, turning on and off WiFi/3G/EDGE/Bluetooth, enabling SSH, etc. It was customizable, and while we realize Apple wouldn’t allow some of those features in a similar version (SSH, most notably) it was way more convenient to adjust my iPhone’s brightness at night that to go into settings.

Let us add 5 icons to the dock


Yes, I know it throws off the beauty of the 4 icons you have going now, yet there are at least 6 icnos I would like to have in my dock at all times, and while 6 is pushing it, 5 icons actually fit nicely.

Enable Disk Mode as with a regular iPod (Dillon Brown)
This one has baffled me as well, as Apple apparently has no problem with 3rd party apps transferring files to and from the iPhone, yet for some reason we cannot use the iPhone as a makeshift USB Thumb drive out of the box. Apple should add the “enable disk mode” check box to the iPhone in iTunes, and let a connected iPhone appear on the desktop.

Share directions in Maps (Kelly Croy)
While Maps is technically a Google app, we have no say as to whether or not it appears on our iPhones, so Apple should take heed of it’s failings. We would like to be able to e-mail directions to people. Currently copy and paste does not work in Maps, so we can’t even do that.

The “Mighty Dead” mouse

June 10, 2009 by Dr. Macenstein · 17 Comments
Filed under: Hacks, Photos, Tips/How To, design 

Apple hasn’t updated the Mighty Mouse in quite some time, but those of you dying for a refresh can make your own out of things you probably have in your own home! All you need is and old (still functioning) USB mouse, and an old (NOT functioning) real one!

That’s right, assuming you are a fan of taxidermy, Instructables.com has a tutorial on how you can turn that dead mouse you have lying around on the basement into a real life working computer mouse, and it looks great with an Apple laptop, don’tcha think?

This would be great for kids – They love stuffed animals.

Above: Here’s all you need… not shown, an extremely strong stomach.

[Warning: Images get a little grosser....] Read more

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