Macenstein

Ok, I Jailbroke my iPhone. So now what?

So last night, around midnight, I decided to Jailbreak my iPhone – the main impetus being I wanted to check out xGPS. Of course the first attempt using QuickPWN didn’t work for some reason, so I had to restore my iPhone, then try again, experiencing success sometime around 1:30 AM. Since then I have had only a little free time to poke around Cydia, the Winterboard and such, but from what I have seen, there appears to be almost as bad a ratio of “crap to gold”... Read More

Beautiful girls and beautiful iPhones make beautiful music together

I think we can all agree that the only thing sexier than girls who play instruments is girls who play iPhones. And since girls who play iPhones is simply a fetish I made up just now, you can imagine my surprise when faithful Macenstein reader Antonio sent us this clip of the UK girl group The Mentalists playing a cover of “Kids” by MGMT on their iPhones and iPod Touches. I’ve complained before about how I kept deluding myself into believing I would somehow... Read More

Review: Audioengine W2 (AW2) Premium Wireless Adapter for iPod

I’ve been a fan of Audioengine‘s high end speakers ever since I checked out their A5’s a couple years back, followed by their equally impressive little brother the A2s, so when they put out a new audio accessory, I always take notice. I’ve also been a fan of their AW1 wireless adapters that let you stream your audio from your computer to your home stereo, and have found it to be more reliable than my home AirPort Express, which often craps out even with... Read More

Review: MiLi Power Pack Battery for iPhone out-juices the Juice Pack

I think it is safe to say that the iTunes app store is the best thing to happen to 3rd-party battery pack makers since the mAh – particularly the addictive and battery-draining games available for the iPhone. For me, Fieldrunners was my power-sucking game of choice. I spent literally weeks of my life playing the game, many times with my iPhone tethered to my computer so I could charge and play at the same time. I never fully broke my Fieldrunners habit, but I was able... Read More

Building a better iTunes – A visual iPhone interface

Given how the iPhone has become the new face of Apple, even more so than the iPod, it is frustrating that Apple has completely failed at integrating a decent iPhone management tool into iTunes. I probably have 3 times as many apps downloaded as I can fit on my iPhone at this point, and keeping track of them, let alone positioning them where I want them across my iPhone’s nine screens is way more time consuming than it needs to be. Well, take a look at the below concept... Read More

Games you should be playing: geoDefense

THANK YOU, WE HAVE OUR WINNERS. CONGRATS TO FAITHFUL MACENSTEIN READERS JONRO AND HUGO. The “tower defense” genre just got a whole lot harder. Behold geoDefense, easily the hardest, yet one of the coolest, tower defense games on the iPhone/iPod touch I have played, and we have two FREE CODES to give away (details below). The super-cool explosions and “warps” are extremely cool, and stills don’t do them justice. geoDefense is a somewhat unique take... Read More

Games you should be playing: Tower Bloxx Deluxe 3D

Tower Bloxx Deluxe 3D is a game made by Digital Chocolate (Chocolate Shop Frenzy and Crazy Penguin Catapult) somewhat reminiscent of Topple, although with more depth and replayability. The game has 4 game modes: Quick Game, Multi-player, Time Challenge, and City Building Mode. The basics of all 4 games are you want to build the tallest, straightest building possible, in hopes of attracting the largest population (people seems to enjoy living in straight, non wobbly, non-collapsing... Read More

Taliban leader “addicted” to his iPhone

When I hear the word “Taliban”, many (largely bearded) images spring to mind, but an iPhone is not one of them. However, according to a recent report by Al Jazeera, the iPhone is quickly becoming one of the Taliban’s favorite Tools of Terror (and no, we aren’t just talking about the farting apps). Mullah Zaif, the former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, says he is ‘addicted’ to his iPhone Hamish Macdonald, writing for Al Jazeera, spent one month... Read More

NSFW: Virtual FU App for the iPhone

Man, I haven’t been hurting for “Stupid Mac News” like this since the “Stupid Mac News Famine” of ’02. Well, lucky for me I have both YouTube and my faithful Macenstein readers to keep me alive (if just barely). Making it a 3-in-a-row video post trifecta (and a straight box for fake Apple ads), comes this pretty sweet ad by Rob Alphonse for a Virtual “F— You” app for the iPhone. Sadly, given the way the app store is heading,... Read More

I have no idea what this just did…

Um… OK. Hooray, another enigmatic Apple update! Anyone know what this did? I assume this now resets my AT&T contract period and gives them the right to charge me for internet radio usage. I guess I’ll find out next month…  Read More