Macenstein

WTF? Why isn’t Mr. Macintosh in Lion?

While Mac OS X Lion grudgingly beat Windows 7 in a recent laptop Magazine article, I’m pretty sure Lion would have swept it if Apple had thought to finally incorporate Mr. Macintosh into the OS like Steve (allegedly) dreamed. Who’s Mr. Macintosh, you ask? Well, according to an article by Andy Hertzfeld at Folklore.org: “Steve Jobs often came by Texaco Towers after dinner, to see what was new, and we’d usually show him whatever recent progress we made.... Read More

Blast from the past: Vintage Apple Playing Cards

If you’re into gambling, and therefore have no respect for money, you could do worse than pick up a pack of these $90 Vintage Apple iCon Playing cards. Despite not playing poker since high school when my loser friends and I used playing poker as an excuse for why we were not out looking for girls on a Friday night, I would still LOVE a pack of these bad boys. Right now there are only 2 packs available over at Read More  Read More

Redefining “Time Machine”

As any true Apple fan will tell you, when it comes to hardware design, how a device looks on the outside is almost as important as how well it functions inside. Well, faithful Macenstein reader Dean Gray has created the ultimate “Time Machine” hackintosh, and in a nice twist, wrapped it inside a little bit of Apple history. source Dean Gray “Using the shell of a 1986 Mac Plus 1MB – I filled the innards with 6 hard drives (2.3TB total) and an intel atom... Read More

Polaroid iPhone decal kicks it so old school, odds are not many people will know why it’s cool

Hey, remember Polaroid Cameras? No? Well, um, remember the song “Hey Ya” by OutKast from a few years back where they told girls to shake their butts “Like a Polaroid Picture”? Well, they were referring to the instant photos that popped out of Polaroid cameras, and which people would often shake under the mistaken assumption they would develop faster. Well anyway, someone who was apparently born before 1978 and is old enough to remember them has created... Read More

Susan Kare’s Mac icon prints are the perfect holiday gift (for ME)

AHHH!!! Why couldn’t faithful Macenstein reader Jason have told us about these awesome signed Mac OS icon prints from original pixel art icon Susan Kare BEFORE I loaded my Christmas list with Angry Birds plush dolls?!?! Oh well, at $90 a pop, these would have made a rather expensive Christmas for the Bride of Macenstein, as I obviously would need the whole set (just like the Angry Birds plush dolls). For those of you who are unfamiliar with Kare’s work, well, odds... Read More

Attention Time Travelers: Your iPhone may not work in 1990

I knew there was a reason I didn’t throw out my Motorola MicroTAC 9800X! Faithful Macenstein reader Colin writes: I was bored and trying to find something to watch on Hulu when I saw this: I thought you’d get a kick out of it, apparently going back in time 17 years totally screws with the iPhone. Wow Colin. You know, I’ve been bored before, but I guess I’ve never achieved the “Let’s see if there’s any old Journeyman episodes on Hulu”... Read More

How we got the “Command” symbol

I was in need of the ⌘ symbol for a top secret project today, and not knowing the proper Unicode combo by heart, I fired up the old character palette to copy it. While there, I noticed that while all the other symbols had the expected names (“Erase to the Left”, “Upwards White Arrow”, etc.) that for some reason, Apple was calling our beloved “Command Symbol” “Place of Interest Sign” instead. Since that name is not nearly... Read More

Apple History: Interview with Apple co-founder Ronald Wayne

You know Woz, and Jobs, and Prancer and Vixen, but do your recall Ronald Wayne? Well, Dutch news show One More Thing did, and they managed to track down the elusive 3rd co-founder of Apple, and conducted a pretty interesting interview (well, interesting if you are obsessed with Apple minutia, like me). If you’ve ever wondered “Heeft u ooit spijt gehad van uw vertrek?” or “Heeft Steve Jobs uw adviezen overgenomen?”, you’ll finally get your answers.... Read More

OMFG “Adventure” comes to the iPhone! And it’s FREE!

Yes kids, there was a time when video games looked this bad, and they were played on a little thing called the Atari 2600. I remember when my brothers and I got our 2600 for Christmas, and Adventure was included in the box. Above: Behold the awesomeness that IS the golden castle! Above: I can’t believe I still remember the route of the maze after 25 years… and yes, that arrow is your sword. The description of the game painted a vision of a magical world full of... Read More

Oh the humanity! NeXTCube set on fire.

Behold the terrible beauty of what happens when a NeXTCube’s magnesium case is set afire. Back in the Spring of ’93, Simson L. Garfinkel, then Senior Editor at NeXTWORLD Magazine, had the bright idea to test whether the NeXTCube’s legendary magnesium casing would burn with a white hot flame – leaving nothing but a pile of white powder, the way he remembered magnesium doing in his chemistry classes at school. The tale of his years-long attempts at... Read More